Wednesday Lecture

00:00
00:00
Audio loading...

Welcome! You can log in or create an account to save favorites, edit keywords, transcripts, and more.

This talk will not appear in the main Search results:
Unlisted
Serial: 
SF-01023
Description: 

Linda Ruth with her sick mother. The mountain lion. The bobcat. The rat. New film, "The Passion of Christ". Self-restraint. Mindfulness of the body. Angulimala.

Photos: 
Auto-Generated Transcript

when since ah vous today's the truth allowed to doctors would
honey
hmm museum that i recognize all of them
i forget person
several weeks ago on or others asked if i would give the talk to my mine said i would so i thought a little bit about what i might talk about
and then as on i think we all know the linda
needed to go home to chicago because her mother is quite ill
and on from what i just heard it's not going on
it's going toward her mother die
no god
cylinder will be there with mother
who this
last part of her life
so i will just golf has continued to hold her and per month in our hearts as we have done
hum and it's not clear when she will be able to return
so
when i understood at linda was going to be
needing the girl i wanted very much to support her in any way i could so i offered to take her responsibilities here at gringotts
and even though i offered to do that i'm right away
i like ideas and so i felt that this responsibility is too great for me
and along with that thought in those fears ah i also experienced a realization that none of us is being asked to do this work alone
that we do indeed have the support of one another
when all of you in this room the old students the new students
the monks families
who knows that home that we love our children or pets the dog
we all support each other completely
one so i'm very grateful and i want to thank you for your support
so what i had thought to share with you tonight
who are some of the things that have been running through my mind lately like this little currents of events that flow along the stream of bar
life together here
henna particular i wanted to share with you my
continuing search for the mountain lion
for those of you who in the priesthood class well with me on sunday you already know about the whistle and pocket knife
and right now in that class were studying the ten grave precepts the first of which is not to kill
so i did some research on mountain lions ah on google
and
i read a lot about their habits before i went to i
and what i learned it is that it's very likely that they will cost before they jump on you
so i thought a whistle
will be good and pocket knife
and that i might have time to blow the whistle
and to unchanged the knife
and i'm part of my vision of this event includes not really hurting the animal pretty much but just poking it away from me that's what i want comfort
so
several years ago when my daughter sabrina was really young and doesn't beginning to walk
this lion was nine know if at the same line but there was a lion in the neighborhood at that time during one of the seasons when do they come spring
when you never know
so
the lion was around and he'd been seen i got scared
for my child who liked to play outside
and dumb
so i called the national park service to ask how how to protect our children and myself
and this very stern lady i her
said to me under no circumstances must have hurt that animal
what you need to do is to call us and let us know where you saw the lion and will come and take measurements of its conference
happiness
so i don't think i was able to convey to her my concern for my safety and the safety of my child
in the face of this athletically superior
predator
so a few days ago i went up on the mountain as i had been doing dust and almost every day for several months
mostly for exercise but also to look at this beautiful valley and the ocean
that lies just beyond
and as i got to the top of the ridge of this little trail that i think others are cardiac hill it's quite steep in the connects the main path with the ridge
i'm right there in front of me was an anonymous baba
and
the bobcat was standing in the middle of the trail where i wanted to go so i didn't feel afraid of a bad cat because i've seen before
and i just kind of thought of it as a very very large housecat really
so i thought well this is my chance to try my whistle and
so i blew the whistle and i cracked my pulls together and i made very loud noises at this animal
which to my great surprise
ah but i do this david guetta unfurled its tail and hist
the contract
and then it began walking very confidently told me

so i'm not ashamed to say that i mean away
and
by the time i got to the bottom of the hill i was feeling very guilty and very silly and i thought you know
this but i i was close to the farm gate and i felt safe like i'm home now and as a turn the corner there was either second or the same very large bobcat
right in front of me
and i thought okay you get another chance
so this time and actually i remembered the story of the buddha and the rampaging wild elephant you know in the buddha com the elephant so i thought okay just make nice sounds so i made a nice sounds at the budget
the officiating
and it looked at me for a while and then it walked away
so the reason i'm bringing this up is that it's been incredibly helpful to me to have these wildlife encounters
in the hills surrounding off because it has really tested what i have always professed to be a gandhi like a pacifism
i really think i don't put things or i wouldn't have things but an
now that was is being tested
so on the full moon night when i recite do not kill and what do i really mean
it's one thing to say these words inside the sturdy compound of this building with all of you as company
what do i mean by not to kill when a large rodent is doing its way into my house to the ceiling night after night
while my daughter and our house cats are sleeping and down below
so what i did was to write the word rat on a small piece of paper and them i called maintenance department and i told them that something may be needed to be done
and what i understand they call that something is rebate and but actually is poison
now in the man who is trying to find shelter in my ceiling maybe to give birth to tell me i guess going to die a very quotable death
and first of ball it's going to walk away from my house on with a terrible thirst looking for water
i once had a barrier
firsthand experience
the rodent in the city center
he was early morning before zazen and i went to get my cup of tea and as i looked to get my cup this large shape jumped on my chest and then ran down my robes and left off my right big toe under the floor
and i can still remember that full body instinctual are poor have been touched by a rat
turning away and touching are both wrong for it is like a mass of fire just to depicted in literary form is to relegated to the family
so about a month ago i was invited by the men in a great council to participate in a panel to discuss the film the passion of christ
this is the announcement that came in the mail please join us for our business meeting and a respectful discussion of the movie the passion of christ
father paul lucy rabbi stacey friedman and full schrader will present reflections from their faith traditions
you are welcome to bring your lunch with
so i i know that most of you who haven't left the valley has not yet seen this film and i also appreciate that many of you may not i choose to see this phone
and i deeply respect that
but i wanted to be on the panel so i knew i would need to see the film and i did
and there's certainly already been a lot written about this film
and about the relentless and sadistic violence let's depicted in on know gibson's vision of what he believes
to have been the last twelve hours of jesus his life
and a there is no doubt that to be flayed and crowned with thorns and nailed to wooden cross would be on unspeakable suffering
and for many centuries the citizens of been subjective thousands of people to this very treatment and too many other ah savage treatments as well
enduring on my own lifetime in vietnam
our children and plants and the farmers were sprayed with flame report
designed by american laboratories to that to the skin while bernie
and no doubt this effective or unspeakable suffering
so i asked myself after viewing this film depicting real life horrors
what is the point of all of it
do we truly not know what we do
or do we do what we do
and then hide our eyes my children
frightened by the darkness
our own
avarice our own brutality and our own ignorance
and all of this
based on an indelible belief that we share of
separate self
i once asked mighty true when anderson
how is my wearing his robes and
picking his precepts going to save the world
and he said well at least perhaps the world would be saved from me
our practices not to tame the wild lions and mountains it is detained the wild lion in the dark cavern
of our hearts
and will begin a standing and our very own large have a heart cassandra
her very nice people who come here to bring got all the time because they feel so peaceful means round
his and students
but as we all know
inside of us there is tremendous disturbance
disturbances of lust of food preferences are fears
authority
our job rotations
the most of all of our own imagination
which have filled to the groundwork judgments and opinions in suspicions
least i can speak for my own
so as we know what the buddha taught and where he realized is that our problems are or in our minds
and until and before we locate the source of our problems we will continue sitting and playing outside of ourselves
as the dalai lama said after the nine eleven attacks don't look for blaming look for causes
how did this come to the not who did this to
he's a very wonderful verses from the gonna product that one of the oldest texts and the buddhist canon
what we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday and are present thoughts build our life of tomorrow our life is a creation of our mind
if a man or woman speaks or acts if an impure mind suffering follows them as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws the car
if a man or woman speaks or acts with a pure mind joy follows them as their own shadow
he insulted me she hurt me they defeated he robbed me those who think such thoughts will not be free from hate
he insulted me
she heard me they defeated he rotted me
those who think not such thoughts will be free from hate for hate is not conquered by hate hate is conquered by love
this is the eternal law
many do not know that we are here in this world to live in harmony those who know this do not fight against each other
so our training begins by our own willingness to engage in the practices of me strength
and around our training center that restraint comes in the form of the schedule
and which includes our beloved practice of besides him
straighten your body and sit upright
me neither left nor right neither forward nor backward
where's your tongue
against the front row of your mouth with teeth and lips together both shot
always keep your eyes open
and breathe softly through your nose
once you just your posture take a breath and exhale it
rock your body right and left and settle into steady immovable sitting
think of not thinking
not thinking
first principle chapter one lotus seeker
what kind of thinking is that
second principle that chapter to a
non thinking
one bright pearl lowly merrily in a silver for
this is the essential art of simon
so all of us in this room by now have been
are indoctrinated came to mind what i meant to say was initiated and this practice of self strength
we've all tried it once and then we'll tried it again and by now we've lost count
and i was thinking that this is not unlike that first breath that we took us in case
and in that moment of inhalation we accepted the often of life here on this earth
and whether we know it or not and he also accepted all of the responsibilities that are inherent in this gift
according to the buddha those responsibilities are written and very fine print in the uprightness of is fine
for my last birthday well i hope is found my last birthday but anyway for my most recent birthday
i asked for a gift from my family
i saw this wonderful thing a one of graces and medical
ah supply house catalogs
a lot of the things in the catalogues are not so wonderful but
they have these are perfect replicas of the human skeleton and i really wanted one
i wanted to study the bones of my sitting practice
so in two days after my birthday the box came
when i've named her oscar
because sabrina wants to be moving stuff
my first of the body is the first foundation for entering into the intimate relationship of train in the buddhist teaching
and there is an apparent lawfulness
to this form that would call in the life
there is an intricate balance
i've seen as a organs of liquids and of thoughts
the for great elements returned to their niche was just as a child turns to it's mother fire it's wind moons water wet earth is solid iron sights and sounds nose and smells tongue and taste
thus with each and every thing depending on deserts the leaves spread for
so in this telling of story and i'm giving you tonight the beef spread for our the karmic actions of our body speech and night
and once the bell has rung ending a period of doesn't
we are asked to rise slowly and deliberately
and to enjoy the perfect freedom from all that has gone before
for in the uncharted period of time
we have uncovered the compulsive habits of our personhood
and then very slowly
i'm very slowly and allow the train to roll forward once again
the engine the baggage car and the tail
but if he really try you can remember what it is that we learned while we sat there immobile
and we can remember what he saw while he was stopped
i or do no harm
who came to be called on lima
necklace of a thousand fingers
this
sincere student of the way they can caught in web of gullibility deception and lies
including his own
and he was led to acquire is terrible necklace of fingers
to the instructions at this teacher who had gone mad himself to the jealous murmurings of our students
so he instructed his disciple
i'm so
to engage in the path of murder
and he promised them he promised to student that when he had accumulated one thousand fingers he will become enlightened
so the buddha came to the place where ongoing mama was hiding
and
when i'm going momma saw the buddha i was overjoyed his last finger
is one thousand theater was walking toward him
so he began to run into the buddha and the faster he ran
the i got no closer and so we ran faster and faster him but still he had no closer
i finally and exhaustion he collapsed on the ground and new yoga stop stop
at your death i will be free
but again and again the good at times told ongoing mama
and says to all of us know it's you who has to stop
how do you stop
how do you stop
the best i can say is that would have to make a habit of stopping
and we also have to make habits of kindness and habits of generosity
hundreds of patients
concentration and of wisdom
he said the perfections and the boys are
the rails of this practice run for ten thousand miles
in other words they begin with us but they have no end
i have a feeling that an outline will be very grateful when as find me
at last
when those last gestures of resistance have given way to the perfect offering of life affirming nourishment
am i would like to ask all of you to please let the park service know where i intended no harm to the sentiment
the realization of my own vows depends entirely on us
and yet
me