expressed this kind of feeling through his form. He is always crying with people. He is always full of tears in his eyes. That is the stage of form is form. He was a completely good friend of children and poor people. And sometimes, you know, once in a while, a very learned scholar. He himself was a very learned scholar. But his practice is always in the form of his form, rather than emptiness is emptiness.

[01:08]

To be completely the friend of people is Form is form, practice. And emptiness is to help people, to give big encouragement to people, to force some people to attain enlightenment. If you attain enlightenment, you will not suffer so much, you know, with big slump. That is more Rinzai way, you know. The sort of way is not to say this is Zazen or you should attain enlightenment.

[02:21]

We do not say so. completely with the friend of ordinary people. We take the form of various... If you see a woman is suffering, he will be a woman. If he is like Bodhisattva in Avalokiteśvara, that is more practice of form, his form. I thought you had said that we cannot really talk to him in that way.

[03:23]

Yes. You know, if you try to follow the thought of a wizard, a wizard having this kind of true experience, Even though you give, you know, people something special, that will not help. Unless you have real quality, after you get going through those, you know, practice of form is emptiness and emptiness is form, And emptiness is emptiness. And then form is form.

[04:31]

Then you can help people. But even so, you know, form is emptiness, you know. But if you don't If you do not have real experience of actually formless emptiness, then you cannot help people, even though you have a lot of money to help. That is what I say. Hi. What does the word mean? I don't know how to say it. I vow to save all sentient beings. And sentient beings are numberless, you know.

[05:35]

I vow to save them. So it means we will continue our practice forever. in short. Because there is no other way, you know. It is not a matter of I will help or I will not help you. There is no choice. The only way is to continue to help others. That's all what we can do. And that way is the only way which continues forever.

[06:39]

Do you understand? To help sentient beings is to continue practice through zazen practice, as I explained. help sentient beings, to save sentient beings. Sometimes you may need him, but he will not save you in its complete sense.

[08:17]

We cannot help people in its complete sense, actually. But we will continue incessantly to help people, even though our way is not complete. There is some slight difference. We should know that there is no complete remedy for your sickness. No complete remedy. If you know that, you can discuss with Sakya Yates. help you, but if you think he will help you completely, it means that you are a big burden for him.

[09:35]

Q. Why not? I said, you know, there is no complete remedy. To think there is some complete remedy is delusion, you know. It cannot be solved. Even Buddha cannot help, you know, in its ordinary sense, in its dualistic sense. He will help us. We are enlightened in being without being helped.

[10:57]

Friendliness. Maybe you can say in this way too. Even because we are not perfect, we are Buddha. You may say so. If you think you are perfect, That is delusion. A perfect one cannot be someone, some special person who has almighty power, you know. That kind of That is just idea of something, idea of God, the idea of God, but not real God.

[12:05]

So toilet paper may be God. in this sense. So, you know, toilet paper, or a flower, or everything is God. If you understand toilet paper with some idea, you know, but in reality God is God because he is beyond our conceptual world. practicing the Theravada, he feels that he should dedicate the Theravada and follow it to complete enlightenment.

[13:27]

And I'm trying to understand what Theravada is. I mean, what you should do. And on one side, it seems, you do good works, good works will be returned. But you shouldn't have selfish ideas about things returning. The other side is, what you said earlier about accepting, be willing to accept the consequences or effects of our actions. Is that some kind of definition you have? I don't know what do you mean by merit.

[14:32]

As Bodhidharma says, no merit. No merit is merit. We have to get through the idea of no merit before we discuss what is merit. No merit means to believe in the strict rules of cause and effect. Even Buddha must suffer his karma, you know. As long as he is historical Buddha, he must suffer his own karma. But because we couldn't satisfy the idea of Buddha as historical Buddha, we started to have deeper

[15:51]

idea of Buddha, you know, like Sambhogakaya Buddha or Dhammakaya Buddha. So, you know, scripture tells us if you read, you know, scripture without having any idea of Zazen practice, it looks like some myth. Maybe Bodhisattva is someone who has miraculous power. But actually, it is not so. Those sutras are based on a deep understanding of our practice.

[16:59]

That is why, without any contradiction, they can describe Buddha's miraculous power. It looks like a very mystic kind of myth, but we cannot criticize it because it is based on very profound philosophy and very deep experience of Zen. practice. You cannot criticize it. That is why the Mahayana Sutra, that is why the Lotus Sutra is called the king of all the sutras.

[18:25]

Q. When we say disease, I take it as an understanding of illness-disease. I don't think there is a perfect remedy except that there is something wrong. is, you know, if you pick up, you know, some painful, you know, part of your body, you know, thinking that here is disease, you know, that is disease in its usual sense, you know, if you have headache here and I have disease here, but why

[19:42]

your head is painful is not just because of your disorder of your head, brain, you know. And it means that disorder of your whole body. And our organic system of body, you know, try to control, try to have more, you know, smooth, harmonious, you know, living activity. So that is why we have pain here, you know. But that is not because this part is in disorder. But maybe your tummy is not so good, you know. well, you know.

[20:45]

So, even though you cut off, you know, you have operation on your head, I don't think it will help completely. Unless you, you know, you should find out in what way your natural you know, organic activity is going. When you realize this point, actually, even though you have, you know, to have pain is not a disease, you know, still you are in right order. If you are not painful, when you should be painful, that is disorder.

[21:49]

So even though you have an operation here, you think for a while, ah, it is the remedy. But actually, your cause of trouble still remains. as before. So I don't think... Disease, we say, but it is not so simple, you know, like mechanics. So to some extent, I think when we are ill, we should be patient, patient enough to suffer.

[23:04]

After you suffer a pretty long time, you will understand your physical condition better. and you will find out the perfect remedy for it. So in this sense, I think no one is completely healthy. Everyone is sick, sick people. If you say disease, If you say you are a sick person, all of us are sick people, I think. So the point is to find out, to understand your physical condition is very important.

[24:15]

rather than to be caught by the idea of disease. For instance, the stomach is very is very closely related to your head, you know, and brain. So when your mind becomes calm, your tummy will be healthier without having operation on your tummy. When you think you have disease here, I think you are actually creating disease here.

[25:39]

It will make your tummy weak, you know, by concept of disease. But if you understand yourself better, and if you know how to control your mind, it will be a great help to your physical condition. For instance, most people, when they are young, and weak stomach, you know. When they become 50 or 60, I don't know why they will not suffer their stomach so much.

[26:52]

For instance, I was very weak. My tummy was very weak. And doctor told me to have operation on my tummy, to cut off part of it. And my friend, who lived near my temple, had also bad stomach. And he had an operation. And he told me, you should go and have an operation. He cut off one third of my tummy. And I feel very good, he said. So I thought, if it is possible for him to cut off One-third of his tummy, you know.

[27:58]

I thought, tummy is a subtle thing, you know. Even the end of the cut off, you know. One-third of the tummy. It doesn't matter for the tummy. If it is so strong, Maybe better not to have operation. It doesn't make much difference, I thought. It means that, you know, our time is so strong. So I didn't have operation. And the doctor saw me as a neighbor. I was weak, you know. I was amazed, you know, why I am so, why I have so, why I could survive, you know, without having an operation.

[29:16]

I don't know why, but soon after that, we started building our mending temple, and I became so busy that I forgot all about my tummy problem. And now my tummy is not so strong, I have no problem with my tummy, but I have a problem of cough. So, you know, I always tell them, to tell people, even though your tummy is so strong, You cannot give your tummy to other people after you... you don't want... when you don't need it, you know.

[30:28]

In other words, after you die, you cannot give your tummy to other person. So if your tummy is strong enough, you know, to give you some until you die, it may be alright. So, you know, some natural order is more important than to have some strong, you know, to have some strong remedy for it. Leave it like that, you know, and let it survive as long as possible. So if our body is always in sound harmony, I think it is good enough.

[31:39]

One more question? One more question, please. When we try to practice hard singing, where we have a lot of freedom, It seems that sometimes we can become caught by our own way, become too narrow. We limit ourselves too much by trying to practice by our own way. What should we do? In the city, you know, Our way looks like very narrow, you know, narrow approach, but actually it is not so. It is basic, you know.

[33:16]

Our practice is directed to the basic problem we have, you know, always. So you cannot compare our practice to some other ways of life. It is necessary for you, for some time maybe, to be caught by narrow idea of practice, which is not actually narrow, but if you are concentrated on our practice, eventually you will find out that is not narrow practice, that was not narrow practice.

[34:21]

But before you find out the true meaning of our practice, you may think this is narrow practice. So even though you think you are caught by a narrow idea of practice, I think you should continue it without some conviction. With some conviction, excuse me. without any doubt. Thank you very much. Prajnaparamita Upanishad Bhagavad Gita

[35:30]

Śrīla Prabhupāda, Om Namo Buddhaya, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Om Namo Buddhaya, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Dhamma, [...] Crying out to save the earth. These liars are impossible. Crying out to bring it to them.

[36:50]

Brothers and sisters, crying out to bless it again. The Buddha's wisdom is irrepressible. I have come to attain it.

[37:11]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v004
@Score_JI