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Talk: 2016-03_02 Learning How to Live in Real Time_ Reflections on the Buddha's Bhaddekaratta Sutta 1.json Start_time: 01:20:31 Display_question: Can you speak to how to be aware of when we are fabricating the present moment? Keyword_search: fabricate, past, future, present moment, aware, China, Diamond Sutra, Zen, tea house, meditator, Buddha, koan, Japan, Korea, sister, washing dishes Question_content: Questioner: I was interested in what you were saying, sort of outside of the sutra, about not just the way that we fabricate the past, and the way that we fabricate the future, but the way that we fabricate the present moment. Larry: Yes. Questioner: Fabricate wasn't exactly the word that you used. Larry: There are other words you can use. Questioner: But I was just wondering if you could elaborate on that, and what that danger is, and how to be aware of it. Larry: Yes, (he claps) it’s my answer. It's now the past. I'll end with this story and then you figure it out. Got to make you guys work too. I'm not going to do all the heavy lifting. In ancient China, there was someone who was a scholar, and knew everything about the Diamond Sutra. And he heard about these people who were practicing Zen, in one part of China. They were practicing something similar to what we're doing. And he had all these books. He didn't meditate, but he knew everything about this. It's a very important Buddhist sutra, the Diamond Sutra. So, he came from one end of China, to visit this teacher, who had all these students, and he was going to challenge him, because he felt, this is stupid, this person, what they're doing, makes no sense. So in those days, they still have now, tea houses, and there was a woman. So, he stopped at a tea house, and tea was to refresh. Are you with me? Questioner: I'm with you. Larry: Okay. Because my feelings were hurt. You yawned. I feel very hurt Questioner: I needed to oxygen into the bottom of my lungs. Larry: What? Okay. I just feel very hurt, should I work with it? Okay. So, he came to this tea house, and it was this elderly woman, and she was a meditator, and a highly skilled one. And she said, what have you got in that big knapsack? He says, oh, I'm one of the great experts on the Diamond Sutra. I'm going to this monastery to straighten them all out, because they don't really understand what the Buddha was talking about, blah, blah. And then she said, okay, I'll make you an offer. I'll ask you something, in the Diamond Sutra, it says, there is no future, there is no past, and there is no present. So which mind are you going to enjoy the tea with? If you get the right answer, the tea and food will be free. If you don't get the answer, no tea, no nothing, you're out of here. Break_line: So, he couldn't answer it, because the truth is…I was given this koan, and here I am giving you kind of a hint, against my better judgment, but all right, I would probably spoil children if I had...all right, someone gave me this koan for myself, over, and over, again, I got thrown out. That's the way they do it in Japan, and Korea. You don't get the right answer, ting-a-ling, out. Can't get away with that here. You have to say it's just fine. Just keep trying. Everything will work out. Otherwise, we get sued or whatever. So finally, it's just the present moment. In a sense, there is no present moment, because as soon as you open your mouth, it's gone. So, what this person was saying is, just… now, what I did was, whatever was happening was a hot day. I just took out a handkerchief and cleared my brow. Break_line: And finally, after many times getting it wrong, the teacher said, Fine. Good answer. In other words, all you can do, is fully be, in the present moment. And then so, do you see what I'm getting at? Now, sometimes we have so many ideas about what's happening to us, that we're not in touch, with what's the content of the present moment? And you can see that if you pay attention, like you're washing the dishes, and it looks like you're fully present. Break_line: But let's say you have childhood memories, where your mommy made you wash the dishes. This actually is my sister, and I would take turns washing dishes, and I hated it. Okay, so it's me. It's biographical. So now here I am. Hundreds of years later, and I'm still... my mommy is long gone, to mommy heaven. And here I am, washing from the outside, looking in. I'm washing the dishes. I'm in the present moment, but I'm not, because the mind is taken up with, a little bit of, I'll get this done fast, and get it over with. I'm not in touch with the water, the dishes. Do you see what I mean? I've killed the present moment, the quality of it. I'm not fully alive because I'm divided. Does that make sense? Questioner: Yes Larry: Good End_time: 01:25:40
