UPIAH - Skillful Means or Outreach ~Shinzen Young

The Bell stems for pia or Carter now.

So Cardona means compassion, but it's bigger than compassion, it's really outreach.

That's why in the Tibetan tradition, Cardona and opiah our virtual synonyms. Current odds compassion and who pia I would translate as it's often translated what's the standard sort of booted artificial Buddhist. English translation of pia mean means you got it. So what is but what does skillful means refer to what? What is the connotation of the word?

Higher well if I were to give an idiomatic translation. I would probably translate it something like outreach.

Remember, I said that when you ring the Bell you bring the Bell to call People or you ring the Bell to begin or end. A sent to me. That's like the coolest job to do because you're reaching out the Bell. It calls sentient beings back to the source back to the practice. So I would say Pia is the ways that one reaches out.

In order to engage people in the practice because just sort of trying to sell People on emptiness or suffering.

Oh, that might be maybe something the general public doesn't exactly relate to right off the bat guess. Wat I've got good news.

You are soulless robot designed to suffer and too stupid to know that you're going to die, that's not so great, because it's almost certain that the next time around. You're going to be bored as even stupider.

Something there's damn good reason to say this. I don't know about the reincarnation piece, but actually yeah. I agree with the solar's robot designed to suffer but that's not exactly the whole picture for Fortunately.

And so and that is certainly not a way to bring in J randomly human being in the path and just try to convince some of that. That's like the Iceman Cometh. You know you're trying to sell a person on.

Yes, it's like who wants to buy this product so.

Uh.

There are more approachable ways of formulating the same thing and that's compiled so the Buddhist tradition is always.

I thought that it's important to make ways that People can enter the practice.

Now, how do you do that? Well, it's been done differently in different cultures?

One of the ways let's be honest that you get People engaged is you impress them with psychic powers of magic.

That's something People can relate to in certain cultures at certain times.

Most cultures in previous times and that's where Buddhism existed in those cultures, so you know, I mean.

How how are you going to convince Kubla Khan to you know not destroy your temple but help you build it OK? Well, you better be able to do magic better than his guys so that was one of the UP's and it certainly is legitimate. I suppose within a certain cultural context.

People like to have their fortune told you go to it, I mean?

You know.

Fortune could we talk about fortune cookies, OK, so it's almost like a stereotype, but fortune telling is am really, really old Trope in Chinese culture, although actually most People don't know the fortune cookies.

Come from Japan has originally most People don't know that, but look at the WACA. Pedia is ready come from, but anyway, fortunes telling your fortune. That's the beginning of Chinese literature. That's the gin. That's what it is. That's like how to interpret these hexagrams and so forth so the culture like step. Their fortune told so every Chinese temple. If you talk to the average Chinese person what do you do at the temple?

Why do you go to the temple well? You you throw these pieces of wood or coconut and they fall in a certain way. And then you like draw a fortune and OK. So it goes so that's an empire that brings that brings People into your temple.

Food is a big deal in Chinese culture. So Um Miatta Buddhism in China is about not eating meat. So you develop an incredible vegetarian cuisine and the temples provide that food so People go. They get a good vibe. They do a good deed. They didn't eat meat, but they eat something that looked and tasted exactly like weed.

It must be out of tofu and all they reproduced all the high cuisine of China in vegetarian food OK. It's a new pia. It brings someone into the temple and then.

Hopefully.

Some connection will be made, and from there things things will happen. So that's all this kind of stuff is looked upon is pia. Pia is sort of tricky thing right. I think you could see that there could be a little bit of a slippery slope here in terms of honesty.

You know, People like miracles, so Hey, you know miraculous things happen.

Yeah, you know these.

What do they call them?

Uh.

You know the relics and things that reproduce themselves every day and get more and more and more you know, I can't help thinking that someone is manipulating that OK but well it's an empire, it can be justified. So it's a sort of tricky thing. We want to bring people in We want to build things relevant urine.

12 century Japan you just came back from China. You learn this cool, Liberation Path called Sean or then and who's running the show in 12 century Japan summer I.

They are running the show.

So how are you going to get them not to beat you up but rather to get interested in what you have to say.

Well, what's relevant to a summer I.

To kill and be killed without fear or consciences was relevant to the job of a samurai.

You know what we can provide that I want that we can provide that now. You could say wow. That was a bad thing to do I mean, the Buddha would like?

I mean, it's like in the original rules in the Vinaya Buddhist monks aren't even allowed to talk about.

Wars and conflicts want to say to train Warriors.

On on the other hand.

Thanks to that.

There are now people in Japan, who are enlightened Zen Masters and taught me.

And maybe if that hadn't happened in the 12 century.

That would not have been the case.

Uhm I remember the first time I ever stayed in the Japanese and temple. It was a place called mom pujian kill Tal.

And they?

When I notice was that these busloads of.

Co workers would come here.

It would be like a giant like 3 buses and they're all workers from a certain section of a company like Mitsubishi or?

Matthew star or you know, one of these big Japanese companies they'd all be like in suits or in their company sort of.

What do we call those like?

Like.

Yeah, or the?

When can the jumpsuits kind of things and I notice like these coming into the temple? What's going on so I asked the roshi?

What is this and he says? Well, they they bring in they send a section of workers?

To spend a week.

Living in the sand temple together.

Essentially to do up a mini session that sort of mild retreat kind of situation. But mostly just like being the temple and see what that's like.

So.

I said why while why just why did the companies do this? This is a long, long time ago this is like 1969 or something 1968?

Way back my first time I was in Japan.

So why did the why did the companies send their workers?

Well, it's a team building exercise when it is. This is Japanese team, building set up to his end temple and toughen him up a little bit. You know it. Hurts you have to sit still and you're tired and you get a sort of paramilitary team building kind of experience that's why the companies do this, they pay for it because.

It's to their advantage as a company.

So OK fine. It's sort of cool actually in a way that that's that's their version of team building sort of class classical on the other hand, I did ask the guide pointedly don't you think that they're exploiting.

You.

You know it just using you for corporate goals your spiritual teacher. Your Zen teacher. You know in those days. I was pretty rude. I haven't done much practice. I had a lot of hot spot and I used to like to ask important questions for People, but that was OK. 'cause I actually learned a lot by the answers because often the answers were I was important, but the answers were humble.

And that was a learning experience so he said. Well, it's true.

To a certain extent.

But.

If we get 60 People coming in here.

Um maybe 1 or 2 of them.

Will take to the practice?

And will continue with it.

And that justifies doing it, so and then he said, This is whole band.

And the whole Ben is the Japanese word for rupaya so this is the outreach so you reach out to People.

Zen and the art of People like to do art in Japan, they would like to do flower arranging and tea ceremony.

So we use sort of make the possibility that they can get a little bit of somebody as they are doing their art. Their Flowers or their tea or whatever and then this makes things relevant to the culture.

So.

What I find interesting is that of course history repeats itself?

Now it's coming to the West.

Um.

How is it making by it? I mean?

Buddhism this practice how is it making a really I mean like really significant inroad into the culture?

How is that happening?

Um.

It's happening because of the M word, and buy em, I don't mean meditation.

OK, what's the M word that I'm thinking of movies, no mine mine mine. So yeah, that one this is amazing mindfulness.

That word.

Will probably change the course of human history?

That word.

No just the way it's come down now.

Uh.

Because.

Mindfulness is unintentional skill set.

It can be in.

Translated different ways, but it's an attentional skill set.

And.

These attentional skills can be used for uh for everything that could be used for everything they can be used for pain management. They can be used for improving your tennis game, they can be used for recovery.

Could be used for everything?

And it's not terribly threatening.

The other M word.

It's pretty accepted I mean, even the AMA when you get something if you have heart or cancer or something, as the AMA recommendations that M word meditation word. You'll actually find there so that's

Somewhat acceptable the meditate the N word that means meditation, but still out there are sections of society that meditation just sounds weird and and.

An invasion of my personal world.

It's like asking someone to pray in a certain way you're asking them to Meditate.

But.

Telling People Hey, we're going to give you some exercises that develop attentional skills.

And then we're going to show you how to apply those attentional skills to what you're interested in.

What's important to you if you got chronic pain, but that's important, OK, etc, etc.

That's something that the average person is not not going to.

And it's not going to catch in their crop, it's not going to seem.

Weird or unnatural, especially one of the things that I've been considering is to not assume that the 1st way you train people in mindfulness is to get them to sit down.

'Cause there's really nothing that says, Yeah, you have to start with a seated practice or that your eyes have to be closed.

Without this is really interesting because this to me, this is the modern who pia.

We're reaching out to People now, what I decided to do was OK if.

If we're flying under the banner of unintentional skill set.

Well, we want.

Them to apply these skills.

In a way that they are going to dramatically grow so.

The base, I outlined this in the what is mindfulness, but they sold strategy is so the categories of the basic mindfulness system are designed to produce insights right off the bat.

So that it's not just that they're going to get a little bit of of concentration kind of thing, but there explicitly developing concentration sensory clarity equanimity and they're learning how to parse their sensory experience in such a way that the fundamental insights can arise without of us trying to get them to leave a certain thing. So we're going to provide you with an intentional skill set.

We're going to provide you with the way of.

Analyzing your sensory experience, which is not any doctrine or belief system. It's obviously is the case that we see and we here and we feel.

And then People can hopefully start to have.

Really significant experiences.

So.

That to me is the is a modern incredible opportunity for Empire.