..续本文上一页ning on the green grass, though even a dark sky will do. And you begin to realize that confusion and suffering are also void, empty and nonsubstantial.

　　Do you understand

　　 You”re on a train, and the scenery is going by. Included in the scenery are all the ways in which you project upon yourself, abuse yourself or create a dialogue within yourself that occupy a whole day, or three days or maybe a week, and still you aren”t aware of it.

　　Then at the end of the day you”re so tired, completely exhausted, but still you”re on the train, holding on, and the tighter you hold on to the passing scenery, the more the train seems to drag to a stop. In reality the train doesn”t stop, it continues on, living dying living dying, but in our deluded understanding we”ve stopped the train. We”ve even gotten off the train! The fabrication or delusional system of our small minds is that powerful. We believe we”ve stopped the whole train and gotten off, and maybe we”ve even stayed for a couple of days or months. Some people pass their entire lives this way. But the train is going on. Believe it or not, it continues on. And while it does, while this whole drama flies through space and time, you can actually apply your compassion practice to engage your suffering and the suffering you see in the world around you, and experience how to let the grip go. Even doing this much begins to transform all that lead into gold.

　　In the late 1970”s the Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche introduced to his community certain practices for difficult times. He was one of the most controversial and influential Tibetan teachers to transmit dharma to the West, and he and Suzuki Roshi had a very close relationship that our traditions continue to this day. There”s really nothing in Zen like the compassionate breathing practice he introduced us to. We”re so fortunate to have some kind of practice that can work with the unwanted thoughts and feelings that cause suffering and fear.

　　When Rinpoche first said to us, “Let”s try to take on the suffering of other people,” he was quite shocked at the response. Most of the students said they didn”t want to do it. Suzuki Roshi wanted to encourage us in the same direction, but he was more subtle and mild, and so he would say the same thing but in a gentle way. He would say that “the bodhisattva path” or “to help other people” is our way. But the truth is that most of us were not really on the Mahayana path; we were just interested in our own self-realization. Suzuki Roshi knew this, and I think that”s why he presented it in the way he did. And it did help us, because we do have to realize which track we are on.

　　It is said that having the capacity, the foundation and the vessel to take on the suffering of others is one of the great joys, because you can make someone else happy, not just yourself. Of course, we usually do not realize, as we do this for someone, that the other person”s joy includes our joy, too. But when you focus just on yourself, your universe becomes small and smaller. Eventually it becomes as tiny as the head of a pin. That”s it. There”s no spaciousness. There”s no room for joy. There”s no humor. There”s no curiosity. There”s no discovery. In this way your world becomes so diminished that you have imprisoned yourself within your own conditioned mind.

　　There are more than six billion other people in the world at this time, and many of them look exactly like you. It”s true. They have a character and karmic pattern just like you. I see students from around the world quite a bit, and I can see an American, a Pole, an Icelander, a Chinese, and for each country there is an equal. When I was in Iceland recently, I saw someone walking down the street, and I said, “Oh, there”s Gary! In Iceland!” You really do wonder s…

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