..续本文上一页is experience myself, of an old teacher whom I had always wished to meet and who died before I met him, coming and walking behind me while I was sitting at night.

　　So character relates to the willingness to use any means and to be inventive when it comes time for holding. When I think of the word "holding" I think of arms and the maternal quality that develops in us in zazen, that very steady, deep quality, where all sorts of things come and go, and we have an equanimity with them. This is the enduring wisdom of being able to stay with it. And then not to take the darkness too literally. "I am sad; I am in pain; I am tired; I am bored; I am distracted": yes, fortunately! This is the great life. And then of course we find that it is a little harder to distinguish between sorrow and joy. This too will change; this is not the whole thing. Because I am happy does not mean I will always be happy because I have had a great experience does not mean that I should cling to that great experience. Even in hell you remember the name of Avalokiteshvara: that is this awareness.

　　Avalokiteshvara has many names in the Buddhist tradition alone (and three sexes as far as I can tell -- masculine, feminine, and androgynous): Chenresig ; Tara, who is a manifestation and comes in various colours -- for example, whine and green; Kuan-yin, who also comes in various colours, and comes with or without an infant, and in various sexes; Kanjizai, Kanzeon, Kannon; perhaps Mary and Isis; and on and on. Many forms.

　　An old-time Zen student, a woman, in California, who has sat for many years, and is a very senior person, told me this wonderful story from Gregory Bateson. One time he gave a talk at Green Gulch Zen Centre, and spoke of a young boy who had psychotic episodes. The boy was schizophrenic and the whole world would close in on him and become terrifying. He would think that people were invading his mind with their thoughts, and trying to programme him through what was on the television, and telling him things to do. So he would spend time in the in-patient ward, and receive medication, and gradually his mind would clear, and they would release him, and he would go home, and get worse, and he would come back to the in-patient ward: there was this cycle. One time he was going home for Thanksgiving dinner, and he really wanted to do better this time, and he talked to his psychotherapist about how to do better. So he went home and he was having dinner, when he noticed that the peas were too green, and the turkey looked just too much like a turkey, because it was thoroughly poisoned, and he knew by the way people were looking at him that they were all wondering whether he was going to catch on to this or whether he was going to eat the turkey. And then he noticed that his mind was doing this. For the first time he noticed that his mind was doing this: he remembered the name of Avalokiteshvara in the midst of hell. He thought, "Oh, my mind is seeing the peas as too green!" and he burst out in ecstatic laughter -- and they carried him away. But still, he understood; he remembered the name. "Thank you for everything; I have nothing to complain of." And it did not matter if the people around him did not understand, because for the first time he remembered the name of Avalokiteshvara.

　　So if you remember the name of Avalokiteshvara, calamity or joy may visit you: that is not the point. You can see how remembering the name of Avalokiteshvara actually involves a union of character and insight. It was an insight to notice that he was noticing that the peas were too green. And then to have equanimity even when he was carted away, that is character. Even when you”re carted away, you shouldn”t go psychotic again; you need to hold through that time.

　　Character involves a …

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