Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome back to the
World Through Zen Eyes podcast.
I am Myunggan Sunim here withCrickets.
I'm here with crickets.
I'm here with no one.
In fact, dr Lambertunfortunately had a last-minute
(00:39):
hiccup and he could not make ittoday to this only day in our
ever busy and packed schedulesfor recording the podcast.
Not to alarm his fan base, he'sall right, all is well, just
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life, life, and it'sunpredictable.
Joyous happenings, sometimesless joyous, but happenings
nonetheless.
And so here we are, you and I.
A unique, perhaps, chance toget all of our listeners more
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sick of my voice than theyperhaps already are.
Well, we are going to dononetheless.
The show must go on, as theysay, and we are going to do
another Fenmail podcast episode.
I won't venture a memory flexwhich recalls which particular
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number of Fenmail, as it wasbrought up by one of our
listeners in a few episodes backthey said fantastic episode,
except that Myung Han Sinimcouldn't remember that it was a
third, not a second, episode offan mail.
It's all right.
This is, bear with me episodenumber nine, I believe, in total
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.
And so the feedback that we didreceive and have been receiving
really is heartwarming,heartwarming.
This podcast was a sort of aproject that was intended
initially to be just an exercise, and slowly it evolved into
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being an exercise that it sharedwith the entire world.
Frankly, because that's wherewe're at, the internet does that
for us.
So, knowing that as a listener,bear in mind, we are as fresh
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into this as you are.
So we are growing up togetherUs, the hosts, the speakers, and
you, the listeners.
We are growing up together, weare evolving together.
Many of the episodes have been,in fact, of topics suggested by
the listeners.
We already have the topic forthe next episode worry.
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What is the Buddhist take on,worry, and can you speak on that
?
So that will be the nextepisode, unless this one fails
to satisfy, and so perhaps DrLambert and I will reshoot this
particular one.
Regarding forgiveness, this isthe subject matter for the day,
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this is what's on the tableForgiveness.
I think the first thing toconsider is the place,
emotionally and psychologically,that we come from when we
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engage in forgiveness.
Forgiveness, engage inforgiveness, forgiveness for one
mustn't be and must beunderstood that it is not some
benevolent bestowal of onehigher form of existence unto
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another lower form of existence.
It's not meant to be and itmustn't be some grace, I think,
that one bestows upon another.
When forgiveness is born out ofthat place of, I am in a
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position of choice, out of whichI choose to forgive you or not.
Behind that in the mind stillexists not only a separation and
division, but also somesuperiority that affords one to
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be forgiving of another.
It's a sort of a master-slavealmost relationship.
I choose to forgive you, ergo Iam so fantastic.
I choose to forgive you, ergoyou know, we can say that's the
higher path, take the higherroad, and things of that nature,
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and what that suggests is thatthe other person is somehow
still beneath us.
The one that is forgiving isstill a sort of ego flex, and
the one that is being forgivenis somehow beneath, at the mercy
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of the grace of the one who isdoing the forgiving.
Forgiving, I think that isreally an unhealthy place from
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which to approach this, becauseit renders it very superficial.
It's almost an act, if you will, Because forgiveness, and for
it to be genuine and pure andtrue, must also be a change of
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heart, a change of perspective.
It must be deeply visceralexperience on the part of the
one who is doing the forgiving.
And I speak to that because wereally haven't much power, if
you want to call it that, interms of how that's received.
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So all we could do is we couldchange our heart as the one
who's doing the forgiving, andwhether the one that is being
forgiven accepts it or not, oraccepts it and understands it or
not, where the pacificationwhich is frequently what that
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seems to be is accomplished ornot, that we haven't much
control over.
We don't have the control overthe other.
So we do a lot of inner work,we do a lot of the things that
we do for oneself, by oneself,within oneself, and sort of
cross our fingers and hope thatthe other side is doing that
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same work.
So that's the first orientationfrom the place from which we
are doing the forgiving Must bea place of purity, must be a
place for this forgiveness to begenuine.
It must be a transformation atthe heart of the heart, a
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transformation of theperspective in which we view
either the person themselveswhich is a whole other topic,
right when we can collapse ontoa single action that a person
has done and this could beperhaps infuriating to some
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people, because some people havedone the one singular, horrid
act in their lives, and thetruth of the matter is that
people are then serving therepercussions of that, but it
isn't the entirety of the person, it isn't the entirety of the
human being.
So we must have atransformation of heart in terms
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of how we view a person, thatperson in particular or those
people in particular, and openour mind broadly enough to
consider all of the otherelements that make up an
individual.
We also then need atransformative element within
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one's own heart to understandwhat makes up existence, what
makes up the interaction betweenone person and another.
We skip over so many elementsthat are at play.
We skip over the elements thatare at play.
We think I am here, you arethere, I did a thing or you did
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a thing, and now I can or willor will not forgive you for the
thing, etc.
But we forget the more subtleand yet ever so more powerful of
an element, which is thisconnection we call Yin-Yang.
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Nothing in this world is ofitself Nothing.
Everything is a compoundedthing.
Everything is a coming togetherof such grand multitude of
elements that to isolate onesingle element and to lay blame
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upon it means to not see lifefor what life is.
It's to dismiss the complexitythat makes things what they are.
Things are simultaneouslynauseatingly simple and
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dizzyingly complex.
We could say this is therelative and the ultimate
perspective.
We could say this is therelative and the ultimate
perspective Because, in theturbulence and the cacophony
that is life and the roar andthe happenings and the constant
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overwhelming buzz and fuzz andfizz of existence, actually the
principles governing it arerather simple and in fact it's
this element of things being sosimple that we cannot and we
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struggle to grasp thefundamental building blocks of
existence, of who we are, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
We complicate things.
We complicate things to aunbelievable degree.
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We complicate things to anunbelievable degree.
And so, amidst of thiscomplication, we build for
ourselves headaches.
But I digress or meander,forgiveness, forgive me for my
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digressions, will ya?
Which actually conjures up that, and I hope I don't butcher it,
but that famous phrase utteredby a bodhisattva while nailed to
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a cross and having a speardriven into his side Father,
forgive them for they not knowwhat they are doing.
That's it.
In that single sentence, thereare two major elements the
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forgive and for the not know.
And this also frequentlybecomes a rather contentious.
Principle, because we expectpeople to know.
Principle because we expectpeople to know.
Animal lovers sometimes tend tofavor animals over people on the
account that we expect thehuman being to act in a way
other than they are acting.
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We expect them to beunderstanding, we're expecting
them to be compassionate, weexpect them to be X, y and Z,
and frequently that is that Iexpect them to be, and the truth
of the matter frequently is Iexpect them to be what I am and
see how I see and believe, how Ibelieve, what I believe, etc.
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Etc.
It's oppressive.
We must open our hearts toallow for a person to be who the
person is, and this is not byany means a pardoning of
transgressions of one managainst another.
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It's not, it's not by any meansan excuse and it is not by any
means to say well, that's howthey are.
What are we going to do?
That is so far from compassionthat it's nearly cruelty of a
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different kind.
But to help along, to helpanother one along on the journey
of life on which we are all on,to help them see and understand
Not see as I see, understand asI understand but perhaps just
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propose a view that one hasnever considered.
And yes, sometimes it may seemthat a person is simply refusing
to budge from their standpoint.
And this is where, again, ourindividual convictions come to
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play and they say look at them.
They're just blatantly refusingto see the way, see the light,
and it's this.
You know, I could stand and saythat of another person that I'm
seeing.
Maybe I'm watching them frombehind, maybe they're doing
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action and I'm behind them and Isee what they are doing and I
say things like Look at them.
Look at them their ignorance,look at them Stupidity and
malice, and this and that.
And frequently, the reality ofthe fact is that there's someone
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behind me looking at me doingthe same exact thing then, and
behind them another one, andbehind them another one, and
behind them another one.
We are all human, we have ourknowledge, we have our wisdom,
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and we all have our ignorances,and we are all under
construction, as am I, asundoubtedly is every one of us.
We are working, all of us.
The job work is a simpleexpression of the work that life
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is.
We just sometimes get lost init and forget why.
Why we are working, and theworking in of itself replaces
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that for which we are workingfor.
And I digress again.
Forgive me for my digressions.
I do have, in fact, ready a oh,what would you call it?
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I don't know if a poem is theright would you call it.
I don't know if a poem is theright thing to call it, sure,
let's have it a poem or a thingthat I had written a number of
years ago at the end of an ango.
An ango is a meditation season,if you will.
100 days, 90 days usually theproper anol is, so one can do
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the Angol that is traditionallywithin the Buddhist tradition.
So in Korean Zen it's twice ayear, the monsoon season and the
winter season, but one could doan Angol when one needs to as
well.
This tradition of Angol goesback to the times of the Buddha,
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where all the monks werecloistered together and
practiced together and stayedtogether gave them an
opportunity to hear theteachings of the Buddha, gave
them an opportunity also to nottravel as they did and therefore
, given the weather conditions,to stay out of danger and other
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reasons.
So Perhaps, as an end To ashorter episode, no promises
made.
This, apparently, is the Summeron-go angle of 2022.
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And at the end of the retreatseason.
This is sort of what coalescedand so I will share it with you
here, on account that it's ofthe topic.
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Forgive the insulted, insult,the shamed, shame, the pitied
pity, even if they have to findsomeone more pitiful.
If not someone, then something.
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And if no one or no thingpitiful enough beneath them,
enough is found, they willinvent it.
The angered rage Frequently,when they can't rage on their
abuser, they find someone weakerto rage onto the miserable,
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seek out those in greater misery.
So too it is for the wholegamut of human emotion we share.
We share, it is innate in us.
We share our hatred and love,our joy and misery, suffering
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and happiness.
We share the good and the bad.
The good we share to invitemore of it.
The bad we share to freeourselves of it.
We share to free ourselves ofit.
We see the good as born of us,birthed from us, gifted into the
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world by us, but the bad, thebad, we see as imparted unto us,
spewed unto us, forced upon us.
Wake up, wake up.
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One is a dream and the other anightmare.
It is all from us.
Beware, however, the dangerHaving found no one or thing
blameworthy, find oneself notblamed and punished by simply
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accountable.
Having forgiven others, forgiveyourself and so wipe clean your
heart.
Forgive.
Don't simply listen to the wordforgive, look at it.
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Forgive with your eyes.
Forgive with your eyes.
Forgive with your skin.
Forgive with every one of yoursenses.
Forgive with your heart andsoul.
Forgive with every twist andturn of your brain and every
twist and turn of yourintestines.
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Forgive your son and yourdaughter.
Forgive your inner child andits trauma.
Forgive your siblings.
Forgive your mother and yourfather.
Forgive your neighbor, yourcity, your country.
Forgive the world.
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Forgive with every molecule ofyour being.
Forgive, for therein liesfreedom and peace.
Forgive the fly it's buzzing.
Forgive the lion it's roaring.
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Forgive the flower it'sfragrance.
Forgive the winter it's roaring.
Forgive the flower it'sfragrance.
Forgive the winter it's cold.
Stop it here and now.
Defang the gears of karmicwheels so that they bite no more
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and therefore turn no more.
Cycles broken.
Cease to look for who to blame.
Then the blameless self appearsbefore you, shining bright and
still.
And where there is blamelessself, there is a blameless other
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, and a single thought offorgiveness purifies the entire
universe and every being withinit.
So forgive Until next episode.
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Take care of yourselves andeach other and forgive, thank
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you.