Hi, are you getting sick of hearing about the One Practicing Model? A little. Hmm? A little. How did I know? A little. What does that mean? Hello? A little. I can't hear. Ladies and gentlemen, please be aware. Please be aware of the unified activity of life.

[01:08]

How, how, is the unified activity of life? I don't know if anybody ever said that before, besides me. But, it seems reasonable to proceed in that way. How? Someone mentioned to me that they like how better than what, because if I say, what is

[02:19]

the unified activity of life? Then you sort of look over there to see, what is the unified activity of life? More than, rather than, how is it? How, maybe, includes the observer a little bit more. So I don't know, but reason tells me that, if I'm thinking about, I'm wondering how, how is the unified activity of life? I must be included in it. So I'm wondering about something that I'm already included in, but yet isn't just me. Again, remember that before the fourth ancestor introduced this practice of approaching truth

[03:23]

through oneness, before he introduced it, he taught us to practice with no object of thought. So we approach the question, we approach the absorption into the unified activity of life, we approach that absorption already with an attitude, an objectless attitude, an attitude of no objects of thought. Another way of describing this kind of concentration,

[04:35]

is calm, which realizes that all things are the same. But as a child might say, well, things are, I see some difference. So I was thinking of this mass, this living mass. I got an image, something like maybe an intact sort of a clump, a big clump of entangled blood vessels. But different parts of this mass are of different ages. Some parts are old and rotting, and some parts are kind of fresh and bulging.

[05:39]

And if I look at this mass of life, this living mass of tissue, and I notice maybe the parts of it that seem to be losing their integrity, are on the verge of losing their integrity. They seem to be starting to almost combine with other life forms. And other parts seem to be asserting their integrity more strongly. The younger parts maybe. My response to those two different parts are different. Because I'm conditioned to respond to these different areas differently. So how could it be that I could have the same response to David Luke, and Newborn Baby,

[06:53]

and Jerome Peterson, and Madonna, and a person with leprosy, and somebody who's nice to me, and somebody who's mean to me, and someone I live with and someone I don't live with. How could I see them all the same? Given my conditioning. I remember when I was about 13 years old. And in school, there were these bulges appearing on the chests of the women in the school.

[08:01]

And they seemed to be growing too. And a lot of the young men in the school thought that this was really neat, and made a sort of a cult based on these bulges. So they had a lot of devotion to these formations. And I didn't share their feelings or their sense of it, and I very much did not want to join this movement, and use this anatomical phenomena as a basis for deciding how to live my life. Deciding who I would spend time with and who I wouldn't. I really didn't want to. But all these other guys were talking about it all the time.

[09:05]

Not only were they talking about it, but these women were walking by, back and forth, demonstrating the very phenomena that they were investigating so thoroughly. After a while, I forgot which side I was on. I couldn't remember. And pretty soon, I was one of the group that converted me. Even though I very much did not want to pay attention or care about such things. So if you look at all these different life forms, you do have different responses to them.

[10:21]

Or like a mother, you know, some mothers who are nursing, or even after they stop nursing, even mothers whose children are grown up, sometimes when they see a little baby, milk comes out of their breast. It doesn't come out of their breast when they see an adult. So what does it mean to be aware of the unified activity of all life, or to be calm with all things the same? Hmm. So that's why I say, how is the unified activity of life?

[11:26]

I might also say, how unifies the activity of life? If you can perceive howlingly. Perhaps perceiving howlingly is the awareness of life. Again, certainly if we see a little baby, we may be very aware of life. We may say, oh my God, it's alive. And we see some other people, we may not even notice that they're alive.

[12:38]

But part of what I'm suggesting is you don't really notice that the baby's alive so much, or that the other person's not alive so much, but more you're just conditioned, when you see certain things, to have a big response. And you feel alive when you see a little baby. You feel alive when you see certain anatomical formations. You feel alive when you see people who wear their hair a certain way, or talk with a certain kind of voice. That what you're being aware of in some way is your own conditioning, which makes you feel more excited or less excited. So the way most of us are conditioned, if I just sit here and mumble, quietly for a long time, almost everyone would lose interest. Whereas if I took my clothes off, almost everyone would think it was pretty interesting.

[13:43]

And almost no one would keep their eyes shut for very long. And then almost no one would keep their eyes open. But it's just, it's not because necessarily I'm more or less alive, but you're more or less alive because of conditioning. But what kind of looking at things gets around our conditioning? The fact that some things turn us on and other things don't. What kind of looking will make us just as interested in a rotting old person as a fresh shiny ball of new flesh? Well, I'm suggesting how. To approach... with wonder. To approach howlingly.

[14:47]

So no one knows beforehand what... We don't know beforehand what the unified activity of life is. We don't know. Because we're part of it. It happens in relationship. It happens in relationship. Perhaps you can howlingly, or through howl you can settle with this womb of the Tathagata. I started studying this Ratna-Gotra-Vibhaga Mahayana Uttarakantra Sastra

[15:57]

because of two things. One is a poem I read by Rumi, which I told you about already. And the other was studying about Mahamudra, which is about the ultimate of Mahamudra. Mahamudra means the great seal of Buddha. The ultimate state is the ordinary mind. Ordinary mind is the way. But ordinary mind is not just plain old being a confused person. It is ordinary mind which is this really ordinary mind. I mean the actual ordinary mind. The ordinary mind means the actual mind that is the unified activity. That's actually what our mind is like. Our mind is not this thing sitting over here watching a show. It's actually in the light.

[17:01]

That's the ordinary mind. We make up special minds, separate, isolated units, which are not real. They're not really separate. It's just that we can think that way. Actually the ordinary mind is pervading everywhere and connected to all things. That is just the ordinary mind. You don't have to fix up the ordinary mind. You don't have to do any work on the oneness of all life. Not only that, but you can't do anything anyway other than sort of, like I say, pick up some little section of it around your body. This mass of being is not under control by anybody.

[18:05]

Particularly not by one little creature like me or you. Even thousands and millions of us getting together don't have a chance. It's too big. It's just living and dying all the time. That's the ordinary mind. So I was attracted to this teaching here, in this Shastra, because of those kinds of considerations. So the theme song of the womb of the Tathagata, one theme song for it would be this poem by Rumi. The minute I heard my first love song, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all the time. This is the ordinary mind, this is the womb of the Tathagata.

[19:14]

As soon as you understand, as soon as you hear a love story, you start looking for your lover. Or maybe you don't, but anyway, somebody did. But that's getting farther away. What should we do when we hear a love story? Any suggestions? You know, I think it's a good idea. Yeah, be in love. Enjoy it. Even the great poet, he himself said, unless he was telling about somebody else,

[20:17]

or just sort of... He said that when he heard his first love song, he immediately started looking for you. So he fell for it too. In other words, even he tried to control the situation. Hearing a good love story, try to control another one, make another one happen, find out more, get some control of it. Someone gave me a book. And the subtitle of the book was... or not exactly the subtitle, but sort of the subtitle of the book was How to Stop Trying to Control Other People and Start Taking Care of Yourself. I thought it was interesting. It didn't say how to stop taking care of other people and start taking care of yourself. Start taking care of yourself. How to stop trying to control other people.

[21:24]

Again, it's not possible anyway. I've tried for years. And it just really doesn't work. People are just not cooperating with the control policies. Even those who try to cooperate, don't. In fact, there's some people right here in this room that try to cooperate, that don't. And start taking care of yourself. That, turns out, takes care of other people. You can't take care of other people if you don't know how to take care of yourself. You can argue with that if you want.

[22:33]

Now, could I brush somebody else's teeth if I didn't know how to brush my own? Maybe. I don't know. I took a statement for the summer practice period at Green Gulch. And when they asked me that, the first thing that came to my mind was, the minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you. And so on. So the statement I thought of was, what is the way? The way is harmonizing body and mind.

[23:36]

The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you. Not knowing how blind that was. So I thought this was a nice description of how to harmonize body and mind. And the person I told it to thought it was kind of good that it would attract a lot of people to the practice period. And then, he took this statement to the Green Gulch practice committee. But some people on the practice committee didn't like it. I think particularly about that part, about the lovers being in each other. And then I thought, wow, if it's that annoying to these people, perhaps we should use it. And then I got sort of past that and thought that,

[24:46]

although I still think it's a wonderful statement, maybe it's, maybe that's not the right place to use it. So then I thought of another one. What I thought of was something like sitting surrounded by green hills and the great ocean, caring for life. And I mentioned that to my wife, and she said, surrounded? How about in the midst of? So they're not out there. So you're sort of just part of them. So I changed it to in the midst of. And she made some other suggestions too,

[25:48]

and what I finally came up with was sitting in the midst of sky, sun, sea, and summer hills, caring for life. She also suggested life and death, which I think is more the whole story, but certain other people said, well, let's talk about the death later. So then I changed it to sitting in the midst of sky, sun, sea, and summer hills, caring for life, and volunteering for the hospice program.

[26:52]

Laughter After it was composed, I noticed that unconsciously, accidentally or whatever, what I was suggesting was a two-part meditation. One part is an Abhidharma meditation, a meditation on the first aggregate. Because sitting in the midst of sky, sun, sea, and summer hills is sitting in the middle of air, fire, water, and earth. Just coincidentally.

[27:57]

And this is another way to talk about how is the unified activity of life. Being a living being, period, not just a human being, there's an aggregate of my existence called rupa, right? And this is talking about the fact that living beings have a physical dimension. They may not like it, or they may like it, either way, anyway. There's a physical dimension to the personality. It's grounded in that way. And there's... This means that there's... Among the various ways that the living organism is affected and relates to... One of the ways is... One of the five basic ways is this physical way.

[29:00]

You're affected physically in terms of colors, sounds, touches, tastes. And in each of those dimensions, you're affected according to these four basic ways. Through the movement, through the temperature, through the solidity, and through the fluidity or supportiveness. We have... That's part of what being a living being is, is to be affected according to these four basic qualities. But how do you do that? How do you... How do you meditate on these four basic qualities? I just told you

[30:04]

something that somebody said. Those words came from someplace. In some sense, I'm practicing sitting. I'm trying to take care of life, but I'm located. And the sun and the sky and the sea and the earth affect me differently. And all three of those dimensions are affecting me all the time. Every moment of my life, every moment of your life, every moment of the unified activity of life, this is going on for all living beings. So it's really a question of how to tune in these four... Not how to tune in. Actually, constantly, we tune in these four in some dimension in one of these five ways. We tune in a sound through these four. We tune in a color through these four to a taste through these four. We do this. I mean, life over here does that.

[31:08]

Life over there does that. Life everywhere does this. So one way to enter life is to enter through that skanda, through that aggregate of our life called form aggregate, to get into, and howingly get into how these four qualities of our physical existence, of our physical responsiveness, how they work. Nobody knows how to do this meditation. Everybody's doing this all the time. Even if you succeed in entering what you're doing all the time, that's an old story and now you have to find it again. So moment after moment, we actually do enter into this combination of these elements. We're doing this all the time. It's a matter of can you notice it? Can you be aware of it?

[32:09]

And you don't know how, even if you've been successful in the past. You have to look howingly. It's right under your nose, this physical creation. That's why I also say you can't control yourself into this meditation. It's a creative process that you're constantly doing, that your life is constantly producing, this creative activity. It's more can you notice, can you be aware of this creation that you're doing? Can you understand your creative activity? You don't have to do anything new. You just have to catch on to what a splendid creative entity you are. And there's certain ways that you're creative, which is the same as the way we're all creative. I guess that's the teaching. There's certain basic ways that we're all creative. We're all doing different things, all of us, each of us differently. We do it in these basic ways.

[33:11]

We do it in a physical dimension. And physically we do it in these five modes. And each of the five modes involves these four characteristics. These four characteristics are always coming together to produce these five basic physical involvements. We receive things, moment after moment, we always receive things. And we always receive them in three ways. And then we have concepts. Every moment we have concepts. None of these dimensions are life in themselves. Each of them are just a part of the actual life. But we enter through one of them because we're only aware of one thing at a time. And what we're aware of is also being creative is another creation. But when I say these things to you

[34:15]

and when I hear myself say them I want to understand what I'm talking about. And you want to know, what are you talking about? How do you do it? That's right. You do it howlingly. You can't exactly understand what I'm saying because what I'm saying is not something you understand before you do it. Once you're doing it, that is your understanding. Not something you know about before you do it. Like ice skating. You don't understand ice skating before you get up and ice skate. You can go to a lot of classes, get a lot of verbal instruction, diagrams on the board, many tours of skating rinks and so on and so forth. But to get up on those skates and to move on the ice, that's the skating. And that is your understanding. If you fall down, that's your understanding. If you stand up, that's your understanding. If you skate fast or slow, that's your understanding. But also, it's not just your understanding, it is your creative act.

[35:18]

And it is your creative act that is your understanding. So, if you can catch yourself creating, then that is understanding. Don't try to understand before. Just like don't try to understand what ice skating is before you try it. If you want to understand before you try it, you might never try it. Now, what some people do is they say, I'll start ice skating when I understand it, and they spend many years understanding ice skating, and finally they go try it, because they feel like they finally understood it. Meantime, lots of children went out on the rink not knowing and learned how to skate. This person now is 66 years old and too stiff to skate. So, I wouldn't wait to understand practice before starting. I wouldn't wait to start any practice you hear about until you understand. You'll understand as soon as you start,

[36:21]

and as soon as you catch yourself starting, as soon as you see yourself doing it, as soon as you experience what it is, that's your understanding. I'm not saying it's perfect understanding, because you can understand deeper and deeper your creative process, but it is your understanding. It's the only one you've got. And the one you had before you started was not about the practice. Another person said to me a while ago something about self-surrender and devotion. I look at different creatures.

[38:01]

So, if I look at different people, I get different responses. Part of what I might think Buddhism is, or somebody might think of Buddhism, would be that you would look at people and have the same response. So that may be true. I don't quite see it. I don't see that as a living possibility. What I do see is myself and other people having very different responses to different people. Some people they smile at, some people they frown at. Some people they relax when they see, which they can't control. Some people they salivate when they see, which they can't control. Some people they get tense when they see, some people they get frightened when they see,

[39:08]

some people they get angry when they see. I mean, from a distance even, with not even any warning, just sort of turning to me. There it is. I see this. I see people impacting this way. So I thought, well let's start with what we got. We got people like that. Now, is there some way kind of in the background, or sort of underneath that, or alongside of it, is there some way that you can look at people kind of like some wise old cat kind of, well here I am, and I'm kind of pretty excited about seeing this person, and I'm pretty tense about seeing this person, and I'm pretty relaxed about seeing this person. But there's some kind of wise old bird back there that kind of like wonders what's going on. What is this person? What is this life? And you know, I kind of feel that way no matter who I'm looking at. I'm kind of angry at this person.

[40:12]

I'm kind of attracted to this person. I'm kind of excited about this person. I'm kind of tense with this person. I'm relaxed with this person. But that doesn't matter so much because actually there's something behind all that, underneath all that that doesn't know a damn thing about this person. And doesn't know any more about this person who I like, and about this person I don't like, and vice versa. All this stuff going on, but somebody's kind of wondering how is it anyway? How is it? And who is it that's wondering about what's going on in the long side of all this stuff that's going on? This is, I don't know who exactly, but this person is a faithful person. This person has faith in the teaching of Buddhism.

[41:15]

I'm not saying somebody who doesn't have that doesn't have faith. That's not true. But I'm saying the person who does have what I'm talking about, that's faith. That's actually investigating Dharma. In the midst of, very much in the midst of sky, sun, sea, summer hills, and all that they come to make, colors, sounds, smells, touches, tastes, and in the midst of feelings, pain, pleasure, I don't know which, in the midst of conceptions, you know there's quite a few of those, in the midst of emotions. All that stuff's going on, and yet I sincerely wonder what does it mean not to have an object of thought? Because I'm seeing these objects. Not only am I seeing objects,

[42:19]

but I have all these reactions and responses to them, they're really affecting me. What does it mean not to have an object of thought when that stuff's going on? Objects are happening, I'm separate from them, I'm thinking of them, I'm feeling about them, I'm avoiding them, I'm attracted to them. In that living situation, what is life? What is to not have an object of thought? What is liberating awareness? People say what it is, but I don't know what it is. But even though I don't know what it is, right now, I'm wondering. Right now I wonder, what is it? What is it that connects all of us? How is it that we're all connected? How is it that we're all in the same boat?

[43:21]

That kind of question, I can have in the background, and it's in the background whether I'm with somebody I respect, honor, love, cherish, or whether I'm with somebody that I just really feel uncomfortable with. The same question is in the background. And I don't try to control these people over to being like those people. Or try to control it so these people are around me and the other ones aren't. Okay? That is a waste of time. Believe me, you know that. Because even after you arrange for the best possible candidate, you get the best person, you get him right there in front of your face, after a little while you want to get him away from your face. Nobody is going to keep being that nice person. Everybody is going to change and go out of control, and pretty soon you're going to want to get away from them and find another good candidate. That's a waste of time. We will, however, continue to do that.

[44:32]

But how about stop trying to control other people and take care of yourself? Take care of yourself means spend some time wondering what is what is the womb of the totality? What is that mass of living creatures? What is that? When you're suffocated by relationships and you can barely stand to stay in a situation, what does it mean to take care of yourself? I don't know. You don't know. Nobody knows. But consider that, please. Try to be aware of what would be the way to take care of yourself. What is life? In other words, enjoy it. Right? Very simple. Enjoy life. That's all you can do. Somebody else said, was it Harold or somebody?

[45:33]

Something like, well, we pushed all the way to the top of the hill now. Somehow we got to the top of the hill and now we're riding down. And there's nothing much you can do about it just for coming down the hill. And sometimes it's bumpy. And sometimes it's... But all you can do is enjoy it. How? Hold on to your... your trolley car? Jump off the trolley car? I don't know. Now, I... I didn't used to be sensitive or sensitized to promises. But some people got burned by promises around here

[46:36]

and told me to watch out for promises. So I'm going to get into sort of a promise area now but I'm a little bit afraid of it. Promises that... Something is that what I'm recommending of trying to enter into the question of what is oneness of all beings. I guess I'm not exactly promising. I'm more like recommending it as a... as something that's been done for generation after generation. So... Maybe that doesn't encourage you enough but I'm suggesting that what I'm talking about although it may sound

[47:36]

it may sound some way or another I'm also proposing this as a traditional practice. And that it isn't just something that's taking care of yourself. And taking care of other people too. But it's something that people who take care of themselves and take care of other people have been doing for a long time. Maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe all that matters and I'm sincere when I say this maybe all that matters is that it's taking care of you and it's taking care of others. Maybe that's all that really matters. And this other stuff is just dreams built in the past. Maybe I shouldn't even mention it. Maybe it's enough that this is the way to take care of yourself

[48:41]

and to take care of others. In the midst of liking some others better than others. In the midst of having this kind of reaction to this person and that kind of reaction to that person. I... I've had this experience myself and I think other people have had it too. It's springtime, right? Have you had that experience before?

[49:42]

When you're... What do they say? I can't remember the song. When you're in love Falling in love with the love Falling in love with the love Falling in love with make-believe Is falling in love with make-believe? Anyway, people have this experience sometimes when they're falling in love maybe falling in love more than being in love, I'm not sure but when they're falling in love they sometimes love everything. Sometimes you have that feeling. And I've had the feeling sometimes of feeling like the way I feel about that person teaches me how I should feel about everybody. But today I'm in a different mood. Today I don't feel like the way I feel about this person

[50:50]

teaches me how I should feel about that person. Although I very much have had that feeling sometimes of, oh I feel this way about this person oh it would be great if I felt that way about everybody. But actually I don't think so. Today I don't think so. Today I think that sometimes the way you feel about a person is great and it's so great that you wish you could feel that way about everybody. It's so pleasant that you wish why can't I feel like this about everybody? But if you actually did feel that way about certain people it would be very inconvenient. And they wouldn't like it at all. There are some people if I feel a certain way they really like it. They say, oh you're being so nice to me today. Some people though they wouldn't like that if I was that way to them. It would be very sort of inappropriate. They'd say, get away! Leave me alone! Are you insane?

[51:55]

And I'd say, no I love you! But you're bothering me! Get away! So although from the feeling point of view when you feel really good about somebody you kind of wish you felt that way about everybody if you did actually it wouldn't work. Like the Russians, you know this guy, what's his name? Milda Kundera? Milan Kundera, he said when the Russians came into Czechoslovakia people in Czechoslovakia didn't appreciate them. They kind of said, go back that way! We don't want you here. But the Russians said, don't you understand? We love you! The Russians, not all of them but some of them

[53:01]

they love the people of Czechoslovakia so they come in there to love them. The people of Czechoslovakia feel like these people are in tanks. They are mowing us down. Can you believe the Russians actually think they love the people and that's why they're doing it? I do. So this thing about when you love one person you think it would be nice to love everybody else that's not true because other people don't necessarily want you to love them the way you love that person. For example if you're a man and you like women or if you're a man and you like men and the way a man likes another man some other men might not like that. The way a man likes a woman some women might not like the man to relate to them that way. This is just his feeling, his feeling not their feeling and it's just feeling it doesn't have any reason

[54:03]

it doesn't check out what the other person would like so just loving somebody isn't enough and just wanting to love somebody like you love somebody else isn't enough, it's a little bit more complicated. It's kind of like what's going on is more to the point I feel today. And if I could meet somebody where I met them and I kind of went what's going on? That's the way I'd like to feel about everybody. That's not a positive feeling necessarily what's going on not necessarily positive, not necessarily negative not necessarily neutral. It doesn't necessarily accord with what I think should be happening or not but I actually feel that when you meet somebody like that or when you feel that way about a tree or you feel that way about a car or you feel that way about a mountain or you feel that way about a person that would be a good way to feel about everybody.

[55:06]

Namely, respect people as the awesome mystery that they are and be willing to meet people howling Thank you. Does that make sense to you? Why not? What's the problem? Or do you like not having the experience? No, I don't like it there. What's the thing?

[56:09]

Howling doesn't make much sense to me. It's like an invitation to discourage yourself from that. Howling is our invitation to that? Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because that's not what it's an invitation to. Forget that one. Now what's the problem? Now that you've gotten rid of that the problem is that the instruction is useless. What's the problem with being useless? The problem with being useless is that I take seriously your instructions and I've been confused with your instructions.

[57:11]

You became confused? Yes. I thought I understood much better before you started talking to me. I wasn't planning to start with the dance. I wasn't planning on you saying those things either. The question is how? How to take care of yourself? How would you take care of yourself now under these circumstances? I think probably

[58:26]

I would disregard that instruction and look to understand. Look to understand that basic practice in another way. You're going to look to understand the basic practice in some other way. So how are you going to do it? What if you have to do it now? Do you want me to say what are you going to do? Do you like that bit? Or, you know, I like the word how

[59:42]

I think it's more intimate than what these days. But I could also ask you how would you advise yourself now? What advice would you give yourself now? Just pay attention. Just pay attention? Yes? How? What? How? How?

[60:43]

How? After a while you caught on that she was just like how all the time. Well, it struck me that when you said how you got into explaining the causation. Yeah. In journalism they have the five W's what, when, where, who and, I don't know... Why? It seems like sort of how is sort of covering for all those. In theater they have the same one for developing a character but it's if you know where, what, why and when the how will develop its own.

[61:59]

The opposite of struggling now. Yeah, how is... how is ungraspable. Can't get a hold of it, it's not out there. It's also not over here. It's, I don't know where how is or how it is. Yeah. A little bit later in this text it says that the ultimate reality or this Tathagatagarbha cannot be understood by the level of understanding of the Arhats and the Pratyekabuddhas.

[63:02]

They can't understand this. How much less so an ordinary ignorant person except if this ordinary ignorant person has faith in the Tathagatagarbha. Approach to this... Approach to this unspeakable ultimate freedom, the approach can only come by faith. How's faith? Again I could say what's faith? Who is faith? Why is faith? But where is faith? Those are all good, right? Who is faith? What is faith? Where is faith? Why is faith? Is there one more? When is faith? It's rather limiting.

[64:04]

They're all more limiting but they all sort of come together to make how. They tell you where how is, why how is, who how is, when how is, what how is. So all that converging how faith. That's the approach to this thing. Which of course is in us all the time. Thank you.

[65:59]

I vow to become it.

[66:10]

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