So I'm glad that you are making an effort to come here and learn about Buddhist psychology. And I haven't been teaching class on psychology for a while because I've been concentrating on the precepts and koans. So it's nice to study this type of thing again. Just as a basic introduction, I think... And here's another Martha. As a basic kind of introduction, the basic thing for human beings is that we... The way our perception works is that we see a self which is separated from another.

[01:08]

And not only that, but we believe in that perception. And as a result of that, we feel miserable. It's painful to feel a self separate from another. And it's painful to feel it, but then that's a little bit painful. but then it's much more painful when you believe it, when you give it substantiality. And then, of course, we even act based on that, which then causes even more pain when we act from that place. So then we have the possibility to study that misery to be aware of it, to admit it, and to notice what it's caused by, namely it's caused by what I just said, basically.

[02:10]

And by studying and studying and studying we have a chance to see that this thing which we think is a substantial separation is actually insubstantial. And when we start to see that insubstantiality, real compassion starts to be developed and universal respect starts to develop from this insight into the insubstantiality of our separation, which is the same as insight into the union of self and other. We feel sometimes attracted to each other even though we feel separate, we feel attracted to that thing that's separate from us. And part of the reason why we feel attracted is because we're in pain and we think that if we come closer that maybe that closing the gap will take away the pain.

[03:15]

But that doesn't actually work. But it does work to stay close to people, close enough to feel the separation and then sit with that and understand it until you see through it and realize union. And then that produces peaceful relationships and happiness and respect. So in Zen, in some sense, what Zazen is, is to meditate on the oneness of all life. So in some sense, it's hard for us to practice zazen in that way because we don't really believe in the oneness or we don't really see the oneness. So in a sense, we have to practice zazen by sitting with the fact that we don't believe in oneness. So in that sense, we're not really practicing meditation on oneness.

[04:21]

We're practicing admitting that we don't believe in oneness. But that's necessary. We have to admit, start where we are. And there's lots of different realms and teachings on Buddhist psychology, but I guess I want to start with a kind of advanced one, because I don't have time to work up to an advanced one. And as necessary, I'll give you basic Buddhist teachings, but I'd like to start with a fairly advanced text, which is the one I just passed out to you. Advanced in the sense that it's very concentrated. It has a great deal of it on just two pages. There's a tremendous amount of teaching on these two pages. And... And this teaching also comes after several stages of development of Buddha's teaching on psychology.

[05:32]

So it's advanced in the sense of progress in teaching, although it's not different from Buddha's original teaching. It, in a sense, goes back to Buddha's original teaching after the teaching of psychology got a little bit off track. As I was saying in San Francisco last night in the koan class, and also here on Monday, is that when a person realizes this oneness, And if they express themselves in order to give people access to that oneness, then people turn that access into a nest quite often. And then they sit in a nest rather than realizing that that was just sort of an invitation into a realm where there's no nests.

[06:36]

But that tends to happen. And then people have to come along encourage people. We don't usually take the nest away, but we try to get people to get out of the nest and start, you know, just jump off the nest. And so that's what this text is, is to encourage you to jump out of your nest that you're in. The nest of the self, which is separate from other selves. In a sense, this text is a text on wisdom or insight, which will then, when it's realized, lead to a very grand, very big, wide kind of compassion.

[07:52]

But you also need compassion to start studying this text, which I think probably is already the reason why you came, is because you feel some compassion for yourself or for somebody. Does that make any sense to you? And there's some insight in you wanting to study this too. So now we will try to deepen the insight, but in order to deepen the insight, You also need to, again, be compassionate with yourself and be compassionate to yourself in terms of what happens to you when you start studying this material. You need to be compassionate with yourself in terms of being aware of whatever pain and frustration you're experiencing in your life, because, again, that's the practical example of what this text is talking about.

[08:56]

So, shall we begin studying this text? Yes. This text is called, in Sanskrit, I think it's called... Did it say that? Yeah. Itnapti Matrata Siddhi, right? Which can be translated, 30 verses... Well, no. It's, yeah, it's called Vijnapti Matrata Siddhi, but it's also called Trimshika Vijnapti Karika. Trimshika means 30. Vijnapti means concept, and karika means verse. So Trimshika Vijnapti Karika means 30 verses on conception. Another name for this text is Vijnapti Matrapta Siddhi.

[10:04]

Again, vijnapti means concept, matra means just or only, and siddhi means mastery or accomplishment. So, this is 30 verses about the nature of conception, which also means the nature of perception, because conception is involved in perception. So it's 30 verses to teach us about how conception and perception work, which will hopefully lead to a state called vijñāpīmatrata-siddhi, which is the mastery of mere concept or just concept. the accomplishment of a state, which is the true reality of a person, and that is that all of our perceptions are just concepts.

[11:05]

There's a fascicle by the Zen teacher Dogen called Painting of a Rice Cake. And So in some sense, the jnapti matrata siddhi means that you accomplish, you become one with the fact that the whole world is just a painting that you've done. That each of us is a painter, or each of us is a creator of a universe for ourselves. It isn't that we should stop doing that, but rather that we should accomplish that we should become thoroughly we should become a master painter of the painting we're already doing that's the title of this Now, again, just to refer back to what I said before, one of the main things, although we're all painters, there's some continuity in our paintings in that we all paint a world that has a self in it.

[12:26]

None of us skip over that. When I say none of us, I mean actually no people that are no ordinary human being. Some human beings have trouble painting a self into the picture of the world, and those people are more or less non-functional. Because being humans, they want to relate to other humans, but not being able to paint a self in others they can't really get along with other people because that's what the other people are doing. So most people who are relatively functional, which includes neurotics and psychotics, but not like certain kind of developmental illness or organic disease, are able to create a self and other and then suffer according to how they do that. which includes really a high percentage of the people.

[13:31]

And the other people have to learn how to do that in order to suffer like the rest of the people. So the first verse is, whatever indeed is the variety of self and elements that prevail, whatever Indeed, is the variety of ideas of self and elements that prevails. It occurs in the transformations of consciousness. Such transformation is threefold. Notice that it starts off right away by, it doesn't say, whatever indeed is the variety of self and elements that prevails, as though there were some self and elements that prevail in this world.

[14:36]

It starts out by saying whatever ideas of self and elements Elements means others, but means, you know, everything in the environment besides the self. All of these occur within transformations of consciousness. So this treatise is about how consciousness is transformed in three ways in order to give rise to ideas of self and elements. And there's no ideas of self and elements that occur outside this threefold transformation. Before we go into reading what the threefold transformation is, do you have any questions?

[15:47]

You don't understand transformation? Well, um... The word transformation is... The word transformation is used here, I think, well, because it doesn't mean like consciousness goes like, there's a thing called consciousness and then it goes bup, bup, bup.

[16:51]

It's more like consciousness transforms into three different dimensions. Or consciousness can be three different ways, basically. One way consciousness can be is a kind of container or That's one way consciousness can be. Well, the basic kind of meaning of consciousness is kind of like a container or that which embraces the effects of everything.

[17:58]

And that big all-embracing sort of, or all-embracing means all, could be also all-affected, that which is affected by everything, that which can embrace everything, that consciousness has three transformations. One transformation is that consciousness can serve kind of as a point of support, as something to hook onto. Another transformation of consciousness is that consciousness can split itself. Consciousness can reflect And the other transformation is consciousness can come up with a concept of something outside itself. But, in fact, it is consciousness still.

[19:12]

The consciousness can think that there's something outside itself, but that is a quality of consciousness. So it's not really thinking of something outside of itself, it just has this ability to think that there's something outside of itself. Is that the separation? No, the separation is the previous one, the kind of reflective ability of consciousness. So I sometimes say to imagine that there's like a, well, like there's a surface here of these people, right? And consciousness is, what is it that embraces all the people here? What is it that is affected by all the people here? That's consciousness. Okay? Then it would be like if you took a mirror Like I had a mirror in my hand and I held the mirror up and you could see like your face in the mirror.

[20:15]

Okay? It would be like this ability to reflect your face in the mirror would be like somehow this thing then is like something in this field is now separated from the field. Not yet separated, but it's reflected. So it's actually in the field and yet now there's a reflection of it. It's not really him, it's a reflection of him. And also it can reflect you and you and you. Everyone can be reflected in this mirror. So the mind has the ability to reflect things. The consciousness actually is the effect of all the people and yet it has a special quality to reflect some element or some aspect of the totality of what is receiving the effect or what is being, yeah, what is receiving the effect. It's not, this reflecting quality is not reflecting... So to refine my example, it's the consciousness is not all of you.

[21:25]

The consciousness is that which embraces all of you. The consciousness is that which is affected by all of you, whatever you are. Then there's the ability in consciousness to reflect the effect or the consequence upon this awareness. And that is reflected, but that is the capacity of the consciousness itself. And it is not the thing, it is a reflection of it. It is not the actual effect, it is a reflection of it. And then consciousness has the additional ability to say, to have this idea, that that thing that's being reflected, which is a reflection of something in itself, is outside itself. So maybe you're right that it is... I don't know what you said, but anyway, the separation is an idea.

[22:31]

There really isn't separation, but the consciousness, in addition to having this embracing quality and this reflecting quality, also has the imaginative quality to imagine that what is being reflected is outside. And part of the reason why that may be so, or part of the origin or evolution of this capacity of consciousness, I will tell you about soon. Jeremy? Could you use the word modeling? Reflecting? Is that similar? You could use modeling, yeah. Modeling, yes. It sounds a little bit to me like the first three steps towards infinity. Because I can go one more step and then one more step. I think I can.

[23:36]

Yeah, well, by this method, by using this process, you can create an infinity. The mind can create an infinity. Yeah. Because it's a transformation. But it is a transformation. It's a repetition of the third transformation. So do you want to go talk about this now, or do you want me to take a step back about giving you some idea about where this might have all come from, that things are this way? Step back. Step back. Well, this is not in this text, okay? The origins of consciousness are said to be that consciousness, the kind of consciousness we're concerned about is something that's characteristic of life. And I'm not saying that's something that isn't life, but anyway, that's characteristic of life is consciousness.

[24:43]

A characteristic of life is consciousness. Did I say that? And a characteristic of consciousness is life. So, consciousness arises in a material situation. It doesn't arise in a non-material situation, but consciousness is not material. Consciousness arises in relationship to a location, material things are located, But consciousness is not located. However, it lives in relationship to a location. And the particular location it lives in relationship to is a place where different qualities of materiality are interacting. And these different qualities are what are called gross and subtle material.

[25:54]

They're both located, though. And somehow in the evolution of the universe, they developed a differentiation or a kind of role-playing among the material entities in the world. One group, which lately we've been recognizing as colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangible material things, that group of five We don't know exactly how long, I mean, they've been around, but anyway, there was them.

[26:56]

Light is electromagnetic radiation and it's a subdivision of electromagnetic radiation. Sound is mechanical waves. A taste is usually what we consider to be chemical things. Smell tends to be gases. And tangible things are, what do we call them? I guess they're material. Maybe you could say things that are relatively more solid. Something that does gravity? And gravity is an element in those, yes. But I think gravity is probably also an element with sound waves because sound waves can pass through material that is susceptible to gravity. I think gravity also affects... Gravity is electromagnetic radiation, so gravity is related to the type of electromagnetic radiation within which we find light.

[28:05]

But gravity is not the type of electromagnetic radiation... that has become the origins of life that I'm referring to. Now, within the range of the electromagnetic radiation within which light happens for different living beings, what would be considered to be light would vary. The thing about light is that light is, what we mean by that, or a color, what we mean by that is that range of electromagnetic radiation for which there's some other material which responds to it. So at some point in the evolution of the universe, they developed a kind of materiality which was sensitive to these types of physicalities. So electromagnetic radiation, as far as I know has been going, is very ancient in the history of this universe.

[29:08]

But material which demonstrated a sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation, which kind of specialized in being sensitive to it, is relatively, I think, I don't know. I don't know when it started to happen. I really don't know. But anyway, at a certain point, there develops material which is very sensitive to light. And it plays the role of being sensitive to light as opposed to being light. Now, I think light is somewhat sensitive to light, isn't it? I know sound waves are sensitive to sound waves. Aren't they? For example, if you have a sound wave and you have another one running in the other direction, they reinforce or undermine each other. So they're sensitive to each other. But the way they're sensitive is that they basically do the same thing again.

[30:11]

Do you know what I mean? It isn't like two sound waves meet and turn into light waves. See what I mean? Whereas when sound waves meet certain things, those things don't turn into sound waves either, and they aren't sound waves. And yet they change. They're affected. And I don't know if there's much interaction between sound waves and light waves. Is there? They don't have much to do with each other. So these five... have the certain rules by which they interact. But the way they interact is that they usually maintain their integrity in the dimension that they are. Generally speaking, light wave doesn't turn sound waves into chemicals. Sound waves are made within chemicals, are waves within chemicals. But the light doesn't light doesn't change the wave into a pure chemical.

[31:16]

The chemical is being affected by a certain kind of energy, which makes a wave. But there are certain things which, when those sound waves touch them, they are not waves, and yet they're moved, like a cell. Take a cell that's got some maybe some chlorophyll in it or something. And you send a sound wave into the cell and the cell moves with the sound wave. Okay? Now also, if you send a sound wave into a rock, the rock also moves, right? But the rock doesn't move as much as the cell. Right? The cell is more responsive than the rock to the sound. Also, when light hits a rock, the rock is affected by the light. The light can change, and certainly sound waves and certainly tangible things when they touch a rock change the rock.

[32:24]

But there's certain tissue, there's certain kinds of stuff, physicality-located things, which tend to be more sensitive to one of these five dimensions than other things. All right? So this started happening. And at a certain point in the history of this, whatever, universe, there came to be a time when the effect between these gross and these more sensitive physicalities became so, I don't know what, intense, or I don't know what you call it, so much of a deal that something happened, some new thing happened, which wasn't physical.

[33:33]

And what was it? It was consciousness, but what was it? Karma. No, it wasn't karma yet. Mental. Well, it was the... In other words, it was the effect of their relationship, is what it was. It was kind of like something happened, which was the relationship between these two kinds of physicality. But the relationship was not a physicality. It wasn't a located thing. The relationship, you can't find the relationship. If you reach for the relationship, you just get the two things, which stayed being located, and neither one of them could be in the same space at the same time, so they're always juggling back and forth, you know. The sensitivity is here, and the sound wave is coming and pushing it around and saying, I want to be here, and the sound wave says, get back.

[34:38]

So they developed this relationship, and their relationship gave rise to a consciousness, and this consciousness was called, named after the sensitive one. It got named after, it rose in relationship to both this interaction, and then there somehow seems to have been a sense consciousness arising, which was simply a non-material thing about a material interaction. This is supposedly the birth of consciousness. This is how consciousness is supposed to have arisen. Yes? It seems to me like there's almost an extra step in there that I don't understand its purpose in the description. It seems like once you talk about sensitivity, you're talking about non-locality. The way in which a cell responds to sound or light differently than a rock seems to me to include...

[35:43]

the fact that it's a non-localized response. In other words, if... No, I just mean that it's more intensely affected than a rock. So they developed physicalities which were more sensitive than other physicalities. And the measure of their sensitivity was originally physicality. And any one of these physicalities, these sensitive physicalities, was different from the five gross sense fields. Those are called the sense fields, the sounds, the lights, and so on. Those are sense fields. These things affect a spot, and they also are located. But this spot can be affected by all five, and in fact, Generally speaking, all five would get to that place because there would be some, you know, most places would be affected by all five.

[36:45]

Or let's put it this way, where light was born was a place where all five of these were present and where a lot of places in that world, all five would impinge upon a location. So this location not only was sensitive, not only, some locations not only were sensitive to light, but some locations got sensitive to all five. And then they even started to develop specialized areas within that location to be more or less sensitive to certain parts. Like our whole body is sensitive to light. Our whole body is sensitive to sound. But there's a particular little place in our body, right around here, we've got this little piece of flesh which moves in relationship to sound, very, you know, it's just hanging there in the air, and it flops back and forth very responsively. Now, there may be some other parts that are equally responsive to air, like the hairs in your nose might be equally responsive to the noise, but maybe not. Maybe this might be, this might be like the most sensitive part of our body to sound. And it's not as sensitive to light, have you noticed?

[37:48]

But it is sensitive to light. Light goes in there, touches the eardrum, and the eardrum goes... But it doesn't do anything like when sound waves hit it. When sound waves hit it, it swings way over and hits these other tissues, which cause a big reaction. Similarly, the eye is not as sensitive to sound waves. But it is sensitive to sound waves. If sound waves are strong enough, they'll blow your eyeball out. And so you should stay away from really loud songs. I mean, unless you have something to protect your eyes. Similarly, your skin is sensitive to sound, and sounds could hurt you if they're loud enough. And also, of course, electromagnetic radiation can hurt you. The sound that carries light in it could conceivably hurt your skin, even if you took away the ultraviolet infrared. It's possible. So similarly, there became these places that were sensitive to all five and even kind of maybe started to specialize in different parts of the surface being more sensitive to the five then.

[38:53]

And so then you developed actually five consciousnesses around one place. Five non-material ways to register the interaction between this place this place which had the ability to be receptive to these five. Whereas these five, the way that they're receptive is somehow we haven't found that it just has worked out that we haven't found light. It doesn't seem to be an issue for us to find that light is also sensitive to the other ones and has created a locatable place where light has become a being. So it looks like there's, because light seems to be in the gross category and then there's the subtle category, which is mostly emphasized being receptive. And this came to be called the receptors or the organs. And so these organs became the ones that were sensitive to these fields of sense. And these two interacting is the place now where we have the birth of consciousness.

[39:58]

And now we have the birth of consciousness in that way. So also, biologically, evolutionarily, there's a similar story to the origins of consciousness. This, however, is still sense consciousness. where the organism is born from an interaction with something outside itself. Because the organism is located here and these other physicalities are coming and touching it and going through it or around it or away from it. And the organism is located at the sensitivity, so the organs belong to the organism, whereas the gross elements don't belong to the organism. So the organism became located around where the sensitivity was. And so these beings, this place where there was a sensitivity to this physicality became the location of the living being at which place this consciousness was born.

[41:02]

This is background, if I can jump ahead now, to the issue that in consciousness itself there's a reiteration of this process, but it's within the mind. So within the immaterial thing that arose out of these material realities, within that a similar drama takes place where there seems to be things affecting consciousness which it's sensitive to, and then gives rise to a consciousness. So within consciousness we do the same thing. We reflect something within itself, within a non-material, non-locatable realm. We reflect something in that realm, we say it's outside, and then it affects us, and then a consciousness arises. an idea that it's outside of ourselves. It's like a parallel or an analogy of the origins of consciousness.

[42:06]

Because the origins of our life is actually that light is not just something that happened all by the organism's self. The organism was born out of interaction with all the different elements of the physical universe. And then when the consciousness arose, this was a living being, a conscious being. And then what we're talking about here is that we then translate that into the mental realm, but there's an analogy of it which in one sense is justified because it's our background, but on the other side it's an illusion because you're imagining that within your own mind there's something outside it. And the thing you're saying is outside of it is something of itself. That we're imagining these things outside of us And it's not to say there isn't anything outside of us, it's just to say that what we're imagining is simply an idea. And when the Buddha first taught this to his disciples, it's the one time in all the scriptures where it doesn't say at the end of the scripture that the disciples were delighted.

[43:22]

They had a hard time with this. because we did not think that this is just an idea. We did not think that this is a rice cake, a painted rice cake. We think it's a rice cake. We don't think it's a painted rice cake. So, want to go to bed now? Okay, good night. That was just a painting. Yes? I want to try to see if I can say back to you the two analogs that you just... and it strikes our eye and eye consciousness or light consciousness arises. Right. That happens to us now. That happens to us now. Okay? And that happened to us in the history of life too, supposedly. And then these sense consciousnesses maybe developed a certain level of complexity where they were able to develop an idea of light and an idea of eye.

[44:29]

Mm-hmm. I didn't say this, but this is true. And that idea, and then thinking that that idea of light was what was outside of us was the problem, or is the problem. That's one of the problems, is thinking that we have an idea of light and our idea of light is that it's outside of us. Right. That's another example of our problem, just like we... bounces off you over to me, and then you're one of the light things I see, and I think you're outside me. You actually can't see light. What you see is light bounced off things. You can't actually look and see light. You can only see light reflected off something. Do you understand that? If you just shoot light in the eye, you won't see anything. You have to bounce it off something because it has to be located at a certain place because our eye is built in such a way as to not notice light because if you notice light, you'd just be seeing the same thing all the time.

[45:37]

There would be no difference. You'd be totally bombarded. So we select, our eye is set to select things that bounce off things. Now, theoretically, you would be able to see light, but we didn't do it that way because we want to see things out there. But Buddhism is actually to learn how to see light again. In other words, not be able to see anything. Did you have a question, Stuart? Yes. What is the sutra in which this is taught? What is taught? This doctrine. You cited... The history of the universe? A sutra in which this particular doctrine was... The history of the universe that I just told you about? No, you said that it was the old time that Buddhist disciples weren't delighted. Oh, that's when he told them about that it's all an idea. That's called the... I think it's called the Moola... The Moola... The Moola...

[46:46]

Anyway, it's the Majjhima Nikaya 1.1. It's Moola, I forgot the name of it. Moola, not Prayaya, Moola Vaipulya Sutta. And at the end, usually they say at the end, the disciples were very happy to hear this, is when they said the disciples had a hard time accepting this. I'll tell you some other time. Next week, I'll tell you next week the citation of the scripture and I'll put it on reserve so you can read the last line. Yes? Consciousness arises as a result of the interaction between the gross and the subtle. These days, sense consciousness arises that way. Okay, and you were talking about, you know, that's what we call sense consciousness.

[47:53]

Now, in the parallel that you talk about in the realm of consciousness where it creates something else to separate from itself. Yes. Is that which arises from that process have a name? Mind consciousness. The mind consciousness... Okay, I had sort of understood you using the word mind and consciousness somewhat interchangeably. Well... So I'm wondering how mind-consciousness is different from mind-mind or consciousness. Mind-consciousness is one of these three transformations of consciousness. Okay? So there's like, there's like, just the basic word for consciousness you could use is, there's different, there's different basic words for consciousness. One of the basic words for consciousness is citta, which is sometimes translated as consciousness or thought or mind. Another, another word for it is, is vijnana. And that sort of emphasizes the fact that mind can, can split self into two.

[48:57]

Okay? But these three transformations that are spoken of here, you just spoke of that third transformation, right, that ability to sort of put itself up above or outside, that's called mano-vijnana-dhatu. The other one's called the, the sort of ground upon which the mind does this trip is called, in the system, alaya-vijnana, and the other ones, the ability to reflect, is called manas. These are three transformations of what you could call vijnana or you could call citta, depending on whether you want to emphasize the capability of mind to be able to split itself or the capability of mind to embrace all elements impinging upon it within itself. But I just want to also tell you that, just to write off, is that sense consciousness is already going on all the time. Every moment there's a sense consciousness. Every moment there is a, what do you call it, interaction between sense organ and sense field to such an extent that it causes a consciousness.

[50:07]

and there's at least one, every, like, extremely minute flash of a living being. However, we do not know these things. These are not known to us the way we, like, know that, you know, there is, what's your name? Blank. Blank. We don't know it like that. But it is our life and it is affecting us and there is consciousness there, but it's not objective consciousness. It's sense consciousness. It's this, it's in fact, it is the fact of the effect of this interaction and it's a non-material thing and it is a kind of an awareness. But it's not objectively known. This happens simultaneously with another level of consciousness where we can put things outside of ourselves and by putting them outside of ourselves the consciousness knows something. That's also going on. These two realms of consciousness, mind consciousness and sense consciousness, are going along all the time together.

[51:10]

It is within the realm of mind consciousness that we create the trouble. It is in that realm where the self is born. At the level of sense consciousness, there's no self. There's no separation between the consciousness and the object. between the sense... There is a separation, in a sense, or interaction between the sense field and the sense organ, but there's no knowing about this, and there's no self there. At the level of mind consciousness, this ability to reflect gives birth to the sense of self. This ability to sort of sit, to make a reflection or a model this wonderful feat of the mind to be able to make a model of something within itself gives rise to the sense of self. And then, then, you know, the self is rightly seen as an independent operator and then that's projected all over the place and we have all these problems.

[52:21]

which are not bad because these problems motivate us to study the system, which no living being up until this problem was occurred had any slightest idea about. Beings were pretty happy but they didn't understand what was going on. So we started to develop some new skills and they caused problems which goad us into understanding this incredibly complex evolutionary event called human life, which is a very lot of work, and we wouldn't do it except that we are so compassionate. Yes? You know, I wonder exactly about that part of understanding. It's something like, inside me, when you were talking about all these theories about how consciousness develops, I don't know. My mind just says, well, yeah, maybe so, maybe not. I mean, it's like I could imagine also that maybe that's just the way we see it.

[53:28]

I mean, you talked about that it's just an idea. I have this feeling about the distinction of our senses and that it's in a way just our perception of how we die. Yeah, that's right. You're right. And then I have this feeling that my mind is totally blown up and I really have trouble with it. What trouble do you have with it? I can't understand, but then it's like all of a sudden I have this feeling, well, yeah, it could be and it could not be. And so it's kind of like... I can't see it as reality, or, as you said... I'm not telling you to see it as reality. Don't see it as reality. Don't do that. However, you do see some things as reality, and what I'm telling you is not another reality. What I'm telling you is an antidote to what you think is real. But you're not supposed to switch from what you think is real over to think that what I'm saying is real. Matter of fact, you should realize that what I'm telling you is not real and take it on as an antidote to what you think is real.

[54:34]

What you think is real is your problem. What you don't think is real is not a problem to you. In a way it is. I mean, in a way it is probably when I feel that I actually make up only my world and that it's an idea. Because then I'm kind of like really in the deep ocean and it's difficult to be in the world with this kind of perception. No, it's... You believe that when you have a problem with it. You think that's true, what you just did there. Otherwise you wouldn't bother you. Listen to this. Ready? The final belief is to believe in a fiction which you know to be a fiction. The final belief is to believe in a fiction which you know to be a fiction.

[55:37]

There being nothing else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly. So I'm telling you a new fiction, the fiction of the Buddhist tradition, which is to cure you, not from fiction, but from belief that you have in some other fictions. There is nothing but fiction. Right, but you also have to believe, in a way. That's what I mean by it. You have to believe. We're not criticizing you for believing. I'm telling you that you do believe, okay? And I'm telling you something, I'm telling you a fiction about how you believe. So, you can keep believing the fiction you've got now, which most people in this room, I guess, although they're going to keep doing it, have strong suspicion that this is not a good idea.

[56:42]

There's a tremendously powerful habit to continue to believe the fictions which we now believe are not fictions but are realities. It is a fiction that you and I are separate. We believe it, though. And we willingly believe it. Although you could say, well, no, I was coerced into it by the history of the universe. Well, you know, that's part of the you that I'm talking about that willingly does it. You, the universe, willingly has become a woman who believes in these fantasies. I'm not saying you should stop. As a matter of fact, by willingly adopting new fictions and believing in new fictions, you can learn that that's what you've been doing all along. But the new fictions are primarily designed The difference now being that you know it's a fiction and you believe in it. This teaching here is a fiction. This is a fiction. It's just a setup.

[57:46]

But if you believe in this fiction, this fiction will keep reminding you that what you're believing in is a fiction, whereas other fictions don't remind you of that. You take the fiction, you believe it's real, and then it just lets you go right ahead and do it. However, your life knocks on the door and says, this hurts, this stinks. This work doesn't say, you know, this is real. This work says, all you're dealing with is fiction and here's another one. And it keeps reminding you of that throughout. You've got to redraw, and it gives you enough to believe it, and then it reminds you that what it's given you has no substance. Yeah. So you're in a nest which you think you can live in. This says, go live in this nest. But remember, this nest is not real. And when you get in, you say, they said it wasn't real, but it's starting to feel pretty comfortable to me. And then they say, remember, this is not a real nest.

[58:48]

And you say, I don't care, and it tips you upside down. And you start to notice things like, I feel uncomfortable believing in this nest. I don't know if I can rely on this nest. In other words, I don't know if this nest can be real. So you start to notice the mind has this tendency to want to have things be real. What things be real? Mind things be real. Mind things aren't real. But it wants mind things to be real. You start to notice that your mind is like this. That's good. This is a story we're telling you is that it's good to start noticing that you like fictions to be real. So where do you get off? Where do you get off? You're already off. You're already off. It's just you have to see the situation in order to see that you're off. Actually, the way your mind is right now is that you're completely free and blissful. But somehow we can't see that because we think that our fictions are real. Maybe that's another nasty.

[59:50]

That's not another nest. That is the nest. That's all nests are like that. Fictions are real. It's as real as it gets. It's as real as it gets, right. It's as real as it gets. But we think. We don't think it's as real as it gets. We don't say it's as real as it gets. We say it's real. We forget about it as gets part of it. And we get lazy. That's right. Our fantasies are as real as it gets because we're built that way. All we know about is fantasies. So, vijnapti matrapta siddhi means you accomplish, you become a person who's really a person. Namely, you become a person who's just working with fantasy. You become somebody who is a master fantasizer, a master imaginer. And that's what people are. And you become that way.

[60:53]

You master that situation. And you see that what you're working with is fantasies, and you see that you attribute reality to fantasies. Once you can start seeing that this is a fantasy, and that's all it is, and it won't get any better than that, and not only that, not only is it a fantasy and never going to be any more real than that, but you attribute reality to it. That's the confusion, that's the misery. Actually, both abilities, this is what this text is about, both abilities, the ability to imagine that something exists inherently and to mix that up with something which is a fantasy, those things, those capacities of mind will go on indefinitely. But the thing is, they never actually touch. That's why you're already, in fact, Buddha. It's because these aren't mixed up. But sentient beings, ordinary living beings, because they aren't concentrated and present enough, they start to confuse these two.

[61:54]

And when you confuse them, then you put, you don't say, this is as real as it gets. You say, this is this real. And you make it as real as anything can be. You say that this is a substantial thing. Because you can not only imagine an idea, you can also imagine something existing all by itself. Those are two different imaginations. This one's the heavy-duty one. This one, then you put that on something and you're in trouble. As long as they're separate, you're happy. But these two capacities are part of the human mind. Now, it's not a bad situation because if it weren't for the fact that we confuse these two and feel pain, we would never study the situation. So it's good that we mix them up and cause ourselves this trouble because then we have to understand the fantastic quality of our mind. Anyway, I'm trying to make an excuse for God doing this and really I don't have to. I just don't want you to think somebody like the universe is kind of like giving you a bum trip here to have all this pain and suffering and difficulty because there's some good side of it is that this causes us to study and understand ourselves.

[63:04]

But after I said this, you still have to go to work. What about time? How does time fit in here? Yeah, I could give you a little bit more. My sister lived a series of fantasies until she died that gave her comfort. Yeah. She designed patterns of development for her several husbands that were inappropriate to the potential in each of those three men. Yes. You laugh at other people's pain? Maybe it was joy. What else? But... Let's cry a little bit. Yeah, that's... So... And she'd stay with one of those fantasies until it became so... unserviceable that she couldn't fix it with a fantasy adaptation, which she was very good at, so she didn't make them last a long time. Her husband, she probably only needed three or four, and she was married more than 50 years, among the three of them.

[64:13]

But these things were things that she was helping to move her marriage, each of her marriages, towards. So that's my question about time, that if she fixes the present with a view of the future, and the illusion of progress towards achieving some goals in the future that suffice to give her comfort and presence. This is my question about time. Well, what I heard not so much was a question, but you just told a story which is a story about, you know, a story that comes from this scenario. So I just think that's right, that such stories unfold from this threefold transformation, from these ideas, from these fantasies, such stories will unfold. And people's attempt will be, our attempt will be to make ourselves comfortable, but in fact this is not the way to do it.

[65:14]

But she didn't get comfort. No, that's what I mean. She thought she would be comfortable later. Right. And that gave her some peace now. Right. But one thing that Future time, a perception of future time, serves the present. But I proposed to you that she wasn't that comfortable. Oh, no, I agree. Oh, yes. And what you're describing is the way that most of us cause ourselves present difficulty while giving ourselves some comfort... by this kind of imagination. There's some comfort in it, but it doesn't settle the basic thing. We're basically anxious and unsettled and worried. And so because of that, then we think of the future and then we can imagine something even worse. So then we juggle our fantasies about the future to make those not so bad, which distracts us from addressing the fundamental problem.

[66:20]

So this text is about, you know, forget about all the future things for a while, the horror stories which you can imagine, or just go ahead and think of them actually. But please come back now and work on this fundamental thing, which if you solve that, that will solve these future things too, without manipulating them. Well, the solution could be mere acceptance. That's the solution, yeah. That's the solution is mere acceptance. If you could just accept the way your mind is, you realize it's already perfect. But you can't accept it in theory, say, okay, I accept. You have to, like, accept it, you know, in terms of the pain, too, and the anxiety. Because right in the anxiety is the cause of the anxiety, and the cause of the anxiety is a confusion. If you see the confusion, you'll see that it doesn't hold up, and if you see it doesn't hold up, you'll see that these elements of consciousness are actually perfectly organized already. It's just our unwillingness to be there with that perfect organization, because...

[67:24]

temporarily, at least, we've been, by certain habits, seeing them in certain ways, which are painful. And if we would accept that pain, it would bring us right in line with the part that's lined up already. So... What is the part that is lined up already? What? What is the part that is lined up already? Well, we call it Buddha nature. That's our name for it. But that's also just, you know, a fiction. There's no such thing. But we have a fiction for it, and we believe in that fiction. And that fiction is this state of where our mind is that it's constantly producing concepts, and it's constantly attributing substance to those concepts. It's constantly producing concepts of other concepts. and self and separation there, and attributing substance to that. Well, is it like there is truth, but we actually don't have the instrument to kind of, like, it's too big to somehow realize it?

[68:35]

Like, in our mind stage, whatever it trips into our mind becomes an ideal, becomes something that we create in that separative way. I'm just asking because that's what's so painful to me, is that when I feel that there is like that there is nothing that really matters, or it sounds to me that there is no truth, and then I get just like really sick. There is a truth, there is truth. However, it is also true that what we do with truth is that we convert it into a fantasy. Right, the moment we perceive it. You know, we don't perceive it. We can't perceive. As soon as you perceive, yeah, as you say, you can't perceive it. You say the moment you perceive it, you don't perceive it. As soon as you do perceive it, it's already just a perception. Truth is not a perception. Truth is not a recognition. It's not a matter of perception. Okay? But it is true that when you do perceive anything, including the truth, what you've got there is a perception, not a truth.

[69:39]

Perceiving a falsehood is not even a falsehood. It's a perception. You can't have any more... We have fantasies or fictions about unreality too. We have fictions about untruth and falsehood and we have fictions about truth. But in any case, what we're working with is fantasy. However, there is truth. And one of the truths is that we're constantly producing fantasies. That's a truth. That's true, I should say. As soon as you think of that, then it's another fantasy. Now, we all have a fantasy about the truth that we produce fantasies. But if you believe in that fantasy and put a lot of energy into that fantasy, it's proposed to you that that will be very good for your health. The fantasy that we deal with the truth in terms of fantasy, we deal with everything in terms of fantasy, that that's a truth. And that also leads to the fact that whatever you're aware of lacks inherent existence and has no substance.

[70:45]

So there's a fantasy about how you can get in touch with the fact that all this stuff that we're attributing reality to lacks inherent existence. And even the story there is also a fantasy. But you believe that story, like the story of these 30 verses. I believe this story. Now, how fully I believe the story will be measured by how thoroughly I practice. How much energy I put into the practice is a measure of how much I believe it. Because we put a lot of energy into our other fantasies. How many people put as much into the Buddhist fantasies that they've heard compared to the fantasies which come with our culture and our genetics? Not very many. So this class and a lot of what we're doing here is to try to encourage us to put more of our life effort into this new set of fantasies. But now we're voluntarily... reading about them and talking about them and then deciding that we're going to believe them.

[71:47]

Believe them means not believe that they're true, but willingly enact and dramatize a fantasy, a fiction, to live a fiction, the fiction of Buddhist life, the fiction of Buddhist practice. But this is not Buddhist practice. It's a fiction of it. And just like our life is not our life, it's a fiction of it. We have a fiction of life that we live. We think it's real. If you adopt a fiction of life called Buddhism, you have a chance of realizing that this is not a reality, this is a fiction. So it's a, again, you're modeling release. Yes. Yes. And what you said, I think what you said was very important, but I think that it didn't directly address one of Petra's issues that I thought was a very important question to raise, which is that she said she feels kind of sick. When she starts to think this way, it makes her sick because it seems to mean that nothing matters.

[72:55]

and that that keeps me kind of sick and feeling... And I'm wondering if that is the implication of this doctrine, that this means nothing matters. If you start to think this way, then nothing makes any difference. It's not an implication of this doctrine. It is a realization that comes to you by studying this. As an implication, it would make you sick. To think that... To think... or to draw an implication, to draw an inference from the implication. This doctrine is not implying that nothing matters. But even though it's not implying that, you may draw the inference that nothing matters. You may have the realization that nothing matters. I propose that the realization that nothing matters is necessary in order to realize that everything matters. If you think only certain things matter, then you'll disregard other things and you will not have universal respect and compassion.

[73:57]

Now, when you first get to the edge of the pit of nothing matters, what we tend to do is we still think something matters, and that's what makes us sick. It's an incomplete realization that nothing matters. So at the edge of realization of the insubstantiality of all our relationships, as you first start to get to that, you... You cringe from that and you make that experience or that possibility into a thing and that's a very obnoxious thing. It's the worst thing in the world. To make that nothing matters into another thing and to care about that is very sick. Nothing matters means that even if you feel sick about it, that doesn't matter either. You really, really do not mind at all that you're sick. It does not matter at all. You do not, it doesn't, nothing matters.

[75:00]

There's no matter to anything. Everything is insubstantial. However, if you, a partial realization of that, or making that into a thing, is nihilism. And Buddhism considers nihilism to be an illness, a mental illness. it's worse in a sense than thinking that quite a few things matter. But most people think that some things matter and other things don't. Most people think that this diamond on the floor is very important and this piece of shit is not as important. Or maybe some people think shit's really important and diamonds are really important, but a corner of a ripped-off newspaper is not important. Or these people are important but these people aren't important. Or people are important but cockroaches aren't. Or people and cockroaches are important but there's something that's not. If you think there's something that's not important then that's the same as not really realizing that things are insubstantial.

[76:06]

So it's because of a universal vow of compassion or a vow of universal compassion that you must realize the insubstantiality of everything. in order to really fulfill that vow. Mahayana Buddhism, which takes on this universal vow of salvation of all beings and happiness and peace of all beings, requires that you understand that nothing matters. But Buddhism doesn't say nothing matters. It doesn't say that because it has found that that's not a helpful thing to say. But it leads people to realize that, and as they get to a partial realization, they often have this experience of being sick, scared, and so on, at this place. It's normal and common reaction at that point in practice. What about being relieved? I think it's a relief.

[77:10]

Well, that's fine that you think it's a relief. And to burst into tears of joy at hearing the word emptiness is perfectly all right. No problem in that. But sometimes people have a real deep, intuitive sense of this, and then they bring substance to that experience, and then that becomes a very unhealthy experience. kind of experience, because you, in other words, you bring reality to that. You think it's a real... Nothing matters is not a reality. That doesn't become then, that's real. But if you make that real, that's a very sick reality. It's better to say everything matters or a lot of things matter than to say nothing matters and make that real. It's also not really true that everything matters. It's just that that just makes everything go really well.

[78:15]

It's not a truth, though. It feels better. It's called life. Everything matters. Everything's precious. It's called life. So this is 30 verses, and it's only two pages in the form you have it there And we have just scratched the surface of the first verse. So we're in trouble. We'll be studying this for five years. Oh, you talk about that next week. Jeanette?

[79:24]

After a person studies all this, are they more or less irritated? I came here to be less irritated, and if it's not going to work, it's fine. I better be prepared. Let's see. Maybe you should talk to me about this after class. I guess basically, I guess I would suggest to you, how to put it, that the way the human mind works is that if you're willing to work with something forever, then right now you're free of it. If you're willing to have a problem with certain ways of behaving forever, if you're ready to deal with something a zillion more times, then you can say right now, I'm done with it.

[80:28]

If you say, I can't handle any more irritation, then you can't say it's over. So it's good to be able to make the vow, I will be irritated until nobody's irritated anymore. But since there's so many irritated people and they're having new ones every day, probably my irritation will not be ended until all theirs is, so my irritation is going to go on for quite a while. But being willing to practice that way, you are immediately free of irritation. Yeah, it changes your mind. just like when we say in the precepts, you know, to say, well, I've made these mistakes and I'm not going to do them anymore. Most people would feel like, well, I'd be lying if I said that. But there is a mind which says, I'm not going to do this anymore. To say, I'm never going to kill again. There's a mind like that. And it's very similar to the mind that would be willing to deal with killing forever as a problem.

[81:36]

They wouldn't say, you know, I can't stand to go on, you know, working with this precept and noticing that I'm violating it in various subtle or gross ways, I can't imagine doing it any longer. That same mind is the mind which can't say, I'm not going to do it anymore. No, it's the same mind that won't say, I'm not going to do it anymore. The mind which says, I can't... Remember, did I get it right? The mind that says, I can't stand this anymore, is the mind that says, I can't stop. The mind which says, I can't stand anymore irritation is the mind that says, I can't stop being irritated. The mind which says, I can stop being irritated and I'm free of irritation is the mind that says, I can take irritation forever. Does that make sense? That's a contradictory statement, but I think that's the way the human mind works. So most of us are not willing to deal with violating a certain precept forever, therefore we can't say right now, I'm never going to break that precept again.

[82:43]

So those two kind of radical commitments go together, I think. And then the other one is, I can't stand it anymore, and I can't stop it. I mean, nobody takes a test like in the beginning before they studied it and then after it. Does this bug you? Does that bug you? And then afterwards, the score. I think, generally speaking, from Buddhist practice, things bug you basically the same as they always did, but your response to them and your attitude is radically different. So if somebody slaps... Tell your mother to poke you in the side. Yeah. So it's your attitude. It's not that the process of your mind stops with behaving this way. It's that your attitude is transformed. So it's not like you stop being irritated. It's just that the irritation doesn't bother you.

[83:47]

You don't mind being irritated. If you had to have the irritation stopped, then what's happening when it comes back? So it's more that way. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.

[84:05]

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