Is that called a reading list or a bibliography? It's a bibliography. Buddhas. Meditation and training in suctionist texts. Okay, so primary texts. Breakdown. Okay, so what's the first one? Chakramuni Buddha. Chakramuni Buddha, so that's... Sheriff, do you want to hang on to it? So the first one is that one about training yourself thus, right? And that way of training is also very similar to what's called right effort. when right effort is practiced as a meditation practice.

[01:01]

And in particular, there are four right efforts. And this kind of training that the Buddha is talking about right there, in that instruction, the bahiya, is very similar to the first of the four right efforts, which is the way to face up to sensory experience in such a way that unwholesome dharmas do not arise. The way that Buddha is instructing bahiya in this little section here, this little meditation instruction is very similar to the first of the four right efforts. And the first of the four right efforts is to, you know, face sensory experience in such a way that unwholesome mental states don't even arise.

[02:05]

So in this first Instruction that you have in this little booklet and the first thing listed on this on this List of texts Is an instruction about how to relate to sensory experience But again when I say sensory experience it is sensory experience, but it is objective sensory experience and it's sensory experience that you're objectively aware of, and therefore it's not actually sensory experience, it is conceptual experience. But conceptual experience comes in these four categories, which are really six categories. Okay? Sensory experience comes in these four categories, which is really six.

[03:16]

The four categories are the seen, the heard, the reflected or the sensed, which really stands for three, and the cognized. So these are the six types of conceptual data that we handle, that we meet. And he's saying, just let this sensory material be as it is, as it comes to you, as it's coming to you, just let it be that way, and that's it. Learn how to let them just be like they are, just be like they're coming to you. Now, the first of the four right efforts is called, again, the intention of it is to prevent unwholesome states of mind from arising. if they haven't arisen, to prevent their rising. And that type of meditation is sometimes called, it's called, I think, indriya-samvara.

[04:20]

And that is often translated as restraint of the senses. restraint of the senses. And I always felt funny about that because, that way of talking, because how can you restrain your senses? Kind of weird. Yeah, don't smell quite as much, you know. I thought, well, maybe you kind of like, you don't get into the smelling too much. And I think that's more like it. So it isn't that you restrain the sense, but that you discipline your sensation. And disciplining your sensation means you don't indulge in your sensations and you don't reject your sensation. So when you smell something, if it's like something nice, you don't indulge in it. If it's something obnoxious, you don't turn away from it. You just let the smell be the smell. So you discipline your process of sensation in this way of just letting the sensation be sensation. And that, as I said, this way of talking here, this training in training yourself this way, it just turns out to be very similar to training yourself in the way that's called the first of the four right efforts.

[05:32]

Now, right effort can be construed as a big topic, which means all your different types of effort, but in the Eightfold Path, right effort means right effort in meditation rather than right effort in speech, or right effort in livelihood, or right effort in posture, and so on, or right effort in studying causation. In the Eightfold Path, in terms of the four right effort, it means this kind of meditation practice where you work with the sensation very Just be still and be ready for revelation of the true nature of the sensation. So that's this first text which we talked about today. The second text is in there. We could have a lot of texts here. I just put two in. This next one is called Fear and Dread. And that text I like to put in here because this is a wonderful text.

[06:38]

It's number four in the Majjhima Nikaya. And I put this text in here because in this text, I'll tell you the text very briefly. In this text, I believe, again, this is one of the only examples I have found where we have evidence of the Buddha having an Italian disciple. So this disciple named Janasoli, Senor Janasoli, comes to talk to the Buddha, and after they have a nice talk, and Janasoli cries a lot and laughs a lot. Then, after that, just kidding about that part. They ate, they had a nice meal. Then after that, Senor Jonas says to Buddha, are you kind of like the leader of your group?

[07:45]

He said, yeah. And he said, I mean, kind of like, all these monks follow your example? He says, mm-hmm. I am the leader. I am the guide. I'm the example. He said, well... Is it true what I've heard, that you go out in the woods, you know, in the dangerous woods where there's wild animals, and you meditate there, like, you know, way away from the cities, and, you know, where there's lots of poisonous snakes and, you know, forest demons and so on and that, you know, and you even meditate in the night there? Is that true? He said, yeah. He said, isn't it scary out there? And he said, well, it used to be. But before I was enlightened, it was pretty scary. But then after I, you know, understood, it wasn't scary anymore. And so what happened was when I was out there and, you know, like something would rush along the bushes or, you know, or some demons would come to visit or whatever. They used to have real demons in those days. They weren't, you know, they were not muggers and stuff, but, you know, like demons who were like professional demons out there.

[08:49]

And... Yeah, and they, so, you know, when there's some noise out there, you didn't know what it was, so the Buddha actually did get scared, so what he did, he decided, wait a minute, what I'm going to do here from now on, every time something happens out there, and I don't know what it is, and I get scared, and I feel some dread about what's going to happen, is this a tiger, is this a huge snake, you know, whatever, whatever position I'm in, I just be in that position until I calm down and fear and dread passes. So he says, so if I was walking and the fear came, I would just keep walking. If I was sitting and the fear came, I would just keep sitting. And if I was standing, I would just keep standing. And if I was reclining, I would just keep reclining. He said, I did that. In fact, I just conquered the fear. And then things went what he called from good to better from there on, and I actually woke up and now I'm not afraid to be out in the woods anymore, in the dark, with all these kinds of noises out there.

[09:54]

So that's why I do, and that's why I do still practice out there. And then the Buddha said, now you may think, Senor Janasoli, that, you know, if I'm the Buddha, you know, and I kind of like completely, you know, understand everything, how come I still keep going out and training in meditation like I used to? In the old days, I've already completely conquered fear and my mind is completely clear and I'm totally contented. Why would I keep going out there and doing this challenging practice in the forest? Maybe I'm not really the Buddha. But actually I am the Buddha and I actually have worked it all out. But there's two reasons why I continue to go out there and practice. And those two reasons are, number one, because I'd like to. actually enjoy being out there. And number two, I do it for the sake of future generations to set example of the practice. So that's why I thought that would be a good one in there. It's a similar kind of feeling of whatever's happening, be intimate with it, without manipulation.

[11:02]

These two citations are, you know, we could go on, but Those are two I put in there from the Buddha. Then the next one is Vasubandhu's 30 verses, and I don't recommend you look at that during this practice period. Later, maybe. But the one I would suggest, which I think would be more in the line of what we'll be talking about, is case number two of the transmission of light, which is a story about Vasubandhu. Twenty-two. Case 22 of the Transmission of Life, it's the story of Vasubandhu, where basically the punchline of the story is what is the bodhi of the Buddha? The bodhi of the Buddha is the insubstantiality of the 18 elements of experience. So again, this is a discussion of

[12:07]

the insubstantiality of sensory experience. And we might be able to have time to go into that, but I just thought you might see there's a lineage here forming. Vasubandha's teaching a very similar thing, although he doesn't explain how exactly you'd be able to have privy to the emptiness of the 18 elements. The 18 elements are also called the 18 Dattus, and they're featured in our famous Heart Sutra every morning, where it says, you know, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no realm of eyes, no realm of mind consciousness, and so on. That's the eighteen dhatus. Eighteen dhatus are the eye organ, ear organ, nose organ, tongue organ, skin organ, and mind organ, and colors, sounds, smells, touch, tastes, and so on. And then the consciousness which would go with those eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, body consciousness, tongue consciousness, mind consciousness.

[13:11]

Those are the 18 dhatus. So again, if you discipline yourself according to Chakramuni's instructions, you have a chance, what do you call it, you are a candidate for realizing the emptiness of these realms of existence. of sensory experience and realizing the emptiness of these realms of sensory experience comes to you by realizing the dependent core rising of sensory experience. Realizing the dependent core rising of sensory experience is the bodhi, bodhi mind. So that's that one. Then comes Bodhidharma, which is case 28 of the same book, and in there There's an instruction about how Bodhidharma taught his disciple, Huayka, and a very similar instruction. And the instruction there is for internal experiences, experiences which are the

[14:22]

objects of mind consciousness. Mind consciousness is aware of data like emotions and feelings and impulses, opinions, judgments. All that kind of internal mental data are the sensory objects of the mind organ. And then externally, of course, There's the same sensory things, so colors, sounds, and so on. So Bodhidharma says, externally, for external objects like colors or something, don't activate your mind around or in response to those sensory data. In other words, again, don't activate your mind means when a color comes up or a sound comes up, you don't do anything about it.

[15:27]

Your mind doesn't get excited about it. It's just like color. Now you say, what if your mind does get excited when you see a color? Well, then what you do is you see that the excitement about the color is actually now an internal thing. And internally, you also don't get excited about the excitement about the external. Because excitement is not an external object, it's internal. So externally, you don't agitate the mind or excite the mind around these objects. It's quiet. Around the sound, it's quiet. Around the light, it's quiet. Around the taste, it's quiet. They just stand up by themselves. Internally, he says, for internal objects, no coughing or sighing. So like if you, for example, if you're trying to do this meditation and something, like a color comes up and then you say, oh, too bad, you know, it's a green light or it's a yellow light, whatever, you know, or too, you know, you feel, no, no.

[16:32]

So then you say, oops, I'm not supposed to be exciting my mind around the object. Okay, but that's like coughing at the internal state, which was your response, which followed the external state. So you need to see that this happens, and then maybe a mental thing happens, this external thing happens all by itself, then an internal thing might happen, like a judgment. But that judgment then, you realize, was the next event. It's not contaminating the previous event. It's the next event, and then that event, you don't contaminate that either. You just let that be. You don't say, oh, too bad, I'm thinking this way, or great, oh, what a beautiful thought. Now if you think, oh, what a beautiful thought, then that's not about that. It's the next internal event. So it's a very similar type of training, put slightly differently. Externally, don't agitate or excite the minor objects.

[17:36]

Inside, no coughing or sighing in the mind. Another translation is no gasping. Like, oh God, how can I be so judgmental? Whatever, you know. And then he says, Bodhidharma says, with the mind, or thus, with a mind like a wall, thus you enter the way. So this is his instruction about making your mind like a wall. The famous wall mind of Bodhidharma. That's his instruction. And still in China, if you go around China, you know, and you go into the gift shops for the tourists, they still, today, Now, still means after, you know, a hiatus for a while. But now again, there's Buddhist art in the, they have tourist places of Buddhist art, and they have Bodhidharma in the tourist shop facing the wall. And it says, Bodhidharma, Dharuma, Bodhidharma, facing the wall.

[18:42]

That's what it says. And it has a picture of him looking at the wall. So he did look at the wall, but really, this wall-gazing... It's not that we look at the wall, although we do look at the wall. That's like a metaphor for what our mind is. Our mind is like a wall in the sense that our mind responds to things just like a wall does. Your response to that is just like what a wall's response is. So with a mind like that, you enter the way. That was his instruction. which is very similar, my view is very similar to train yourself thus, in the sound, in the herd, maybe just a herd. Okay, so that's Bodhidharma's instruction. Mind like a wall, you enter the way. And then his disciple says to him, I have no involvements. In other words, when things happen, external objects happen, I don't get involved

[19:48]

I don't push them away. I don't hold on to them. In other words, I don't get excited. Internally the same. I have no involvement. Things happen, but I'm not like getting tangled up in them. And Bodhidharma says, well, is that nihilism? And Hueca says, no. And Bodhidharma says, prove it. And Hueca says, I'm always clearly aware and words can't reach it. And Bodhidharma says, have no further doubts. This is the mind of all Buddhas. So that's that story. It's a dialogue. It also has a very... I see the lineage of instruction there coming down. So I want you to see the lineage here. The different ways of... These are different... Same meditation instruction put different ways. Next one is Dungsan. And that one we chant every day.

[20:50]

This is a teaching like this. Teaching about how to let things be like they are. And in this text, it's a very dynamic instruction because it not only talks about how to do this meditation, but it talks about how to do it in the midst of a dialogue, interactively. So how do you do this when you're talking to somebody or when you're going to meet the teacher? So that's what... This mirror, how to use a mirror to help you... to help you tone this meditation. To practice this, training yourself thus in the middle of a conversation. So dual mirror samadhi is about that. And then comes... Chang Lu Tsung Tse, and he wrote this thing called, he compiled a monastic code called Chan Yang Jing Wei, which means the pure rules of the Zen garden.

[22:10]

Pure rules of the Zen garden means pure rules of the Zen monastery. And then Sua Chan Yi means for, or procedure for, sitting Zen. And that instruction for sitting Zen was put into this monastic, this very popular monastic tradition manual. And this monastic manual was very much the model for Dogen Zenji's monastic manual. So Dogen Zenji's manual is called Eihei Shingi or Eihei Jingui. And this one's called the Japanese pronunciation would be Zen on Shingi. Pure rules of the Zen garden.

[23:14]

And Dogen wrote the pure rules of eternal peace for his monastery. And he modeled his pure rules on this set of pure rules. And the meditation text that's in these pure rules, you can see, it's in your handout. That's very much the model for Dogen Zenji's own meditation manual, or his own instructions for the ceremony of Zazen. So in this text, so there you have that text in here, so read that text, and then, so then after that there's, so you have that in this book, and then, it's not in the book, but then there's some other guidelines for sitting meditation, which you might want to look at just to compare, and then, In the Book of Serenity, there are several cases I cite here which I think you might find helpful to read in relationship to the meditations that we're talking about during this practice period.

[24:20]

I won't go into each one of them right now, but they're all, if you want to bring up any of the stuff about how these cases apply to what I'm talking about, go ahead. See if you can see how they do. Of course, there's many more cases that apply also, but these I particularly felt were... I was in the mood for having you look at those. But all of them have some relevance, but these I thought were quite direct. Yes, son, child? I'm just wondering if this Jewel Mary Sinai is the same one that we have in our chant books? Yeah, same one. So I'm referring you to the chant book here. So then comes Dogen Zenji, and then in this little handout you have two versions of his basic instruction on the ceremony for formal sitting meditation.

[25:29]

Okay? You have these in here, and they're listed in here. as Pukan Zazengi I and Pukan Zazengi II. Okay? So, check those out. So, read Sungsa, and then read Pukan Zazengi I, and read Pukan Zazengi II. And you can see this, you see the lineage there, and the differences between them. I think we'll hopefully be able to talk about that, and I hope that will be very interesting and educational to you. the differences between these three manuals for Zazen. I'll just briefly tell you now that Fukan Zazengi 1 is not the first manual, apparently not the first manual that Dogen wrote when he came back from China. The first one we can't find. We don't know exactly what that is. But this one that we have was quite early.

[26:36]

The first one apparently he wrote within the first... two to four months after he came back from China. What that looks like? I would guess that it looks very much like Tsongsa. I would guess. Because the second, not the second one, but the one we do have, which dates from within the first four years or so after he came back, that one is very much like Sangsa. So I would guess the one that's lost is probably like Sangsa too. But we don't know. Anyway, you have Sangsa, you have early Dogen, which is very much like Sangsa, and then you have later Dogen, which is different. A lot of similarities, but some important differences, and those differences are kind of the point of what I'm trying to bring up to you in these classes and so on. The common Fukanzazengi, the one that most Japanese Soto Zen priests and lay people that are studying a lot know about, the common one is the second one.

[27:45]

Most people, I think, do not even know about the first one. I don't really know if most people don't, but I never heard of them talk about it. And they never told us about it. And then there's other Shovel Gunzo things that are in there that would be useful. And again, in the Bendo Wap, the center of Bendo Wap is the thing that we're chanting at noon service. which is called the self-fulfilling samadhi, or Jijo uses online, which can be translated as self-fulfilling samadhi, the samadhi which fulfills the self, which rounds you out, makes you integrated, the self of being an integrated self, you might say, the samadhi of being an integrated self. But it's also another way to translate it as self-receiving and employing.

[28:50]

The samadhi of the self-receiving and employing. Another way to put it is that it's the samadhi or absorption in the self-receiving its employment. Or the samadhi of the self-receiving its function. So it's like to be absorbed in the self as it receives its life. As it receives its walking papers. As it receives its license. Understand? So, when the self receives its function, that's the self which is like all things come forward and then the receiving of all those things, then there's the self. That's the self. So that's the samadhi where you're actually absorbed in the self as it's being created and then receives its function and acts from that. And then another text which I think is interesting in this light is called The Absorption in the Treasury of Light by Dogen Zenji's big disciple, Koen Eijo.

[29:55]

And there's a place you can find that. And then Keizan Jokin, his Zazen, his way of teaching Zazen, which is another thing, part of our tradition. You might check that out. And then here's another text by another Soto Zen teacher named Daichi Zenji. And then another Soto Zen master wrote a longer discourse on this self-receiving samadhi. So those are Soto Zen people. And then Suzuki Roshi, of course, Zen by a Beginner's Mind. And do we have this tape here? If we don't, We can get this tape called Shikantaza by Suzuki Roshi. And then you can, in Kadagiri Roshi's book, Returning to Silence. Let's check that out. And then my article that I wrote on Zazen and the ceremony of Zazen, that's in your manual here.

[30:59]

That's in your little book there. Anthologies which have other things you might want to read. So that's That's a little explanation of what you have here in this booklet, plus things I think you might want to read that you probably could get in the library, except the librarian's sick. So I don't know where the book is available. And you don't have to read all of them. Just read what's in here. It's enough. Read what's in here. and memorize it. This stuff's worth memorizing. Except for my article, of course. But memorize the rest of the stuff. You know, be the first kid on your block to learn the old version of Fukan Zazenji. Yeah.

[32:03]

Spout off, you know, this and that from Hurley Duggan. Young Duggan said, blah, blah, blah. Old Hogan said, blah, blah, blah. Well, I follow the tradition. Okay, does that make that clear? Breck, do you have something to say to us? Just a quick question. What did you say about the availability of the take of Suzuki Roshi's? I don't know. Have you seen that, Beverly? It's available over there by the window. It's available. There's a point of access over there. I wonder if it would be possible to play it at study hall one evening in the library. Yeah, that's a good idea. Everybody could listen to it at once in study hall. Maybe you could set that up, Linda, a little listening hour there for those who would like to.

[33:11]

In here. Or in here. In here, yeah. Some may not work here. Yeah. So maybe we could do that on Sunday night. How about that? That's not the end of the world. That's just one time when everybody could do it together. Okay. Anything else at this time? Yes? Yes? is Cleary's, it's an anthology. Yeah, so it has, he has a translation of Fugan Zazengi in there. He has a translation of Sung Sa. So this translation you have of Sung Sa's ceremony for Zazen, the one on, sort of which Dogen Zenji uses as his model, you have Carl Bielfeld's translation in this booklet, but Tom Cleary also translated that text, and so his translation's in there too.

[34:13]

So you have two translations of samsara. One's in Minding the Mind and one's in your booklet. Okay? But there's other things in there too. There's the Absorption in the Treasury of Light is in there. And some nice meditation manual by the Korean teacher Chenul is in there. And kind of surprising little teaching by the fifth ancestor of Zen is in there. And it's got some nice stuff in there. Anyway, it's an anthology. Mostly Soto-Zen people. Yes? I'm curious. Are you the first to translate Fukunza Zen with ceremony? Am I the first? The first I've seen. And I asked Carl Bielefeld, you know, our famous local Dogen scholar and translator, how come you guys don't, doesn't that say ceremony there?

[35:22]

That character Gi, how come you guys never translate the character? How come you just say, you know, universal instruction or universal or general admonitions for the practice for Zazen? How come you leave out that character? He didn't really answer. I said, doesn't that say ceremony or procedure? He says, yeah. I said, so could you translate it as ceremony or procedure for general encouragement or universal encouragement for the ceremony or procedure of Zazen? He said, yeah. But they don't do it. I don't know why. To me, it's very important to notice that character and play up that point. So that's what I... That's what's going on there. pretty much is that point about that one character and what that's about. You know, I... In the window, I almost never get any feedback on the articles that I publish there. And there's various reasons for that, I suppose. I think partly because when you read a magazine, you read so many things, you can't hardly remember what you read, right?

[36:27]

Sometimes. But that article, I got more feedback, positive feedback, than anything else I've written, and it was almost all from real old-time meditators. I got letters from around the country from people who had been Zen Center a long time ago. So I think part of what I'm addressing there, you see, and I make a lot of apologies because in some sense what I'm saying there might threaten, I'm afraid of threatening or frightening beginning students who are thinking Zazen's jhana practice, right? So one of the points I'm saying to you is that the zazen of the Buddhist ancestors is not dhyana practice. So I don't mean that to be an insult to anybody who wants to practice dhyana, because dhyana is a nice thing to do. I often compare it to golf. Golf's a very good game. Because you have to concentrate when you do it. It's a very wholesome sport.

[37:28]

When they're actually playing golf, it's very wholesome. Now, between the strokes, what goes on is not so pleasant sometimes. I play golf with some people. When they were looking at the ball and hitting the ball, they were very wholesome and concentrated and skillful. But in between, they bicker. One guy brought me along. He wanted me to be his priest to help him win. And the other guy said, well, Huck, why don't you help me? I said, I'll help you too. He said, no, no, you can't help them. You're my priest. But actually, I think golf, the actual practice of golf, I think, is quite a yogic event and very wholesome possibilities there. But those people are not necessarily men meditating on the dependent core rising of the golf course. So the zazen of the Buddha ancestors is to study the reality the ultimate reality of this universe, in a concentrated state, of course.

[38:34]

But we're not just trying to get ourselves into a concentrated state, like a jhana practice. So that's part of why I think I got a lot of positive feedback from old students who had been practicing concentration for many years and finally have realized that that's not the point for them anymore. Although they had fun doing it for decades, finally realize, just like Buddha, that concentration practice alone does not really open the door to the truth. You have to also check out the pinnacle arising. And part of the ceremony, the ceremonial aspect of zazen is, you know, sets up this dynamic situation where you're not doing zazen by yourself. The ceremony is partly a recognition that zazen is something you do with all the Buddhas. something you do with the ancestors. When you do zazen, the ancestors perk up. The ancestors come alive when you sit zazen.

[39:35]

So they can't do zazen without you, and you can't do zazen without them. And similarly, the people you sit with, they can't do zazen without you, and you can't do zazen without them. Nobody can sit zazen all by herself. That's not what zazen is. Zazen is an interdependent event. So we do this ceremony to celebrate the actuality of the interdependence of our practice. So again, some new students say, you know, give me a break. I just want to follow my breathing. Okay, okay. That's okay. So in that sense, this article is a little advanced. But with all these people here to help you, you should probably be able to tolerate it. Yes? Yes. When you're talking about... That's two questions for you. You're leading the group. Okay. When you're talking about bodhidharma, you're saying how this thing, whether it's external or internal, is all by itself without the mind meddling with it.

[40:50]

Right. That's called disciplining your sensation. That sounded slightly different than causation, cause and effect. It is. It is different, that's right. You get a point for that. So the first step is being upright. You just are upright with whatever is happening. You don't lean into it, you don't run away from it, you don't meddle with it. something comes up, and if you try to mess with it, you say, no! Stop that! Sweet. That's a different kind, that's a practice of just being upright, which we physically and verbally enact by not moving and being quiet. That's the door to the realm where you start to notice, that's the door to the pinnacle of rising.

[41:52]

So there's a kind of like... In some sense, this practice here, being upright, is like renunciation. You give up power trips. And you just enter into a loving relationship with what's happening. And a loving relationship with what's happening is not to get something from it, or to reject something about it, or to own it. It's to just start off by letting... See what it is. First of all, what is it? How is it? You get ready for that. Now, then the door opens. It starts telling you stories. Well, actually, I'm not just me. I'm a whole bunch of other things. And so then the pentachord writing starts going forward. So this is not a whole story. This is the entrance. The way it's studied. It's a mode of study. And this includes, of course, practicing the precepts. So you don't steal or kill. You don't kill what's happening. You don't steal from what's happening.

[42:54]

You're not possessive of what's happening. You don't get angry at what's happening. You don't slander it. And of course this applies to your sensation. But it also applies to every living being you meet. That kind of upright behavior, both in terms of daily contact and also in terms of sensation. You enter. You develop a wall like mine and you enter the way, which means you enter into the awareness of the pentacle arising. In other words, you start developing perfect wisdom. Before perfect wisdom, you've got to give up messing around with things. You can't be messing around with things and then have wisdom. You have to renounce your power to be able to see. That's right. So the first aspect of not studying the Pentagon Rising, the first is you just sit at your desk and the world will take its mask off for you.

[44:00]

David? Would you then encourage, during Zazen, active questioning? Would I encourage it? No, not really. I would encourage it more when you're jabbering away outside of zazen. But if you can sit quietly and just leave things alone, without even asking a question, you'll get an answer. If you leave things alone, that means that you respect things. When you leave things alone, you sort of say, I respect what's happening. I respect what's happening enough to not jazz it up and to not go to sleep. So when you take on this respectful attitude to your experience, your experience thinks you're asking it a question. So then your experience says, so you want to know what's going on, huh?

[45:05]

Okay, well, this is what's happening. So naturally you get an answer. Your body sitting like that is asking a question. When you sit that way and you give up trying to get things out of what's happening, you say, I want to know what's happening. This is my posture of learning. This is the way I ready myself to understand. So you don't have to necessarily say, okay, now, who am I? What is this? You don't have to say that. You can say that, but you don't have to. It's implied by your sitting there. Because, again, for centuries, people have been sitting there like that, and that's the way they ask questions. So reality knows when they see somebody sitting like that that this person is knocking at the door asking, what's happening? What is this? And the reality tells you when it's sure you're not playing any tricks. When it's not kind of like, well, this is a ploy, you know, I'm going to sit here like this and then to get reality to tell me. No, it's really you're not trying to manipulate, but you do want to know. You do want to see supreme truth, but you're not doing it in a manipulative way.

[46:15]

You're doing it just sort of like you're petitioning, you know. So there's that thing. But when you're walking around in daily life and you're talking anyway, if you're talking anyway, why not say a few words from our sponsor kind of thing? So if you're talking anyway and saying, oh, so-and-so is so cute or so-and-so is such a jerk, why don't you occasionally say, well, who is so-and-so anyway? How does it come to be that I'm sort of feeling like this? So when you're actually talking... I would say interject Buddhist teaching in the middle of your jabbering, if you're jabbering. But if you're quiet and still, you don't have to say anything, it'll come. Especially if you study this stuff and it's resonating in your mind anyway, it'll pop up. Questions will come, but you don't have to go in there with the intention of saying anything. But if you want to... It might be okay. So if you're not sure about how much you should say to yourself when you sit, you can ask. I think it's fine before you sit to say a few things like, I hope to stay awake during this period for the benefit of all beings.

[47:23]

I hope that this period of meditation will be of service to the welfare of all beings. You can say stuff like that at the beginning, but you can also repeat it over and over. But, you know, all that's okay. But I wouldn't necessarily encourage you to do it But it's certainly a good thing to do. I think best is complete stillness. It's kind of like, that's really pure. Helen? Well, the day before yesterday we were talking about thinking a lot. So this is what's studying awareness and thinking. I thought you were talking about, when you were talking about thinking the other day, I thought you were talking about analytical meditation, where you are actively

[48:26]

That's part of what I'm talking about, yes. Active analytic meditation, where you're actually suggesting to yourself to... You're actually talking yourself into being convinced that things are really... that everything you see is a dependent core arising, to actually talk to yourself like that in various ways, being very creative about it. To find some way to, like... use this mind, this analytic mind, which is going on anyway, to engage that towards the teaching, to bring your active analytic mind, which is functioning anyway, to line it up with the teaching of dependent co-arising in words. Yes, I am saying that. So that's different from studying? That's studying, too. It's added to study. That's like a study aid. You're using the teaching to help yourself study what's happening. Yes.

[49:40]

Well, for example, if you have this simple practice of disciplining your sensation, okay? So you just... What happens, you just let it come in on the very basic level of just the sound of the rain is the sound of the rain. That's it. What you hear is the rain and just you hear it's the rain, okay? Now, with that kind of discipline, that being upright... Unwholesome states are not going to arise. You're not going to worry. You're not going to doubt. You're not going to try to entertain yourself by getting into positive lust or anger. So with that attitude, you're going to be able to see clearly. Now, I would suggest, if there is any mental activity going on, discipline it with the teaching of dependent core rising. Is that it? If you start looking at its insubstantiality, okay, I wouldn't suggest you look at insubstantiality.

[50:43]

I would suggest you look at dependent core arising and if you look at dependent core arising you'll realize insubstantiality. I think it's better to go at insubstantiality through dependent core arising rather than look at insubstantiality because if you look at insubstantiality directly, you tend to look at a substantial dream of insubstantiality. Whereas if you look at dependent core arising, insubstantiality will be revealed anyway. Pardon? You are thinking anyway, okay? You're thinking anyway. So I think, I'm not saying you have to think that way, I'm saying At first, anyway, I think you have to train your thinking, you have to think and talk to yourself in this kind of like, with Buddha's teaching. Yeah, I think that might be good. After a while, your thinking goes beyond words to this deeper level where your thinking

[51:50]

is in a line with this kind of like place where there isn't any self and other and so on. But this is something I would like to talk more about when we talk about this teaching of think of the unthinkableness. How do you think of unthinkableness? Non-thinking. That's what this is about. We're not going to settle this in the next ten seconds. And I'm not going to criticize you for not doing your job right now. But you can go now. You can go do it now. It's okay. Okay, so shall we go and sit still for a little while?

[52:31]

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