In the description for this course it says something about some yoga practices which will help us to become free of gross and subtle ignorance, something like that. And one of the yoga teachers in the class said that it wasn't clear to him how what I had been talking about so far what it had to do with yoga. So I guess I could see that, that maybe someone might not see what I've been discussing so far having to do with yoga. But even though I can see that someone might not see how it had to do with yoga. To me it does. And so I maybe could talk to you a little bit about how I see what I've been talking about and other new things I will bring up as being related to yoga practices.

[01:12]

So I maybe could ask you, what do you think yoga is? Some of you are yoga students or yoga teachers. What do you think yoga is? Has what I've been talking about seemed like yoga to you? Well, in the sense that when you're practicing yoga, you're concentrating on various aspects of your body, poses. So I see it as we're concentrating on various things like patience and giving. So you see concentration as one of the aspects of yoga, or maybe as a central aspect of yoga, as concentration? For me, yes. For you, yeah. And then she was saying that to concentrate on giving or on patience, then that would be a kind of yoga for you.

[02:27]

Does that make sense? Yes. But how about actually practicing patience? Is that a yoga practice in itself? Of course, you have to concentrate to some extent, but is that particular practice of patience, does that seem like a yoga practice to you? So what is it that's yogic about it, about the practice of patience? What's yogic about it? What? You're remaining in place. You stay in place. So for you, staying in place or being stable has something to do with yoga? Being where you are at the moment? Being where you are in the moment has something to do with yoga. Does that also have something to do with concentration? Be right where you are? And patience would be in the midst of pain that you would be where you are.

[03:35]

Is that kind of yogic practice? Is riding horses a kind of yogic practice? Sitting on a horse? Yeah, the horse jumps around and you keep sitting on the horse. You're yoked to the horse. You're sitting on the horse. Your pain arises and arises and ceases. Your pain arises and ceases and you sit in your pain. You ride its coming and its goings. You experience your pain in the present moment of it. And the more and more concentrated you are, in experiencing your pain, in some sense that's part of the practice of patience, is to bring yourself to experience the present moment of pain, the present moment of difficulty, and be right there in a stable and balanced way.

[04:41]

Is that like yoga? In yoga practice, in presentations of yoga, some presentations of it anyway, they have a section of it called Hatha Yoga, which has to do with practicing awareness of bodily postures and trying to be present in those particular postures or those poses. Right? And also to be present in the midst of the breathing process. Is that part of hatha yoga? And also in process of hatha yoga, does some pain sometimes arise? Some discomfort? Some fear? Does some fear arise sometimes in hatha yoga? Anxiety? Like standing on your head or standing on your arms?

[05:44]

falling over backwards into a backbend or some other postures some some pains may arise some fear may arise some anxiety may arise some embarrassment may arise so anyway and to be present in those postures hopefully fully present is that a kind that's that's has something to do with hatha yoga doesn't it is that familiar to some of you But other aspects of yoga are sometimes what's called karma yoga, right? You heard of karma yoga? Is there such a thing as karma yoga? And what does that mean? What's karma yoga? It's yoga having to do with your karma, isn't it? It's making karma into a yogic practice, is that right? In other words, your action or your work. Sometimes karma yoga is translated as selfless service.

[06:47]

Is that right? So you're doing things like whatever, cleaning the yoga space, working in the garden around the yoga space, cooking for other yoga practitioners, cooking for yogis, or eating yogic food yourself. making beds for yogis, yourself or others, working in office, oh, yogi offices, working in yogic hospitals. And you do that with awareness, I guess, huh? You try to practice awareness while you're doing this work, ultimately that you'd be doing this work selflessly. Another aspect of yoga is practicing ethics, isn't it? You heard about that part? Okay.

[07:47]

So, again, being aware of your actions, but in particular, not so much in the service aspect, but maybe in the aspect of, are you being truthful? Are you being kind? Are you being honest? Are you being ethical in your actions? This is part of yoga, too. practicing giving well that's related to karma yoga it's pretty related to ethical yoga and also you have to be concentrated and you have to be patient while you practice patient giving so then there's also enthusiasm or zeal the joy of that one can realize when one contemplates how good it would be to practice all these different yogic practices, how good it is to practice patience, how good it is to be able to be present when you're with yourself or with others.

[08:57]

To be present, to be concentrated on what's happening or concentrated with what's happening or concentrated in what's happening are concentrated at what's happening or concentrated through what's happening and to be patient with it and to be generous in the midst of it all and to discipline yourself ethically in the midst of it all and to think about how good all that would be to the point of feeling full of joy at the prospect of entering these practices. This is a kind of yoga that one does with one's mind And then one enters into these activities with that joy of how good it is to do good. Is that a yoga practice? And then finally, concentration as a yoga practice is one that I think most easily people might recognize as a yoga practice.

[10:03]

And it is. So all those together are yogic practices and all those together are in a way, ways of taking care of yourself. They're good ways to take care of yourself. It's good for you to practice giving. It's good for you to study ethics and discipline yourself ethically. It's good for you to practice patience. It's good for you to practice enthusiasm. That's a good way to take care of yourself. That's a kind way to take care of yourself. And doing all these practices with gentleness, doing all these yoga practices with gentleness and thoroughness, and again, with enthusiasm and patience, and generosity and concentration. They keep working on each other. Doing them all together in a harmonious way is a very kind and compassionate way to take care of yourself.

[11:14]

And it's also a kind and compassionate way for you to take care of others. When you take care of yourself these ways, you're better able to care for others. Better able to, more willing to, more interested in, more skillful. So taking care of yourself this way, taking care of others this way, all these are practices of compassion. So these are dimensions of compassion. These are yogic practices of compassion. In other words, compassion is also a yogic practice. And I would, in one sense, maybe I should stop here and see if you have any questions, but before I stop, I just want to take one more big step. And that is, there's another kind of yogic practice, which I haven't talked about much yet, and that's the yogic practice of wisdom. It's the way of conducting one's thinking, one's awareness, based on the previous practices.

[12:23]

but particularly having to do with considering, contemplating, investigating, looking at, observing the way things actually happen, the way things actually come to be. So the last one has to do with vision or knowledge. The first ones have to do more with vision. compassion or like settling into the situation completely and then wisdom looks at what it is superficially and profoundly it is really the vision that penetrates our gross and subtle ignorance but that vision and that vision gives eyes to us as we practice compassion. But wisdom can't happen outside of compassion.

[13:26]

So there's a yogic practice of compassion which includes concentration and there's a yogic practice of wisdom which comes up out of the practice of compassion and also gives eyes finally to the practice of compassion and purifies compassion of gross and subtle Delusion. Setting aside wisdom for a little longer, I now ask, do you have any questions about the first five aspects of yoga that I brought up? Yes. When you talk about concentration, I mean, Using that more in the term of being completely awake or present, or are you talking about concentration and meditations? So, Linda said, am I talking about concentration of being awake and present?

[14:28]

And aware. And aware, or am I talking about concentration in the sense of meditation? Yeah, concentration of meditation. Did you hear that? She said, am I talking about it in terms of presence, awakeness, and awareness? Or, she said or. Underline or. Now she's starting, she wants to take the or back, but anyway. Or, am I saying concentration in meditation? Okay, there's again, some tend to think that being present, like here we are, right? Are we here? Are you present, Gary? Oh, good. Present, Eric? I'm trying. He's trying. Are you present, Bryn? As much as I can be right now. As much as you can be right now. Being present and awake. Are you awake, Gary? You're awake? Great. Are you aware? Okay. Is there a difference between that and concentration in meditation? Well, there could be. In other words, you could do some other kind of concentration practice other than being present.

[15:30]

awake and aware. But being present, awake, and aware could be itself a meditation practice. It could be a meditation practice which is also a concentration practice. You could be concentrated on being present. And that's it. That could be your meditation practice. Present, present, present. Present, present, present. present, present, present. That could be your meditation practice. You could be concentrated on being present. And or aware, aware, aware. Or awake, awake, awake. That could be a meditation practice. And you could also say, that's not a meditation practice. Fine. But still, one could continue the practice of present, awake, aware.

[16:34]

Now there's other kinds of concentration practices where you might concentrate on something rather than just be present and things are arising and ceasing. Things are being born and are dying, and you're in the middle of this birth and death, birth and death, birth and death. Before you leave, would you turn the light on? Thanks. Birth and death, the arising of suffering, the ceasing of suffering, the rise of self, the ceasing of self. And you could just be present and aware in the midst of that. That could be a meditation. But also in the middle of a rising and ceasing, one could concentrate on visualizing a Buddha. Try to, like, with your mind, like, see a Buddha with your eyes shut or your eyes open.

[17:38]

Or one could meditate on one's breathing process, focus on it. Or one could meditate on breathing and posture, posture and breathing. How one could meditate or concentrate on saying the name of a Buddha over and over. And so on. So, which one am I talking about? I'm not talking about one of them. But I could start talking about one of them. I could choose one and discuss one, but I haven't really yet. Actually, I have been just now talking about one, but more as an example rather than saying, this is the one we're going to do. And also, sometimes in the teachings of concentration or this teaching of stabilizing the mind, for example, one teaching is this teaching of

[18:43]

in terms of nine mental states or nine stages leading to, you know, thorough mental stability or thorough mental tranquility, going through nine stages. That was taught in India and practiced in other parts of the Buddhist world at various times over the centuries. But some other teachers feel, some other yogis feel that those nine stages have the drawback of people getting into stages. So sometimes they teach a meditation practice which doesn't involve stages. So just being present. maybe you don't necessarily have to get into thinking in terms of stages, but you still could do that way of feeling like, well, today I'm less present than I was yesterday.

[19:46]

And now I've been meditating for a few hours and I feel more present than I did earlier. So you could still think in terms of these stages and you could try to go back and attain those stages again. So one can then still, even in a practice that isn't presented to you in terms of like nine stages or something, one could still deduce or project stages into one's level of or sense of one's stability of mind. So one can sit Like, this is, is this a yogic posture where you sit like this and cross your legs like this? Is this a yogic posture? Is that a yogic posture? It's in the books, right? It's called, it's called the Padma Asana, which means the lotus pose or lotus posture, right?

[20:49]

So you see, you can sit in this posture and then you can One could just be aware of being in this posture and being aware of being upright and not leaning forward or backward or right or left. One could be aware of keeping one's eyes open at a gentle angle, you know, slightly open like a Buddha, a Buddha statue. Keeping one's mouth closed basically, breathing through the nose, holding the hands in this this mudra which is called the cosmic concentration mudra so you your hands are in a yogic concentration posture and just we could say maintaining this posture or we could say making this posture over and over moment by moment this could be a yogic concentration practice if your hands are in this shape your hands are in a yogic concentration shape so by definition at least your hands are concentrating but your hands really well your hands actually could be meditating in this way and your mind not being paying attention to it but it's unlikely if if the mudra is looking very nice and it's not too tense or too relaxed

[22:19]

it's pretty hard for that to happen without some mental attention, although not impossible. That's the one thing nice about being a beginner is that it's very unlikely that this mudra will happen in your body without mental attention. Especially to actually keep the baby fingers touching your abdomen below your navel and for that to happen again and again is very unlikely without occasionally paying attention to it at least. And what is also quite possible is that if you have your hands in this mudra and the contact is steady between your baby fingers and your abdomen, that you have pretty consistent presence and concentration on this part of your body. And perhaps occasional or fairly continuous awareness of the rest of your posture too might be possible. So that's an example of concentration

[23:20]

on the posture. But you could do this concentration on posture not so much as like necessarily intentionally focusing yourself on this posture, but just simply intending to sit this way and being mindful of whether or not it was happening. Somewhat different feeling. Can you get the difference? You could be gathering yourself and focusing yourself even to the point of forcing yourself or coercing yourself into this posture. Or you could just be sitting in this posture and just be aware of whether the posture is happening. And there it is. It's happening again. It's happening again. I'm in this posture. Yes. Mm-hmm. And I guess what I'm suggesting is that to do this kind of concentration practice in a compassionate way, it's good if you do it... Well, to do it in a compassionate way is to do it gently and not be rough on yourself.

[24:26]

And this kind approach to concentration I think you will find more sustainable. If you get rough with yourself and coerce yourself into this concentration, it is possible to be quite concentrated with a coercive attitude to push yourself, to force yourself, to threaten yourself into this posture. to force yourself, to coerce yourself, to threaten yourself into concentration or mindfulness on your posture and breathing. It's possible to do that and you can be somewhat successful at concentrating, but that concentration I don't think will be as deep and sustainable as a concentration where you're doing the same practice but with a feeling of joy and that you're doing something kind for yourself and others in the process.

[25:30]

So make it a gift to yourself and make this posture a gift to others. When you sit, particularly in a group like this, in that posture, and you make that posture nicely as best you can, you could see this as a gift to the other people in the room who have traveled some distance to come and sit with you. to be in a room where even though there's noise around the outside, the fact that we're all sitting here together, each of us supports the others. And you could see this, I see this, as a gift of each of you to all of us. But you could see it that way too. So it's not that you're coming here to coerce and torture yourself into this posture, but rather you're assuming this posture as a gift to the rest of us. Certainly I, after many years of practice, understand that when I go someplace and sit, people really appreciate me sitting there. When I come into the room and sit, they say, oh, he's in the room sitting.

[26:38]

It's really nice to have him there. They even project all kinds of things like you can feel the difference when he's in the room. You know? But the point is that to have somebody who's been sitting a long time in the room, you feel encouraged by it. He's still doing it after all these years. There must be something to it. Maybe I'll sit a little longer. He doesn't look that stupid, so maybe... You know? So you do encourage people by going to sit. It helps people. So when senior people come to sit, it encourages beginners and other seniors. When juniors come, it encourages the seniors and other juniors. We all encourage ourselves when we assume these postures. It's a gift. But also, there's difficulties. We, you know, maybe want to make a telephone call. We may be a little uncomfortable, etc.

[27:39]

We have various problems, anxieties, things arise where we sit, and maybe we want to distract ourselves from just being present with what's happening. So patience is part of it. Ethics is part of it, too. You can't actually sit in a giving, patient, enthusiastic, I shouldn't say you can't, but you might not be able to sit in a generous, patient, enthusiastic, concentrated way and violate the precepts. Pretty hard to sit that way and be lying or stealing, misusing sexuality, killing, slandering praising yourself at the expense of others however it's not impossible like some people do sit with quite a bit of patience and with presence and they might think i'm sitting better than the people on my neighbors

[28:43]

They're like wiggling. They're like really lazy bums. And I'm really a good meditator. So it isn't impossible to violate some of the precepts while you're sitting. But that would violate... That would violate, however, or go against generosity. Generosity would be more in the spirit of I let my neighbor be my neighbor and I feel really good about letting my neighbor be my neighbor. My neighbor is wiggling a lot. And I'm not. But actually, I feel joyful at letting my neighbor wiggle as much as he wants to. I let him wiggle. And I feel generous about that. And I feel joy at letting him be, you know, wiggling. I feel good about letting him be that way. And I feel good about any encouragement I might be offering to him. And actually, he's encouraging me. by coming here all way out of his way to sit here and wiggle he could be wiggling someplace else and I wouldn't be able to you know be encouraged by it so I'm really grateful to him and I feel generous towards him and I'm also patient with him and I'm patient with the pain I feel looking at him because I can see he's trying to avoid his own pain so I feel compassion for him and I feel really good about the fact that I'm not

[30:08]

demeaning him I feel really good about appreciating him and so on these attitudes surround my own concentration practice which I feel in itself is a gift to myself and to others so once again I can force myself into focusing real hard on something or I can be doing the thing without necessarily a hard focus but more of an open focus or an open awareness, where I notice I'm doing the very thing that I could be forcing myself to do, but rather I'm just watching myself do it. Which is, you know, it's I think more sustainable, more enjoyable, and more mature attitude to concentration. However, it is okay to go through a phase of where you're being somewhat coercive. and forcing yourself real hard to focus on things. But this is like a beginner's concentration.

[31:12]

And just like, again, in hatha yoga, when you watch people do certain postures, you see them forcing themselves into it, and they're like, kind of like vibrating from the tension of forcing themselves into the posture. And then they sort of, they can only hold it for a little while because they're expending a lot of extra energy being rigid about the posture. And then they learn by trial and error to relax and to make the effort only where it's necessary, to not overexert themselves and use muscles which aren't necessary, like use ten muscles to do something that two muscles can do. So I don't know. If you want me to get into like concentration practices which have discernible stages and so on, I'm not opposed to getting into it. I could talk about it. So let me know if you want me to do that.

[32:14]

But in lieu of getting that feedback from you, I would just talk to you about perhaps a concentration practice which is kind of simple. I know several simple ones. So one of them is that it has to do with how you relate to sense data. So it's like It's developing a sort of one basic way, a kind of focal way of relating to sense data.

[33:20]

And sense data are colors, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles and mental data, ideas basically, including ideas of feelings of pain and pleasure. So one kind of concentration is to just let whatever sense data is arising just be that sense data, so that in something that's seen, there's just the seen. You train yourself so that in the seen, there's just the seen.

[34:33]

You look at a face, and in that face that you see, in that scene, there's just the face, and that's it. You learn to do that. You train yourself to be that way with the faces you see. If you hear something in the herd, you train yourself so that in the herd, there's just the herd. And so on, up to mind objects like in the thought or in the cognition, there's just the cognition. this is a kind of concentration practice a simple one and one could maybe go through stages in this like from like not being able to do it at all to having a little sense of it to being kind of familiar with it to being kind of quite familiar with it and

[36:03]

But one doesn't need to get into the stages, one can just practice it without some sense of progress up and down. One can be, you know, and also one can be into letting the awareness of the arising of something just be the arising of something and letting the ceasing of something just be the ceasing. In the arising there will just be arising, in the ceasing there will just be ceasing. This is another version of the same meditation. This can be seen as a concentration practice, a simple one, a very deep one, potentially, but might start out superficially in the sense of you not being able to do it at all. So like you look at someone's face and that's all you see is the face, you don't have thoughts about it. But if you do have thoughts about it, you understand that first there was seeing the face, and then there was cognitions about the face.

[37:15]

But that's not about the face. When there was the face, there was just the seeing. That was it. Then there was a thought. Oh, I like this face, or I don't like this face, or I don't know what this face means, or I'm worried about what this face means. I'm afraid of this face. but just letting that be like that. This could be a concentration practice. And one could do that kind of practice together with all these other compassionate practices. As a matter of fact, my experience is with this practice that people have trouble doing this practice unless they have these other aspects of compassion around it because it's kind of scary to look at somebody's face and just leave it at that. unless you feel a lot of love. If you really love someone, you can look at them without thinking, I love them. Or, she's really cute.

[38:17]

Or, you know, I wonder if it's okay if I'm just looking without judging. But if you don't really care for yourself or care for the other or think the other cares for you, then you think you gotta like think something about them, like whatever, you know? You feel compelled to do something more than just look at that face. It's hard to just look at a face and let what you see be what you see and let it go at that. And then if there are reactions, to then which means something arises which you associate with this because you don't feel that you can just look at it, so then you feel reactive, to then let the reaction just be the reaction. It's hard, but this is the training. This is a meditation practice.

[39:19]

This is a concentration practice. So there you have it. Yes? If I look at someone's face and let's say some feelings come up or thoughts in my mind. Yes. Just let it be. Well, first of all, you look at the face. Let's say you're able to let the face be the face. Then a feeling arises and you're aware of it. So let the cognition of that feeling just be the cognition of that feeling. Yes. So if I pursue it in any way or dwell on that, I'm not letting it be. If you pursue and you're aware of the pursuit, then let the cognition of the pursuit just be the cognition of the pursuit. So in that way, your mind can do pretty much what it's been doing all along, but by handling things as they come one by one and letting them be, you can free yourself from this entanglement

[40:24]

Let's say something keeps on coming back. Something keeps coming back, like somebody's face, for example. Like perhaps you might have a dog that keeps eating tissue paper. And she just keeps eating tissue paper and keeps eating tissue paper, and she keeps eating tissue paper. Like that's what Martin has. Just keeps coming back again and again. And keeps taking it away from her, but she keeps going to find tissue paper. She's got this idea she needs roughage in her diet. He thinks it's bad for her digestion. She did it again tonight. Yeah. So this is something that keeps coming back. That's right. Yeah. So you have to practice giving and compassion toward yourself and toward your dog in order to, like, really... Again, it's not so much let it go, but let it be what it is, first of all. It won't go by itself. It may come back, but it'll go before it comes back.

[41:26]

They always do that. Before things come back, they go. And so, yes. So you keep doing the same practice. You have more questions about that? Go ahead. Yes? It seems that if you do that practice, there seems to be some kind of faith you have to have in it being helpful. That if you are watching the process... happen, that if you're aware of it, that's more helpful. And I was wondering if... If you're aware of... Oh, you mean you'd have to have faith that being aware of the process would be helpful. Yes. Yes. But it seems that it's kind of natural to have faith that it's actually not so helpful, that you can trust your feelings or your experiences and that they are what kind of intuitively guide your life by. And so there's a quantity there for me. So you're saying that in order to like let what you see Let the scene just be the scene it might be helpful if you're going to do that practice to trust that that practice would be helpful and

[42:48]

And so the Buddha did say that that practice was helpful. So the Buddha said, train yourself at that and when you can be like that, when in the herd there's just the herd and so on, then you will not, you know, identify with the herd or identify with the seen or identify with the cognized. And then you will not, which means you also won't dis-identify with them. You won't dwell in it or dwell outside of it. You won't locate yourself in these things or locate yourself outside them. So they won't be in you or over there. So there won't be a here and a there or an in-between. And this is the end of suffering. So that was the Buddha's recommendation. This practice will be the end of suffering. Between being able to let things just be as they are, or be as they arise and cease, between there and the end of suffering is the realization of non-identification, which is the realization of selflessness.

[44:03]

That little space in there. Because selfishness depends on there being a here and a there and an in-between. Selfishness depends on that. Misery depends on that. Of having things over there, on their own, separate from me. When there isn't anything over there anymore, and there isn't anything over here anymore, anything in between anymore, there's no way for suffering. So this practice will lead to the freedom from self and other being separate. Freedom from thinking that things are actually existing on their own out there. That's the wisdom. The wisdom will follow from this kind of concentration. So this is a recommendation for that practice. Now, Buddha didn't say, believe this just because I said it, but he sometimes said, believe it from your own experience. But that meant... Give it a try and see if it works. Don't believe it works just because I said so, but maybe you might give it a try and see if it works.

[45:05]

And if it doesn't, come back and check to see if you're doing the instruction properly. So if someone you trust is giving the instruction and you try it, you're right. I think it's based on what you think would be of some benefit to you and others. Okay? But then you brought something else up, which was... that you think you shouldn't just let what you hear be what you hear. Like if you hear something like, Marianne is wrong, that you hear that voice, Marianne's wrong, so you should trust that and do something about that rather than just say, in the herd, in that sentence, Marianne's wrong, I shouldn't just let that be, let the herd be the herd. Because if she's wrong, I think, I don't know, I think somebody gave the example one time. What if you're sitting in this room in meditation and you're just letting the herd be the herd and we hear somebody scream outside and would you just sit here and let that scream just be the scream, be the herd, be the herd?

[46:12]

Would you do that? Marianne says no, you wouldn't do that. What would you do? You'd categorize, you'd say that is a scream and then you'd have some kind of pre-established thing you do when you hear screams. Or maybe you say, scream and also the type of scream. This is not a scream of joy, this is a scream of danger. So, therefore, blah, blah, blah, right? So then you run outside and maybe there's somebody who's in trouble and you help them. And then you say, see, wasn't that good? And I say, yeah. But maybe you run outside and find out that somebody's not in trouble. And you say, well, it didn't hurt that I went out there. And I say, no, it didn't actually. That was fine. You were wrong, but it didn't hurt that much that you went out, you know. Probably better to go out there and make a mistake than to not do something, right?

[47:13]

So then, sounds like you probably shouldn't just let the herd be the herd, right? You should let... You should hear the herd and then you should make your interpretations and then act as best you can based on those interpretations. And in the example I gave, it wasn't so harmful, the story I told. The harmful part in the story I just told was just that you didn't do the practice. You missed out on happiness and freedom and enlightenment, but you didn't... You didn't cause that much trouble in that particular moment. You didn't hurt yourself or others that much in that story. But I can tell other stories where you would hurt others and yourself, plus miss out on what you're here for. Then there's another story about hearing the sound and letting it be and waking up and becoming free of suffering. And then also going to the window and looking to see what's the matter.

[48:21]

to see if there is anything to be done. But acting from freedom from suffering, and you might say, yeah, but do I have time to become free from suffering before I go check this thing out? Well, I would say, yes, you do. Because the time was right then when you heard that sound. It only takes this long to hear that. That's how long it takes. It doesn't like, well, this happens and then how much time do I have to get enlightened and then, you know, but whereas actually if I do this and then make these interpretations, then I'll be faster to take care of it. No, it's slower that way. You're enlightened right then. You let that be that sound, you're enlightened, you're free of suffering, and then you can like... respond from your freedom which means the next thought will come will be the interpretation that would have come otherwise that you weren't letting but it followed from not letting the sound be the sound so the interpretation that followed is all jangled it's all jumbled up and confused with your other sense data so you have here basically an ignorant person on loose

[49:30]

And hopefully, you know, damage control is operating because the person is ignorant on the hoof, running around in ignorance because running around thinking that there's a here and a there and an in-between. And hopefully you won't cause much suffering, but you might because you're deluded, because you think this person is calling is not you. because you think they're over there, and you're over here, and there's an in-between, and you're suffering. So you've got a suffering person who's deluded, who is now trying to help somebody else, even though they don't know how to take care of themselves. Well, again, I hope it works out okay, but it's not going to work out very well over the long haul, because this person is going to get tired of this. Now, if this person is in an upbeat, friendly mood, you know, Maybe they'll just run out there and, you know, help, relatively speaking.

[50:35]

But what I'm proposing is that the yoga practice I'm proposing is that you realize it in the moment with that sound. You don't, like, sort of get one, two, three, I'm going to practice yoga now. You know, it's like when you hear that, you practice it right then. Now, what if you're warming up to that and you can't do it yet? Well... then you're just basically someone who's trying to do this yoga practice, who's still operating in the level of hearing the sound, and it's not just a sound, and you're in reaction, and you do your best. Which is, since you don't just hear the sound, you jumble the sound up with all kinds of judgments and preferences and prejudices, and it's just this big mess, and you try to do your best, I guess. I mean, everybody's basically trying to do their best, but they're sometimes so miserable and so upset and so angry and so vengeful and so on that it's hard for them to do their best when they're basically seizing with hatred and wanting to kill at the nearest thing. But they're still trying to do their best under the circumstances of being, you know, in the middle of a war scene.

[51:39]

This practice is to try to help you become free of your gross and subtle ignorance and But prior to being able to, you have some question about whether you really want to do that. Because you have a habit of here and there and in between. Therefore, you have a habit of I'm in danger sometimes from that over there or that over there is in danger. And based on this delusion, I'm trying to do my best. But I'm a pretty unhappy person and I'm scared most of the time. And I try to do my best. But this is like, as long as it's that way, you're not going to be able to do your best, I say. Because you're not letting things be and therefore there's a here and a there and an in-between and there's suffering. You're deluded in suffering. You have diminished capacity to do the right thing.

[52:45]

Sometimes diminished way down to like you're going to do really the wrong thing super wrong sometimes sometimes people do these horrible things other times they just are unsuccessful at doing a good thing and sometimes they do something which is not too bad at all like get up and walk downstairs and look out the door and again the only problem of that in that story is just that you missed a chance of becoming enlightened before you went downstairs and bringing your enlightenment down the stairs and out the door and meeting the situation in freedom, which might be exactly the same thing you did in the former case of just walking down the stairs and going out the door and looking to see and take care of the situation. It might be the same act, but you're reenacting in yourself a lack of trust of the meditation. and basically trusting your habits and trusting your own interpretations.

[53:49]

In other words, trusting your sense data rather than trusting the meditation on your sense data. Trusting your process of perception rather than trusting a meditation which will help you understand your perception and become free of it. So you're not driven by your perceptions anymore. in our perceptions until we see straight our perceptions which are conjoined with ignorance. So... But our sentiment is to trust our perceptions which are conjoined with ignorance. We trust... The perception isn't necessarily ignorant. It's the... It's the ignorant is stuck to it. Namely, this is true, this is false, or this is eternal, or this is annihilated, or this exists by itself, or this is over there.

[54:52]

It's this kind of stuff. That's the delusion part. The perceptions come and go, but the delusion is like installed. And that interprets all the stuff. And switching from delusion to non-delusion... means to let the thing just be the thing. The delusion doesn't really have a part in that. But there is a resistance to that both by habit And maybe by not believing in the teaching. If you don't believe the teaching, then that idea of doubt, you should discuss it like you're doing until you're convinced that it's a good teaching. And even when you're convinced pretty well and your intellectual doubts are cleared, you still have the habit, which is challenging it all the time. The habit of not just letting the herd be the herd.

[55:55]

Okay? Okay? Does this seem like a yogic practice? Any other questions? Yes? As a concentration practice, sometimes it feels like by trying to deconstruct everything it's made with, that it would be harder to concentrate on what's happening than working on it. Labeling. Right. You're trying to label something here. Maybe it's harder to understand what someone's saying. Correct. So labeling things is not a concentration practice. Do you say labeling? Did you say deconstructing?

[56:56]

Did you say analyzing? You said deconstructing? Okay, so deconstructing and labeling, she didn't say analyzing, but deconstructing and labeling, those aren't concentration practices. Those are practices which are more related to wisdom or insight. Concentration practices are more having to do with non-conceptual approach to experience. So concepts are arising and ceasing. Concepts like, in terms of what we're aware of, in terms of what we know, a sound, what we hear, is actually a concept of a sound. There's sensory experience that is not objectively known to us. We're responding to it all the time.

[57:58]

But when it becomes objectively known, what we're dealing with is the concepts of sounds, the conceptual category of sounds, the conceptual category of sights, the conceptual category of tastes and tangibles, and the conceptual categories of mental cognitions. They're called sense data, but really in the objective realm of things we know about, they are conceptual sense data or conceptions of sense data. And the stabilizing or concentrating aspect is to not relate to them as concepts. In other words, kind of like take away their conceptual value.

[59:00]

and relate to them all the same. So it's like a non-conceptual way of approaching. The concept is irrelevant in concentration practice. What you're concentrating on is more the quality of your mind or the quality of your relationship to the phenomena rather than what is the phenomena, what's the difference between this one and that one. Your mind is discriminating between different phenomena, otherwise you wouldn't be able to be aware of them. The mind is discriminating, but the concentration is emphasizing the fact that no matter what it is, you're there. So the discriminating side of the mind, which notices the different concepts of the conceptual awareness or the awareness of concepts, you're aware of them, but not really discriminating among them. You give each one the same kind of attention so your mind becomes stabilized because everything is the same.

[60:07]

And this particular meditation I'm talking about, the way you treat things will finally bring you to the point of things will no longer be out there. And if things aren't out there, they can't attack you anymore. As soon as the mind has an object that's out there, the mind's disturbed by the out there-ness of it. But out there is a concept. There's nothing outside your mind. Things outside your mind are irrelevant to you. There aren't any things out there. There's nothing outside mind. When you understand that, there's nothing coming at the mind anymore. The mind is stabilized. So, you're right.

[61:19]

Naming, that kind of thing, doing something to it is not just letting it be. It's not just letting the sound be the sound. Not just letting the concept of the sound just be the concept of the sound. It's getting involved with it, which sometimes will be helpful, but not yet. Not in the concentration level, not at the compassion level. Compassion, you hear a cry, you hear a cry. You're patient with it, you let it be, you're vigilant, you're careful, you're enthusiastic, but you don't get into interpretation. And you're concentrated. In this particular concentration, you train your mind to... Well, you train your mind to notice how it doesn't react. I was going to say you train it into not reacting, but it's kind of like you train the mind into finding out how it doesn't react.

[62:24]

There's some part of your mind which doesn't react to things. You find that part of the mind. You realize that part of your mind. You discover that part of your mind. You train yourself to find that ability to not be reactive. So I've told this story many times. Many of you have heard it. It's about two Zen monks. And one is sweeping the ground. And the other one comes up to him and says, you're too busy. And the first one says, you should know there's one who's not busy. And the second one says, then are there two moons? And the first one raises his broom and said, which moon is this? So, one's busy, one's not busy.

[63:26]

Are those two different truths? Well, we don't say, no, they aren't two different truths, because in a sense there are two truths. It is true that we're busy, but also there's a truth that we're not busy, which is this. Is this the busy one now or the un-busy one? To have the un-busy one, does that mean like nobody can move or nobody can think? Well, If we had nobody moving and nobody thinking, then somebody should come up and say, you know, there's a busy one, too. So there's two, actually. But which one is this? Is this the busy one or the unbusy one? Is this the reactive one or the unreactive one? You can say whatever you want, but you should know the unreactive one. Because I think most of you know the reactive one. Now, if you don't know the reactive one, then you should know the reactive one.

[64:28]

If you don't know the busy one, we've got to find that for you. Because there is a busy one, and that's the one who's thinking of all this variety, who's discriminating left and right, who has preferences, who has responses, who is experiencing very intensely and very vitally and very vividly and very vivaciously all the time and but there's also one who's not busy who just like lets the herd be the herd and the scene be the scene and doesn't even have things out there separate from herself and she's just not really upset she's she's concentrated and she's generous and she's patient and she's careful and she's enthusiastic. Therefore, she can continue this practice for a long time because it's no sweat.

[65:35]

It's really quite enjoyable and quite healthy and quite kind. And she's really glad to do it. And she's glad to share it with whoever wants to hear about it. But even if they don't want to hear about it, she's glad to share herself who's happy about the practice. And a lot of people are happy to meet her and learn what the heck she's doing, which isn't anything at all. She's not, because she's just not busy. But she's also busy just like everybody else. She also knows the unbusy one. She knows the unreactive one. She knows the one who just lets the herd be the herd, the scene be the scene. This is a kind of concentration practice which you can perhaps try to practice yourself, give yourself to. Because it's not really something you do. It's more like something you're already doing. Something you already are, I should say. This unbusy one's already here.

[66:40]

This concentrated one's already here. You don't have to go find him. He's already here. He's not busy enough to get away from you. He doesn't know anywhere else to be but here. Wherever you are, she's with you. How are you going to find her? How are you going to find what's right now? How are you going to train yourself into thus? Well, that's right. Just how are you going to do it? How are you going to do it? How are you going to do it? Any more questions about this practice? Yes? One of the practices I'm doing now is to notice what's going on in the moment inside myself, my body sensations, and also if I haven't... Like what kind of body sensations?

[67:53]

Well, I might be anxious somewhere or nervous or fearful. Oh, and what kind of a feeling is anxious? I can feel it in my mouth. You can see a sensation in your mouth? That's like a tangible. That's a tangible thing, right? Kind of something you can feel, kind of touch in your mouth area. So you're being aware of tangibles? Yes. Tangibles, things going on in my body, and also if I feel, you know, my emotions, if I feel angry or joyful. Yes. I try to label it when it's going on. Uh-huh. Okay, so again, labeling is more tending towards kind of insight practice. Insight, right. It's more towards insight. And so usually it's good to get fairly stabilized before you start labeling because labeling is slightly exciting. It's exciting to be labeling things.

[68:57]

It's a little less exciting to just let the feeling be the feeling. It's a little bit more settling than to add that extra thing onto it. But, you know, it's not that bad. But it might be a little ahead of schedule for you to do that because maybe you should be more stabilized before you start, like, you know, giving a name to it. I'm just noticing it. I'm not thinking about it. Well, you said label. I don't know. I'm labeling it. You can notice something without making additional labeling, if possible. I would suggest you do that first. A little simpler. But if you feel like you don't want to do that and you want to do the labeling, it's okay. Of course. But try to be as kind of simple and as close as you can to the way it's given to you rather than have it give to you and then put a little bit on top called a label.

[70:06]

Try to stay really at the level of what's given. And then keep at that for a while until in what's given there's just what's given. So don't add anything. It's possible. Yeah. Because this is, in some sense, this is a training in stabilizing, quieting, but also not adding anything. If possible, try that. Okay? Yes, Marcia? When Mark was noticing something, is it the same thing that I've been told to notice, just notice it? Yeah, I think noting is, again, a little bit, it's almost like a little bit too much. So, again, the yogic practices we're talking about now, you know, sometimes in vipassana work, they don't emphasize shamatha too much.

[71:09]

What I'm talking, shamatha, vipassana, you've heard of that? So vipassana is more like noting, labeling, it's more on the insight and vision side. But, I'm just... I'm not... I don't want to be heavy-handed about this, but to do vipassana work before there's already shamatha, or stabilization, or before the concentration's developed, sometimes the insight work is not... is not... shouldn't be... it's not real insight work until the stabilization's occurred. So, noting is not like in another world from... it's just that it might be just a little bit more than necessary for stabilization. But it's not more than what's necessary for looking into the nature of the object to see what's really there and how it really is.

[72:14]

At that point, then, looking at the concept and noticing which concept it is, that work would be appropriate. because we're going to now see if there's really something there. And then we should say, well, what is it you think is there? What is it, actually? Now you should come up with what it is. Rather than letting it just be what it is, you should say, well, what is it? And then noting, labeling, deconstructing, analyzing, those things might be more appropriate. So again, the pasana, or insight, has to do with conceptual meditation. The object is the concept. The stabilizing thing is more non-conceptual. You're still dealing with concepts, but really it's not so much the concept, because the concepts are just like a dime a dozen, so to speak.

[73:18]

It doesn't matter what it is. What you're trying to do is to develop the mind which you're trying to develop the mind which is aware of the concepts you're trying to stabilize the awareness of the concepts rather than get into the concepts yes so is this kind of like that story that you told last week where you were saying that somebody would come to you wanting to leave the practice and you would ask them to be quiet about their feelings first when they felt like they had If they were quiet, whatever it was that they were feeling, they had to come back to you and talk about it. Yes, that's kind of like it. I was asking them to practice patience in a sense. If they settled with the feelings, then we'd see what kind of feelings you have after you're settled. And then if they still wanted to go, then you could trust those feelings more because those feelings would be... Then we could look at the concepts because they'd be at least stabilized in the sense of being patient. But if you're agitated and impatient, it's hard for us to see how you really feel about your ideas and stuff because, you know, are you running away?

[74:24]

Or is this really a good idea? But we can't say, you know, theoretically it's a good idea because it's your idea. But if it's your idea, it's in your body and mind, and if you're not present, we don't know what's good for you. We have to have you before we know what's appropriate for you. But if you're not anywhere near yourself, then who knows what? So come on back home and let's see who you are and then we can see what would be good for you. And a lot of times when you come back, you can see that what's really good for you is to come back. And all this other stuff isn't that big a deal. The main thing is to come back and be here and be who you are fully that's really the main good your main good is what you are that's what we have to work with so let's work with it and that's compassion and that's good

[75:35]

And that's what we have to work with, but that's not the end of the story. The end of the story is, well, what is it anyway? And actually what it is is it's not only good, but it's completely, what do you call it, completely inconceivably, ungraspably true also in such a way that it doesn't even happen. But first of all, you've got to be what's happening before you can realize that it's not. And that you're free. Always. The only thing that can enslave you is your lack of understanding of what you are. First of all, you've got to admit what you think you are now. Because that's what's enslaving you.

[76:37]

And if you look at what you think you are, you can become free of it. Because what you think you are is the only thing that's enslaving you. Linda? I am confused. It seems to me... That's what you are? Yes. Linda says she's confused. It seems to me, yes. It seems to me that... The calming practice, the stabilization practice is all there is. I mean, if you master that, you're going to realize that there is no self and other, there is no self and concept. So how can you go from that to insight practice? She says she looks to her like stabilization is all there is. How can you go from that to insight practice? In other words, you feel like insight practice would spontaneously be born in the midst of the stabilization?

[77:43]

Is that what you're saying? Well, it's sort of true because the insight has to be grounded in the stabilization. But it's possible to be stable and still not understand anything. that there's nothing out there. I mean, if you've mastered the concentration practice of just letting... When your mind is stabilized, certain kinds of stabilization practice, you really feel... In a sense, you feel like there's nothing out there. Okay? But you still can... Even while you don't see anything out there and you feel stable because you don't see things external anymore, you still have the deep conviction... that things are out there. And if you would lose that concentration in any way, that deep preconception that things are out there can resurface again. So we have to not only kind of like give ourselves a break from things being out there, but I don't like this term, but you know, kind of like

[78:56]

take the root out of that idea so it has no basis anymore and it can't be reactivated because we have this deep instinct to see things out there on their own and we can do special practices to counterbalance that but we have to then look at the delusion again that they're out there in the stabilized state and then really like question ourselves about this instinctive delusion that things are out there separate from ourselves. In other words, things in our mind are separate from our mind. We think that. We think that the things we think are out there. We do. Like I have an idea of somebody. That's not what the person is. That's my idea of them. They don't agree with it. I'm the only one who's got this idea. It's in my head. And I think that this thing in my mind is out there.

[79:58]

And everybody else does that, too. We're built to do that. If you train yourself, you can get relief from that through this and become stabilized. And then once you're stabilized, then you can go back and now look at the thing again. Now see how you do that, and then see how incoherent that is until you're convinced that it really is incoherent. And... start living as though what you usually think is true is just, really just, an instinctive delusion. But with it operating and not being fooled by it, rather than getting a break from it to stabilize yourself. See, does that make clearer now? A little bit? Is this yoga practice? Can you see that it's yoga practice? It's a kind of yoga. So anyway, you can try this practice and you can do it just being present, just being present and awake.

[81:08]

You can see, can you let what you see just be the seeing? Can you let what you hear just be the heard? Can you live like that? Can you let what you think just be what you think? rather than a truth out there. Train yourself that way, and you might not be able to completely get to that point where the herd, in the herd, they're just a herd, and in the scene, they're just a scene, and in the cognizer, just a cognizer. You might not be able to fully realize that by next week. That's why you need to practice patience, and that's why you need to enjoy this, because, you know, you won't be able to keep it up you don't enjoy it you have to find a way to be enthusiastic about this and think it's like really the coolest thing to do or one of the coolest things it's not the coolest but it's you know it's it's one of the coolest it's a really nice practice in the buddha the buddha you know when i was away

[82:17]

Inspired person that he was he just put that out there for us. So there it is now 2500 years later. We're still talking about this practice that he popped out there. I Think it's really a good one kind of simple, but very radical and big change in your life, but there it is You need a lot of compassion to be able to do the practice though so you have to practice compassion and to support this concentration practice and You need to feel Buddha's compassion to do this practice. But Buddha is supporting you. Buddha would like you to do this practice. You know, I'm sure if we can ask Buddha, Buddha would say, yes, please go ahead. Okay? So, best wishes to you in your training yourself to be thus.

[83:07]

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