Tuning in the Mahayana again. It's said to have these three aspects of compassion, altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, the aspiration to realize supreme enlightenment for the welfare of others, and realization. a realization of what? Emptiness. Emptiness. Realization of emptiness. Realization of not-self. The Buddha's teaching, in other words. And This realization requires that we unify it with practice, and the practice of the bodhisattvas has the aspect of means and wisdom.

[01:15]

Means are the practices which attract, beings to practice, attract yourself to practice. And these practices support wisdom. Practices like generosity, careful attention to the precepts, patience, enthusiasm, and concentration. These attract ourselves and others to the practice and support the development of wisdom. Taking these two together, we turn to the practice of realization, realization of emptiness, realization of the non-production of everything, realization of the

[02:25]

nirvanic quality of all things. And the wisdom which realizes emptiness is threefold. Wisdom of study and then wisdom of investigation, intellectual investigation into the authority and reasonableness of the teachings of emptiness. And then finally, wisdom of contemplation or wisdom of meditation. Wisdom consisting of and depending on meditation. So that's where we have been concentrating lately. I have not in this session been so much giving the teachings about emptiness and the teachings of non-production. I have not been reasoning with you and giving you... you know, citations of authority.

[03:29]

That's been going on all practice period. But now we're concentrating on bringing these teachings into our body and mind. And This contemplation of the teachings of emptiness, this contemplation of the teachings of suchness, the teachings of no-self, starts with stabilizing the meditative consciousness, the practice of shamatha. I want to start by saying I have these surges. When I see you sitting here and when I see you walking around silently during work period, when I see you come and talk to me about your practice, I have these surges of appreciation for your sincerity.

[04:48]

You're really admirable bodhisattvas or, anyway, bodhisattvas in training. You're doing really well. I'm really encouraged. And part of what I'm encouraged by is what a hard time you're having because you're really trying to understand this practice of samatha. And a lot of you are kind of finding it kind of elusive. And that shows you're trying to do it. If you don't even try, it probably seems pretty easy. Maybe. So in Samatha, we're looking at what's looking.

[05:53]

We're looking at the imaging process, not at the images. We're looking at the mind which is aware of images. We're not looking at the images. In vipassana we look at the images. In Samatha we look at what's looking at the images. We're looking at the inner stream of the meditating mind. I hesitate to call it consciousness. We're actually looking at the passive, we're looking at the passive dimension of mind in Samatha. We're looking at the cooled-out, quiet part of mind, the part of mind which is receptive and aware.

[07:05]

We're looking at the light of the mind. And what is it? The great master Dai Daoshin started the expression Eko Hensho, which means turn the light and shine it inward. Usually the light of our consciousness is shining outward and illuminating objects and aware of objects. The practice of Samatha is to turn the light around and shine it back inwardly. Look at the light. But it's hard to look at light. Why is it hard to look at light? Because you can't see light. Light is invisible. Did you know that?

[08:13]

Light is invisible. Light is itself always invisible. We see only the things, only the objects, not the light. You can't see light. And this instruction is look at the light. Now, we will... I hope, if we live a few more days, investigate the nature of this light. But now we're not investigating, we're just trying to look at it. But if you look at light, you won't see anything. Dogen Zenji said, therefore, put aside

[09:16]

intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing after phrases. Put aside means, it sounds kind of rude, but it means you've already done enough study and investigation, hopefully. So set that intellectual work aside and now do the contemplation. Turn, learn, he says, learn to take the backward step. In the earlier translation of the Fukan, in the earlier version of the Fukan Zazengi, he said, take the backward step. But then I think he probably worked with monks for a while and said, learn to take the backward step. Because they were having a hard time. So he said, well, then learn to take the backward step. Try to learn to take the backward step. That turns the light and shines it inward. on this inner stream of the meditating consciousness, on the receptive stream, the receptive stream, the containing, enveloping stream of consciousness, which holds all the objects, moment by moment.

[10:36]

Look at the container rather than the contained. Look at what thinks of rather than what is thought of. Look at the thinker side of the mind rather than the thought of side of the mind. These are the instructions. And when you look, you don't find anything. Look at the light rather than the objects it illuminates. Okay? Okay? Now, by this practice one gets used to not finding anything. It's very important to get used to not finding anything. This is a warm-up to the big not finding anything. In this way, samatha is very much like realization of emptiness, except you're looking at something which is particularly conducive to you not being able to find anything.

[11:46]

If you can stand to not find this, then maybe you can stand to not find other things. Maybe you can stand to find nothing anywhere in the universe. So now, and getting used to means becoming patient and at ease with not finding anything. As a matter of fact, when you don't find anything and you consistently, repeatedly, continuously meditate on what you can't find, turns out you become relaxed and at ease. At first, you get frustrated because you're trying to get this thing. When you first try to do this practice, it's quite natural that you would try to like make this light into another object, which is fine, except this time it doesn't work.

[12:53]

So you feel frustrated. So you have to make it, it's a non-conceptual, it's an imageless topic of attention. You're not going to find this. It's invisible. It's inaudible. It's untastable, untouchable, unsmellable, and unthinkable. And yet you're being asked to look at it and being told that this will stabilize your consciousness if you can be steady with it. We're taking, or we're having, a big rest from grasping objects. We're trying to actually get a big rest from grasping objects. Some of us have not, we're trying, but we're not yet resting. We're still trying to grasp, and we're more frustrated than usual.

[13:56]

So some of us are going to take a while to get used to to take advantage of this vacation that's being offered, this vacation from grasping objects. That's what it is, in a way. A physicist said, you know, what is the nature of this invisible thing called light, whose presence calls everything into view except itself? Vipassana asks, what is the nature of this invisible thing called consciousness whose presence calls everything into view except itself? Now to go back to the citra.

[15:04]

Maitreya Bodhisattva asked the Buddha, Bhagavan, are the paths of Samatha and the path of Vipassana different or not different? The Bhagavan replied, Maitreya, although they are not different, they are also not the same. Why are they not different? Because Samatha observes the mind, which is also the object of Vipassana. Why are they not the same? Because Vipassana observes a conceptual image, and Samatha observes a non-conceptual, imageless light of consciousness.

[16:19]

So, these two paths are the same in the sense that they're both looking at mind, but one's looking at the light side of the mind, the other's looking at the object side of mind. One's looking at the non-conceptual part of mind, and the other's looking at the conceptual part of mind. But they're the same in the sense that they're looking at the mind, they're different in that they're looking at different dimensions of mind. One's looking at the light and one's looking at the entire universe of things that are illuminated by consciousness. That are illuminated by consciousness and that dependently co-arise depending on consciousness. Then Maitreya asked the Buddha, what is the image of focus of the samadhi which perceives the image? Is it different from mind or is it the same as mind?

[17:20]

And this means, what is the image of focus of the samadhi of vipassana? Because vipassana is looking at images. Is the image that the higher vision is looking at, is it the same as the mind or different from the mind? Should the images on which one concentrates in vipassana be said to be different from mind or not different? So here's a statement that's the basis of a Yogacara school, the mind-only teaching. Maitreya, this image is not different Why is it not different? Because that image is simply cognition only. That image is simply mind only.

[18:30]

Maitreya, I have taught, I, the Buddha, have taught, I have explained that consciousness is fully distinguished by the fact that its object of observation is only consciousness. consciousness is distinguished by the fact that the objects of observation are only consciousness. Then Maitreya says, Bhagavan, if that image, the focus of samadhi, is not different from the physical mind, how does the mind itself investigate the mind itself? If the images on which one concentrates are none other than mind, how does the mind see the mind?

[19:32]

The Bhagavan said, Maitreya, although no phenomena apprehends any other phenomena, Nevertheless, the mind is generated in such a way, or is generated in that way, appears, is generated in that way. The mind that is generated in that way appears in that way. Although no phenomena apprehends any other phenomena, nevertheless, the mind that is generated in that way appears in that way. Herein, there is nothing at all seeing anything at all. When this mind is aroused in this way, then there are such images appearing in it.

[20:49]

And it says, Maitreya, for instance, based on a form, the form itself is seen in a perfectly clear mirror. But one thinks, I see an image. the form and the appearance of the image appear as different faculties. Likewise, the mind is generated in that way and the focus of samadhi is known as the image also appears to be separate faculties. So the mind has this ability to raise a mirror up and reflect part of itself and think that what's in the mirror reflecting itself is separate from itself. And, you know, I could make a good case for how useful this is to dominate other animals who don't know how to do it.

[21:57]

So I think evolutionary psychology would make a good case for how useful this is to be able to like reflect contents of your mind and see them as separate. This is how you build museums. and skyscrapers and airplanes and railroad stations and so on. This ability is very useful for humans, that we can do this, and almost no other animal on the planet can do it. But it's a total illusion. You know, the mind just working with itself, feeling like one part of itself is inside and outside, and it's just an illusion. And then Maitreya says to the Buddha, Bhagavan, are the appearances of the forms of sentient beings and so forth, which abide in the nature of images of mind, different or not different from mind? And Bhagavan said, Maitreya, they are not different.

[23:00]

All the things you see are not different from mind. And then the Buddha says, excuse the Buddha for sounding a little condescending, especially towards some of us. However, because childish beings with distorted understanding do not recognize these images as mind only, as cognition only, just as they are in reality, they misconstrue them. And they think they're external objects. So we've gone over this again and again and again. The great teacher Asanga said, when they abandon external objects, then they pacify incorrect minds.

[24:11]

When they pacify incorrect minds, they realize the middle way. Abandoning external objects, abandon the belief in external objects, you pacify the incorrect mind. This pacified incorrect mind realizes the middle way. When the mind is in samatha, whatever images that are objects of knowledge, blue and so forth, blue is a popular one in Buddhist texts, that are seen, the mind is seen. When the mind is in samatha, whatever images are objects of knowledge,

[25:15]

blue and so forth, are seen, the mind is seen, blue and so forth are not objects that are different from mind. By this reasoning bodhisattvas should infer that all cognitions are mind only, that everything you know is just your mind, that whatever you think is just what you think. that whatever you see, that whatever you touch is just the mind. Then Maitreya asked the Buddha, at what point do bodhisattvas solely practice vipassana? And the Buddha said, when they attend to mental images, to mental signs, to mental appearances with a continuous mental attention.

[26:20]

This is Samatha alone. At what point do they solely cultivate... Did I say Samatha? No. Vipassana. When they attend mentally... Did that sound wrong? Good. When they attend mentally... Or when they attend to mental signs, appearances and images with continuous attention. That's vipassana, solely. At what point do they solely cultivate shamatha? The Buddha said, when they attend to the uninterrupted mind with continuous attention. At what point Having combined the two, Samatha and Vipassana, do they unite them? The Buddha said, when they mentally attend to the one-pointed mind, when they correctly meditate

[27:41]

on the one-pointedness of mind. That's when the samatha and vipassana are united. Then Maitreya asked the Buddha, What are mental signs or mental appearances or images? The Buddha said, Maitreya, they are the conceptual images that are the focus of the samadhi. The objects, of observation in vipassana. What is an uninterrupted mind? Maitreya, it is the mind that observes the image. The mind that observes the image, that mind that observes the image is the object of observation in shamatha. Is this making sense?

[28:45]

Hmm? What is one-pointedness of mind? One-pointedness of mind is the realization that, quotes, the image which is the focus of samadhi is mind only. Having realized that is mental attention to suchness. This is how to actually see directly suchness. This is how to directly realize ultimate truth for yourself with your body and mind. That your mind is actually suchness. And in that, first of all, you can't find the light of the mind which illuminates things, and now you can't find the objects which are illuminated.

[30:07]

All you find is suchness, which can't be found. but you see the truth. Yes? There are no objects external to the mind? That's his teaching, yes. Are there conditions external to the mind? Are there conditions external to the mind? There are no things external to the mind. Nothing in the universe is external to the mind. No things external to the mind. No dharma external to the mind. No mind external to dharma. No mind external to dharma. That's it. That's the teaching. Is the mind all there is? No. There is that which isn't things.

[31:15]

There is that which is beyond things. Emptiness is not a thing. Emptiness is not a condition. Emptiness doesn't do any work. Emptiness doesn't make things. But because things are empty, all these things can happen. But none of these things, nothing ever happens except emptiness. has mind. And no mind ever happens except things. You heard this before, right? This is about now actually realizing it directly. We've talked about it, we've reasoned about it, now it's time to realize it. And when you realize it, if you're a bodhisattva, you bring your heart to this practice, and in the middle of this realization is still your heart's there, your compassion is still there, right in the middle of the realization of suchness.

[32:27]

So this is like the core of the sutra right here, in a way, I think, in terms of practice. I now could introduce this case, which I've brought up many times in the past years, but now I feel like its time has come for you to really practice it. People have tried to practice it before. That's not to say they haven't really practiced it before, but mostly they've just been frustrated. But now maybe people can understand this case in actuality. I think some of you can guess what case it is. Already case 21 has come into play. Case 21 is, Samatha, you're being asked to look at the unbusy one, to remember the unbusy one.

[33:39]

And when you, that's case 21 of the Book of Serenity, when you have continuous mindfulness, memory of the unbusy one, the one you can't see, the one you can't do anything with, the one you can't grasp, when you're settled with the one that's not busy, then you can go and look at the one who's busy and understand that the one who's busy is none other than the one who's not busy. is none other than mind, is nothing but mind. That's why in that story they say, well, are there two? And he raises his broom and said, which mind is this? Which moon is this? Is this the busy one or the unbusy one? But the case that I think is particularly about this practice is, tell me, what number is it? Huh? Thirty-two. 23 backwards.

[34:45]

Now, is 23 by any chance? Ludzu faces the wall. Number 32. Okay. Are you ready? Here it comes. So the great teacher, what's his name? Yangshan, right? He started this. The monk didn't ask for this. You didn't ask for this. Yangshan started this whole thing, prompted by Daoshin and Bodhidharma and the Bhagavan. So Yangshan comes up to his monk and says, or the monk comes up to him and Yangshan says, where are you from? Where do you come from? And the monk says conveniently, I come from you, province.

[36:05]

But this is really nice that he came from you, province, because Now, if I was back in China and Yangshan asked me, where do you come from? I would say, I come from a conversation with my mom. That's where we come from. I come from you. I come from the other. That's how you get to be a self. is through a talking with another, particularly with mom, because she's so excited to see you, and you're so excited to see her, excited to see you, that you kind of get with the thing of being a self separate from the other, and bringing the other into the self, and then you get a self. So, I come from you. He's also saying, I come from you. I come from Yongshan. He didn't know what he was saying, but that's what he was saying.

[37:09]

I'm coming from you, Yongshan. That's where I'm coming from. But he also was coming from you, province. But the next part, the monk sort of gets with the program. And, uh, hi, mom. And, uh, And Yangshan says, do you think of that place that you come from? And he says, I always think of it. And this is really true, you know. For all of us, that we all think of the place we come from all the time. That's how we keep ourself going. we think of how we originated as a self, how we were born as an autonomous being around 18 months.

[38:11]

And then Yankun says, a thinker, and the Chinese is very interesting for me there, thinker is... They have a character for thinking, and they mark it with another character, which means active. So it means the ability to think. It has a character for think, or thought, and then it has another character, nung. which is like the character in Hui Nung, the sixth ancestor, Hui Nung. Hui is wisdom, and Nung is able to be, or capacity for wisdom. That was his name. So it's a character Nung with the character for thinking, Sa. It means the capacity to think, or the ability to think, or that which thinks, or the thinker. Okay? You got that? Following that? So the capacity to think...

[39:17]

Yangshan said, is the mind. The capacity to think is the mind. The capacity to think is what you look at in Samatha. The ability to think. And then he says, that which is thought of is the environment. But that character for environment, which... Thomas clearly translates as environment. That character also means object. But it also means, as I told you before, that character is what the Chinese use to translate meaning. That which is thought of, the object, is the environment. That which is thought of is the object, and that which is thought of will turn out to be the meaning. The meaning will be there when you realize that it's empty.

[40:19]

So then Yangshan says, and here's this instruction which has been given many times, and people have tried before, and you're trying it already, but I'm going to give it to you again, and you'll see that Yangshan's giving you the same instruction that the sutra gave. He said, reverse your thinking and think of the capacity to think. Think of the mind which thinks of things. Don't think of things, that's what you've been doing, right? You're always thinking of where you come from. Now look at and think back to what thinks of things. Think back to the thinking mind. Okay, that's the instruction. That's the difficult to understand Samatha practice. And then there's a horizontal line on the page.

[41:26]

And then Yangshan says, are there so many things there? Are there so many things there? Where? Where? In the light. Are there a lot of things in the light? In the capacity to think, are there a lot of things in the capacity to think? No, there's nothing in the capacity to think. Are there a lot of things in the ability to think, in the mind which thinks of things? Are there a lot of things there? No, there aren't any things there. Anyway, that dash means it could be many years between that first instruction and when he asked that question. We don't know how many years later or minutes later, but in the story it sounds like they're just talking the first time they met he asked them that question. Maybe that's the way it happened, but it might have been several years between this question and the instruction given.

[42:30]

And if someone asks you someday, if you're doing this practice, are there so many things here Are there so many things there in this mind which thinks of things? Maybe many years from now someone will ask you that question and you will say, when I get here, I don't see anything at all. When you actually steadily look here, you will not see anything at all. That's the Samatha. Now, when the Samatha comes back and is united with the Vipassana, then you have mental one-pointedness. But it's now that same attitude of not finding anything is joined with the part of the mind that sees things.

[43:40]

And now, again, we don't find anything. Not finding anything is realizing emptiness. The realization of emptiness is right there in this kind of samatha practice. That's why this type of samatha practice is offered in the bodhisattva vehicle. There are other kinds of samatha. As it says later, just right after this, it says, how many kinds of Samatha are there? And the Buddha says, well, there's three kinds, and there's eight kinds, and there's four kinds, and there's other kinds of Samatha practices too. But this kind of Samatha practice, can you see how it is so close to the higher, clear vision of emptiness? Because emptiness is simply, understanding emptiness is simply

[44:45]

not being able to find something. The unfindability of something out there is its emptiness. And that is how much I said in my life up to this moment. And I can retire now, I think. So good luck on the bodhisattva vehicle. Got to use your means now to do this practice. You got to be patient. You got to give yourself to this. You got to be careful of all the little things you do today. Don't drink too much coffee. Don't eat too much for lunch.

[45:47]

Don't work too hard during work period. Got to be patient with all the pain. And got to be enthusiastic. These kinds of means we need to develop to attract ourselves to this practice. And again, I say you're really, I feel like you've got your, you know, I feel you're working at it, but you've got to keep it up now. To get steady. To get used to not finding anything. To get used to emptiness. Yes? Be out there, though, because of interconnectedness. Out there is separation. Right, nothing. But there's nothing out there. There's things appearing, they're just not out there.

[46:50]

They're just your mind. Everything you find is your mind. There's no kind of like outside the mind that you're finding things. Everything you find is just your mind. So I find my mind out there. You find your mind out there, right. Like, look at, see over here, this is your mind. Hi. Hi. Not so bad. It's not that bad. Vicky told me they did some psychological research on, I think, convicted murderers in prison, on what kind of verbal expressions made them, you know, calm down. And the phrase that uniformly calmed them the most was, Mommy and I are one. And some of you think, get them out of here. But that's, you see, you got upset when you wanted them to be separate from you.

[47:51]

When they hear the expression, mommy and I are one, they hear various verbal expressions, is my understanding. People say various things to them, and they probably do tests on them, like heartbeat and adrenaline level and testosterone level and serotonin level and, you know. They say, Mommy and I are one, and they're kind of like, huh. They say, Mommy and I are two, and they say, what? In the street, as you know, if you read that article about the biology of aggression, what's it called? Is that what it's called? Biology of violence? In that article, the thing that sets those boys off most, and the girls too, is lack of respect. lack of respect. You're separate. You're out there and you're no good. This is very upsetting to homo sapien males and females.

[49:00]

Everything is mind. Nothing outside mind. And We have to tolerate not being able to get a hold of things because if we are still grabbing things, then we still think something's out there. Shamatha is, you could say, I put it positively, it's this big rest from this very disturbing delusion process of grasping objects. Grasping things is basically delusion. What's the new translation? What? Surely delusion. Grasping things is surely delusion. Grasping things is upsetting. Samatha, take a break. Stop grasping. But another way to put it is to go cold turkey on grasping things, because we get scared when we don't grasp. What's going to happen to me if I don't grasp anything? Well, check it out. You'll be fine. You'll be cool. You'll be relaxed. you'll be at ease.

[50:05]

When you get steady at this, you're at ease and relaxed. And then you go back, practice vipassana. Look at the stuff. Check out the images. Bring this calm back in union with your imagination. And then you realize emptiness. When we have this union of the non-grasping, calm mind with the imaging, with the imaged process, suchness comes into the mind. It's already there, but it becomes evident. Your mind becomes proof of the teaching. This story goes on, but I'm going to save that till tomorrow.

[51:11]

And this is relating to what Elka said yesterday, right? On two levels. First of all, when you practice shamatha, you don't find anything. Then you go back to vipassana and you do find something, but then you don't find something again. But then later, as we'll see, you do find something again. Yes? If you continually practice shamatha, will the union of shamatha and asana naturally occur or after they start practicing separately? It will naturally occur. Because, I mean, because before you did this practice, you got instructions which will come, which will naturally come up. So you will, you'll naturally start doing, the union of the two will naturally happen.

[52:24]

Because the images, the imaging part of the mind is still going on, it's just that the meditator's not looking at the images. So it will come back. And that's also part of more about tomorrow, about how the next step happens. Both in terms of shifting from shifting from samatha to vipassana and also shifting from realization of emptiness back to entering the world. So the kitchen's going to leave in four minutes. Yes? I just wanted you to repeat the last sentence from the citta, the end of the sections. Maitreya asked the Buddha, what is one-pointed mind?

[53:30]

And the Buddha said, it is the realization that, colon, quotation mark, this image, which is the focus of samadhi, is cognition only. Having realized that is the mental attention to suchness. It is the realization that this image, which is the focus of the samadhi, which is the focus of the vipassana, is cognition only. This is mental one-pointedness. Having realized that is mental attention to suchness. Ignorant nation.

[54:52]

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