As I mentioned before, the bodhisattva path, the Mahayana, has been described as consisting of compassion, the aspiration to attain complete enlightenment for the welfare of all beings, and realization. They mention those three, but they didn't mention practice. Kind of a missing link. there could be compassion in that aspiration without practice.

[01:07]

And that, as I mentioned before, in my opinion, would be extraordinarily wonderful if a living being had and this thought of enlightenment happened in their life stream. And that can happen without practice. But with practice, Realization can be in their life too. And practice is spoken of in bodhisattva practice as being means and skillful means and wisdom. So now we've been talking about how to develop skillful means and wisdom. And in particular, looking at the meditation practice of the bodhisattva.

[02:21]

And then once again, in particular, we've looked at how it's presented by a number of Zen teachers, and also how it's presented by this sutra called the Samdhi Nirmacana Sutra. And yesterday we discussed a little bit about the practice of meditative stabilization, shamatha, resting or pacifying mind in a concentrated way. To remind you that the practice of samatha and vipassana.

[03:28]

Yesterday I talked about samatha being practiced on a non-conceptual object, but again to remind you that there are four types of things that samatha and vipassana meditate on. Conceptual objects, which are the topic of higher vision or vipassana, non-conceptual objects, but also all different types of phenomena are also the object of samatha and vipassana when joined. And also the point of the whole thing is also the object of samatha and vipassana joined. Samatha doesn't actually look at or keep in mind the point of the whole thing.

[04:29]

Samatha is not like thinking about the goal of a Buddhist path. That's part of the reason why people get confused about teachings of Samatha when somebody likes to say, as she says, to sit wholeheartedly with no gaining idea, then people think, well, what about the goal of the... When you're practicing samatha, you don't think about the goal. But when you practice samatha and vipassana together, properly, you can think about the goal. But first, in order to stabilize the mind, We need to put aside concepts like gain and saving all beings and things like that. Once again, samatha and vipassana together look at all phenomena, look at the relative phenomena and ultimate phenomena, or relative objects of meditation and ultimate objects of meditation.

[06:19]

Samatha and vipassana look at all the different ways that experience can manifest, like five aggregates and so on, and also they look at emptiness. These two practices united look at emptiness. So in this sutra, right after talking about these four types of objects, conceptual, non-conceptual, the limits of all phenomena, and the accomplishment of purpose, then again, we go into the question, how many of these objects are

[07:36]

for shamatha? And the Buddha says, one, the non-conceptual. How many are for vipassana? The Buddha says, one, the conceptual images. How many objects for both? Two, the limits of phenomena and the accomplishment of purpose. So then Maitreya asked the Buddha, how do you become skilled in How do you become skilled in Vipassana? And then he says something which you might not expect to hear. Namely, he says all the different teachings that he gives. Basically, in a paragraph, he just mentions all the twelve different types of teachings that he gives. twelve different categories of teaching.

[08:38]

And then he says that bodhisattvas listen to all these different categories of teachings and they apprehend them well and they repeat them and memorize them and analyze them. insight from listening and reading and discussing, and insight from checking the authority and checking the reason or the logic of the teaching. Many of us, that part of the practice was fairly short. Our study of the teachings of the Buddha was somewhat short before we moved into the practice of shamatha, the practice of meditative stabilization.

[09:48]

And that's okay. But the teaching says, When you're asked now, okay, we're ready to start bodhisattva practice. So how do you become skilled at the meditation practice called shamatha? And then the Buddha says, well, I gave all these teachings. And bodhisattvas listen to them. And then I'm going to tell you about shamatha. context of that Samatha is not just addressing this type of practice is not just addressing understanding in general it's although it applies to all phenomena eventually it's particularly a response coming from being offered Buddhist teaching

[11:08]

and having first had some insight into it at the level of hearing, then having some insight at the level of reflecting and reasoning, wishing to have a physical and whole-body understanding of the teaching. And maybe you remember these... The Soto Zen way is, Dogen Zenji says, there are two ways to thoroughly understand body and mind. One is, in Japanese, called sanshin mompo, to go study with the teacher and listen to the Dharma, or go study with the teacher, go meet the teacher, and ask about the Dharma.

[12:11]

Monpo means listen to Dharma and also ask about Dharma. ...of how to thoroughly understand. The other aspect is called shikantaza, to wholeheartedly sit. So in this text and in also other texts for bodhisattvas, In some sense, the first is go see the teacher and receive the teachings, listen to the teachings, then go to the sitting. Of course, it's a cycle. Then you go to the sitting, then you come back to visit the teacher. Then you go to the sitting, then you go back to visit the teacher. So in this way, we go round and round. between receiving teaching, stabilizing mind, receiving teaching, stabilizing mind, and then developing insight, receiving teaching, and then meeting the teaching, stabilization and insight, and round and round.

[13:23]

As Dogen Zenji says, in general, in our world and in others, Both in India and China equally hold the Buddha. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting. Totally blocked in resolute stability. So, The first level of this is, in other words, all these schools practice Samatha. They have the Buddhist seal and then they practice Samatha. So this sutra presents Samatha as

[14:31]

going into seclusion and body and mind inwardly and mentally attend to those doctrines which they have just contemplated. Thinking about these teachings and now you sit down quietly and Again, you attend to those teachings which you heard and which you analyzed. Then, with inner attention, they mentally attend to that mind which is mentally contemplated by any mind. You you develop a continuous inner attention, inner stream of the meditating consciousness.

[15:45]

Today someone mentioned practicing openness. You turn to the non-conceptual the non-conceptual meditation object. So it's not really an object. You turn yourself towards a non-conceptual openness. Concepts are probably appearing and disappearing as usual, but your attitude towards everything is the same. Namely, you're blocked in resolute stability. You contemplate everything like a wall would. The same response to everything, which is no response to anything.

[16:53]

Now, Zen stories have many layers. And there's a story which many of you have heard before. In the book, it appears, number 21, where a monk is sweeping the ground. Or the monk could be sitting in the meditation hall. And his fellow monk comes up to him and says, you're too busy. You're thinking too much. You're too actively working with images. And the monk who was sweeping says, you should know the one who's not busy. Samatha is to know the one who's not busy.

[18:12]

All day long, remember the one. But the one who's not busy is not a concept, is not an image. You can't see the one who's not busy. If you see the one who's not busy, then you're just now the busy one again. So you remember, you're mindful of the one who's not busy without making the one who's not busy into another concept. You remember the one who's not busy by being open to all busyness. The one who's not busy is open to all business. Isn't trying to coordinate

[19:17]

elaborate the busyness. It's just this openness and non-activation of mind in response to so-called external busyness and internal busyness. It's the lack of coughing and sighing in response to all kinds of busyness. This is the mind like the wall. Mind like a wall is the mind which is meditating. Mind like a wall is blocked in resolute stability. It's intimate with the one who's not busy.

[20:25]

If you practice this way correctly, you will obtain physical and mental pliancy and ease. physical and mental pliancy and ease arise through engaging in this practice of mentally attending to the mind which is mentally contemplated by any mind. Anybody, anytime, can be aware of this one who's not busy. Anybody, anytime, anyplace can be aware this openness in response to all images. It's the same for all of us. And by engaging in this stabilization practice, mental and physical pliancy and ease arise.

[21:44]

And then this is the way of continuing this practice. and continuing in this practice is actually continuing in practice. Having obtained this physical and mental pliancy and ease, they abide only in that. Now we're ready to enter into the wisdom practice, the vipassana, abiding only in that, this physical and mental pliancy and ease. And then it says that you abandon certain aspects of mind.

[22:52]

In other words, you let go of attention to the openness. And now analyze and inwardly consider the doctrines from the point of view of this stabilized concentration. And now you start to enter into and investigate what you had been investigating and studying before, namely all phenomena and all teachings. But now you're doing it in the context of a physically and mentally transformed body and mind.

[23:54]

So before you had shamatha, you might have been studying what your experience was, for example, what the five aggregates are, and had some understanding that you understood them properly, that they were good teachings because the sages have given them, and also that they make sense. They're coherent. You see the rationale for studying them, and you were studying them. and you had some insight, and you feel pretty good about having that insight about the Buddha's teaching, the reasonableness of it. You have some wisdom. Now, in order to go deeper, you've developed a stabilized consciousness, and now you can go back to this phenomena again, in this case relative phenomena, and go deeper. teachings of emptiness and listened to them and studied them and understood them and then reflected on them and reasoned about them and had insight into emptiness.

[25:14]

But now you go back to the teachings of emptiness, back to the Heart Sutra with a new body and mind, fresh at ease and stable and flexible. Now the study will be different. You can go deeper into it. This kind of study is how we develop and perfect vipassana. I have this kind of interesting thing, you know. This is a conceptual thing. I just, I don't know how it happened, but the bookmarks that I was using in this sutra had three bookmarks.

[26:19]

And one of them, one of the bookmarks was a, I'll show you. One of them here is like a medieval painting of Mary and Jesus. That's in there. Another one is, back in the notes, is a painting of Mary and Jesus. And another one is six paintings of Mary and Jesus. Or, for some of you who aren't Christians, these are three cards of paintings of mothers and children in this book.

[27:24]

I don't know how they all got in there. Actually, there's one other bookmark, and that is, it's a painting of Buddha. Vipassana, shamatha, is not to meditate on the mother and the baby. That's not the shamatha. Shamatha is to meditate on a non-conceptual object. It's meditating on a way of being with pictures of mommies and babies with complete openness. And not coughing or sighing at these pictures. Not coughing at mothers and babies and not sighing. It's like when they come by with the baby.

[28:28]

They show you their new baby. You're supposed to go, oh. You're supposed to sigh, right? You're not supposed to. You're supposed to sigh. You're not supposed to go, oh. Now, some people, some people, some people who are really into babies, they do, you know, they do the side when the baby comes, they go, oh, but inside they say, yeah. They say, oh, ugly. And some of these people who do that are mothers. But the meditator, when the baby comes, they don't cough and they don't sigh. They just go... Baby.

[29:30]

Me wall. Me wall. Me blocked. In unbusiness. But such a way of being does not create the human psyche. In order to create the human psyche, we have to have mommy and baby together. Extremely. Uncom. In order for the human being to develop a sense of self. There has to be extremely exciting interactions, the most intense interactions on the planet. between these and that extreme excitation electrically zaps the brain into development of the self. Now we've got all these babies who have these selves and now we have to look back at the self which was created through so much excitement

[30:47]

So much intensity. So much bliss. So much happiness. Between these two people created a self. Which is imprinted. Now we have to look at this and study this. But we have to come way down to look at it. To dismantle the world, we have to utter openness and non-preferential stability. So it's wonderful that I have these pictures in this book. It's wonderful. this study of analysis and penetrating wisdom is very complicated eventually.

[31:57]

It's very, very, very thorough going. Again, in order to tolerate the minuteness and complexity and exhaustiveness of what we have to study in order to undo the world and set it free, we need this calm. So in some cases, you can't go any further. I just let you calm down more and more and more. On the other side, I should go forward and bother you. But while I'm bothering you, you should be in a state of mental and physical pliancy and ease. And if you're not, you should, you need, I say should and need, so I don't really cause you any damage, you need to be working on resolute stability.

[33:10]

Taking care of yourself and being very open to the Sound of the stream and all the concepts that may arise in your mind in response to my English. I need you to continue to practice being focused on a non-conceptual image, or if you've already done that enough and you're in a state of physical and mental ease and pliancy, then you can listen. Doing that, otherwise I should stop talking because you have work to do so that my talk will enter into a body which can receive it

[34:15]

and work with it without getting depressed or giddy. Now, if you are fairly stable and you hear these teachings and you start to feel depressed or giddy, then you need to go back to this mind-like state. until you're not depressed or giddy about it anymore. And one could get depressed and giddy about these teachings because one could get very giddy if one started to understand them a little bit, and one could get very depressed if one thought, and I'm not getting them. So you need to be able to really feel comfortable with however you're responding to this. Being simply devoted to sitting, being totally blocked by resolute stability, is the mode in which can arise in response to these teachings, or any teachings, or any phenomena.

[35:47]

Okay? May I go on a little bit? Or should I stop and let you go back to your samatha? So Maitreya bodhisattvas asked the Buddha, Bhagavan, prior to attaining physical and mental, when a bodhisattva inwardly attends to the mind, observing mind, what is this mental activity called? Maitreya, this is shamatha. Know that it resembles intensified interest concordant with shamatha. So he's just making a term clear that studying the mind, the mind which is observing the mind, the mind which is observing the inner stream of the meditator's mind, prior to attaining physical and mental pliancy.

[37:16]

That's not shamatha. That is... something that resembles an intensified interest concordant with Samatha. In other words, you're applying yourself to Samatha practice, but it's not Samatha. What he means by Samatha is actually that you have this physical and mental pliancy, meditating, observing the mind, observing the mind. And then Maitreya says, prior to attaining physical and mental pliancy, when a bodhisattva inwardly attends to those doctrines, just as they have been contemplated as images that are the focus of samadhi, what is this called? And Buddha says, Maitreya, this is not vipassana. It resembles intensified interest concordant with vipassana.

[38:18]

Study these topics, these teachings, these phenomena, both conventional and ultimate, prior to having this pliancy and ease, both mentally and physically. It's not shamatha. It's not vipassana. Concordant with vipassana, it's applying yourself towards it, but it's not vipassana. Okay, is that clear? Now, one thing related to this is in the process of developing stabilization, according to these bodhisattva stabilization practices, one of the main defects, again, the first main big defect is

[39:24]

It's hard to be interested in meditating on the mind. It's hard to be excited about a non-conceptual object of meditation. People can get interested in sex, thinking about sex, but sex is a conceptual thing when they get excited about it. money, lunch, construction, the end of practice period, the people who insult you, your mom, these things you can get excited about and stay awake for. But to think about the inner stream of the meditating consciousness, it's easy to... The other thing, the next thing after sloth is... forgetting or being confused about the meditation object. That's the second one. And there's these four antidotes for sloth, and the antidote for forgetting or being confused about the meditation object is mindfulness.

[40:39]

In this case, this basically means remembering what it is that you're meditating on, remembering that it's not supposed to be a concept. Once you're calm, once you're stabilized, you can look at concepts and perhaps continue to be calm. But when we look at concepts, we get excited. We get excited and upset. Concepts are usually considered to be external, for example. That upsets us. So we're looking at something which is not external and is not conceptual. And if you can stand to be with what is not external and not conceptual, you start to get stabilized, body and mind. When you get confused about what the meditation object is, mindfulness is to remember what it is and remember what it is.

[41:42]

That's enough for now. You remembered and you're awake, let's say. But that mindfulness is not the same mindfulness as mindfulness in, for example, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, as they're often taught, are vipassana practices, or insight practices. And in the Abhidharma Kosha, they are offered after... developed shamatha. So first, you, for example, do meditation on the breath. You stabilize yourself with non-conceptual meditation object, and when you're stabilized, then you shift to the forefront. So those practices of mindfulness are

[42:45]

were before, because you're using insight topics improperly. Different meanings of mindfulness. One is to remember, the other is insight. Now comes a big, [...] big topic in the sutra, which is basically, what happens when the two, when the samatha and vipassana come together? What's that practice like? And so, I feel that the That's for tomorrow.

[43:57]

Now, another 24 hours or 23 to get really, totally blocked by stability. Totally pliant and at ease mentally and physically. And then you can hear about this big page right there. about the practice of when they're united and what it's like then. Is the sloth factor waning in the zendo? I heard some rumors that the sloth level is dropping a little bit. It's come away from some heads. Move down into the chest or your knees now.

[45:01]

So the head's kind of like getting kind of clear up there above kind of a foggy body. The sloth isn't like totally, you know, filling the whole body and mind. Just be patient, you know, and just gradually go down pretty soon. Hips and then your knees and then up through your toes, onto the toms. and then down into the floor and down the river. So let that sloth slip down, down, down, down. It likes to go down. But it also likes to come up, as you know. So just let it drop down, [...] with the aid of this uplifting meditation on the inner stream. of the meditating consciousness. On the mind like a wall.

[46:15]

I may stop here, but I want to tell this one story of Samatha practice. force you into resolute stability. Excuse me for my rough talk. In Bodhidharma, we have this story about Bodhidharma, which we won't be hearing this practice period during the Shuso ceremony. In every practice period, we should tell this story. But the Shuso doesn't want to have it be the the koan for the ceremony. And since I like the shiso so much, I let him have whatever he wants. Except sleeping in the zendo. So, he's willing to give up sleeping in the zendo. He can have whatever koan he wants.

[47:16]

But I want to tell the story since you won't. Bodhidharma came to China to save us ancient beings. Bodhidharma is Avalokiteshvara, who takes the form of a rough Indian monk. Anybody, including the emperor. And the emperor is a big Buddhist, got a lot of monasteries, and hung out with some great sages. He studied the ultimate teachings and the teachings. When Bodhidharma came, we say that he got an interview with the emperor. And the emperor said, well, how much merit do I get for building all these monasteries and supporting all these monks and nuns? Bodhidharma said, zero merit.

[48:19]

Didn't kill him. and then said, what is the highest meaning of the holy truth? And Bodhidharma said, vast emptiness, no holy. And the emperor said, who is this facing me? Bodhidharma said, I don't know. Lin Bodhidharma left and went and faced the wall for nine years to show the emperor and everybody else in China what they had to do in order to understand the teaching that he gave. So he, in a sense, made a mistake.

[49:24]

He offered the teaching to people who weren't ready yet. But in another sense, he didn't make a mistake, because the Buddha does offer the teaching to people who aren't ready for the deepest understanding of it. He offers no merit, vast emptiness, no holy, I don't know. That's his teaching. So then you think about that. You study that. You reason about that. And then, after you've done all that, Then you go and you face the wall. Face the wall means look at the wall to understand how you should be. Look at the wall means look like a wall looks. So that story has the full progression. Teaching and then to take it to the wall. Thanks mom.

[50:34]

You don't seem giddy. You don't seem depressed. I can't tell if you're making too much effort or too little. You don't look like you're making way too little because in this whole room nobody's asleep. So that's a good sign. Maybe some of you are making too much effort. I don't know. Check it out. Seems to be okay. Sloth level seems low. I think the hard part is, at least right now, do you remember the object of Samatha? So is there any confusion about the object of Samatha?

[52:11]

The object is non-conceptual. Okay? So any concept that appears, like, for example, me, the concept of David, that's it. I don't do anything with it. Just David did. But the object's not David. The object is my openness to experience this concept called David with no... I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do with it. I can't do anything with it. I'm just like... I don't activate my mind in response to this face. I don't think what it looks like or doesn't look like I don't like it or dislike it. I'm just looking at the mind.

[53:17]

And when I look at this mind, I just see this openness. And no response. No activation. No coughing or sighing to David or Christina or Marta or Luminous Owl. or Soren, or John, or Ed, or Sonia, or Linda. Like, I have nothing in that mind. It's just that mind which is aware of these things. I'm looking at that mind, that inner stream which is aware of all this. I'm looking at that. Totally unbusy. Elusive, can't grasp it because I'm making it into an object.

[54:20]

Unavoidable, because it's always there with everything. It can't go anywhere. It can't come anywhere. Just this continuous stream, inner stream of the meditative. Look at the baby. See the baby? Look at the mind, which doesn't... Okay? That's the object. Yes? Okay, so... She hears a mind that coughs and sighs.

[55:23]

That's the coughing and sighing. That's not the mind. Look at the mind that includes the coughing and sighing. Look around the coughing and sighing at the mind. The coughing and sighing are just like another baby's face. If you see the baby's face and there's a sigh, then you have baby face and sigh. Those are two objects. In both cases, you could have been looking at that which is thinking of the face, the baby face, and that which is thinking of the cough. You're looking at the mind, not the objects. Usually the mind is looking at the objects. Now you're going to look at the mind. which is looking at this. This is also called, what do you call that?

[56:28]

You call it turning the light around and illuminating the self. This is the backward step and so on. You're looking at something you can't see. If you make it into an object, That's not the mind. So coughing and sighing are objects. And the baby's face is an object. Does that make more sense? No. It's elusive. Like I said, it's elusive. You can't see this mind. You can't see the unbusy one. You can only see the busy one. And if you're looking at the busy one, then you're going to feel busy. You can't see it, but you're going to feel calm. If you try to make the unbusy one into an object, you're going to get more upset than usual.

[57:31]

You're already somewhat upset looking at the busy one. But if you try to move the unbusy one and make that into an object, you'll get more upset than usual. What you do is you look back at the mind which is looking at the busy one. It's one mind. It's one mind. And there is nothing but that mind. But in order to understand that, you have to stabilize. And the way to stabilize is by studying the non-conceptual aspect of the mind. which is not separate from the conceptual. Ordinarily, the mind is oriented towards concepts and is destabilized by orienting towards objects which are considered external.

[58:47]

Now we're going to look not at internal objects, but we're going to look at something which we know isn't external, namely the mind. But you can't see the mind. That's why it's non-conceptual. Or since it's non-conceptual, you can't see it. We can only see concepts. We can only hear concepts. We can only think of concepts. If you think into a concept, then you are meditating on a non-conceptual object. This is the topic for stabilization. And this is developing the mind like a wall. If you become then at ease, then you can face something which might ordinarily be difficult to face. Namely, that there is just one mind.

[59:49]

And that there are no dharmas outside of it. So the thing which you said, isn't there just one mind? There's not just one mind. There's nothing outside that mind. To face that, we need stabilization. To face it and to let that in, to let that into our body, we need stabilization. We're thinking about it. We're talking about it. We have to let it transform our body. Meditate on this. It transforms your body. What happens to your body and mind? They become pliant and at ease when you let this in. And then we will turn to the next page. Without having a preference for a quiet mind, yes.

[60:52]

Yes. You know, excuse me, but I think it's helpful if you break up what you say into little parts. Let people take that in, okay? So you just said, without having a preference for a quiet mind, you think it's possible to train the mind to be quiet. Without having a preference for a quiet mind, it's possible to train the mind to be quiet or quieter. Yes. Just a second. That's right. Do you hear that? Without a preference for a quiet mind, you train the mind to be quiet. If you have a preference for a quiet mind, that will interfere with having a quiet mind. Okay? Now next. Okay.

[62:01]

Right. Before she came to Zen Center, when she first came to Zen Center, she thought the word just came up, but then as she quieted down, she noticed it before the speech. Right? And so now you're thinking maybe something similar to that applies to the mind. Right. but it's a little different because there's not an intention before there's an intention in the mind. It's different. But there is a quiet in the mind before there's an intention. Or actually, there's a quiet in the mind which is underneath and surrounding. And that quiet is just simply the ability to think of objects and have intentions. The shamatha is to turn towards that underlying and surrounding quiet, which is able to be aware of objects.

[63:22]

And then you can see the arising of intention from the quiet and understand it. So just like you understood that there was an intention before speech, and that there is a non-intention before intention, or surrounding intention. And then you can see what intention is in that context. Yes? I said, Daoxin said that, in short, The different ways of calming the mind are inexhaustible, but they all come from the heart. You're not observing the heart part. The heart part is the part that underlies the effort to practice Samatha.

[64:30]

So, at the beginning, Maitreya, love, As Buddha, what does the bodhisattva depend on, what does the bodhisattva dwell on when practicing shamatha? They depend on and dwell in love, in unshakable resolution to benefit beings. That's the source from which you practice shamatha. But shamatha is to put it in a sense. Any idea you have of love. And just be open to what's happening. With no gaining idea. With no coughing or sighing. With no approval or disapproval. The willingness to be like that is based on love. A total love bug. And they have confidence in that. And they're definitely committed, unshakably, to the welfare of others. Therefore, they can put aside human sentimentality.

[65:32]

And just say, okay, baby. You people can get excited about this baby, but I've got some work to do here in order to help the baby. Somebody's got to be stabilized and not freaking out here. And not worrying about hurting feelings. That's me. I'm the dumb one. But the basis of all these different stabilization practices is heart. But you're not looking at the heart. You let go of all ideas of heart. And you look at the mind which thinks of hearts. That stabilizes the heart. Exactly. So a heartful feeling arises. but you practice mind like a wall towards that heartful feeling. Namely, you don't say, oh, how nice I am for having that feeling, or how sentimental I am.

[66:37]

You just say, heartful feeling, that's enough. And you're open to it. It's the meditation on that openness, on that awareness of it, that's stabilizing. And you do that stabilization because you want to help everybody. Everybody needs you to stabilize your mind so that you can understand reality throughout your whole life. And you're convinced of that, so you do this hard work. And it's hard work. Well, this is a samadhi. Samatha is a samadhi, and vipassana is a samadhi. And samatha, vipassana together are samadhis, and they are the basis then for innumerable other samadhis. But samatha is definitely a samadhi.

[67:38]

It's a samadhi with a non-conceptual object. Vipassana is a samadhi with a conceptual object. And samatha and vipassana together are samadhis based on the stabilization, samadhi, and the transformation of body and mind quality. upon which you can do samadhis which do investigation samadhis. So these are all samadhis. Okay. Is there other hands? Questions about, what do you call it, remembering the meditation object? Yes? How does that relate to the meditation object? Patience, giving, ethics, all these enthusiasm, they go with shamatha. Practice wisdom.

[68:41]

Now the means are concentration, enthusiasm, patience, ethics, and giving. So you have to practice patience in order to have in order to endure the pain that may arise in your meditation or non-meditation. In formal or informal meditation, pain is arising. We need patience in order to be able to be quiet and not wiggle so that we can then meditate on this non-conceptual image. Here we are sitting here. The image pain arises, how are you going to have a mind like a wall with that? Well, you need patience to have a mind like a wall with pain. So the patience is part of Samatha practice. Giving yourself to the practice. Giving yourself to the practice is part of Samatha practice.

[69:47]

Being careful of how much you eat, how much you sleep. what your posture is, all those things. Be careful of everything you do is part of shamatha practice. Fantastic is part of shamatha practice. So these are the means which facilitate the concentration practice which goes with the insight practice. Yes? Elka? One day I was going to learn it all through. Yes. [...] That's the next page. Okay. Tomorrow. She turned the page. It's okay.

[70:49]

It's all right. Yes. Yes. You can't think of a non-conceptual thing. Right. So you're not really thinking of a non-conceptual object. You can only think of conceptual objects at this point. So you're meditating. Yes. You're adopting an openness to something. You're adopting an open way of being where you're not trying to grasp objects. Or you're looking at something you can't see. You can't see the mind. The mind as it's transformed into objects. We're not looking at objects. So now we're looking at the mind. The stream of mind underlying all objects. You can't see that.

[71:51]

So you're open to the fact of not being able to see something. This is a stabilizing way to be. Usually we're into like seeing, knowing things and hearing things. This upsets us because we think they're external. The first step is turn around, turn the light backwards and deal with something that you can't get a hold of. Be like a wall. Give up your grasping equipment and you'll calm down. It's the shamatha practice that's recommended by Bodhidharma, by this text, and many others. There are other kinds of shamatha which we'll get into, which are more familiar, and which seem, what do you call it, more conducive. This one is the one this text puts first. Yes. This stream of consciousness is ordinary consciousness.

[72:57]

It's just that you're looking rather than the objects of the consciousness. But you can't see it. That's why it's a non-conceptual. You're looking at something that you can't conceive of. You're open to non-conceptuality. You're open to You're open to the ungraspable. And if you're open to it, then you can't grasp it. And if you can't grasp it, it can't grasp you. And if you can't grasp and it can't grasp, you're calm. You're like out of the grasping world. And the mind becomes stable, flexible, and at ease. From this position of renunciation, of grasping, from this position of calm, non-grasping, ease and flexibility, then you have a chance to turn back now and look without your usual freak out.

[74:03]

But first of all, this is the first step. The mind like a wall first. Then you enter the way. Then you enter the events that you can see. And then we have to figure out how to free ourselves. Now can we free ourselves of this externality? And that's, like I say, the next page. Yes. Could I remind you what they are? if you promise not to practice them until you're stabilized. Do you promise? I promise not to practice the Four Foundations of Mindfulness until I have achieved Plagiancy and ease of body and mind. They are mindfulness of body, which includes mindfulness of breath, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of mental states, and mindfulness of dharmas, which includes

[75:13]

relative dharmas, like aggregates, sense fields, sensory awareness, skandhas, ayatmas, and dhatus. It includes four noble truths, which is ultimate things, like nirvana and the path. All the dharmas are in the fourth one, but from the point of view of penetrating and understanding them, so the insight practices. Is that it for now?

[75:46]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_89.67