Referring back to something I mentioned on Sunday, the kind of, the story that first there is, at the beginning, as far as you, is the unborn, and it's like a river, or it wasn't like a river. And then the river became a road, branched out and covered the whole world. And so I'd like to look at this. This has to do with karma. This is a story of cognition. So there's a level of

[01:02]

of sort of level one or realm one is direct experience. Direct experience, direct life, direct cognition, direct consciousness. There's a process. a process of the source of life, which is also the process of cognition. And sometimes we say that this immediate experience is born of the interplay between sensuous bodies and sensible data.

[02:11]

Or you could say sensible world. And world is a word that maybe I'll get a chance to deal with before we're done. But I can't help but sort of use it in two ways. And I guess maybe I'll just mention briefly that you can mention the world as the totality of sensuous bodies and sensible data, and the interacting between them, all that could be called the world. And this would be a world experience, and this would be a world before there's birth. So I sometimes say that our life and our cognitions are born of the interplay between the sensuous body and the sensible world.

[03:19]

But really, that's true. But at the same time, there's a realm of the sensuous body and the sensuous world interacting directly, and at that point we call it the unborn. It has not yet happened. There's life without birth in this immediate realm. This realm of immediate experience or direct experience, the realm of perception, again, is an interdependent realm where life is, and you can say it's born of, but you can say where life is, the interplay between sensible and sensuous, between our sense organs and the material universe.

[04:30]

Can you wait? Can you wait? The next level is called road building. And this level follows the first one because it's called the unknown now. It is unknown. It is unlocated. Remember what I'm telling you is a story. Unlocated, unknown, unborn, ungraspable, direct experience.

[05:32]

Direct experience is really where it's at. However, it's not meaningless. It doesn't have meaning. And living there, as we do every day, for various reasons, we are kind of concerned that where is the meaning of this? And we feel somewhat anxious. And as we interrelate with the universe, we feel some discomfort because we're being, in a sense, we're being remade every moment, which is slightly uncomfortable sometimes. Getting the new body in mind. Sometimes what comes up with that, for various reasons, for various causes, is pain and mutual sensation.

[06:42]

In other words, it's a very sensuous and lively process, and part of it is some pain. And, of course, it isn't that there is no meaning, it's just that we can't get any meaning. It isn't that there's no sense or that it's nonsense, it's just that we can't get sense in immediate experience, in immediate life, in immediate perception. We don't get the meaning, we don't get the sense. We like to get sense for various reasons. We like to. And when we don't get it, then we just have to, like, live. So we feel anxious in a situation for various reasons. We have the ability to build a road over this river.

[07:51]

This river-like work, we have the ability to build a road. Building a road is a mental activity. That's what I call mental activity. Mental construction. And at a given moment, the overall effort of road building and mental construction is called Chaitanya. And Pali, it's the intention of the moment. OK? In other words, we make a story about life. And then it makes . Another way to say is we interpret life. And the way we're interpreting life, which is the way we're interpreting our body in relationship to the universe... Originally, our body in relationship was an unborn body, an unborn universe, an unlocatable body, an unlocatable universe.

[09:06]

The way we make sense of that is our intention of the moment, is the story of the moment, of our relationship. And then the story is originally cognitive and mental, but then it can also be verbal and physical. The verbal and the physical also are used to interpret, make sense of the world. I remember one time, Van Gogh said, not too long before he Shot himself. Did he shoot himself? Yes. He said, finally, I'm not just... This was before nature. He had a way of using his hands to fight back.

[10:09]

He took paper and put it on paper and said, here, I gotcha. But he had such a hard time dealing with the unborn, that we have this amazingly impressive artwork. Because he was struggling against, he was like, really like, had a hard time getting out of there, like, some of us don't have such a hard time. He was really anxious and really had a hard time interpreting it. But finally he felt like, I got a way, I got a way to get meaning, got a way to protect myself from this anxiety. You know, we all do this. And in some sense, those of us who don't have such a hard time have . Beethoven really had a hard time. He was really struggling. It isn't exactly chaotic, but it feels like it is.

[11:23]

Is chaotic actually to do with no meaning? That part of the chaos is about we don't see a meaning? Not that it isn't meaning, we just don't see it. Order? Order, yeah. Anyway, a road building. That's a common, basically, road building interpretation and so on. And for us, language is a big part of that. And also, this tends to be also, yeah, so with cognition, And in a sense, it doesn't really arise. But anyway, it exists because it's a condition.

[12:26]

It comes with this ability to tell stories. It comes with the ability to interpret and narrate. In the original place, I would say, unborn together with the mountains, the rivers, and the great earth. And then we do road construction. We do mental construction, which is karma. And then we have a road, a world. And this world is the consequence of road construction. ...is the consequence of mental construction. It's a consequence of karma. Not just your own personal karma.

[13:31]

The karma of all beings creates a world. And now, in this world, we are born. This world is birth and death. and things are located, and things make sense. And now, the mountains and the rivers and all sentient beings are born together with us. And the world in which we from the mountains and rivers and all beings are born is created by all of our ...instructions, all of our stories, all of our karma. And when we hear that we're born together with the mountains and rivers and the great earth, we may have difficulty understanding that.

[14:35]

We don't understand the unborn. We've turned away from the basis of the construction. So this woman named Robin Robinson, she said something like, we are in general inappropriately loyal to, she didn't say this, but she said basically, we are inappropriately loyal to road building and to the rather than to the reality of which they are tentative sketches, or rather than to the reality upon which they are based. So we tend to get into here and particularly loyal to this.

[15:43]

I mean, inappropriately loyal to this and this, rather than this. And because all this is the basis of these, and all these are about this, and the road itself are sketches about the river. More loyal to these, even though these are just tentative coping mechanisms. Where is it coping with the actual life? And she also said that it's fashionable to say that there's no fact, only interpretations. And I think she says, cleverly, no fact, only interpretations. She says, this itself is an interpretation of a fact.

[16:46]

A fact that in our efforts to understand the world, We ordinarily get things a little wrong and sometimes very wrong. And again, this is very close to Buddhist teaching on epistemology. That in our efforts to understand the world and make sense of the world, we get things a little wrong. But all mental construction of the world gets things wrong, because after we create the mental construction, we take it for what we made the construction about. So conceptual cognitions like these, even when they're accurate, are always a little off.

[17:52]

Sometimes they're way, way off, of course. But they're always a little off. Because when we make the interpretation, we can't separate the interpretation from what we're using to make sense of. So we see the world we're trying to make sense of through the sense-making activity. So we get it a little wrong, even when it's basically .. We make up that this whole thing has a self, or has substance, and it's totally off. But even when it's not that bad, it's a little off. And as she said, which is also according to Buddhadharma, is that fact breaks through interpretation when it startles, when it shames, and when it kills us. That's why people like to do hospice work, because it gets them ready for the fact breaks through our interpretation.

[19:03]

The way to put it is, no matter how skillful you get at projecting these interpretations over the world of ungraspable direct experience, are buried in the cell, eventually breaks through. Eventually the river breaks through the road, especially in what used to be cold climates. In Minnesota, they have winter and road construction within the two centers. Because it is winter. I'll get you in a call when it breaks the roads. You said the Shaxes kills us and... Shaxes, Shames, or Shades, but... Chaucest.

[20:15]

Like we're, you know, thinking, I'm a good boy, you know, whatever, you know. And then suddenly something happens. You think, well, maybe I'm not so good. You better know what good is. Let's see. What's next here? In Gendukon, the ancestor Dogen says, the Buddha way is basically perfect.

[21:22]

The Buddha way is basically leaping. That's a different one. The Buddha way is basically perfect. But in Gendukon, he says the Buddha way is basically leaping. Basically leaping. That's what it basically is. And we can consider. Huh? Leaping clear. Well, leaping clear is also just leaping forth, leaping from. Leaping. It's basically leaping, and you can put various prepositions after. All of them work, as far as I know. Leaping at. Leaping in. Leaping over. Leaping under. Out. Into. I don't know. Anyway, we're going to basically read them. Also, basically about doing and being rather than having.

[22:27]

This is some of us kind of, I don't know, a bomb, a sack, living in Marin County. Well, a lot of people have. And some of us don't have much. But we say, well, it's okay, because we're not so much about having, we're about doing and being. We feel embarrassed sometimes about how much some people have. But how does it happen that they have so much and we don't? But anyway, we're into doing and being. We're into doing. We're into doing. We're into working for the happiness of all beings. That's what we're into. And the way of working for the happiness of all beings is basically leaping.

[23:30]

Or you could say realization. And leaping depends on, you could say depends on, Practice. Practice, Liebman. And... Lieb... [...] Lie Practice is that which occurs when you return to where you are and you find where you are. Practice occurs. In the process of finding your place, you find your place where you are. Where you are is you're located around your cognitions, which make locations.

[24:36]

So finding your place means finding your cognitions, because without your karma you don't have a place. So the practice is basically returning to your mind and your mental activity, and returning to and giving close attention to all of your road-building, all of your interpretation, all of your story-making, leading practice occurs, realizing. Realizing the truth of immediate experience. Realizing... Because you think of not thinking. Okay, is that enough for starters? Do you want to ask a few questions now, or do you want me to put... No, go ahead.

[25:41]

Another thing that comes up in this presentation would be that the world is the world. The world we live in is different from the world that we live in. Originally, the world is not like a world. It's like it doesn't have locations in it, for example. It's that kind of a world. It doesn't have birth and death. It's ungraspable. It's the world. It's the immediate world. It's the world before birth and death. Or not even before. Absolute? Hm? Absolute? I don't know about the absolute. Absolute meaning is . Yeah, I have trouble with the word absolute. All too substantial.

[26:48]

But again, by interpreting this immediate experience, we create another . And we actually create what we consider to be what we experience as the physical world. And this world is different, but not separate from. It's another world. And then, in this world that we create together, we tell stories in that world. And as I mentioned also, we create this world out of anxiety and fear, and then once we create this world we feel desire, because we have separated ourselves from the basis of our life.

[28:03]

So in this world we also still feel fear. It doesn't really work that we feel no fear, but at least we have something to cling to in our fear. But now, in addition to fear, we have desire. So we're frightened and desirous in this world. It drives further interpretations. And again, these interpretations are just attempts to cope. And in some sense, when we first do it, we kind of know we're experimenting. Children, young children, we kind of know we're experimenting. Like, I remember one time when I was about 12, I decided, you know, how I was going to dress when I was 15. I followed up in a little super school when I was 15. And I decided how I was going to wear my hair. I didn't actually forget that I made that up, fortunately.

[29:06]

And when I got to 15, I saw that it just wouldn't be fashionable. But I remembered that I had made that constructing a project that would cope with my appearance three years later. And also around that time, I myself and I think quite a few of my cohorts I would be a certain person today at school. I'm going to be this kind of person today. I'm going to go do this. I'm going to be like this today at school. And then maybe the next day try something quite different. Today I'm going to be Marlon Brando. Grace Kelly. Today I'm going to be James Dean. certain geniuses which appeared in our society who were popular, gave us ideas for how to be in school.

[30:19]

So you know, so I went to school like, you know, like... Well, I didn't know. [...] copy of geniuses in acting um at least confused and stupid but in an award-winning way hopefully getting that up quite soon but when time goes on we settle into a certain style and forget that it was just a It's a coping mechanism. And we start to believe it. And then we go into the problem.

[31:25]

But if we study this intention to be this kind of person, If we study what kind of person we're actually trying to be or how we're actually intending right now, if we study this and become clear about this, it's possible to become free of this process. On the reading list, was the Avatamsaka Sutra on the reading list? Anyway, chapter four of the Avatamsaka Sutra is about how your vows and your intentions, it's kind of a vision of meditation, how vows and intentions form worlds.

[32:31]

It's called the formation of worlds. So in there, they discuss how vows and intentions, aspirations and intentions form worlds. So we have aspirations and vows, but most of us do not have the aspiration to be self-centered, self-concerned, and petty. Most of us don't aspire to that intention. We don't vow to be that. We vow to be others, we vow to be kind, we vow to be helpful, we vow to be... Yeah, those kinds of things often. We aspire to that way. We try to breathe life into that way of being. And at the time that we feel that way, when we think that way, and actually do think that way, there is consequence of that, and that affects the formation of worlds.

[33:37]

without any preparation at all, we seem to think, actually, right now, I didn't want to be selfish, I just happen to be right, and this person happens to be wrong, and they just happen to be stupid, and I happen to be better than them, and therefore I just don't have to pay any attention to them or care about them, because they're worthless. And that's another story that just pops up. Another narration, another way of coping with the situation is, I just happen to be right, and you happen to be wrong. I'm kind. And in this case, that isn't breaking anybody's self-percepts, because you just deserve me to be just fine with anything. which arise very quickly, and they're nasty, and petty, and cruel, and they're in our minds.

[34:44]

And they also are road building. They have the consequence to make a road. A nasty road usually would come from that kind of thing. But it's not for sure. It's not deterministic, this process. So we have both aspirations and current stories we're telling. Sometimes they line up, and sometimes they don't. So there's another chapter, which I would suggest you add to your reading. And that is a chapter sometimes called Pure Practices, but the way it's translated by Cleary is Purifying Practices. At the beginning of the chapter, the bodhisattva asks the Buddha, how does the bodhisattva learn her action? So how does the bodhisattva clarify her intention?

[35:48]

How does the bodhisattva clarify her interpretation process? And then it gives you instructions about ways of thinking, ways of imagining Narrations of your life when you're doing whatever, which will purify your intentions. And these are very excellent stories, wonderful stories about how to wish people well in terms of their life. And then when one reads this, one often thinks, well, if I am saying, you know, because I'm opening a door, may all beings open the doors of liberation and maintain freedom and peace. If I'm saying that, but actually I want to go first and don't like the other people. Well, see, now that's what you might call not a very pure intention coupled with this very altruistic intention.

[36:50]

But putting them together... In that moment, seeing the two together purifies both of them. Over time, the nasty ones get purified by being juxtaposed with the sweet ones, and the sweet ones get purified by being dual, being separate from the nasty ones. So you purify the good of duality with the bad, disarm the bad by juxtaposing with the good repeatedly and being aware of the relationship. So those two chapters I recommend, particularly in conjunction with the work of helping beings be happy. What number is the second chapter? What number?

[37:51]

What number? What's the number? I don't know. Eleven. Eleven? It's number eleven. I'll tell myself. In some of the past, of course, of the Shobo Genzo, he explained to people how, you know, how to use the toilet, and how to use the washroom, and things like that. Dogen recommends some of these. He cites some of these verses from . So to what extent the monks of Aheiji back when Dogen was alive were actually reciting these while they were doing their daily life, I don't know. But he was recommending it to them. I know, to some extent, people still practice it, except it's in monasteries out here. Some people still do it. For example, we do it as a group, and we put our robe on in the morning.

[38:52]

Great robe of liberation, feel far beyond plain emptiness. Target is being. I pray to save all beings. That's an example of putting the robe on and thinking of the welfare of the world. When we open a sutra, we have that sutra chanting verse. So these are . You do, to some extent, you do these practices. At the battle of Basahara, a lot of people do a chant before they go on the battle. Now as I bathe body and mind, I pray that all beings maintain a clear and shining body and mind. This kind of thing. But, you know, maybe you actually feel that way when you chant at the bathhouse. But if you've returned to where you are, and you're doing that chant, you notice, oh, there's a chant.

[40:00]

Here's how I feel right now in relationship to the other people at Tassajara and the mountains and rivers. So I personally feel that doing the chant's great and it offers lots of nice opportunities, but it's important. What are you up to right now? What's your actual experience right now? Without that, You haven't really returned to where you are. You haven't found your place in this world that you created together with everybody else. You're dislocated. You're located at dislocation. You're not returning to where you are, finding your place, and being aware of your intention, your story. And again, if you're aware of your intention and story, then you can now start checking out this story.

[41:01]

And you can often find out. Yes, I do. It's not a tentative sketch. I really do think that this person is the way I think they are. The story I have about them, I really believe it. I'm embarrassed, but I really believe it. And I've got, you know, proof. See, they did it again. See, that's the way to do it. They really are not so good. So I actually am believing my narration. I believe the road. I am loyal to the world which I have made together with everything. Current interpretation of it is more than just an interpretation.

[42:04]

So, okay, this is something to confess. I'm caught. I'm caught by this. And then you look to see how you feel about that. anxieties and desires that arise around being caught by these narrations which you are experiencing because your mind wants to make sense of your relationship with the world. Your mind wants to put you... start with the relationship between yourself and the world. It's not... it is going to do that. So I'm not proposing that we stop imagining our relationship with the world, because I basically feel that when mind exists, when we exist, when life exists, especially for humans, there is this storytelling.

[43:11]

There is this creating a sense of relationship with the world. which we're not. And of course, I wish we can delight in it, but some people delight in a relationship where they're beating people up, where they're beating people in a game, like my grandson. He delights in all the winning. He's got to the point of delighting in losing, but he's getting to the place of delighting in playing the game just playing the game rather than winning. And he has more delight in it. He doesn't just . But the most important thing is that we are aware of the story moment by moment.

[44:17]

And the relationship, indirectly asking about the relationship between this kind of study, this kind of practice, and the practice of tranquility. The practice of tranquility, at least for a long time, Tranquility usually involves letting involved in our variations, not getting involved in our discursive thought. And discursive thought is necessary and can be used for telling stories. But initially, anyway, we kind of just let go of the narration. Once you're calm, then you can instead just let go of the narration. Now you have a calm way of approaching it. And also, as you start to examine it in a kind of light, ungrasping way, that actually helps you penetrate more deeply.

[45:26]

But now you actually look to see something about it, to see the narration, to see it, to see it. And in our discussion the other day, when you first start looking at narration, you make just a little bit of it. And as you look more, you see more. And as you look more, you see more. When you first look at a narration, you might think, oh, this is a nice story, which probably would lead to some wholesome result. And you look some more, and you say, oh, no, it's got some other elements there. I mean, not the wholesomeness, to a fruitful, beneficial result. So your vision can deepen, and it deepens best when you're calm. At a certain point, if you calmly look at your intention, there's ways of looking at your intention.

[46:28]

There's ways of penetrating your intention, which will actually deepen the calm. But at the beginning, for most of us, it's most calming to not be thinking about and not be studying, I think, But to some extent, you might be able to start studying your thinking and actually feel calmer as you study it. For example, you might feel calm, you know, you're aware that you have nasty intentions. They're not unconscious now. So you say, oh, I'm glad I know I won't hurt this person. Now I can guard against that. I feel much better now. Before, I was really scared to go be with them, but I didn't know why. Now I realize the reason why is because I feel so bad about them. I'm glad I see that.

[47:30]

So I feel calmer now. I think I could talk to him because I know what to not get into. One more thing I want to say. I'll just say this briefly and then talk in more detail later. And that is, cognition is, there's what we maybe call subliminal cognition and supraliminal cognition. So in the field of our cognition, modern, what do you call it, neuropsychology, neurology, neurophysiology, and neuroscience suggests that about 95% of our cognition is liminal. About 5% is superliminal. This practice of being aware of intention is basically to be aware of supraliminal intention.

[48:31]

And this is part of theory which is hard to verify maybe. But my suggestion to you is, as we pay attention to, give close attention to supraliminal narration and storytelling and intention, that attention to these patterns of consciousness, one of the consequences of attention is to influence the subliminal, it influences the subliminal cognitions too. And subliminal cognitions are connected to, in some sense, the basis of the supraliminal, but they're also the basis, almost the basis, in the sense of a basic influence, an evolutionary influence on the subliminal. The subliminal evolves to a great extent

[49:39]

in relationship to what we do, how we relate to the supraliminal. Inattention to the supraliminal tends to negatively influence the subliminal. Inattention to the supraliminal cognition, sometimes called consciousness, or the conscious life, inattention to that tends to cause the subliminal to degenerate. To degenerate in the sense of, oh no. It causes the vision to become dimmer. The vision becoming dimmer again leads to actions in the conscious realm with a dimmer awareness which has a negative evolution subliminal. And the subliminal is now negatively influenced and the basis for the superliminal, which we now are looking at with dimmer eyes.

[50:50]

So we have less skillful action, less close attention, less close attention, less skillful action. And without attention to that, more dimness more influence can make more likely, again, more unskillful and more didn'ts. Paying attention even to unskillfulness sharpens the vision and has a positive evolutionary impact on the subliminal. So this is a theory to verify the direct experience, but it's a theory, actually, about how the realm of indirect, when observed, affects the realm of direct, and the realm of direct then feeds back into the realm of the indirect, which again is attended to. The vision improves and offers more and more opportunities for more and more study. And one more thing, it's a big point, is that when we say

[51:51]

do good and avoid evil, it's not so much that we're heading to the ultimate goal of doing good and avoiding evil. It's that... Doing good requires giving attention to action, and avoiding evil requires giving attention to action. What we're really trying to do is give attention to action, because even good deeds unattended have the consequence of creating enclosing worlds. But another result of good actions is that they offer the opportunity to study more, and they offer the opportunity to study more deeply, that good intentions have no abiding self, and also bad intentions don't either.

[52:55]

That's enough. Is that enough? Thank you. Continue. And the first person to raise their hand was Aravian. Yes? Okay. The first question you already answered, but I was wondering if I could tell another story, which I may find helpful. The fourth step, so when we practice, the Buddha, that's kind of the Buddha way, that would be the life that when you talk about by your child, right? And would not the first one be darkness? That the unborn is like the woman or the unenlightened? No, I wouldn't say it's unenlightened. I would say it's life.

[53:55]

The first part's life. But is it conscious? Conscious? It's conscious, yes. Life and consciousness I would use as synonymous. We have a conscious process, a cognitive process, and the cognitive process is the interaction between and the rest of the world. That's life. That's cognition. But in direct experience, it's unknown. That's not enlightenment or delusion at that point. The being who is in that state may be deluded. The Buddha lives in that realm with enlightenment. Unenlightened people live in that realm without enlightenment. And then... In that realm of direct experience without enlightenment, we are afraid. Because of an enlightenment, we're afraid.

[54:57]

And because of the fear of stars, it's a reasonable thing for a frightened person to do. And then because we're not enlightened, we forget that it's a story. And the consequence of the story-making is a world. Now, Buddhists live in the same world, but with enlightenment. tell stories, but they never forget that it's a story. They just do it to interact with other people who are making up stories, to meet the other storytellers and draw them into awareness of their storytelling. And as they get drawn into that, they become awake too. And gradually they now become awake in the realm of storytelling, but they eventually can go to the realm of being awake before storytelling and living in that realm fearlessly.

[55:59]

Fear is not out of the compulsion of fear, but making up stories out of compassion. You know, very tentative. Which is really the way we do it, but because of inattention, we don't know how tentative it is. But that's the nice thing about the early phase of being a teenager is you have the wonderful time of noticing that you're making yourself up every day. Little kids do it too, but they're a little less conscious. But actually, about the time, straight before puberty, a lot of them, from around 10, a lot of them didn't realize that they're still living and making new people. OK? So this first round. is around where enlightened and unenlightened beings both live. Enlightened people can stand it fearlessly and move on. Unenlightened people are free and make up stories to cope.

[57:03]

They don't make up stories to help. They're not worried about the other people in the river. They're afraid of the other people in the river. They're afraid of everything. And they're in pain. It doesn't change them. and feeling compassion for everybody else in the river and happiness to help them. I don't know who is next, but you seem to be kind of keen. Yes? When we meet, do we meet in the river? We basically meet in the river. Mm-hmm. That's actually our fundamental life, is meeting in a state, just like a word, meeting very fleetingly. And then we cease, and then other beings come to be without being born, and they interact, but there's no identity in there.

[58:13]

And so then once we meet... Excuse me. Our identities is there. What we use to come up with a person who has an identity is meeting other people who are the basis of, you know, other people who have identity. So we're together in the same place. It's just that we can identify or locate, you know, and we're more or less uneasy about that. And so then we... If I were to meet you, and I meet you in that way, and then I begin to build... Yeah, right. You make up a story about who you're meeting. You know, who it is that's making you the person you're meeting. And then, you know, temporarily you may feel a little bit like, I like this, I've got something to hold on to here. He's him and I'm me.

[59:18]

I'm a jerk, but at least I know that. Like in that story, you know, I often tell about Amor and Psyche. You know, Amor, Psyche, Psyche meeting Amor in the dark. She likes him, but she doesn't know what he is. She's happy. She's got this nice relationship. Then she starts to think, well, what if he's this or that? Then she tries to, like, get some light on that so she can, like, be sure that he's this or that. And when she gets the light on, all she can find, really nice, she loses him. She loses that relationship. And that's what we desire to go back to, is that, That way we are together before interpretation. But go back, and I'm not going to be there.

[60:20]

I don't want to go back then. So I don't go back. And sometimes it just breaks through the surface, and, okay, all right, I give up, and I go out. Okay? Thank you. Yes. Question about terminology. I don't think I understand what subliminal means. Does that mean that it's not conscious, or it's not within our ability of consciousness to be able to comprehend it? Or do we just build the retina? I would say that two ways. One way is that the way our, and you might say the way our body, particularly our brain, works is that it It's making calculations that almost no human being could possibly follow.

[61:22]

The way you calculate going down the stairs here, the calculations that are going through to figure out how to do that, if they were actually exposed to you, and I said, Scott, you wouldn't be able to deal with the question. It turns out it works out better for a lot of mental calculations if particularly the conceptual cognitions that we usually operate in are not involved. And then after certain occur, there's data to show that then a kind of summary of this decision that's been made about how to take the next step summary of that decision is sent to the superliminal cognition. And it's also post-dated so that the superliminal thinks that it made the decision.

[62:25]

Post-dated, it's timed as though they were there in the past at the time it was made. And they can actually time it so they can see that. So it's like brains need to work. We're not trying to change that through our direction to attention. We're trying to change the actual calculations that we will probably never know about until they're totally transformed. The theoretical side is that we're saying that attention to action transforms the action potentials, which is a kind of neuroscience idea. Action potentials is probably actually the nervous system works to transform how you consciously attend to things. So, like, there's some data to show that people who direct their attention to their breath, there's some change in the neurological setup because of that type of attention.

[63:36]

You become calm. It isn't just calm. The nerves get calmed, get transformed soon. And that leads to some different information to interpret. And then the interpretation is then observed. That also has a transformation on the circuitry, which then will offer different calculations that will be different. So this is the idea of a positive evolution. Through practice. And practice requires making it a high priority of what your story is right now. Because you've got one. And now you've got another one. And you've got them, but you don't necessarily pay attention to them. And you might be able to verify that if you pay attention, you notice some change in your life.

[64:44]

You might start to feel better quite soon, actually, by paying attention to these things. And if you don't, and you tell other people who are practicing paying attention to intention, they may be able to give you some help about how to do it in a way that is encouraging. partly including that there's a long-range transformation too, but even right away, as I said, it might be somewhat calming and soothing to be able to kind of understand you're doing exactly the same thing as all the Buddhas have done. And you can check with those who seem to be more along the path, and you can check with the scriptures, but it looks to me like the Buddhas are pretty much lined up tradition is pretty much lined up on, yes, we do pay attention to karma. We really do study that. I don't that. I just hear different styles of looking at it. More or less, the main difference is whether it's systematic or not.

[65:47]

Some schools are more systematic than others, and Zen is less systematic to this extent that some people think that Zen people are not paying attention to Because some Zen people put an emphasis on the non-duality of karma and freedom from karma. So then they think, well, they don't care about paying attention to karma. Since being all caught up in karma, I've got to realize that your karmic entrapment and your misery is non-dual. That's enough. And maybe we'll have time to deal with that later. Dogen went through that phase, and early part of his practice, early part of his teaching, he was sort of like, seemed to be on board with this, like, being trapped and not being trapped, or not being free of karma and being able to clearly see it and be free. They're non-dual. Later he said, forget about the non-duality stuff and just become clear about karma.

[66:54]

And that switched to deep faith and cause and effect. But because of this unruliness of the school, some people think that Zen is not into meditating on karma. paying close attention to action. But I don't think that's true. And as I simply quote, he's saying, if you pay close attention to all your actions, it will become clear that nothing whatever has a bodily self, including bondage, doesn't have a self. Therefore, bondage and liberation are inseparable. Because liberation doesn't have a self either. And that will be liberation without being separate from bondage. I think you have to study. You have to practice.

[67:57]

He always says that. But without practice, you don't realize it. You're overlooking something. And usually what we're overlooking is what we're doing. And what we're doing is fundamentally what we're thinking. That's what we're doing. What we're doing is road building to cope with the dynamism of our life. But then again, we alienate ourselves. We exile ourselves. But rather than diving in, trying to cope. Any other questions? I'm going to package it again. Mrs. Berndt and Joe and Lisa. And Linda?

[68:59]

OK. All right. Well, that's quite a few. Where should I start? Who was first? How long did it take? I don't know. Oh, let's do it. I wanted to think that it could be important to look at different levels of the mode of... Yes, yes, yes. So, for example, can you see this? So my own life right now, I find it really important to look at my impulses because I really feel it helps me to develop at least some of my unwholesome powers.

[70:01]

In other words, I become aware of the process of projection. You have to wait for, let's say, four to use that imagery to really confirm that we're both doing it. That's very important. Yeah. Does anybody have a phone, text, or quiz question? I think it's . Yeah, you're right. But you don't need to repeat, right? OK. Okay, so I heard you just now. What I'm clear about is how this process of studying YSL deep concepts actually is conducive to understanding that there's no value in self.

[71:05]

That seems to me to be... We actually don't step into it. You don't understand that. Okay. Well, if I get into that right now thoroughly, I'll just say this. One of the things you can notice quite soon, probably, if you look at your intentions, you will notice that they're changing. Yes. The more you look, the more your norms are changing. If we don't look at our intentions, for example, if we don't look at our intentions, we don't have stories about our relationship with people. If we don't look, we think pretty much, oh, this is pretty much the same situation as yesterday. They're still my friend. They still love me. Or maybe they don't love me quite the same way. But anyway, we generally have kind of a coarse view of it if we don't look at it. The more carefully you look at it, the more you see it changes. And also, you can notice how it's related to things, because you're actually looking at a story of relationship.

[72:10]

As you become more and more aware of the relationship, you start to realize that none of the parts of the picture of relationship has any independent existence, because it's a pattern. Also, you'll start to notice that you may think that something in this pattern of relationship is actually fixed or a priori. So we start to notice that actually we think that there's a self already there, which I mentioned before. We start to notice that, well, I think I'm doing this relationship. I'm in charge of this relationship. I'm better at this relationship than the other people. You start to see, well, that doesn't make sense. And the more you see that, the more you get ready. This is a wholesome activity to watch These patterns, and if you're watching Wholesome Patterns, you get more and more ready to actually see, oh, there's this stuff happening, and that's what makes me.

[73:11]

So a reversal from the selfish point of view can occur by studying the selfish point of view. That's the short answer. The more we watch this, the more you get a chance to see this is a story of what we call delusion, of me having this intention, of me in relationship to other people and me separate from them. The more I see that, the clearer it becomes, the more I see that. Not everyone can see, but they see themselves as independent of their relatives. But the more you watch, the more you see that, and you see that your vision improves. As your vision improves, you start to open to see that nothing in this field has any independence. And the whole thing is changing very rapidly. So then you open to the freedom which the study of karma is offering.

[74:13]

That's a short version of that. You can, but I just want to say that to get into this is probably... We'll just go on forever. So be careful. So just this, what I hear you suggesting right now is actually to one more convince myself of self-selfishness and looking at the riches of this process. On convincing yourself I think that would be great, yes. But I'm not just talking about convincing. I'm talking about eventually actually seeing. But convincing is part of the process. Like I said before, you know, when we omit the interpretation, they're at least a little bit off.

[75:14]

But sometimes they're very off. So some people, And when you study, they get a little bit off. Namely, they're convinced. Being convinced that something is so is still being a little off. Then you get ready for not being off at all. But then you're not convinced. You have to see it. Just be able to see it. Before you have conviction, you can have conviction about the truth before you actually see it. And that is very helpful. See, so then B, C, and F. I'm next. Yeah, because B, F. The Ritter seems to be a world of direct perception. Yes, it's not a road. It's a world of direct perception.

[76:17]

Yes. In speaking to someone behind me. And imagine, let's say, I said the river, but not the river, but the world of direct perception is like a river. It's not actually a river there. It's like a river, though. Are you talking to someone? You were speaking to someone behind me a few minutes ago. Yeah. And you seem to be saying that when she encounters you or you encounter her... It's at least at the beginning like the world of the river. Yes. It's like direct perception. My inference was that the world of the river was in the prehistoric past. No. It does not occur moment after moment, here and now. When I encounter you or somebody, the associations that form the picture or story are from road-building world and not from the world of direct perception.

[77:34]

Direct perception is incoherent, incoherent, meaningless, and does not lead to associations of the kind that help us or hinder us, help us live or hinder us from living. I think you went too far. You've been pretty well until a while. I think the world of, you know, our entry into moral practice is in the realm of of formed worlds which are the result of karma. That's where we start practicing. And our moral effort and challenge is to study these stories. By studying these stories, we open up to becoming free of the world and entering the immediate world which is always coexisting

[78:37]

with this world, solid, enclosed world we live in, too. And in the realm of direct perception, you can still practice morality once you understand how to do it, once you understand how to do it in the conceptual reality. So morality also exists in the realm of direct experience, It's there too. But aren't we totally detached from or separated from the world of direct experience? We are not totally detached. It is the basis upon which it is what we're detached from. It's what we imagine we're detached from. It's what we want to get away from. It's what we want to protect ourselves from when we're not enlightened. We're not detached from it. We can't get away from it while we're alive.

[79:39]

We only can pretend that we get away because we feel temporary relief from the fear we have when we're there in an unlikely state. But we can't get away from it. It's the ongoing basis. And our success is when we imagine that we're not in it. And by attending to our attempts to cope with it, which are our stories, we become free of these stories. And we develop also the ability to deal with direct perception fearlessly. And also deal with indirect perceptual fearlessness. Direct perception is going on all the time. Our immediate life is our basic life. There. We only imagine that we get away from it, package it, control it.

[80:47]

We only imagine it. And when we first do it, we kind of can see that we're doing it. That poem, The Breeze at Dawn Has Seen Me, Don't Go Back to Sleep. That When you first try to cope with and package what's happening, that first moment, if you're awake, you can see it coming. You have to say what you really want. In other words, you have to admit what your karma is. I want to cope with life in such a way that I'm not so afraid of it. And then people are walking back at the threshold where the two worlds meet. where the road of the unborn and the road of birth and death meet. They meet. They touch. The threshold there between those two worlds. The door is round and open. You could enter back and forth between these worlds.

[81:51]

But leaping back and forth depends on paying attention and catching The mental construction is happening every moment. Every moment, you're creating a story. And actually, the story is fresh, even though the story deadens what it's based on. Nietzsche said, that for which you find a world, it's already dead to you. So as soon as you get a hold of it, you isolate yourself from it, and you miss it. So we want to go back to that. So we're on our way back. Okay? Through practice. Maybe J comes next. J before L, right? J, there's two J's. So maybe ladies first sometimes.

[82:53]

I just don't understand what you mean by leaving. What I mean by leaving? Well, for example, leaping beyond, leaping beyond, you know, concern about enlightenment and delusion. Not being concerned that you get free. Not be concerned that you get entrapped. Just study, regardless of what's going on. and then actually experience it, you're not caught by birth and death. And also, the Buddha way is basically leaping, follows two sentences before, one in which talks about the way the Buddha teaches, another one about how things are when you realize selflessness.

[83:59]

in the Ganga Koan. First chapter and third is about how Buddha teaches, what Buddha teaches. Buddha teaches about birth and death. Buddha teaches about Buddhas and sentient beings. Buddha teaches about enlightenment and delusion. Buddha teaches about practice. But when you realize emptiness, there aren't any of these things. And then the third... But the Buddha was basically leaping beyond these categories which you've been educated about. by being educated about them, and realizing your selflessness, and that you can leap, which is really what it's about. Free, and fearless, and being able to work with no hindrance in the welfare of beings. Next, Jay. Have you talked about the Buddha and all beings are indurable? And then people that are aware of stories, when they create them, they're compassionate with other people, but they're aware of their stories.

[85:14]

Yes. And the unborn, who are not aware, create their story like the rogues, and they believe those stories. Yes. And they do that out of anxiety. Excuse me. First of all, I would suggest you make the interpretation of anxiety. And then, because of inattention, you made it up as a way of coping. If you remember just coping, and how so bad off. Like the story about the guy who needs the eggs. Isn't this terrific? The guy goes to see a psychiatrist, and he tells the psychiatrist his brother. And the psychiatrist says, well, why don't you tell him he's not? He says, because I need the eggs. So if you remember that you're telling the story just because you need some way to cope, then if I come up to you and say, that's just a coping mechanism you're using there,

[86:19]

Oh, yeah. It's true, it is. I mean, did I seem like I forgot that? No, you did. Oh, no, I didn't. I remembered that. I didn't think it was true. I just felt good when I think that you're my friend. I feel good when at least I identify you as an enemy rather than as the unknown. Know you as my enemy, then not know who you are or who I am. So I just imagine you as my enemy as a way of coping. to switch to you, my friend, but that would be another coping mechanism. You were saying that due to karma that the unborn gets anxious and develops this coping system. I would say yes, but the coping is karma. It depends on past karma.

[87:21]

We know how to create these stories because we create stories in the past. Back to the chicken and the egg. So we're back to the chicken and the egg. At Asahara, what chicken did I find? At Asahara, I suggested that the chicken was before the egg. I found a case where I thought the chicken was before the egg. Do you remember what it was? No. Well, I don't either, but in one particular situation I felt, this is the chicken and it's first. But basically, first does not mean beginning. In Buddha Dharma, it doesn't have a beginning. Beginnings are mental projections upon the unborn. Our actual relationship is in unity. But we have trouble with that. So we say, okay, this is the beginning.

[88:26]

And then we feel nervous. But at least we got a beginning. J and L. Linda. Linda. Linda. I was interested in your mention of Dogen and that when he first was teaching, he was teaching about the non-duality between freedom and... And then later he said, no, forget about this non-duality and just study karma. So that interested me, and I was wondering, did he think that was an error, or did he decide that was the way for people to place... He definitely thought it was an error to not study karma. And I don't think he meant... I don't think the Zen people who emphasize the non-duality between bondage and liberation, I don't think that they really meant don't study karma.

[89:37]

They already had done it. They've already done it, and so they can see the non-duality. But that way of teaching, Dogen, I think, felt was undermining people's attention to their daily action. He felt that, especially for beginners. When they hear this kind of teaching, they think, oh, well, I guess I don't have to do all that hard work of paying attention to my moment-by-moment intentions. And so one interpretation of the later Dogen is that he was teaching beginners his teaching. Another interpretation is he felt that there was moral degeneration in the neighborhood. There was, but there was a danger of that because at the time of Dogen, apparently a lot of people thought Mahayana Buddhism didn't have anything to do with meditating on cause and effect. So one perspective is the Buddha's basic teaching is the teaching of cause and effect.

[90:41]

That's the basic teaching. The truth of suffering and the truth of the cause of suffering. And the truth that there's a cessation of suffering, and cessation of suffering is studying cause and effect. The Eightfold Path is studying cause and effect. And the first part of the Eightfold Path, the right view is karma has consequences. It's a basic first point on the path. And I think Dogen felt that the way people were talking was obscuring basic Buddhist teaching of Kama. So then the first way, there's a koan, which maybe we'll get to, it's called the Fox Koan. And that koan has been studied and commented on by Zen people. for more than a thousand years. And a lot of Zen teachers, the way they're talking about it, it sounds like they're saying, don't worry about causing effect, just have a ball.

[91:49]

Very happy, kind of happy, light-hearted attitude about this story. But that interpretation, he felt, was undermining kind of causation. But there's also self is then, and I don't remember specifically, but there's the idea that you're already here. I mean, we're already awake in the emptiness. Yes, exactly. Yeah, so it's a paradox. Yeah, you're already there. You're already where you want to be. Except that you don't think so. And the reason you don't think so is because of karma. The reason you can't actually see that is because of karmic hindrance.

[92:52]

And karmic hindrance comes because of inattention to karma. The less we pay attention to karma, the less we can see that we're already where we want to be. The more we pay attention to karma, the more the conditions accumulate for us to be able to see that we are who we want to be, and we're with who we want to be with. And some we'd rather that they practice at a different sense. Not necessarily a real bad one, just not this one. We wish them well someplace else. Or if I get to move to a better Zen center, they would have trouble getting in. But that's because of karmic obstructions, I feel. Buddha doesn't really want anybody to go someplace else.

[93:57]

Even the people who want him to go, he doesn't want them to go someplace else. He welcomes all beings. because of freedom from karmic hindrance, because of studying karmic hindrance, because of studying karma and the effects of karma, and studying the effects, studying inattention to karma. So ignoring karmic cause and effect, he said, if you pick one factor that causes misery, the worst is denying cause and effect. And if you can take one practice, the most beneficial, the basic teaching that karma has consequence. And then in order to understand how karma has consequence, it's to understand what karma is. So he told us what karma is. Karma is intention.

[94:59]

Karma is the way you see yourself in relationship with the world that you that you interact with as your life. Was that all? One more. Did you name something? R? What's that? Give us some notes. That's not... L, another L. Yeah? On that thought, I'm going to write a personal note. Is that okay to bring up? Is that okay if she brings up giving a personal note? Yeah. Let's see if I could . I've been experiencing a huge amount of anxiety. Sometimes it's moderate, sometimes very extreme. And I'm calling it anxiety. I've been wondering if this is accurate enough.

[95:59]

And I feel like they can quick-sand in place. If I... Sometimes I will join a story that's going on. I'll get more and more and more, and I'll let it go. And sometimes I will wish for something else, like well-being or calm abiding. But it's just persistent. And sometimes I'll go into it, and it And it's becoming, I'm feeling exhausted, just dealing with this all the time. And so I'm just staying with it. And I also have a confession, like there's something wrong with this anxiety. So I guess I'm just wanting a little bit of help.

[97:08]

Okay? Well, first, starting from the back, feeling like there's something wrong with the anxiety. I wouldn't say exactly there's something wrong with it. It's anxiety, generally speaking, painful. So, unenlightened beings, like Van Gogh and you, when they live in the realm of direct experience or even get access to it, if they're you feel anxiety. And anxiety isn't exactly bad, it's just painful. It's actually sort of an indication that you don't quite understand how to deal with life. So it's kind of a signal, like, to learn how to practice. You could learn to see that, oh, that's reminding me to practice. Now, what practice should I do? Generally speaking, in a situation described like this, I would recommend something like you said, like practicing meditating on loving-kindness.

[98:18]

That would be practicing it in the sense, I would say, of practicing tranquility. Or practice generosity, practice giving, if you have trouble getting into concentration. To go into the stories at that point when you're feeling very calm with the anxiety. If you feel anxiety and you're calm, those two can go together. You can feel quite calm and also feel anxiety. Anxiety and your calmness cannot be so painful. So when you're calm, even while you're still... Then, maybe, it would be time to look at the story. But to look at your stories when you're feeling almost overwhelmed by anxiety and not much tranquility, is probably not a good idea. It's probably better to, at that point, not do this meditation, which I'm recommending so strongly, but calm. And when you feel calm, then start looking at your actions, your intentions, and your intentions to, like, cope with the anxiety.

[99:29]

That's what I would suggest from what you said. I can't quite understand the relationship of intention and I think you said it's the same as stories yeah so the difficulty I'm having is like I could have a story about you which of course I do but how is that related like my It's like a neighbor time sort of shot. Well, let's say you see me, and the story you have about me is that I'm an old man who needs help getting across the street, and that I'm not in a very bad mood.

[100:36]

I'm kind of in a good mood. But I welcome your assistance. That's the story you have about me. And I really need your assistance, and there's nobody else around to help. And you happen to be, part of your story also is that you're a boy scout. So that's your story, is that you're related to me, and that you're a boy scout, and I'm an easy target for your boy scout. So you feel like, you feel the intention to help me go across the street. You think, I think that would be good. That would be like, I'll get a merit badge for that. So then that's your story of your relationship with me. And that is that you feel inclined in that way to relate to me in that way because you see yourself that way in relationship to me. And that will have consequences. And then we'll look to see if there are any positive consequences. We don't know for sure that it's a good intention, but it sounds pretty good for now.

[101:39]

I think so. And as we further work, we find out that that doesn't have a self because it depends on the consequence. That intention doesn't have the self of being a good intention because it depends on the consequence. If you try to help me across in the process, They run over and say, oh, that wasn't such a good thing, to act on that intention. And you might think, maybe I wasn't looking clearly, and then so on and so forth. So it's an ongoing process of deepening our understanding of the way our mind creates a story to make sense of our relationship with the universe. And that is the same as to say we're watching our mental activity, we're watching our karma. We're watching our intention, we're watching our intention, we're watching our intention. Yes?

[102:43]

Well, in sitting here, I could be having a story about you, that you're a good teacher, and I'm... That you're a good teacher. Okay. Go ahead with the story. But without any... I don't see the intention of that because I'm not, I just have this. Yeah, you might not see the intention of it. It's kind of simple. He's a good teacher. Yeah, so. But then he might look carefully and notice that you're sitting there listening to him. Say, oh, I guess I intend to listen to the good teacher. And say, oh, actually, he's not just a good teacher, but I want to listen to him. Yeah. I really want to listen to him. Actually, I'm quite clear that I do. So then, you know, when you see a relationship, You want to listen to this teacher. You might not notice it at first. It's also possible that you say, that's a good teacher, but I have to go to the bathroom. So I don't want to listen to the teacher anymore. Because people have left the room. And I don't think that that means they think I'm a bad teacher or a good teacher. They felt the intention to go to the toilet or something.

[103:45]

So sometimes you have a story in a relationship, And that's this kind of action, that you're listening. Sometimes you have a historic relationship, but you take a walk. All this is in relationship to how you see the world. And how you see the world is your basic action. So just seeing yourself in relationship to the world, that is an action. That's the basic road building. This is a teacher. This is an uncle. This is a grandfather. This is an enemy. This is a whatever. We're always doing that to our world. So if they retreat, From seeing the story, because I've been having difficulty with the first class because the intentions, I don't find it. And then in your lecture, you talk about story. Oh, there's stories all the time. I can see that.

[104:47]

So you're saying it's from the story to go deeper and find the intention. Yes, but also the story is the intention. I mean, I can't look. But I'll check it. Well, like if you have a story, if you have an intention to help somebody, that's a story. But if I have a story that you're a good teacher, that's to me, I can't see how it's the same as then having an intention to listen. It's not necessarily the same. Like I said, you could have a story that you're a good teacher and also that you do not want to listen to. You could have that. You're a good teacher, but I don't want to listen to you. I still see it as one and then the other. Oh, you see, one is seeing them and then the attention comes. Yeah, so then look at it and you'll see, I think maybe you'll be able to see that the way you see people structures what you think the person is and what you think you are, structures the relationship.

[105:56]

Like if you see somebody who's a good piano teacher, saxophone player and I wish to learn from him. But you might say, no, I think I can learn something about saxophone playing in a new way from a piano player. That would be two different stories, and that would be two different intentions. I just see it as very, very intentional. I don't see it as sort of being intentional. Are you saying this? Definitely. I'm saying in our intentions, I think people sometimes think that intention means something you're going to do. But this is saying that when you think of doing something, that is the basic action of our life. But you don't think of doing things out of context. You always think of doing things in a field of relationship. So intention is basically...

[106:58]

I'll tell you more about intention when I say intention is basically a pattern of relationship. That's what intention is. Is the story derived from that? Yes, but that is a story already. You say, I'm a son, that's a father. That's a good father, and I'm an obedient son. And so that starts to develop a tendency towards going to serve and be obedient to the father. The intention is to start to emerge as you see in the story, that I have this relationship with this person. That kind of direction seems to be arising, but it's arising from the pattern a relationship with the mind creates. If you think this is a bad father, In an obedient son, you still might follow. But if you say, it's a good father, but I've got to be a disobedient son, the relationship would be that you intend to not follow, not listen to him.

[108:05]

That's the only way you can see it. The attention is there in the relationship. It makes sense. Again, the reason why it makes sense is because now this is my intention to create this story. I'm doing the same thing again. Create a story to cope with all this chaos a few minutes ago. Any other? Yes. This is in response to Ron. Can I say something to him? Yes, please. Can she speak to you? Well, it took me a while. I think you're using the word intention a little differently than how it's normally used. I used to think of intention as something I was kind of going to do or even was intending to do right now. But you're saying that it's action, like any action, including thinking.

[109:13]

So just having a story is an action. Because it's, wow, it's the action of thinking. It's a mental activity. It's a mental activity. It's a mental creation. Is it enough then just to call it a story, recognize it as a story, and not have to try to work out how it's an intention? Because that's confusing to me. I'm trying to just, sorry, I'm watching the story. Yes, then you... It's fine. Okay. But what you just did was make up an intention. So the intention... Yeah, and the story. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. When you mentioned the Agatama Sutra, you said there was a chapter 4, and what was the other chapter you said? 11. 11, okay. And then the other question I had was, you mentioned aspiration. Did you say that to be synonymous in the intention, or were you looking for thinking?

[110:18]

I think aspiration, in a sense, is synonymous with intention, but we usually don't use aspiration. It's a nuance of aspiration. We don't usually say, I aspire to be cruel. I aspire to be selfish. It's used for things that we consider really good, that are really difficult but excellent to achieve. So we aspire to be a Buddha. But you can also say, we intend to be a Buddha. So again, we say, I, you know, the Buddha way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it. That's an aspiration. Now, at the time you say that, you might also actually feel like, the Buddha way is unsurpassable. Yeah, I vow to become it. Yeah. So you kind of feel like you really want to do that with what you're saying. Or you might even feel that inside.

[111:24]

And then, even though it's not at the end of a lecture or something, like you're walking around Greengold, you just suddenly feel it. The Buddha is fantastically wonderful, and I want to become that. And he might say it out loud, you know, even... He might look at you like... That's a great elaboration. Actually, at that moment, that might be your intention. But it's also possible to have said those words in the past. You have all said that in the past, right? You said it in the past and you maybe meant it just like that. But right now, you just really want to take a nap. The way you see it, it's like, okay, you know, I've worked hard now, and I want to take a nap, so I can do something awake. I would like to take a nap, and I would like to do this for the welfare of all beings, but I would like to take a nap, and really, that's what I want to do.

[112:30]

Now, is taking a nap for the welfare of all beings? You say, well, I want it to be. Is taking a nap for the sake of treasure? I want it to be. But you might not think that, but you just think, I want to take a nap. If that's what you think, then that's what you should be watching. I just want to take a nap, period. So some people say, what about in Zen? We say, well, just sweep the floor, or just take the nap. When you're hungry, take a nap. What about that? Fine. But please notice that you're sleepy and that you want to take a nap. Otherwise... You're gnawing the fact that you're tired and you can't take a nap. You're gnawing your attention. And if you do that, that's not Zen. It's just normal ignorance. That's a story when you say that I'm sleepy and I want to take a nap because sometimes I want to be awake.

[113:33]

It's a story. And before you take the nap, you have that story. As a matter of fact, if you have that story, and you know it's a story, and you're watching that, then if I say, Eric, I need your help, you know, and you say, well, I got this story that I should be taking a nap to help all beings, but actually you're a being, so I can maybe just help you right away without taking a nap. If you think, you know, it's federal, you know, then it's stuck on the stories, and then it's hard for you to get afraid to not fall through with some of these stories. Even though you've just done just a story you're going to cope with, you know, after work. Rather than just sort of be there with, like, the unborn after work. Standing there, anything to deal with this, any way to interpret this. But actually, it's okay. I'm not afraid. I don't even know how this happened, but

[114:37]

I'll tell you why it happened. Because you're studying your karma, and karmic hindrances drop away, and you'll be able to deal with your life without getting stuck on your stories. You still may have a story, but you're not using it to cope with your anxiety anymore. You're doing it just as a gift to the world. Whatever point. But no, I'm having the idea that there would be a suggestion. I'm having a suggestion, actually, that to take paying attention to your intention. You could have the intention to give attention to your intention. You could have the story that you're going to pay attention to your stories. Very good. The attention that's actually asked for is not another intention.

[115:39]

The attention is not another attention. It is actually the awareness of what your intention is right now. It coexists. You can be aware of your intention. That's not another intention. You could say, well, doesn't that influence the quality of the intention? And the answer is, yes. It changes it right away because intention is not a self. As soon as you watch it, it's changed. But not only that, but the consequence of the change, too. So the point of paying attention to our intention is the transformative process of practice, by which we will realize freedom. Because these intentions have consequence, and again, unattended consequences of obstruction, obstruction, obstruction to what? The Buddha way. The Buddha way is obstructed by the consequence of not studying our actions. The Buddha way becomes unhindered by studying our intentions.

[116:43]

The Buddha way becomes unobstructed by studying the story-making process of our mind. And so there can be an intention to do this, but the actual Practice is just awareness, actually. It's just on the activity of the light, actually. It's turning the light back on the activity of the light. And if you don't turn the light on the activity of the light, things get darker, and also the activities get less skillful. I think that's what you said was the chicken. Pressuring the light. Is the chicken? I think maybe I might be right. That may be the chicken. Yes? So this is a follow-up. So is awareness just awareness? Is that a mental activity? Okay. But awareness always comes with mental activity.

[117:46]

Buddhist psychology says when there's awareness, it comes with activity. When there's captivity, it comes with awareness. But awareness is just clear light. It's just clarity and illumination. It's known. It's clear known. Light has its cognition. Cognition has activity. Activity has consequence. Now you can say, doesn't cognition have consequence? Yes, it does. But we don't say that the consequence of cognition is world-making. Cognition arises, activity arises. Activity has consequences. This does too, but this is the one you have to watch. Everybody actually is watching. You naturally watch your cognitions, but you don't naturally watch the activity of your cognitions. Cognition, activity. Watch the activity, practice. karmic obstruction. Watch the activity actually remove karmic obstruction, not only not creating more, but remove the effects of past inattention.

[118:52]

So awareness, activity, awareness, activity, awareness, activity. Now, awareness. It's there. This is pain giving close attention to all your actions. And if you practice that consistently, you will understand the emptiness of this process. But again, in order to do this, we have to be fairly calm. So we may have to calm down quite a bit and stay on this story-making ball in such a way that we don't get agitated and stop looking and just be carried away by the story-making. I'm thinking about the 95 and 5%. You're 5%-edly talking about it? Yeah. 5% has come back. Is this looked at evolutionarily in the sense that is Buddhahood... synonymous with the percentages changing, or do the percentages stay constant?

[120:07]

In other words, when you were describing it earlier, that there are processes that mind and cognition and consciousness may not be able to grasp because it would make the process so hopelessly complicated. Well, the usual answer to this question, which I think might be good at this point, too, is that to the welfare of beings, to know the 95%, Buddha's knowing. If it helps people, Buddha's knowing. So that's the story about what happens. Thank you. However, it's also the story that gets transformed by studying carefully. Five percent. Okay. Jamie? Question about clarity.

[121:10]

How clear is your clarity in the face of your stories and how can you assess what clearly you're seeing? You still have a big wall in front of you obscuring your vision of how things work. You can clearly see the obstruction. So people can report, I don't see how we're working together in harmony, in peace. I don't see it. Be clear about that. And can you really bring clarity to other people? I mean, it seems like you have to To bring your clarity to other people, you have to be really aware of your own story? I don't know if the Buddha brings clarity to other people, but Buddha talks to other people in such a way that they can look at things and see clearly. Buddha can kind of like... But the example that he sometimes uses, if you climb to the top of a mountain and look down, you can see certain things. And if you tell somebody, a friend of yours who's down at the bottom of the mountain, what you see, they say,

[122:15]

You know, there's really a clear view up here. So you have to go down the hill and take their hand and kind of walk them up to the top of the hill. And they see all. So because of your clarity, you need to go and talk people up the mountain so that they can see. But they have to see for themselves. Otherwise, the Buddha, the great powerful Buddha, Boom, boom, boom. But the way Buddha zaps people actually is when they're ready, the Buddha shows them how to see. And so I'm emphasizing that the way to learn how to see is to notice what you can notice. Because you do have mental activity every moment. So turn the light back on that and see how it works. See, if it's almost immediately helpful, and if it's not, usually it is not, usually because they're not calm enough.

[123:18]

When they do it, they immediately feel more grounded, and they have something to confess and repent. And that process also, they notice, helps them feel more confidence that they're on the path of the Buddhas, because the Buddhas do this practice. Shakyamuni Buddha did this practice. So I do this practice too. I guess I'm trying to use the word clarity in that sense. I mean, we sort of, our intentions are with each other. Sometimes, you know, we don't, we aren't very clear with each other about what we want to say. We try to layer it. We have that story about what the other person is and then what we're trying to ask them or what we're trying to communicate with them isn't clear, right? It isn't clear to them. It doesn't come across clear because we're not really saying what we're trying to say.

[124:27]

That's possible, but even someone who is very clear about what they're saying could also feel that this person is maybe not ready to hear this teaching. So the Buddha said, some people, some things, or rather the Buddha would teach. If the Buddha saw some people, the Buddha would just walk by, because the Buddha doesn't see that they have a way of teaching this person today. And in most cases, when you have stories of Buddha speaking to a group, the story doesn't say that everybody in the group understood the teaching. But some people, when they're ready, especially if the Buddha meets them one-on-one, and went there because he thought they would be ready, the Buddha talks to this person. And while talking to this person, the person comes to see. And one of the main ways the Buddha talked to people was to talk to them in such a way that they would start looking at them. And looking at their own intention, they start to see things like impermanence. And that drives them to see not-self by looking at this topic.

[125:29]

So he directs them to meditate in such a way that their vision clears. If you're not so skillful, then you would be less effective. But even the Buddha couldn't teach some people on some days On the other hand, you could say he was incredibly successful because he taught quite a few people. I mean, he enlightened many people, but he couldn't enlighten everybody that he met. In fact, sometimes there was nobody in the neighborhood who wasn't enlightened that he could enlighten. Like he sometimes had lots of enlightened people around him, and then there was a bunch of unenlightened people. And he couldn't help them. As a matter of fact, he had his enlightened students helping those unenlightened people because he couldn't help them. Maybe they could better than him. Because that's just part of the karmic thing is that who can help you is also part of it. So even the Buddha sometimes couldn't give a person the kind of instruction that could wake them up today or even in the next few weeks.

[126:37]

And maybe nobody can. It's a situation that they do not wish to listen. Sometimes we would do magical tricks, you know, to snap people out of it. But that's still because the person's ready for a magical trick. You know, like... And some people go... And then they hear, you know, that story of the crazy lady who was just, like, totally nuts because... basically living in the river. And the Buddha said, regain your presence in mind, sister. And she just, you know, she just snapped out of it. Her insanity just dropped away. And she said, oh. And then she became his enlightened disciple. Not immediately, but she immediately snapped out of her major, you know, psychosis. He could do that sometimes, but not always. Not everybody's ready.

[127:38]

So, trying to help people, not everybody can understand. But he did mainly teach this cause and effect. That was his main teaching, as to get people ready to open up, not so much to non-cause and effect, but to the emptiness of cause and effect. But you get there, cause and effect. And he was more or less successful with different people. So we will be more or less successful with ourselves, and therefore with others. But if you deal with yourself and you find it very helpful, and you look, and you think it would help other people, this intention arises, which you watch, to teach this to them, if they want to, if they invite you to, if they come to an intensive. And you say, okay, how about this? And they listen. Any feedback?

[128:41]

You guys have feedback on me, don't you? I have a question back to the supra and the self. Yes. Is it of use, or does one, how do one, you're actually accessing supra with the post to self, liminal awareness? What's your access to gears? Subliminal. Subliminal is something that doesn't have access. Access doesn't make sense subliminally. You basically are without any access or egress or regress. You're just there in the non-dual direct experience, no matter the access. It's more a matter of learning to live with it without coping. It's more a matter of how to open to this direct experience. And our direct experience is superliminal.

[129:42]

And that's where we practice morality. That's where we pay attention to our stories. And that develops the skill and openness to a realm where access doesn't make any sense. That's how we're there together with everybody. Any other people who haven't been called on yet? Yes? When you were talking about awareness and mental activity, I missed where cognition fits in. Cognition, awareness, cognition, life, synonyms. Cognitive process, conscious process, knowing process, perceptual process, synonyms. I like to use different words when you hear the different words. Can you repeat that?

[130:47]

Cognitive process and life process and perceptual process and conscious process, they're synonyms for me. And those processes come with activities. in a sense, is kind of an activity, but it's really, it's a relationship. It's your relationship with the world. Cognition is. Perception is the way your body's interacting with the sensible universe. And when that way of living arises, it comes with an ability, a mental construction ability. And the mental construction is the overall pattern of your consciousness at the moment. And that's a rendition, that's a cognitive rendition, a representation of your relationship with the world, which is your knowing. So the activity of mind makes a story about your knowing.

[131:51]

Or you could say it makes a story about what you know. And there's various aspects of how you know them. You know them as painful or pleasant. You know them as good or bad. You know them as something you're going towards or away. This changes, this influences the way you know what you know. And that's mental activity. Okay? You wouldn't call it cognition? No, because cognition is not just mental. Well, cognition can... has mental activity, cognition has mental activity, and cognition also has physical activity and verbal activity. Three kinds of karma. Cognitive. All cognitive. One of them is mental, and the other two are physical. So physical karma is cognitiva.

[132:54]

It's a physical limitation of cognition. Originally... Can you give an example of what you just said? What you just said is an example, I think, but definitely what I'm saying now is I intend to answer your question. There is a cognitive element in my... I see myself in relationship to you and the group, such that I think it would be appropriate for me to respond to you. And this kind of talking has intention in it, has a story in it. It's a cognitive speaking. It's not a non-cognitive speaking. Non-cognitive. Well, if I choked you, you know, you know, that wouldn't be cognitive. Which would it be, choking or the... I saw it. The choking with the, right? I could intend to put my elbow on the couch, but actually put it around your throat.

[134:10]

That would be non-intentional. Yes, and non-intentional activity is not what Buddha is talking about. It doesn't have any intention in the action, mental, physical, or vocal. It doesn't have moral impact. If you were being choked by a branch that fell out of a tree, and being choked, you exhale, and you're like, ah! That sound, you wouldn't have intended to make that sound. You might not have even intended to breathe, exhale. But maybe the branch pushed on your chest, and caused air to come out of your throat, and you made a sound, which somebody might have thought you were saying. So, okay. So anything that's not kind of less of a sound, will, or volition, voluntarily, voluntarily, yes, and if it's cognitive.

[135:14]

Cognitive, because will is... The cognitions arise with the capacity to create wills, and they always do, they never miss. And so that is the original, moment by moment, karma. And that can be ramified into speech and postures. Watching the speech and postures and particularly noticing the intention in them, and the intention in mental cognitions, is to notice mental and physical cognition. You do see the hand shape, but you're looking also at the movement in the hand shape. That you make this shape, or this shape, or this shape. You make them with certain attention. That is what you're watching, and that will bring you to see.

[136:15]

that nothing whatever has a binding self. If we don't look at this cognitive element, that tends to make us less likely to be able to see. Because one of the consequences of these actions is that obstructions arise when they're unskillful and unintended. And unskillful and unintended are partners. So attention still needs to be brought to skillful action. to bring attention to all kinds of action, even unskillful, karmic obstructions are then removed, and they're removed by the practice of confession and repentance. A lot with observation. Isn't that simple? Yes? Can you bring awareness to an intention without having a purifying intention, as you described it? You could, yeah. But sometimes you could without having that... That vow.

[137:21]

Yes. It can happen that way. Causes and conditions are not... This isn't a deterministic process. So somebody who had never heard about this teaching, who isn't the least bit interested in it, if they did hear about it, sometimes might look and say, I'm up to something here. I see myself in relationship to him, and I'm trying to do this." That awareness would be exactly what a practitioner would be intending, avowing to do, but might not do. So somebody who doesn't want to do it might do it, and somebody who does want to do it might not be able to do it. So that's part of the reason for having Buddhas, is they're kind of like rooting for us, in a very nice way, rooting for us to practice that way. And without that, we might not be able to. Well, I got the impression when you were describing purifying intention that when the juxtaposition is created, you have access to the superliminal at that point, that there's this created tension between the two swords.

[138:28]

You know, the story of the vow. Yes, but you can also purify intention by just watching intention without juxtaposition of your current intention with some aspiration. Your intention will purify the intention. But that chapter brought in these great aspirations on particular situations as another type of practice, which is also recommended. You don't have to bring in these aspirations in these situations. You can just look in these situations. Instead of when you brush your teeth, you hope that all people develop a mind that can gnaw through illusion. That's one of the verses. So instead of saying that when you're brushing your teeth, you might say, well, what is my intention in brushing my teeth? And if you notice, it's to have nice breath, and it's also to encourage mental hygiene. That's my intention. Or my intention is to brush my teeth really roughly, so I bruise my tissues and make my mother angry at me.

[139:36]

That's my intention. I want to make her really upset. mean intention, that kind intention, that also will purify the intention. And that will cultivate a sense of emptiness in the intention then, as well? Not so much cultivate a sense of it. Yeah, it'll cultivate a vision of it. It will become clear to you. The emptiness of gums, teeth... Karmic instruction will drop away as you meditate on your actions. Bringing these verses these Bodhisattva verses into your process, it's often very helpful for various reasons. But you don't have to bring any of those verses in. The most important thing, I think, in a way, the most important thing is to notice what you're doing. But bringing those verses in for a lot of people helps them become aware of what they're doing. Like people who are doing a lot of prostrations, you know, while they're doing them, you think, what am I doing this for?

[140:39]

What am I doing this for? After many thousands of vows, you start to just start seeing what you're up to. And when you finish, you're much purer. Even if you didn't have any intentions. However, then you also have vows that you say over and over too. So these practices sometimes bring our attention to it. But another way is just bring your attention to it. But we still do both. We go to the zendo. We do chanting. We sit. These practices also expose the sitting with your intention. So they also, the forms also help you bring your attention to it. Which is, as you said, now and then, the zendo. What do you think we're doing here? We're going to tend to it. I see some hands, but it's 11.30.

[141:42]

Should we go on, or do we have enough? I just wondered where the feature was. That's it. We want to know where the feature is? I think it's called the... It's a fat book. Is it on reserve? Is it on reserve? Could you put this on reserve? And also, somebody, Brass Catherine, or Catherine's apprentice, could print this out. Has scanned the sutra, so we could print out the chapter. or in Chapter 11. And some of these could be available in the library, maybe. OK. So . This is a library. Are you a librarian? Who's the librarian? . Tricia, do you want to go to the dining room?

[142:52]

I guess I feel so well, so get to see me. Don is fully empowered. Don is fully empowered to help you. And I even have a copy right here. Can you also say what the choice that you've been from? You've got Mary Lynn Robinson, and that's why I want to put Marilyn Robinson, because that's what I love. Oh, is this an article in a book that you've got to read? It was an article that she wrote about fiction writing, and it's in a magazine called A Public Space that I bought at the depot a few weeks ago. But when I get the magazine back from Red, I can show it to you. So she's a very smart lady who was dealing with this very topic. Yes. I think I heard Jean maybe over there after asking about the river and the road, and I'm not sure if you've mentioned Ben Oak Creek and the Famish Road.

[144:00]

Ben Oak Creek, the Famish Road. That's the first sentence of the book. But... I'm not sure what he said. There's a novel called the Famish Road. Oh. And that... It's not something like what I said, it's the beginning of that novel. Most people just like the first sentence. But he did say that. And I gave him a prize from that first event. Well, is it that all mental diaries are intentional? And our intention is a local dharma, but it seems like the way you're talking about intention is that virtually all of them were conceptually intention.

[145:21]

Or maybe it's the combination of all of them. The one definition of the mental dharma, which is translated as intention or will or motivation, Just to take that out into the definition. The definition of that mental factor is the synergy of all the mental factors. It's the overall texture or landscape of the whole state of consciousness, including all the different mental factors. And there was some debate among early psychologists. They said, why even make that a dharma? Because it's just the overall pattern. Why make that another dharma? So they debated about whether they should I guess they had this list of diamonds. They did not have another category called pattern without making one of the things. So they said that. But I think what you're saying is recognize the fact that all the different parts, all the different mental factors which comprise the overall field, which is the intention, each one of them has an intention too.

[146:32]

So the intention is actually, you can't find the attention in the field of intention. And every one of those mental factors also is a cognition. And each one has an activity. And each one has a world. So that's part of what you discover when you study this, is worlds within worlds, right in every state of mind. So you can't get at anything because everything beginningless, and endless, and boundless, and bottomless, and topless, and sightless. And that's what it's up to when you study the overall pattern, the individual elements, is you start to understand interdependence and emptiness. And as all of that is infused with intention, maybe the one thing, one natural event that's not intentional is the attention to the attention. Well, you just said no, because that would have intention too.

[147:36]

I think you said earlier that something asked attention to intention, and you said that's not an end of the intention. Well, that was before you said what you said. Attention is a word. So one of the mental factors is attention. The mental factors are not usually called the whole feeling. The feeling is in the feel too. We don't usually use feeling to turn towards feeling. We use attention to turn the mind towards feeling through meditating on mindfulness of feeling. So one of the elements in the field is the ability to turn the mind. We call it diverting attention or decision. There's an element like the mind that turns in certain directions. So to turn the attention there, that's one of the factors which is always present. Most people's attention is not turned towards the overall feeling. The intention is there and has consequences now and in the future. But people aren't necessarily attending to it.

[148:39]

One of the elements is attending, but we're trying to encourage that element to go towards the karma, because it's so important to pay attention to it. Does that make sense? But still, the attention is all over the place. because it is the all-other place of the thing. So it pervades all the different parts of the whole. So that element that you just described isn't awareness, though? No. It's just inverting towards. It's called inverting intention, or bending the mind to different elements of it. It's a mental factor. It's not the basic cognition. Cognition is just the basic sense of the presence of something. And the presence is the sense of the presence of some part of the universe that's strongly impacting you right now, that you're dancing with very intensely. A smell, a bunch of colors you smell together as a person, a living being or a non-living being that you're having an intense relationship with right now.

[149:53]

In the process of life, of knowing, you have a sense of presence. And that comes with every moment of life. With every cognition. And you can make up a story about it. And you can attend to the story. Or not. Attending to it is basic practice. Not attending to it Basic ignorance. Basic ignorance. Basic distraction. Yes. I'm calling on people who have not been calling me. Is the point where you're beginning or making up the point where the sense of the self comes in? Or is the sense of the self there? There is a sense of a separate self in the story. It comes up right with the story.

[150:56]

But I'm asking whether there's a sense of it before making up the story. No. However, there is a sense in making up the story that it was before. You make up, sometimes, frequently, you make up a story that the self in the story was there before the story was made. I was here before I just made a story about our meeting. So now I'm having this meeting, it's a lovely meeting, and I was here before that. And that's part of the story. We don't usually notice. But again, as you notice your story at each meeting, if you look more carefully, you think, yeah, I thought I was here before that person came. And I guess I think they were maybe there before they came to see me too. That's part of what comes up right now And there's also a sense, which is a mental factor, not a reality, that this is the same person I was talking to a minute ago. It's a mental factor saying this is the same.

[152:00]

Or this is the same thing I usually do. A sense of sameness is a mental factor. Everything is really fresh. But we have a thing that this is old. But not... Down here, we can't get ahold of them. We have lots of new people, so I'm going to keep calling on them. Michelle? In the river, there is only patterns. There are patterns, yes, but they're unidentified. Unidentified. When I built, when the road start building, it's only... There is a software. Can you say again what you just said? When there's a what? When... It's building the road, building starts. Yes. Individuation. In the sense that... Can I say something right there?

[153:04]

Can I? Yeah. There's actually individuation in the river, too. It's just it's unidentified individuation. And it's individuation that depends on other things. Then at the road building, you make a story about the individuation so you can identify it. Because we're trying to get as far as the self as in the river. The self in the river would be the way you are. The way the universe makes you at that moment, that's yourself. That's not an independent self. That's totally something you don't make. But it's you that's made by the world. It's the way you live. It's the way you're living as your relationship with the world. That's yourself.

[154:07]

The way you relate to the world is different than the way a mountain relates to the world. The way the mountain relates to the world is the mountain's life. The mountain's not a living being, but it has a self. ...relate to mountains, other mountains, and the way they relate to forests and people is a certain way. That's the self of the mountain. But that's totally interdependent, that self. And the mountain doesn't think. I'm separate from these other mountains and the rivers and the forests. The mountain doesn't think that. The universe makes us into something who is not separate, of course. and who thinks they are, who can do that. But originally, we're actually in a relationship where we're not separate, but we still can think we are, and when we make up a story, then we have the story of the self and other, and independence and so on. And that's a story which is a coping mechanism, and we just have to get over it by studying.

[155:12]

We have to leap beyond it by studying. not have to, but if we want to work for happiness, it's exercises. I mean, the essential exercises. Is that somewhat clear? Yeah. Good. Ellen? I'm trying to understand the purpose of making a distinction between the voluntary and involuntary. And are you saying that if you're aware of something that you do involuntarily, that there is not an evolutionary process happening at that point? Yeah. And also, if you're not intending to, If you do attend to it, it doesn't really have much evolutionary impact, and if you don't attend to it, your attention doesn't have much evolutionary impact. So, for example, the growth of your nails, or the growth of your hair, or the growth of your teeth, if you don't attend to these processes of your body in relationship to the world, it doesn't seem to cause much problem.

[156:25]

But if you don't attend to your intentions, it seems to cause great obstruction. And if you do attend to them, it seems to lead to liberation. Would you say it's not even subtle karma then? Excuse me. That your hair is growing and your fingernails growing, that's not even subtle karma? I would say it has to do with cause and effect, because your body is, to some extent, part of the world, which is a result of karma. It's a more karmic result than more karma. So karmic result, I'm not saying karmic result is not important to be aware of, because if you're not aware of karmic result, it would be hard to be aware of current karma. Because current karma uses karmic result as part of its increase. But attention to the karmic result is not the main thing. It's attention to your attitude towards it, or your story about it.

[157:31]

So if you're in hell, even, which might be said to be a karmic result, it's not so important that you look at hell, what your response to hell is. But I'm not saying being in hell isn't important. I'm just saying that evolutionary opportunity is what's your attention to. I still see any involuntary action as a response. That is a karmic response. And that even a subtle awareness, an awareness of that subtlety seems to... It is, but it's not related to your individual karma. It's not your karma. It's the karma of the entire world. You don't make your own body. It's not the result of your own personal karma. Really? I see that it is. I see it's a product of my mind. Yes, so I'd say your body is part of the physical world. And the physical world is not due to your own individual karma.

[158:36]

It's due to all of our karma. I don't see my body as a result of my personal karma only. But I do have a personal lineage that I can watch. So I watch my current karmic activity. And I'm aware of my body, but I make my body. You people make my body more than I do. So that's why I don't watch my body. as watching karma. I watch my body as a way to watch my karma. My posture, and my breathing, and my feelings, and my state of consciousness. And that warms me up to see the whole picture which my mind has created. So I need to pay attention to this. But paying attention to my body is not paying attention to karma.

[159:37]

tuning in, meditating on karma, without attention to the body. I don't feel like I'm tuning into my karmic activity when I tune into my posture. But to try to tune into my storytelling without turning into my body, I don't think works. First tune into the body, the breathing, the feelings, the state of consciousness, and now the subtleties, and then storytelling. So some people may go directly to storytelling without being aware of what foot they're standing on, and I would say, hallelujah, great, I'm glad you can do it. But most people don't do very well. They skip over the basics, you know, foundations of mindfulness. But anyway, we can talk about this more later if you want to bring it up for the discussions of the world. World creating is a communal event. As a communal event, your current karma is more that you're supposed to be watching inside of this physically created world, a communally created world.

[160:52]

That's what I'm proposing. But I'm open to debate. There was another distinction, possibly, which was you described voluntary action and involuntary action, but then there are also unintended consequences of voluntary action. Like the example you gave of how you might involuntarily choke. Jane, that you had an intention, a voluntary action, to put your shoulder on the sofa, but you accidentally hit her throat. And so that choking her in that case would be involuntary, right? But I'm wondering if we also do want to attend to the unintended consequences of our voluntary actions. And that's part of how you discover that you actually do not have a self. Because even though you wholeheartedly want to help someone, you see that even though you did, if it isn't helpful, you're open to the possibility that maybe it wasn't so helpful.

[162:00]

So the best intentions still depend on the consequences. And also the consequences are never completely in You know, I shouldn't say never. Consequences may take a long time to come in. You may not be able to see them come in, which is part of the complexity of this. We're looking at cause and effect. We're not just looking at the intention. We're looking at the consequences. And we often intend good, and we feel like we're not sure that we really did come to the front as good. The thing that I'm proposing most strongly is that attending to the intention is the highest good in the practice. That that will liberate us from this process. Because getting good is still cognitive inclusion. Getting the results of good is still a world that was separating us to some extent. The results of good are promoting us to be able to see through this process.

[163:05]

But now it's getting like Guillaume. You need a break time before service, right? And the service needs to get a break time before service, too. Because you don't want the service to be taking breaks while you're serving. Is it okay to stop then? Even though I see there's still quite a few. I really welcome your feedback and debate. All these stories I'm telling, these are not true stories. It's not true. It's a story. I'm an enthusiast. And our adventure will be great, and to every land and place.

[163:49]

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