Do you have any questions about the practice of Buddha's meditation or the practice of meditation which is enlightenment? If you had to describe it with one verb, such a practice, what would it be?

[01:12]

He said, if you describe it with one verb, what would that verb be? Sit. Is sit a verb? No, it's a noun. It's a verb. Oh, it's a verb. Not it, it's sit. Sit, S-I-T. Oh, sit. Which tense? How is ordinary cognition?

[02:21]

Ordinary cognition is a bond between a sensuous body a sensible field, and a previous cognition. That's an ordinary cognition. It's actually a bond, you know, a karmic bond, a causal relationship. And that relationship is cognition. When those conditions are there, sometimes there's cognition. When there's cognition, those relationships are there. Not every time that relationship's there is there cognition, however. So that's a cognition, which is a relationship, a bond between these things.

[03:36]

And then one of those cognitions also has a bond with other cognitions. and enlightened. Some cognitions have been enlightened by their bond to all other cognitions. Each cognition to all cognitions and also all things that are not cognitions, that bond is a cognition. Just like some of the things in the bond are sensible data, Some of the things in the bond are . Some of them are cognitions. All these things, all these forms of being, enlightened and unenlightened, that total relationship is another cognition. It's called the mind or Buddha mind. It is cognition.

[04:40]

And it's there every moment. but we're often close to it. We're sometimes not very aware even of our sort of up-close particular cognitions. They're there too, fleetingly. And we usually start in practice by becoming aware of our particular cognition. And the particular cognitions come with functions, activity, and those activities have the consequence of obscuring the vision of the particular cognition to the Buddha mind, to Buddha cognition, to enlightenment. Limited cognitions can still study their limitations and their karmic activity and take in teachings about that and find a way to see through their context into a way of being which is already so.

[06:06]

You don't have to start being a new way, you're just open to this mind which already includes you, which already includes you, your linguistic consciousness is included within this non-dual cognition. So I think it's a little hard for us to understand even our own cognition that knowing is a relationship. And that knowing basically has light. And that relationships have light. And the nature of knowing is that it's clear light. It's clear light, or it's clear and has light. Has light, gives light. As a normal cognition has that, the normal cognition is also

[07:11]

have misapprehensions, misunderstandings too, associated with them. And all these individual cognitions are included within one Buddha mind. But also things that are not cognitions are included there too, because the cognitions, each individual cognition, to some extent, non-living material. And sense organs, which are not strictly speaking cognitions. So bodies, sensitive bodies, material interacting and all the cognitions interacting, all the totality of that in a given moment is a cognition and is a mind and is the the source and the means by which the individual cognitions can be enlightened.

[08:23]

The individual cognitions are trained, they can open to this relationship in which they're already living, which is actually pulsing light to them all the time, but these cognitions are sometimes you know, caught up in their activity to such an extent that all they see is obstruction due to past activity. Does that make sense, somewhat? So that's the theory behind the practice. And there's a practice to realize that enlightenment. This which actually does realize that enlightenment, like treating everybody the same, realizes it.

[09:30]

But as you know, it's hard to understand how to treat everybody the same. That's a gesture towards a practice which is in accord with and realizes this, this cognition. Because our normal cognitions treat people, see, it differentiates and gets caught by those differentiations, which we accept. Because those being caught should be also treated the same as not being caught. And we don't have to worry about not being caught too much because we hardly ever see that, but we should need to learn how to treat being caught as we would if we were not being caught. We can treat being in bondage the same way we would if we ever saw any freedom. We need to learn how to treat bondage the same way we would treat freedom.

[10:36]

Now, you don't know what freedom is, but you... thankful for it. Like you might say, wow, this is more like it. Or if not more like it, this is like it. I like it. No, this is even better than like. So if freedom came, you'd probably say, thank you very much. Or something like that. Or, you know, I'm not complaining that it took so long. I'm just grateful that it came now. How about for every delusion? Welcome. You didn't take long to get here, but I'm grateful that you came. To every experience and every person and every animal and every plant, the same, namely, as an honored guest you feel different about every guest, but each one you train to really honor every single guest wholeheartedly.

[11:54]

And of course we have trouble doing that. We tend to honor some guests a little bit. Okay, this is a lack of faith in practice, which we confess. That's a practice. That's a part of the practice. It's one of the great things about Islam is they're really good at welcoming people. I mean they really wholeheartedly take care of guests. They honor their guests. I've seen a little bit of it and it's very impressive. Of course, not all people are disciples of Islam and practice it very well, but those who do, it's very close to the practice of a Buddha. You spoke before about

[13:01]

It's helpful to find freedom. If you live with people, you can have a conversation and have some agreement about it. But don't look at people that you care very much about them and try to create a boundary, but they're not. You may be confronted by it or misunderstand it or they don't believe in boundaries. How do you your own sense of boundary and study with somebody when you're trying to work something out with somebody who doesn't go for that.

[14:14]

Did you hear what she said? Okay. Well, you said when you don't... Sometimes when you do this with somebody, they fall into that category you just mentioned for somebody you don't live with, namely with children. You want to develop some understanding of a boundary with the child. They often do not want to have anything to do with that. I see these right on the edge of homicide with their darling little children who are pushing very, very hard to not go along with the boundary. Like, you know, little boys who want to go into a ballet class for little girls and not... And their mother said, you can't come in there and they want to go in and they... How do you... establish that boundary with them. They do not want to work with the boundary. So then you're trying to establish a boundary with them.

[15:15]

So even in your own family, it's sometimes very difficult to come to cooperate with some of the members of your family, to feel like they're cooperating with you. You're, of course, cooperating with them, but they don't want to cooperate with you. because they don't think that you're cooperating with them. So you don't think they're cooperating with you and they don't think you're cooperating with them. And we live in the same house, we're in the same family. So what do we do with that? I think you said something about, I don't know, you said something with gestures like hold on to or maintain your limits or your boundaries. You study, yes. Study is not necessarily the same as holding on to. You notice that you have a boundary, or you notice that you'd like to have a boundary, and you think it would be helpful. You've heard it might be helpful.

[16:17]

You think it would be helpful. But the person you're working with doesn't yet agree. So how do you offer this? I would start by saying you offer this boundary. You don't exactly even try to establish it. You more like have it be a gift. You offer it as a gift. Here's what I would like to establish. I really would. But I'm also offering this information to you as a gift. And I'm not necessarily holding on to this boundary, but I am giving this boundary rather than any other one. This is my favorite boundary to give you right now. And then you're studying it. This is what you think is helpful. This is what you're offering. And then you watch to see what response you get. And you study that. And you keep watching.

[17:19]

Are you watching to see if you're setting a boundary or if you're setting a boundary plus being attached to some expectation about what's going to happen when you offer this? Then it's not just giving the boundary. It's not just giving. It's almost like taking a person, a commitment to your boundary, what you're offering. We need to offer it. And again, offering it is an opportunity. And to be very clear, it's an opportunity to establish, to realize that you're working closely with this person. And at first it may look like you're not working closely with this person. And they will say, I don't want to work with you on this boundary. I think, I don't want to cooperate with you setting this up. You know, I don't want to brush my teeth before I go to bed. I don't want to take a bath before I go to bed. But you would like to establish that form between the boundary between taking a bath and not taking a bath.

[18:25]

You'd like to establish the boundary and then have them do it on the bath side of the boundary. That's what you want. You actually do want that and you give that information to this child. And then you watch happens when you offer it and you watch to see, are you really giving it? Are you giving it? Or are you trying to get something from it? And you watch and you see and you watch and you see and you watch how they respond. And it is also possible that you really stay in the giving mode and they cooperate or they don't. But they often don't, because they're children, and it takes them a long time to learn that they do want to cooperate, that you are their good friend. Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don't. But in this case, they don't get it.

[19:28]

But you're giving it, and you're not attached to it, and you experience the joy of giving this boundary, giving this lesson without any expectation, and watching to see how wonderful that is, and feel great joy at that gift, and notice that this person is not yet, the gift they're giving you is that they don't want to do this, and you feel grateful to let them be a person who does not want to go along with what you're establishing. But in failing to set up a boundary, you may realize freedom from boundaries. in failing to establish a boundary with someone. You're trying to, but you're failing. In the failure of setting up the boundary, you may more deeply than ever before realize that this is a close friend of yours. Oftentimes, you want to set up a boundary with someone and they cooperate, and then you think, oh, they're my close friend.

[20:37]

That's fine. I don't mind. But sometimes when you're not cooperating and they don't agree with it, you may even realize more deeply that they're your close friend. Now you realize that all the times when they didn't agree with you and were fighting you, they were your close friend then. And you also realize all the people on the planet are your close friends. Because this person you're having the most intense disagreement with, the greatest failure of your greatest effort, and you realize, oh, this is my close friend here, and I've been supporting them the whole time to disagree with me. I've been featuring their opposition all the while, and they've been successfully opposing me because I've been helping them. And they've been helping me in my giving, and now they've helped me into my realization of our closeness. And they still don't get it, but they're in it. And I'm so happy that they understand so I can help them better now.

[21:43]

And I'm not afraid of failing with them. And I will continue to try to do these things which I will perhaps continue to fail at. But I'm not afraid of failure anymore. I'm capable of failure with their help. But I'm not afraid anymore. And therefore I won't be violent with them anymore. And by not being violent with them and being generous with them, I have come to see. Now, by practicing nonviolence with them and noncoercion and generosity, now I see. And if I had seen before, I wouldn't even have had to do these practices. They would have just naturally flowed forth from my vision. But now I also see. And now I can help them even better than before. this is the happiness that I've been looking for. And the generosity coming from my understanding rather than just my understanding of the virtues of generosity.

[22:50]

I can't practice otherwise now that I see who this person is and who I am. Yeah, you're welcome. And it's possible to have realization without setting up boundaries, but the deepening of them, the deeper and deeper, more full realization, depends on forms, which we, again, we kind of, it's counterintuitive. We kind of think that we should be able just to sort of schmooze into intimacy. But actually, as you get more and more intimate, you need to get more and more formal. I propose that to you. Your opposition. Yes? Yeah, like right now?

[23:52]

That's a good one to use. What's wrong with that? There's a boundary there, yeah. I'm stuck in the teacher born? Yeah, I feel really obscured around the fact that I think I need a teacher, for example. Oh, you think that's going on? Okay. Excuse me, I heard you say you had the idea you needed a teacher, and then I missed what you said after that. There are various levels, like that idea, for example, that I need a teacher based on that idea of who I think I am. And so it's like, I'm totally missing out on my relationship because I'm hanging on my ideas, who I am, her idea, who you are. You are? You're holding on to those ideas? No, that's pretty much screwing our relationship. That's screwing all my stuff.

[24:53]

Wait a second. Are you holding on to the ideas of student and teacher? Is that what you're saying? Oh, and you're also, you're not saying you're holding on to them, you're just saying that these ideas are obscuring our relationship? Okay. And our relationship is to help you look at that obscurity, and become free of it. That's sort of the, kind of like one of the subtitles of our relationship is, Obscuration Removing Relationship. But that means there's obscurations to work with. So it's not like, obscurations, wait a minute, you didn't say obscurations. No, no, no. We did say so. You signed a contract which said part of the thing of the relationship is going to be working with obscurations. So you've got obscurations. Show us the contract.

[25:54]

I'm just kidding. She's got the contract. You show it to him later, okay? Did you want to sign one? Have you won two? I just don't remember signing it. Well, why don't you get one and sign it, and I'll stamp it. Okay, so you got the contract. The freedom is something next to the obscuration? Yeah, our relationship is free of my ideas and your ideas. It is free of our obscurations. I said the obturation is as real as your nails and your teeth.

[27:00]

For us, it's as real as those things. Yes, I did. But that's not our relationship. That's just our ideas of our relationship. Our teeth are not our relationship. Our eyes are not our relationship. Our relationship is light. It's ungraspable. It's totally not separate, not separate at all. If it were separate, it wouldn't be light. Light's not separate from things. So the radiance and wisdom and enlightenment of our relationship, including everybody else in that too, are teeth. But our teeth, connected to our jaw, connected to our eyeballs, which are sensitive to radiation, gives rise to cognitions, And these cognitions are obscured. And these cognitions are not separate from our teeth and so on.

[28:04]

And they're not separate from other cognitions which are not separate from their teeth. So there's no separation. Everything's working together. And there's obscuration due to past thinking of our teeth. But actually our relationship is not hindered and not obscured. It's just that for the obscured, for the obscured consciousness, it's obscured. It's actually our relationship is shining bright all the time. But we also have cognitions which are obscured. And it's real for those cognitions. But what they're looking at is not obscured. And it is free. It's just obscured from that one point of view. But just because several people are obscured about a clear shining light doesn't mean the clear shining light is obscured. It's obscured for them. And there's a reality in that. But the thing is actually not obscured.

[29:07]

Can you handle that two sides of that coin? It's obscured for these people, but not for those people, and not in itself is it obscured. However, it's not at least but separate for those who are obscured. obscuration only occurs in the mind. So there is mental obscurations and we can study them, though. It's possible to study them. Right? Pardon? Well, you want me to tell you about studying the obscurations? Well, I thought you just notice some, so in your noticing of them, that was an example of studying them. Have you noticed them? The last time you noticed one? Yeah, so that's an example. That's a way of studying them. You can also hear from other people that they've got obscurations.

[30:13]

And then you can feel compassion for them and patience with them and generosity towards them. Let the obscurations be obscurations. Be generous towards everybody's obscuration, including your own. Don't miss a chance to practice generosity towards any obscuration you meet, no matter whether it's sort of like so-called insight. In this way, you become less and less afraid of obscurations and more and more full of joy. May I ask something? Sure, go ahead. The thought that I'm having right now is very much based on previous cognitions. She's having a cognition based on previous cognitions, yes. I don't know.

[31:29]

I want to... Pardon? You want to... I think it's just like being bound to that serious. I'm just seeing the bound that one just keeps saying. And so I'm pretending that and... Generosity towards the situation? Yes? Good. We need that from you. We need you to be generous towards your mind. Let your mind be your mind. Give your mind to your mind and get credit for that as giving.

[32:33]

Is it in the contract? It could be in the contract. Yes? So the question for me is, there seems to be an interdependence It's a good word. When we notice the outspoken, it changes. Doesn't everything change? Well, it's not so much when you notice that it changes, but also when you notice that you notice it's changing. If you don't look at things, you don't notice their change. You might even think, So people who don't look at their mind, they think they have the same mind they had a while ago. They could think that. But the more you look at it, the more you see that it's changing.

[33:34]

Your mind is dynamic, but if you don't look at it, you could think it's static. But if you don't look at it, then for you, it's like what's real for you is you've got a static dump. It's just a static, dead situation. It's not really, but if you don't look at it, you could think so, and you can just keep thinking that over and over again. It's probably still dead there and static, probably the same, yeah? I know it's the same. You could even outrageously say that. You know, I'm dead in the water here. I'm totally stuck and no life here. When did you last look? I don't have to look. But if you look, the more you'll see that you're not stuck. And the more you look to see that you think you're stuck, the more you'll notice you're not stuck. So we actually are flowing and changing, but if we don't look, we could harbor the idea that we're the same person.

[34:38]

And all people think they're the same, too. But the more you look at them, the more you'll see that they're changing, especially if you look at yourself first. Does this have a direct impact on our relationship to auscultation? And also the... Yes. And that impact affects us and our cognitions, like you were saying, since it all connects. It affects everything. It makes a different world. Is every thought an obscuration? Is every thought an obscuration? No. Some thoughts... Obscurations are the result of past cognitions, but particularly past intentions, in other words, karma. A cognition itself doesn't really make obscurations, but past actions which are associated with cognitions. that come with cognitions, those have the consequence of creating obscurations for future cognitions.

[35:50]

So cognitions arise and inherit obscuration due to past karma. So it's really the karma that creates the obscuration. It just keeps going over and over. However, by studying the current karma, and admitting and disclosing the current karma, we melt away the root of the projection of further obscurations and we realize the cleansing of the past consequences or past cognitions, the manifestation of past action as present obscurations. We live through it and it starts to clear up. Plus we also, by studying our present karma, alter the projection of future obscurations. But there's still some projection of future cognition, of future obscurations.

[36:52]

And the obscurations tend, the more we study, to become the obscurations which are due to skillful intention. And those obscurations are still obscuring, but they obscure in such a way that they also come with the ability to be aware that they're obscuring. So we will less and less believe that the obscurations are what is happening. And more and more see them as obscure realities. And things get clearer and clearer through studying the karma which has consequence of creating some... What? You don't have to exactly confess the good. You confess What?

[38:03]

What about good do you confess? Do you confess that you're clinging to it and that you're stiff around it? That's fine. Okay, that's your confession, yeah. Yeah. I confess that Jane and I just had a giggling fit that had nothing to do with anything. A giggly fit? You know? It had nothing to do with anybody's words. Nothing to do? Wow, amazing. Something occurred here that had nothing to do with anything. I'm speaking for myself. Oh, okay. Well, you know, I thought you were crying. I thought, wow. Anyway... Which means basically pay mindful attention to whatever you think is happening. Letting it be that is not the same as karmic fruition.

[39:17]

That's the same as giving. Generosity is to let it be. what the connection is between observing obscurations and karmic fruition. Karmic fruition is, there's two kinds. One kind of fruition is called even flowing fruit. And the other is called a different maturing fruit. So karma has two basic kinds of fruit I would mention today. One is even flowing fruit that currently we also commit karma. And the type of karma we do is related in a kind of even way with past karma. Because karma is like karma. Another kind of fruit of karma, though, is different in the sense that karma matures not as karma, but as feeling or experience.

[40:26]

So the way you experience things is due to past karma to some extent. There's a filter or an obscuration due to past action. But the obscuration is not an action. Now, present action is not just a fruit. but it's also a fruit of past action. But a feeling, for example, is not an action, but it's part of the present action. And the feeling is the maturing of a past action. And the way you feel about things has to do with the way you see them. No, basically you will act on that feeling. Yes? You will. There's almost, you know, let's just say, there will always be, whenever a feeling arises, there will be some pattern of consciousness, and that's the action.

[41:27]

So you will do that. The question is whether you're studying that or not, whether you're observing that, whether you're contemplating that, because contemplating that will lead to the improvement of the response, of the action, which will lead to more and more ability to be aware, plus it will also start making different kinds of obscurations. Obscurations which are going to say stuff like, although you can't see what's happening, you're going to get those kinds of obscurations. People are going to be saying to you, you are deluded. And you're going to listen to them, rather than, you're crazy. It's going to have those kinds of scenarios where people are telling you that you're deluded and wrong and you're going to say, thank you. Because of studying your karma. You're going to have these enlightenment stories even before you're enlightened.

[42:30]

You're going to have the first part of enlightenment stories where you're setting the stage, where you're learning to get feedback and you're kind of like saying thank you for it rather than this hell world where people are not agreeing with my delusions. Let me go back to where everybody agreed that I was right all the time, or with me. That's, living in a world like that is also the result of past karma, but it's a terrible past karma, because you're not studying there. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's 5.30. People are leaving. It's even past 5.30, according to the scenario. What are they doing up there? Immovable. They're immovable, but the clock is moving. Oh, really?

[43:30]

One second. Thank you very much. I have no complaint whatsoever. And thanks for all of us accepting the plumbing situation. I can hardly wait to go down in the garage and open the clean-out. Is that flowing cognitions or flowing karma? I think it's flowing karma. Do you have expectations? I don't really have an expectation, but I'm open to what happens when it's opened. And I will actually... This is an example of a boundary situation. I will position myself in relationship to this thing so that I won't be so likely.

[44:39]

It's clear. It's working now? Let's all go see. It's not working. Well, let's go see. So whoever wants to come and do the clean-out. Lots of opportunities here. Also, maybe if a couple of strong... People? Strong people? Strong people can maybe help me take it out of the way. Okay, strong people help Bernard, please. Especially strong people would be good. Okay. And thank you for the new people who came to visit. Nice to see you here.

[45:39]

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