April 19th, 2007, Serial No. 03424

(AI Title)
00:00
00:00
Audio loading...

Welcome! You can log in or create an account to save favorites, edit keywords, transcripts, and more.

Serial: 
RA-03424
AI Summary: 

-

Is This AI Summary Helpful?
Your vote will be used to help train our summarizer!
Transcript: 

Stephen, what did the fortune cookie say? It said, love is the affinity which binds and draws together the elements of the world. It climbs and draws together. Tracy said she was sorry that she would miss next week's class, but I told her that she didn't need to worry because there wasn't going to be one.

[01:14]

This is the last one in the series. And I also wanted to mention that I appreciate that many of you who couldn't come to some of the classes kept me informed about that situation. And I don't know if I asked this time. People do that. But I do ask that you do that, that you let me know if you're not going to be able to come to class because is helpful to me and I hope to you to tell me if you're not going to be here. Also, you can have these copies of this text about the self-fulfilling samadhi to take home with you if you like. And also I

[02:19]

people have requested for me to, you know, write more books, and so I'm making that effort, and one of the books is done now, so I want to share it with you tonight. Can you catch, Bill? Okay, ready? Yeah, so this is, I'd like to, would you pass that along for people? You can read it yourself first and then pass it. It's a small, it's a small book. Thank you. Do we eat it? You can eat it if you like. However, it's hard to eat. It'll be hard to eat. I don't think it'll be good for your teeth. Does it contain songs unheard? Does it contain... Yes, it is a book that has, you know, that pipes ditties to the spirit of no tone. So it will continue to play on, this text. But I'm working on other books too.

[03:26]

Not just this one. It's easier to open. This is very difficult. It's sort of difficult to open this book unless you're in a state of self-fulfilling samadhi. Then it will open up. And everything else will too. So the name of this book is One Mind. And I don't want to, although it's kind of a, what do you call it, a substantial little book, I don't want to substantiate the one mind, but just say that there is a teaching that All Buddhas and bodhisattvas and all living beings are just one mind.

[04:33]

And Buddha's samadhi is the concentrated awareness of this one mind. this one fortune cookie. And I'd like to say again, I said this before, I'll say it again, that although one mind, or although it's one mind, one mind may become three minds. One mind may become three minds, three poisonous minds. of greed, hate and delusion. All the minds of greed, hate and delusion and all the Buddha minds are just one mind. But there is a possibility of poisonous minds, innumerable poisonous minds manifesting within this unconstructedness and stillness of the one mind.

[05:52]

all the poisonous minds are quietly sitting together with all the awakened minds. And these poisonous minds come with activity, karma, and they manifest various states And if the karma of the poisonous mind, of one of the poisonous minds, is good, it manifests states that are relatively good. What we call the human realm, the realm of gods, the divine realms. And if the karma of the poisonous mind is unwholesome, unskillful, it manifests states of woe, which we call infernal existence, animal existence, and hungry ghost existence.

[07:01]

So there is that story about the possible workings within the one mind to manifest states of relative goodness and relative painfulness but all of them are only provisional conditions within one mind. Provisional, tentative, fleeting conditions within one mind, within one silent bond among all beings. Therefore, I don't recommend that you banish any of these minds or any of these realms of difficulty.

[08:11]

I don't think it would be beneficial to do so. So this practice that I've been recommending is the practice of wholeheartedly being present within this one mind, and in particular wholeheartedly being present within poisoned minds and states of woe or states of happiness, relative happiness or sadness, to be present in those states without any expectation of reward. great rewards will come as a result of that practice, but the practice has no expectation of these great rewards.

[09:14]

It really doesn't. It's really happy making this effort. This practice is a very happy practice. All Buddhas teach to avoid evil and practice good and purify the mind, but I wanted to mention that although they do all teach this, what do they teach again? Avoid evil, practice good, purify the mind. They all teach that, but I mentioned to you that this is a provisional teaching or an interpretable teaching. or a teaching which can be commented on, which I will now comment on. So when our mind is good, when we're practicing good, we may become stiffened around our good intentions.

[10:32]

and we may attach to the limited results of our good intentions, to the happy fruits of our good intentions. And thus we become blind, thus we become blind, thus we are blind to the light which is beyond the goodness of our mind. When our one mind manifests as evil, we may become stiffened around evil and pushed and pulled around by the results of evil. Therefore we suffer And we are again blind to the light which is beyond the evil mind.

[11:43]

The light which is the way the evil minds are all quietly bonded with the good ones and how they're both quietly in bond with the enlightened ones. And there are also states which are sometimes called states of no thought, which aren't really good or bad. But even there, we can stagnate because we think such states, such yogic states beyond good and evil are desirable states. And there again, we are blind to the Buddhahood which is beyond the light of Buddha's wisdom, which is beyond the state of no thought.

[12:47]

When we practice wholeheartedly in the midst of delusion, expecting no results, no rewards, letting go of things, not attached to gain and loss, enlightenment or delusion. We go beyond these discriminations, we aren't caught by them, and we enter the light. And we do not stagnate in goodness or no thought or evil. then even when our one mind becomes evil, in the openness of the practice, which is the openness to this light of Buddha's wisdom, in settling beyond all discriminations of good and evil, settling into this unconstructedness and stillness

[14:09]

our one mind immediately drops all evil and the light which is beyond evil is realized. Practicing in this way we can lead beings who are in states, evil states of mind, we can lead them to unsurpassed complete enlightenment. Similarly with good, same thing, we can lead ourselves and others beyond the good into the light. Again, we're training to learn how to look equally at delusion and enlightenment. They're not really the same, they're different, but we want to train ourselves to look at them the same.

[15:24]

In this way of looking, delusion is not bad and enlightenment is not good. We're practicing seeing, we're practicing looking, we're training ourselves in this way. Another way to say this is we have this practice called just sitting. So for example, if you're sitting, you practice just sitting. That means you're just sitting. That means you're not sitting and something else. You're not sitting and something else. You're not sitting and expecting something. You're not sitting and trying to avoid something. You're not sitting and trying to gain something.

[16:32]

You're not sitting and being caught by discriminations. You're not caught by the discrimination between sitting and not sitting. So almost everybody's finished the book, have they? Just a few more people and we'll be done. Mr. Rowe? He didn't get to read it, Nancy? Oh, okay, well. By the way, I wanted to mention to you that, give credit to Miriam Davis, she's the editor. You know Miriam? She's been to this class a couple times. She's good friends with Yvonne Shanks. And is she good friends with you, Roderick? Exactly. And good friends with you? Just a close friend. Just a close friend. Part of the Sacramento crew.

[17:34]

That wasn't a trick question. I didn't mean it as a trick question. You answered it okay. So this samadhi which we've been studying in this class is the concentrated awareness of the close friendship of all beings. This is the Buddha's awareness. The Buddha is aware of how everybody's close friends. The training to open to this awareness and settle in it is training in non-discrimination, in just doing what you're doing. And if discriminations arise, to learn how not to be caught by them.

[18:36]

If you think you're sitting well, or not well, you're not attached to either of those. Charlie? Do discriminations stop arising or do they just stop getting popular? That's why I mentioned today the state of no thought. So you can be in a state where they don't arise. There is such a state as no thought. And some people think that the state where there's no discriminations arising, they think that's a desirable state. And in a way it is a desirable state. Because there you wouldn't be judging people or yourself. So it would be kind of a nice vacation from a lot of our a lot of our troubles.

[19:46]

But it's not that. However, you could be in a state where there's no discriminations arising and be practicing nondiscrimination. That's possible. But if, for example, you would think that the state of nondiscrimination was desirable, then you would stagnate in that. Or if you thought it was desirable, then that of course would be a background discrimination. But if you're in a state where there's discriminations, the way of relating to discriminations there's a certain way of relating to discriminations which is called non-discrimination rather than not discriminating. So again, I told you, Suzuki Reshi very nicely said, non-discrimination is not not discriminating. And if he didn't say that, I heard him really nicely.

[20:51]

I misheard him really well. English was his second language, but if he said that, that would be pretty good for a second language. What do you call it? ESL person. That's pretty good. English, I mean, yeah. Non-discrimination is not not discriminating. And then I think the next thing he said was, it is to study everything. And he didn't say this, I don't think, but it means study everything thoroughly. So it isn't like you study delusion thoroughly and you don't study enlightenment thoroughly or vice versa. It isn't that you study good thoroughly and you don't study bad thoroughly or you don't study bad at all, you just try to get rid of it. Or it isn't that you try to study bad so you'll get rid of it and you don't study good, you just hold on to it. No. When good comes you say thank you very much and then you You look at it thoroughly, just like you'd look at something unfortunate coming to you.

[21:58]

So anyway, study everything and study everything thoroughly, which then means study everything equally. Give everything your utmost attention, respect, devotion. Be devoted to all things. You know, you could say equally, but anyway. completely, fully, not too much, not too little, to everything. That will realize non-discrimination. Then if you're in a state where there's no discrimination, you still can practice non-discrimination in a state where there's no discrimination. So then even when you're in a state where there's no discrimination, you can still see the light of the Buddha. But the Buddha himself was entered into states where there's no discrimination and some of his friends entered into states where there's no discrimination. But even when he entered those states, he had not realized non-discrimination in those states. So he didn't see the light of the Dharma.

[23:05]

He didn't enter the Buddha's samadhi even though he entered these states of no thought. And his friends didn't either. But then later... he found the non-discriminating wisdom. And then even when having a thought like, Venus looks good today, he wasn't caught by it. Even when he said, great, wonderful, he wasn't caught by that mental process. It was an expression of not being hung up on discrimination. And then he went and taught his friends who knew how to be in states where there's no discriminations, And they understood eventually this teaching about nondiscrimination. And when we enter this training and realize this training and have this kind of openness

[24:10]

to this unconstructedness, this stillness, to this place, this way where no words reach, then we understand what is meant by that which is associated with perception is not a standard of enlightenment, or that which can be met with recognition is not realization itself. And a deluded mind cannot reach these states. But looking at the deluded mind the same as you look at the enlightened mind, and looking at all deluded minds the same, we realize that which is not reached by the deluded mind. By taking care of the deluded mind in a certain way, we realize what is not reached by the deluded mind.

[25:15]

And that which is not reached by the deluded mind is also not the slightest bit separate from the deluded mind. Because again, realizing that which is not reached by the deluded mind, that realization depends on treating the deluded mind with non-discrimination. So the deluded mind is right there and you're treating it with non-discrimination and you realize that which the deluded mind which you're taking care of so nicely does not reach that which you've realized. But the deluded mind is right here. You're taking really good care of it now. You are actually enlightened about it. But the enlightenment about the deluded mind is not reached by the deluded mind. But that doesn't mean the deluded mind is someplace else. It's actually what is being understood in enlightenment.

[26:24]

But again, the thing that's understood, the deluded mind which is understood in this way, it doesn't reach the understanding. But the understanding illuminates it. See how that works in that funny, not symmetrical way? And I also wanted to just refer back to something Charlie brought up at the end of last class about he wasn't clear about how paying close attention to all of our actions, things become clear. He wasn't clear about how things become clear. And I just wanted to say that it takes a while to actually study, to pay close attention and to see how how actions which you're paying close attention to, how they don't have a self.

[27:27]

But actions are really good things to learn about no self from because actions really are very vulnerable to the vision that they don't have independent existence because particularly if you have the teaching of the Buddha connected to the actions, the teaching of the Buddha is these actions have consequence kind of actions we're talking about have consequence. So the very fact that they have consequence immediately points to the fact that they don't have a self. And the fact that you have consequences points to that you don't have a self. Because what you are depends on your consequences. Actions depend on their consequences and they have consequences. So what they are doesn't exist by itself. The quality of the action depends on the consequence and also the consequence is more or less infinite.

[28:33]

So you are infinitely empty. And we're infinitely empty because we depend on so much. which is why we are in a way infinitely limited and infinitely supported. But to see that through study of our actions, even though it's directly pointed to by the logic of the teaching, it does take quite a bit of study to actually see it. So it will become clear, but it may take quite a while and you may have to develop quite a bit of concentration on this teaching before it becomes clear that nothing has independent self. So I would encourage you to be patient and keep asking questions about this.

[29:37]

I really have confidence in this practice and I really have confidence that not doing this practice is really bad news. Really bad news. Not paying attention to your actions is really, really the path of unhappiness. Even if you, yeah, and again, The consequences of your actions have consequences, but the worst thing to do is not to study your actions. That's the worst. That has really bad consequences. Even if your actions are sometimes not so skillful and therefore by definition have unfortunate consequences, if you're studying you can still be quite happy because you're studying in the midst of delusion. You're practicing what the Buddhists practice on their path to enlightenment. But the Buddhists did not practice the practice of not studying their karma. They don't do that practice.

[30:44]

They do the practice of studying their karma. So even if you're doing good, which is good, not paying attention to it is really unfortunate. And again, if you don't understand accept the teaching that your actions have consequence, then you might not even want to pay attention to your actions. Now, some people want to pay attention to their actions, but they get distracted. Well, at least they want to pay attention to their actions. They're somewhat open to the teaching and not arguing with it, so they do want to pay attention, they just have some habits of being distracted from what they think is good, so then they don't. But then they feel bad when they notice it, and then they practice confession and repentance and get back to work. So that's another training. That's a slightly different training from the training in nondiscrimination.

[31:50]

You sort of have to do both. If you don't pay attention to your actions, it may be hard for you to pay attention to your discriminations. Because if you don't pay attention to your actions, your actions can get so coarse when unattended that they really won't allow you to get into the subtle work of noticing your discriminations and noticing how you're hung up on them. Okay, so those two practices go together. Last class was about karma. This one's about sort of the kind of meditation you can enter into, but you should be based on, based on meditation on your karma. So this class is in some sense a more subtle and lofty or more closer to the actual Buddha's wisdom than the practice of meditating on karma, which you can meditate on karma without yet seeing light.

[32:53]

We're talking about the next step. Yes? You say, how did this happen? Is that studying karma? Do you say, when something happens, you say, how does it happen? How did this happen? It could be like a version of studying karma, like you could say, how did this happen? Dash, what action led to this consequence? However, I wouldn't recommend that particular mode of studying karma. What would you recommend? I would study, what am I doing now? Rather than, what did I do such that this is happening? Dogen didn't say, ask what the causes of this situation is.

[33:54]

He didn't say that. He said, watch your action, which is the cause. And see what happens? Well, it's okay to watch to see what happens. Yes, that's okay. But sometimes you can't see what happens because part of the teaching is that the action doesn't have consequence right away. And even if it has consequences soon, it can also have later consequences. So it's okay to see what happens, but when you look to see what happens, don't take a break from seeing what you're doing. Like if you're going out to see if the chickens laid some eggs, don't get distracted from the fact that you're walking out to the chicken coop. It sounds, you know, don't get distracted by looking at what the chickens are doing. Notice that you're going to look at what the chickens are doing. It's okay to go look at what the chickens are doing as long as you're aware of I'm walking out to look at the chickens. Is that enough?

[34:58]

Is what enough? I'm walking out to look at the chickens. You don't need to say, why am I doing this? You don't need to say, why am I doing this? Matter of fact, I recommend that you don't say, why am I doing this? I recommend you look to see how you're walking out to see the chickens. Like, for example, are you in a hurry? Are you concentrated? Are you walking out in a concentrated way? And also, does this seem like a skillful thing to do, to be going out to visit the chickens? Does it seem like this might have a positive result, positive consequence, to go look at the chickens? Also, does it seem like a good thing to be looking at what your intention is? To me, I almost always think, yep, it really is good to be looking at my intention. I almost always feel like it's good.

[36:01]

And I almost always get confirmation that it's good. And I almost always hear from the ancestors that it's good to look at the intention. But not all of my intentions do I think are good. I sometimes find some intentions that I think are sub-human. Or as a friend of mine said, sub-hunky-dory. So I recommend, generally speaking, not asking why questions. However, as I may have told you, this year there's a moratorium on the moratorium of why questions. So if you ask why questions, I'm not going to tell you that I don't answer why questions. You didn't actually ask a why question. I suggested studying asking why questions. Yeah, but I'm just saying. But still I would say not get into why questions in this practice.

[37:07]

I think scientists seem to do okay with why questions, but they seem to. I'm not sure they really do. How? I recommend more how. And I have an ally in... the general redirection from why questions in Marshall Rosenberg. Is it Rosenberg? His nonviolent communication encourages not using why questions. Anyway, this year, instead of saying, I don't answer why questions, I will generally say to people when they ask why, I ask them, what are you driving at? Instead of, I won't answer it. So I'm bringing this back to Charlie's question relating to the last class about karma, that that practice should be going on too. It's like, please continue to brush your teeth, clean your house, be nice to everybody you meet.

[38:19]

Be compassionate to all beings. Please keep doing those practices. Plus, when you're doing them, please keep looking to see what you're doing actually. What are you actually doing when you're brushing your teeth? Be aware of the action when you're brushing your teeth. And be aware, if you think you're brushing skillfully, be aware of that. See if you think it'll be a good result. And... Practice good, avoid evil, and purify your mind. Do that practice. That's the practice which I interpret then by saying, yes, practice good, but when you're practicing good, watch out for stiffening around good. Okay? And if you're trying to avoid evil, not to mention if you're falling into evil, watch out for stiffening around that and getting attached to the good results of brushing your teeth. Watch out for that. But in fact, you may notice, oh, I brush my teeth and I'm attached to the good results.

[39:26]

Can you notice that? But then, not being caught by the discriminations, working on that, then even when you're doing good, you will see the light. And even if you're doing evil, you will see the light. So keep practicing, please, avoiding evil, doing good, purifying your mind, but then also notice if there's any getting stuck on the discrimination between good and evil while you're practicing avoiding one and doing the other. Okay, once again, do these practices Then watch the discrimination between good and evil that's involved in avoiding one and doing the other. And then see if you can notice if you're caught there. And if you're caught there, relax. And relax through confession and repentance. Confess and repent in a relaxed way. And if you want to say why, you can say why, and I'll ask you what you're driving at.

[40:27]

And what you've been driving at is how. How do you practice confession and repentance in a relaxed way? How do you pay attention to your karma and what kind of karma do you have? And what kind of discriminations do you have? And are you caught by your discriminations? And if you are, practice wholeheartedly being caught And don't expect any result. And let go of being caught. Be generous towards being caught. Be generous towards being caught. And be generous towards being caught. And then you won't be caught. Generosity will relieve you from being caught by your discriminations. Yes, John? I have a little trouble understanding looking at generosity toward being caught in my idea of confessing and repenting.

[41:31]

I'm also thinking about the reference you made last week, the pivoting effect. Yeah. So is confessing and repenting the same as pivoting? Confessing and repenting is a pivoting exercise. It's a pivoting... It's to... What do you call it? It's an exercise to encourage turning. So in particular you do it from when you're being unskillful or unfaithful, you practice it, and then you turn back to the practice that you want to do. So it's a kind of pivot back on the track. The repenting part is a pivot. Yeah, the repenting part is a pivot. Even the confessing is starting to pivot. It's setting it up. And the actual successful repentance, you've actually turned back to the practice, back to the faith that you want to have. Then you don't stop there because otherwise you have to confess that you stopped there.

[42:35]

Then there, hopefully, you turn again. Now you're on the path, now you turn on the path because the path is basically turning. The path is basically not getting stuck in the path. Like, for example, the path is basically not being stuck in the discrimination, I'm on the path. It's also not being stuck in the discrimination, I'm off the path. Or stuck in the discrimination of confessing and repenting. Yes, right. So when you get back in the path, you keep turning. And again, one of the ways to turn, a key ingredient in turning is being generous towards the situation. And generous means, you know, means have a big mind, have a magnanimous mind towards whatever, towards everybody you meet, towards evil. Be magnanimous towards evil. Doesn't mean you like evil. Liking is not magnanimous.

[43:38]

Magnanimous is letting liking be liking and let evil be evil and let good be good. Evil is evil, and we usually don't like evil, but also don't dislike evil. People often dislike evil. Well, that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about give evil to evil. And you get a gold star for generosity on that point. When Buddha sees evil, what does Buddha do? What does Buddha practice when Buddha sees evil? What's the answer? He sees evil. What? He sees evil. Yeah, but what's his practice when he sees evil? He says hello. He says hello, yeah. Hello evil. What does he practice? And what does that practice of saying hello mean? What is that practice called? Huh? What? Yeah, he's practicing non-discrimination and he's practicing non-discrimination by practicing giving.

[44:45]

So giving also sets up non-discrimination. In some ways, giving is the first bodhisattva practice and the last bodhisattva practice in the six practices set up is wisdom. But wisdom and giving are very close. And giving has to be in the wisdom. So anyway, Buddha says, hello. And when Buddha says hello to you, Buddha means, I give Jerry to Jerry. And I give Reed to Reed. I have this big mind which really gives you to you. And therefore, I'm not caught by you. Reed? You're sorry if it's silly? Did you say? Okay. We're ready for it. Here it comes. What's the relation, is there a relationship between choice and non-discrimination, or preference and non-discrimination, or are those two different?

[45:53]

Preference, choice, and non-discrimination? I'll keep it simple. Yeah, there's a relationship. Is choice any... Is there a relationship between choice and non-discrimination? Yeah. Choice usually involves discrimination, doesn't it? Right. So discrimination and choice are very closely related. So if we're not discriminating, does that mean we don't? Okay, hear what you said? You said if we're not discriminating, does that mean we don't choose? If we're not discriminating, does that mean we don't choose? If we're not discriminating, I think we wouldn't see choice. What if we... Yeah, that would be like in a state of no thought. In a state of no thought, you wouldn't really see any choice being made. But again, non-discrimination does not mean not discriminating. So non-discrimination does not mean... We don't usually say this, but we also say non-choosing.

[47:00]

But non-choosing doesn't mean there's no choice. The phenomenon of choice could still occur, the phenomenon of discrimination could still occur. So the Buddha is asked whether he prefers chicken or fish. And he doesn't have a preference. Well, if he doesn't, then he doesn't. But he won't eat. I mean, he has to make a... You know, the bottle that Buddha won't die if he doesn't eat something. He has to? No, no, he doesn't have to. People give him stuff. He practices giving, but also he practices receiving, because the giving that he's practicing isn't just him being giving, he's also receiving stuff. So he doesn't have to choose... He can be in no thought and still be fed. People will give him food. They may be into preferences. Like they say, I think Buddha should be a vegan. So we're going to give him, you know, pesto pizza tonight. No, pesto has cheese in it, doesn't it?

[48:05]

So it's going to be vegan pesto for Buddha tonight. Somebody may decide that, but then Buddha says, thank you very much and eats it. Buddha doesn't have to be involved in no choice. Buddha can be in a state of no thought, a state of no discrimination. Buddha went to visit states like that prior to his enlightenment. And you can survive in those states for some period of time. And people bring you food. Anyway, you don't have to worry about that. He wasn't worried about it. That's not the problem. The problem is how to treat the elements in the choose-choice process without being caught by the discriminations. That's what we need to train ourselves in. And then you can choose. And people say, well, we have food for you, Buddha, but still we'd like to know which type you'd like.

[49:09]

And then he says, you know, make me one with everything. Right? Anyway, he says, well, if I must choose, okay, I choose this. And he may notice that there's discrimination in between that he must choose, and he doesn't have to choose. He sees that discrimination, and he says, okay, if that's the discrimination that's being offered here, But the Buddha might do something other than just go along with that program because he's free, because he's not caught by this discrimination. So he might do something a little surprising around that and say, well, actually, I'm not hungry today. Whatever, you know. Or, you know, would you please eat what I prefer? Like, you know, that kind of famous story of Suzuki Roshi going down to Tassajara, and I think the kids that were giving him a ride,

[50:18]

They stopped at a hamburger place and the kid ordered a cheeseburger, no, a cheese sandwich. This was before vegan was really strongly situated at Zen Center. And then he ordered a hamburger and they had some discussion about that and then he gave the guy the hamburger and he took the grilled cheese sandwich. But it doesn't mean he preferred the grilled cheese sandwich, but maybe he did. Maybe it's just, you know, you don't know. That's really what's going on in the story is he didn't like hamburger. And he was actually getting what he preferred. But also, maybe he just couldn't help it, but he was drawn by the light of Buddha's wisdom to make a good story. And so it happened that way. It seemed like the choice was there in a way, right?

[51:21]

There was the choice of the original order and then there was the choice of the switcheroo. You could say, well, maybe there's even a choice in him choosing to be a famous Zen teacher, you know, by his fancy footwork. So there can be discriminations appearing. The thing is to learn how to deal with them without getting caught by them. and also be perfectly happy to get caught, which is a demonstration you're not caught. Does that make sense? Pardon? When you say not get caught, it has to do with clinging to the choice. Yeah, it has to do with clinging. But the main point here is it's not that bad to get caught by your discriminations.

[52:23]

It's not even that bad to be over on the bad side of your discriminations, like to get the cheeseburger or whatever. It's not that bad. What's bad is that when you're caught by the discrimination, you're blind. It's the blindness that's the problem that comes with being caught. Discriminations are fine. And being caught is not that bad if you see the light. You see the light, see? If it's helpful to anybody for me to be caught by discrimination, I have no problem. Just tell me the discrimination you want to be caught by, I'll be happy to wholeheartedly be caught. Because I see the light. I'm in love with you and all discriminations and no problem. In order to be initiated into this Buddha's wisdom, we have to learn how to not be caught. And when you learn how to not be caught, then you see the light, and when you see the light, then it's fine to be caught. No problem.

[53:25]

Because there's light even... Being caught gives off as much light as not being caught. And being caught in evil gives off as much light as being caught in good. Because the Buddhas are helping the evil people as much as they're helping the good people. Although the evil people and good people need the different types of assistance, and they're getting different types of assistance. One are being assisted to be evil, the other are being assisted to be good. And both the good and the evil people do not necessarily notice that they're being assisted. Some good people think, hey, I did that by myself, wasn't that cool? And some evil people think, I didn't do that by myself. They're more enlightened. Laughter But not sufficiently. Because they're still kind of caught by their evil. Mark Aroody? Yes? Did you hear what I said? You have some notes there?

[54:30]

By the way, would you come up here, please? I forgot. So many people got by. How come you didn't remind me of that? I didn't say why. How is mantra related to this practice? You tell me. Well, it was just that you accept light, but in the meditation, I know you don't accept or not accept, but, you know, you were saying no water and no wind. And then with sound... No way, I said no waves. Waves, okay. No wind. Got the water. We're in the water, right? And you said no wind, right? No wind, no waves. Yeah. So we're still, we're settled in the water here. Okay? There's light and there's sound.

[55:32]

And somehow when you speak, there's sound and light going back and forth between everybody. So it's just that mantra. is sound and Nagarjuna was saying that mantra... Nagarjuna is a mantra. Oh, it is. But I didn't know that. Well, now you do. You can just say Nagarjuna over and over. That could be a mantra. And he says that it's superior to sutra for 17 reasons, which I have a clue what he's talking about. Would you send me the 17 reasons? I knew you'd say that. I've been reading so much, I didn't look it up. But some of them were, you know, because you're hard to ask questions. Would you please find out those 17 for me if you can? And I was listening to the hearings today.

[56:33]

But I know some of them were... Oh, you were listening to the hearings. Yeah. Isn't that an interesting statement? He was listening to the hearings. You know who I'm talking about. I do, I do. But some of them were... It was hard to avoid those hearings. Because they have bodhicitta, which is light. Right. They have... mantra, which is sound, they have yantra, and they have actions, activity, through elements, empty, of course. His would be empty, maybe not mine. Yours are too. But, so, for today. Yours are as empty as his. So, anyway, so the sounds, he said mantra, that this guy named Alex Wayman claims that he was forced to, that it was substratum and that it came from a mantra, evam, and then the similarities between that and hamsa, you know, of the birth or the ah.

[57:51]

palm at the birth as a natural mantra. And that's who did a 2000 sixth publication of the Treasures, which is affiliated with the treasury of knowledge. And it's an exposition like about half of what Wayman has consolidated. I don't know where you're going with this. Oh, but so the only question is mantra and sound and speech, how that works in the practice. Because, you know, it seems like you don't break it down into, you know, like the Tibetans do, and then yours is more a unification process of non-dual and acceptance, which theirs is too, but one is more...

[58:53]

academic and yours is more an ultimate emptiness. I thank you. And they say you need the emptiness first, of course, to go on, you know. So the question is, you know, the sound, the breath, the tempo, and watching my reaction and how I relate to people on the street when I'm annoyed and think like this, you know, or if I'm under pressure from city life. And then so it seems like I can observe light and sound, but then I do like to watch the wind and other things too. So it was basically with sound and how that, how it does not manifest. And that was the question.

[59:55]

I don't know. Oh. Well, you know, I like that answer. It sounds good. It's simple. Thank you. Is immediate awareness and study the same thing? No, because some people having immediate awareness are not studying. You have immediate awareness every moment, you have immediate awareness. But you might or might not be studying. Does studying require thought, discursive type thought? Yeah.

[60:58]

So studying karma, for example, requires some discursive thought. And studying your discriminations and noticing if you're caught by them requires some discursive thought. And confession and repentance requires discursive thought. And receiving instructions about giving requires discursive thought. However, the practice of giving itself is not discursive thought. It's just letting things be what they are intentionally and generously. That's not necessarily discursive thought. So you can use generosity as a way of giving up discursive thought, actually. be generous towards all your discursive thought is to let go of it. So you can get yourself into concentration by practicing giving. But the studying things is actually, you are actually thinking

[62:08]

but you're applying the thinking to study. And that's why it's good to be already applying your attention to your actions or your thinking, your karma, because then you will be able to do these more, what do you call it, subtle meditations, which will lead you and support you to see how your karma is empty. study the discrimination between skillful and unskillful karma will help you realize that the skillful and unskillful, the evil and good, are not separate and don't have an independent existence. But if you don't study them in the first place, it's pretty hard to realize that, right? You can hear about it, but, you know, everything's empty, including good and evil, but it's in the study of good and evil that you realize that in order to study you have to pay attention to it. And paying attention to it requires you to try to avoid one and do the other because avoiding evil requires attention and doing good requires attention.

[63:18]

But doing evil and avoiding good doesn't require any attention so if you do evil and don't do good it'd be very hard to realize close attention to them, and therefore it's hard to realize their emptiness, or their non-duality, or not be caught by the distinction between them. Does that make perfect sense? No? What's your question, Charlie? Well, I'm working on it on my own. Okay. I've read it a couple times already. Okay. But it still doesn't make sense. And you have no further questions at this time. Okay. The study... I often thought that I study things, but it seems that when I do that I'm thinking about something before, and that turns into something conceptual and abstract, where it seems that if I'm studying what's going on right now, that is far more rewarding, because that doesn't involve theories

[64:29]

Okay, so right now you're telling me that that something seems far more rewarding than something else. Right now you're saying that. If I'm aware, right now... Excuse me, you just told me that that was more beneficial and you're not dealing with what's going on now. So you're just veering away from what you said was beneficial. Yes. Okay? Okay. So you said it was beneficial and then I figured out that you were telling me about what was beneficial. Yes. Yes, exactly. Which is being with what's happening now. And you were telling me that now. Yes. I was drawing your attention to the place you think is beneficial. And I'm still doing it. Of course. And are you following your values? I'm getting closer. Good. but not quite here yet. When you talk with someone, you can never do it right on point, because you're always... Yes, you can.

[65:33]

Yes, you can. Yes, you are. You're right on point. And you'd like to be on point. And you're telling me that you'd like to be on point. Yes, I do. And you're telling me that you can't be on point. And I'm saying, no, you can be on point. You are on point. You are in point. You are in the present. And present includes past and future. But it's cut off from past and future. So you can be present without getting distracted by the past and future, which are here too. You did it again. It happened again. He's in love again. Please. Okay, we're talking about choosing and non-discriminating.

[67:05]

So how do you choose what color rakas are you going to wear? So you said we're talking about choosing and non-discriminating, okay? So that's mixing the terms, but another way to say it is we're talking about choosing and non-choosing. Okay. Okay? So non-choosing is not being caught in the process of choosing, by analogy. Does that make sense? Discriminating and non-discriminating. Choosing and non-choosing. Okay. So how do I choose what rock suit? Well, by thinking about which looks cuter. Which looks cuter. So that's how I choose. As a story about how I choose, I mean. But if I study that story, which is what I said to you, I will find, and I'm generous towards that story of how I choose, I will not be caught by that story of how I choose.

[68:11]

But I did tell you that story of how I choose. I could tell you another one. I could tell you many. And I could be caught by one after another. I could tell you stories about my relationship with you and be caught by one after another. being caught by my stories about relationship with you is being caught by my discriminations. But I can also have stories about our relationship or discriminations about you and me and study each one equally and not be caught by any of them. So I do choose my outfits about what I wear What I'm recommending is that I be studying my karma and also study the distinctions I'm making and notice I'm stiffening around them, and if I am, confess and repent and so on. So I feel fine about you asking me how I choose. I tell you how I choose. And then how I relate to the choosing is my training in non-choosing or non-discrimination.

[69:15]

So if you study all your discriminations by predicting that you will realize nondiscriminating wisdom. If you don't study your discriminations, you'll be postponing the realization. Does it matter what you choose to wear or what I choose to do or whether I eat chicken or fish? It matters in the sense that it has consequence. Whatever you choose, The actions you do based on your discriminations, they have consequence. So it matters in that sense. But still, even if they have good consequences, still, unless you study them, you'll stiffen around the good consequences and get pushed around by the good consequences. So our actions have consequence, and as a result of the consequences, unless we study them, as a result of them, we tend to be afraid and tense and potentially violent and unhappy. Okay. But if we study this process, we see the light which will liberate us and show us a way to help others become liberated, which is the point of the exercise.

[70:28]

So if you get too attached to wearing one color of Rakusu, you'll get violent and unhappy, essentially. Exactly. Did you say, I'll get afraid? I just used your words. Yeah, but did you say, get afraid? No, no. Yeah, add that in there too. If I get too attached to my clothing, I'll get afraid. I'll be afraid. And I know a lot of people who are afraid in relationship to their clothing. They're afraid to go out of the house. They're afraid to go out of the house. I know a lot of people who are afraid to go out of the house. But I know some people who are afraid to go out of the house because of their clothing problems or makeup problems, you know, or shopping problems. And there's other people who you can't keep in the house because of their makeup problems. So these things can have major consequences of harm for beings. But if they're studied, we'll become free of our clothing. Or rather, I'll say, we will realize that we're free of our clothing.

[71:39]

We're actually already free of our clothing, but it's a question of realizing it. Because our clothing is actually supporting all beings, Our clothing is in a silent bond with all beings, Buddhas and non-Buddhas. In this radiant relationship, it's a question of realizing the light of our clothing by studying our issues and discriminations around our clothing. This is the proposal. So thank you very much for your brilliant attention to the light. I hope we meet again soon. Yes, there is. I think it's 7.30.

[72:32]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_86.79