So one way to talk about our practice is a combination of cleaning the temple and sitting. And by cleaning the temple, I would suggest what that means is you clean, we clean our consciousness. And we were actually talking about how to what is some people's description anyway of what it's like in consciousness and starting to talk about how to clean how to clean the temple of consciousness. And then there's also the practice of sitting and sitting is like it's like the practice we do

[01:08]

once we've cleaned the temple, the practice which we do once we've kind of let go of any resistance to the sitting being the practice which takes care of the teaching of suchness. So the teaching of suchness is the intimate transmission, the intimate communication among all beings. And summarizing the two types of beings, there's like sentient beings and Buddhas. There's many kinds of sentient beings, but they are in an intimate relationship with Buddhas who have realized the teaching of suchness.

[02:13]

So those who have realized the way things are are in intimate communication with those who are in the process of realizing the way things are but have not yet completed the process. These beings are also called bodhisattvas They're on the path of becoming Buddha. And those on the path of becoming Buddha, sentient beings, are in intimate communion with those who have realized Buddhahood. That's the way things are, according to the Buddhas. And some bodhisattvas also underwrite that. that intimate communication, that intimate communion, we already have it, which means we already have the teaching of suchness.

[03:14]

However, if we don't take care of it, we don't realize it. We're out of attunement with it. And it's hard for us to care for it unless we, not necessarily first, but unless we are in an ongoing process of cleaning the temple of consciousness. So I just might briefly tonight, rather than wait until you completely, until we completely understand how to clean the temple, and until we're sure we've completely cleaned it before that time, I just want to tell you how you sit. in such a way that you take care of this teaching. And the way you sit in such a way that you take care of the teaching is that when you're sitting, the sitting that you're doing, you use that sitting as the expression of this intimate communication.

[04:30]

So like now you're sitting, so then you say, okay, this sitting is the practice which realizes the intimate communication. And there's not, and I'm not looking for some other body. Right now I'm using this body and this body-mind. This is the expression of the practice which is the realization. And if we would get up now and walk out into the street, then the practice would be walking out into the street. And we would use the walking into the street, then that would be what we're doing, that would be our actions, and that is what we would use as the opportunity to sit, to

[05:35]

to practice in such a way that we realize what has already been given to us in intimate communion. The cleaning is what we do in order to actually have no resistance to this amazing simplicity. Because again, one might think, how does the sitting How does the sitting perform this miracle of realizing intimate communion? How can the sitting, which is a perceptible thing, realize an imperceptible, inconceivable intimacy among all beings? And so to make a long story short, I don't know how it does that.

[06:39]

It's inconceivable how our conceivable practice realizes the inconceivable truth. But that's the story of the song. Later in the song, after it introduces this good news and then assigns us this job to take care of what's been given to us, later in the song it says, it is bright just at midnight. It doesn't appear at dawn. It acts as a guide for beings. Its use removes all pain. What is it? It's this intimate communion. This intimate communion guides beings and its use, if you follow the guidance and use it, it removes all pain. What is it again? It's this inconceivable, unthinkable, unstoppable teaching of suchness. And where is it bright? It's bright at midnight.

[07:41]

What's midnight? Midnight is a realm of cognition that's not conscious. We are right now and always have been in an intimate relationship which is not a perception. It's imperceptible. It's inconceivable. And that is the relationship that liberates beings. If we offer... and then I'll stop there and say, it doesn't appear at dawn. What is it? The teaching of suchness does not appear at dawn. What's dawn? Consciousness. Consciousness is where there's appearances. This teaching does not appear The words that are coming up in the room now are appearing. These words are perceptual offerings to the imperceptible.

[08:46]

These words appear, but what these words are talking about does not appear. Reality is not an appearance. Intimacy is not an appearance. When we see an appearance of intimacy, we may feel, sometimes we may feel good about it. Like if we see, oh, there I am being intimate with my good friend, with my spouse, with my mother, with my children. It's an intimacy and it's a healthy, wholesome intimacy. How lovely. And then we see, maybe we see our spouse being intimate with somebody else. And that appearance, we're not so happy with that appearance, perhaps. But the intimacy that we have already doesn't come or go. It's not like you see it or don't see it. What you see or don't see are appearances. They are things that appear in consciousness.

[09:48]

And in consciousness we need to clean those appearances in order that we can work with appearances in such a way that the appearances realize the non-apparent. And the key is that if you make a gesture, like you reach out to someone, you offer your hand or you offer some water to someone. You could offer this water as an expression of the teaching of suchness. You can salute as an expression of the intimacy.

[10:57]

And if you salute as an expression of intimacy, as an expression of the teaching of suchness, as an expression of Buddha, it is Buddha, and there's no other Buddha than that expression. However, you have to clean the salute. You have to clean the cup of water offering. This offering is appearing in consciousness. I wish it to be, I wish this offering to be the realization of the Buddha mind. That's what I'm offering it for right now. And there is no other way to realize truth other than by making perceptible offerings. The truth is imperceptible, we've already got it.

[12:07]

We must make perceptible offerings to realize it. If we don't make perceptible offerings to the imperceptible, the imperceptible is not realized and also the perceptible isn't really realized either. If you work with perceptible things but don't actually make them into gifts, offerings, expressions. But there's one catch, it's the cleaning part. We have to learn how to give a glass of water, give a handshake, give a salute, give joined palms, give a sitting posture, to offer it as the realization, the practice which is the realization, it has to be given without any messing around with it. and everything that appears in consciousness can get messed with. Whatever appears in consciousness, there can be many comments on it.

[13:15]

Like, that's mine. That's not mine. I'm in it. I'm out of it. That's good. That's bad. This can't work. This can work. I got something from this. All these comments... None of them are really true about this thing. They're just living in the same temple. We have to pay such close attention that we see that nothing's separate from anything else and nothing's interfering with anything else. Everything's supporting everything else and nothing owns anything else. So that's why you have to clean so that we can say, okay, I offer this conversation to the liberation of all beings. And not only do I just offer this conversation for the liberation of all beings, but the liberation of all beings is nothing but this offering, this conversation.

[14:24]

And it can't be, it cannot be because this is the conversation that I'm having right now. People other places are having other conversations than this one. And it's the same for them than it is for us. It must be what we're doing here. And there's no other Buddha way. And any thoughts about that are not excluded. And they're perfectly clean. And if there's any way that they look not clean, we have to deal with that not cleanness in a clean way to realize that nothing can possibly defile. Like that Zen story which I often tell of one of the great ancestors in the Chinese Zen history called the Sixth Ancestor. And one of his

[15:26]

most intimate disciples came to meet him one day, for the first time, I guess, and the sixth ancestor said to his disciple, whose name was Huairang, where are you from? And Huairang said, Mount Sung. And the sixth ancestor said to the newly arriving student, What is it that thus comes? He could have been saying, you know, what is it that has just come now? But also, thus comes is one of the epithets for Buddha. So it's kind of a pun where he's saying, what has just happened here? And also, what is Buddha? You know, what has just happened here? In other words, what's the teaching of suchness right now? which just happens to be the same as, what's Buddha right now?

[16:30]

And the new student says, to say that it's this misses the point. And the teacher says, well, is there no practice in realization? And the student said, I don't say there's no practice in realization. I just say you can't defile it. In the Buddha way, the practice is the realization. So again, what's Buddha? To say it's this misses the point. Well, is there no? Can't this be the practice? That kind of no. I mean, not no, but to say it is misses the point. Well, then what can we use for the practice? Is there anything? And the student says, I don't say there is nothing to use. I just say you can't defile it.

[17:33]

So you can use anything. You just got to use it in such a way that it's completely selfless. And in consciousness, anything could be used. But fortunately or unfortunately in consciousness there is somebody and there's a lot of confusion associated with that somebody so it's hard for anything to be offered cleanly. But again, any kind of uncleanness about the offering can be dealt with cleanly, but it's hard. If you wish to realize Freedom from suffering. All you got to do is offer what you've got on your plate right now. And that's the realization. And I'm saying, and there can be no other realization than what's on your plate.

[18:36]

Very simple. That's the sitting. But the sitting has to be like completely selfless. Otherwise, we don't we're looking someplace else. Otherwise we think probably actually there's something other than this. So, reality is bright at midnight. It's bright in a consciousness where there's, I mean, in a cognition, in a mind of intimacy that's completely transcending consciousness and completely illuminates consciousness. But we have to make offerings in consciousness to this inconceivable freedom in order to realize the inconceivable freedom.

[19:41]

And the inconceivable freedom is really the only kind of freedom there is. The conceivable types are not really free. And also they're quite impermanent, unreliable, unstable. Now, if you want, we can go back to cleaning the temple again. unless you have any questions before we go to temple cleaning time. It can't be defiled, no. You're not cleaning the... You can't clean the teaching of suchness because you can't even see where to apply the cleaning fluid.

[20:43]

You don't even know where to try to clean it. You don't have to clean reality. What you have to clean is your offerings, your donations. You have to clean your physical postures, your thoughts, and your words which you offer to it. Those you can see. And those also are actually clean, but those we can, in a sense, defile by, for example, thinking that they belong to us or that they don't. We can defile things which are actually not dirty, not defiled, by thinking that we could defile them. We want to clean the form, yeah. We want to clean the forms without being obsessive about it, compulsive about it, or hysterical about it.

[21:48]

And in consciousness, it's hard to deal with anything without being obsessive, compulsive, or hysterical. Even a little. But we can train at this, and we can notice, oh, I'm being kind of obsessive. I'm being kind of compulsive. I'm being kind of hysterical. And then we can, again, we can treat that with compassion in such a way that we can let the hysteria and the compulsion and the obsession, we can let them be. We can pay enough attention to notice them and then pay enough attention to notice them without messing with them, which is kind of like obsessing and hysteria towards obsession and hysteria, or switching back and forth. Lots of possibilities. So the taking care, we take care of the apparent in such a way that we are not defiling the apparent.

[23:08]

And then we use the apparent as the way to take care of the unapparent, undefilable. And again, we can't even defile the apparent. We only defile the apparent by not paying close attention to it. We can't exactly pay close attention to the inconceivable, but we can remember the inconceivable. We can practice the inconceivable. We can transmit the inconceivable. And we can remember to pay attention to appearances and practice with appearances and transmit, not so much the appearances, maybe the appearances, but particularly transmit the way of caring for appearances. Caring for, for example, words. Now, if I might just go back to one of the last things that was said in class was something like someone's, Charlie was saying,

[24:17]

I must have something to do with it or something like that. Do you remember what you said? We're talking about consciousness and there's a sense... I suggest that in consciousness, my story, if you want to hear my story, in consciousness there seems to be somebody there. There's a sense of somebody there. And you were... You were concerned about, I don't know what, what was it? The idea that we are not at all in control. It seems like our self does exert some influence over our actions. So it seems that the self exerts influence over actions. So you've got the self and you've got the actions, and it seems like the self influences them. And does it seem like the actions influence the self? Yeah. Yeah. So they seem, they appear to be influencing each other.

[25:23]

And that appearance of their influence is another appearance. Now the appearance of the influence between them, does the self influence the appearance of the influence? Yeah. Our history of understanding is the way we understand it. So when consciousness arises, there's various mental phenomena arising which working in combination are their activities and they also work in combination to create intentions. And there's a sense of self there. They arise together and so Charlie is saying he feels like there's some influence there.

[26:33]

So I guess I can live with influence if it's mutual and if it's kind of like a dependency. And again, usually when there's a sense of self, which in consciousness there's these four kinds of confusion, four kinds of affliction, or let's say four challenges that arise with the sense of self. One challenge is this thing that's kind of like this challenge called self-view. So there's a sense of self, plus there's also this thing of looking at things through the self. that actually kind of makes things more difficult.

[27:55]

It doesn't say that when there's a sense of self that, for example, colors come with a view from the point of view of the color. The color doesn't wear glasses looking back at the self. Doesn't seem to be the way it is. Tangibles don't seem to at least it's not so clear that the tangibles are looking back, that the tangibles are looking at the colors, or the tangibles are looking at the ideas, or the tangibles are looking at the feelings. But there's this thing of, there's a self in the room, and there's various feelings and emotions, and then there's this thing called self-view, and it's like the self gets to look through the self-view at the stuff. that makes it more difficult to understand what's going on. As a matter of fact, it makes it seem like the self is a privileged member of the show.

[29:04]

Another thing about around the self, speaking of there's an affliction called self-confusion, self-confusion. There's confusion about what the self is, but there doesn't seem, the colors don't seem to have a confusion about what the colors are. And also there's self-pride. The colors don't, as far as we can, I haven't found anybody telling me that the colors are trying to control the sounds and the smells and the feelings and the emotions. But in association with this, it seems sometimes that the self wants to control what's going on in consciousness. But I would say maybe not. Maybe it's not that the self wants to control, but that when there's a self, there is this thing called the wish to control. and it arises in association with self, but the self is not... If the self could, you know, if the self could really operate the control thing, it might say, you know, I think I probably should give this up because the control thing is causing so much suffering to the whole situation, including me.

[30:24]

Or I'm in this suffering place because, like I said before, it's not just like a pleasure arises in consciousness like for a Buddha, a pleasure arises and it's like, mmm, nice, and then give it away. But often in consciousness a pleasure arises, and as I mentioned, almost before it's tasted, there is the wish to repeat it. And that desire is not the self, but is a kind of like disguised version of the power to control what's going on. It looks like just wanting that same pleasure again, but really it's a desire to control. It's not that the self is trying to control, but often people think it is the self that's trying to control and or that the self is in control.

[31:30]

So it's not so much I'm saying the self isn't in control of repeating. I'm saying that there's a confusion about the self and the impulse to control. There is an impulse to control. It's part of what's going on in consciousness usually. And oftentimes people think the self is trying to control. So I'm not saying the self isn't in control. I'm saying actually that the association between the attempt to control and the self actually may not hold up. That it may be just that the self lives in a consciousness where there's a well-established will to power, which then gets turned around to confirm the self. The self actually is a nice guy or a nice girl, but gets pushed around by this will like the sponsor of it. The self is kind of like serving a function, but then something in the consciousness wants to make the self into an indestructible element of the changing situation.

[32:39]

And I actually almost brought you a little puff from a tree at Green Gulch. So everything in this field is just little puffs, including the self and including the wish to control. It's puffing too. But it's huffing and puffing to make some parts of the situation indestructible. Tracy and Linda. This is temple cleaning time, right? And by the way, I just want to say, before I go any further, that temple cleaning is done repetitively, but it's not done repetitively to get back to the same state of cleanliness. It isn't done that way. We're trying to wash away making the temple the same every moment. And it also isn't that we get it clean once. New consciousnesses arise which need new cleaning activities.

[33:46]

So we're trying to clean the temple, but in the way of cleaning the temple, we're not trying to get it perfectly clean. That would be another obsession. We're just cleaning so that we can offer practices which are not confused with power trips, control trips, self-aggrandizement, self-establishment and so on. But we've got these impulses in the space so we have to be kind to them otherwise they are going to... no, we have to be kind to them otherwise they will have unfortunate... otherwise they will hinder our offering of something that corresponds to the undefiled reality, an undefiled offering. An undefiled offering is an offering where we realize that it's actually got defilement right next to it, and we let it be.

[34:56]

Tracy? Self-view, self-inclusion, self-love, self-pride. Would you say it again? Did you say can the self? Yeah. No. Part of the confusion is that there might be the thought that the self is guilty of those four things. But that's one of those four things. That's part of self-confusion is to think that the self is all by itself responsible for these four defilements. But it's not. The self didn't make the self, and the self didn't make these four defilements. But the self lives in the place where these, got the self, got these four defilements, but we also have teachings about how to deal with self and how to deal with the four defilements and how to deal with a lot of other stuff that's going on.

[36:06]

So if we, in this room, we could have like, we could just choose four people to be the four defilements, one person to be the self, and the rest of the people to be other mental factors. You know, we could make a little play like that. And then one of you could be the idea that the self's responsible for these four defilements. And then somebody else could say, could be the thought, that the blaming of the self for the four defilements is actually one of the four defilements, and so on. you know, we could do that. So some of you would suddenly become the same as another person. So you have the four defilements, and some of you would be doing various troublesome activities, and then we would say, well, actually, you're the same as that person over there who is self-confusion or who is self-view. So the self does not make these four, it's just that these four have arisen with the self.

[37:11]

Which impulse? Yeah. What gives rise to all the impulses? Well, the teaching I'm offering you is that there's three forms of cognition. One is conscious, one is unconscious, and one is Buddha's wisdom. the unconscious cognitive process are the support of the conscious. And the unconscious are at any given moment are the results of all past consciousnesses. And so our conscious mind arises based on this unconscious process. And as soon as our unconscious mind arises, it instantly, simultaneously transforms its base.

[38:23]

And the intimacy of those two levels of consciousness plus the intimacy of all the different consciousnesses with each other, and with a shared base, an unshared base. All of that, the way it's all working together in peace and harmony, is the third type of cognition, which is called the teaching of suchness, intimate communion, liberation of beings, Buddha's wisdom. Buddha is not operating the unconscious process. Our Buddhas are not in charge of creation. our Buddhas have realized how creation works, how unconscious cognitive process support conscious, how conscious transform unconscious, and unconscious support the arising of conscious. They've understood that process and they have turned the process around. by receiving teachings into the conscious process and practicing in the conscious process in such a way as to transform the unconscious base completely into perfect wisdom.

[39:41]

And then they don't go anywhere. This wisdom doesn't go someplace because it's nothing but the intimacy which was always there. So then it just keeps teaching. So the self is in the place where karma occurs. Karma occurs in the consciousness. Karma doesn't occur in the unconscious realm. The unconscious realm is the storehouse of the consequences of consciousness. And the consequences of consciousness support the arising of consciousness. And in consciousness we do things like we raise our hand and lower our hand and if we pay close attention we see that that was not done by the self but it was done and the self was there and the self-thought that it did it, and then there was more attention, and then there was attention to the self was wrong.

[40:44]

I should say that the idea that the self thought that was an artifact of not paying close attention, of not cleaning the temple. Linda? You have missed. Yeah, me too. I'm listening to you talking about a self and I'm asking what is this self you're talking about? What is a self apart from an idea? A self seems to be a sense that somebody's here. It's kind of like a belief, and it's kind of like a belief or a feeling or a sense that somebody's here.

[41:44]

And also, there's two levels of it. One sense is that there is somebody who is aware. That's the more subtle version. And the other one is that there's somebody who is doing the stuff that's occurring here. I'm saying it isn't. I'm saying it's not that the self is doing all this stuff. Because as I said... That's the two levels of self. One is, I'm aware. I'm aware. there's awareness here, and it's me. That's maybe the most subtle kind of self. And also, I'm aware that I think I'm doing these things, that these activities here, I think I'm doing them.

[42:51]

I think they're mine. So a key ingredient of the self is ownership. But not real. It's an illusion, but the self often thinks it owns. The self is in consciousness. Everything that appears in consciousness is consciousness. And in consciousness, there's a world. And some of the stuff in the world, there's the idea, I own those things. Those are my actions. That's sort of the way the self is. It has a kind of sense of owning part of what's appearing in consciousness. like my grandson used to come to Green Gulch and there was this area which used to be called the pool deck and there was a kind of a storage area for children's toys and he came out and he saw these toys and he said these toys he'd never seen before he said those toys used to be mine

[43:59]

I let them hear on recent visits, or past visits. Such thoughts can occur in consciousness. That's just an example of the kind of thing that we think is normal. We think it's normal, but it's also adults don't usually do that. When they first walk into a place, say, oh, this place, this place, I used to own this place. Adults don't usually do that. But little kids can walk into a place and say, I used to own this house. This used to be my house, the first time they go. Adults are more like, you come to the Zen Center. When you first arrive, you think, not a bad place. Need some cleaning, but, you know, not that bad. And then you start doing, and you start cleaning it. And you still think, no, it looks better, actually.

[45:04]

And then you paint the walls and say, oh, that's nice. And then you do some gardening, you know, and some landscaping. And you just do some carpentry. build some doors and windows and stuff like that. So when you first arrive, you think, you know, nice place and I'm happy to work on it, but you don't walk in the door and usually say, this is my Zen Center. I own it. But after you do the grounds work and the cleaning and the carpentry, et cetera, for a day or a week or two years or three years, after a while you start to think it's yours. kind of sneaks up on you, you actually think it's your Zen center. And that's kind of normal. Children don't have to do any work, they can immediately own the place. Yeah? This desire to wish, this wish to control, for example, do you consider like a kind of a cosmic element?

[46:12]

It could be considered, yeah, you could give it a... We can be positive about it in a way. Because it is kind of cosmic, because all humans anyway, it's kind of cosmic, all humans seem to have this. And if they don't have it, they need special education to get it. Because they can't relate to the other people if they can't do it. So some people do have various conditions, so they can't entertain this illusion and believe it. Or they can entertain it, but they just can't believe it. You know, like they're accidentally kind of enlightened. But then it's hard to go through high school if you don't have your locker and your boyfriend and your desk. And so it is kind of cosmic, or anyway, semi-cosmic. If there are many such cosmic elements, for example the desire to control and so on, if and when they interact in a...

[47:26]

Let me see what they're going to say. When these cosmic elements begin to interact in a harmonious way, in which there's no push and pull, and there is, in a way, a surrender to their... Because these cosmic elements must be pure. In themselves, there are just cosmic elements. And so if they begin to interact in harmony with the self, whatever that may be, that may be the way to become Buddha. Yeah. You can treat things with so much respect that you really let them be.

[48:39]

When you respect things, you don't back away. And you don't go forward. You treat them with great respect. And then you realize that these are opportunities to realize peace and harmony. Whatever you can use as an opportunity. And if we notice some obsessiveness towards it, some slandering, some possessiveness, some ill will, some attempt to manipulate it. Those two are, you could say, cosmic functions which should be treated with great respect.

[49:45]

Yes, Tony? Could you speak up? Just cleaning the temple. Yeah, the cleaning is in the karmic consciousness. In the unconscious, if there's cleaning in the unconscious, it's kind of indirect. The unconscious, there's nobody messing around in the unconscious. However, the results of messing around are in the unconscious, and the unconscious supports a consciousness which has messing around in it. So the unconscious is implicated, but it's not directly karmic. So I don't know how to directly clean the unconscious, only indirectly, because the way of practicing with the consciousness has an auspicious

[50:56]

beneficial transformation of the unconscious to allow more purification, more selflessness in consciousness. I think the unconscious supports the arising of a self that has self and self-clinging, but it doesn't really have self and self-clinging, but it has, in some sense, the seeds of self and self-confusion. That thought arises in consciousness? Yeah. Well, it would be good if you stopped right there, because that was a good example.

[52:01]

You've got something here that you think you see as sort of part of an unfortunate cycle, and you thought, if you leave it alone, won't it just perpetuate itself? Okay? Okay? To what extent it's going to perpetuate itself, I do not know. Okay? But if I'm not nice to it, then I'm going to start another unfortunate cycle going. Some habits, if I'm kind to some habits, they may keep flipping around for a while longer. I don't know. But while it's flipping along, as long as it's flipping along, if compassion is given to all the flips, so here it is flipping and then it transforms the unconscious, the unconscious says, let's have that again, or up again, and compassion towards it, and it transforms, and that compassion transforms the unconscious, and this flipping also transforms the unconscious, but now you've got the compassion transforming it, and it flips up again, and more compassion.

[53:09]

Eventually this thing will stop. In the meantime, this huge compassion thing might grow up. Which is so wonderful that it's kind of like, yeah, let's have more flipping. Come on, flips. So like that song, you know. Zen folks get weary. Zen folks do get weary. Wearing that same shabby robe. Watching that same flipping around. seeing that yucky habit perpetuating itself. Try a little tenderness. They may be waiting, just anticipating things they may never, things they will never possess. So while they're waiting, try a little tenderness.

[54:14]

So there's the habits and then there's sort of like anticipating that they'll end someday. That's another habit. They're all going round and round. Tenderness, tenderness, tenderness. And these habits may go on forever. But the vow is, no matter how long they go on, I vow to be compassionate towards them. And that will grow into using that response as the offering. Yes and yes. Have you seen the movie Inside Out? Have I? Yeah. No, but I've heard it's about this. It seems, when I saw it, I was struck by how it darn near almost fits with what you've been teaching.

[55:19]

Well, I darn near can believe it. And I darn near probably will watch the movie someday. Over and over. Matter of fact, I've already been watching the movie over and over. There is messing around happening in the unconscious in this recognition of the story. But The unconscious is definitely stuff going on, but is it messing around with a self-present? It is personified. Well, the unconscious is part of our life, and it supplies the material for our person. We are not just a person. We are more than a person. But our person is consciousness, which means a sense of self and feelings and perceptions and mental formations and material ideas.

[56:23]

All that's the person. But that person is supported by a much more complex cognitive process, which is not in control of this, but is in a reciprocal relationship with this. It's not just controlling it. It's just that this gives rise to it. And then as soon as it gives rise to its offspring, the offspring changes it, which the movie may already have that going for it. I made you, and you're changing me. My parents are like that, right? I made you, and you're changing me. Yes. So I think I heard you right when you said you need to clean the temple before it sits. Is that correct? Because I don't know where this is going. I'm a little confused. It's kind of before, but sometimes we don't. Sometimes a person could come into a temple and it hasn't been cleaned.

[57:29]

It's just a wreck. And they sit down and then they think, I think I'd like to clean this temple. But they might sit. They might try to sit before the temple's cleaned. And they might have the sitting. This sitting is offered to the realization of peace. And then they realize that something's distracting them from just letting the sitting be the realization of peace. And they think, I think we should take care of a few things and then sit. Like that story I told one time about, it was my first or second work period at Tassajara. And there was a big storm during the initiatory period. I'd just gone through an initiation of sitting for five days. And then I was given this work assignment to fix the pipes that had broken in the storm. So we went to fix the pipes, me and another guy. And we fixed the first pipe.

[58:31]

And then we went to fix the next pipe. But I couldn't really fix the next pipe. And so I said to my friend, let's go back and do it. And he knew what I was talking about. We knew there was several breaks. So we just fixed it just enough to put it back together because we wanted to get it all done in one work period. So we went on to the next one. But when we got to the next, I think it was the second one, we thought, we couldn't really do it because we hadn't done the previous one. So then we went back and did it. There is a sense of doing something completely and not be thinking, well, what about the next one? We're not going to get famous unless we do a whole bunch of these or whatever. There's some distraction from just we may die,

[59:35]

right now, fixing this one joint, and they'll say, you know, they just fixed one joint and that was the end of them. But if we were totally there, and not trying to get anything, and not trying to be in control, but just completely give ourselves to this until it was cleaned, and so it wasn't even us doing it, That's what the monastery is for, is for people to do stuff that way. And part of that is to notice, you know, we really didn't do a very good job. Let's go back and do it. We're always cleaning the temple. And as we get more and more into the cleaning, we more and more feel like the cleaning can be the offering. The cleaning practice is not trying to get anything. It's not trying to get things clean. It's just realizing that they're clean by not trying to get them to be clean.

[60:38]

But you have to sort of try at it for a few times and realize, actually I was trying to clean that corner over there when I was over here. That's not the way to clean. That's dirt. That attitude is kind of like defiled attitude. The clean attitude is we're doing this together But we're not going so far as to say, we're doing this together. It's going a little too far. It's overdoing it a little bit. Yes? It might be said that cleaning the temple helps you relax into the primordial nature of mind. Clean the temple helps you relax into the primordial nature of mind. Yes. And as you clean the temple, if you're trying to become a famous cleaner, temple cleaner, a world expert on cleaning, or trying to get the temple to be clean, then you're not relaxed yet.

[61:42]

Does that make sense? When you're cleaning, if you deeply believe you're cleaning what is already clean, you realize, I'm not going to make it clean, but I have to clean it. I have to practice what is already perfect in order to realize that it's perfect, not by me making it perfect. Yes? Yes? What I was saying, it made me think of the word surrender. Yeah. But surrender may sound dualistic. Yeah, surrender, get so good at surrendering that there's not any duality, where you realize the surrenderer and the surrendering are not two things. You could add into that the surrender and the surrendering and the surrendered to.

[62:53]

I think maybe cleaner just to say surrendering and surrenderer are not two. And maybe you say, well, what I should surrender to is surrendering. The Buddhas, maybe what the Buddhas are is surrendering. Yes? Is my unconscious mind the same as Charlie? Is your unconscious? Oh, there's two sections of the unconscious. There's a shared and an unshared. A certain section of the unshared cognitive process is closely associated with your sense organs, Charlie's sense organs, Vera's sense organs. That's a certain part. So the unconscious is intimately related with bodies.

[63:56]

Okay? So here's the big unconscious. It's related. The big unconscious has two parts. One part, both parts are intimately related to our bodies. One part is relating in a common way to all our bodies. That's called the physical world. So the colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, those are relating to your body and Charlie's body and my body basically the same way. That's the common part. There's another part of the unconscious which is also relating to the body, but it's relating to your body only and his body only. That's also unconscious. It's a cognitive process. Part of the cognitive process relates just to your body, just to Vera's body.

[64:58]

Another part of the cognitive unconscious relates to all our bodies. That part's called the physical data world, the world of physical data. Colors, sounds, smells, tastes, intangibles. That's a mind. And then there's another part of the unconscious mind, the other section of the unconscious mind, is many little sections that relate to individual bodies only. yeah feedback yeah the feedback the feedback our conscious activity whether clearly observed or not if it's clearly observed we see there's no karma

[66:01]

if you can see clearly in consciousness, you see that karma is an illusion. Karma is, I did that. So consciousness is karmic to the extent that the self thinks that they own the stuff. And if you see through that, then there's activity, but there's no ownership, so there's no karma. But as long as there's karma, the karma transforms the communal unconscious process, which means it transforms the universe of data, of sense data, and it also transforms the unshared part. but I'm not clear about how my karma does or does not transform your... the part of your consciousness which is closely... the unconscious that's related to your sense organs.

[67:05]

I think maybe that part is not shared. So my action, my conscious activity transforms a certain section of the unconscious cognition which is related to this body and not others, and it also, together with you, transforms the sense data. So the physical world is called the container world, which we make together with other animals, too. We make different contributions, but our contribution this thing about humans is we have similar type of karma because of language. Language is an essential, it's kind of like the most karmic of all of our activities is language. And because our karma is similar, we recognize a similar world.

[68:08]

And people who speak different languages see somewhat different worlds. They share somewhat different worlds. Yes? When you talk about the common unconscious that we all share, is that like what some people call the collective unconscious? I think maybe it's what Jung was talking about as collective unconscious, yeah. And I have another thing I was wondering about. The three levels of... But I don't know exactly. I'm not a Jungian analyst. I'm not a Jungian analyst, so I don't know... It is a Jungian term. Yeah, so I don't know exactly how they understand it. It may be quite different from what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is... Indian Mahayana understanding of unconscious cognition. Third century.

[69:13]

From the third century. I was wondering about the different levels of consciousness, the conscious, the unconscious, and then there's a third level which you call wisdom. Yeah, I'm not calling wisdom a consciousness. I'm using consciousness for the type of mind where there's a sense of self. I'm calling that consciousness. In wisdom consciousness there really isn't a self. There's not really a self in wisdom consciousness, because wisdom... No, I was wondering if intuition, what people call intuition, would fall into that. I think intuition falls into consciousness. I think consciousness has intuition. This I agree with Jung. In consciousness there's intuition, reasoning, or inference, feelings, and sensations.

[70:15]

These are four ways of knowing in consciousness. But all the ways of knowing in consciousness are in association with self. And that's why we do our temple cleaning. In the unconscious, I would say there's not intuitions there, but a lot of our intuitions are fed by the unconscious, like we can instantly know certain things like that, because the unconscious process has figured things out really fast and told us the answer. However, intuitions are sometimes wrong. But they're easy. Intuitions are easy. You don't have to work at them. I would say intuition is like you know something really fast in consciousness. But you don't necessarily know anything about how you know it. If you remind me next week, I'll give you some examples of intuitions I'll give you some examples of intuitions that come really easily and were correct and intuitions that came really easily and were not correct.

[71:25]

But now it's getting past the bewitching hour and it's time to turn into pumpkins, okay? Thank you very much.

[71:38]

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