You don't take them as external, as male or female, or as arising and so on. Before you saw the arising, but you saw the arising as relative to non-arising. You saw how it had no meaning aside from that. Now you don't even see that to look at. So this is the three samadhis. Another way to look at it is that Another way to talk about what they are is that Shunyata is 18 kinds of emptiness. And we'll see in this book, we'll come to sections where we'll talk about 18 kinds of emptiness. You'll see that, right? There are 18 kinds of emptiness. So we'll study the 18 kinds of emptiness. There are also 32 kinds of emptiness. This is what we'll study. And the 32 kinds of emptiness are also related to Gatte Gatte Paragatte Parasam Gatte Bodhisattva. There's a system of 32 kinds of emptiness in the Prajni Paramita Mantra and the five paths, which the Dalai Lama talked about.

[01:13]

That's also the relationship between the five paths, the 32 kinds of emptiness, and the Prajni Paramita Mantra is another way to study this Samadhi. And Aparani Hitta means no desire for any particular realm or any particular kind of And there's, that means there's several kinds of existence possible. One's called Pupa Tati. One's called Pupa. Another one's called Purva. Kala. Baba. Another thing called Marana. Baba.

[02:17]

Another thing called Antara. Baba. And Karnababa. One, two, three, four. So in the midst of this emptiness situation, you do not desire, this is what you see the function of desires in the future, you do not desire any of these types of being. First one, Upapadi Bhava is of being, of becoming. Bhava is being or becoming. Upapati means arising, a production of birth. So you do not desire the birth type of being.

[03:20]

Purvakala being means a subsequent, subsequent being. being that happens after the birth up until marana bhava which is death being and antara bhava is called intermediate being the bardo existence the karma bhava means In the situation, in any of these situations, but particularly in the section of all human action that we engage in, all karma we engage in in our life. This is the only kind of being that there are.

[04:24]

We do not passion and desire for any of them. No, it doesn't include the other ones. Completely. Because Purva Kala Bhava So it's just like this. You can start wherever you want, but let's start at intermediate being, okay? Antara Baba. In Antara Baba, you have quite a bit of... You do not have to... You can be in Antara Baba and not choose to be reborn.

[05:29]

You cannot choose to... engage in this type of activity there. is called, I believe it's undefiled neutral. Neutral, I know. I think it's undefiled neutral. Now, well, see, karma bhava is kushala and apushala karma. But if you're up here in karma bhava and you decide that you like your, you see his lady and his man engaging in social intercourse, if the, well, you don't actually know the woman in heat or not. By heat, I mean furlough.

[06:34]

But anyway, you can desire to be with the woman and like her. And if she's become you'll be born a boy. That's what it's like to want. That's the way to talk about what it's like to want to live. To be born. That thought is the thought that's this type. That's the kind of consciousness that is. In other words, bhava is like when you want to give somebody a hug. Like the man or like the woman, you're born in opposite sex. Now, if the couple's not the kind, then you won't be born. You can wait and have another chance. And it's also possible

[07:38]

or several people could be able to pick the same couple at once, according to this. But once again, there has to be fecundity to support the desire. Now, at the same time, it may be that you could get into this a little further and say that there would be considerable, you should have some awareness of what's going on in other ways, too. Otherwise, there might be some trouble for you in your choice. So it's not an accident who you choose and that you have twins of now. You do have various, you do have mental consciousness, you do know stuff. However, being in this distance here is not usual distance. So you're not necessarily sitting next to other beings, not trival of them, both choosing the same parents. We wouldn't necessarily know that they're treating them, but at the same time, fertilization does not happen at the same moment.

[08:47]

Usually, these twins and so on, it usually happens. They're not usually fertilized at the same moment. I guess that's what we think anyway. Maybe they are. I guess we don't know that. They're not born at the same time. Maybe they're fertilized at the same time. Interesting to find out. The identical twin is one sperm and it splits. One egg and it splits. One egg, one sperm, right? One egg, one sperm? So identical twin is the case for

[10:01]

It looks like the same person, doesn't it? Because fertilization is when the being enters the womb. Anyway, that's one kind of desire. And the next kind of desire is this karma bhava, what you do in this life, projects onto a bhava and also projects Purvakala Baba. So this is Karma Baba. This is Antara Baba. This is Upapati Baba. And this is Purvakala Baba. This action in this life projects Antara Baba and projects Purvakala Baba. And in among Purvakala Baba are other Karma Babas. And the Purvakala Baba, Karma Baba, And ending with Marana Baba, which is death.

[11:11]

And then these project Antara Baba and Polakala Baba. We also don't desire. Death is something that is desired. Death is a Baba. It's a kind of desire. It's not. Anyway, you do not desire any of these kinds. They're momentary and, yeah, they're momentary. However, karma bhava, of course, will be, upapati bhava can only be one moment. But karma bhava can be, is the name of a whole bunch of moments, zillions of them. And antra bhavas can be the name of

[12:15]

A lot, you know, because it's either seven days or 49 days, depending on the Abhidami school you're from. And so it's a lot of moments. Marana Bhava is one moment, I believe. There may be some debate on that too. Purva Kala Bhava is lots of moments. But we're talking, becoming is something that happens in a moment. Becoming doesn't happen on average. It's something you actually do in a moment. But there's lots of a certain type, each one of these types. You all know a lot of Karmabhava and Pulakalabhava. Yes? They don't, huh? They don't. They're projected from previous lifetimes. And then you also have results in states that aren't purvacala bhava that are from this lifetime.

[13:24]

Purvacala bhava is specifically referring to when you change realms. There's a change of each time. This is, antra bhava is not certainly speaking of realm existence. This could be human realm. is not human realm. Upapadipava will be of the same realm as the realm you're born. If you're born in a human realm again, then this karma here, although it doesn't determine the realm you go in is from, they say it's already projected by this. Karma of this life will determine what Purva Kala, Purva Kala will be, the type of light you have as determined by your previous karma, your previous tendencies. So in antarabhava, you'll choose according to your previous karma what you'll do. So they say it doesn't swerve here.

[14:33]

It's unswerving. This is a point of difference between Mahayana and Abhidharma. Because says here that they do not desire any of these if you don't desire if you don't have any of these okay this whole thing falls apart but if you if you do have them if you are involved in that then you don't have any choice about what kind of person you choose to be born your habits will determine what kind of life you choose according to your previous karma what you'll do So they say it doesn't swerve. It's unswerving. Now this is a point of difference between Mahayana and Abhidharma. Because it says here that they do not desire any of these.

[15:34]

If you don't desire, if you don't have any of these, this whole thing falls apart. But if you do have them, If you are involved in that, then you don't have any choice about what kind of person you choose to be born in. Your habits will determine what kind of life you choose. And even though you may exist primarily as a human being in this life, in fact, you may think like a such and such, like an animal or like a ghost, and you'll be reborn as a ghost here and here. that would be your destiny. And destinies also are neutral, like Antra Baba. Destinies are just what you've got to work with. Now, what you do about that, that can be good or bad karma. And if you do good karma, the results of good karma finally evolve to human realm or deva realm.

[16:42]

Do you understand this, what I'm saying? There's Hetu, Kratyayas, and Pala. That's just Pala, just a result of some weakness. Yeah, Pura Vakvala means subsequent. It means for both the Upapati and the The birth and the purvakala are projected from previous karma. Both the antarabava and the purvakala are projected. Antarabava and the purvakala. Upapati is not projected. And I know it can't be projected because it can't project upapati because upapati is defiled.

[17:54]

You can't project a defiled state. Neutral. So Antirabhava and Purva Kala are neutral. Neutral results of karma and its life. So your circumstances in Antirabhava are are neutral and uncommitted. And you have a lot of freedom. And you do not have to be reborn. However, when you choose to be reborn, then you get a chance for your karma to fulfill itself in the second phase. Once you go along with this, think of birth. Then you go, then you say, okay, I'll also give them second faith on my second check, so to speak.

[18:59]

But the bodhisattvas, who are doing this meditation, do not involve any of this, do not desire these, these bubbles. However, they do transmigrate. but they don't desire them. They do not take them into consideration. They do not hope for them. So they... So another way to talk about our pranayita, yes? Is it not possible? Is it not possible? Well... I guess it depends on what you mean by enlightenment.

[20:14]

If you mean your first enlightenment, your first insight into the truth, I would say no. If you say a final complete Buddhahood, I would say no. Because the first breaking through, the first glimpse of nirvana, has to be in kamadhatu, human realm, in pain. And buddhas don't go to antarabhava at the power of nirvana. They don't do that kind of stuff. They just, they realize everything's okay and they close down the universe. In the Bodhisattva past, where you have innumerable illuminations and breakthroughs, where it's innumerable eons of taking on something, what we're just saying, of entering some realm, being concerned with some being, and then knowing that being's activity as it is, and then letting go of it, and not taking it into consideration, and being detached from it.

[21:35]

Those can happen anywhere up here, any of these forms. You can do it in Antara Bhava, you can do it in Pupapati Bhava, Pupapala Bhava, Karma Bhava. You can do it in resultant states, you can do it in hells, you can do it in intermediate states, you can do it in active karmic states, both good and bad. Anything's possible. Anything's the object of your onset. That's right. What? That leaves under a Baba. You're called a Gandharva. What? A Gandharva is...

[22:39]

Gandhava means lives on smells, eats smells. And you have a body which is similar to the Purvakala body. See, your Purvakala is already projected. If you choose to be reborn, you'll be reborn in some similar form to this intermediate being you are. So if you can be born a human, you'll be kind of like a little human, be shaped kind of like a little human. But you're not really human, for example, you live on smells, eat smells. And you can fly through the air, you can go through walls, which is convenient to get inside the womb and through the ceiling and so on. You're not human.

[23:43]

You don't have human stuff. You don't have human destiny. You don't have human suffering. You're in intermediate space, you know. You're not committed. You're not on anger trips. You're not on desire trips. You're not on confusion trips. You're not on any kind of trip. You're just uncommitted. And you're quite open then, actually, to do something very excellent. That as soon as you decide to be born, then you get into some realm and then everything escalates from then on until the final collapse and old age and disaster. And when it finally gets really bad, you want to die. You desire to be dead. And then the comma that you... And there's tremendous escalation that's occurred either in this whole lifetime or in just a few seconds, actually, it can happen too.

[24:44]

You can make these switches many times in a lifetime. You can go to hell. Like tonight, we could go out in San Francisco and we could go to heaven. We could go to hell. We could go to hungry ghost land. This is a long night, maybe, but we could have nice, solid experiences of all realms tonight. We can go out and, anyway. In one night, you could easily have good, solid experiences. That might take some money to do this, but it could be done. We could be really scared tonight, frightened to death like an animal cowering in the corner, afraid of fire, irrational, shivering, quivering fear, any of us. We could be, just tonight, you know, here you are sitting here, all you're quite calm, but tonight we could find ourselves in a state of tremendous craving.

[25:51]

And tonight we could find ourselves in great bliss. And of course, you're already on the human realm, I assume, so you know that when you are starting there. And you could also find yourself in hell by tomorrow morning. But also, you can spend your whole life in the human realm. You could spend this whole life in the human realm. This whole sort of 1940, whatever it is, to 1950, whatever it is, to 2000, whatever it is. That could all be in the human realm. Although, I don't recommend it. I think maybe you might want to visit some of the other realms during some of your Bodhisattva career. Just... check out the beings there and give them a hand but so there's all these possibilities Bodhisattva does not desire these forms of being does not desire karmic activity either good or bad does not desire mutual being in between these realms does not desire birth does not desire death however goes through the motions enters puts on the armor

[27:13]

enters the world, is concerned, and yet without apprehending this world that is concerned and is directed towards. And bodhisattvas do not extinguish Okay, and the last thing maybe to say again on the no marked, the no marks, signless samadhi, is that the origin of the samadhi, and once again, this is one samadhi, right? This is the Bodhisattva samadhi. But the aspect called the signless has its origins in what you can find here, has origins in a Theravada practice which you can find in the Siddhi Magga.

[28:19]

And it's called Restraint of the Senses. It's a very ancient meditation practice called Restraint of the Senses. And it says that here someone having seen affirm with his eyes does not seize on his general characteristics or the accessory details of it, that which might, so long as it dwells unrestrained as to the controlling force of the eye, the injury of the eye, give occasion to covetous, sad, evil, or unwholesome dharmas to flood in, that he sets himself to restraint. He guards and controls the force of the eye and brings about his restraint. Likewise with the ear, the sounds, and the ear, and smells, and the nose, and so on. But it says, that which might, and so on, that which might by reason, or that which might by the reason, or that non-restraint of the faculty of I might be a cause.

[29:40]

Why in this person, when he dwells without having restraint, the faculty of the eye with the gate of mindfulness and so on, when he has left the door of the eye open, such dramas as covetousness and so on, flood him, that is pursue and submerge him, that he sets himself to restrain. He sets himself to close his faculty of the eye with the gate of mindfulness. And when he sets himself to do that, Of him it is said, he guards the controlling force of the eye and brings about his restraint. But it is not with reference to the faculty of the eye itself that there is restraint or non-restraint. That is, it does not apply to the initial stage of impact of the stimulus on the eye. You don't actually close your eye organ in the sense of the basic sense perception. It is not concerning the eye considered a sensitive organ that mindfulness arises or lack of it but it is at the stage of the apperception of the object with such and such a meaning and significance and a volitional attention to it with this technically known as the impulsive moment that there is lack of restraint or a restraint

[31:08]

Nevertheless, one speaks of non-restraint of the senses or restraining the senses. And why? Because when the mind is in that condition, the door also of the eye is unguarded. The situation can be regarded as to that city. When the four gates are unguarded, when, although in the interior of the city, the doors of the houses, store rooms and the private rooms are well guarded, nevertheless, All the property in the city is actually unguarded and unprotected, and robbers can, once they have entered through the city gates, do whatever they like. In the same manner also, the door of the eye is unguarded when, in consequence of a rising of immorality and so on, there's a lack of restraint of the impulsive moment. Okay? So, this... That's sort of an ancient or more shiniyana type of practice, but it has that same meaning.

[32:09]

You have to restrain at the more developed level in order to work back so that even lights can attack you if you don't guard your impulsive reaction or your impulsive attitude toward your sense organs, not to mention toward your mind organs. So this is actually a brief discussion of the three samadhis. And these three, we could, you know, they could have talked about other samadhis, but these three samadhis are really the true bodhisattva samadhis. We have lots of other names for these bodhisattva samadhis. Like if you look in the pancha, here in, of the Pancha, which is called the, chapter 15, which is called the Concentrations.

[33:23]

And they're describing, according to the Abhisamayalankara, they're describing the initial phase of the path, the path, the equipment stage. It says, moreover, Subuddhi, the great vehicle of the Bodhisattvas, the great beings, that is the concentration called heroic valor, and so on to the concentration called like space, unshackled and free, untainted. The concentration called heroic valor. Through that concentration, the range of all concentrations is experienced. The jewels seal. Through that concentration, all concentrations are sealed. The lions play, the beautiful moon. The moon is a glorious ensign, the glorious ensign of certainty, like a thunderbolt. well-established king of concentration, the shedding of rays, the array of power, the arisen, the definite entrance into the exposition of language, the entrance into all synonyms, the unimpaired, the seal of the ocean, the meaning of all dharmas, the radiant ether, the unlimited illumination, and so on and so forth.

[34:32]

These are names of all the different kinds of samadhis. But all these samadhis, this list of names of samadhis is a way to talk about these three. give you a feeling what these three are like. If you read this list over and over, it's like doing meditation on these three. Another way to do these three. However, it doesn't sound the same. Okay, next one is, any questions on these now? Before we go on to the next one. Okay, then the next characteristic is they have acquired the sameness and patience Samatha means sameness.

[36:08]

Shanti means patience. And Patilabda, we saw before, means quiet. And that's that. There's two types of each of these. The first type is called sattva, samatha. And then dharma. It's the same for Kshanti. There'll be Sattva Kshanti and Dharma Kshanti.

[37:31]

So what's the Sattva Summit What do you think it is? What? All beings the same. What do you think that means? That's what it says. Right. That's right. And what are those characteristics? Five skandhas. Well... But if you do it that way, then not all beings do have five skandhas. But they have some skandhas.

[38:34]

Some have only four. And... Not only that, but the five skandhas will be different, five skandhas. For example, one person will have a lot of deceit and greed and idea of self. They'll have a perception of self as part of their samskaras skanda. Another person won't be greedy, won't be deceitful, and so on, and won't have an idea of self in his samskaras skanda. Well, that's sort of you getting closer. Beings don't exactly have those signs. Yeah, that's more like that.

[39:38]

All beings are no beings. All beings are unborn. All beings are undestroyed, unmade. This is actually what all beings are like. Yes? That's because if you say, you know, if Buddhism started off by saying, first thing you say is that there's no Buddha or no enlightenment, that's the first thing you say. Right? Instead of saying that there is Buddha, you say there's no Buddha. You could do it that way too, right? Huh? But we don't do it that way, do we? We say there's Buddha, and there's enlightenment, and there's fire engines. Right?

[40:40]

Have you noticed that that's what we do in Buddhist? We don't say there's no fire engines. Unless there's no fire engines. So, but if we could say, we could say there's no Zen center. We could start off that way, sort of, to get our idea across. Well, I'm not done. I'm not done. I'm just talking slowly so you can let it sink in, okay? So, if you say, if you would start, you see, when we say there's people, obviously you don't mean there's people the way you think. We mean there's people, right? Buddhism is not just sort of reiterating what everybody thinks already. And yet we say exactly what everybody thinks. So we say, yes, there's people, and there's, for example, you say, if you got a little bit of merit from making a sandcastle in the shape of a Buddha, then actually, if you got a lot of merit for that, you can imagine how much you'd get if you gave some

[42:08]

to eat to a real Buddha. This is a common idea. It's kind of like India's common idea. Kind of like, park your car properly, you won't get any tickets, right? Right. That's what Buddhism says in the Hari Diamond Sutra. But, you know, everybody knows that, so what are we talking about? But the first thing we say is, if you don't, if you park your car properly, you won't get any parking tickets, right? That's right, Sigoury. You will not get any parking tickets. How much more so would it be if you parked everybody's car properly, would there not be any parking tickets? Right? Right. Everybody knows that. So what's the point? The point is that if you say, if you didn't park any parking tickets, there wouldn't be, you know, that you would get parking tickets, or if you didn't have a car, there wouldn't be any merit, or if there wasn't any Buddha, then you would think that by saying that there's no Buddha, okay, say there isn't any Buddha and there isn't any merit, there isn't any targeted, there aren't any marks, there aren't any people, then when you say that, then people think, aha, Buddhism has, of course, there something rather unusual to say, you see?

[43:34]

Buddhism has a very revolutionary teaching. They say no beings, no eyes, no ears, no tathagata, no Buddha, no merit, no samadhis, no enlightenment. Wow, they're really far out. But they would think they were far out because we said there wasn't any Buddha, that there was no Buddha, our own leader, our own goal, our own Salvation. We say there isn't even that. Boy, they're really far out. That's because they would think that, because we said no. Right? They think, in other words, that when we said there's no Buddha, that we meant there was no Buddha. Just like they might think if we said that there is a Buddha, that there is a Buddha. And in fact, when we say there is a Buddha, they think we do mean there is a Buddha. They do. But when we say there is a Buddha, we mean no Buddha. after we say there is a Buddha we mean no Buddha that's why we say there is a Buddha because if we say there's no Buddha then we have to say there's no no Buddha to tell them what we mean by no Buddha or that there is is Buddha to tell them what we mean by no Buddha and then they get confused and they think well what are you saying no no Buddha for right off the bat there that's why you say no Buddha is because there's no no Buddha or that's why there is is Buddha because you say there's no Buddha

[45:04]

It's a funny way to talk. But you start by saying what everybody knows, there is Buddha, okay, there is merit, there is Samadhi, there is good, there is bad, okay, okay. Buddha is very easy to understand, it's very nice. Then we tell them, then we tell ourselves, what we mean by is Buddha, merit and so on, is no Buddha. That's why we say that in the first place. You say it in the first place because then when we say no, they know what we mean by yes. We start by saying no, and then we say no, no to explain what we mean by no. It's rather obscure, you know. It doesn't hit. Because people, as soon as you say no, they say, oh, neat. They don't know what you're talking about. They just think it's neat. You say it brutally. They hang on to it. And then you say no. And you say, that's why we say yes, in order that we can say no. and you can get it right on. So we say Zen center so we can say not Zen center.

[46:09]

We set up this big thing and we all believe in it so that we can say no once in a while. And it really hits home when it happens. If we started out by saying no Zen center, then people would come here and there'd be no Zen center or it'd be a big mess and they'd say, geez, that's interesting, isn't it? God, what are you going to do about that? And we'd say, well, really, don't take it too seriously that this place is falling apart and there's no students here. Because they wouldn't take it seriously in the first place. They'd just say, gee, that's really far out. And no one would be here because actually there weren't any students and there's no Zen center. And then you could say, no, no Zen center, and nobody would care and nobody would be moved and nobody would learn anything. Probably. Maybe one person. that they might be not much of anybody anyway because they'd be no student. So what you start with in Buddhism, you start with good karma and yes, and then you take the rug out.

[47:14]

That's why you say yes and good karma. That's why Buddha says, do these practices. Do these good practices. Do these good practices. Why? Just do them. Why do you call it Buddhism? We just do. Why do you call it such and such a temple? We just do. so that later we can say, you know, this isn't what it seems to be. That's why we say it's what it seems to be. Okay? So you have to give people something to hold on to before they can experience letting go. If you take it away to start with, they'll just grab it something else that you won't be able to take away. If you come to a Zen center and it says no Zen center, You go to the YMCA. But we can take away Zen Center, but we can't take away the YMCA. We don't own it. We can go down there and stand in front and say, this is not the YMCA. And people would just say, well, yes, it is.

[48:16]

You know? We can say, this is not a drugstore. And they can say, well, it certainly is. I just bought some aspirins there. And I asked to see the druggist, and this guy walked out and shook my hand. It's a drugstore. You're crazy. If they come here and we say, this is not a Zen center, they say, oh, you're a priest there, huh? Yeah. I'm a priest at this non-Zen center. Well, you must be right. Yes, gee, what is gosh. Well, what should I do now? So Buddhism says, there's this and there's this, and we've really got stuff, you know. We've got Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and Arhats and Rajayaka Buddhas and we've got Devas and realms and Samadhis and wisdoms and aesthetic practices and Zafus and food and we've got it all, you know. People go grabbing, zip, [...] and then we just say, you know, that's not that, that's not that, and that's not that.

[49:21]

And you've got a book right here, it says that, it says right here, from the ancient text. See that word there? There's no Zen Center right there. And the very mind that hung on to Zen Center in the first place is the same mind that has to admit that it says no Zen Center right there. It's not a joke. Old text, you can check, look in the front, shows you what text is from. Look in the back, has footnotes and all these great scholars and stuff. It's not a joke. It's a system to become free by And the way you become free, first of all, you take people where they're at. They're someplace. And you take them at some place and you put them some other place. And that other place is some place you can take away. So bodhisattvas start, says in the sutra, from where do the bodhisattvas depart? What's the point of departure into wisdom? From where do they depart into wisdom?

[50:23]

What's the point of departure? Where do you go from? Where do you start? Huh? What? From attachment? That's right, from attachment. That's where you depart from. Attachment to what? What? Well, that's one attachment. What do you call attachments? The whole world. triple world. Kamadatu, Rupadatu, Arupadatu. That's where the bodhisattvas jump off into wisdom. They come from the world. They come from Zen centers and Dhammadatus and IBM. That's where they go from. You have to start with people there. You have to say this first.

[51:27]

If you say not this first, people will walk out. They won't listen. They'll just go to the nearest yes that they can find, but that yes won't have a no, which is what meant by that yes. Therefore they say yes because of that no. That's not the point. That's the difference between the army and Zensang. Zensang looks just like the army in many ways, but behind the army there's not an ancient no, which is the reason why they say yes. There's a yes behind the yes, behind the yes, behind the yes. In other words, there's superstition going back for endless cultures. The army is an example of reincarnation of certain belief systems from way back that keep the army going, that keep men having armies.

[52:30]

But Buddhism is willing at any time and any place to give up everything. The whole universe can go up in a puff if everybody's willing to go. Since there is the army going on too, we can't leave yet. Because there's millions of army people who think that the army's really there. So we have to wait until they agree. So when the army says, when you hear the ads on TV and they say, want to be a man? I know you do. And you know what we mean by man. They're getting close. You can hear ads like this now, they say. You want to be in army? Think it's easy? It's not. No, it's not easy. But, you know, nothing's worthwhile unless you have to struggle. and things like that and the army adding radio now.

[53:42]

Okay. So, that's the first one. Beings are similar because basically they're unborn. They have the same nature. So, they're really different but fundamentally their difference is similar because all their differences are unborn. So we say you should treat all beings as Buddha. You should treat them the same. But it doesn't mean that you don't bow to some and spank others. That's a tough one, you know. In other words, If you've got a bad person here, you don't say they're a good person, they're a bad person. And over here you have a good person.

[54:43]

You know they're a good person. There's no question about it. But the nature of both of their bad and their good is unarisen, empty, due to causes. And when it comes to that, you actually love a bad person. You love this bundle of causal situations. And a good person too, you love this bundle of causes. You just want to sort of, you have affection towards these events because basically they're all the same. You know that bad people arise by certain causes. And as a matter of fact, you know they're probably trying to be good, and they think they're good too, probably. They're trying, but they're so confused that when you take this attempt to be good with this confusion, you get this bad thing. It just has to be that way.

[55:47]

And you have affection for reality. You have affection for the reality of the way they are. You know they eat too much candy, so they have pimples. There could be no other way. You know why they eat candy. Because they're nervous because they sleep too much. You know why they sleep too much. And so on. It's all right there. It could be no other way. And you love it to be the way it is because you see how it works. And they work exactly the way they work. They work by the same rules that this person over here works that's called a good person. So it's the same reality in two different packages. So you have equal affection for it. But on the other hand, sometimes people forget that. And they look at the people who have good karma and they're more attractive, so they like them better. And they get more of their attention. But the bodhisattva, this funny bodhisattva gives, really gives equal attention to the temple-covered ones and the ones with the, you know, beautiful, smooth pink skin.

[57:01]

equal attention to the bad and the good. You've heard about that already, but this is the basis of it. Because fundamentally, they see them as the same. It's not that they are making some compensation. So, in a way, if you don't see things this way, you can work at it from the outside in. In other words, you could try to but you can try to like other people's babies as much as your own, other people's wife as much as your own, other people's husband as much as your own. Give them as much attention as you give your own. It's tough. Anyway, if you try, you start to enact the fact that really they are the same fundamentally. And the fundamental level is the level the bodhisattvas operating on. Yes? To what? Well, if you don't have any affection, then it doesn't give rise to affection.

[58:12]

But if you have any affection, it's equally distributed. It turns out bodhisattvas do have affection in the sense of, you know, it's not craving or desire, you know. But just it's a friendliness or wanting to give them stuff or do them favors, little things like that. If you do those things, then you do them equally. If you don't do them, then you don't do them equally. So, once again, to save all sentient beings, you have to do that, you have to be mindful of that intention. But you should distribute that attention quite evenly around But it's tough. You know it's tough. But he was supposed to do it, see? So it's the same.

[59:12]

Well, like looking at some people, if they look at a good person and a bad person, they make a difference between the two, so it won't be seen in the same thing. Well, anyway, you're emphasizing a different point than self-nugget. It's a different point, a different characteristic. Now we're talking about looking at beings as objects. You even the field out. You can include yourself in it too. Give yourself as much attention as you give other people because you're the same. So I don't know how much energy I should put into creating an image of a bodhisattva who has love for, love like you have for your own child, for these Dharma masses, for these Dharma packages.

[60:55]

Now, this activity, is very closely related to the one after this next one, which is the various supernatural powers, which you'll see. In other words, the ability to see where people are coming from and where they're going, why they're the way they are, either good or bad, that power will be very useful or even necessary in order to pull off this sameness practice. So, Rather than spend too much more time on this one, because this one is basically related to the next, the one after the next, let's go on to the next one, which is a short one, and it's called Asanga Dharani Pratilabhda. And Asanga, you know, is the name of a famous Buddhist saint, and it means without obstacle. So it's the without obstacle, Dharani, that you attain. So,

[62:03]

naturally the question may arise, why, I thought we just did the Dharanis, and that's right, but this Dharani, the good thing that this Dharani does, the good thing that this Dharani holds, is the famous, what do you call it, Samadhi Raja Samadhi, the Samadhi Raja Samadhi. Sorry. Asanga. Asanga. Jirani Pratilabda. And asanga means without obstacle. So this is the Jirani. This Jirani is...

[63:04]

Its function is to protect and uphold the samadhi called Raja Samadhi. And this is, you may know this from Shobho Genzo. Zammai O Zammai, you know that fascicle? Shobho Genzo, it's translated in Eastern Buddhist. Samadhi King Samadhi. Dogen Zanji's classical on Zazen, one of his classicals on Zazen, which we study in the Zogin class. And it's actual traditional Mahayana Samadhi, and it is the King Samadhi. So this special Dharani is to protect this Samadhi. So if you have the Dhrani, then you can have the Samadhi. And the Samadhi leads to the Asanga Vimoksha.

[64:07]

Asanga Vimoksha. And Asanga Vimoksha is the Vimoksha which leads to the Buddha Vimoksha. The King Samadhi is the Samadhi that's connected with the Asanga Vimoksha, the unhindered liberation. An unhindered liberation is Buddha liberation so the bodhisattvas have the dharani which protects and upholds the samadhi which leads to the Buddha's liberation uninhindered liberation which is Buddha's liberation so they have this dharani so they have the samadhi so they have the liberation so they have Buddha's liberation these bodhisattvas have Buddhist liberation So you see how high these bodhisattvas are. They are not Buddhas yet, because it's not their job to be Buddha yet.

[65:09]

It's not their turn. But they have, you see, very high development. So that's why these bodhisattvas, going back now to excuse ourselves, these bodhisattvas actually now can regard all beings with equal mindfulness, with equal affection, with equal consideration, with equal favors, But these are very high bodhisattvas. So to the extent that you have not yet been able to uphold this samadhi, then maybe you still have some preferences among the people. But these bodhisattvas don't anymore. So that's an example. Now we come to the five It says here that, he again says, imperishable super-knowledges. But it just says in the text, five super-knowledges.

[66:13]

This book here has a very good treatment of super-knowledges, bodhisattva super-knowledges. The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. On page. It's under the 37 Wings of Enlightenment. It starts on page 106. Now he doesn't have a discussion of what they are in some detail, but it has some history about how they developed. a nice little bibliography on places you can read about them. Which is, I mean, you can really become Zen Center expert on super-knowledges if you read all these books. So anyway, it's got quite a, you know, whole page of references on super-knowledges. Now this guy doesn't have a very Mahayan understanding of these, but anyway, there's a good deal of information here for you.

[67:25]

on the super knowledges if you want to read it. So I'm going to read to you about these super knowledges for a while, but I ask you before we start to think about, and maybe you want to read this section here, read this book too. Do we have some of these on reserve? Do we have some in the library? We don't? Some people have them. And maybe you could read yours and share them with some other people or something. So maybe you can, rather than give them to the library and have them swiped by, I don't know, some of these great bodhisattvas who would want to share them with the other bodhisattvas, you might just go to them individually, check them out with them and it's all right with you so that you know who has it. Rather than, if you put it in the library, I don't know what will happen to it. And you can borrow mine, too, if someone else can borrow mine.

[68:27]

I'll loan mine to you. Anybody else happy? Besides you two and me? David Schneider has one, too. Anyway, you might want to read these, but in the discussion we're having here, and plus reading this, try to think about what these mean. What does it have to do with Zen practice? So the order of these things is various orders you will encounter them in. And I'm going to switch the order around to what I think is kind of the way that makes sense to me. I hope it's helpful to you. So what it says in the text is a pancha abijina.

[69:39]

Five superknowledges. Now sometimes there's six superknowledges, sometimes there's five, sometimes there's four, sometimes there's seven. They talk about five. and break this up into parts.

[71:47]

OK, so the first one's called Divya Chakshya. And Divya is like from Deva, which means heavenly. That means God, so Divya is heavenly eye. And Divya Chotra is heavenly ear. And Purva Anisvas Anusmirti means Purva means Purva Kala. So Purva means sequences of Nisva's lives. Anasmitka means remembrance or recollection. So recollection of subsequent sequences of lives. Para is opposite of sva. Sva means own, para means other. This is paramo.

[73:35]

Other mind, citta, jnana. So the knowledge of other minds. And riddhi. Riddhi is usually magical powers. There's all sorts of magical. This is more like magical or transformational or creational. Protein types of powers. So these are the five that are talked about in this text right here. And there's another one that's sometimes added is anasarapa, anasarapa, which means without outflows. It's also called .

[74:57]

Yeah. You say an asarava abhijna, or asarava, outflows, kshaya jnana, knowledge of the kshaya, which means the cutting or extinction of the outflows. It's another supernatural power. But it's not discussed. This is five years. That one's dropped off. And the other list that he, as Hardal says, doesn't have riddy, but has that one and so on.

[75:58]

So it's a quarter to ten, so maybe we should wait until next week to tell you what these are. So basically, I'll tell you what my basic take is that usually when you read these things, you sort of wonder, I guess, what's the point of this stuff, of these powers? What have they got to do with my practice? What have they got to do with Mahayana Buddhism? with the street. And these bodhisattvas have them, but still, we should know about them. Why? And I find them quite relevant myself. Some of them have to stretch over further than others. That's why I would like to do them in a certain order because they can sort of catch on to how they work from one more than another. So I think maybe next week we'll do the supernatural powers and maybe another few of these things, but we can't go through the whole list.

[77:19]

So I'll do the supernatural powers and if you have any that you're particularly interested in, you could bring up. And I have a couple of other ones I think are important to notice. One more week on the characteristics of the bodhisattvas. And then we'll probably go on to this drama here. And then we'll start the main text, Thought of Enlightenment. Once again, I'd be willing to skip this drama if you don't want to do it. So I'll change my direction, but that's my current plan. So if you want to do something different, just let me know.

[77:59]

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