Before I came over here, I was looking at a calendar that has cute little line drawings of a desert scene. And I'd colored in some of the cactuses and stuff. And I thought that it was for the month of March. And I thought, geez, the whole month of March is sitting there, just waiting to be experienced. It just felt so spacious and such a great opportunity. And I noticed that it was really April. And then I felt the same way about April. We have this big month sitting there ahead of us.

[01:03]

But I really felt really good about having all of March ahead of me. But I don't. So I was kind of joyfully entertaining these comparisons between these minds of having March available and April and then the mind that has just April. And the mind does keep doing that kind of stuff. April, May, like that. So today, the ancestor of the day is the 43rd from Shakyamuni Buddha.

[02:19]

We, in the morning service, say, Taiyo Kyogen. Taiyo is the same as in the head monk's name. It means great sun. And the Chinese way of saying it is Dayang Jingxuan. Dayang Jingxuan. Dayang is the name of the mountain where the community he taught was called Great Sun Mountain. And Jingxuan is his monk's name. So this teacher's initiatory name, his ordination name was Jingxuan.

[03:26]

And in the transmission of the lamp and also other places, he was called Jingyuan because of the taboo on the name of the then current emperor. There were a number of emperors actually in China whose name had the character Shun in them. Like Tai Shun, Yi Shun, these kinds of emperors. So he never used the emperor's name, never said the emperor's name. So he was named Jingxuan, but they called him Jingyuan while the emperor was around. But his name was really Jingxuan. He was from the Chong family in Jiangxia.

[04:28]

And he made his home departure with the Zen teacher Jertong. When he was 18, he became a fully ordained monk. He heard lectures on the meaning of the scripture of perfect awakening, and he was the best student in the class. And then he went traveling, and he visited the 42nd pioneer, Liang Shan. And when he first met him, he said, What is the formless sight of awakening? And Liang Shan pointed to a picture of Avalokiteshvara and said,

[05:35]

This was painted by the scholar Wu. And Jingxuan was about to speak, and Liang Shan suddenly grabbed him and said, This is what has form. What doesn't have form? And Jingxuan woke up, or he understood. In this case, he just said he understood or he comprehended. He didn't say he was greatly awakened. I don't know. Different, different this time. Comprehended. Then he stood, or then he bowed and stood in place. When you're wearing your Okesa, this full robe,

[06:41]

you're actually supposed to be carrying your bowing cloth with you all the time. Sometimes I don't. Like the other day, I came to service. I mean, I came to lunch or something. I thought service was over, but things were different from what I expected, and service was starting when I arrived. So I didn't have my bowing cloth. So you never know when there might be a service. So you monks should always carry your bowing cloth if you're wearing this Okesa. Also, you never know when you might be enlightened and want to do some bows. But I do sometimes think, well, I'm not going to be enlightened or have a service, so I just walk off without it. And then often I get caught without it. Anyway, he apparently had his bowing cloth and so on. He did bows and then stood there.

[07:46]

And the Aung San said, why don't you say something? The Master said, I'm not avoiding speaking. It's just that I worry that I'll end up in writing. I cannot tell a lie. I read it. I wish I'd made it up, but I didn't. I wish I'd made up this next line, too, which I didn't. The Aung San smiled and said, those words will end up on a stone tablet. So I guess Jing Shren gave up and said, okay. Long ago, as a beginner, I studied the way in error.

[08:50]

Seeking knowledge over thousands of rivers and mountains. Clarifying the present, discerning the past. In the end, I could not understand. They spoke directly of no mind, but my doubt remained. Now my teacher showed me the mirror of chin. The mirror of chin is a mirror that the emperor of chin had. And if people looked in it, they could see all their bones and internal organs and every pore of their body in the mirror. Now my teacher showed me the mirror of chin and it reflected what I was before my parents bore me. Having understood thoroughly now, what did I obtain?

[09:57]

If you release a black bird at night, it flies covered in snow. Yang Shan said, Dung Shan's tradition will flourish because of you. So, starting out like this, the monk Jing Shren's reputation grew all at once. When Yang Shan died, Jing Shren left the city and went to Mount Dayan and called upon the Zen master Zhen. When Zhen resigned his position, he made Jing Shren head of the community.

[11:05]

From then on, he made Dung Shan's tradition flourish and people got wind of it. The master's appearance was unusual and dignified. I looked up the word dignity the other day. It has a nice meaning. It says something like, a presence and deportment of poise and dignity such that it inspires respect. Some people have poise and self-respect in their deportment, but it makes people angry. It makes people think, oh, they think they're better than the rest of us. They're haughty and arrogant.

[12:10]

But some other people carry themselves with self-respect and poise and it kind of makes people feel like, yeah, it inspires respect. So, he was this kind of person whose appearance was unusual and dignified. From the time he was a child, he ate only one meal a day and totally non-dairy. Because he put a great deal of importance on what he had inherited from his predecessors, he never left the monastery. He never laid down to sleep and he did this until he was 81. Finally gave up his position, bade farewell to the community and died. So, here's a short story.

[13:17]

Kaizen says that the most essential thing in the study of Zen is this formless sight of enlightenment. It's a little bit different from the one great matter. It's like the formless sight of enlightenment is the place where you settle the great matter. We can't exactly be concerned with or settle the formless sight of enlightenment, but it's there at that place that we settle the business of the Buddha way. And this formless sight of enlightenment has been called also the light. It's the face before your parents started to bore you.

[14:26]

Remember back when they were interesting? It's the way you look before you were born. It's wisdom which has gone beyond wisdom. It's the light of these precepts. It's what all these precepts are pointing to. It's that place. So, this is the place where the Zen practice is concentrated. And if we can keep turning in this direction of this ineffable light, of this formless place, there we have a chance, the opportunity to have a little life, like it said yesterday. Stand on top of the highest mountain and walk in the bottom of the deepest ocean. No matter what, all is turning towards this light. And at this place, there's not an atom of external stuff.

[15:43]

And when you look directly inward, when you look directly at this intimacy, we do this without a hair of intellectualizing. And yet, the conscious process, the ego, which has been discussed quite a bit lately here, plays a role. We need this ego to give a time and a place for this stuff to happen. Somehow our experience and reality meet and dance together, flow into each other, back and forth, through the medium and under the sponsorship of a healthy ego.

[16:54]

In fact, experience and reality are flowing back and forth. Imagination, unconscious processes and reality are always inseparable. But to bring them into time and space, to bring them into breakfast, lunch and dinner, ego has to provide a medium. Ego is the center of the medium in which this stuff is realized. But this stuff is not consciousness. And yet, for it to be realized in consciousness of time and space, the ego has to be a good servant. From the point of view of ego, experience and reality are both objects of knowledge.

[18:08]

So, in a way, a lot of these instructions are instructions to the ego to help the ego figure out how to situate itself in this process, so that it can serve and not interfere. So one instruction to the ego is, you may not be able to hear this. As a matter of fact, the whole area which you're coordinating may not be able to hear this. But don't hinder that which does hear it. So, in this story, Kesan says that the teacher pointed to the picture of the Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, again to provide a mirror for the monk. What's this formless realm? Do you see that picture there? And then, grabbing the monk, saying, this is what has form.

[19:28]

What doesn't have form? So, the monk, the 43rd ancestor, understood this formless realm, this faceless realm of light, by means of something that has no function. So, our practice of sitting has no function. By dedicating ourselves to something that's completely useless, that has no function, we have a chance to wake up to this faceless reality. Again, the ego is being requested, please, not only allow this to happen, but arrange for this to happen.

[20:38]

Arrange for the people, you and the rest of the people, to go and sit and do something with no function. Not only allow it, but get behind it. Make sure it happens as much as you can. The more time people are doing something that has no function, the more time that they don't use their eyes and ears and mind, the more opportunities they have to say, what am I doing here anyway? If I'm not using my eyes or my ears or my nose or my tongue or my body or mind, what am I doing? What has no form? So, even though you have ears and eyes, when you do not use them, you see what is not bound by body and mind.

[21:40]

So, of course, when you're sitting, when you're walking, whatever you're doing, you're using your eyes and ears. But how about not using them? If you try to stop using them, that's still using them. But somebody is sitting there not using them. Who is not using them? Somebody is not using this equipment, totally wasting her time. That one also can't gain anything from this practice, or lose anything. So, Kaizan says, Zen worthies, you have fortunately become descendants of Dungshan's family.

[22:54]

You have encountered the family style of these enlightened predecessors. It's a funny family, but anyway, you've run into it. How do you feel about this family that you've run into, that you've encountered? He even says you've become descendants. I don't know if you want to go that far. I won't put you on the spot to ask you if you feel like you've become descendants. I guess when he was talking back there in the late, I guess maybe very late or early 14th century, maybe he was talking to people who had said that they wanted to be descendants. I don't know if you people wanted to be descendants of such a weird family

[23:59]

that goes around not using its eyes and legs. Maybe testimonials later? Think about it. So he says, anyway, he thinks, Kaizan thinks, if you practice precisely and nicely and are carefully, personally awakened to the time prior to birth and the arising of form and emptiness, reach the realm where there is not a fragment of form, experience the realm where there is not the least atom of external stuff, you will find the four gross elements and the five aggregates. You will not find them. You will not find the four gross elements and the five aggregates.

[24:59]

You won't find them. You know, when Shakyamuni was enlightened, one scholar said, reviewing his big night with reality, said that his experience was two-thirds shamanic and one-third philosophical. I think he got the thirds by kind of like calculating the watches of the night, you know, like in two watches he was doing shamanic work and one watch philosophical. What he means by that is that during the first two watches where he was really getting into it, he attained the divine eye, divine ear, the ability to review past lives,

[26:02]

the ability to read other people's mind, and the ability to magical activities like, you know, flying, appearing two places at once, jumping up at a distance and this kind of stuff, which is similar to flying. These are shamanic things that he realized. One of the shamanic things is reviewing past lives. And my understanding of how you do that is, they're not supernatural powers, they're what we call supernormal powers. They're above the normal range. They're not non-natural, they're completely natural. And the way you do them is, the easiest way to do them, the way the Buddha did them was you get really concentrated. And in a state of concentration, then you direct your concentration to certain realms. So, for example,

[27:05]

if you direct your concentration to look at people and watch people in a state of high concentration, you can learn a lot. For example, if you watch somebody, you can watch the relationship, well, first of all, watch yourself. And notice the relationship between your facial expressions, you know, tension between your eyebrows, and the way you behave, the way you physically feel in relationship to your mind. Study that and if you're really concentrated, you can figure out quite a bit about that in a fairly short period of time. Then study other people and watch the relationship between their face and body and voice and their mind. And you can talk to them about it too. But by this concentrated study, you can achieve what's called awareness of reading other people's minds. You don't really read their mind, you read their body and voice. And you read the relationship between your body and voice and your mind. This kind of study leads to the, what we call,

[28:08]

super-normal ability to understand what people are thinking by looking at them and listening to them. And the other one, another one is like, if you watch how you think yesterday was, and how today is, and how the way you think the day before yesterday was, and how that makes what you think yesterday was, you watch the causes and conditions by which this illusion, this dream world is created, you can work yourself right back through a story, you know, right back through every single day you can go back. You know, for us who are around 50, we can go through our 40s, through our 30s, through our 20s, through our 10s, through our pre-10s. You can go day by day all the way back with this kind of concentration and you can make up a story. And a story is not random, you know. It's honestly saying what you think went the day before

[29:11]

and you can make up a good story. And you can go right back down into the womb and back in the womb and before the womb and into the next, what caused that, and before that, and before that, and before that. And you can make up this story of past lives and you just keep doing that for a long time. That's what the Buddha did. And when he did that, what he said he saw in his past lives, everywhere he saw past lives, every past life he got, he said what he saw was five aggregates, form, feeling, and so on. He saw it in this life and he saw how all the five aggregates in this life went back that way. And then he saw five aggregates in many past lives and all through those past lives he saw a whole set of five aggregates. I have a reason for doing this story. Because I just said,

[30:18]

I just read to you that you will not find the four gross elements of the five aggregates. In the next part of the evening he switched from shamanic activity, which is basically confession that you're involved in illusion, and he got really deep into it because he was so into his illusory processes, his processes of dreaming, he could tell you how he'd been dreaming for infinite lifetimes. And he can also tell all of us about how we've been dreaming. But then he shifted to another kind of practice called studying dependent co-arising, which is not shamanic. It's philosophical. And there he found that he couldn't find five aggregates in any lifetime or the four gross elements. He couldn't find anything, he couldn't find anybody else, he couldn't find himself. This part of the night was the night where

[31:22]

he really got happy and free. But it was preceded by admitting this kind of earthy working. This process of illusion and dreaming, which he also was readily familiar with and studied with great concentration. And that was his data which he used in the latter part of the night to watch how these things cause each other and how this arises dependent on that. And how that doesn't mean that this exists causing that to exist, but rather because this arises dependent on this, this does not have any inherent existence because it never appears without being caused by this and vice versa. And that way he was, that was the content of his complete enlightenment. He was pretty enlightened before that, shamanically, but then his philosophical analysis of his understanding of the five aggregates

[32:27]

caused his complete release. So that's why I told that. If you can clarify that which is never missing even for a second, then you are really a descendant of Dungshan's family and one of Ching Yiran's offspring. Ching Yiran is Sagan Gyoshi. Taiyo was thinking of using the story of Ching Yiran in the shiso ceremony. And then Keizan says, now how can I convey this principle? Would you like to hear? The mind mirror hangs high

[33:35]

and reflects everything clearly. The vermilion boat is so beautiful that no painting can do it justice. When I was studying the next precept, the seventh precept, which is called not praising self while slandering others, I thought that thinking about those two precepts would help me. If I was

[34:35]

back then and I was Jing Shren and I was practicing those two precepts, I thought those would be really good practices to be doing when I asked what is the formless side of enlightenment? Those would be good practices to be doing when the teacher pointed to the painting and grabbed me. How is it that you know that well, first of all, how is it that you wind up asking that question in the first place? Asking the question,

[35:38]

what is the formless side of enlightenment? How do you get to ask a question like that? What would cause you to talk like that? Having your mind rotted out? By the perfect wisdom sutras? Anything else that might cause you to ask that question? Curiosity. Curiosity. Curiosity, yeah. Big curiosity. Big curiosity. Right. Super normal curiosity. Super normal curiosity. Right. I don't want to tell people, even myself, that you should be asking questions like that. At least don't ask me. At the same time, I do sort of wonder why nobody comes and asks me that. But even if you do ask it,

[36:44]

and even if you don't ask it just to copy somebody, even if you really are interested and ask the question, still, and even if there was somebody there who could point at a picture and shake you and ask you a good question like that, and then stop you before you answered, and then help you again, even if all those things were there, how could you be ready to receive all that good news? I think these two precepts are really good to help us be ready to receive teaching. Or even to draw it out of a wall. Not discussing faults. Again, it says others, but again, you can just say not discussing faults. There are no faults, that way of seeing things.

[37:46]

Certainly no faults of others, anyway. And the next one is not praising self while slandering others. In discussing the second precept of the three pure precepts, one way to summarize the practice of good is just to recognize and abandon your own faults and rejoice in the merits of others. It's kind of a summary of practicing good or gathering wholesomeness. Just recognize and renounce and abandon your own faults and rejoice in how

[38:47]

virtuous others are. If I walk around with some delusion of superiority, then even if good teaching or even if a good question would come to me, I probably won't notice it. Even if some great light or a little spark should appear, I'll miss it probably. Walking around feeling superior. Even if I'm practicing readiness and alertness and mindfulness, if the ego is not

[39:48]

sort of off the side, sort of rooting for us to be ready, selflessly ready, we still may miss even though we're quite alert. When you're egocentrically ready, what are you ready for? You're ready for something. You're ready for what you decide to be ready for. On the other hand, if we do this practice as the sixth or the seventh practice of not praising self while slandering others, we can be truly ready. So, in myself and others, I think I've discovered this practice period that we have a tendency to discover our own weakness, to deny our own weakness, our own vulnerability, some of us more than others,

[40:50]

and some of us admit our weakness in some areas so intensely. We emphasize our weakness in some areas so much that we miss acknowledging our weakness in a whole bunch of other areas. We turn admitting our vulnerability and weakness into self disparaging, which sounds like being modest, but really is a way not to look at the things we really don't want to see in ourselves. Some others of us don't see any weaknesses at all. Anyway, I think all of us do this to more or less of not admitting our true vulnerability, of covering up our true weakness, or covering up our weakness, period, and being really good at singling out the weakness of others. This is egocentric readiness.

[41:54]

We're ready. Okay? Somebody make a false move. Okay, you dons. Do one thing a little bit different from the usual way. I'll catch it. Ding! I'm watching you. I love that, you know. Every step you take, every move you make, every vow you break, I'll be watching you because I love you. So, that's... I've noticed that this practice, period, and I've also noticed that people have not been... Well, I shouldn't say have not been... Yeah, have been pretty good about admitting that that's what we're into. There's been a little bit of, sometimes, some bludgeoning going on to get that to get across, but we seem to have been

[42:55]

learning pretty well. I see some smiling faces. Some veterans. Of local wars. So, how about when we generously acknowledge our own faults, our own dark side, and also acknowledge the shining part of the other. Other people have problems. Yeah. And we're... We can catch those, right? But what about the shining part of them? Can you find, in everybody at Tassajara, something shining? I know that some of you, and I may be one of you, can find some fault in everybody at Tassajara. Right? Is anybody who can't do that? And if you can't,

[43:56]

then you're definitely not a Buddha. Buddha can find fault in everybody. But doesn't. Rather finds the light, the shining precious quality of each person. So, can you find the shining side of each person at Tassajara? The kitchen has to leave pretty soon, so we'd better just start right now and see if you guys can see if you can do it before you leave. Just go around the room and see if you can find something beautiful, fantastic, virtuous about each person. What? Stuart. Stuart. Stuart. Finished?

[45:14]

Did you do it? Did everybody find something in everybody? Find something wonderful. With what? No, you don't have to say they're a great person, just how about something good about them? Well, how about sweet? Like, for example, I think you're quite sweet. That's what I, that's, you know, I think you are. Also, you're a good runner. Yeah. I think you're very, you know, sensitive, you know, like you're like, you're like the horse that goes just the slightest little thing you go. That's, you know, some good things about you. I'm not saying you're that way, exactly, you're many more

[46:16]

things than that, but that's, that's what I mean. And like Jim too, you know, he's not a sweetheart. And, you know, he's very good with his hands and, you know, very gentle and tender about things. And he's got courage and very sincere. And, you know, I could go on. This isn't good, you know, just each person, you know, like Stephen's getting ready to leave. Well, I just, there's lots of great things about you. You know, you're a great yogi. He bounces around his toes like a little, like a gazelle, you know. He's a great cook. He's got a great haircut. You know, that's what I mean. Just, in other words, everybody's got some really neat qualities.

[47:17]

Everybody in this room has got some, some really neat qualities, right? And you can start, and you can probably start expanding the list with each person. But, the important thing is find something to start with and then stay on that beam and don't get off it as ever. And if you do get off it, then what you did is you then turn around and say, I did it. Now, I blew it. Now, I'm into having things, having objects out there. I've just knocked myself off a little bit there. Okay. So, the seventh precept. Again, another thing about the seventh precept is, it's, I have trouble with it. It's so similar to the sixth. You know, the sixth is not speaking of faults or discussing faults of others. Actually,

[48:18]

you could even say not discussing faults, but you shouldn't really be discussing your faults. You know? Just admit your fault. Just notice them. That's enough. You don't have to, like, discuss them. If you discuss them, you might miss a chance to admit the next one you notice. So, it's better not to, not to discuss them. Just notice them and be ready for the next one because one's coming right down the line, right away. The next sin has just been done. So, don't indulge in thinking about them too much. So, not praising self and not slandering, while slandering others. What Dogen says, Buddhas and pioneers realize the entire sky. And the great earth. Manifesting the great body

[49:29]

in the sky, there is no inside or outside. Manifesting the Dharma body on earth, there is not, there is not a single inch of ground. Sometimes these, one of the funny, one of the surprising things about Zen training, when you first hear about it anyway, is that in the study of koans, in koan study, the last

[50:32]

koan, you know, in the system of koan studies, the last koans you study are these 16 precepts, the last koans. People think, well, don't you receive the precepts first and then start practicing? Isn't that the usual way? Yes, it is. But in koan training, these, the people who have received the precepts and are studying Buddhism and use these koans to basically correct their false views and misunderstandings of what's going on, the last koans, the highest koans are the precepts. So all these precepts can be studied as koans. And you're all, I mean, I welcome you all to study them as koans, to think about each precept as a koan,

[51:34]

as a manifestation genjo koan, as a manifestation of ultimate reality in the form of this koan. So, listening to Dogen's statement, Buddhas and pioneers realized the entire sky and the great earth. You could treat that as a koan and ask questions about that. Manifesting the great body in the sky, there is no inside or outside. So, one way that people check that koan is to say to the student, if there is no inside or outside, how do you put on your clothes? Manifesting the Dharma body on earth there is not an inch of ground. When there is not an inch of ground, what remains? So,

[52:37]

here, how do you get intimate with this koan? Practicing this precept again is a way to open up to practicing all koans or to practicing with reality. How do you open up? Anybody? How is it telling you to open up here? Yeah. Yeah. And how do you open up to the good qualities of other people? Not to be blinded by your own good qualities? Admitting your own neuroses naturally opens you to other people's. But, if it doesn't happen naturally,

[53:39]

well, then do it unnaturally. If it doesn't happen spontaneously, then artificially do it. But, it does help a lot to admit, to not be in denial, because again, if you are in denial about your own stuff, like somebody was saying the other day, if you admire people without being aware of your own neurotic and selfish tendencies, then you may, what you may wind up doing is going around and admiring how everybody that's in your control is good. And you may appreciate everybody that's doing what you, you may find what people are doing sort of to promote your, your denial. And you can probably, you can probably find that too. You can find how everybody's helping you continue your denial. Because they are. It's really nice of them to do that. But once you notice that, that's really good, because then you notice what you're denying. So it's nice that they helped you. So,

[54:46]

it seems like, I get this feeling like there's not, there's not much engagement here. Am I, am I wrong? Are you engaged? Yes? Well, Yes. Go right ahead. There's an adversarial quality in preparing yourself and other people to see the ways of the process. That's not to sugarcoat what you're doing. I think that there's not really that separation when you consider how your qualities of your studies impact your perception because your qualities come out of your brain as well. That's right.

[55:47]

It's the, it's the comparative mind. It's believing in the comparative mind that this precept is pointing to. This precept is pointing to a mind that realizes the emptiness of these comparisons. Again, noting your own faults is not a comparison. It is simply noting that you think you have a fault or noting that you did something which you don't like. That's just, that's not a comparison. So you should do that. Noting other people's good qualities is not a comparison. It doesn't have to be. It just is something that you like, that you appreciate, that inspires you, that encourages you. That's it. It's just that doing the first thing of admitting what's happening with you uncovers your eyes so you can see better. When I think of the things I have done, I, I feel incredibly grateful to other people. I don't compare myself,

[56:50]

I could then get into comparing myself. Right after that I could get into comparing myself. First of all, I realize what I've done and I think, oh my god, how good are they? Then I could say, well they're better than me. But I don't have to do that. I can just say, it's just great. Now I can say, without comparing still, I can say, it's just great that people like that help people like me. Still I'm not really necessarily comparing, I'm just saying, somebody who did this is being helped by somebody who, who's so good. It's just fantastic. And it even, then it's even, see how even more kind they are. That they would even help me. That they would even allow me to keep living here. Still not really comparing necessarily. Yeah. It's a good quality. It's called telling the truth. Right.

[57:55]

You could then turn around and say, right after you admit your own, your own fault, you could say, hey now that was really a good confession. That was a damn good confession. And before I call on Daniel, have you raised your hand lately? No. You did? No. I want to say one other thing about what you said about the self-esteem thing in modern psychology. I, I like Vasubandhu's teaching. Vasubandhu's teaching is, deep at the core of each conscious knowing being is well established moment after moment self-esteem. And I think that we should have self-esteem but another way to say that is we should admit our self-esteem. We do have self-esteem. We should uncover it. We think we're hot stuff. We think we're really neat stuff. That's why self-esteem is a healthy thing because you're being honest. It actually is an affliction

[58:59]

to, to hide it and it's an affliction to have it and it's healthy to admit it. When you admit it you also have to feel it to admit it. You can't sort of say well I've got it but you know you've got to like feel it hey wow then notice that it causes problems. But that's not the same as comparing. That is the same as comparing. Self-esteem means comparing yourself and thinking you're hot stuff. That's not the same as noticing you did something well necessarily which I think is true. Daniel? There's something that I do which is sort of like what I listen to is where recognizing noticing my own faults or recognizing the discrepancy between what I like or what I do I see that you know that things just don't work and then I'm trying to do

[60:01]

things sometimes that I don't really like or that I'm not being conscious of or whatever. So then another taking or almost immediately after seeing something that I don't like in someone else then I can sort of make an analogy to myself and say oh yeah this person I don't like what they just did but they chances are excellent that they probably either aren't aware of it or they don't really like it either and that they're kind of the same ballpark that's been driven through them so they would really rather not do it but they would rather not do it. Right that's one of the practices of compassion is to realize that people are not under their own control

[61:02]

not to mention they're not under yours people are not doing what they would like to do because in fact they can't that's not how we are and another thing is comparison this precept doesn't say that you don't have a comparative comparative mind the examples that I was just talking to Sister Moon about were you know they were not they were not examples that you couldn't imagine some comparison going on there it's just that I felt when I was talking about them that myself I didn't really see anything to the comparison these comparisons are empty there's not really anything to them but if you don't if you see them as non-empty then that's the problem they really don't you don't have to see them as comparisons but you could attribute comparisons to every all these different things there's always the possibility of this other

[62:04]

this constellation of something else whenever you say one thing the other side could be there so you can't we also don't try to avoid the comparative mind I thought the reason why we shouldn't discuss that That was really like right down here it was quick but did you notice where it was? it was right down here it wasn't that easy to see Why we don't discuss our faults, because if we do, we get disgusted. We get disgusted. Yeah, I don't think we should have to discuss them. Just notice them, that's enough. Do you think the pain that comes out of noticing the faults...

[63:11]

Do I think the pain of noticing faults is promoting what? Do I think that the pain I feel when I notice my faults, do I think that promotes discussing my faults? It might, I mean, I don't think the pain promotes it, but I think that my tendency to avoid the pain of my fault might lead me to discuss it, so I don't have to feel the pain. So rather than just admit the fault, feel the pain, then I want to talk about it a lot, to avoid... that's possible. But I don't think the pain promotes that. I think I've got a habit of turning away from the pain and trying to get away from pain. And then if I turn towards something I've been hiding and notice it and it does hurt, then I might want to talk real fast right after that,

[64:19]

so I don't have to just feel it. I think that would happen quite frequently. Yes? I think we've got to have this way of not discussing faults, kind of intentionally try to see others as not empathy for this, the pain of co-arising, like all they are, all everyone is, is just cause and effect. I kind of like you said, we're out of control, it's like all thinking and fears is the result of past causes, so we're just... all we are is cause and effect, so there's nothing negative in it. I don't know why I'm like that.

[65:29]

Charlie, could you say something? I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. It must be a cause for you. Charlie, suppose that I wanted to be part of somebody else's ancient twisted karma? Suppose you want to be part of somebody's ancient twisted karma? Is that what you said? Suppose I just decide I'm going to be part of the ancient twisted karma, I can be the angel of death. Yeah, the angel of death or the angel of vengeance, the avenging angel, that's what it's called. Is that what you mean? You mean you're going to be the vehicle, the agent of their retribution, is that what you mean? Yes. I mean, is it sort of functional? Oh. I thought Charlie was saying, here's what I thought Charlie was saying,

[66:31]

is one way to avoid speaking of others or talking about others' faults, is one way to do that is to meditate on dependent co-arising of them. Is that part of what you're saying? Is that how you're saying it? It means that you don't get to be part of dependent co-arising, so you can't delay it, you can't have fault in dependent co-arising. I would delight in anybody who finds fault in dependent co-arising, now that I would like to hear about. That's not one of the precepts, to avoid finding fault with dependent co-arising. You should definitely, that's one thing I encourage you to find fault with, but don't do it all by yourself, do it in public. Let's discuss dependent co-arising, let's debate dependent co-arising, let's prove that dependent co-arising is erroneous, that would be good.

[67:34]

But I think if you're practicing meditation on dependent co-arising, that will help you follow this precept, definitely, that's right. But the way I heard you say it, which I don't know if it's the way you meant it, but the way I sort of intuit that you're talking, is to use dependent co-arising to stop yourself from doing that. And like you see somebody's fault, so meditate on dependent co-arising. That's how I felt something like that. As opposed to confessing I see a fault and practice dependent co-arising with that. In other words, if you just practice meditation on dependent co-arising, that will take care of that, I think that's true. But I don't think we want to so much practice dependent co-arising once you notice the fault in the other person.

[68:40]

I think it would be better to just turn back and say, I'm committing a fault of seeing a fault in them, and now let's practice dependent co-arising with that, because that's real. The other thing is just projection. Now that's a little bit different from what Daniel was saying, which is a practice which is a little bit like that, which is a warm-up to dependent co-arising called compassion, which is to remember this person's out of control. They're not doing what they'd like to do. That's the kind of way to get yourself to calm down, not be angry at them. It's a practice of patience to get yourself ready to practice this precept. This precept is talking about, again, I think what I found so good about yesterday's discussion is I thought we got down to the deep level of the precept, and I don't think we've gotten to that one on this one yet. I think we're still, which is fine, on the surface, and we may not be able to get there today, and that's okay too. But if you are meditating on dependent co-arising,

[69:46]

this precept will be an aspect of what you're doing. Grace? I have some problems with it at this point. I think it's that... I don't want to talk about myself, but let's... Okay, I wake up and say, God, it's a shoo-in. And I'm like, shoo-in. It's not very sad. My mind, it will take me maybe two or three thousand minutes to get back to what's going on. But who knows, in terms of my own life and why that happens to me or anybody. I think I woke up with a shoo-in in my mind. I guess from what Daniel's saying, what I would think about in terms of myself is that the mind is out of control, and it always is out of control. What it scans in the universe, it will find whatever it is that it wants to focus on. So I can see thoughts, or I can see reasons to be aware of.

[70:50]

But the fact is that my mind is in a state of stress. And I guess I'm looking for something that can't be found in the precepts, which is a way to not have the mind do that. I mean, the best I can ever do is to wait 10 minutes, 24 hours, to see what the circumstances are. And then at the point that I say, oh, I'm caught, I mean, that's when I'm caught. Then there's a chance to sort of turn it in. There's no way. You know, I guess the part of me that wants to believe in Santa Claus also wants to believe that over time, I can train my mind so that if you let it wake up, I'm very quiet, which means no one is listening to me. Yeah, I think I do. That's one of the, what do you call it, constantly present tendencies of our mind,

[71:55]

is to hope for that. And in some ways, taking a step back or forward or sideways to this level of Buddha's mind or this Buddha's mind approach, rather than trying to control ourselves into some other state or hope that if we're in an unfortunate state, that we might be able to keep ourselves from then causing more trouble by getting angry at people or projecting criticism onto people, perhaps all that mess, to try to avoid that mess is definitely what we call the world. And Buddha's mind is not to flinch in the slightest bit

[72:58]

from the way you are when you get up this morning. To remember that the reason why you're in this world is not to avoid states like that. You came to save yourself and all beings from the way you respond to that stuff, plus the stuff. But when you're in a bad state you can barely remember which way is up or down. So it's pretty hard to remember Buddha's mind at that time. But there can get to be more and more, day by day, a willingness to be there and to be there, you have to know where it is to be there. To right away wake up and say, I feel lousy. To wake up and say, Jesus, I didn't expect,

[74:03]

but it's hard to get out of bed today. And it's painful. So like I was going to mention to you, but it's also part of this, is that yesterday afternoon I started to get some of those symptoms again in my back. So I'm saying to you partly that I may have to talk to some of you in a chair or even lying down. And you know, I feel okay about that, it's not so bad. There have been times in my life though when I would have had a little problem with that. But in a way I think, you know, my optimistic approach is that I think my back and my karma is pushing me always into the next realm of what I am to be able to accept. The next realm which will test me to see if I'm willing to go in there to and be aware of what's going on there

[75:08]

and be willing to be with myself and everybody else in that realm. Our vow is to not avoid any realm. Ironically speaking, not even this one that's happening right now. Of all things, the way I feel this morning. Couldn't I skip over that? And there's another part of our mind which wants to make certain arrangements so this won't happen anymore. As long as we have the slightest interest in something like this not happening this thing will come back to visit until we're willing to go in there happily to do our work. Because basically from the Buddhist point of view the entire world is like that. And nothing but. And they voluntarily, joyfully, blissfully, radiantly enter into all such states and all the states are the same to them. Why? To get other people to be willing to be where they are

[76:12]

and therefore be liberated and come back themselves and join others in the same process. This precept, I think, is part of the process of opening ourselves to that work. Opening ourselves to that mind that is willing to be here. This morning, this discussion isn't going so well in a certain way. It doesn't look so good to me. I'm not quite as inspired by the discussion so far as I was yesterday. I haven't seen so clearly Buddha's mind in what's happening as I did yesterday. But at this another level I feel like, hey, this is my real work too. Or even more so in a way. This is the real stuff. In other words, the realization isn't really where it's at. The realization just makes possible to go where it ain't. To go where it isn't realization. To go into the darkness.

[77:14]

To go where the discussion isn't interesting. And I would, you know, watch out now, I would give myself a little pat on the back and say, in the past, when I saw faces like that, I would talk faster and try to come up with more interesting things to make you people smile. And now more I just say, hey, you look like you're not interested. You look kind of like checked out. Again, I don't take it so personally because, again, the Sixth Patriarch, the Sixth Precept says, this is one practice. One practice in this room. It's not my fault or your fault. This is what the practice is. The practice is we're this way. And we're making these kinds of faces. And also, a part of the way I can work myself back to the Sixth Precept and remember that we're doing this together, we're creating this together, we're co-dependently producing this event,

[78:16]

is to realize from the point of view of you people are making great contributions. Your sad faces or your bewildered faces or your look of not participating and not being involved and excited and my feeling kind of like, gee, all that is our great contribution to reality right now. And when I start feeling that way, things start looking better. And when I tell you about it, you start to perk up a little bit too. But then again, see, I'm getting away from it. Come on, you guys, get happy. So I don't have to go and do my real work. So I can just say, got that done with. So it's very tricky. Yes? The deep meaning of the Sixth Precept?

[79:20]

This is the Sixth Precept? That's the Sixth, yeah, right. So you feel the deep meaning of the Sixth Precept? I didn't feel it so much as I've done in the Sixth, right. So can you just say what it is? Can I say what it is? What is it? Well, one of the things it is, because it's very similar to the other one. One of the deep meanings is this meditation on, like it says, you know, they're manifesting the great body up there in the sky, in the whole sky. Okay? And there's no inside or outside. In other words, no self or other. Okay? On the other level, they're manifesting the entire earth, right? The Dharma body is manifesting

[80:25]

the great earth. And so manifesting the Dharma body on the earth, there's not an inch of ground. An inch of ground also means not an inch of dirt. It means there's not an inch. There's no place on the entire earth. No place. Not an inch. Well, an inch in Asian inches are smaller. There's not an inch, not a sun, of dirt. We say there's no place you can spit. Want to spit? You can't swallow it either with a spitting attitude. You can swallow it as in the previous case, as sweet dew moistening the universe. There's no place to spit. There's no place in the world to spit. There's no place that's not absolute reality that you can spit on. And also there's no inside or outside in the great sky. What does that mean? It also means part of the discussion here,

[81:37]

which I don't particularly want to read, is that if you think about self and other, you can't really figure out what self and other are. You cannot figure it out. It just, the more you look at it, the more it doesn't hold up. So again, this precept is pointing to the mind of realization. And the mind of realization, which doesn't really go for that self and other stuff. And also it doesn't like turn away from it. That's why I started out with this thing about, you know, March and April. It's delightful to think in terms of self and other. It's fun. It's a delight. It's, you know, it's part of, it's just part of what life's about. It's delightful to think in terms of March and April. It's great to confuse, make these little mistakes and stuff like that. Take the wrong turn on the freeway, you know, and get really upset because you went several miles out of the way. This is what life's about. This is where Buddhas are born. So it doesn't mean you don't think that way.

[82:38]

It means you don't see, you don't fall for the duality of self and others because you don't really think there is a fixed self and a fixed other. And also you're not afraid to admit that you got a habit of believing that there's a fixed thing called self and others. We do have that habit. And if I admit basically how deep that habit is, that makes it easier for me to appreciate others which helps me get over the habit. The more I appreciate others, if I appreciate them enough, it's almost like they're me. I mean, if I lift people up high enough, they get up to be equal to me. And when they're equal to me, then I kind of see, hey, this isn't really, we're not really two. Everybody's as good as me. Everybody is top of the line, in other words. Yeah.

[83:46]

You beat me to it. Well, Pam beat you both. You don't dare to say yes? Yes. Okay. Pam? There's still an insight in that. I'm kind of being a little bit, I'm playing, I'm having a little fun here. What I'm saying is that I believe deep down we all love ourself best. It's not, it's just, it's just we're built that way. Basubandhu told us so. Okay. Buddha said it about himself. Deep down, not in the sight of enlightenment, but deep down in our cognitive structure,

[84:48]

in that place which is pretty deep because it's operating 24 hours a day and it's what gets us in and out of the zendo and drives cars and pays bills and arranges dates and stuff like that. That world, deep down that world, built in there is that we think we're number one. It's not that we think we're better than other people either. I mean, there isn't anybody else. We're all that's there and we love it and we esteem it. That's what I'm saying. Now, if you appreciate, if you do the practice of appreciating others, what you do is you pull these things that you think are other in from around the universe and you lift them up and by lifting them up and lifting them up and lifting them up, they get up so high enough or close enough, high enough and close enough, so they're almost inseparable from yourself. And after a while you can't tell who is who. It's like your own children sometimes. They're almost like you, especially if a woman has them inside. So, in a way, I'm saying

[85:52]

lifting yourself up is dualistic but at a certain point, in a way, you approach what it's like to understand the emptiness or the non-duality of self and others. Another way to understand the non-duality of self and others is just think about it. Study it. Look and try to find yourself and notice that other people have more reality than you do. So the other way would be in the co-arising way, the way where there isn't any inside or outside, where everybody else is you, so it doesn't make sense to praise somebody else because they're not separate from you or they don't involve anybody else. Yeah, it does make sense to praise other people under those circumstances, though strangely enough, even though when you understand independent co-arising, then you naturally praise other people. It's praising everything. It's praising everything. That's right. It's praising everything. That's what it says here. Praising everything. There's not an inch of ground you don't praise then when you understand that. Praise everything. At the same time,

[86:53]

you love yourself so much, it's okay to admit your faults. No problem. And that keeps you, again, your faults are part of the dependent co-arising which you're meditating on. Galen? What you just said about praising everything, it's 100% what I was going to say. When you say that a precept like this, it's like it does not praise self, it's the expense of others. Instead of later, we just say, it does not praise self. I like a better one. It has that second part in it because to me, it contains this idea of sufficiency. There's this idea that somehow praising self at the expense of others creates peace. Somehow, if there's not enough to go around it, if there is enough to go around it, there's enough to go around it. This precept for me is about enough to go around it. In this realm of non-duality. Right. In fact, we are, again, we are,

[87:55]

moment after moment, we have time and energy to praise ourself. We know how to praise. We know how to appreciate. We do appreciate. There is that basic quality of our psyche to appreciate, especially to appreciate the way the mind works. We love it. We think the way the mind works is totally adorable. It's just that, as you say, we should spread it around. As a matter of fact, there's a deficit in the direction of the other, so let's do that. And one of the ways to make us willing and to encourage us to give others some of the joy, some of the praise, some of the adoration, one of the ways to encourage that is to notice our faults. But just notice them. That helps us do it. Admitting our own non-virtue helps us give some of the, makes us feel like, well, let's share it. And there's an abundant amount, an incredibly abundant amount, because in every second

[88:57]

there's many moments when we're praising. We have plenty of praise energy. So let's give it to the other people. And that practice is part of dependent co-arising too, and it also, it's a big relief and it's a joy in itself. Isn't it? I mean, it is. Isn't it a joy to appreciate these other, the rest of the universe? I think it is. Are you ready? You don't have to if you're not ready. Yeah, well, it's just in the last few people who spoke that it helped to clear up my dilemma, which is that the precept itself is unclear to me still, that I actually wondered, at least we change back and forth, if we don't praise self or we don't praise self at the expense of others, and I was trying to see in the last hour if the stuff in this precept is really up in the dynamic of the relationship with other,

[89:57]

or if it's possible to look at this precept without the other. I'm still trying, I'm actually still unclear about the meaning of this precept, but through the foreword, I'm feeling quite dense, and I just can't... I was trying to see why I wasn't really able to participate in the discussion. Yeah, it's a little thicker this morning. The room's a little thicker. We're not so smart this morning. My feeling about this was actually that yesterday's precept, at least for me, it was so easy to see what this precept was about, because I can see every moment, every single moment of my life that I do this, that it has to do more with not discussing thoughts Right. Actually, there was also about others... Well, it's interesting, isn't it, that... ...

[90:58]

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[90:58]

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