So we've been talking about this lovely, holy perfection of wisdom which disperses the gloom and darkness of delusion. And last week I brought up the teaching from Perfect Wisdom Scriptures which says that something like, the bodhisattvas who are practicing the perfection of wisdom. It could say the bodhisattvas do the following, but it says actually bodhisattvas who are coursing in the great perfection of wisdom. One might imagine there that some bodhisattvas might not be practicing the perfection of wisdom. that a person who has a heart which is wanting to help all beings and wishes to realize enlightenment in order to facilitate the welfare and happiness of all living beings, that maybe you could say they're a bodhisattva.

[01:14]

But the scripture says a bodhisattva who has that vow but also who's practicing the perfection of wisdom does not review any reality behind words and thereby, as a consequence, does not settle down in them. Do you remember that from last week? So as I was about to say this to you again, I noticed that it didn't just say a bodhisattva does not review a reality behind, does not see a reality behind the words that she's using and thereby not abide in them, says when she's practiced in the perfection of wisdom she does it that way. When she's practicing perfection of wisdom that's the way she works with words,

[02:20]

And when she works with words that way, she's practicing the perfection of wisdom. Even if somebody doesn't, and never heard of the word, the perfection of wisdom, if when they use words, if they use them that way, they're practicing the perfection of wisdom. And they don't settle down in them. If people don't settle down in the words they're using, they're practicing the perfection of wisdom. However, they might possibly maybe not be a bodhisattva. They'd be a wise person, they'd be practicing wisdom, but they might not have that vow. Anyway, bodhisattvas do have that vow, and they also understand that if they wish to realize their vow, what's the vow again? To benefit all beings and attain perfect enlightenment in order to pull that off with everybody. They wish to realize that kind of awakening, then they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

[03:22]

That's what the perfection of wisdom scriptures say. If you want to attain Buddha's enlightenment, then you practice the perfection of wisdom. And one teaching here I mentioned last week. When you use words, train yourself to not view any reality behind them. And and then check to see how that facilitates not settling into them. So bodhisattvas are devoted to the welfare of everything, and one of the things they're devoted to, which I mentioned last Saturday following this class, is they're devoted to words. They're devotees of words, which means they're devotees of consciousness. They're devoted to care for consciousness. And consciousness is words. The consciousness I'm talking about where there's a self is words and phrases.

[04:26]

And they're devoted to consciousness. They're devoted to words. And to use them without seeing a reality behind them. And then I also think towards the end of the class I told this story of a Chinese teacher named Feng Shui, right? Remember that guy? The monk comes up to him and says, both words and silence kind of get into relativity and transgress, I would say in brackets, into some kind of abiding. How can we be free and non-transgressing. And Feng Shui says, I always think of Hunan in springtime. The partridges chirping in the fragrant grasses. So I'm reminding you of that, but also I'm reminding you of that because I think, I think that on the way home from this class, driving through the night,

[05:41]

with many sentient beings while I was driving, I think the words came up in my mind, I'm tired. But I actually don't remember if that was it or it was I'm hungry. Or I think it was one of the two, I'm tired or I'm hungry. I didn't say it out loud. but I said it. Or I should say, I didn't say it out loud, but those words, I'm tired, rose in my mind very sincerely. It was very sincere, I'm tired. A wholehearted, I'm tired. a whole, a really sincere feeling, I'm tired, arose.

[06:43]

A really sincere, I'm tired, rose. In other words, the words, I'm tired, rose in my mind. And when they arose, that statement seemed very sincere. And I was really impressed how sincere the words, I'm tired, were. And then I noticed, you know, following the class, right? I noticed, you know, I'm tired. It seemed like there was a little bit like, well, is there really no me in addition to I'm tired? I mean, it was... I really felt it wasn't kind of a half-hearted, I'm tired. It was like, I'm tired. That's all I was. It wasn't like, I'm driving the car.

[07:47]

I'm an American. I'm a Zen priest. I'm bald. All this stuff wasn't floating around. I got a history. I got a future. I got a life. I got some friends, none of that was going on. All that was happening at that moment was a full I'm tired and there was nothing more in my life and I didn't feel like, wait a minute, that isn't all there is to I am. I wasn't like bereft of more of a life than that. That was my life. And all it was was those words. And I kind of went, isn't there something more to life than I'm tired? Even though I'm tired was like so full and so complete. And I thought, this is the perfect example of what I was talking about in the class a few minutes ago. That when we say I'm tired, tired, I'm sad, I'm happy.

[08:54]

When we say it wholeheartedly, that's our life. And all that there is there is those words, and there's not another person on top of, I'm tired. But I kind of felt like, wow, it was vibrating there, like, is there somebody more than I'm tired? And I just really enjoyed that for several miles through the night. And I thought, boy, this is a great example of the teaching. And I'll share this with these people next week. So here it is. And when I said I'll share it, I was very happy at the thought of sharing it with you. And there again, I didn't notice that I was looking for somebody in addition to I will share it. So that just gives a perfect example of the teaching, but also how hard it is to accept that and just stop at being the person you are, which is just a turn of a phrase.

[10:06]

But part of us thinks, I'm more than a turn of a phrase. Well, that's true. But at that moment, The experience you have is just an illustration of language. Yes? Yes. The condition, you could say the condition's proceeding, but the condition's proceeding, you know, yes, my whole life has led to that moment. The conditions which lead to those words are the same as the conditions which lead to me. They're the same.

[11:12]

And she goes, is this part of the jaw wants to go to another planet? The conditions that come together to make me in a car think I'm tired. it's inconceivable, but anyway, that we have a sense, we have a teaching which says, a lot of things come together to make me be in a car, driving it. And then for me to have arise in me a consciousness, and in that consciousness have the thought, I'm tired. A lot of things contribute to that. So a lot of things contribute to me being that person who has that thought, I'm tired. And it's the same conditions that lead to I'm tired.

[12:20]

The things that lead to the words are the things that lead to me. And there's no me behind the I am. There's no me behind the I'm tired. I'm tired. It's not there's me, kind of like a not tired me, who's sitting alongside of the I'm tired me. That's what struck me is it was like such a rich, wholehearted, quiet, inner life of I'm tired. And I wasn't unhappy about being tired. It wasn't like a, could have been, I'm tired. Why do I have to drive home? It wasn't that kind. It was just like, I'm tired. But what really struck me was what a rich, full experience that was and how even that there was a little bit of like, isn't there somebody in addition to I am? Isn't there an I plus an I am? But at the same moment I thought, well, no.

[13:24]

This is complete. This is who I am, is the person who has that feeling. And now the person who's reflecting on it, that's who I am too. And having this conversation with you guys while I'm looking at that experience. And a lot of things contributed. The fact that I was talking like I was talking contributes to the way I talk. The fact that that experience happened to me is a condition for me telling you about it tonight. What I've studied, what I talked to you about didn't so much lead to me saying I'm tired, but it was part of it. But my looking at it and being really kind of like deeply moved by it is conditioned by a teaching which says, look at that stuff. Look at how what you say is, at some points anyway, what you say, you say who you are. You say, I'm Tracy, or I'm hungry, or I'm wrong, or I'm right.

[14:32]

You say that. You could have a body that's hungry, a body that's tired, that does not give rise to a consciousness, I'm tired. It doesn't. And then a moment later, it does. The The physical and unconscious cognitive processes of our life that conjure up consciousness do not conjure up a consciousness which is processing all the stuff that's going on in our body. Like I'm hungry, I'm tired, or I'm not hungry and I am tired and I overate. And, you know, I have a pain in my ankle and all that stuff is, you know, and therefore I'm adjusting my posture.

[15:35]

And also I was driving the car. And my body was in the car handling all those lights and operating the car, but I was not at that time saying, I'm driving the car. But my conscious, my cognitive processes which were unconscious at the moment I said I'm untired. I was not conscious of driving the car. But my mind was driving. My mind was working with my body to drive the car. And with all those other cars and all those signs and lights and lanes and all that was going on, also checking the mileage thing, All that was going on unconsciously at the moment of I'm tired. That completely filled my consciousness. And a lot of other stuff was going on, some of which was going to be upchucked or stimulated into being a representation in consciousness at some point.

[16:45]

Some things will never come up. yes it's not that they don't refer to anything it's not like for example when I say Lori my word refers to you but the meaning of when I say Lori the meaning of that is not you There's not a... The word tired... It refers to something, but there's... But the thing, whatever it is, the hunger, is not expressed by the word hunger.

[17:50]

and the I am the I am is not expressed by I am perfect wisdom destroys the expressibility of everything it cuts off the idea that you and you and you and you can be expressed in words it cuts that off So then I say, very happily, and when it's cut off, I say very happily, Lori, Tracy, Nettie, Charlie. I say it happily and freely when the expressibility of you is cut off, when I don't think my words are expressing you, which they don't. Hmm?

[18:51]

What it expressed was words. It expressed words, and those words were a full-fledged, you know, top-of-the-line drama. That was like a full-fledged life experience. surrounded by driving a car with a lot of other people. A lot was going on in the universe, and I had a full-fledged life there with those words. I Am was a linguistic illustration of my life. but didn't express it. It was a linguistic illustration. It was an illustration. It was a picture of the way words work. The key point here to remind you is that, to remind me too, is that the point of this teaching is so that you do not and I do not abide in I'm tired, etc.

[20:06]

When you don't abide in in what you're taking care of, like driving a car, driving a car, being hungry, talking to people, when you don't abide in the things you're taking care of, it's perfect wisdom. And you're free. So again, as I've said to you over and over, to the extent that the word perfect wisdom is just a word. Perfect wisdom is a word. We're saying homage to the perfection of wisdom, the lovely, the holy, it's just a word? Wait a minute. To the extent that the word prajnaparamita, to the extent that the word perfect wisdom is just a word, or take away to the extent the word is. To the extent that the perfection of wisdom is just a word, it is the perfection of wisdom.

[21:09]

But it's easy to find somebody, maybe you, who thinks the perfection of wisdom is something more than a word, which of course it is. You're more than a word, but to the extent that you're just a word, that is the perfection of wisdom. It's not about you, it's that the extent to which I don't look for a reality behind the word you or the word friend, that's the perfection of wisdom. There's no way to abide in that. If I admit that you're more than a word, I can do that But do I then abide in you when I do that? If I do, then I did something that was too hard for me to do at the same time that I'm practicing the perfection of wisdom. In the perfection of wisdom, I can say you're more than the word, but you and the word, I'm going to train myself that you are not a something and you're not a nothing.

[22:24]

If you were just a word, if you were just a word, then the word would express you. But it doesn't. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Well, by being perfectly enlightened, and in order to be perfectly enlightened, you need to practice the perfection of wisdom. Yes. Yeah, they are married to each other. Yes, they are intertwined.

[23:46]

And remember the word bodhisattva is, to the extent that the word bodhisattva is just a word, That is the perfection of wisdom which the bodhisattva is practicing. And to the extent that aspiration, that the great aspiration is a word, it is the perfection of wisdom. So the bodhisattva has its aspiration, and to the extent that her aspiration is a word, then that's the perfection of wisdom. Yeah, I think that's sociologically speaking, I don't hear bodhisattvas so much talking about themselves as bodhisattvas.

[24:48]

They're more talking about bodhisattvas rather than themselves as being a bodhisattva. And they often say, I don't know what a bodhisattva is. Bodhisattvas often say that. Do someone aspire to become a bodhisattva? Bodhisattvas do admit that they're aspiring to be a bodhisattva. And they also admit, and then they're sometimes asked, the advanced ones are sometimes asked to teach after they say they're aspiring to be a bodhisattva. They're asked to teach what a bodhisattva, and they say, how could I teach? Well, actually, how could I teach what a bodhisattva is? And then the Buddha says, you are teaching what a bodhisattva is in that way. So it's sort of something that's emotional. It's sort of... It's something that's not abiding. That's what it is. The perfection of wisdom which the bodhisattvas are trying to learn is a mind that doesn't abide.

[25:54]

It's a mind that doesn't abide in consciousness. So in consciousness there's, in consciousness is where we have the appearance of things which we think we can get a hold of and abide in, and that's where we suffer. Hmm? Abiding is an illusion, but in consciousness it can look like it's possible to abide, and we can catch ourselves thinking that we have succeeded at abiding and succeeded at suffering. And so... Huh? Well, you can't really, you can succeed at non-abiding all the time. But to realize it, to realize it, for example, you have to like use consciousness, which is words and phrases, you have to use them in this new way.

[27:01]

Otherwise, if you use them in the old way, you don't realize that you're not abiding. Because you actually think you are abiding. You think there is a reality behind the words you're using. You think things can be expressed by words. So then you're abiding. For quite a while you go in and you go out, yeah. There comes a time when you don't go back in again for a while. What? It's not so much that it's in motion. You said in motion, right? Like moving. It's not so much that it's... It's not so much that it's... It's a kind of play. It's a kind of motion where there's no abiding in motion. And there's no abiding in play. And there's no abiding in stillness.

[28:03]

So at the beginning of the class I said... the Buddha taught that one thing has great fruit and great benefit, and that one thing is mindfulness of breathing. And what is the great fruit of mindfulness and breathing? What is the great benefit of mindfulness and breathing? The great fruit of mindfulness of breathing is not abiding in mindfulness of breathing. while you're mindful of your breathing. What's the great benefit of mindfulness of breathing? That you're liberated with all beings as you're practicing mindfulness of breathing. So mindfulness of breathing is one thing and you can use that one thing to realize perfect wisdom. But it's not just mindfulness of breathing and then like camping out there and attaching to it.

[29:09]

and not noticing that you're dealing with your consciousness, your conscious version of mindfulness of breathing, which you can see and appear and you can say, I'm breathing, which is fine. And then notice, do you think there's something in addition to I'm breathing when you say that? And you can often catch, Like I did the other night. Yeah. I could have been driving the car and said, I'm breathing. There's conditions for that, too. I was breathing. And I could just suddenly say, I could have been driving and go, I'm breathing. And have a full sense of that, too. And that's a lot of reasons why we sometimes think that we're breathing. A lot of things lead to that. Like you come in this room and somebody says, mindfulness of breathing, and that's a condition for you thinking, oh, yeah. Yeah. But then while you're thinking about it, sometimes you might actually feel like a really wholehearted, like I'm breathing and feel like that's my life right now.

[30:13]

It's not like I was trying to say that. That's really where I was at. Wow. It's like that story about the monk who goes and visits another monk and says, the visiting monk, it's a tradition in Buddhism to go visit your friends who are sick or practitioners. Like the practitioner goes and visits a fellow practitioner and it's a tradition when you go visit them if they're sick to say, how is your venerable health these days? It's now become a tradition to go visit your friends when they're sick, which a lot of you practice, right? Like we went and visited Fred a while ago, who we miss so much. We went to visit him. And I said, how is your venerable health? And he told me. So the monk goes and visits her friend and says, how is your venerable health?

[31:16]

And her friend says, I'm really sick. And the visitor says, you're really sick. And the sick person said, I'm really sick. And they were enlightened. when they said, I'm really sick. You know, the first time they said it, they didn't get it. And the friends said it back to them. And the third time they said the same thing, but that's all there was, was, I'm sick. And they saw that. And they awakened, or she or he awoken, awoked, awaked So here's a teaching, it's pretty far out.

[32:21]

Thoughts and images are words and phrases. Words and phrases liberate thoughts and images. Words and phrases are consciousness. Words and phrases liberate consciousness. Want me to say it like the same way again? Huh? Okay. Words and phrases are consciousness. Consciousness. I said it different ways. The last time I said, I think the last time I said words and phrases are consciousness and words and phrases liberate consciousness. Before that I said thoughts and images are words and phrases and words and phrases liberate thoughts and images.

[33:29]

Wouldn't it be great to have your thoughts and images liberated? Because you've got a lot of them, right? They're happening all the time. Thoughts and images. Liberate them. How do you liberate them? With words. Because they are words. But the trick is we think that there's something in addition to words. Like, for example, the thought, I'm hungry. We think there's an I'm plus the I'm. There's an I'm hungry plus in addition to or behind I'm hungry. But it's using the words, I'm hungry, to liberate the consciousness where I'm hungry arises. Same thing. There is no reality behind the word, which is, you know, I'm thrilled by there being no reality behind the word liberated. So then I don't liberate.

[34:31]

Then I don't abide in the word liberate. I'm so happy to not be abiding in the word liberate. Not abiding in the word liberate is a great happiness of bodhisattvas. What's their job? Their job is to liberate all beings and not abide in the liberating of the beings, which also means not abide in the liberating. of the beings, not abide in the liberating or the beings. There's no reality behind the beings that they're devoted to. There's no reality behind the liberation that they're devoted to. There's no reality behind those words that they're seeing. But it's not what you call an ontological statement. It is a statement of their practice, of their view. They look at people and they say whatever. They freely say, And then they watched. Do I think there's something behind that? Do I think that expressed her? No, I'm free of that stuff.

[35:32]

I used to do it, but no more. Beautiful, beautiful boy. No, there's no reality behind that. So I'm free. So we're free. So he's free. He may not get it yet. So maybe I shouldn't be talking like that. because I might be feeding his belief that he's something in addition to the words, beautiful boy. So if I use the word sensation, I'm saying... The bodhisattva does not review a reality behind the word sensation, so they realize that the word sensation is empty and also sensation is empty.

[36:35]

Sensation is empty means sensation is not a something and it's not a nothing. The word sensation is too confined to express sensation. It's too particular. Sensation, nothing, is confined to being a something or a nothing. All somethings are just as well called a nothing because all somethings cannot be said. There's nothing you can say about any something. one might be looking around for some place to abide.

[37:39]

It's pretty much almost been eliminated now. You're almost all enlightened. There's a slight resistance to not abiding going on here, maybe. I don't know. Somebody... I often laugh ahead of the time I tell you what I'm laughing about, right? So there's so many Buddhist jokes that occur in my mind, and some of them I see and I don't laugh at, so I don't tell you those necessarily. But the ones I laugh at, I feel like I should tell you, otherwise you might think I'm laughing at you, but I'm not. I'm laughing at the story I just thought of. You want to hear it? Once upon a time, there was a boy named Reb, and he went to Japan. You see the picture? Got a picture of Reb in Japan? Isn't that amazing? There's no reality behind that picture you have of Reb in Japan.

[38:44]

Did I tell you he was a boy? Huh? Do you see a boy in Japan? No, you don't see a boy. You just see me in Japan. Twenty-six. Not a boy. I was about twenty-six, you're right. So I was in Japan. I was in Japan. I was in my 20s, okay? Got the picture? Do you see the picture? That picture, yeah, exactly. That picture is an illustration of your grammar, which I'm supporting by making certain sounds. So once upon a time, I was in Japan. I was a young man. And I went to a ceremony. I'm laughing because it's kind of funny. The ceremony was held at the edge of a golf course. There was a new temple built right in the next to a golf course. And so I went to the temple to practice Zen meditation, but there was a ceremony held while I was there practicing Zen meditation.

[39:53]

And it was an animal-releasing ceremony. Elaine is going home now to take care of a dog. I mean a cat. She's going to go home and feed a cat. Yeah. She's not leaving because she's bored. She's not on strike. She's not on strike against non-abiding. Right. She's not abiding. Exactly. That's me. She's not on strike against it. She's on the non-abiding team. And enjoys at their sides. Enjoys being free of the sides by not abiding in either. Isn't that fun? We're just at the beginning of the joke. Now, did you hear the part about what kind of ceremony it was? Animal releasing.

[40:59]

Well, she got up, and I thought, well, there she goes. She's going to go feed the cat. So animals, see? Yeah. Now, is there a reaction? You see the picture of a shaggy dog story? Did you see that? Yeah. But the animals that were being released were not dogs. They were chickens. In Japanese, niwatori. Niwa means garden and torti is bird. It's a garden bird. Chicken. So we set up a nice altar there outside the temple at the edge of the golf course. And had stacks of cages with chickens in them, crates, and an altar. And then we do this Buddhist ceremonies, getting ready for non-abiding. And then at the climax of the ceremony, the cage doors are open and the chickens fly out.

[42:06]

Released from captivity, they fly out. There they were, liberated. Into the golf course. And then the people who came to the ceremony went to a lovely buffet lunch. And I cleaned up the altar afterwards. And while I was cleaning up the altar, the chickens came back from the golf course and got into the cages. So there's a story that once upon a time in a yoga room class, all the humans were released. And then after they were released, they kind of wanted to get back into it. Their abode. Where did my abode go? Well, I know I'll find it after the class is over. I can go sit in my car. What?

[43:11]

There you go. Part of non-abiding is that you realize that abiding and non-abiding are inseparable. That samsara, where we're abiding in things, where we think there's reality behind the words we use, where we suffer, when we have perfect wisdom, we have realized that that actually is no different from peace and freedom. And we use the words as a pivot to go from being abiding in or stuck in our consciousness to being liberated without doing anything. Because in fact, the nature of our consciousness is that it isn't something and it's also not nothing. So there's no place to abide. You can't abide in something, because it isn't, but you can't then flip over and abide in nothing. There's no place to abide in your consciousness. We're training to realize that.

[44:18]

But again, once you realize it, And there you are out in the golf course with no, can't even find a caddy shack. And you don't want to make the sand trap your home, or the lake, or the hole on the green. And to remember now, what am I doing out here in no abode land? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm being free. And that's just a word. Yes. Yes. Not just a world? Well, not just a world is close to just a word.

[45:20]

Words are consciousness. Words are consciousness. For humans, But we have cognitive processes which aren't consciousness, where there isn't language. Yeah, like the... Like the way you have cognitive processes which kind of like are in touch with your body and do stuff like drive cars without any consciousness of it or do various amazing physical feats that you're not conscious of and also generate various emotions that you're not conscious of but they're cognitively initiated.

[46:36]

The body stimulates these cognitive processes and the cognitive processes change the body. There's that close relationship. That's not consciousness. Consciousness is where things are appearing and there's language and there's you who's tired and there's you who's hungry and there's you who's talking to me. And that's the realm where there's suffering because that's the realm where we think we can make things into particular, graspable things, which is impossible. But we dream that we can. And without training, we believe it. And then we're stressed. And then the stress can get really severe. It's not that you can't do something without a passing through language.

[47:44]

It's that when you do something, it is language. But the various processes which give rise to you doing something, those processes are not conscious processes. So I didn't decide to think. I didn't decide to have it. I didn't get in the car and say, OK, you're going to have an inner life. I didn't get in the car and say, you're going to have a consciousness. I could have said it, but I didn't. I can do it tonight. Matter of fact, I'll try to remember when I go to the car and say, OK, Reb, when you get in the car, you're going to have a consciousness. But even if I forget, there will be one there probably. And that will be a very attenuated, reduced version of my life, which I accept. I accept that. Lots of teachings are telling me there's nothing wrong with you, that you have a consciousness which is really a pipsqueak version of your life.

[48:49]

That's normal. And this little place of consciousness is a place where you can learn Buddhism, In other words, you can learn how to solve the problems that are occurring in consciousness. The delusions and sufferings that there, you can learn how to become free of them there. That's what this class is about. But it's not like something comes up into consciousness and then it goes through the words. When it comes up in consciousness, it is words. It's right away words. Right away words are consciousness and right away consciousness is the words. But consciousness doesn't liberate the words because you can't really work with the consciousness that's making the words because that isn't the way it works. The words don't make the consciousness. They're the same thing. But the words tell you how to work with the words in such a way as to realize their consciousness and they're not about something other than consciousness. They're about each other.

[49:52]

And if we can remember that, and actually like, maybe not actually fall for that there's something behind these words, we're training in perfect wisdom. And we must use words to become free of them. We're not going to just, lobotomies won't work. Silence won't work. As, you know, by itself. silence with words will work. So we use both silence and words together to use the words to understand that there's no reality behind silence or behind words. But there's a reality of words, and the reality of words is that the way they work is by the way they work with other words, not by what they're referring to. What they're referring to does not make them work.

[50:58]

You can invoke it by being we don't have to remember and there's no reality behind that and you don't have to remember that but you have to see it you have to see by not seeing a reality behind it or you have to see by catching yourself if by any chance anybody has that of thinking that there is a reality behind it all these beautiful people. Isn't it nice to have somebody behind that? Isn't that what we like, to have an actual beautiful person behind?

[52:05]

Well, we really don't. But isn't that our habit? Yes. It's not free, though, if you fall for it over and over. We have to take a break. We have to learn to just try on the bodhisattva's point of view of looking to see that there's no reality behind the words. And then looking to see what it's like to use words without settling down in them. Try it out. Again and again. With or without remembering. And there's a story about an exercise program of saying these things over and listening to these teachings over and over again that they transform us so that we do think of these things over and over again. There's a story about that. So we do listen to them over and over again.

[53:07]

We do the ritual saying the teachings over and over. Like I've said over and over at Zen Centers, they say the teachings of perfect wisdom over and over. At Zen Center we say, Amish to the perfection of wisdom, the lovely, the holy. We say that every day. We say all dharmas are marked by emptiness. We say that every day. So we say it again and again. So we think that again and again. So we think, oh, here's a feeling. Here's a sensation. Oh, that's empty. Oh, that's not something and that's not nothing. We say that over and over. And our consciousness becomes free by that exercise. but also it becomes free by noticing that we think there is something behind everything we say, that we think that what we say and what we think is the way things are rather than a reduced version of them.

[54:12]

Then we confess and repent that and say, yeah, I really did think that I was that way and that that's the way I was rather than that's the way I, rather than that's the picture of me. that appeared in consciousness when I said, Reb went to Japan. Or when I said, I always think of Hunan in springtime. The partridges chirping in the fragrant grasses. And I mentioned, you know, when I heard that, I was sitting in California and I saw China in the springtime. and the partridges were chirping in the fragrant grasses. But I didn't think there was a reality behind that picture. And that's why it was so beautiful. Because all it was was a verbal picture.

[55:12]

To what mysterious altar leadest thou, no, to what green altar leadest thou, O mysterious priest, that heifer lowing at the skies, its silken flanks all garland dressed? I don't think there's, I see this brilliant light of Greece, but I don't think there's a reality behind that. I just enjoy being in the light of those words. I'm liberated from what there really is. But that picture on the Grecian urn, that there really is a procession to go to an altar to make a sacrifice of this heifer. When we see the words just as words, to that extent, it's the perfection of wisdom. And there's no way to grasp A mysterious priest leading the heifer to the green altar on the spring day in Greece on an urn in the British Museum.

[56:32]

Words, if they mean something, it's a picture. All the pictures we see are consciousness. All the, everything that's appearing is consciousness. And words are consciousness. Seeing a picture is not words. Seeing a picture is seeing a picture. But the picture you see is words. And it's possible that the picture you see, which is words, and you know it's words, like I knew that I'm tired was words.

[57:38]

And I had no problem with that. I just, I had no problem, period. I was just amazed that some part of me wouldn't accept the fullness of my life that some part of me wanted there to be something more than the fullness of my life still after all this that's what I'm here for and there's no reality behind that's what I'm here for Because if I think there is, then I'm not happy. Then I'm not free. Then I'm transgressing. But if I don't believe that there's something behind, that's what I'm here for, I'm just a happy, that's what I'm here for guy. And there's no reality behind that either.

[58:40]

There's no reality behind my happiness. However, my happiness is reality. And so is yours. And you're not abiding in your happiness. We're already not abiding in it. Yes, Jacques? This is the practice of detachment, exactly. And it's the practice of not dissociating. So we're detached from our words, but not dissociated. We take good care of our words. We are word caregivers. And we're not detached from our words. We enjoy being careful of our words and we're detached from them. And again, Kim, who's not here now, Kim and Barry went to

[59:43]

Where did they go? They went to England. And in the first class, Kim said, how can you be devoted to something and not abide in it? That's what we're trying to learn. And in particular, I'm focusing on words, to be devoted to words, to not be dissociated from them, and to be completely detached while you're using them joyfully and carefully and thoroughly. Yeah, exactly. Yes? It's not see through the emptiness, it's see the emptiness. See through the words to their emptiness. Right.

[60:49]

No, no. The activities don't fall away. The extra meaning falls away. The extra meaning, in other words, the meaning that you've got is sufficient. The looking for extra meaning drops away. All I've got is Enrica. That's all I've got. And anything more than that drops away. So I'm happy to have you And you're the same. Because you're not making more out of yourself than necessary. We're trying, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Is this our last class?

[62:07]

No, it's not. I was just going to say, I want to be sure. And I thought of a joke when he said that. This is not our last class. And then there's another meaning to this is not our last class. Besides, this is not our last class. Well, I'll live today like it's our last class. Good idea. Let's live like it's our last class. And I want to be sure not to leave the class with this sort of nihilistic feeling, because I'm really clear now that there's not, that bodhisattvas who are practicing perfect wisdom do not view reality behind words. And the nihilistic feeling? Where's reality? It's not behind the words. Okay, cool. So I won't oversubstantiate the words, but now I've lost track. Guess where it is before you say anything.

[63:21]

If you say, where is it? And I say, it's here. The word here in consciousness is a little bit of a distraction. There's not a reality behind the here of reality is here. That's reality. And if I would say, well, reality is over there. That's a little easier maybe because you know reality is not over there. But I can still say it's over there, Charlie. Or I can say it's behind Linda. But there's no reality behind where I just told you it was. And that's reality. There's no reality behind our consciousness. But consciousness thinks there is a reality behind itself. Consciousness thinks it's about something other than itself, but it's not. It's just conscious construction only. That's why it's not something and not nothing.

[64:23]

So to say this, you know, what is it? You know that famous story? The monk comes to visit the sixth ancestor, and the sixth ancestor says, where are you from? And he says, I'm from Mount Sung. The sixth ancestor says, what is it that thus comes? And the monk says, to say it's this misses the point. Or he could have said, to say it's here misses the point. What is it that thus comes can mean who is it that this came, right? But also, what is Buddha? To say it's this misses the point. But of course, it's not wrong that this is it. Here I am meeting the Buddha, I'm meeting the great teacher. This must be Buddha, but I'm not going to say it is. And the teacher says, well, is there no enlightenment in practice then?

[65:28]

I said, I'm not going to say there isn't. If I say to you, what's reality? You say to me, to say it's this misses the point. And I say, is there no reality? You say, I'm not saying there's no reality. I'm just saying that I'm not going to defile it by saying this is it and thinking there's a reality behind that statement, that this is reality. We have all these teachings that remind us not to... They're all negative. They all say, it's not this, it's not that. Well, I didn't... But I didn't finish the story. Then the teacher says, this negativity... This negativity is what we take care of. We love this negativity. We take care of it. This is what Buddhists transmit, this negativity. I'm, and I'm like that right now.

[66:31]

And you're like that too. I am this way and there's no reality behind what I just said. And I'm so happy to tell you that. And if you say it's negative, I say yes. If you say it's, you could also say it's positive next week because we have another class. Nihilism occurs in consciousness and And to the extent that nihilism is just words, nihilism is liberate. It's perfection of wisdom. And we're liberated from nihilism. Nihilism is not nothing. Nihilism's not nothing. Nihilism thinks that there could be nothing, that something could be nothing. Nihilism thinks that Charlie could be nothing someday. That we could someday have nothing Charlie. But right now we don't have nothing Charlie.

[67:32]

And also we don't have something Charlie. And we'll never have a nothing Charlie or a something Charlie. That teaching will free us from nihilism, which thinks that there could be a nothing Charlie. Or a something nihilism, which is that there could be a nothing. Nihilism is a misunderstanding of nothing. we don't call a misunderstanding of something nihilism. Misunderstanding of something is what most people have. But perfect wisdom doesn't misunderstand nothing or something. And it knows that everything is marked by neither nothing or something. Everything's empty of being nothing or something. Everything's Everything in consciousness is free of something and nothing, and everything in consciousness is just words.

[68:36]

Everything in consciousness is opportunities for being free. Jacques? So one day my dad came up to me and said, Behind that story. Yeah. Yeah, detach yourself without dissociating.

[69:55]

Well, thank you so much.

[70:03]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_89.64