In summary, we've been studying the mind of delusion. And in a way, we've been studying the minds, the minds of delusion. Minds of delusion. There's the unconscious mind of delusion, and conscious mind of delusion. There is an unconscious awareness, an awareness that's unconscious, that's vaguely, barely conscious, subliminal. And there's an active consciousness which is aware of specific objects We've been studying how these co-arise.

[01:06]

We've been studying their causation. Some people would say that the basic teaching of the enlightened ones is the teaching of causation. As we study the teaching of causation, we realize the teaching of the ultimate truth. We become ready for the teaching of ultimate truth. We become ready to realize ultimate truth. There's a teaching about how the deluded mind is transformed and how we can be free of the mind of delusion. We're studying the source of unwholesome, harmful states of mind. And we're studying also those unwholesome, destructive states of mind.

[02:14]

And how the source of harmful states of mind, for states of suffering, for states of active awareness of suffering, that the source of this is the results of these active states. And the source which supports these active states of suffering is constantly being transformed by these active states of suffering and the way we practice with them. And teachings have been given to these active states of suffering, to these active afflictive processes, into the world which is created by the mind of delusion. Teachings enter the world of the mind of delusion, the world created by the mind of delusion.

[03:20]

And these teachings come from the realization, from the understanding and transformation of the mind of delusion. The teachings are not outside or inside the world created by delusion. Somehow the understanding of the mind of delusion and the liberation from it had the ability to enter and awaken deluded beings to the teaching which encourages them to study. ...reflection, the mind of destructiveness, Last week I was emphasizing, and at the beginning too, some exercises, some exercises for the process of creation of the mind, and proposing that entering into this game of creation

[04:37]

is where understanding is living. And where transformation and freedom, where liberating transformations are living. They're living in the creative process. Tonight I just want to briefly mention a translation of Nietzsche. which goes something like, to play the game of creation, a sacred yes is necessary. To play the game of creation, a sacred yes is necessary. I don't know what the original German was. He said this in Also sprach Barthustra. Moment by moment, according to this teaching, we need to say yes.

[05:56]

when Sukershi was, sometimes I heard him talk about receiving the teachings for bodhisattvas, receiving the bodhisattva teachings, receiving the bodhisattva precepts, I think he said something like, it's necessary to say, yes, He's not like saying, I'm forcing you to receive these precepts. It's just that when the teacher says, will you receive these precepts? Will you receive these precepts? It's necessary to say yes. You don't have to say, well, maybe I will, or I would, but I'm not sure I can practice them. I don't want to say yes, I'll receive something that I can't follow through on, and so on. That's okay to say those things, but They're not necessary. You don't have to say them. You have to say yes, though. It's necessary to say yes. And I think, I kind of remember him saying, you've got to be like a child.

[07:13]

Like, you want to go to the park? Yes. Yes. Want to save all sentient beings? Yes. Yes. This is not a cynical response to the moment. This is a kind of a childlike response, not childish. The moments that we experience, generally speaking, they're childish moments. They're childish, they're foolish, deluded moments. But we need to say yes to them. In order to what? In order to enter into the dependent core arising of them. We need to say yes to the teachings about them. You want to hear some teachings about dependent core arising? And then, when you hear them, you want to practice them?

[08:27]

Do you want to enter the realm where they're actually living? Maybe. I think Nietzsche also says something like, the child's innocence is forgetting, is starting right now, for the first time. I remember when I first came to Zen Center, there was a I think a neurologist or a neuroscience man over at UC Medical Center in San Francisco. He came to Zen Center and he did some tests on some meditators. Anyway, I heard as a result of these tests, one of the tests is they put the wires up to see what kind of response is in the mind of the meditator when they ring a bell.

[09:38]

They also do the same tests with non-meditators or not very good meditators. So one of the results I heard was that when you ring a bell in a person who's not meditating, you get maybe measured in ten units of response. And you ring it again and you get nine maybe. You ring it again and you get eight. And you keep ringing it, pretty soon the bell goes off and there's almost no response neurologically. But the meditator, you ring it, you get a 10. You ring it, you get a 10. You ring it, you get a 10. You ring it, you get a 10. In other words, they don't just stay and say, oh, well, I heard that before. I mean, they being there, say, well, yeah, that's that again.

[10:43]

and yet they're calm. The other person might be calm too, but the meditator is calm but also alert and responsive, like a child who can do things over and over and over and over and over. There was a — on YouTube recently there was a One of the things was a child laughing hysterically to paper being torn. So this child's there with an adult man who rips some paper in front of the child, and the child starts laughing. And he rips some more, and the child laughs more, and he rips some more, and the child laughs more, and he's laughing too. The child keeps being surprised. And it's like every time the paper gets ripped, the child's just like totally amazed that the world can be pulled apart like that, and just thinks it's very funny, and just keeps laughing and laughing, and doesn't stop laughing.

[11:58]

And for some reason or other, they stop the camera. The child is observing the pentacle rising. and being surprised by it. There's also probably pictures of ripping paper and child crime. That can happen too, of course. because this is the last class, for those of you who are going to be reading the English translation of the Graha, the English translation of Embracing the Great Vehicle, I just wanted to mention to you that there's, in the first chapter, there's quite a bit of, in a sense, apologetic

[13:39]

discussion where the bodhisattva who wrote this is justifying the teaching because it's a new teaching. Both trying to point out that the Buddha did teach this and also trying to for the teaching of the storehouse unconscious mind. trying to point out that without this unconscious mind, the actual process of delusion, the process of getting into situations of suffering, would be impossible. But also, how worldly progress and worldly degeneration would be impossible. How liberation from the process would be impossible without this storehouse consciousness.

[14:49]

He also points out that it is possible to become free of this process of delusion without receiving the teaching of the storehouse consciousness. In other words, this storehouse consciousness can be transformed even if you don't get the teaching about the storehouse consciousness. But even though you become free of the process by other teachings, in fact, the way you become free would not happen if there weren't the storehouse consciousness. You might have some other story about how you became free or how freedom was attained, but he's suggesting that any story you tell about how you become free as a sentient being without this teaching is actually not correct.

[15:52]

But you can become free without hearing this teaching. In order to make a Buddha, in order to become most helpful in this world, he's suggesting we need this teaching of the unconscious resultant mind, the unconscious mind which is the result of all past karma, of all of it. We need that mind in order to realize Buddhahood, and also in order to do the work of realizing Buddhahood, because it's possible to attain a lesser liberation and think that that's enough. a lesser, amazing, wonderful state of freedom, and think it's enough unless you've heard this teaching and then you realize that this teaching was actually being enacted in your liberation and that your liberation is not yet complete.

[16:56]

That in fact, this mind has not been completely transformed, and until it's completely transformed, you're not done. You haven't done your job." So he talks about the people who obtain liberation without this teaching, and he says that they still fulfill their basic commitment, and that is to become personally liberated. And once personally liberated, they are very helpful, beneficent beings in the world, but they think they're done and they're not Buddhas. For those who wish to be bodhisattvas and live for the welfare of all beings, this teaching, why and how they must become Buddha and how they can become Buddha. Yes. There's some metaphors here, but I thought that I remembered something in Ms.

[18:07]

Holywood's translation of the floating chariot of Tara about how that concept is actually incorrect. The idea that the arhat is incomplete is incorrect, according to Ms. Holywood. And I'm just curious if there are other teachers who are working on that. for the sake of the recording, she read somewhere that the idea that the arhat is incompletely liberated, correct? Yeah. So, I'm not saying that the arhat is incompletely liberated. The Samdhinir Mochana Sutra, upon which this text is based, it says that the liberation bodies of the arhats and the liberation bodies of the sams, Okay? So it says in the sutra, in that sutra, that Mahayana sutra, that the Arhats and the Pratyekabuddhas have the same liberation body as the Buddhas, and the Buddhas do not have incomplete liberation bodies.

[19:18]

But the Buddhas do, which is called the Dharmakaya or Dharma body, or body of truth. And that body of truth is not the same body as their liberation body. They have liberation bodies and this this Buddha body, the true Buddha body. They had that body too. And that is not the same body as this liberation body. But it says that the liberation body of the hearers, the shravakas, is the same as the liberation body of the Buddhas. They are completely liberated, but they're not Buddhas. And bodhisattvas wish to become Buddhas because the arhats all got to be arhats because of a Buddha or because of Buddhas. So bodhisattvas wish to make more arhats like Buddhas do, but bodhisattvas also wish to help people who are not interested in being arhats want to be Buddhas.

[20:23]

and that's a different process. And that process requires this teaching according to a sangha. It doesn't say in… I don't remember it saying in the sutra, you must have the teaching of a laya, vijnana, to become a Buddha. I don't remember saying that, but it is the sutra that first most clearly introduces this teaching. Now I'd like to tell you some really difficult thing in the last class. The thing is, is that there's two levels of dependent co-arising within the storehouse consciousness. So this text is saying that in the great vehicle there is a teaching about dependent co-arising and teachings there was also a teaching of dependent core rising. Teaching of dependent core rising, again, seems to have been the central teaching, along with, perhaps you could say, along with selflessness, seemed to be the central constructive repository of the Buddha.

[21:43]

One teaching is about the way things aren't. The other teaching is about the way things appear to be, or how they come to appear and disappear. So there is a teaching of dependent core rising in the early Buddhism. Now, there is another teaching of dependent core rising, and that is the teaching of dependent core rising within or about or including the teaching of dependent co-arising. It's talking about dependent co-arising within the storehouse consciousness. And Asanga, the author of this text, says that the most profound and subtle teaching of dependent co-arising is the one within the storehouse consciousness, is the one that includes and a clear articulation of an unconscious as part of the... And then he says there's two levels of this dependent core arising.

[22:45]

Two levels of the dependent core arising within the storehouse consciousness. One kind is called the... the dependent core arising, which distinguishes essences. Or you could say, yeah, the dependent core arising in which essences are being distinguished. The other kind of dependent co-arising, the second kind, which is kind of like the first kind in the sense that historically it's the one that people are most aware of, but it's called the second kind in this book. The second kind of dependent co-arising is a dependent co-arising in terms of discriminating pleasant and unpleasant things. So one kind of dependent core rising in the storehouse consciousness is about distinguishing or apportioning or distributing essences to things, self-natures to things.

[24:12]

The other kind of dependent core rising is dependent core rising which pleasant and unpleasant, or which apportions pleasant and unpleasant. Just let me say a little bit more, and I'll give you examples. Okay, so I now. Dependent co-arising that distinguishes essences means that the arising of all things is supported upon the container consciousness.

[25:19]

For it, the container consciousness is the cause of distinguishing essences. All things, that's the first type. The second type is, which distinguishes pleasant and unpleasant, is the twelvefold dependent co-arising, for it distinguishes various different causes for pleasant and unpleasant in the good and, excuse the expression, evil destinies. The example for the second type, starting with the second one, which is the traditional one, is that there's a twelve-fold chain of causation. And it starts with affliction, the basic affliction of ignorance. And based on the basic affliction of ignorance, beings act.

[26:29]

They're living in ignorance, they're living in believing in a self, and because and then that leads to action, and the action then has a result of consciousness. And then follows, and that consciousness that results from the action based on ignorance is the storehouse. And then based on the storehouse consciousness, all these active states of consciousness arise. And then several more phases are spoken of in this process of the pinnacle arising now of the active states. The next one's called name and form, which is the active consciousnesses. And the next one comes is the six sense bases. And the next one that comes is contact. And the next one that comes is feeling. So that's a four-part articulation of the process by which the active consciousnesses arise.

[27:39]

Arise from what consciousness? In this text now we say it's arising from alaya because alaya is a resultant consciousness. What does it result from? It results from karma. What kind of karma? Karma which is coming from ignorance. So it goes, or affliction. Karma to do something about it, and the result in that karma is again active consciousness. But the first time it's mentioned, it's not articulated into the four different parts. It's just saying action, which means active consciousness. It has a result, which is called consciousness. Based on that consciousness, now we have now a more articulated version of the active consciousnesses, and following them culminating in feeling. What kind of feeling? Pleasant and unpleasant and indeterminate. So that's the story of pleasant and unpleasant feelings.

[28:43]

And then following these pleasant and unpleasant feelings comes more affliction. What kind of affliction? Craving. Clinging. And as a result of this karma of craving and clinging process now, we have becoming. Karma, more karma. As a result of this karma, we have birth. And then we have aging, old age. and death and all other kinds of suffering which are based on the results of karma, which are based on afflictive ignorance, which are based on active karmic consciousness, which is based on this unconscious which is a result of previous karma, which arise from ignorance.

[29:49]

So this 12-fold chain, it starts out with an abbreviated version of the whole cycle. Affliction, action, result. Result. Ignorance, karma, consciousness. What consciousness? Alaya. The active consciousnesses are not the result of active consciousnesses. The active consciousnesses are the result of the result of the active consciousnesses. And that's part of what this teaching is about. If you say that the active consciousnesses are the result of the active consciousnesses, it doesn't make sense. Because the active consciousnesses, when they go away, do not make a very good cause for the rising of active consciousness. But the alaya, which is the result of active consciousness, will be, the result of active consciousness, which is alaya, will be in the next moment.

[30:51]

Not only the results of the last moment, but the results of all the moments, because it isn't just what you did in the last moment, it's to the present moment, as you may have noticed. Like if you think, I'm going to be nice to so-and-so in the next moment, you aren't necessarily going to be nice, especially if you were mean to so-and-so millions of times before. And then you thought, I'm going to be nice from now on to so-and-so. Bam, you're not. That's because your wish to be nice, although it does have effects and does transform this consciousness, it transforms it just a little. And what All the other times when you didn't think about being kind also there, along with this one or more times when you thought of being kind. So that's the dependent core arising in terms of distinguishing wholesome and unwholesome, in terms of, excuse me, pleasant and unpleasant, or agreeable and disagreeable, and that goes along with active karmic states.

[32:02]

The other kind, and that And so now I'm presenting to you to look at that 12-fold chain of causation which many of you have seen before, but now look at it in terms of first is the basic affliction of ignorance and the basic afflicted of ignorance is not according, again, I'm talking about the second type of dependent core rising, which is really similar to the ancient early Buddhist teaching of dependent core rising, but this time it's different. Saying this consciousness, which is called basic affliction of ignorance, it's a type of consciousness which carries the ignorance, but that basic ignorance, that basic affliction of ignorance is not the storehouse concept. It's not the storehouse consciousness.

[33:05]

As came up last week or the week before, the storehouse consciousness is karmically indeterminate and the storehouse consciousness is undefiled. However, it carries the results of all defiled states. But it itself is undefiled. Now we're starting number one, defilement. What defilement? The defilement of ignorance, the fundamental defilement. There's secondary defilements. There's greed, hate, and delusion. Greed and hate are also defilements. Envy and jealousy and you know, violence. They're also defilements. But the fundamental affliction is ignorance. And that's not a lie. Based on that fundamental affliction, action arises. And based on that, the result of that, or based on that, the result of that is the alaya.

[34:12]

And then based on that is the active consciousnesses. And then the active consciousnesses lead to results which, again, lead to more affliction, which lead to more karma, which lead to results, and so on. That's the one type of pentechorizing. The other type, however, is different. The other type is the process by which, based on discriminations of self, there's now a present attribution of self to some object of active awareness.

[35:14]

And so the second type is not some of these situations in which we're experiencing positive and negative sensation and where we're doing wholesome and unwholesome karma. It's more talking about how the states arise from alaya and how the states transform alaya and how alaya supports the arising of states in the process. there is an attribution of essences to things in this process. But the dependent core arising is more spoken of in terms of how these two types of consciousness are and co-creating each other. Now, as we said before, there's another type of consciousness which is called manas, and there's two types of manas. One is serving as the organ for the arising of mind consciousness.

[36:17]

And also it serves as the immediate antecedent condition for all the sense consciousnesses. There's a second kind of manas which carries the ignorance. And that second kind of manas coexists with both these types of dependent core arising. So in one case, In a sense, the manas, the defiling manas, is the first link in the twelve-fold chain. And that first link in the twelve-fold chain isn't just there in the first link. It's just in the first link. All that we're talking about is which is defiled by ignorance, that's all. And the consciousness that's defiled by ignorance is the consciousness which really carries the ignorance, is manas. So in a sense, in the 12-fold chain of causation, in this teaching here, the first step is a mind called manas.

[37:23]

The second step is active consciousness. The third step is the result of active consciousness, which will now be the support for the arising of more active consciousness. In the first type of dependent core arising, going back to the first one, These two types of consciousness, the unconscious cognition and the conscious cognition, the way they work together, the manas is there too. The manas is there too. And it is defiling the active states. But also, the alaya is supporting its life. But the alaya is not defiled by it. so the laya can support an undefiled state. And if we study the creative process by which the unconscious and the conscious in the present, how the unconscious, how our past gives rise to our present active consciousness, if we study this process by which that happens and by which active consciousness transforms our past consciousness, our past, which is the consciousness, which is the result of action, this defiling mind will be abandoned.

[38:47]

And the process of attributing essences will cease. If we study the process by which the unconscious and the conscious are mutually causing each other, study that process, not really ... defiled by this other consciousness, to study the process by which they co-create each other, the mind which carries the idea of independent self will be abandoned. That mind which carries the independent self will not be able to live. In fact, the mind which carries the fundamental ignorance and which defiles minds does not live in the creative process by which

[39:53]

active consciousnesses arise and influence the storehouse consciousness, and the storehouse consciousness supports the active consciousness and is influenced by them. The actual causal relationship between these two types of consciousness, the actual causality of the actual creativity of it, there's no place for a self there. But the thing that holds the self and suffers with the self gets abandoned as we get more and more into the process of this creative process. It gets, you could say, burned up. But that's not the end of the creative process. And shortly after getting burned up, relatively shortly after getting burned up, like in the story of the Buddha in the first teaching that he gave, one of the people, he was teaching five people, and one of the people in that conversation that he was having, listening to him, one of the people, just listening to him talk about causation in the first talk, which is just, you know, if you write the talk down, it's only like two pages in English.

[41:11]

So by the time he finished that talk, one of them had already abandoned this defiled conversation. Manas. He talked this guy, these four people, through the process enough for one of them to enter it and find a place where there's no defiling mind, where there's no ignorance, where there's no belief in self. And then within a short time the other four place of creativity, that teaching of causation, and became liberated. And within about a month or so, all of them had not only entered the place and become liberated from this defilement, but had exercised it all the way to the point of arhatship. There's four stages. One of them entered the first stage of liberation in one talk. All of them entered all five, four stages. within a month or so, according to the tradition.

[42:14]

Now, this is an example where they heard this other teaching and they did not hear the teaching of Alaya, apparently, in that story. So the teaching of Alaya would go beyond this liberation state and work in the form of transforming the entire laya, which means working to transform the entire world, the entire enclosure world that people live in, the entire world that non-enlightened people live in, that the bodhisattva keeps working on that world. if they themselves are free of this defiled manas. And they would study these two types of dependent co-arising in this enclosure. Within alaya, the bodhisattvas are studying both types of dependent co-arising. They're studying the one by which you get into the states ...unpleasant, wholesome, and unwholesome.

[43:22]

And they're studying the process by which the undefiled, neutral, unconscious gives rise to wholesome and unwholesome states. But the emphasis here is not, in the first hypothetical rising, is not on the wholesomeness and unwholesomeness. It's not on the destinies that you get into. It's on the process of attributing the essence. And to find the place in the process where there isn't any. And there isn't any, really, in the fullness of the process. But the other ones important are really into and stuck in their suffering. So they also work in that realm. So that's a big teaching I offer you, and that's section 19, 20, 21, and 22 in chapter 1. Because if you read it without this, it wouldn't be so clear as it is now.

[44:25]

Was there a hand raised? Yes? Yes, definitely. Links? Yeah? like a logical, complicated, logical way of explaining dependency. Yes. And the other one is more of like emotional. Looking at the emotional state. that actually there is mapping in it. See through that multiple states. I expect it. OK. It's the same central device. It's just, in a nutshell, the one about the essences is to see that there is no essence.

[45:33]

Is that correct? The one about the essence is what? The essence is to see through the results. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But again, here I'm emphasizing that the way of seeing that is by actually entering into the creative process by which our active consciousness is arising. Again, at the beginning I say, in order to do that we have to say, we have to give, in Nietzsche's word, a sacred yes to these active states. these active, afflictive states of mind and body. We have to say, yes, I'm going to study this. Yes, I'm going to practice with this. Yes, I'm going to practice with this. And yes, I'm going to practice with this. And yes, I'm going to practice with this. And if you say maybe, yes, I'm going to practice with maybe. And if you say I'm not going to, yes, I'm going to practice with I'm not going to. No matter what comes, we need to sort of say, okay, I'm going to start over with this practice.

[46:41]

Yes, Elena. Are animals part of the process of evolution? Pardon? Are animals part of the process of evolution? Process of delusion? Of evolution. Yes, they are. But apparently they do not understand language So this instruction, apparently they cannot receive it directly. They receive it indirectly through the people who can hear it. So if we hear it and we practice with it, then our practice affects them. But they, but the, you know, ...is primarily geared for these linguistic beings, which are humans.

[47:46]

And hopefully, as we get better at this practice, we will be able to prepare them to someday be able to receive teaching. Are there other things you'd like to bring up? And also I recommend, if you have any suggestions on where to go from here, I plan to continue studying this text, but if you don't want me to do it in the yoga room and you want me to do some other kinds of things in the yoga room, I'm happy to do that. Because I'm going to be, you know, I have other venues to do this teaching, but I'm going to keep going forward in this text. I'm very enthusiastic about it. I'm like a little kid. I just think it's, I just, I'm really impressed. It really is offering some wonderful new perspectives, wonderful subtleties on the Buddha's teaching.

[48:55]

This person, Asanga, who wrote it, you know, like especially in this first chapter, he's quite logical in explaining why it doesn't make sense that things are going the way they're going if you don't have this storehouse consciousness involved in your explanation. If you just see the way that the world works, suffer, and the way they get in trouble, and the way some people get freed, you would not be able to understand how they get in trouble. You would not be able to correctly understand. Your explanation of how they get in trouble and how they become free would not hold water without this teaching, he says. And he's quite logical about it. somebody may disagree with him and think his reasoning is not too good, but he's definitely reasoning in a very intense way. But this person whose reasoning is a bodhisattva, is a person who just happened to be very enthusiastic about studying the Buddha's teaching, and he did study the Buddha's teaching, but he felt

[50:09]

some lack in his understanding, some lack in his practice. And he felt, he somehow had a vision or something, that in order to really enter the deepest possible meaning of the Buddha's teaching, he had to meet the future Buddha, the next Buddha. So this is a person who's living in India or Southeast Asia, third century, or the fourth century, I should say, in the common era. Really into Buddhist studies, really enthusiastic. And he gets this idea he has to meet the future Buddha. Now, I don't know if he was yet a practitioner of the Mahayana, but whether it's Mahayana or not, In the Buddha's teaching, the Buddha said the next Buddha is going to be called Maitreya, which means it's related to the word Maitri or Metta.

[51:16]

It means loving kindness. The next Buddha is going to be called Maitreya. After I die, the Shakyamuni Buddha said, the next time there's a Buddha around here, after this whole situation falls apart and we start a whole new cycle, the next Buddha is going to be called Maitreya. And Sangha, the author of this text, heard about that, believed in it, needed to meet this bodhisattva, this bodhisattva who's kind of in the wings, waiting for his turn to be Buddha. And he went, he gave up his studies and his teaching, he was already a noted teacher of Buddhist doctrine, and went into a cave, basically prayed, and invited this bodhisattva to come and meet him. And he did so for three years, and after three years the bodhisattva had not come, and he said, OK, I give up. And he was leaving his meditation area

[52:17]

But something happened, an amazing, auspicious thing happened, which made him feel like, okay, three more years. And he did. He practiced various types of visualizations and invitations, tried to imagine all possible ways to make this bodhisattva willing to come and be with him and help him. I think maybe like the teachings, there were Mahayana teachings at this time, like the Prajnaparamita and the Lotus Sutra. He didn't understand them well enough, according to his own humble opinion. So he spent ... Again he gave up, and again he was leaving his retreat, and again something happened that made him feel like he should go back into the cave, and he did for three more years. And then after nine years, he also decided to give up and he left.

[53:18]

Something happened and he went back for three more. Then after 12, he again decided to quit. And he left. And this time he ran into a dog lying on the road. And the dog was really... in ill health, and it had sores all over it, and maggots had moved into the sores. And I guess he didn't know, back in those days they weren't as smart as we are, he didn't know how to clean the wounds. They do. He thought the maggots were not doing very well, weren't helping the dog out, so he decided he was going to clean the maggots out of the dog's wounds. But then as he started to do it, he realized he would hurt the maggots. And he didn't want to hurt the maggots, so he removed the tongue.

[54:21]

And as he was removing them with the tongue, I believe something like the dog started to change. And the dog changed into this celestial bodhisattva, the next Buddha. And Maitreya said, why didn't you come earlier? And Maitreya said, I was always with you the whole time. As soon as you started to go to the cave, I was with you. But your compassion was not sufficient for you to see me. And Maitreya was happy to meet Asanga, and Asanga was happy to meet Maitreya, but Asanga couldn't believe that Maitreya had been there the whole time with him. So he's going to test Maitreya into a town and show people Maitreya to see if those people could see him.

[55:25]

So he took Maitreya with him into the town and said, here, look, folks, look at Maitreya. The future Buddha's here. And everybody in town thought he was crazy because all they saw was this dog over his shoulder. And Maitreya said, see? So then anyway, this amazing creature hung out with this amazing creature. This dependently co-arisen bodhisattva named Asanga spent quite a bit of time with this co-arisen bodhisattva called Maitreya. They went to a study place which is called Tushita Heaven. And there Maitreya gave Asanga various teachings. And Asanga came back from the heavenly realm and wrote them down on the land of India. And we have those texts that he wrote.

[56:28]

Basically, he was the future Buddha's amanuensis. So he wrote them down and we have them. These are something we can study in the future. For example, the Abhisamaya Alankara is one of them. And then the sangha started writing some texts on his own. And when he had difficulty, like when he was writing this text, this is not a the future Buddha. This is written by the Bodhisattva Asanga. When he got to difficult parts in here, he would invite Maitreya to come and help him. So this is actually written by Asanga with Maitreya's help. So it's really quite an opportunity for us here. So anyway, I'm intending to keep studying this, not just to sort of, what do you call it,

[57:30]

be bullheaded about it, but because I want to. If you study it with me in some venue or other, that will encourage me. And your questions and comments and your experiences shared with me encourage me to keep going. So with your help, continue to go through this text. And we've just done the first, so far in this class, we've just done the first five sections, although I just did jump to section 19, 20, 21, and 22. Although I just covered section 19, and I just did section 19 tonight. I guess last week and the week before. There's a lot more material in this text, the first chapter. But it's basically, it's encouragement to study the process, the dependent core arising of the afflictive consciousnesses.

[58:39]

the storehouse consciousness, which itself is not really afflicted, it's not really defiled. It's undefiled. The results of defiled activity When you go to these destinies, I was surprised to hear this when I was studying teachings on these destinies. When you go to the human realm, the human realm, this is one a lot of us are familiar with. When you go to heaven, when you go to the animal realm, when you go to hungry ghosts, when you go to hell, the state of hell is undefiled neutral. Hell is undefiled. It's suffering, nonstop, no pleasure, not even any neutral sensation. It's nonstop pain. It's nonstop alienation. It's nonstop torment.

[59:46]

It's nonstop destruction of life. Life. It's a kind of life that's just really, it's the worst. Really the worst. I'll tell you about the worst later. But it's the result. Hell is a resultant state. And that resultant state of hell is supported by the storehouse consciousness. But the resultant state of hell, the destiny itself, is not an active state. The result, the destiny, is not an active state. It is a world. And the world is undefiled neutral. And then in the world, Elias supports the arising of active consciousness. And defiled active consciousness can be wholesome or unwholesome. But the results of wholesome defiled action

[60:50]

is undefiled and neutral. And the results of wholesome action, defiled wholesome action, is undefiled neutral. And the results of indeterminate defiled action is undefiled neutral. And undefiled neutral results support the arising of more defiled states. which can be wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral. Wholesome states, defiled wholesome states, have the results of undefiled neutral container consciousness. Defiled unwholesome states have the results of undefiled neutral container consciousness. And that undefiled neutral container consciousness gives rise to wholesome states. And then, once again, if you're in this process, at the center of this process, at the middle of that process, defilement gets burned away So we need to say, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes to what's going on so we can enter into the process of purification in this dependent core rising of storehouse consciousness and active consciousness.

[62:13]

Storehouse consciousness, active consciousness, storehouse consciousness, round and round, So the first chapter is about this process, encouraging us to enter it. The second chapter is distinguishing the different characters of the things that arise from this creative process. The third chapter is about how to enter into the character of the thing created process, and so on. But this first chapter, in some sense, we always have to take care of this first chapter in the practice. We always have to be In other words, for the practice to really work, we have to be involved in creation. And then in that process, we can bring in these other teachings, gradually fold the other teachings into the process. But what's going on, what we've been talking about so far, doesn't stop when you move into the next chapter.

[63:15]

It's not created by results. Results of karma. Karma is wholesome, unwholesome and indeterminate or neutral. Three kinds of karma. Until we have entered into and understand the creative process of dependent core arising, our states are defiled by a belief in self. So our states are defiled. Until we understand this process, our consciousnesses are more or less defiled. Even though we might not be greedy or angry, we're still defiled if we don't really understand the insubstantiality of all things. And these things arose in the first type of dependent core arising, these things arose by attributing essences to them. That's how everything arises. Where things have arisen by apportioning essences, now we need to enter into the creative process and abandon the essence-attributing part of the process.

[64:30]

And the results, results are undefiled neutral, aren't really wholesome karma. Results of wholesome karma aren't wholesome karma. They're the results of wholesome karma. So pain is not itself karmically positive. It tends to be the results of unwholesome karma. But it itself is not unwholesome karma. And it's not defiled in itself as a result. But our actions are to leave this defiling influence of belief in the Self. Pardon? Well, again, defile.

[65:32]

There's two kinds of defile. There's three kinds of defilement. Or there's three kinds of affliction. Just a second. Yeah. There's three kinds of defilement. I think I've been on, I'll do some research on this, but there's three kinds of defilement. There's defilement of there's defilement of ignorance, there's defilement of karma, and there's defilement of, maybe I should say, yeah, let's say, there's three kinds of defilement.

[66:45]

Defilement of ignorance, defilement of action, and defilement of result. Another way to say it would be Yeah. Let's say it that way. So defilement means ... The word for defilement is klesha. And there's a slightly different word which is called samklesha, which we could translate as affliction. When you say pain isn't defiled, what does that mean?

[67:48]

Pain is a feeling. Feelings in themselves are not defiled. defilement, a constriction of the pain. It would be a suffering in addition to the pain. And the suffering in addition to pain would be similar to the suffering in addition to pleasure. So when there's pleasure, there's one kind of pain. When there's pain, there's also suffering. And when there's neutral sensation, there's also suffering. But the suffering in case of positive, negative, and neutral sensation, the suffering is basically the same suffering. When you're in pain, you have the suffering of pain. When you're in pain, you have the suffering of pleasure. When you're in pain, you have the suffering of maybe wishing that it would go away or wishing that it wouldn't last.

[68:50]

When you have pleasure, you have the suffering of wishing it would last or being afraid it'll go away. Or when it does go away, you suffer. When you have the pain of being a conditioned being but believing that you're not conditioned. Your basic belief in yourself is being insulted by conditionality. So that's painful. So the discomfort that goes with any feeling comes from a defilement that goes with any feeling. So because we believe in a self, all of our different feelings are painful. But the pain itself is not the defilement. As a matter of fact, the pain of the defilement. The pain is an indication that we do not really understand pain, pleasure, or neutral sensation. And the way to understand

[69:54]

The nature of pain, pleasure, and neutral sensation is by saying yes in pleasure and neutral sensation and entering into the creative process by which these results, these feelings arise. Pardon? The basic defilement is a belief in a self. I can't use the word defilement in what definition I said oh the definition of defilement is ignorance the basic type of defilement is ignorance And then there's other kinds of like hatred is a defilement and greed is a defilement and laziness is a defilement and lack of faith is a defilement.

[71:11]

Selfishness is a defilement. Envy is a defilement. Jealousy is a defilement. Lying is a defilement. Violence is a defilement. These are defilements. The basic one is ignorance or delusion. And those ways of being defile the living being and distort and, you know, confine and, you know, they are the, in that sense, they're also afflictions. They're the source of pain. Does that make sense now? Yeah. And all of our active states are afflicted as long as there's a belief in self coexisting with them.

[72:16]

And the fact that we have in the past had these afflicted, defiled states of mind are supporting us, the arising of more now. Yes. Yes, yes. Sure. Now and later. Yes. I noticed that in this sequence of teachings, the last class here, and also the last morning talker, they were the ones that really brought this teaching alive. And the difference I saw in them was that we weren't going through line by line through the original text. Yes? I was hearing your interpretation and how it impacted your teaching and your life. And I wanted to let you know that I had this series of classes that really engaged me.

[73:22]

My question for you to think about is, would it have engaged you if you hadn't heard the previous teachings? I was thinking about that also. Okay, well that's kind of what I feel like I'm doing, is giving you mostly my interpretation. We just did this in the six-week class. We just did the first five sections with a couple of sallies into the rest of the chapter. So we have not really gone line by line. And even those five sections, we haven't gone through line by line. But I understand that it doesn't work to go line by line like this. I don't want you all to have your books in front of you.

[74:24]

the books I'm telling you about, just so you know where I'm coming from. Because I am going through this line by line, over and over, line by line, over and over, line by line. I'm doing that. And this leads me to then be able to talk to you, going through line by line, because I almost memorized the text, so that I don't have to read it line by line in order to speak the text to you. So I'm not going to go through line by line. In any situation, there's one group where we're going through line by line, or there's two groups where I'm going through line by line, but those are really small groups and everybody's got ... So I am trying to not go through line by line, but occasionally I tell you a little quote here or there, like I did tonight. I told you about those two types of dependent core rising. So I went through line by line, but I just did four sentences. So if you don't want to hear any, let me know. Because I gave you a little bit of the actual text, but most of what I said was my interpretation, my understanding.

[75:34]

A lot of what I said is not in the text. A lot of what I said about the text is not in the text. Just like a sangha is telling us things which are not in any sutra. He is saying things, based on wide study, he's saying things that he feels make sense that aren't anywhere else. And based on my study of this and other texts, aren't in this text. But I hear what you're saying and I actually am trying to do that. So like at Green Gulch I gave a talk too and people walked in who first time to Green Gulch and I talked about this text. But, you know, it doesn't work to go through line by line. Thank you. It doesn't work to go through line by line unless everybody's got the book basically. or unless we just do one line and we say it over and over again until everybody's memorized it, and then we study that one line.

[76:36]

That would probably work also. Well, thank you for this night. Many of you have come back after vacations and so on. But this final class is well attended, and I appreciate you hanging in there to the end. And if you have any further requests or questions, instructions on what you'd like me to teach here in Berkeley. I'm welcome. I don't have to do this text. I will be doing it other places, but I could do more of this. I could do more teachings that are coming from this text. And if you'd like to have less on the text and more on who happens to be reading it, we could go that way. The latest kid named Reb, who happens to study this stuff. Thank you very much.

[77:37]

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