It's a walk out of true practice of the true mind of faith and the true body of prayer. Just before the end of yesterday's session, Eileen came up and asked about the section where it says, firewood becomes ash. Is that correct, Eileen? She said she had some questions about it. Is that right? Maybe I could say, did you ask me to say something about it? Yeah, so I'll say something about it and then you may have further questions.

[01:01]

So the section goes, Firewood becomes ash and does not become firewood again. Yet do not suppose that ash is future and firewood past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood which fully includes past and future. and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes future and past. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, so you do not return to birth after death. This being so, it is an established way in Buddha Dharma to deny that birth turns into death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no birth. It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha's discourse that death does not turn into birth.

[02:11]

Accordingly, death is understood as no death. Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring. There is a teaching which is living inside of this part of the text which is not being literally pointed out. But the teaching is, in Japanese it's called shoji zenki gen.

[03:23]

Shoji means birth and death or life and death. And Zenki means the whole works, and Gen means manifestation, as in Genjo, Koan, Gen. So the teaching here that's being expressed in this section is the teaching that birth and death are the manifestation of the whole works. Birth and death is the way the Chinese have often translated samsara. Samsara means going round and round. But it means going round and round between birth and death. The Chinese Buddhist use the term birth and death or life and death, those two characters, to mean samsara. So in one sense the teaching is samsara is the manifestation of the whole works.

[04:32]

The whole works, again I point out, has both a standard English meaning and a colloquial meaning. The whole works colloquially means everything. the universe. The whole works in standard English is a sentence which means the whole works. The whole works as samsara, as birth and death, and also birth and death is the entire universe. The entire universe works as birth and death. And birth and death is the entire universe. Birth and death supports the entire universe and the entire universe supports birth and death. That's the basic teaching that's inside this text at this point. Also in the book here I have, which is a set of translations of Dogen called Moon and a Dew Drop, one chapter is called, in this text is called Undivided Activity, Zenkit.

[05:46]

And the text after it is birth and death, shoji. So these texts are right next to each other if you want to consult them in that book, Moon in a Dew Drop. I think that this text is hard partly because Dogen starts out by saying, firewood becomes ash. He starts out by saying what most people would say, yeah, right, firewood becomes ash. And then he says, and does not become firewood again. Again, most people would say, right. So here's just an ordinary conventional statement. Firewood becomes ash. What's he telling us that for? And it does not return to firewood again after it's ash. What? What's going on here?

[06:49]

he's setting up this, getting ready for this kind of shocking teaching. And then he says, Yet, in this translation, do not suppose that firewood is future, excuse me, that ash is future and firewood is past. Do not suppose that firewood is before and ash is after. That's a little surprising. First he says, firewood becomes ash. And then he says, ash does not return to firewood. Now he's saying, but don't think that the firewood's before and the ash is after.

[07:58]

And the reason for not thinking that is because... It's because firewood... abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood. Another way to translate it is firewood abides in its dharma position of being firewood. And it fully includes past and future. But, it doesn't say but in this text, but it's cut off from past and future. It has past and future. It has its own past and future. But it's disconnected from the realms of past and future. Therefore firewood is never before or after.

[09:04]

But it has before and after. And ash also abides in the phenomenal position of ash. And it fully possesses past and future But past and future are cut off. So ash is not before or after. And then he goes on to say, just as ash does not become firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to birth after death. Because of the teaching that life or birth

[10:19]

is the manifestation of the whole works, life is in a position of one time, which includes past and future. And death is in a position of one time, which includes past and future. We do not say that life is before and death is after in a dualistic way. We do say that life has its own before and after and death has its own before and after. The source of this is although fully including past and future, it is independent of past and future. Though it has before and after, past and future are cut off.

[11:26]

This being so, and this following, just as firewood does not return to firewood again after its ash, you do not return to birth after death. The translation here says, this being so, And another translation says, this being the case. Another translation says, thus. But another translation says, however. And however is because now he's going to say, or this being so, he's now going to say, the established way, it is an established way in Buddha Dharma to deny that birth turns into death. Firewood turns into ash and does not return to firewood after its ash. But now we're saying that birth does not turn into death.

[12:42]

But we're also saying birth does not return, just as we just said, you do not return to birth after death. But now, after saying all this, we're saying birth does not turn into death. And the reason birth does not turn into death is because birth is the manifestation of the whole works. and also death does not turn into birth. In other words, after a person dies, the person does not become alive. So he starts off by saying, firewood turns into ash. He doesn't say ash turns into firewood, though. says that doesn't happen.

[13:47]

We don't say that dead person turns into a live person in the Buddha Dharma. But you do say in the world that firewood turns into ash. But in this case you don't say that life turns into death and you don't say that death turns into life. And the reason is that life is the manifestation of the whole works and death is the manifestation of the whole works. And life fully includes past and future and is cut off from past and future. And death fully includes past and future and is cut off from past and future. In this translation it says, independent of past and future. independent in the sense of, of course it depends on past and future because it includes it, but it's free of that realm. It's free of being stuck in the realm of past and future because it fully includes past and future because it's the whole works. So the life and death here are the life and death of

[14:58]

When all dharmas are Buddha dharma, there are life and death. When all dharmas are illuminated by Buddha dharma, we have delusion and enlightenment, practice, birth and death. But this birth and death are illuminated by Buddha's teaching. And when birth is illuminated by Buddha's teaching, it doesn't turn into death. You, living people, will not turn into dead people. You will die without turning into a dead person when you are illuminated by Buddha's teaching. Your life will not become death and your death will not become life. And big parenthesis, The fact that death does not turn into life, the fact that death does not become life, the fact that also firewood does not turn, ash does not turn into firewood, that fact does not negate rebirth.

[16:14]

Close parenthesis. Since life is the manifestation of the whole work, life does not become death. Since death is the manifestation of the whole works, death does not become life. Death is death. Life is life and death is a manifestation of the working of the entire universe. In the chapter called Zenki, or undivided activity, total activity, the whole works, different translations of Zenki, it starts off by saying The way of the Buddhas thoroughly practiced is emancipation and realization.

[17:23]

And realization has two meanings, understanding and bringing into reality. It's being set free and then realizing that freedom with understanding in birth and death, and beyond birth and death, realizing it in nirvana. And by the way, the nickname for nirvana is no birth, no death. Emancipation means that in birth you are emancipated from birth. that in life you are emancipated from life, and in death you are emancipated from death. Being emancipated from life in life is the way of all Buddhas.

[18:30]

Being emancipated from death in death is the way of all Buddhas. In other words, Realizing that life is the manifestation of the whole works is emancipation. Thus there is detachment from birth and death and penetrating birth and death. Such is complete practice of the way. There is letting go of birth and death and vitalizing birth and death. Such is the thorough practice of the Great Way. Realization is birth, realization is life, and birth is realization. At the time of realization there is nothing but birth totally actualized.

[19:33]

Nothing but death totally actualized. Such activity, what activity? In birth, at the time of birth, totally actualizing birth. At the time of realization there is nothing but birth totally actualized. At the time of such activity Birth is holy birth, death is holy death. Actualized just at this moment, this activity is neither large nor small, neither measurable nor immeasurable, neither remote nor urgent. Does that sound familiar?

[20:35]

This place, this way, is neither large nor small. This place, this way, is the place of the activity of realizing birth holy as birth and realizing death holy as death. Birth neither comes nor goes, birth neither appears nor is already existing. Remember that? This place does not exist from before, nor is it merely appearing now. This place, this way, is the place of birth, totally actualized as birth. The place of birth is just birth. The place where birth is just birth. The place where life is just life is the same place where life is the manifestation of the whole works.

[21:41]

And that life does not change into death. And the same for death. And then one more big step is he says, after saying it is an established way in the Buddha Dharma to deny that birth turns into death, accordingly birth is understood as no birth. Birth is understood as no birth. How come? By understanding that birth doesn't change into death. The birth that changes into death, that's birth, according to most people. The birth that does not change into death is called no birth. It is an unshakable teaching

[22:44]

In Buddhist discourse, that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is called no death. The death that does not turn into birth is called death. Excuse me, no death. The death that does turn into birth is called death. And the birth, the life that turns into death, is called life. And seeing life turn into death and death turn into life, or even just seeing life turn into death, if you're not into seeing death turn into life. Because in Asia, people see life turn into death and they see death turning into life in Asia. That's how they understand rebirth, which is not correct. Rebirth exists in the Dharma.

[23:46]

The Buddhist understanding of rebirth is it exists in the place of firewood does not turn into ash, and ash does not return to firewood again. But in other parts of Asia, some people think that life does return, does get returned to from death, and that's their understanding of rebirth. Not here. Okay, once again. It is an unshakable discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no death. No death, no birth, no birth, no death, the deathless, the birthless, that's a nickname for nirvana. Samsara is birth and death. Nirvana is no birth, no death. Samsara is where birth turns into death.

[24:48]

And for some people, death turns into birth. That's samsara. Nirvana is no birth, no death. That's the place where death does not turn into birth, and birth does not turn into death. And the place where birth does not turn into death, the place where life does not turn into death, is where you are right now. You are alive. You are born right now. And this way that you are, wholly being the way you are, alive, is the whole works. And you do not change into anything else. You fully exert the present moment. You find your place right where you are, which is not large or small, which doesn't come or go, which didn't exist before and is not just arising now.

[25:50]

So the place, the way that's talked about in the Genjo Koan is the same place. Later in the Genjo Koan, that place in the later Genjo Koan is the place of firewood and ash and it's the place of birth and death The important point is that you realize the whole works, which just happens to be my name. The other part of my name is attention, which some people translate as naturally real, the whole works. Tenshin Zenki. But another translation of Tenshin would be naive or childlike. Like you say to a child, what's life?

[26:55]

And they say, life? What's death? Death? And at that moment, they're tenshin. They're genuinely saying what they think and that's right. They're just what they are. Raise your hand and ask them what it is, they say it's a hand. And they say it sincerely and genuinely and wholeheartedly. And they don't think there's anything else but the hand. And if you can be like that, and not be tricked into thinking that a hand can turn into something else. That's Ten Shin. When I received that name, the day I received that name, Suzuki Roshi said, Ten Shin means Reb is Reb. People may have a problem with that, but there's nothing to be done about it. Nothing to be done about it means the next part of my name.

[27:56]

It's the whole works. You can't do anything about it. You can't do anything about birth. The whole universe is the manifestation of birth. It's not going to change into something else, and I'm not going to change into somebody else. However, I'm impermanent, and then you're going to get another one. And that's going to be the same. It's not going to change into anything. It's just going to be what it is. And it's going to have... I have a past and a future, but I'm not before or after anything. So just being what you are, with no alternative, having a before and after, and being free of before and after, sitting here meditating, You're not before, you're not after. You're not large, you're not small. You're not measurable, you're not immeasurable.

[29:00]

You're just what you are, and just being what you are, and not anything else, that's the whole works. That's the way the works is holding. That's the way the universe is operating where you are now. And the combination of those two is what we call just sitting, or the meditation practice of the Buddhas. Fully exert your life right now, vitalize your life right now, penetrate your life right now, That's the whole works. And not changing into anything else or going back to anything else. So, any questions about this? Do you have a question now, Eileen? I understand.

[30:06]

It's an impermanent thing, the understanding? Yeah, that's right. You said the present is a bridge between the past and the future. The present is a bridge. Well, thanks for asking the question. I enjoyed talking to you about this section of the text. Yes, Roger? It's a analogy of the paradox between relative and relative truth. You're going between the two, two levels of truth with these adverbs. There are causes and conditions on the one hand, and don't be surprised, in Lakeland, that's a dog, which we consider a relative reality.

[31:15]

And the emptiness of the self-existences. Yeah, I think you could say the first, the beginning, the first sentence is kind of conventional truth or relative truth. Firewood turns into ash but does not return to firewood again after it's ash. That's kind of conventional. And it's dualistic. And then he moves into a more non-dual. So I think you could say, yeah, that there's a relative truth and ultimate truth dance here in this paragraph. How would you say consider the arising and passing away of mind-moments as a birthing, indebting, or sensations, thoughts, feelings? Is there birth and death in life in that respect?

[32:21]

Is there birth and death in life in that respect? Yeah, every moment is a birth. Every moment is a birth, yes. And then there's a death. I say, and then there's a death. Oh, and one other thing is we don't, it says here, I'll let that go for now and stay with you. So yeah, every moment there's a birth. Every moment there's a life, and that's an impermanent thing, so then there's a death. That person dies. Is there a place in this context here that would be similar to that notion of the arising and passing away in this text? Yeah, you can connect what we're just talking about right now to the thing about the boat. So if you pay close attention to the boat, you'll see the boat's moving.

[33:27]

So if you pay close attention to yourself, you'll see the self's moving. You'll see that it's born and then it dies. So you'll see that the self is not permanent. because it is being born, and it's being born every moment, and because its birth is the whole works, it's only going to be for a very short time because it depends on everything else but itself. So it fleetingly is born, and then it fleetingly dies. It doesn't die for a long time, it just dies for a moment, for one time. as you see the birth and death of the self, you're seeing that there's no abiding self. So that connects to other parts of the text. But this part of the text is emphasizing

[34:30]

that, and this is very important to connect to the other part, is that the person who's born now doesn't turn into the person who's dying. There's not a connection between the two. The person who's born, or the boat that's right now, has a previous position and a future position in the water. And the person, the living person, has a past and a future. But by the way, by the causes and conditions that makes the person right now, the person is not, this creation of the universe is not before or after. It's cut off from that, even though it has before and after. There's no self now, and this no self now doesn't carry over. So it's ungraspable now and impermanent. The key to realizing this is to feel and meditate on how everything's converging for you to be totally alive right now.

[35:40]

And how that's your life. The Chinese character for life and the Chinese character for birth, or this character that's used here means birth and life. So your life is also a birth. And you're born because of conditions. Life is because of conditions. And you're just life at that moment of life. And it's impermanent, ungraspable. And impermanent means it doesn't carry over into the future and it hasn't carried over from the past. It has a past and future but there's no carryover. It's not an abiding person, an abiding life, abiding self. The person, the self, the life, these things appear. They are the whole works. They don't carry over. We have to penetrate that. We have to settle into that. We have to settle. We have to have a great settled presence with this place.

[36:46]

And then we'll see the teaching that this place doesn't carry over and hasn't been carried over. And this will be emancipation. Yes, I can see that I'm not the same person that I was when I was being in my room. I can't hear you. I'm not the same person. I let Roger, I got out of habit, let Roger stay back there. Come up here, please. Any other questions? I can see I'm not the same person now as I was when I was cleaning my room, and I'll be a different person when I'm having my lunch, God willing, if I get that far. Yes. But I have difficulty seeing that I'm a different person now from two seconds ago, which I think you're saying.

[37:58]

Pardon? Is this what we're saying, that every... You said you'd have a difficulty seeing that you're a different person from two seconds ago. That's a good point. This is not a matter so much of you seeing this. This is a matter of realizing. And realization is not something that's going to appear to you. Now, it may appear to you, sort of like, okay, I see myself earlier today, or at least when I was six years old, I see that's different. And maybe after a full meal I'll be significantly different so I can see that. Okay? But that view you have right now of yourself in the future, okay, that's all that is. And you can see that. But the realization... that right now you're what you are, is not before and after.

[38:59]

And it's not your view of how you're different from where you used to be. You're a person who can have such views, but that's not the realization. That's just an idea of, oh, I used to be different. The key is whether you can see that you used to be different or not, and therefore that person's gone. The key is that you don't think that that person turned into this person. So whether it's a minute ago, a second ago, or two years ago that you sort of look at your past and see somebody, if you think that person turned into you, then you haven't fully exerted your present person. By realizing the fullness of this present person, you will see that you did not change into this person from the last person or any of those last people. They didn't turn into you.

[40:02]

And you're not going to turn into the person after lunch. If you think you turn into the person later or came from the person before, then you'd see your life as life which is life of life and death. If you understand right now that this person did not get carried over from the past and is not going to be carried over to the future, and you don't have time to get into that, even though there are such things as past and future, you're just totally exerting the present, which includes past and future, then you'll see this doesn't carry over. There's no carryover of this. You will see that. You don't have to have a picture of yourself from before, but you could have a picture of yourself. When you have a picture of yourself from before, that's part of your current life. Fully exerting that, totally being that, you can see that that can't carry over. And when you see that you do not carry over to lunchtime, and when I see that I do not carry over for lunchtime, and when I can see that breakfast doesn't carry over to now, when I see that because, you know, not because I don't see some memory of breakfast or some image of future,

[41:12]

But because I feel that this is a full exertion of life right now, then I see that there's no carryover from the past or into the future. And then I realize that life is no life. And realizing life is no life is half of nirvana. And realizing that death does not carry over from life or into death again. That life doesn't turn into death, so in death there's no carryover. Thus there's no carryover from death into life, realizing that, which is hard now, because we're not dead. That's no death. That's nirvana. Another way to put it is, seeking is birth. Grasping is death. No seeking is what?

[42:13]

What? No birth. No grasping is... So right now, this person, if there's any seeking, then it's birth. If there's no seeking in this life right now, it's no birth. And no seeking means not in... I'm sorry I just can't be into what I'm going to become because I'm kind of busy here. I'm totally engaged in this life. And this total engagement can't carry over. It's going to totally, totally what? Express its state. And included in that state is wonderful images of past and future which you can see or not see. That's part of what you are as somebody who can do that the way you do it.

[43:16]

And you can only do it the way you do it. And you fully exert that. And that full exertion, that whole works of you is the practice. And that practice realizes verifies and understands that there's no carryover of this to lunch. And realizes no seeking. There's no seeking in that. And no seeking in that, there's no birth. That's no birth. It's life now realizes no birth. Life realizes nirvana, which is emancipation. But if we don't take care of this moment wholly and take our dharma position, which has a past and future, but is cut off from past and future. You have a past and future, but you're not concerned with past and future. In other words, you're not seeking or holding on. If we can realize that presence, that place, which we've heard about before, that's nirvana, that's freedom.

[44:22]

You look like you understand. The first three words, yes. Most of these tapes are not worthwhile, but this one is. What I said there is good stuff to listen to. It's very hard to understand. It's so strange to hear talk from Nirvana. This is a message to you from Nirvana. This is a message to you from the land of no birth and no death about how to realize it through completely, exhaustively being in birth. Completely, right now. with past and future, fully included and cut off. And being grateful to how you're the whole works.

[45:33]

And so am I. Any... Let's see. Okay. Claire. Okay. I have some wonderful miscellaneous notes here. Just a point of clarification. You then just said that we could be just birth. Surely it's just birth, just life, just death. It's a whole thing. You heard me say you can be just birth? Not be. You are. Or when you're alive, you are a living person. And if you penetrate and fully accept and fully engage the life you are right now, that's the whole works. And because it's the whole works, it does not carry over into the future.

[46:37]

And it's no birth, no death, no life, because all those are fluid. That particular thing is, the life which you're living, which is illuminated by Buddha's teaching, is the life you're living where you actually fully live this life. With the aid of Buddha's teachings, you're actually giving full attention to your current experience. And you're also giving full... attention to your experience, understand the teaching that your life is a manifestation of the whole works. Which is birth and death. Which is birth and death, but in this case, your life is a manifestation of the whole works. You're not dead now. But if we're talking about birth and death, birth and death... In that moment. This is good. When you're alive you're not dead, you're just alive. But there's this phenomena called birth and death, which is going around and around in birth and death.

[47:44]

Now while you're alive, or while we're alive, and we don't realize that our life is the manifestation of the whole works, then we think that we're in samsara. Because samsara is life going over into death. So not understanding that your life right now is the whole works opens the door to think that you're going from birth to death. But you're not going from birth to death. Going from birth to death, if it were true, then we'd just have to stay in samsara forever. But we don't have to stay in samsara. We can vitalize samsara and liberate samsara, but we don't have to stay in there. We can visit So right now, it's true that samsara is manifestation of the whole works. It's true that birth and death are the manifestation of the whole works.

[48:47]

Or rather, I won't say it's true, I will say, we say that. It is said. We talk like that. We tell people that samsara, that birth and death, is the manifestation of the whole works. And the manifestation of the whole works is liberation. Realizing that is liberation. So once again, looking at your life right now, if you see your life as the manifestation, if you understand your life as the manifestation of the whole works, at that time, you're not in birth and death. You're just in birth. And you're not in the birth that carries over into death. The birth that carries over into death is a samsaric birth. Life that goes into death, that changes into death, that's the view from samsara. Life into death, and maybe that's the end of it, if there's no rebirth. But it turns out that that view is the view of life turns into death and death turns into life.

[49:56]

That's the view of samsara. Whereas if you see life so completely made right now, if you meditate on that and think about this and meditate on this with your energy down low, so you don't get too heady about it, when you realize this, you realize that There isn't samsara now. There isn't birth and death. There's no birth and no death. So you can't actually go at samsara directly in one piece because you're not in birth and death. You're not on both sides. So you take the side you're on now called life, you fully exert that, or let yourself be fully exerted as life, and then you realize, oh God, this doesn't carry over. When you realize it doesn't carry over, you realize no birth.

[50:57]

So you're focusing on life or birth because that's where the energy is? That's where you are. That's where I am. And you're paying attention to your life right now and also you're letting your life be illuminated by Buddha's teachings. And Buddha's teachings don't say that there's no life. They say we can have Buddha's teaching and have no life. We can also have Buddha's teaching and have no life. So, for example, you can have Buddhist teaching and have life, and then you can have Buddhist teaching and have no abiding self, and when there's no abiding self in life, you don't have life. But we don't get stuck in emptiness of life, where there's no life, or we can't find life. We leap beyond that and then we have life again, and then we study life. and studying life, we also now receive the illumination of Buddhist teaching which says, yes, please do. Please learn about life.

[52:01]

And don't get distracted. Just always be looking at life. And again, you can look at the scenery around yourself, but also look and see what you're up to. And you will see that there's no self-doubt. But also you will see When you see there's no self there, you will see there's nothing to carry over. And when you see there's nothing to carry over, you won't seek anything. When you don't seek anything, you have realized no birth. When you realize no birth, you've entered nirvana from the birth side. And when you're dead, your practice can realize that death doesn't carry over to birth. You have to be thorough about this so it sinks in.

[53:10]

You can sit here. Good morning. So in samsaric life, Life is therefore conditioned by birth. It is the cause. It is the effect of the cause of birth. Kind of like that. You wouldn't have to go that far, but you're sort of leaning on that side. So you say life is caused by death. Or you're saying death is... Death by birth. Life is caused by birth. You say life is caused by birth, but also birth and life are synonyms. One and the same. Yeah, they're synonyms, birth and life. What I was going to go from there was that enlightened life is not conditioned by birth, because it's irrespective of what happened.

[54:19]

It is not denied that there is birth, but it is not conditioned by such. which is how we have no birth, is not conditioned by birth. It is not the effect of the cause, no, it is not the cause of the effect of birth. Definitely perhaps. Enlightened life, you could say enlightened life is when all things come forth. and confirm the self, or when all things come forth and confirm themselves.

[55:25]

That's enlightened life. To say that that's not conditioned, I would say there's no conditions outside these innumerable conditions. When all the conditions come forward and realize themselves, that's enlightened life. When there's the idea that there's a self that goes forward to all these things and realizes them, that's deluded life. You could say deluded life is conditioned by past delusions, and you could say enlightened life is conditioned by not being able to find the perspective of delusion anymore, because all there is is the coming forth of all things. So when death comes forth, or excuse me, when life comes forth and realizes you, that's enlightened life. But all things coming forth to realize you, in other words, you being the manifestation of the whole works, that doesn't carry over.

[56:39]

When you realize, when the way it is for you, that all things are coming forth to realize you, when that's how it is for you, that's no birth. That's no birth. When you see how you're born in the advent of all things, that's called no birth. Because when you see yourself born in the advent of all things, you don't think you're going to carry it over. But when you don't see yourself born in the advent of all things, you think you do carry over, because you were already there before anything happened anyway. You got carried over from the past, you can get carried over in the future. But when you are there to realize that all things are making you, then you realize that this life, this birth, this wonderful birth, is the whole works, is the whole working as this birth. That's not birth. And that's called no birth. That view of birth is called no birth.

[57:42]

But the view of birth where you think, I got carried over from the past, and now I'm here, and I'll probably get carried over in the future, that view of birth is called birth. That's the birth of samsara, birth and death of samsara. So samsara, well, yeah. You could say that samsara is conditioned by that birth. Yeah, by that type of birth, by that view of birth. That view of birth is what keeps samsara going. The new... Yeah, that view of birth is what keeps... That's one way to see the view that keeps samsara going. Thank you. Thank you. My brain hurts. I feel like I'm some kind of... Bring the energy down here. Get out of your brain. Get out of your brain.

[58:43]

Take your brain, put it over there. Just be down here. Forget about the brain. It's all I've got. He said it's all he's got. Of course not, of course not. I'm trying to, unlike one of those black holes out in space, I'm trying to kind of take everything in and compress it down. You are taking everything in and compressing it down. I mean, that's what you are. You're the taking in. You're not doing it. See, I'm taking everything in and compressing it down. That's delusion. But that everything's being taken in and being compressed down to you, that's enlightenment. Actually, you are like a black hole, except that you're not there before everything goes in. You're not making it easy. So, you know, the universe is making you.

[59:45]

The universe is making you, so you are the taking in of all the things that make you, in a sense, but you're not there before these things come. Okay. So, if I... I don't want to use the word my. If I find my place, let me use the word my. You can say my, yeah. If you find your place right where you are, you are here actually. Yeah. And if you find your place where you are, that would be good. The fundamental point will be understood. And I settle myself upon myself. You already did that when you found your place. Settling yourself on yourself is the same as find your place right where you are. It's the same thing.

[60:46]

And this place and this subtle self in this place does not carry over from the past and doesn't go over in the future. Right. And I search for the self. When you're there, you can do whatever you want. Searching for the self. You can search for the self, yeah. Finding the self. You won't find the self if you search. And losing the self. Yeah, if you search for the self, you'll lose it. If you don't look for it, you might think, I know where it is. It's in the closet there. And if I went and looked, it would be there waiting for me. But if you actually go look, it's not there. If you actually look, you won't find it. And the place to look is right here. And until that moment... Yeah? Until you don't find yourself? Yeah. Yeah? Then this moment of co-creation takes place with me and... No, not with me.

[61:51]

The rest of the universe. No, not the rest of the universe. You are the manifestation of the whole universe. It's not the rest of the universe. See, it's not you and the rest of the universe. It's the universe as you. It's not you and the universe. That's what we think. We think the universe plus me. Me and the rest of the universe. There's no rest of the universe. There isn't anything to you in addition to the universe. Not the slightest bit. You're a full-fledged life. Like everything. You're whatever you want to say. Anyway, you can say whatever you want. Anyway, you are what you are, of course. Yeah. But you're nothing in addition to the universe. But we think so. And that thinking that we're something in addition to the universe is the definition of delusion. But when you see the universe... and that there's nothing in addition to it, and yet you're there too.

[62:57]

That's enlightenment. But you have to usually forget that you're something in addition to the universe before you can see that you're not. So first, find your place, and then see how your place is the exertion of the whole universe, and see how you think still, I think it's me and the full exertion of the universe, until that separation is worn away and you forget the self. And then you realize why we say that birth doesn't become death. And how in the world they say birth does become death. that life does become death, and that's the world of samsara, of bondage, where life turns into death and firewood turns into ash. In the Buddhadharma, you do not turn into anything. This is it. And now, here we are again. And here we are again. The universe is accomplishing you, moment after moment.

[63:59]

And to witness that is enlightenment. It isn't just that's the case, it's that you witness it and that it witnesses you and that you're nothing in addition to that. And with delusion, the world or the universe is empty and meaningless? No, not necessarily. You could be in a diluted position called, here I am, I'm Michael High, and I'm sitting here, and I'm practicing the Buddha way with you people, and I'm going to have lunch with you later. And I find that quite nice. And I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that. It's a diluted perspective. But it's not... It doesn't have to be meaningless. And there's my grandson, right? I love him. I'm going to go interact with him. That's a deluded perspective.

[65:02]

But the other perspective is, here comes my grandson. Here comes the grandson. Wow. Oh. Oh, my God. Life. That's the other perspective. But you had to forget something in order to have that experience. You had to forget, I'm here already and here he comes. Uh-oh. Rather than here he comes, this is life. My life. We can call it my life. But I wasn't here before he arrived. I was born together with him. Together. I'm born together with all of you. I'm born together with all of you. I'm not here beforehand and you're not here before either. We're born together. But I have to forget the thing that's born before, before I can witness the thing that's born together. And the way you forget it is

[66:07]

Come to the place where you think that somebody is born before and fully study that, and you'll find out that you can't find the one who was born before. And then you realize the one that's born in the advent of all things, or you realize the one who is the manifestation of the whole works. And then that one doesn't carry over. You don't get to have that one for very long. That's an impermanent one. You don't get to have your realization. That's the way realization is. You do get to have samsara, though. You do get to have cyclic misery. You can have that. Because by definition, that can be had. That's the realm of where you get to have stuff and where stuff carries over. You know, where you're never going to really lose anything. Because you never look for anything thoroughly. There's still a black hole. Okay, so I wanted to mention a couple other things.

[67:10]

One is that, let's see, time is getting short in a way. Someone asked about, is there a... Is there a simple metta practice as a form that carries the spirit of our wonderful bodhisattva tradition? Someone ask me that? Is that clear? Yeah. So the Metta Sutta, which is, supposedly Buddha said this, so the Metta Sutta is a teaching of Metta, which is totally in accord with the Bodhisattva spirit. Okay? And I have a copy of it here and I will read it to you. This is Loving Kindness, which is in accord with the Bodhisattva Spirit, in my view.

[68:14]

This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness. This is what should be done by one who is wise and who narrows the path of peace. Let them be able and upright straightforward and gentle in speech, humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied, undisturbed with duties and frugal in their ways, peaceful, calm, wise and skillful, not proud and demanding in nature. Let them do nothing, let them not do the slightest thing that the wise will reprove, Wishing in goodness and in safety may all beings be at ease, whatever living being there may be, whether weak or strong, omitting none, great or mighty, medium, short, or small.

[69:23]

The Seen and the Unseen Those living near and far away, those born and to be born, may all beings be at ease, may all beings be at happy, may all beings be buoyant and free of suffering and anxiety. Let men deceive another, nor despise any being in any state. Let men, through anger or ill will, wish harm to another. Even as a mother protects her child, protects with her life her child, her only child. So with a boundless heart, one should cherish all living beings, radiating kindness over the entire world, spreading upwards to the sky and downwards to the depths. Outwards and unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will, whether standing or walking, sitting or lying down, free from drowsiness, one should sustain this recollection.

[70:33]

This is said to be the sublime abiding By not holding fixed views, the pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision, being freed from all sense desires, is not born again into this world. The last line is the non-Bodhisattva part. But up to the last line, it's totally in accord with the Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva would agree with that right to the last line, but Bodhisattva might say, if you need me, I'll come back. I won't carry over But there will be rebirth. Another one of us will come to visit you. But it won't be me carrying over. So how many people want a copy of this? About 20 maybe. Maybe you can make... So Jim's willing to make copies for you if you'd like a copy of this. Now, that's the meta-practice of the early tradition is totally in accord except for that last point about no rebirth.

[71:40]

But I would say also that it's not really that far out of accord because it says one who is freed from all sense desires is not born again in this world. I would say that another way to interpret that is one who is free of sense desires will not be born again in this world due to obsession and compulsion. You won't be forcibly by predispositions born in this world. And I'd say bodhisattvas, if they didn't want to, they wouldn't have to. They are born because they want to be born in this world. They want to come in samsara and enliven it, penetrate it, and liberate it. But if you have this attainment of this loving-kindness meditation speaking of, you wouldn't be reborn by compulsion and obsession. You would be reborn by compassion.

[72:45]

And the compassion part is the part that the bodhisattvas really go to town on. And their compassion meditations are the ones which you don't find so much in the early Buddhist texts. I mean, you find it. And the way you find it in the early Buddhist texts, where do you find it? Tell me. Go ahead. Don't be shy. Or be shy and tell me anyway. Yes? Yeah. You find it in the Buddha. Look at the Buddha. There you see compassion. It's just oozing over all these people who are not maybe so interested in compassion. But they eventually will be. The Buddha is showing compassion, but he doesn't say it as much as in the later tradition. But he does say loving kindness here. And in the Visuddhimagga, The Path to Purification by Buddha Gosha, there's a big section on loving-kindness meditations. And I just want to point out also that at the beginning of the loving-kindness meditation, he points out the importance of the practice of patience.

[73:58]

So patience is also the ground for loving-kindness. If you're not practicing patience, It's pretty hard to practice loving-kindness, so they actually go together. So being mindful of loving-kindness all the time, no problem for bodhisattvas. They're totally committed to that. Great loving-kindness, great compassion, great sympathetic joy, great equanimity. They practice those same four practices that the Buddha taught. But the big one for bodhisattvas, the super big one, is the second one, compassion. That's the most important to the bodhisattvas. The others are wonderful practices, but compassion is the, I don't know what to say, it's the big one. It's the most wonderful. The Chinese character for metta,

[75:02]

The character they use to translate metta, or loving-kindness, means love, or, you know, kindness. The Chinese character they use to translate compassion means love, kindness, but also means pain, or pity, or sorrow. Compassion has pain in it. Loving-kindness doesn't necessarily. You can just look at somebody like, you know, your grandchildren, look at them and you just feel, you just want them to be happy and you're happy to want them to be happy and sometimes they're not in any pain and they are happy and you're happy that they're happy. And all you see is happiness and you want more of it for them. That's a great thing. Compassion is different. Compassion is when you look at somebody and you see them suffering and you love them and you feel a pain. As the Dalai Lama said, the etymology of the word for compassion, karuna, means dented happiness.

[76:12]

It's a happiness with a sword stuck in it or a burr stuck in it. It's a happiness that has pain in it, or you can put it to say it's a pain. Happiness is a pain which comes with the supreme happiness. The greatest happiness is the happiness that you feel when you feel pain because you love something. That is the happiness which fuels the bodhisattvas. And they have no problem going into pain because they're already feeling it. And they're happy to feel the pain because it's a pain because they love. Worldly happiness is not bad either, and we should hope it for people. But worldly happiness comes from getting something that you like, or people being nice to you, and getting happy about that.

[77:18]

Pleasure is not the same as being happy. But being happy when you're in pleasure, that's worldly happiness. The bodhisattva's happiness is the happiness. The great bodhisattvas can have worldly happiness too, but they have this special happiness called the happiness of compassion, the happiness from love. So we should think about loving-kindness as much as possible. But also remember Avalokiteshvara, who is so happy and so cool, and so relaxed, and listening to the suffering of the world, hearing the cries of the world, feeling the pain of the world, and so happy. So happy. And because she's so happy, okay, it's easy to be devoted then. And according to this clock, it's time to stop. May I say a little bit more?

[78:20]

Thank you. Say it, Tierney. Thank you for taking care of everything. Smooth swimming. I thought this was a good note, too, from Josh about something like In tomorrow's talk, if you have time, please could you explain how it is that in the Bodhisattva Precept Ceremony the participants agreed to keep the precepts even after attaining Buddhahood. This confuses me. Why would one want to limit in advance the field of activity one might enter into for the benefit of all beings after attaining Buddhahood. You hear that? In one early scripture, I think it's the middle-length sayings, number four, called Fear and Dread, at the end of the scripture the Buddha was questioned by somebody about a practice he did of going out in the forest, the dangerous, scary forest, where he'd go out and meditate

[79:43]

And then the Buddha said, you might think that because I still go out in the forest to meditate, I'm probably not liberated because, you know, why would I have to go out in the forest and meditate if I'm Buddha? He said, the reason I do that is to have two reasons. One reason is because I like to. And the other reason is for later generations. So the Buddha, and the Buddha said this also, the Buddha said, I don't need these precepts, they're for you. I don't need them. But I like them. I love them. I love to practice the precepts. It's my favorite thing. And I love to do them with you. So you can watch me and see how much I love them. And maybe you'll start loving them too. You can't practice these precepts. I'm doing them. Buddha loves to practice the precepts. And so that point is to let you know that after you're Buddha and you don't need him anymore, just remember to commit to do it beforehand just so you wouldn't think not to miss out.

[80:55]

And the other thing is to show an example. And the Buddha's not limited by limitation. No problem. Chain Buddha up, you know. Chain me up. Let me show you what I do when I get chained up. You know, bury me in precepts. Watch what I do. I love it. I love it. Come on. Get the picture? When you're not limited, you can be limited. And then people can see, you know, like, the precept says, you know, there's a precept maybe that says, don't talk to Josh during retreats, or something like that, you know, or don't be in a room alone with Josh, you know. But then Josh is in a room and needs my help, so that precept, you know, is going to limit my helping Josh, right? That's what you're talking about, right? But I say, hey, Josh, I can't come in the room. I'm limited by the rules of this place.

[81:57]

And so I would handle the limitations in a perceptual way. For the Buddha, there's no problem. And the Buddha did say both, I continue these practices and I don't have to. If I had to, I wouldn't be liberated. You wouldn't be liberated if you had to. But he doesn't have to. It's his nature... to want to set an example, and it's his nature to enjoy being ethical. It's like, for them, it's actually more fun to be ethical than to be unethical. Can you believe that? Like somebody says, why is it that everything that we like to do is bad for us? Why is it that everything that tastes good is poisonous? That's the way some people feel. But through mindfulness, you get to a place where you start not liking poison anymore and start liking good food. And where you stop liking ridiculing people and start enjoying more resisting the impulse to ridicule people.

[83:07]

You think, ridiculing them would be fun, but not ridiculing them, that would be like super cool. That would be like, wow, that would be like sanity. Mmm, sanity, lovely. Does that make sense? You okay now? You happy? I just wanted to know. You're okay anyway, right? I just want to know if you're still, if you've become okay again. I almost said if you continued to... And so this morning there's not a lot of opportunities for you to interact with me and I'm sorry. But the lady who is sitting next to Josh and Devin and Chris named Linda, she left and she asked me to sing a song even though she doesn't get to hear it.

[84:09]

But she won't remember that she asked me anyway, right? No problem. So here's a song she wanted me to sing, which I sang to you before. Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think. Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink. The years roll by as quickly as a wink. Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think. But I, of course, changed the words. Express yourself, it's later than you think. Express yourself while you're still in the pink. Express yourself, express yourself, it's later. The years roll by as quickly as a week. Express yourself, express yourself, it's later than you think. So I think I took care of all these little notes. So I guess you should stop now.

[85:18]

Is that okay if we stop? I wanted to ask a quick service announcement at the end. Sure. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. All Buddhas tend directions three times. All honored ones, bodhisattva, mahasattvas, wisdom beyond wisdom, maha, prajna, paramita. Public service announcement. Devon. Do you feel that I appreciate you? Yes.

[86:41]

Do you feel that I appreciate you? Yes. Good. I know we appreciate you. I know you do. I really feel it, but I want to know if it goes back to you. I would hate that you don't feel as appreciated as I. I hope that you feel from me what I am so grateful for from you. because I really feel you really wholeheartedly met me. And I thank you so much. But I want to know, do you feel that I appreciated you? Enough. Also, is it all right if people take these texts with them? Yes. I'd be happy to keep them here, but then you have to store them someplace. And I think with the metasuta, if I do copies, I'll place them on the table by the main entrance as they leave, so they can pick up from there.

[87:49]

Great. The preset sheet will, if you don't want that, please pile it back. Yeah, maybe pile anything you don't want at the back. Take what you want and...

[88:03]

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