this sutra about the bodhisattva's samadhi. Being very early in the emergence of the teaching of the meditation practice of the bodhisattva is still well, always will be very closely connected to the earlier strata or the earlier phases of Buddhism, the earlier way. And in the early days of the Buddhist practice, you could maybe say that there developed what might be called a psychological liberation. a liberation of the psyche of a person.

[01:08]

Or you might also call it a conceivable liberation. And there's inconceivable benefits of conceivable liberation. This sutra is starting to emerge from a pattern of teachings about conceivable liberation and conceivable samadhis into a dimension of inconceivable samadhis, conceivable liberation, a liberation which isn't just psychological, which is a liberation which is oceanic, environmental, a kind of metaphysical liberation beyond beyond all limits. So it's wonderful to read the sutra because it's, as I mentioned before, it's like it's before these other magnificent scriptures of incarnation which we're more familiar with, like the Vimalakirti Sutra.

[02:25]

And one of the subtitles of the Vimalakirti Sutra is the Sutra of Inconceivable Liberation. And the Avatamsaka Sutra is actually called the Achintya Sutra or Achintya Vimoksha Sutra, which means the Sutra of Inconceivable Liberation. And the Lotus Sutra is also a Sutra of Inconceivable Liberation. Although it discusses that using techniques of conceivable liberation or psychological liberation are part of the pattern of the inconceivable liberation. In the teaching that we chant at noon, we hear about the amazing things that happen in the self-receiving and employing samadhi of the bodhisattva.

[03:31]

How there's an enlightenment that resonates all over the place and resonates and we start resonating with it and then it resonates off us back to the environment and then it resonates with the environment back to us. So we receive this enlightenment in the samadhi and we resonate with it and we send this enlightenment and it bounces back to us. So we're enlightened and enlightening in the samadhi. We're being turned by the Dharma and in being turned by the Dharma, the Dharma is turned by us. This, by the way, doesn't appear within conceptual or psychological perception. You don't see this with your usual superficial conceptual consciousness.

[04:36]

And for me it's happy news, the findings of modern day neuroscience and so on, that 95% of what's going on in our mind and our brain is unconscious. It's called the conceptual unconscious. So this sutra is like for your whole brain rather than just for the top 5%. Of course the top 5% says, what about me? I don't get this. And I feel that Sutra also is really at the root particularly of Soto Zen. So one of our key stories in this particular lineage

[05:46]

is the story of this fairly young monk named Dung Shan. We call him Dung Shan, but he wasn't yet Dung Shan because Dung Shan is the name of the monk. After he started teaching, when his regular monk's name is Liang Jie, which means good servant, or excuse me for saying so, good slave. Because I'm very happy. I feel like I'm a Shurangama Samadhi slave now. I feel like the Samadhi has taken over and I'm just totally a servant to this Samadhi. It's a nice slave. It's like a slave of love. And Liangzhe's name was also Good Servant. good servant of, I would say, now, this samadhi.

[06:53]

So he, when he was, like I say, fairly young probably, he was traveling around enjoying meeting them and they were enjoying meeting him. And he went to see one of the really wonderful teachers in the history of Zen named Guishan. And he met Guishman and he said, I've heard of this teaching of the national teacher, national teacher Jung, national teacher Jung. This teacher was, national teacher means he invites you to come to the capital and be the emperor's teacher. So he accepted this. He was a disciple of the sixth ancestor. So this young monk named Good Servant, Liang Jie, heard about the national teacher's teaching of insentient beings, of non-living beings, expounding the Buddha Dharma.

[08:13]

He heard about it. He didn't understand it. It seemed inconceivable to him. So he asked Guishan if he could ask him about this teaching. And Guishan said, yeah, we have that here too. Go ahead. Do you remember the story? And Liangjie said, yes. He said, well, recite it. And so the young monk said, oh, as I remember it, it goes like, a monk asked the national teacher, Jung, Nanyang Hui Jung, what is the, what kind of a thing is the mind of the ancient? And the national teacher, Jung, said, walls and tile rubble. You get the picture of a wall, you know, and they have, like this wall we have out here around the tea house, except it has wood tiles on top, wood shingles on top.

[09:31]

They would usually have ceramic tiles on top of a wall to protect it from the rain, right? But the tiles fall off, and turn into rubble. So around the wall you have the wall, plus also not just a nice wall, but the tiles which have fallen off onto the ground. So that's the mind, that's the kind of thing the mind of the ancient Buddhists is. It's like that kind of thing. You can go on from there. So the monks said, well, walls Do these things teach the Dharma? Do these expound the Dharma, the walls and the broken tiles? Because the ancient Buddha... So do they expound the Dharma? And the National Teacher said, incessantly, incandescently, and unceasingly,

[10:38]

And the monk said, well, why can't I hear them? The national teacher said, although you may not hear them, you don't hinder that which does hear them. I've been sentient beings. Yes? Now or should I finish the story? Don't forget your question, okay? Then the monk says, well, who does hear it?

[11:46]

And the national teacher says, the sages, the saints hear it. Now, those are the people in early Buddhism They can hear it. They have a psychological liberation. They can hear the Dharma coming from all over the place. These people are high-quality sages. And then the monk says to the national teacher of China, Do you hear it, teacher? And the national teacher says, No, I do not. The monk says, well, if you don't hear it, how do you know that insentient beings expound the Dharma, like you say?

[12:55]

And the national teacher says, fortunately, I do not hear. than teaching the Dharma. Because if I did, you would not be able to hear me expounding the Dharma. And then this monk says, well then ordinary humans would have no share in this. And the National Teacher said, I teach for ordinary humans, not for sages. The monk says, well, what happens to ordinary people after they hear this dharma? And the national teacher says, they're not ordinary humans anymore. That's the story.

[14:00]

This is the story of inconceivable samadhi at the root of Soto Zen. coming right out of this sutra. Now, this story goes on a little bit further. It actually goes on right up to this moment. The monk then says something like, excuse me teacher, what sutra teaches this? And then the teacher says something like, well, it's certainly, of course it wouldn't be something that wasn't in the sutras, would it? Haven't you heard in the Avatamsaka Sutra where it says, and he quotes the sutra, the earth expounds the dharma, all sentient beings expound the dharma, the entire universe expounds the dharma.

[15:02]

A funny thing about Zen is that it's supposed to be a special transmission outside the scriptures, and yet it should never be in conflict with the scriptures. We don't depend on the scriptures. We don't dwell in the scriptures. And when I say Zen, I also mean the Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva way is a way that doesn't depend on, is outside or free of the scriptures, but also totally interdependent with everything, including the scriptures. So here, this Zen monk, what scripture does this come from? And he says, And he could quote probably other scriptures too it came from, like this one.

[16:09]

But although it comes from that, it has to go beyond it and be transmitted to living beings. So at the beginning of the session I offer the basic practice. The basic practice is let go of discursive thought. Let go of conceptual thought. Let go of grasping and seeking. Because grasping and seeking happens at this little surface level that dominates our life. Grasping and seeking So the initiation into this inconceivable samadhi is to give up conceptual grasping and seeking. If you can give up grasping concepts and seeking concepts, in that renunciation you open to this realm of the inconceivable.

[17:25]

So it's hard, though, because, you know, you hear about, well, all the Buddhas are practicing together with each one of you. And in this samadhi, you're going to be faced never apart from being face-to-face with the Buddhas. And sitting, you're manifesting a body in the presence of all the Buddhas. Give up that kind of stuff. Doesn't mean don't think those thoughts. Like, well, I don't get this. What's happening? What about me? What about humans? Blah, blah, blah. It doesn't mean that kind of noise isn't going on. It just means relax. You can have as many arguments as you want with this teaching. No problem. Because once you enter the samadhi, there's going to be a lot more arguments than you've ever heard of. The nice thing about this samadhi is that you can enter into arguments with all these different people. all these different beings from all these different realms and not get tired and have a good time, have a ball arguing about Dharma with people who are at all kinds of different, coming from all different directions.

[18:38]

Okay, now you want to know how to verify this? Huh? You first, you verify it by not seeking to verify it. And then when you are no longer seeking to verify it, then come and show me this non-seeking person and see if you can come and see me without seeking to come and see me. And if you can't, don't come. But when you can come without seeking me and you think, hey, I arrived, I got all the way up to meet you face to face, and I didn't seek one step of the way. I just heroically marched up here. It wasn't even me, it was just Samadhi came to meet you. There's nobody here. There's no seeking, there's no grasping. Okay? But if you think there's some seeking and grasping, you're probably right, so go away. But when there isn't anymore, when you feel like no seeking, no grasping, and yet here I am, hi, then see what I say.

[19:42]

And in our meeting, we'll verify whether you have entered the Samadhi. And if you have, well then we will like burrow into the earth together. Gophers. And you'll be amazed. You'll be astonished by this gopher activity. My God, these are golden gophers down here. Also, I wanted to mention something before. In one of the aspects of this samadhi is that... I think you probably remember, it was aspect 27, wasn't it? Aspect 37 is that in this samadhi, the samadhi is unfathomable to the adepts, to the sages of the two vehicles.

[20:51]

So Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas who have enlightenment and liberation, they cannot fathom the samadhi because the samadhi is inconceivable. They can't find the samadhi and they can't find anybody who's practicing in the samadhi. They can't find it. So it sounds kind of like they can't figure out what we're doing, but it is kind of like that. And many of these points that are raised here are examples of what it's like in this inconceivable realm of this samadhi, of this samadhi. receiving and employing the Self Samadhi in that realm. It's not the realm of I'm here and there's the Samadhi.

[21:54]

It's the realm of here comes the Samadhi and then there's me. Find me until the Samadhi arrives. And we may come back to this story later because the little servant, the good servant of the Dharma, after he recited this story to the teacher, Guishan, Guishan had a whisk, one of those horsehair whisks. He had a whisk and he raised his whisk. Dung Shan said, what does this story mean? He raised his whisk. He said, do you understand? And the young monk said, no, please tell me more.

[22:54]

And this mouth, born of my mother and father, won't tell you any more about this. But you know, there's somebody I think you might want to go visit. So he lives over in this area that has Stone Grotto, and his name is Stone Grotto. His name is Cloud Grotto or Cloud Cliff Union. I think if you go talk to him, maybe you'll understand. Go tell him the story. But I'll tell you that story later. Now back to the sutra. Remember what number we were on? Huh? 59? Yeah. 59. Oh, let me say something about 58.

[24:02]

Without making any special effort, in this samadhi where all the super-knowledges are always at one's disposal, And by the way, again, in this samadhi, there's a different set of super-knowledges from the regular super-knowledges. The sages have super-knowledges, too. They have basically six kinds of super-knowledges. Non-enlightened yogis have five super-knowledges, or called abhijanas. What are they? knowledge of past lives. What? No. But that's what bodhisattvas have. But it's not one of the ones that the regular yogis have, regular excellent yogis.

[25:06]

They have knowledge of past lives, they have what else? What? Divine eye? Divine eye? Divine ear. Know other people's minds. Know other people's, be able to understand other people's minds. Got the sight? Well, we're missing one. Don't worry. Got four, that's pretty good. In other words, people who can enter into conceivable samadhis and get really good at them, and the samadhis of this conceivable realm are usually presented as having nine stages. And these sages can do these nine stages. Enlightened and non-enlightened sages sometimes can do all these nine stages, which is an incredible yogic attainment. The Buddha, for example, prior to enlightenment had attained these nine stages.

[26:12]

And with these nine stages comes these five supernal energies. So non-Buddhists, prior to Buddha, were able to see their past lives and read other people's minds and have the divine eye and divine ear. In other words, be able to see very deeply and far and hear very far. Clairvoyance and clairaudience. Both clairvoyance and clairaudience that had that. This comes with this great concentration. And then there's a sixth one, only comes to the enlightened sages, and that is the knowledge of the destruction of outflows and the knowledge of the non-arising of dharmas. The first five of these are sometimes called the shamanic aspect of Buddha's enlightenment.

[27:24]

The night that Buddha was enlightened, realize those first five. Those are the shamanic, shamans know some of this stuff, the shamanic aspect of his yogic practice, of his samadhis. And then with the knowledge the supernormal knowledge of the destruction of outflows, he entered into the Vajrapamo Samadhi and entered into the realization of Bodhi, which creates a conceivable liberation, just like the Arhats. But he, along the side, he attained also Anyatar Samyak Sambodhi, and then he got all these other supernormal powers which the Arhats don't have, the Bharadjika Buddha has. Like, for example, being able to do Samadhi, this inconceivable Samadhi where no one can find you, and being able to speak all languages, being able to, well, now we can go.

[28:33]

You've got them at your disposal, so this kind of stuff can happen. Ready? So using the four technologies, so that all beings experience great happiness. Being able to insert all the waters, all the waters meaning the waters on your planet probably, like all the waters and all the oceans, to be able to insert all the waters and all the oceans into a single pore of your skin. But they always mention when you do this kind of stuff that none of the marine animals will be by that. Alligators, whales, dolphins, they mention, you know. None of these beings living in the water will be pushed out of shape by this putting all the waters into the pores of humans.

[29:40]

This is inconceivable. Well, you know that, I guess. Using the means of winning over to secure beings. This is this translation by Lamott. Using means of winning over to secure beings. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to say. In other words, the bodhisattvas, you have these means of winning people over to practicing dharma. This is called attracting them to practice, like making them think it would really be a good thing to enter into the Buddhist meditation program. But at the other translation by McRae, it's interesting, he said, using the dharmas of co-location, they attract dharma. beings. So I haven't actually had a chance to look up the Chinese to see what it actually looks like, but this is a little bit more like a supernatural power to use co-location to attract people.

[30:58]

People actually find that quite interesting, to demonstrate co-location to them. What is co-location? Like to be in two places at once. for example, to be in them and to be over here at the same time, to inhabit their body and be inside them and start talking. Okay, okay, okay, what do you want? We have that in the Vimalakirti Sittra, right? one of the bodhisattva goddesses gets inside Shariputra, right? Shariputra suddenly finds himself talking. And over there is Shariputra. So anyway, this is one of the things which sometimes startles people out of their resistance. And the bodhisattvas in the samadhi, or the samadhi,

[31:58]

has this wonderful facility that these, if people are like all tense and resisting, you can like do something to kind of like get them out of, I mean, help them to drop it. In other words, people can be disarmored and disarmored by this creative arising in the samadhi. I don't think of the bodhisattvas like being at this control board of all these little things, but rather they're in this space and as they interact these kinds of things happen. This is another thing that happens in this space is understanding all languages used by all beings in the various universes. So when you think about, when you meditate on this Samadhi, you know, you might think, okay, you know, you're going along and then you come to the next one and you say, oh, no, it's too much.

[33:06]

But really that's what this is about. It's like, kind of like, do you have any, is there anything you think is not possible? Okay, how about this? Are you still resisting? Well, how about this one? To know all languages for that, but all languages of the beings in all universes. And if that's fine, okay, we'll move on from there and turn it up to see if there's any... Are you holding on to any... Do you have any conceptual gripping? Your concepts are okay. It's the gripping of them that we have to like eliminate the gripping. And it has to be total. A little bit of gripping is enough to keep you out of the samadhi. So it's a very simple thing. Just know, grasping or seeking.

[34:09]

But that's hard to do, that simple thing. One hundred percent. And to question that dharmas are like illusions, that goes with... all dharmas are like illusions, goes with not grasping them. So you don't call that into question. You can question it, but don't call it into question in that samadhi. Obtaining willingly and tirelessly all necessities, all things that are needed for the practice. Tirelessly. all necessary things. This is an intensive working situation here.

[35:13]

The bodhisattvas work. Buddhas are hard working, but they don't get tired because of no grasping or seeking. Even easy things get tiring if you grasp and seek. But even hard things are not tiring if you don't. In this samadhi, be in this samadhi with grasping and seeking. As soon as grasping and seeking comes, you say, okay, what's called get out of the garden. Now go to work in a tiring way. If you want to grasp what's going on here, then you have to work hard. You do have the advantage that you got a hold of the samadhi. Congratulations. Showing oneself as adept among all beings.

[36:16]

Being in a field of merit equally profitable to good and bad. Obtaining and penetrating all secrets of the bodhisattvas. This samadhi is illuminating rays over all universes without exception. It is possessing a knowledge which is profound and unfathomable. is having a mind like earth, water, fire, and wind. Yes? What kind of secrets? What kind of secrets? What kind of secrets? Maybe somebody told him something and said, please don't tell anybody.

[37:38]

And they said, fine. I'll keep your secret. So you can like, you know, without them breaking their confidence, you can like go in there and find out what secrets they've got. You also will not tell anybody. Because you're not going to like... If that person doesn't want somebody to know, you're not going to like... What do you call it? This is like... You're going to maintain the security which they wish to have. So we live in this world, right? That security... It doesn't stop bodhisattvas in the samadhi. But what about this mind like earth, water, fire and wind? Does that sound familiar? Yeah, it's the universe.

[38:43]

It's the universe and it's the physical universe and it's walls and tile rubble. You have that kind of mind. You don't, huh? And space, yeah. I didn't mention space. Your mind's like that. It's not like you've got a mind, but then there's physical things over there. You don't have that kind of mind. Again, that's like conceivable mind, a mind that's separate from the physical world. That's not the kind of mind that's in the samadhi. in every teaching, statement, and discourse skillfully causing the turning of the wheel of Dharma. This is the way things are when there's no grasping and seeking. The rocks

[39:51]

aren't turning the wheel of Dharma, aren't the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. Trees aren't the turning of the wheel of Dharma. People aren't the turning of the wheel of Dharma. But rocks being rocks and people being people is the turning of the Dharma. Human beings aren't Buddhas, but a human being being a human being is what we mean by Buddha. Human beings are usually like grasping and clinging. But a grasping and clinging person, just being a grasping and clinging person, there's no grasping and clinging. That's a hint, Daniel, how you can sneak by and still be . If you're totally grasping and seeking, you're just completely grasping and seeking, then grasping and seeking being grasping and seeking is not grasping and seeking.

[40:53]

What? Well, that's why they get to be like, that's why he said that, because, you know, they're like, they don't know how not to be. Yeah, right. It's the rock... Why aren't they? Because rocks aren't rocks. When rocks are just rocks. Yeah, you got it. The principle, this is the principle. The fact that you are you is precisely the reason you're not. I don't say you're not you because you are you. I don't say you're somebody else because you're not.

[42:00]

You're nobody else from who you are. However, the reason why you're you who you are is the reason why you're not who you are. So you being you is the Buddha. Your actual condition of being you is Buddha. This samadhi is unimpededly the unimpededly penetrating the stage of the Tathagata. It is spontaneously obtaining Pada Anupatika Dharma Kshanti.

[43:09]

It is spontaneously attaining the patient acceptance that nothing happens. And I don't know if we're going to have ever finished this list of a hundred, but pretty soon after this list of a hundred we come in discussion of patiences. But I just might, since we might never get there, I might give just a short comment on patience. Yes? Yeah, same thing as patient acceptance. Did you say of dharmas that fail to arise? That's one way to translate it. Patient acceptance of dharmas that fail to arise. But you'd also say, of the non-arising of dharmas. Because dharmas that fail to arise sounds like you've got some dharmas that haven't arisen. It's more like accepting the non-arising of the things.

[44:12]

But anyway, either way, yes. So the patience, patience because it's so relevant to a few of your situations, because some of you are having kind of some pain And there's three kinds of patience which I want to mention. There's more than three, but there's three I want to mention. One kind of patience is the patience with like emotional hardship, you know, just things being hard, but particularly physical hardship like pain in the body, that kind of physical hardship, being too hot or too cold, having pain in your joints or on your skin or in your And some people have this kind of pain and hardship during our sittings. And another kind of pain is the pain of being harassed and insulted. And some people get harassed and insulted by other people.

[45:15]

And some people have internal harassers. During Sashin, the people who don't have internal harassers have kind of an easy time because the external harassers can't talk. So I'm the type of person that doesn't have real strong internal harassers. I watch congregations of people. So, you know, Sashins are nice for me because... But anyway, some people in this room are like... Internal harassment going on. Somebody's sitting right around their ear somewhere who's saying all kinds of terrible things to them like, you're a wimp, you're lazy, you're stupid, you're wasting your time here, you're a lousy Zen student, you're ugly, you don't understand what you're doing, you don't know what you're doing,

[46:27]

You're wasting your time. You should have prepared a bit more before you came. All kinds of little things are being said in their ear. This is very painful. And so there's patience with the physical discomfort, and there's patience with the emotional harassment. When people tell me about these hardships they're having, particularly during Sashin, I have a hard time saying I'm sorry that they're having this hard time because I always feel like, you know, it's hard to practice patience if you don't have something like that pressing on you. So I don't exactly feel sorry when they're, especially when somebody can like, they're actually like feeling it and communicating about it.

[47:36]

So like I said on Sunday, if you're being harassed by some other kind of pain, if you like open to it and communicate about it, you can be free. Plus you can develop patience. And if you can develop patience on these things, on this physical hardship and this emotional insult, that patience can finally be big enough to stand the most difficult thing of all, which is nothing happening. That's how patience grows into wisdom. This final patience is really wisdom of the bodhisattva. It's the wisdom of the eighth level bodhisattva. To be able to accept that you don't even happen. I mean, it's hard enough to accept what does happen, But if you can accept what does happen in all its varieties and challenges, you can make yourself big enough. The word kshanti means capacity.

[48:38]

It means to be big enough to have the capacity for reality. And reality is really big and you have to stretch. It's painful to grow big enough to accept the total truth. which includes all the bad things that affect you and all the kinds of pains and all the kinds of pleasures. But most people have a real hard time practicing patience when there's no pain and just pleasure. Most people cannot figure out how to do it unless they get a little delivery of no arising of doubt. And that's sometimes when it's deliberate, so that's why you have to have a lot of patience. So it's really, it's this great if we can let go of discursive thought, if we can let go of conceptual thought,

[49:47]

stop grasping at these concepts and seeking in the field of these concepts, we enter this space where we can actually have a patience which can deal with emotional torment and finally this awesome reality that everything's really quiet and nothing's actually arising. This samadhi is acquiring, conforming to the truth and not being defiled by the stains of the passions. It is accumulating immense merit and good roots. So this is a samadhi, this is a concentration that includes all kinds of virtuous activities.

[50:50]

The samadhi itself, being in the samadhi, develops all kinds of meritorious, positive energy. Being in the samadhi itself circulates the energy of the world very nicely, which is very helpful. But it also allows all kinds of other activities like giving and so on, which we'll get into later. Giving, practicing the precepts, patience and so on. All these things. And developing lots of free-flowing, harmonious, meritorious, and also developing good roots, non-hate, not greed. It is clearly understanding the applications of skillful means. This samadhi is excelling in wonders and everywhere carrying out all the practices of the bodhisattvas.

[51:57]

Finding security in all Buddha dharmas, And everything that happens is Buddhadharma, so it is finding security in everything that happens. It goes with not seeking some things for security in other things, avoiding things that don't seem secure. Whatever comes is the Buddhadharma, and in the samadhi you understand that and find security in the Buddhadharma aspect of what's being given. The samadhi is, after having found it, escaping the original existences conditioned by previous actions. So this is, you know, you've actually become free of the karmic existences which are conditioned by your past action.

[53:08]

It doesn't mean that they don't manifest in your face, but you can relate to them in this bodhisattvic samadhi. So you're free. Samadhi is penetrating the hidden Dharma treasures of the Buddhas. That's similar to the bodhisattva secrets. Sometimes the... teachings for a while because they don't think people are up for them. And then they dug up later, you know, for... at a more opportune moment. You know, there's certain times for certain teachings and those times are not appropriately given. Not all teachings should be brought out all the time for everybody. In the samadhi, they're available, and if you need them, they're accessible just at the right time for the right being.

[54:15]

Even if they've been hidden up to that point, suddenly the treasure store opens, and boop, you can use this thing to help people. it is manifesting a dissolute life given over to pleasure, giving oneself over to games, pleasures, and delights, but resting calmly and stilling. What word did I leave out? Not.

[55:19]

That's kind of a colloquialism, isn't it? Not. Now some people, when they hear this, by the way, this is number 83. when they hear manifesting a desolate life completely given over to pleasure, some people say, that sounds pretty good. I'm glad these bodhisattvas can get around. Manifesting a desolate life completely given over to pleasure. And the Tibetan adds, while resting calming and stilling the mind. But of course, in this samadhi, this is a samadhi. The pervasive situation is like calm.

[56:28]

We're going into like a desolate life completely. And you say, well, how about entering a desolate life part way? What's that? that's completely entering into a partly desolate life. In this realm you don't enter things partly, you do them completely. But, but and, but you do it completely because, you do it completely because you're calm and because you do it completely you're calm. You're completely relaxed, you like totally penetrate the desolate life. There's no kind of like, well, I probably shouldn't be quite this desolate. I mean, I can be a little bit because of 83. At 83, you wouldn't even dare to be a slightly bit desolate. But I, no, completely. And because it's complete, there's calm.

[57:30]

And if there's not calm, it's not complete. And if it's not complete, there's not calm. You're tensing up if it's not complete. So anyway, these days, you know, one kind of mild example of this, which I mentioned before, is like, you know, grandchildren. Offspring are nice, but offspring's offspring are really nice. So now someone told me that, she said, you're my grandfather, this adult woman told me that. I thought, how great, this person's my granddaughter. This is wonderful. Parents have all kinds of problems with their children. They have to discipline them, right, get them to go to the zendo and stuff. But grandparents, they can just enjoy this experience.

[58:33]

this disarming, this disarmoring being. It's totally desolate and just like totally enjoy it. But with no grasping or seeking. No grasping or seeking. Completely calm and completely enjoying it. And when mother comes and takes, or father comes and takes, by the way you say, Sometimes you might feel like, well, I don't want them to go. Other times you might feel like, please come and take them. But you're totally enjoying the place of being with this being. completely giving yourself over to the enjoyment, and the mind is still and no attachment. This is what that samadhi is like.

[59:35]

You really, kind of like, I guess, you know, really with your grandchildren, but no attachment and no seeking any more meetings with the grandchildren. And if you never see them again, That buddha-dharma comes, and you find security in that buddha-dharma. I would like, if I could, to question this rock and tree thing about the rock not a rock being a rock. And in that nature it's expressing the Dharma, right? A rock being a rock? Just a rock, yeah. Just a rock being a rock. You just mentioned that a grandchild can show up just being what it is without you adding something extra.

[60:50]

If we add something extra to the rock, to the tree, to anything, it's not showing up and it's not... No, no, the thing itself, the thing itself is unhindered by any kind of like clinging that you have. The Buddha, the enlightenment of that rock is hindered by anything I do. It's just a question of me resisting the teaching of the rock. So the rock and the child are the same in that regard? Yeah, everything's the same in that regard. It's just a question of whether I'm resisting it or not. But you don't stop the Buddha nature of the child of the rock. You can't stop it. You can't interfere with this enlightenment. You can only cut yourself out of it.

[61:51]

You can say it's the nature that created us, or you can say the way we were created is that thing we're talking about. But it's not exactly a nature like a...nature means things that are created. It means nature comes from to be born. So born is the same. Everything is born by this dependent co-arising. And that's exactly why you're what you are, is because of dependent core arising. And the fact of you being a dependent core arising is why you're not what you appear to be. You're not what you appear to be. You are dependent core arising. But because of dependent core arising, you get to appear the way you are. And because of dependent core arising, you and I are the same in that way. And we can only resist that.

[63:03]

We can't stop. But we don't have to resist it. We can enjoy it. But the price of admission to enjoyment is being totally relaxed. Which, of course, we want to do, but we have resistance to what we want to do. Hearing quantities of teachings and being able to remember them all. Seeking out all dharmas without ever tiring. Look at that ugly word, seeking. Seeking. Anyway, in this samadhi, you actually think, oh, dharma?

[64:13]

Yeah, let's study dharma. How wonderful. Conforming to words without being defiled by them. This is, in one sense, so the worldly conditions that they're usually speaking of are like when you have pleasure and being unhappy when you have pain. That's a kind of worldly thing. Being happy when somebody praises you and being unhappy when they defame you. Being happy when you hear that your reputation is good and being unhappy when you hear you have a bad reputation. Being happy when you get something and being unhappy when you lose something, these are these are the worldly emotions, too.

[65:23]

But it says here, conforming to them without being defiled by them. Now usually we speak of like letting go of them, renouncing these worldly emotions. But this is an instruction. You see, it kind of like, instead of just saying renounce them, it says, first of all, conforming to them without being defiled by them. In other words, maybe the way to renounce them is to get very close to them. Because, in fact, you couldn't renounce them if they weren't there. This pattern of being happy when you're having pleasure and being unhappy when you're in pain. There'd be no point in renouncing if you didn't have such emotions. But if you do have such emotions, in the samadhi, The way you are in the samadhi is that when these emotions arise, you relate to them by being very close to them, and in that closeness you renounce them.

[66:32]

In that closeness you're not defiled by them. So you do renounce them, but through Because in the samadhi, when a worldly thought arises, you cultivate the mind of the samadhi by relating to this thing as though it were space. You don't try to get rid of it. But also, you don't move an inch away from it. Expounding the Dharma to humankind for immense kalpas, but not giving them the impression that the expounding has lasted only a moment. Excuse me. But giving them the impression that the expounding has lasted only a moment. Yes? Is it so that it's the samadhi that brings us to see our karmic conditioning and then it's also the samadhi that allows us to...

[67:39]

So the samadhi is doing all this work all the time, and it has just opened up to samadhi. Is that ? That's true. In the samadhi, or even not samadhi, some of your past conditioning can be presented to you, but the the most thorough revelation of your past action and how it works comes to you when you can be really concentrated and present. Then the level of detail and clarity of the presentation increases, plus in this samadhi and now in that, but as it's presented to you, you stay calm. You don't get horrified I mean, you do get horrified, I guess, but you don't tense up around the horror of how unskillful you've been at some point and points in the past.

[68:44]

But you do face the karmas and you face how they've conditioned you. You face what you did. You face how that makes you feel and what that makes you prone to. You see all that and you relax with that. And as you relax and as you see more clearly, it becomes, in some sense, more vivid and maybe prickly, but you also then have a chance to settle with that. So the process gets clearer and clearer as you move forward through the samadhi. This is where the bodhisattvas, this is where they live. Keep learning, always keep learning more and more and more. More and more things worked out. This is like always working things out here. And there's no end to it.

[69:46]

And there's all these resources which make it possible to keep going without getting pooped out and getting discouraged by how hard this is. Because it's not that hard because you're not grasping. This samadhi is manifesting all kinds of infirmities, making oneself lame, deaf, and blind, and mute in order to ripen beings. and this is part of the Malkirti Sutra too, is to the bodhisattvas play with being sick and being whatever in order to ripen beings. And so some of us, you know, we might think, well, okay, well, I'm not just playing about the problems I've got.

[70:57]

These are actual, like, This is not, I'm not playing with this. I am blind. In this samadhi, you understand that this is a play. And when you understand that your blindness and your lameness is a play, then you're ripening of beings. If you don't understand it, somebody else does, but, you know. In fact, your or my disabilities can ripen beings more and more as we understand that it's a play. That's what it's like in the samadhi, is that whatever situation you're in, you use it to ripen beings. You don't feel like this was imposed upon you.

[71:59]

You have karmic facilities which offer you opportunities so you can play. You have to have something to give you opportunities, and you do. So you've got opportunities. Bodhisattvas use these things as tools. So it's up to you. as you are given various afflictions, whether you're going to use these afflictions as things you're going to play with, whether you're voluntarily going to be born into this affliction. Like I said before, bodhisattvas are born, voluntarily come into all these births, and then when you come into the births you get all this equipment to play with. Or do you feel like, how did I get here? And not only that, but I got all these problems. Who did this to me? Rather than, well, okay, now what's this game here? What do we do with this stuff? And then to like show somebody, you know, a kind of an unusual way of using an affliction can really be a ripening offer.

[73:13]

That's part of what bodhisattvas are like in this samadhi. The next one is interesting. They have hundreds of thousands of, I'll just shorten the name, vajrapani attendants. So vajrapani is a bodhisattva who's also like a protector. And they have hundreds of thousands. who are always with them. Seeing and discovering spontaneously all states of Buddhahood. Seeing and discovering spontaneously all states of Buddhahood. Being able to manifest a lifespan being prolonged for innumerable incalculable eons. The samadhi is seeming to adopt a bodily attitude of the first two vehicles, but renouncing the practices of the bodhisattva.

[74:23]

The samadhi is with perfect calm mind, dwelling on emptiness, and of course entering liberation. It is even while disporting oneself with female musicians or male musicians, as the case may be, inwardly retaining the concentration on the recollection of the Buddha's So even while you're hanging out with male or female musicians, you continue your practice of remembering Buddha, remembering Buddha all the time, remembering Buddha all the time, seeing

[75:37]

seeming to adopt the bodily attitudes of the first two vehicles without renouncing the practices of the bodhisattva, with perfectly calm mind on emptiness and signlessness, even while disporting oneself with male and female musicians, inwardly retaining concentration on the recollection of the Buddhas. whether seeing, hearing, touching, or coexisting, ripening innumerable beings. I don't think so, but maybe... I think actually it's other kinds of supernatural powers like being able to appear in two places at once and things like that. I think it's being able to like play, those kinds of things.

[76:42]

Magical powers. What? Right. Only Buddhas can do the prediction thing. And one of the nice things about this sutra, which we might get to if I skip many pages, is basically I'll just tell you that only a Buddha can tell who in the room are the bodhisattvas. Therefore, and when I think it was Mahakasyapa, when Mahakasyapa hears a Buddha say that only the Buddha know who the bodhisattvas is, and therefore only a Buddha can predict, can say when you're going to be a Buddha. For Buddhas, the present, the future is like right here. The future is totally available. But that's not one of the fifth power. Since only the Buddha knows who the bodhisattvas are, it's possible that any one of us might be a bodhisattva.

[77:49]

So, you should treat everybody as though they were a bodhisattva. In other words, treat everybody as though they were a bodhisattva. In other words, treat everybody as though... That's part of the implication of that. That the Buddha looks in a group of people and nobody sees the bodhisattva. And the Buddha says, so-and-so is a bodhisattva and they're going to be a Buddha at a certain time. The Buddha Shakyamuni, you know, of things a little bit when he was alive, but he did mention a few times that he had known a Buddha named Dipankara in the past and that Buddha did predict that he would come and be Shakyamuni. So our little, our good old historical Buddha talked like that apparently. It's kind of, you know, we don't mention that so much, but that Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, In the early teachings they said, he said he knew Buddhas in the past and that Buddha predicted him to be Shakyamuni and now here I am.

[78:54]

So he could do it also. Shakyamuni could predict other people. So, and he did. And one of the people he predicted might be in this room or actually possibly almost everybody in this room might be a bodhisattva. So anyway, magical powers, but not to the extent of a bodhisattva or a Buddha. From moment to moment, manifesting the acquisition of complete enlightenment, and by conforming with beings to be disciplined, causing them to attain deliverance. The samadhi is manifesting entry into the womb and birth. It is manifesting the renunciation of the world and the acquisition of Buddhahood for complete enlightenment.

[80:00]

It is setting the wheel of the Dharma rolling. It is entering great parinirvana, but without attaining complete cessation. So this is the list. This last part here is that the bodhisattva goes through exactly what the Buddha went through. The bodhisattva in the samadhi relives the life of the Buddha. But one difference, the bodhisattva does not enter into complete cessation. Now some people would say, and I'd be one of them, bodhisattva doesn't enter into complete cessation is so that they continue to practice the samadhi and continue to do this Buddha thing over and over and over. This, not Buddha thing, but this reenacting the Buddha's life and actually going right up and attain Buddha attained, except not going into final extinction.

[81:03]

Because final extinction means you can't be a Buddha. You just keep doing this Buddha thing over and over until it's your turn to be a Buddha. But also you get to keep practicing and also you get to mature beings. While you're working towards your Buddha, you bring everybody else along with you. So these last points of this samadhi is that you go through almost exactly the same thing the Buddha went through and which all Buddhas have gone through in their last life. You don't snuff it out. And the Buddha has to snuff it out and go into final extinction so that the Dharma will disappear, actually, and that we can have another Buddha. So one of the things was to get rid of the Dharma. That has to happen at some point up the world so we can have a new Buddha. So I'll just tell you that then the Buddha says to our Bodhisattva, O Dhridhamati, the Shurangama Samadhi is so infinite that it reveals all the marvelous powers of the Buddha.

[82:23]

and the innumerable beings benefit from it. So that's a little presentation on the Samadhi. And then this is just the beginning of the sutra and it goes on from there. So I guess we'll continue to walk through the sutra tomorrow. Is that all right? You okay? Would I finish the story of Dung Shan? Yeah, I'll finish the story of Dung Shan. I mean, I'll tell the whole story. And I won't leave anything out. May our intention...

[83:33]

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