This case is about Buddha's mind, of all things. Oh, and Jennifer, you weren't here last week. This case is about Buddha's mind, which is called the Patriarchal Masters Mind Seal. The word seal means mudra. Mudra is actually another translation of this Chinese character. And Susan, you weren't here last week. Your hair wasn't that clear. And Carol, you weren't here last week, were you? And Marjorie, you weren't here last week, were you? So I've got a lot of people here who weren't here last week.

[01:05]

So you people don't know what the Buddhist mind is, right? Is that right? Or do you know? You don't want to answer? OK, so what is Buddhist mind again? What's Buddha's mind? What? What's right here. What's right here? Delusion. Huh? Delusion. Delusion. Is delusion Buddha's mind? Realized. Pardon? Delusion realized. Delusion realized, delusion understood.

[02:07]

That's Yeah, that's right. There's a turning there. We noticed about that you could say Buddha is delusion realized or awakening is the reality of delusion or the true understanding of delusion. You could also say Buddha's mind is the understanding of how delusion works. So I think I mentioned that the story of Buddha's awakening is that Buddha was aware of what we call dependent co-arising.

[03:07]

That was the content of Buddha's awakening. That was the philosophical content of Buddha's awakening. There was also a shamanic content of Buddha's awakening. But I won't bother you with that right now. This case is not about so much the shamanic aspect, but it's more about the, I think, most of Buddha's teaching is about the, he taught the philosophical content of his awakening. Without digressing too far, what do you mean by shamanic? Shamanic content of Buddha's awakening is what we call divine eye, divine ear, and the supernormal powers. Not supernatural, but supernormal. The ability to understand, to see past lives, the ability to understand others' thoughts, the ability to, you know, various, what he called, the ability to manifest here and there, at will, and also the knowledge of the extinction of outflows.

[04:19]

These are the shamanic, you might say, almost the energetic or phenomenal aspects of Buddha's awakening. But he didn't teach that stuff. He taught the philosophical. which is that given this, that happens. When this happens, that happens. When this happens, that happens, kind of thing. And if this doesn't happen, then it doesn't happen. He observed, in other words, how cause and effect work. That's the content of Buddha's mind. And delusion is a kind of a cause and effect kind of thing. Cyclic birth and death is a dependently coerisen show. That was the content of the Buddha's mind and that is apparently the content of all his successor's minds. The content of discriminating wisdom is this process of delusion.

[05:21]

And turning the word realized you could say realized in the sense of realized the true nature of delusion or delusion made real for the real aspect of delusion. Namely, that is dependently coerizi and therefore lacks inherent existence. And then you have the heart sutra, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no color, no sound, no smell. And then also we say no... no ignorance and no extinction of ignorance, no old age and death. In other words, that's revealing the chain of dependent core arising which the Buddha observed. And when he observed the dependent core arising, he also observed, by the way it works, that there really is no inherent existence even to the dependent core arising. When the Buddha started to teach, the Buddha taught philosophy first, and then the psychology as an example of the philosophy.

[06:38]

That was mostly what he was teaching was. uh a buddha understood something called the truth or the dharma and then he he taught that thing he realized he taught about what he realized what he realized was is called dharma and uh the the pivotal delusion is the belief in in the separation of self and others or the belief in the separation of subject and object. In this case, very much plays on this, on the separation of subject and object, or the separation of subjectivity and objectivity.

[07:40]

So in some sense, subjectivity, you could say, is like this, that you carry yourself around, and you come to situations, and you practice them. You're walking around with the burden of a self, and you practice Zen. or you confirm things. You say, this exists and this doesn't exist. You go around like that. Most people do that. They don't think about it, but they go around bestowing existence and non-existence on phenomenal experience. Are you following this? Is that OK for you, Possible? Can you follow this English? Do you people do that? Are you walking philosophers bestowing existence and non-existence on what appears and disappears in this world?

[08:50]

You do that? Yes. How can you think of something which is non-existence? You don't think of things that are non-existent. You think things are non-existent. Like what? You think cows flying around orbiting the moon are non-existent. You think that it doesn't exist. You confer non-existence on that image. However, you do. You may not. However, I and you both may confer existence of the thought of that cow orbiting the moon. So I would say, actually, that just now I would go ahead and attribute existence to that thought that the cow is orbiting the moon. Now, I could say I didn't really think that thought and that thought doesn't exist. That would be another philosophical position, which I don't happen to hold right now.

[09:53]

But I could, for the sake of argument, hold that position. And if I talked about it long enough, I'd probably start believing it. You know how people do that? They make things up. That's kind of one of the latest things going on right now. That's in the New Yorker magazine, right? There's satanic cults and stuff, right? But these people dream up this stuff And they start believing it. And also they do experiments on people where they bring people into the experiments and they tell them to think that things are happening. And they do it for long enough. After a while they start to believe what they were told is reality. We do that. So for example, most of us have been practicing thinking that cows orbiting moons don't exist. And we actually believe that. Like they really don't exist. That belongs in the category of like, no way. However, cows walking on the hills in Wisconsin, we think, yes, that does exist, right? Now, some of you have never been there, but if you go there, probably you will think that.

[10:54]

This is called being a philosopher, conferring existential status on what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, what you touch. Did I miss something? And what you think. non-stop existential status attribution goes on. Okay? Anybody have any problem with that? I mean, with going along with that you're doing that? I think that we do do that, but I am not always aware. I don't think we're necessarily worried that we're doing that. Confession is good for the soul. Very few people go around being aware of what they're doing and what they're thinking, not to mention their philosophical activity. Like most truck drivers, if you go up to them and say, me a philosopher?

[11:58]

No way. I'm not a philosopher. Well, they mean I'm a professional philosopher, but they have no idea that they're philosophizing, most of them. Maybe I'm being wrong to say that about truck drivers. But most N students, anyway, don't think so. However, by continually telling them that they're doing that, they start to agree to it. And after a while, they even can confess it. After a while, they can confess it frequently, that you do do that. But you have to watch yourself and catch yourself doing it, that you actually do think these things, and you actually do think that you have an existential status which is a different basis of the other, that you believe that there's a subject and an object, that you believe there's somebody who comes in the room and looks around for a seat. Want a seat? It's one right here. Did you say there certainly is?

[13:01]

See what I mean? I just proposed that people are going around attributing existence to things. And she will now perhaps sit on what she thinks is there. We're all part of this together, aren't we? So I... I don't know if I really said this, but someone attributed to me that I once said that, you know, I think a few years ago I was visiting this place and I sat down on a chair and I said, usually when people sit in chairs, they assume the chair is back there and that it will hold them. And they sit down as though it was there, exists there, and it has the existence of being a chair which will hold their weight. And they sit down like that. And I don't know if I said this or the person who remembered I gave that example said, but thinking like that is the source of burnout.

[14:09]

That's how you get burned out in the world, is to go around attributing existence to things and then just acting on that attribution. If it matters at all, I would just say that. I know, but I think I was quoting that guy quoting me. LAUGHTER Burnout is like when you do something. Well, burnout is the result of doing something that has what we call outflow. Outflow is like, in a sense, the shamanic or the energetic aspect of thinking in terms of subject and object. For example, if you give me a dollar and you think you lost something. No, first of all, if you give me a dollar and you think I'm separate from you, you might calculate that you lost something.

[15:14]

Or you might calculate that you gained something, like gained merit from giving it to me. But if you calculate that you lost something by doing that, And if you're talking to me, for example, and you think, talking to me, you think, well, you know, I'm pretty smart and he needs my help, so I'm talking to him, so I'm giving him my kind attention and my intelligence and so on. If you think in that way that I'm not you and that you're giving me your attention, you lose a little energy because of the way you think about the interaction. Like Michael's a doctor, and if he thinks when he meets his clients, his patients, if he thinks, oh, I'm helping them, I gave my time to them, they're paying it back, but anyway, maybe they won't. Anyway, I'm giving my attention to him. If he thinks that way, he gets weaker. Now, on the other hand, So if he does that once, he did not notice it. But if he does that 10 times a day or 100 times a day or 200 times a day, by the end of the day, he's quite a bit tired out. Now, if he does that day after day, year after year, he gets what we call burnout, called depletion of his psychic energy.

[16:20]

Now, if he gives lectures and people come to the lectures and say, oh, Michael, you're so great, you know, then he may feel like, well, he's giving them a lecture, but they're also giving him adoration. So he may actually feel energy is coming into him and then swell up and puff up and inflate. And that happens to people until some point they splatter all over the front page of the newspaper. You know what I mean? Inflation is the opposite of burnout, but it's the same thing. It both leads to psychic damage, which is the result of repeated seeing things as gain and loss across the border between yourself and others. Now, some people spend part of their time giving and start of their time receiving, so they're like jacked around back and forth between that, and they're very agitated and jittery. unstable, irritable, and so on. The other ones are like depressed or inflated.

[17:22]

These are examples of burnout. And it happens because of the way you think. It's like the energetic ramifications of thinking in terms of gain and loss. And gain and loss happens across this subject-object membrane, which we believe in, we attribute existence to. This is a dissertation on delusion, okay? Yes. So no expectation at all? Is that sort of the idea? No. It is more like... Well, it's more like... If you can translate no expectation into that you put your chips down on observing the process... So we have this thing called faith in the teaching of dependent co-arising. So the process of dependent co-arising cannot be stopped.

[18:25]

However, you will, by habit, probably continue to try to stop it going in certain ways. We're human beings, we can't help that. So if you see Dependent Gore rising going in a certain way, like you see yourself getting battered, you may not be able to help the fact that because you feel battered, because you think you're battered, that naturally leads to the thought of, I want to get out of here. by various causes and conditions, your background, or some other people may be feeling battered, but they're dependent on their conditioning and how things work. They may think, well, I think I'll stay here a little longer because maybe it'll stop. There's different responses according to different conditioning patterns. This is going on. If you want to, you could say no expectation would be you don't expect anything other than independent core arising.

[19:31]

And what you decide to do then is to study how that happens. While the process apparently goes on by its habit force and by the habit force is also supported by what's happening all around you. to shift towards observing how you walk around contributing consistence to things, how you go around believing that you're separate from other people, and therefore, because you believe you're separate from other people, how you feel battered by people, or how people say you're battering them, or whatever. Like if I'm going down the street and someone asks me for money, and I feel accosted and walk past or if I'm going down the street and I stop and either give them money or not, but talk to them or on some way feel that they're a part of me and then I don't feel, I mean, when I do that, I don't feel, I feel a lot better because I'm noticing that they're there.

[20:44]

I think relatively, to feel some connection with people feels better than to feel separation. But I'm actually pointing at the additional work besides stopping and talking to the person. I think stopping and talking to the person is based on some understanding that you're not separate from the person. Probably. However, there's probably some part of you that's hanging on and doesn't believe that you're the same as that person. And if they escalate the situation in some ways, you may get in touch with the part of you that really does think that this person is not you. Part of our idea of ourselves overlaps with other people. And part of our idea of ourselves doesn't. There's some place where we think, you know, that's not me. But this is what we have to find out about. The opposite happens to me. I'll talk to some of those people and I'll go, well, that's me. And it becomes painful in that way sometimes because I see a big part of me in that person.

[21:49]

Yeah, that happens too. But I propose to you that the painful part of it is based on your belief that you're not them. Oftentimes when you first start to realize that that's not true, you get depressed. Kim? I was just wondering how that observing comes into dropping body and mind, just how can you drop your mind away, just being the present moment, one in mind. It's more under this word observation, like continually observing oneself and this interaction. Would you say that again, please? I'm wondering how continually observing the process of self and others, how that can be done at the same time as just being present in a moment and dropping away the mind.

[22:52]

Well, the way you put that makes me think that you think that dropping, being present in a moment and dropping away is something in addition to observing self and other being separated. That's what it sounds like. You don't do this dropping away. No, but I mean, like if I'm engaging my mind in observing this interaction of self and other, then how in that moment am I just in the moment without having I mean, it seems like if my mind's engaged in observing this process, that somehow my mind is engaged in self and other. Okay, that's a good example. If you're observing self and other, then self and other you're observing is other. I don't know if I can make clear what I was asking.

[24:06]

Well, try again, because I think I understood you, but maybe I didn't. I'll say it again. If we are observing, if I see self and other, then the self and other I see is not self and other. It's an other called self and other. I've just put self and other into the objective realm and I'm watching it. I'm watching. There is no awareness of the process of self and other. There is awareness of things. To understand the process of how awareness is of things, of things is objective, awareness is subjective. The ability to be aware or to think of something is the subject, is what we call mind. What you're aware of is called the object or the environment or the other. But really, the active and passive aspect of the mind, the subjective side is the ability to think of.

[25:16]

The objective is what is thought of. And if you're thinking of, like right now we're talking about subject and object, then subject and object are objects or are external to the, are separated from us which we're observing. To watch that process, somehow there is an awareness of that whole process and that is not in addition to it. That process of the separation is delusion. And something contains that. The thing that contains it is not consciousness, it's understanding. Understanding is not consciousness of things, but the content of understanding, of Buddha's understanding, is consciousness of things, that whole process. In other words, delusion. And there is not somebody watching this show.

[26:20]

There is. I mean, that's not the meditation. The meditation is that somebody's watching the show. The meditation is not somebody watching the show. The meditation is that somebody's watching the show. See the difference? There was a slightly different language in one case or the other. Where does the dropping mind and body fit into this? Where does it fit in? Yes. The body and mind drop off when the fact of this separation, how it's caused, is realized. When this separation is just what it is and there's nothing in addition to that, that's dropping off body and mind or zazen.

[27:31]

And that's what this case is about. It's exactly about this situation. That's the mind seal. Yeah, and this is the mind seal or the mind mudra that we're talking about in this case. When that happens, is that something different than observing? Because observing sounds like a verb, like an action. Observing is a verb. So you're actually not observing anymore? No, observing continues to go on. Observing goes on, and that which is observed must be there for observing to happen. Okay? That's happening. But you don't buy anything? If there's buying into it, then there's buying into it. But there's nothing buying into this. Nothing buying into the fact that consciousness is buying into the reality of the object or the reality of its separation from its object. There is buying into that.

[28:33]

That's delusion. Delusion means that you believe that this separation is real. That's delusion. And we do. But you don't have to buy into that. That's already happening. I think Sarah was next. Yes. Right. Consciousness is always of something. So how do we ever get in that state where self is other? You're already there. But you don't think so. You think... The awareness is not how you get there. Pardon? But the tap of awareness is not how you get there?

[29:36]

Tap of awareness is how you get there. The path of awareness is how you get there. But awareness, consciousness, is of something. In other words, consciousness feels separated from its object. Consciousness must have separation in order to be aware of something. So studying consciousness is a path to realizing liberation from consciousness and liberate consciousness is necessarily believing in separation from its object. Now, that consciousness is the consciousness of object. That's ordinary discriminating consciousness, which is called vijnana. V means separate, and jnana means knowing. It means knowing separation. It means knowing difference. It's a knowing of things. That's ordinary human consciousness, ordinary discriminating consciousness, which is based on the delusion that mind is separated from its objects, which means that mind is separated from itself.

[30:43]

mind cuts itself in half and therefore can be aware of itself. This whole mind is really what our mind is. However, that's not a conscious experience. Consciousness is of things. By studying how you're conscious of things, and by seeing how that is an illusion that's set up by the mind cutting itself in half by its abilities, as you study that, illumination dawns on this consciousness. But this illumination is completely pure of consciousness, and consciousness doesn't get into the illumination. So the illumination doesn't need any particular type of consciousness in order to happen. But any particular type of consciousness can be a situation of illumination. Illumination can penetrate all consciousness and no consciousness penetrates or leaves a trace in illumination. We, in order to appreciate this process, must be willing to admit the process of delusion which we are involved in because illumination exactly and only is concerned with penetrating

[32:02]

into delusion. That's what it's for. So, by studying consciousness, you also study what it's aware of. If you study what it's aware of, you start to notice it's separate. If you start to notice it's separate, you notice there's pain around that, and so on and so on. A thorough study of this is called the study of cause and effect. In particular, cause and effect by which pain arises that pain arises from belief in separation of self and other and then all kinds of craving that happens across that boundary has an attempt to eliminate pain or perpetuate pleasure or whatever all this is happening right at this place of the relationship between subject and object and the mind seal of Buddha happens right there at the place where things are separated and where they join The fact that they separated the place they're joined shows their non-duality.

[33:02]

And non-duality transcends also that they're the same. The sameness and difference happen on the same surface. And the surface, the stage, the arena upon which this drama occurs is called Dharma. That's what we study. But in order to tune into Dharma, you have to tune into delusions. You have to tune into your experience. You have to tune into your karma, which happens in the subject-object delusion field. It happens in the place where you're going around attributing existence to things. So it is through awareness that we wake up, but awakening is not consciousness. It is through consciousness, study of consciousness, that we wake up, but awakening is not consciousness. Okay? I don't know who was next. Carleen? So, we can never be aware of awareness. That's right.

[34:05]

I can never be aware that I'm aware. So, assuming that there is this awareness of which I can never be aware... And this is what we're all trying to do. I think the language is getting old. I'm using awareness and consciousness the same way. So maybe we should use awareness separately from consciousness. You can't be conscious of consciousness. Or you can't be conscious of the ability or the act of being conscious. You can be conscious of the passive aspect of mind. But to watch how that works could be called an awareness or a samadhi. And it is the samadhi by which you realize that the subject is created by the object. That death creates birth, and so on.

[35:08]

Watching this causal dance, that type of awareness, which is simply the causal dance, not an additional thing, that's the awareness which will liberate us from our one-sided view of things. So really you're only aware of the... If you are doing this other thing, you're not focusing. If you're doing what other thing? This non-newality. If you actually are aware that there is no separation between self and others. If you understand the substantiality of the separation, yes, that can be called an awareness.

[36:15]

But it's not a consciousness. It's called self-fulfilling awareness. It's not an experience. It is understanding of experience. That is meditation. That is sometimes called the hallmark or the standard of Zazen. That is the standard of body and mind dropping off. You can tell where the body and mind is dropped off by this standard. which is the awareness of how self and other mutually create each other. The Buddha's mind is born of the study of the self. As you study the self, you see that the self is created by the other, all others. So you realize, so all things that come, all others,

[37:18]

confirm or realize the self watching this thing is called dropping body and mind realizing fully this is dropping body and mind because you know you can no longer hold on to a mind or body separate from other minds and bodies because you understand that your body is created by all bodies that the people who are smiling at you and frowning at you, the people you know and don't know, all plants and animals, everything in the phenomenal world, makes what you call yourself. This awareness is called dropping body and mind. Or when 10,000 dharmas confirm and realize the self, when everything that happens realizes you, that's called dropping body and mind. and it's dropping body and mind of self and others simultaneously.

[38:21]

Even though they do not realize it, you understand that everybody is dropping body and mind all the time. That all bodies and minds are constantly dropped because all bodies and minds are confirmed by everything. Each one of us always, non-stop, is confirmed by everything that's happening. When you understand that, you understand it's for yourself and for others. And you also see exactly who is and who is not also sharing this understanding. Christina? I would say, what are you talking about? It's called, again, it's called the self-fulfilling awareness, okay? But it's not an experience. It is an awareness or an understanding of the nature of awareness to the nature of experience.

[39:26]

I'm having a whole problem here with the word awareness. The word, you know, the word actually that Dogi is using is samadhi, which has several meanings. One is the one-pointedness of consciousness every moment. The other is exercises in developing a sense of one-pointedness. And also it is awareness, an understanding of various teaching, like the teaching that self and other dependently co-produce each other. It's the understanding of Buddhist teaching that I make you and you all make me, and you all make each other. It's that understanding of that teaching. Yes, once you have that understanding, then you would immerse yourself in that understanding. And that's Buddhist mind. That's what Buddhist mind is, is the subtleness, being settled in the awareness of dependent core arising.

[40:33]

It's being settled in the awareness that all beings create me, And myself and all these create each being. And to be immersed and absorbed in that is the study of the self. And it is the study of the self to the extent of thorough study of the self, to such an extent that you forget the self, to such an extent that you're confirmed by all things, to such an extent that you drop body and mind. And that this dropping body and mind goes on without any trace of extinction. So that it's completely seamless with all beings. This is Dogen's teaching about the Buddha way. This is the Buddha mind seal. Yes? Have you made the trouble with the words created by it seems? Create it with.

[41:37]

Find. Through. At. In. Of. For. Throw as many prepositions as you want in there. I don't know which one's best. We're just groping in the dark for trying to get a feeling for this thing of throwing yourself into this meditation of this process. And we have all these prepositions and we use them to create these separations, right? Isn't that what prepositions do for us? Don't they basically create separations? On, above, under, between, right? Linkages. And linkages, exactly. Buckle means two things, right? Cleavage means the place where the breasts meet and where they separate. So that's the thing about the door, the doors where consciousness arises is where consciousness separates from its objects.

[42:46]

Where things meet is where they're born, where they separate is where they're born. We meet each other through our separation. We make connection through separation. And we are into separation by habit all the time. So if we just watch our separation, we will realize the connection. If you watch the separation of subject and object, you will understand this connection. Everything you're separate from, you're connected to. And when things you're separated from, the more you push them away from you, the more demonic power they get. Yeah. So that's the delusion then, is the separation? No, the separation is just a perception. The delusion is to believe it. And we do believe it. The delusion is not just a separation. It is the attribution of existential status upon it, to say it exists, the separation exists.

[43:57]

But actually, there is actually a separation. Not only there is the illusion of separation, and there's also the belief that the separation exists. And actually, the belief that the separation exists is separate from the illusion of separation. They're separate. And the fact that they're separate, just the fact that they're separate, is liberation. They are separate. They are separate. You don't have to separate them. The fact that they're separate is liberation. The separation and the belief that the existence of the separation are separate, too. Confusing the two is what causes delusion. Confusing the belief in the existence of something with the idea of separation. That's the fundamental human delusion.

[44:58]

But actually they're separate. And it isn't that somebody out here looks at that and realizes that they're separate. The fact of them being separate is liberation. That's the Buddha mind. You see, it doesn't touch a thing. It leaves the mind going ahead and creating a sense of separation of subject and object, and also floating along with that is the belief of inherent existence. It goes right along with it all the time. So the Buddha doesn't come in there like, get rid of that, or squish these together, or something like that, or say this doesn't exist, which is just the same thing. The way things actually are is liberation. We have to tune into that. We have to tune into this subject and object thing, and we have to tune into the pain that arises from believing the subject or object is inherently existent, as though they were on top of each other. And the more you tune into that, the more you realize they're separate.

[46:01]

And I say, you realize, but you aren't out here realizing. You're in here thinking you're separate from this. And then your mind has the ability to confer reality or existence on your feeling of being separate from people or whatever. But actually, that process of conferring separation on reality is separate. So actually, there is you and other people living in separation without that existing. independently as two different parts and floating around you all the time ready to get you is a belief that what you're thinking is inherently existing but it never really touches never touches but the slightest overlap and you're done for and so is everybody else I think Philip was next, I'm not sure.

[47:04]

You used the term a while back, passive active mind. Yes. And I was wondering if you could give an example of that, because I don't see how one would mean to it. What do you mean by it? Well, if you look at our language, you know, a lot of words. You can take a word and you can make it passive or active. What is it? Transitive and intransitive? Is that it? It's one process, though. You can never have thinking all by itself. You always have thought of. Almost any verb that has to do with our mental process has the transitive and intransitive. That which does the thinking, that which is thought of. And Chinese is nice because English is pretty good, too. But anyway, Chinese is nice because you have this word called thinking. And you have this other character which makes things active, like it means the ability to do, or the skill of, or something.

[48:10]

You take the word thinking, you put this passive, this active character with it, and you have thinking, or the ability to think. That's the active mind, the active thinking. Then you have thinking, and you put the passive marker with it, and that's what it's thought of. So case 32 of this book plays on this too, where Yang Shan says, that which can think, and said thinking with the active, is what we call mind or consciousness. That which is thought of, the thinking plus passive, that's what we call environment. The environment is what we think of, which includes people, caravans, and so on. both of them have thinking or mind as the central character and you just make it active or passive and that's how the mind works all the time. But apart from say grammatical structure

[49:14]

It just doesn't seem, it seems like the distinction between shaving your head or it being shaved, like there is no passive. It's the same. Sometimes it seems like you'd be making, you'd be creating a separation by giving the expression. Yeah, and we do. No, it's not, it's just a process of perception. But to believe that it's real is what makes it delusion. It's just a perceptual process by which you can be aware of something. Mind has to separate itself from its object just in order to be aware of something. That's the way it works. That's not delusion. That's just regular old, you know, perceptual functioning. But to believe in that perception as a reality, that's delusion. this guy who's the hero of our case, Wind Cave, Mr. Wind Cave, Feng Shui, he's also the hero of case 24 of the Mumong Khan.

[50:27]

A monk comes up to him and the monk says, speech and silence involve alienation and vagueness. How does one get through without transgressions? Okay? Speech. If you speak, in other words, if you get involved in thinking, there's alienation. In silence, there's vagueness. There's alienation there too, probably, but you're not sure what it's about. How do you avoid... Are you there, Philip? How do you avoid transgression in the realm where if you say something you cause a separation and when you're quiet you're just in kind of a vague stupor. Not sure whether you're alienation or separation or not. How do you get through without veering off? And what does he say? He says, I always think of Hunan in the springtime.

[51:33]

The hundred fragrant grasses The partridges sing. It's exactly the same world, but Feng Shui, for him, there's no belief in this process. Or rather, the belief in the process and the process are completely separated so he can enjoy the springtime. But there is still awareness of the flowers, of springtime, of south of the river, of the partridges singing, of the hundred flowers. It's exactly the same world, but the realization has happened, namely that this process of perception is not infected by philosophical activity. philosophical activities here, perceptual psychological processes here.

[52:37]

They both go on quite nicely, with no overlap. This is reality, this is release. So, when asked how does he get through without getting tangled, he just completely acts like an ordinary person. You don't have to mess around with yourself at all. And that's also called dropping body and mind, is not to mess around with the process, not to squish things together that aren't together, not to dream, not to overestimate or underestimate what's going on. What then is the fundamental cause of the separation? The fundamental cause of the separation. What is the fundamental cause of separation? For some... Pardon?

[53:46]

What separation? What separation? What separation? That I'm thinking. The separation that you're thinking? That you are thinking? That's causing I'm thinking. I'm thinking is not separation. But that isn't thinking. You think of something. Well, anyway, one cause of it, the fundamental cause, I'm not sure what the fundamental cause is, but in some ways, as far as getting free, the fundamental cause is language. Language is a pretty fundamental cause. Namely, we people, I mean, basically, we can't get away from it. It's a pretty fundamental cause. There it is. Passive and transitive and intransitive, that's a cause.

[54:47]

It's a pretty fundamental cause. You can't get away from it. Engage and engaged. There it is. Language is a pretty fundamental cause. Of separation. But language is not the cause of the belief in the inherent existence of the separation. Where does that come from? That comes from this dawning of... Because of that separation, we have this thing of being able to be aware of the death of us. And once there's awareness of death, of us, then there's awareness of something that exists separate from death. Something individual. Which is created by something else. But we forget about that part and we see the individual part. And because of that, we dream that that can be something by itself. We lose track, we ignore the cause of it.

[55:48]

And we have this idea of something precious all by itself. And that becomes a template. for the imagination that something could live by itself. And then that, which is born from awareness, you see, actually from a development, from an advance in awareness, which causes a sense of this individual, precious, temporary thing all by itself. That then we use to project inherent existence over onto the process of separation, which was how we got to be able to see our death as separate from us. Or our death is separate from our self, because our self was born from our death, awareness of our death. Is it the belief that I will die related to my inability to follow with awareness into my sleep?

[56:49]

Say it again. Somehow, with what you were just saying, it seemed to me that there's a relationship with my belief that I will die that's related to my inability to stay awake as I fall asleep. my belief that I will die has something to do with my inability to stay awake as I fall asleep? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. And awareness that I can't fall asleep, I can't stay aware while I fall asleep, awareness of that creates a sense of self. Yes. It feels as if I'm looking at

[57:53]

But that awareness, you see, of me not being able to do that, is actually what... Well, I'll ship back to death. At first, death is not of me. At first, death is just death. And it's not even belief in death. It's just awareness of death. And then, when there's awareness of death, There's awareness that it's not this. It's not life. And that gives rise to the sense of self as this thing, which is not that. So the death of me creates the life of me. And that gives rise to this sense of a self. But that wouldn't be able to happen unless I was able to separate life from death. which is not actually done except by this process of perception and language.

[59:01]

And because of that, then, I can turn around and put this selfness onto this separation. And then you're all set. Basically, you've got all, you've basically got the things set. Now the process of misery is launched. And the death that you're talking about is any kind of death? Any kind of death. Like the death of eating an apple. You die when you eat an apple. Any kind of death, as soon as you put it out there, it makes a self. Whatever kind, you know, whatever self is not there anymore when that happens. whatever thing isn't there, then death makes the thing. But this is contradictory. And so we start to turn away from this and ignore this because we don't want the intensity of this world of light and radiance of the dynamic, the pentachorizing. So Buddha is saying, turn back and look at that.

[60:08]

Look at that. Meditate on that. Remember that when you're being you know harassed and battered turn around and look at that and people are afraid to make that shift because they think that they won't know how to act anymore but this example here is you can still say i always think of hunan in the springtime the hundred grasses, and the part which is singing. You can still function just as usual, but you'll be much more flexible and much more enlightened about the whole thing if you turn and look at this stuff. Anyway, the Buddha's mind seal is at this place. This is where you discover it. In this case, it's about this place. It's about this subject-object dynamic, and it's about not taking either side. I don't know if you're ready, but maybe it would be good to, I thought it would be good to enact, dramatize this case.

[61:32]

Like this case is like somebody meets somebody, that's what this case is about, right? Are you ready? Now, excuse me if I play the part of the teacher. Who wants to be Elder Lu Di? Who wants to be the governor? Okay, why don't you, you can sit maybe on Michael's lap. He can be your chair. Okay, so this story takes place. There's this pressure about tourism eating in China, where it gets crashing, it happened around 45 years.

[62:44]

And so anyway, there was a reason was in trouble. There was there was a post office going on. So the governor invited we can come hang out of this place where it is safe or something. And he invited him to sit in that . Please come and sit in a seat. So he sat in a seat and he said that the ancestral master's mind seal I've been rehearsing my whole life.

[63:54]

I mean, did she rehearse with me? We did. We do rehearse around here. anyway the ancestral master's mind seal is like the working of the iron ox now you people have been imported to China now and you don't know about the iron ox the iron ox is an ox that was set up a bull it was set up on the Yellow River The emperor built an embankment on both sides, on the two sides of the river, to protect the people from flooding. And on one side, I believe on the south side, a bull's head was erected, a huge bull's head was erected, and on the north side, a bull's tail was erected.

[64:55]

And this is called the Great Iron Bull. They weren't connected. They weren't connected, no. Now, these days, they probably have engineering ability to go across the Yellow River. But the Yellow River is very big. So they couldn't build, at that time, I don't think, an actual bull that would cross the river. But they could build embankments along the side. This is like in the Han Dynasty, I think. So I'm telling you that the working of this mind of the Buddha is like the function of a huge ox. When the seal is taken away, the impression remains. When the seal is let down, the impression is ruined. Now if you don't take it away or leave it, is the sealing right or not right? I have the workings of the iron ox.

[66:05]

Please, teacher, do not impress the seal. Accustomed to fishing or whales scouring the oceans, unfortunately, I run into a frog crawling in the mud. Can you say more, Eldar? Please, try to bring it up.

[67:17]

Do you remember what you were talking about before? The Buddhist law and the law of the kings are the same. Well, did you see something? When you do not settle what is to be settled, instead you bring about disorder there. Sir, Do it again. Let's do it again. Same people. Same people.

[68:19]

Governor, would you invite me to see it and come here? I'm going to give a talk now. Or you can stay back there. You don't have to be up here. Please take the seat. The ancestral master's mind seal is like the working of the iron ox. When the seal is taken away, the impression remains. When the seal is left, the impression is ruined. When not taking it away or leaving it, is the sealing right or is the sealing not right? I have the workings of the iron ox.

[69:23]

Please, teacher, do not impress the seal. That's pretty good, but accustomed to hunting for whales, scouring the ocean, I'm disappointed to run into a frog in the mud. Please, say more. Can you remember what you're talking about? What did you see? When you do not settle what is to be settled, instead you bring about disorder there. So, I have to leave now.

[70:29]

What is there? The whiskey? What is it? It's just something that they often hold when they give talks. It's a possession. Yeah, it's for potty. It's so you don't have to kill the flies. At Tassajara, you know, some of the students kill flies. Right now, some of them might be killing flies. It's actually... And now, actually, the fly population has died away quite a bit, so maybe they haven't been doing it. When I went down there, I recommended long-sleeve clothing and hats as a way to prevent murder. Whisk do help, though, and also fans. With the aid of long-sleeve clothing, fans, or whisks, you can manage to live with the flies. But the flies they have at Tassajara are not like house flies, which bother some people, but they just fly around, you know. But they have flies at Hasahara that land on you and they get in there and they just gnaw away.

[71:46]

And they just keep, you know, they really burrow, practically. And it's hard just to let them be there. It's not clear that it's a good idea. And like if you push them, they move over a little bit. And if you flick them, they just come back and bite you. So it's kind of like, it's good if you just could keep them away in the first place. So that's what this is for. And since Buddhist monks had these traditionally, then Zen teachers held them, and they actually gave lectures, they held them. I suppose some of them had servants who actually did it for them. But anyway, they had these things. So they're handy. Sometimes they have sticks. But these are much more gentle. This is what it's for. The six tools are quite large. African authority figures also have these whisks.

[73:00]

So at least somebody in the community can avoid murder with the aid of certain equipment and assistance. At least somebody can set the kind of like the model of non-violence in the midst of believing that we're separate from the flies. What do you do for the ants? Pardon? What do you do for the ants? Ants? Yes. I tell Sahara? Yes. There are, and there's biting ants. One thing you do is you stay away from the compost pile. That's where there's the most of them. If you work in the compost pile, they crawl up inside your clothes. You've got to be really careful. You've got to wear high boots and stuff your clothes down in your boots. And don't work there too long without checking because it's tough, you know. That's quite skillful.

[74:18]

So do you want to do this story again, or have you seen enough? Thank you. Is the teaching, I'm sure it's teaching, I'm sure it's teaching in this case much the same as the teaching that it gives in a certain amount. You mean in the previous case, but in the case of the Monocock? Yeah, it's identical.

[75:41]

It's just that they go back and forth three, four times in this case, and the other one, it's just a one-on-one thing. In both cases, he's demonstrating the Buddha Mind Seal, which is, you know what to do with the Buddha Mind Seal? What's the function of the Buddha Mind Seal? What's the function of it? He's impressed and not impressed. First of all, however, it needs to be impressed. You need to impress it on your body, speech, and mind. So I guess our problem is, how is it going to be? How can you have this function in your life of the Buddha mind seal being impressed in your body, speech, and mind? This is the question for us. Zazen is not like to not have body, speech, and mind.

[76:46]

It doesn't say that. It doesn't say, eliminate karma. Eliminate body, speech, and mind. It says, when the Buddha mind seal is impressed on your body, speech, and mind, then what? Then the entire phenomenal world has this Buddha mind seal impressed on it. And the whole sky turns to enlightenment. It doesn't say... you should do this, it says when this happens, it's like that. And of course, it is like that. That's the point. And that's Zazen. Zazen is that things are like that. That what I'm doing, what I'm thinking, What I'm gesturing, what I'm saying, the Buddha's mind seal is impressed upon what I'm doing. It is impressed upon what I'm doing by the entire phenomenal world. And when it is impressed upon the entire phenomenal world, the entire phenomenal world is also impressed by the Buddha mind seal.

[77:53]

Can you witness this? Can I witness this? This is the deal, to witness this. And again, not witness it from the outside, but to come from and be born in that place where this Buddha mind seal happens. And that is where you're already born. You're born in this place where everything comes forward and confirms you. That's where you're born. To be born there, and then to act from there. And you know what you might say from that place? You might say, I always think of Green Gulch in the springtime, where the hundred flowers blossom and are fragrant and the partridges sing. You might say that. As a matter of fact, some people do say that. In fact, that does happen here.

[79:00]

Yeah. In this case, it seems that after giving this teaching, Feng Shih asked the monk's question, from the case of the book, is to see him right or not. And when Elder Liu then had the opportunity The moment that Bokushu had in the other case came forward. That's a good point. See what he's saying? In the Bumangkan, the monk comes forward and says, basically, is there some way to do this without the ceiling be right or wrong? He says, you know, on one side, words cause alienation. On the other side, silence is obscured. Is there some way to not fall and not transgress in this situation?

[80:02]

So Feng Shui asked that question at the beginning by saying this thing about, is there some way to, you know, not seal it or not put it on or not take it away? It's a slightly different language, but he's asking the same question. Is it possible to avoid alienation or obscurity? You don't look like you're following that, some of you. And... And then, in this case, the elder comes forward and is attempting to give the same answer that Feng Shui said. This is the elder coming forward to say, I always think of Hunan in the springtime. The way he says it is, I have the working of the iron ox. Please, Master, don't seal it. That's his way of saying, I always think of springtime in Hanan.

[81:11]

Do you understand? No? Some of you, I guess, are such a stupor that you can't even say no. Well, why do you say that with the wish? No, except in this case, you see, the teaching is exactly the same, but in this case, the teacher is the monk asking the question. And in the previous case, when the teacher said, I always think of Hunan in springtime, the monk was happy. And that's the end of the story. And when I heard that story, I was happy too. I heard that story about 15 years ago in Nizendo, a visiting teacher, Rick. When I heard that story, I was so happy to hear that. I didn't want to cause any trouble. I didn't want to, like, I wasn't disturbed or disapproving of that story. At the end of the story, the question is asked, how do you avoid... Impressing it or taking it away.

[82:13]

Without impressing it or taking it away. Without leaving it there or taking it away. How can you avoid it being right or wrong? Or is it right or wrong if you don't do either? That's what he said. It's the same question as how can I avoid transgressing in language or silence? But this case, this elder comes forth, his answer is not approved by the monk who asked the question. The monk who asked the question happens to be Feng Shui in this case. It's not that he doesn't approve it, he's testing it. So the guy says this thing about, I have the function, please don't seal, master. And the teacher says this thing about, I'm used to fishing for whales in the ocean, and now I have this limping frog in the mud. Now, this could be just a test. Now, he could have come back, but what did he do? He started thinking. Yes?

[83:15]

In some respects, that was exactly what the monk had to do. The monk said, now don't approve me. Elder Liu was not ready. Yep. So, then he gave him another chance, didn't he? He yelled at him and he hit him with a whisk. And then the guy hesitated again. And he said, can you remember what this was about? How we got in this thing in the first place? And the guy hesitated again. And then he hit him again. Actually, that's the second time I was reading it that he started to say something. The third time he started to say something. Right. Just as he's about to talk, he got hit. And then the governor says, you know, that the way the Buddhist law works is just like the way things work in the world, basically. Same rules.

[84:16]

And then the Feng Shui says, what did you see? And basically what he says was, you know, you didn't finish him off, so why don't you face it and leave? Tried three times and it didn't work. So he left. He didn't get his point across. He didn't complete the lesson. He didn't get his point across. He didn't complete the lesson. Which is the same as the elder didn't get his lesson across. He didn't answer anything. Pardon? He shouldn't have answered anything. No. He could have said, he could have said, when Feng Shui said, you know, what? Yeah, he could have said, I always think of Hanan in the springtime. And he might have said, where did you get that?

[85:21]

I thought to say that two weeks from now. He said... Say it again. Not necessarily. You can't tell by the words. You can't tell by the words. There's no way you can tell how the function would be. There's no Dharma by which this Buddha mind seal is demonstrated. It doesn't depend on any particular language pattern. What does it depend on? It depends on understanding the nature of delusion. Now, you can say what you would do under those circumstances.

[86:33]

Okay? Ready? It's your turn. I'm going to say it now. Okay? The ancestral master's mind seal is like the working of the iron ox. When the seal is removed, the impression remains. If it's left, the impression is ruined. Now, if you don't remove it or leave it, is the sealing right or is the sealing not right? I'd say the question is removed. That was pretty good, so tell me more.

[87:40]

You're too far away. Come here. Remember what we're talking about? Okay, Governor. Kick me out. Thank you. I believe in my heart, not for us. I'll never have a promise to say that. To the show, I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that.

[88:43]

I'm not going to say that. [...] I'm going to say that. Do you understand what the homework assignment is? Please, please, see, please look for this Buddha mind seal in your body, speech, and mind. Don't be distracted by any book. Yeah. Watch the interface between self and other all week. The next week is the fifth. I'll be here. I don't know if anybody owns will be. And we'll do this more in this case.

[89:46]

What? Now, among the people who are going to come next week, can you come a little earlier? Can anybody who's coming next week not come at like, can you come at 7 or 7.15? Can you? Yeah. Okay, so we'll do this case again, but, you know, please make this case, apply this case to your life. You know, I had a kind of a little problem with somebody today, and I felt battered by this person. But talking to you tonight and thinking about this meditation, I feel encouraged to go back and enter into that situation, to look again at this situation.

[90:59]

Don't worry, I'm not in any danger. This was verbal battery, and I had enough of it, but now I feel encouraged to go back and look at it again. Is there somebody you're having trouble with? There's somebody you're having trouble with, somebody you're thinking about, somebody you're making gestures towards, somebody you're talking to, somebody who you think is separate from you across there. Look at that relationship. Look at the faces they make. Look at the postures they make. Watch this. Study this and see if you can realize this place. this place of non-transgression, of liberation from this alienation and confusion. Try it. This is called zazen. This is the standard. This is the criterion of zazen, this meditation. So I'm going to go try it right now.

[92:04]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_87.67