This morning I'd like to speak of something which I've spoken of before. I say I'd like to, but actually I'm somewhat ambivalent to speak of something I've spoken of before. Especially something that I've spoken of before many, many times. But telling you that Now, I want to speak of this. I also ask you if I may speak of something that I've spoken of before, if you allow me to speak of something I've spoken of before. When you hear it, you may think you've heard it before, but I'm saying something again. Do you allow me to speak of something that I've spoken of before? Well, then I'll talk about something I talked about before.

[01:02]

And that is the six subtle gates to Dharma. Six subtle ways, six subtle paths to enter the Dharma. What are these six ways? Shall we say them? First is? Second is? Following. Third is? Stopping. Fourth is? Contemplating. Fifth is? Reversing. Reversing or returning.

[02:05]

And sixth is? Purification. Purification or purity. So I'm sitting here, speaking for myself, I'm sitting here and I'm breathing. I don't know if I've told you that before, but I'm breathing. I imagine that you're breathing too. I'm also, as you might assume, and you can take my word for it, I'm alive. And that's closely related to the breathing that I'm involved with.

[03:09]

You look alive too, so that's part of the reason why I think you're breathing. although you may be holding your breath right now you've got some breath I think I imagine are you breathing so we're sitting here breathing and swirling around us is the opportunity to to become intimate with our breathing. Everything that happens really is an opportunity to become intimate with our breath. With this particular medium, with this particular way in which the process of our life appears and disappears to us.

[04:18]

Appears and disappears for us. For our benefit. So we can enjoy it. So it can enter us. And we can enter it. It's just one life. But it offers us innumerable opportunities to realize it. It's just one breath, also. But it manifests in ever-new forms. It offers itself to us.

[05:28]

It offers itself to our imagination. And we make it into innumerable things. One, you can make it into six things, too, if you want to. Or you can think of six ways of relating to it. But when you listen to me or read the text about these six subtle gates, it's good to remember one. Today I'd like to get into the subtle Dharma gate of contemplation.

[06:40]

And I've been wondering if I can introduce this to you. Because this Dharma gate is To use this Dharma Gate means to enter into a complexity. And I worry for myself and you to enter the realm of complexity of the breath with the breath. I wonder when is the right time to bring this Dharma Gate up When is your mind ripe for this? I think, well, maybe the morning your mind doesn't want to deal with this complexity.

[07:55]

But also I feel like if your mind is simpler now, in some ways it may be easier to let this teaching in. But also, it just happens that this week is the week that it's time to talk about it. So I've been kind of shying away from it, but here it is. We're on number four. So I say this to let you know that this is a kind of difficult thing for me to talk to you about it. But I know that most of you will not ever expose yourself to this minefield. So I'm going to assist you and introduce you to this realm of the fourth subtle Dharma gate, the Dharma gate of contemplation.

[09:06]

Again, before introducing this Dharma Gate to you, I also must remind us, remind you to practice the first three. So that I'm not just talking about this, but that I'm talking to you from the point of you having practiced the first three. Because the fourth one is successfully practiced in the context of realizing the first three. dharmagate of contemplation of the mind-breath or the breathing mind, this dharmagate is done from the position or from the realization that the breath-mind, that the breathing mind is stopped.

[10:20]

So I want to induce, I want to realize the stopped Dharma gate first, to re-realize it first before I introduce this complexity. And already to do that will take some time, so I probably won't be able to get to contemplation, so don't worry. I don't have to worry either now. It is possible to study the teaching of how to contemplate mind-breath, to study it intellectually without having first entered your breathing process and realizing stabilization.

[11:34]

It is possible to do this study, but then it tends to be just your mind jumping around. To do this study fruitfully requires stabilization, requires this stopping, this cessation, this tranquility. You would please, just once, please count your breathing now from one to ten.

[13:35]

Count your exhales, count on your exhales from one to ten. Please experience following the breathing.

[16:41]

You don't need to stop counting your breathing in order to experience the following. one can fully experience the following of the breathing even while counting. But if you wish, it's fine to now stop counting and just experience close, intimate following of the breathing. Can you see where the breath enters the body?

[19:13]

Can you feel where the breath enters the body? Breath can enter the body any place on the body. Where do you feel it entering? Many people feel the breath entering around the nose.

[20:25]

I usually feel the breath entering below my navel about three or four inches below my navel. But one can also experience the breath entering through every pore of the body. How do you feel it entering your body? place or places where you feel the breath entering your body, can you feel it filling your body till it reaches its fullest or highest entering?

[22:41]

the fulfillment of its entering. And then, does it leave and where does it leave? Again, many people experience it entering the nose and leaving at the nose. Entering the nostrils and leaving at the nostrils. And the entering, for me, is cooler than the leaving. It's a nice sharp experience of the entering and leaving of the breath. But I usually experience an entering my

[23:54]

abdomen and leaving my nose or entering every pore and leaving every pore and that way the temperature is the same coming in and out for me how about for you And can you feel the mind knowing or feeling this breathing?

[25:26]

Can you realize the mind gently, softly being able to become one with this breath? Can you allow yourself to see a mind that peacefully, livingly, organically, is at peace with the breath? Can you see the mind that's going along with the breathing? quite naturally. Not forcing the mind onto the breath, but the mind is naturally following along with the breathing.

[26:50]

Can you see that mind? Can you realize that mind? If you sense the appearance of some scattering, some disorganized, undisciplined processes of imagination, just let them be like that.

[28:06]

Don't punish them and try to get them to join the effort of appreciating the breathing. Just let them be like clouds in the sky flying about above the great river. the great river that we are all fully immersed in and enjoying the flow. As I told you before, when you can see or experience complete giving of your awareness to the following of the breathing, when you can sense a complete devotion to being with your breathing,

[30:47]

place of complete devotion, one experiences that the mind has stopped. This complete devotion is effortless. It isn't something you're forcing yourself to do, you're actually are just simply fascinated completely with this breath. But not a fickle fascination, a stable, easy, Like a mother watching her baby.

[32:00]

And I might say a newborn baby. Or a father watching his newborn baby. which he looks forward to seeing again after going outside to get some wood for the fireplace. Oh, I get to go look at that baby again. Even though the mother or father has to leave the baby for a little while to go to the toilet or to go shopping, still she's not away from the baby at all.

[33:13]

And she doesn't have to coerce herself to think of the baby. He doesn't have to harass himself to remember there's something really wonderful to go home to, something you don't want to miss the latest development of. When this is fully realized, the mind stops on the breath, with the breath. It's not jumping around anymore. It naturally sits with the breath.

[34:30]

Although the illusion of movement of the world and the movement and flow of the breath still keeps being manifested. In each moment of this appearance of breathing, the mind is still and the breath is still. There is a stillness. that is realized when you are completely devoted to following the breath. Similarly, when the mind is stopped, you naturally are completely devoted to following your breath.

[35:42]

When the mind is stopped, you just see it straight on for what it is for you at that moment. And that's it. And that is complete devotion, born of stillness and oneness with your breath. The time of realizing this stopped Dharma Gate is unpredictable. It can be any moment. And I hesitate.

[36:47]

I don't want to suggest that you look for the stoppedness. think it might be better to watch for the mind that's willing to be devoted to the breathing. And then you just may notice when that devotion is complete that there's stillness, that the mind is stopped. Don't look for the stopped mind because looking for the stopped mind is a lapse in your devotion to the breathing. And if you look for the stop mind, you probably won't be able to trust that you've realized it. But if you simply dedicate yourself completely to the breathing, the stop mind will sit up in front of you and say, here I am. A little sign will pop up saying stop.

[37:51]

And then you may start talking to yourself like, oh, this is it, huh? Well, that's what he was talking about. My God, the world's standing still. Things are sitting still. The breath is actually not moving. It's stopped. All things are sitting still. Wow. Now this talk might possibly distract you, but don't worry. Even there, there's stillness. So again, just be devoted to what's happening and you'll realize it again. So you see, I think you see probably, from what I've said, that at the limit of the practice of following, when you completely, thoroughly give your life to following your life, give your attention to the breathing, at that limit you will find that the mind is stopped.

[39:35]

the breath is stopped, that everything is quiet and still. That's at the end of the following Dharma gate. So the end of the following Dharma gate takes you to the entrance to the stopping gate. In the stopping gate, you basically just deepen and immerse yourself in this stopped quality. or this stopped realization, or this understanding and realization of being stopped. You just deepen that, immerse yourself, enjoy that. Don't maintain it, enjoy it. However, if you try to maintain it, that's not the end of the world, it just will disturb it. It's not something that's held, it's something that's realized and enjoyed. It's the way things already are, you don't make them that way.

[40:36]

So the Dharma gate of stopping is to just enjoy that your mind is nicely settled with the breaths and this enjoyment doesn't allow fine, minute awarenesses and pondering minds to arise. Actually, I think they do arise, but they are not anything more than a lovely landscape around an old yogi sitting in the forest. Now, hopefully you have realized stopping, have immersed yourself in it and are completely stabilized and imperturbably calm.

[42:00]

So now I can introduce the Dharma gate of contemplation. Are you ready? I heard one, yes. Maybe you can't talk now. You've all become, what do you call it, Green Gulch Munis. Munis of the Gulch clan. While you move around and change your posture and make yourself comfortable, The stopped mind is not disturbed. It's now 645. It's going to be hard for me to introduce this extremely complex next step. Did I say it was going to be hard for me to introduce it?

[43:03]

It wasn't hard to introduce it. I just did. But to thoroughly familiarize us with this next step is going to take a while. But again, I don't like to use the word hope, but I actually do hope that you have a feeling for now for these first three Dharma Gates and a feeling for or a realization of this stopped mind. And it is this stopped mind or stopped Dharma Gate from which we will now reactivate the mind. We have been letting the mind

[44:06]

rest. We have been letting the mind collect itself onto the breathing. We have been appreciating what it's like for the mind to basically be concerned with one thing. And how nice it is to have just one thing. That no matter what happens, you're always taking care of this little baby. And if you can just put the mind on one thing, you can realize the mind is not moving. Whenever you totally pay attention to something, even for a moment, whenever you just cut a carrot, or not even cut it, but whenever the blade just touches the carrot, and you're just doing that, you realize the stopped mind on the edge of that knife, or the surface of that carrot, the stop line is right there.

[45:07]

Whenever you press the key to the telephone, whenever you touch that tone, at that point of touching, if you're completely devoted to that touching, the mind is stopped. When you hear a person say hello on the telephone, at the time of hearing that sound, Just at that place where that sound is that sound, the mind is stopped. Throughout the day, all these opportunities are there. But if we then steep ourselves and enjoy this stopped mind, it is blissful and one of the things we must do is not be attached to this bliss. And we must see if we can let go of it and reactivate the mind.

[46:14]

It doesn't mean we lose it. You don't lose it, you let go of it. If you don't let go of it, you will lose it. As a matter of fact, holding on to it is the way to lose it. Holding on to it or something else is the way to lose it. But letting the mind be reactivated to start contemplating is one of the ways we free ourselves from the bliss of this peace. And it is the proper and most favorable condition in which to begin to study the Buddha's teaching of dependent co-arising. So we will then start to reactivate the mind and study how the mind-body works, how these various causes and conditions give rise to and manifest our experience of body-mind.

[47:20]

So in fact, this contemplation phase, we start to enter into the four foundations of mindfulness. And the first is mindfulness of the body. And the first practice in mindfulness of body is mindfulness of breath. Well, maybe the second. So the unique thing about the breathing or the wonderful thing about the breathing, is that it is the thing we work with to realize stabilization or stopped mind. And then as we switch from concentrating and stabilizing to contemplating, switching from concentration to mindfulness, switching from concentration to insight,

[48:32]

and contemplation. The breath is a bridge that you can use in the concentration phase and also as the object, as the first object, perhaps as the gate into entering the realm of complexity, the realm of interaction, the realm of activity of mind, the realm where we study how the mind co-creates itself. with all sentient beings or another way to think of it is that in the first three Dharma gates we have been sitting with the tree of our breath and gradually becoming intimate with the trunk.

[49:34]

I don't know exactly, maybe we've hugged the trunk or we're inside the trunk. We burrow into it and we're completely one with the trunk of the tree. And now in this peaceful resting with the trunk of this great tree, we start to contemplate the branches give up our attachment to the great trunk and face the fact that this tree has branches. Or we give up our attachment and our immersion. Maybe I shouldn't say give up our attachment. If we give up our immersion in the river, we free ourselves from attachment to it and we contemplate the tributaries.

[50:39]

And these tributaries come into the river and go out from the river. And the four foundations of mindfulness are the Buddha's early description of how to come from this stopped mind into study of body, breath, feelings, mind, and mind objects. Those are the branches. Now, of course, some people just directly go to practice the Four Foundations of Mindfulness without specifically having practiced these first three Dharma Gates. And that's good, too. But if you can realize these first three Dharma Gates and then start studying the poor foundations of mindfulness, well, it's a very auspicious condition in which to study them.

[51:49]

And I don't want to say that other ways will not be successful, because they might be. But this way is very well endowed. You're in a very good position now, after practicing these first three Dharma Gates, to study the fourth, wherein we will study the four foundations of mindfulness. We will study how the body works, how the breath works. We won't so much just concentrate and devote ourselves to the breath. We will now study the breath. How does it function? How does it work in the body? We won't so much devote ourselves to be completely intimate with the body, per se, but also, well, how does the body begin? How does the body end? What comes together to create the body?

[52:52]

Study the relationships of subject and object. Study the branches. But again, Just as I said, when you study these six Dharma Gates, don't forget the one. We also, as we study the myriad branches and twigs and leaves, remember the trunk. And if you get too excited, frustrated and confused out in the branches, come back and remember that nothing's moving really. Or put it the other way, that what you see as movement is really nothing manifesting movement. Don't forget, it's always the same thing that's moving. And then maybe you can, again, calm down a little bit and enjoy the complexity with your mind being activated, but not so activated that you can't even see what you're up to.

[54:11]

So I will endeavor to go into more study of this fourth Dharma Gate with you, to enter these branches and then into the forest and over the entire landscape of the universe until we understand. And we can go on to the next Dharam Gate. So I don't know what's going to happen when all these other people come in for Sashin, but perhaps you will witness this drama. Tonight, fortunately, Galen will be talking about the four foundations of mindfulness, is that right?

[55:20]

So she'll take another step into the branches with the aid of Buddha's wonderful systematic rendition of how to cope with branches. In the meantime, please continue to be totally devoted to your life to your breathing and to realizing the Dharma gate of stopping moment by moment throughout the day. Now, I have this fantasy that somewhere in the room there's some doubt about somebody's ability to realize this practice today.

[56:29]

That somebody's thinking, I'm not going to be able to realize a stop mind moment by moment throughout the day. I'm going to get distracted. But am I wrong? Is that just in my head? Does somebody have some doubt about their ability to practice this today? One person. That's enough. Two. Three. Well, you guys can stay here anyway. So I guess I would say that that's pretty good. Three out of quite a few. The rest of you have confidence now. or too sleepy to raise your arms. Maybe I could ask a little more that the people who raised their hands who weren't sure that they were going to be able to do this practice throughout the day, do you have some confidence in this stopped quality of your mind, you three?

[57:48]

Yeah, so I said it kind of as a trick question in the sense that, you know, I said maybe something like, can you do this? And it's not really something you do by yourself, fortunately. The stopped quality of your mind is something which you're able to do because everyone's helping you. And actually you can't get away from the stopped quality of your mind because everybody's helping you realize it. So another way to put it is... I imagine that there might be some confidence or doubt in the room, but there also might be some confidence that with the aid of all sentient beings, you have a stopped quality of mind already, and that you might be able to appreciate it throughout the day. And also with the aid of all sentient beings, you might be able to get distracted from it all day. And then if you can realize that and enjoy that all day, then tonight Galen will teach more about the contemplation gate, although she probably wasn't planning on talking about it that way.

[59:05]

You can perhaps, for you, for those of you who have realized the Dharma gate is stopping, whatever she says will be helping you contemplate the branches of this tree. Oh, and it's 7.02. So it's time to clean the temple. And...

[59:57]

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