equally

nancy and dick and next you know what your name again i mean can you give him free will
okay can you hear me up in front also

the title for this series of evenings i think of something like
meditation on cause and effect is that right
on
causation and unself okay
sounds good to me i'm glad i came
ah

you could say and you'll be all right i think true to say that the that the
the main teachings
ah the main points
buddhist teaching them the is
causation non-self or selflessness and
living for the welfare of all beings so are the main points of the teaching of the practice
in all three are closely related
at the beginning of the year i i vowed to make this year and a year of concentrating on studying causation
so i have been working and devoting myself to this kind of study to study of cause nation
and the study of causation is one of the main ways
that we come to realize
non-self or selflessness

so sometimes we say that buddha discovered
ah
cause and effect discovered causation and i like also to say sometimes that buddha chose causation
as
that which is good to pay attention to in life
if you wish to benefit
others
buddha's are primarily the their primary function is helping others
and one of the main ways they help others is by teaching
about cause and effect encouraging people
to pay attention to causation
ha the the expression that buddha used for causation
was dependent core rising
and the tradition teaches that everything that exists
dependently core arises
and because everything dependently crore rises every every well not everything but
ah almost everything is
impermanent because it dependently core rises and also because it depend on the core arises it is insubstantial
and has no independent existence because it arises independence on things other than itself

and the and so all things are
all phenomena all phenomena are dependent core risings and all phenomena are selfless
and there's a teaching of the pinnacle arising
and the penn rising is the teaching
and the teaching is a dependent core rising also
not all teachings are about to pinnacle rising but all teachings are dependent call risings but the buddha's teaching as a teaching of the pinnacle arising
the buddhist dharma
is dependent arising
both in the sense of the
the verbal expression of dependent core arising but also the nonverbal
reality of dependent pinnacle rising so they're both the buddha's teachings
so the boy can put dependent arising into words into language and speak about it to get people to pay attention to it
but also the buddha has chosen something which is not just the words that the buddha uses to refer to it
the actuality of dependent cauterizing is also the buddhist teaching
and by by paying attention
to the verbal teachings about dependent core arising by paying attention to the verbal ah
a renditions of dependent core rising that we can think about and read about and say by paying attention to this topic
we opened to
in reality of dependent core rising
we also by paying attention to the relationship between causation and selflessness
we also open to the
to the selflessness which is not just the words of my selflessness
huh
at the beginning now i i have some suggestions about how to attend to
ah the teaching or the law of the pennant core rising

so the word dharma the sanskrit word dharma
has a number of meetings one of the meaning of dharma is the the law or a law know the meaning of dharma is teaching know the meaning of dharma is phenomena
know the meaning of dharma is truth
hey so that you could say the truth of dependent or arising
the teaching of dependent colorizing the law of dependent colorizing the phenomenon dependent or arising
and i say the truth of the pentagon rising
he asked if i missed any maybe you know it they are
all those things apply to this this teaching this this dharma this law this reality this phenomenon
and i liked to mention to you that
in this context of a teaching
which is in order to help beings
become free of suffering and not just become free of suffering but also to realize great wisdom and compassion
so they can not only be free of suffering but they have the wisdom and compassion to help others because buddha's was not for me buddhism is not just about us becoming a free
but become a free so that we can be wise and compassionate and help others the point of buddhism is by helping others
all others
so this teaching liberate us from suffering and liberation from suffering pretty much the same as liberation from resistance to helping others
liberation from resistance in helping others is provocative the same as
freedom from suffering
that's why i mentioned in the city before we
the soon this evening i mentioned
if we said
for the sake of all beings we're sitting like a buddha
if we can sit
with no resistance
to give given out sitting
over to the welfare of all beings that we're sitting like a buddha
but it takes a little bit of training well maybe a lot of training to sit with no resistance
and sit with no resistance to kevin this sitting be a
an offering to all be for the sake of all beings
and i mentioned as different kinds of resistance one kind of resistance would be
not wanting you're sitting to be for the sake of all all beings is possible that someone would actually be sitting in his room and that they might want to sit just to be for themselves
you know i would like to sitting to be for my welfare i would like to sitting to be for my com and my ears and for nobody else it's possible someone might think that mere fact some zen students actually do practice meditation primarily to get their mind to be calm
and that's allowed you know we allow that
we lost on one to practice meditation to benefit themselves but i'm encouraging another practice i'm encouraging the practice of the buddha's wishes to sit
ah for the welfare of all beings so one form of resistance is to resist that like not want to do it or some people might be willing another you know this variation to i'm not just say for myself i'm sitting for my uncle
but i'm not sitting from her hand
and i'm not sitting for ants in general
and i'm not sitting for cockroaches but i am sitting for lions and tigers
so apart that's that's resisting the that resisting the way of sitting which is i think the point of the tradition
the way of sitting which is the way the buddha sits
to say i'm sitting for the sake of enlightenment is the same thing i'm sitting for the sake of all beings is the same as i'm sitting for the sake of enlightenment is the same as i'm sitting for the sake of the way of the border way different ways of saying the same thing
the buddha ways is for all biggs
sitting for your own welfare is actually find to is just that that's not to put away the buddha way is sitting for the welfare of all beings with no exception so if you resist that that's kind of normal that there's somebody you don't
want us give your life
a practice to somebody you'd rather not be sitting for that's one kind of resistance not the kind of resistance is forgetting that that's why you're sitting
a sort of slipped back into now what am i going to get out of this what's what's in this sitting for me
that wasn't a very good period and i didn't get much i didn't get any out of that one max like that because like i
lost some time here i could have been doing something more interesting
so that's it also forgetting
forgetting what for getting only this sitting this moment of sitting and this moment of sitting are for the welfare of all beings i forgot sorry
and the other kind of resistance while does more than just put another mankind is to possess the sitting
hey he can possess possess this is my sitting and also my sitting for the welfare of all being it's mine
i've been taken care of this city it's a wonderful sitting i'm sitting for the welfare of others it's great and also is mine i possess it
that's it as resisting sitting
like a buddha buddha sits for the welfare of all beings but does not possess
her sitting
and if you'd just sick and it there's another thing is that if you do practices way and take care of the sitting and really are devoted to it at the beginning you might not be you might not have the form of resistance called possessiveness of it
but to keep taking care of and really wholeheartedly yeah that you read me might slip into thinking your own the practice
like most you nobama probably don't think you own the buddha way
but if you're really devoted to you might slip into it
just like some people go to the san francisco zen center and they sit there when they they wanted it when they first arrived they don't walk in and say i own this place most people don't
my grandson actually does but most people don't
when he comes to grow he used to come to gringo she's she's bigger boy nor his nine when he has been for years to come the green gulch in go to the children's play area where they are although children's toys and bicycles and stuff and he would come in and say these toys you to be mine
you know i do i know there are still mine actually but
he actually kind of said that and it's almost like he believed i didn't argue with them but he thought all the toys used to be his and he had donated them at some time in the past
many did i'm not sure any way
if you keep practicing at the zen center for six months or one year or two years of three years or ten years or twenty years or thirty years or forty years then you might think here's my censored
i've been here proud to have long as a zen center spend here is mine i own it you could do that or donnelly's maybe to could have slipped into thinking only yoga room
i don't know if he did but he could have got this is my yoga room
so that's a kind of resistance to the practice is just think your own it and there's actually a bodhisattva precepts which is not being possessive of the dharma not being possessive of the buddha's teaching not being possessive of the truth
so i recommend that you in is studying this wonderful teaching that you watch out for
well first of all that you do the study of this teaching the same way i asked you about you're sitting so i ask you when you're sitting are you sitting for the sake of all beings and now are you listening to the teaching about dependent core arising are you studying dependent core arising for the sake of all being so while you're studying it it's not easy
in some ways is some ways it's easier to
i remember when you're simply sitting quietly but even even that is sometimes people have a hard time remembering what they're sitting for when you're studying and listening to something you may be trying to understand it and then because you're trying to understand it maybe you forget that the reason why you're listening to this teaching
is for the sake of all beings are not just trying to become better educated so you're a smarter student
but you know you might become better educated in this process but that's not the main point you're you're you're learning this stuff to help others you're learning this stuff this is a teaching which is for enlightenment
which means it's for helping others
so don't but don't be possessive of it equals do all these studies for others and that will help you not be possessive
and also watch out because you still might get possessive of this or try to get something out of this class that that would be make it harder to understand his teaching because his teaching is trying to help you not be possessive so if you studied in in a non possessive way that will make it easier
to learn it
the also make it easier to not worry that it's very very deep this teaching
it's very very deep
this teaching cannot be understood
by a sentient being
or any sentient big they cannot understand it
bodhisattvas are the most elevated of sentient beings they also cannot understand this teacher
who can understand his teaching
only buddhist can understand his teaching but also even buddhists cannot understand his pitching by themselves
they can only to understand it together with other buddha's that's the only way this teaching can be understood
so someone made some of some of you might say well then why should i come to this class if i'm not going to be of understand it
somebody might have thought that you know
here here and just a second ago if you're telling me i can understand his teach you what am i in his class for
while the type of teaching it is
the the point of this teaching
is so you can help others are not even so that you can help others but the point of this teaching is to help others
so again in my telling you and telling myself that you are not going to be able to understand his teaching
that you cannot understand his teaching goes along with that you're in this class for the welfare of others you're not in this class for you to learn this teaching
now if you are in this class for the welfare of others
you will learn this teaching but it this but the way you'll learn it is not by you understanding it but by you practicing together with the rest of us and all of us together
practicing together studying together all of us together practicing for the welfare of others that practice where is the knowledge that is the knowledge that is the understanding of this teaching
and this knowledge
this understanding
fortunately will illuminate and encourage all of us to continue the practice which is the knowledge of this teaching
so this teaching can illuminate our consciousnesses and encourage us to continue to practice which continues to maintain and dependently co-create this knowledge which then continue which illuminates us
and encourages us to keep practicing that process is called the brutal way that can go on
if we don't resist it
by trying to get something out of it for ourselves or excluding somebody from the process or forgetting
actually i i said that and i revise it by saying even if we forget even if we're possessive even if we want to exclude somebody from the process it still can go on it just it that those resistances kind of
or postpone our block the illumination of our consciousnesses but we still are we can still be part of the process even if are resisting it
and in fact we are part of the process and most people are basically
most of the time resisting this process because this to panic or arising this causation is the plot is the actual process of our life together it's actually the truth of our life together and most people are resisting it
trying to ignore it
and being kind of successful at ignoring it ignoring
their life
of their life lived for the sake of others the ignoring it ignoring how others are living their life for for the sake of us ignoring this
is what we call ignorance that's basically what ignorance is is to ignore this teaching and to not ignore the reality that everybody is giving you your life
so when when i ignore that you're giving my giving when i ignore that you're giving me my life then i get concerned about what i'm getting from you
what i'm getting from study or practice so when i get concern about what am i what am i getting out of this again then i realized oh i've forgotten the teaching i've forgotten a practice
sorry and go back to the practice
when just go back to the practice what's the practices again the practice is
whatever you're doing you're doing it for the sake of all beings as the practice
then whatever you're doing is the practice and if you're doing some nice practice like sitting upright and quiet and still in a zen meditation hall looks good
but if you if you're not doing it for the welfare of all beings you forgot to practice
he remembers few men part of it in a way you remember the form of it but you lost you forgot the spirit
so most people are resisting this this truth which is the same as you know resisting
our actual wholehearted living together
so i am
at some point in his class i will give you a piece of calligraphy that looks like this
which i am
have been given to people lately
i gave it to them
development office at the zen center they want a piece of my calligraphy side i wrote this he says deep faith and cause and effect are deep faith and causality
and now find it featured on sweatshirts and tote bags
so i'm i'm hoping to encourage a
encourage in you and in me and in all beings deep faith and cause and effect deep faith in the teaching
in the law of cause and effect
as a way of studying it
don't try to get it right
don't try to attach to it
as it comes as as a teaching comes try to receive it
without attaching to it try to listen to it try to think about it without attaching to it
cause it to teach him to help us
give up attachment
so this law
this law is a path
of study
it's not a lot and get ahold of and have a law
it's a it's a it's a path the study the pinnacle arising as a law
and that it's a truth but it's not true to get and hold it's a truth
which you can study it's a it's a truth which you can move along with and remember and again remember try to remember it without trying to get a hold of it
because
you can't get ahold of it
you can't get hold of it and trying to get a hold of it blocks the way you can the wood blocks it's function it can illuminate you
it can but you can't get a hold of it if you try to get a hold of it not only will you be unsuccessful in getting hold of it but the grasping for it will block will impede its light coming into your into your into your life into your consciousness
once again my consciousness and your consciousness cannot reach it but it can eliminate our consciousness which can lead us to practice study without attachment
which can encourage us to remember something
without attaching to it
just like get taken care of grandchildren remember them without attaching to them
my grandson doesn't want me to remember him but he does not want me to attached to him
he wants to attach to me maybe but he doesn't want more attached to him he wants me at his service and his beck and call but it doesn't want me to attach to him
and if i if i'm willing to go along with that of remembering him remembering him remembering him remember you always keep my eye on him always be concerned for him remember remember and not attach
then the dharma is being demonstrated to him
and then i can study
causation with him
but again even though i'm studying with him i cannot see it
but our practice together his practice to get her practice together that realizes that that is the realization of
it's not just that that's one of the waste realize that that is the way to realize it
actually i told you before but he taught me this thing when he was a bot
curry or three about three he would say
granddaddy let's do x and sometimes what x was was something i was not feeling a lot of enthusiasm about sometimes
granda les two x that's less to one of your not so favorite activities
and it would look up at me and reach out his hand and say together
and i would take his hand and i would go with them were at whatever it was i would go with him
because that's what realizes this teaching
not my mind not his mind not harm eyes even but asked practicing together our minds practicing together in that overlap
in that in those join hands we realize this teaching and the in that space i'm not trying to get anything
you're not trying to get anything
nobody can get that space
over we're practicing together and that's the pinnacle arising through that's the reality of dependent cauterizing plus that's the way to open to it
once again you forget into
trying to get something that's okay is just
something to confess
so again this teaching is not something to get it's it's a it's a path a path of study a path of analysis a path of inquiry
and how do you proceed
give yourself to it
not to get this teaching
but the help our beings
and that's the way it gets realized nobody gets it but it gets realized it gets actualized in our relationships again nobody gets it means whoever receives it gives her a way that's the realization of it
he received motherhood you give it away you afraid he received fatherhood you receive spouse hood he received grandfather hood you receive that and you give it away you don't hold onto it
that's very that's reality you don't you're given what you are and you don't hold onto what you are you're given what you are and you immediately give it away
this is a meditation on the pinnacle rising
also just to ask myself and to remember
to ask myself am i sitting for the welfare of all beings
that's a meditation on to panic or arising
it's opening to meditation and the pinnacle rising
i vowed to sit for the welfare of all beings is a meditation on the pinnacle arising it's a meditation on this vow is the vow of buddha's
i have faith in causation therefore i have faith in paying attention to the cause of buddhahood because of buddhahood is a vow to live for the welfare of others that's a meditation on causation
and then you want to you when you meditate on that and you see okay
if there's it if if there's the vow to to live for the welfare of all beings and now i'm sitting there new than it would then it would be that is sitting
was vowed to be for the benefit of all beings and the sitting is the cause
of the fact or the fruit or buddhahood
but the cause and effect are simultaneous this is a meditation on to connect colorizing it's not like you have the the vi that the vow to sit for all beings while you're sitting and then later there's buddhahood that is buddhahood
so
that's just that's another meditation on the pinnacle arising and you can also on meditation on the pinnacle rising is to look and see that maybe you don't quite see that that's another meditation on to panic or arising
and descend to express i don't get it
i don't get this teaching a panic or arising that's a meditation on dependent pinnacle rising to ask questions about it is a meditation on to meditate on it means to ask questions and to express your doubts
to remember that to notice that you forgot is a meditation on it
to look at how you feel when you forget is a meditation on it to look at how you feel when you remember is a meditation on it
well
it is now
yeah
how's that boy
it's already almost quarter to nine
that boy
that boy talks a lot
k i have a a reading list year
notes on paper you can have a paper copy of the reading list feel like it's also a is also does reading list is on internet didn't get it through my assistant and also a number of these precious readings are also on the internet
the
the best things on this is on the internet i'm an off all these are on the internet but
once you check it out so here's a list of things but the but the texts aren't on this piece of paper just a title other things
but for example the great the great discourse on cause and effect by the buddha is one of the things that sound of the internet you can read them
and i recommend you read it gets really teaching the great discourse scouting it's called maha new a suitor
so does this tremendous amount of material hear about causation ah i hoped it would be great if we if we live long enough to read these things but most of us will not about this
does
there's more than most of us can read in our lifetime on this two pieces of paper
the stuff is not you know it because it's slow reading too especially for memorize it
which i recommend highly
especially the you know that the canonical tags are very good to memorize them
so if you want to study these things here they are for now in the rescue your life
and when you get old and you can't see anymore
you can get your grandchildren and students to read him to you
scream match matthew
but these are precious teachings which i offer you but you don't have to hit to you don't have to study them but if you do and you want to come and ask questions about them in class i would very much welcome your questions about these readings
and i will now i will bring up
some other material which i will try to present you in a way that you can
but that you can listen to without trying to to get ahold of and let them in
like you have led in what i've said tonight
but i think some of the stuff i want to talk to you about it but it's kind of difficult so i'll try to talk about slowly and carefully
maybe what has said tonight was difficult than it was a difficult not to bed
defense
so i admit i said enough for now and we have some time not for discussion about whatever
because at all his part dependent arising everything is
nothing's exploded everything's causation
yes watching him again
irene yes irene
speaker
our commitment to practice for the welfare of all beings yes and you've listed a number of forms of resistance most which i'm familiar with there's another one that
either you didn't quite disgusted or i seem to have missed it which is this in order to make some sort of commitment to said let's just talk about sitting
to practice them in sitting for the welfare of all things you have to have some sort of idea that you're sitting is going to benefit all and the as far as i can see is a pure matter of seeds
ah it's very difficult okay that to really that's a great question she said in order to sit for the welfare of all beings in order to vow to sit for the welfare of our beings you have to have some idea that your city's going to help our bigs that idea if you believe that idea is a form of resistance
what's that motivates you
well i can act as can i work with and a question who is a secondary france and to deal with the earlier when first a little bit more
so when the fuck were so to say that i want to help you to say that i want to live for you does not the same as me thinking that
i'm helping you
i do i actually i actually right now
would like
i i would like to have my this speaking i wish to be for your sake i wish that but i do not think that that's helping you
i don't think it's not helping your either
i keep it up with that that's the thing about this vow is that and not just i'm living for your sake i'm living for the sake of everybody that makes my make her mine open
my that opened my mind now i can attach even to that vow and then i called my mind closes again
so this vow is to open my mind to to say i must know that this does help in order to make this vile than the mine closes again
not
i kind of i believe it here's the faith but i do kind of believe that this when i when i sit with his vow i do kind of believe that this opens my mind and is conducive to non attachment
so devotion to others with no limit
wishing to love others with no limit goes makes possible is necessary for me to not be attached to myself or others
i you can be attached to the vow to help others all others you but you can be attached to it's not immune from attachment however in order to really be non attached we need a vow like that
otherwise you you just vow to help those people which are go along with your attachments
but everybody doesn't go along with anybody's attachment
so i
i do not know that i help you
however the knowledge of of you being helped his opened it to when my mind opens and the not that knowledge can then illuminates and encourages me and you
to continue to be open and receive that encouragement and continue to be open and received and encouragement and this way by practicing together we realize we enact this thing which we cannot know
i cannot know hi i'm helping you
he just said the knowledge of being held the knowledge that time being felt by what you do helps to open
no no than the the knowledge while the knowledge is knowledge from the knowledge comes from as practicing together with this bow
i actually me the knowledge cut the knowledges is realized by as practicing together
with this wow
that's how the knowledge is realized
but it isn't realized by my consciousness reaching it because it's not the kind of thing that a consciousness can reach
but it is the kind of thing which can illuminated consciousness and encourage a consciousness
the consciousness can reach it there is an element of faith some
there is an element of faith kind of sort of it from the beginning
it when when is the fact that you're willing to listen to talk about causation is it some faith in causation
some and the more you practice it them the deeper the faith in causation jones
the deep faith in causation goes with
a practice was realizes it
with all beings
and we need and we need some encouragement to keep practicing and
the encouragement helps us helps us be more and more committed and and encourage us to be more and more aware of our resistance and the more were aware of our resistance the more faith we have in giving it up
john does your boundaries
i wasn't going gonna say that but you're saying trigger that is it doesn't come with him perception yeah right but but but that always somehow that always troubles me because you know the term realization
say something's realized
yeah had that respond
i keep trying to
they can occur
he could have eaten capital to the
so where is perception fit his pattern here

huh
i often use example of
if people are dancing particular the tango because everybody knows it takes to
when you're dancing they both may have a perception that they're dancing and in some senses are right
and they also may both have a conceptual cognition that they're dancing and and if they have a conceptual cognition that they're dancing
we have teaching it says that that's a mistaken conception because when you have a when you have a concept of the dance while you're dancing you must take the concept of it
for the for the dance
i said what about direct perception of the das well that's less mistaken if you can actually see the dance
without conflict because it with no kind with no concept non conceptual is less mistaken however
the dance is not the perception of the two dancers
the dance is what they're doing together and they're not having the same perception
but the dance is the realization of the thing called the dance not the perception of it but they do our perceptions but sometimes they don't have perceptions of the dance and they're still dancing
so that they could have a perception or not but when they're not dancing they're not dancing and when they are dancing the are and
the perception is not mixed with actually it's listen the same room but it's not really mixed or
it doesn't really get the dance
the thing that gives the dance of dance
and the practice of the this dharma is that is the way we are
dependently koi rising together and that is that's the practice and our perceptions of it are going on and we're talking about a right now but diskless caution there's something that's not reached by our perceptions of this discussion
but that doesn't mean we don't pay attention to our perceptions we should pay attention to our perceptions of what's going on because thought that those are the places where one of the things we can do then is around our perceptions we can tell if for attaching
on our perceptions we can so we can do some extent spot that we can perceive that we're trying to get something or other we think we've got something
you can perceive these illusions
for example you've got something
by yourself but not everybody gave you and that you're not giving everybody these things you can can perceive and you can perceive them directly
and see actually that they're empty
when you can also conceptually cognize them but be somewhat mistaken about it because you're confusing your concept with the thing harvey these perceptions aren't the thing the perception of emptiness is not the emptiness the perception of selflessness is not the selflessness the perception of dependent arising is not dependent arising but
learning to perceive it more and more with less and less resistance we we become more and more servant of the truth
whit along with our perceptions they don't be we can still be human beings rep perceptions it's just that our perceptions
of things are not the things
however they're not separate from the things either because the perceptions and what they're perceiving are also dependent core rising and our existence is a dependent or arising of our perceptions with the things we're perceiving
that however is more like the dance
which were doing
and question how do we opened to the dance
yes you describe
perception is crazy
i guess i'm here to was
certification
perception is
as a utilitarian awareness
i guess i'm also wondering like can we use our perceptions as me
perception changing perceptions shifting perception yeah you can use a procession is playing in one of the ways to play with it is to realize that the percept one of the playful things to do is realize that perception is not the thing being perceived that's one of ways to be playful and which some people don't want to do
because they don't want playful so then how can we not be attached to than being playful
because we're a perception that are not playful well
we should be kind to the not playfulness in others and ourselves that's that's part of the way to work with playfulness
i mean on playfulness
is to be kind to it you have been some a name again
terry could you say more now
yeah well that's it another to skirt i will say that this is another big discussion of this other be talking but this a lot more than i will say right now but basically the the deep faith and cause and effect could also be said to be deep faith in karmic cause and effect
so the buddhism
the forty called the right view in in the buddhist teaching is karma has consequence
karma human action
he is both the product and the initiator of existence
and karma is our cognitive
our construction of what's going on mom by moment
so because our mine is constructing a story of the universe moment by moment the story of our relationships with others moment by moment the consequence of that
is to be closed
close to what close to the actual causal situation in which our story of the called the situation is being constructed so we live in a complex pulsating constantly changing ungraspable wonderful causal relationship with all beings and we're constantly me
making a story about it that's our karma basically
has result of that
we do it again and again and again and we start to make a world that seems to be
know realizing this limited conceptual not uk cognitive construction about the world so it's hard for us
to open up
first of all to the enclosure which are cock cock commerce making but that we can observe you can we can be aware of the enclosure that are mine mix and then we can be kind and playful with that
as a way to studied causation because as that that's why we might want to do this because we hear karma makes it hard for us to open to the truth
what do good then the truth of dependent arising the truth of cause and effect within a be good to study now if camera will lead us if our colonel will allow us to study the karma than our karma is being kind of like someone enlighten karma
and one of the we have we haven't buddha's teaching the thing about we got good bad and neutral karma heard about that here be does you've heard a bad karma right and good karma they used to be a restaurant san francisco called good karma cafe
not there anymore
anyway there's good karma or wholesome karma on wholesome karma wholesome karma on wholesome karma and you can say neutral in other words some kinds of thought constructions is hard to tell whether they're wholesome or unwholesome
and someone said to me a while ago
but what's good about good karma still karma is still a kind of enclosure the good thing about good karma is a good karma allows you
the study karma
and bad karma thing as bad or worse thing about bad comment aside from making you scared and and in a depressed in and can end at risk of more bad karma the bad thing about is that bad kind of won't let you study karma
because you can do bad card without paying attention
but to do good karma you have to pay attention so if you pay attention to do good karma than the good karmas letting you start to pay attention so then you can start to notice the karma
so you're studying cause and effect
so if you pay attention to your action
that is the effect generally speaking of making it possible for you to pay attention to your action
and doing good karma you naturally pay attention to what you're doing
and the more you pay attention what you're doing the more you studying cause and effect and in the more you pay attention to more you notice
that even though you're doing good karma you're still doing it not for the welfare of all beings and stuff like that you can start to notice these things but because of our past karma of not being like that we have a tendency to say what i'm i'm not doing this for the sake of all beings but the reason why we think that is because quite a few times and to pass we didn't think we're doing it for
the sake of all beings we thought were doing for the sake of like
maybe nobody or maybe me
like some people actually think they're doing bad karma for everybody including themselves said it's hard for them to think of doing good karma for everybody
that's one story about why it's hard for us to shift and remember and not resist this way of living because it's unfamiliar
because we cause there's that
there's a strong habit to not do that
but there's pressure on us to learn this is called suffering

no
yes is
it's a way of knowing yes but isn't
knowledge knowledge is knowledge is created and it is realized both by this study that's the proposal that this kind of study creates knowledge of the thing we're study and also realizes
however i'm i also point out to you that you cannot see causation you can think you do but you can't see causation causation is not a sense object
i feel like when i was actually i've noticed his class doll told me i thought i was kind of thinking
usually the agrarian crisis is a waiting list
and i thought were going to a bigger rooms so i thought well more people can come we wanted to turn anybody away so he told me the number of people which was less than the usual number they come and i felt kind of sick when i heard that not too many people were going to come and so am i thought as such start
inquisition right thing is the reason why i felt sick because
the small number did the small number made me think well maybe yeah you know maybe people are interested in this study
because it's so you know hard core whatever is that they don't want to do it they want more sex year course or something
because that the reason but then i noticed that i was trying to with my own perceptions i was trying to see causation
i kind of had a couple of theories about why i felt little bit sick and i could go on for some other ones too but all those theories that i would have a by wife sick those aren't actually the causation my theories your theories cannot reach it
however you can have a theory like in science about that and then i studied and new study it and with practice studying this theory and by studying the theory will create the knowledge like scientists scientific knowledge is not theories
they use theories to create knowledge they interact with the theories and do experiments and have coffee you know and donuts and they argue with each other and they will think about it i do all that stuff around these theories and knowledge accumulates
and then begin and because analogy accumulates then they sometimes revised the theories of the knowledge illuminates them and illuminates the theories and they changed the theories but the theories are not the knowledge the theories or what people can look at and see and perceive you can perceive a theory but you cannot perceive scientific knowledge but
the reason testing them is the work of creating knowledge and same here we have a theory the theory is if you study causation
you become buddha
if you study causation with other people together we will create knowledge of the truth
and that knowledge of the truth
will illuminate our theories and our theories will change
and then we'll test the theories
which say practices way and you become selfless practice this way and you'll notice you not resisting practices way and you'll notice that your more and more free you have perceptions like that but the thing ear to the thing that's illuminating you and causing your life to positively evolve that is not known by your purse
caption
but what we can know his various theories about this and we can and when that we're talking on i'm telling you these theories were year and you're hearing them and you're testing them in your mind with your with your asking questions or not you're testing them and you're going to practice these are not and if you do practice him you're going to learns going to get certain
results and if you don't practice in me going to get other results
and you get to see so the theories are being put forth you are getting a chance to test them and practice them and study them and
and this work creates and realize knowledge
you are actually doing the work of creating knowledge of the truth by hearing these theories and putting forth these series and asking questions about these theories together with the rest of us we are accumulating buddha's wisdom and knowledge this way we are realizing it
and if you don't think about this between now and next week he knows what that's like
and if you do your knows what that's like
and then you come back here and so on this is how we do it for it this is that this is the path where all this path of learning this teaching
charlie

no even even it's not that it's not that one
it's it's that we together practicing is the knowledge it's not that one person cat by himself but that when and i can't by myself but when you and i get to practice and then we get it know it's that you can't get it i can't get it but when we practice together and work with whatever the teaching is that
practice for doing together that dance were doing together that dance the way you and i relate to each other
which is not the way were relating is not my perception of the way were relating and not your perception the way of relating however we're the one of the ways we relate is both i was having perceptions of our relationship but there's other ways were relating which are not perceptions
our physicality is not not a perception we can perceive our perception our physicality but it's not a perception
so the way we're actually relating that is the knowledge and the more we study the way were relating
by paying attention by perceiving way relating
the while we opened to the way we're actually relating and that knowledge than illuminates what we can perceive and encourages us to continue the study just like scientists have perception of scientific knowledge which encourages them to continue their work which creates more scientific knowledge or which causes of scientific knowledge to him
evolve but their percent of the a given scientists perception of scientific knowledge is not scientific knowledge
yeah

well
one of the things about about
buddha dharma and science is that
ah
are you even if you think you're right even if you okay you think that you just have a confirmed your your theory and you've got a bunch of other people who has who are who are this also think that the theory was confirmed
right it has pushed to stop
as a matter of fact a theory the that gets a lot of people to test it
and comes up with positive results is a theory which encourage more people to print to test it
and and and the more people are testing it the better they say the theory is but a theory that you know that six people test and get positive results on they stop is not as good as his theory that's that the five people are study and get positive results and one gets a negative result
but doesn't get is not negative enough to disprove the theory which means it's not negative so that people won't try his experiment over
the the one where people keep studying it is the one where scientific knowledge is alive and evolving
so if there were a situation where everybody agreed and thought there had it right
stunning and i was say other be that would be dead dharma
the the knowledge the knowledge scientific knowledge it would go away would be lost
there's then it would be lost i don't know how long will take but it would be lost forgotten because nobody's paying attention to fear anymore
you say what they they kind of remember how they can remember but how many days will he remember it if nobody tests it again and nobody talks about it they will eventually eventually forget it and even if computers will forget it and the theory will be lost same with with with buddha's teaching it people are working on it he will be loss
east and in fact the buddha says it will eventually be lost
that will happen that people will stop working on this and they'll move on to some other thing which they'll maybe the agree on but if they stop if the agree stop that that knowledge will be lost
if they agree and don't get agree that's fine that's the norm less normal situation
and but still if they don't keep studying it they won't develop knowledge so if we interact and have different opinions which we do around some teaching
that interaction he is how we get the we don't always immediately get knowledge but that's how knowledge is a rot arrived at
it's arrived at socially
has maintained socially
with beings who have perceptions and part of the knowledge we have which can illuminate us is a knowledge of how to study perception
that's one of the key things to study
which was which were studying here tonight
this does this class usually and at nine fifteen
oh nine o'clock
all
sorry
yeah i think i'm not probably remember thank you
so ah here's your reading list if you want them and
and i believe the sense at sfcc dot org rep assistant you can get this online and get some of these texts online