December 1st, 2015, Serial No. 04247
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Yesterday I spoke about cleaning the temple, cleaning consciousness, and also about expressing the Buddha seal, the Buddha mind seal, in all of our actions, in all actions. In consciousness, where I seem to be, there was the thought, that's enough. Talk about that. They understand. No need to say more. And then there was the thought, but some people might say, well, there was a Dharma talk scheduled
[01:07]
And we only got one. So maybe someone would be disappointed, so we're doing it again. Also in consciousness the thought arose, it seems like some temple cleaning is going on in this room. the way you were sitting yesterday, so silent and still, it seemed like the consciousnesses were becoming purified, become clean. And so I also felt it seems like the community is ready to express the Buddha Mind Seal in all their actions. These are thoughts that arose in consciousness.
[02:12]
So there's an imagination of consciousness and there seems to be the arising of activities. Moment by moment there seems to be the arising of feelings and emotions and intentions. What does it mean to clean? Basically all the things arising in consciousness are basically already clean. But also in consciousness, where there's a sense of a self, there's confusion. And actually the confusion is clean. And part of the confusion is that when there's a sense of self, there's always, according to the ancestors, four kinds of affliction that come up with the sense of self, called self-view, self-confusion, self-pride,
[03:48]
and kind of self-affection. So when there's a consciousness, there's a sense of self. And when there's a sense of self, there's a self-view. It's kind of like, when there's a sense of self, it's like things seem to be seen through the self, which is an affliction. actually things are appearing. And together with the things that are appearing, with all the activities and feelings and emotions, there's a sense of self. But we don't, it doesn't seem like everything's being viewed through the feelings or through the emotions. They could be. We can see them in that way. But there's almost always a sense of seeing what's going on through the self that's there.
[04:50]
That's kind of a challenge to being clear. Also, there's confusion about the self, like the self owns or doesn't own the stuff that's going on. The self is identifying with or not identifying with everything that's going on. rather than just as a sense of self, and there's a color or a feeling or an idea or an emotion, and that's it. It's like the self is in them or identified with them. This is the confusion. Not just the color or the sound, but the self in them or not, or outside them. And also this self-pride, there's a sense that this process that seems like somebody has the power to control what's going on.
[05:58]
And then there's also kind of an affection for it. And then there's embarrassment about the affection. And then there's confusion about thinking that it's so darling. So this is a situation where the cleaning projects are needed. And everything that's going on there actually is clean already. But if we don't clean it, we don't realize it's clean. If we don't let it be, for example, let a color be, just let it be, let a sound be. If there's not that allowing, again, it seems like, well, I'm involved in it. I'm in it. I'm connected to it. That's the defilement.
[07:04]
Not the thing, but the confusion of self with the thing. So the cleaning is just to let it be and just let the involvement drop away. Everything that comes up, just let any kind of self-involvement just be there and drop away. actually everything that arises is not infected with or inhabited by or possessed by the self. But there's confusion so we need to say, no, no, no, everything's really selfless and any appearance of of stickiness or ownership or dishonorship or identification. All that stuff is just more stuff to just let be. In this way we keep the cleanliness of all phenomena, the purity of all phenomena is allowed.
[08:13]
Not created, but just allowed. And again this is not There might be a sense of getting everything perfectly clean. But that would be another thing not to get involved with. Like we're cleaning. We're cleaning the temple. Okay, fine. That's another thing not to identify with. Not to get the temple under control. not to get all the sentient beings under control, including the sentient beings who are on the cleaning crew. Now then there's the words, express the Buddha mind seal in all the actions. So in this space of consciousness, all these actions are arising.
[09:20]
of body, speech, and mind. Every action is an opportunity to express the Buddha mind seal. And when that instruction appears as words in consciousness, there might be a comment that would appear, like, how can you express the Buddha mind seal? that seems impossible or how do you do it? And again that's another thing which is not really infected by self so just let that be and then that question is also another thing which is cleaned and not interfering with the inconceivable practice of letting everything that's arising in consciousness all the activities, every single activity that's arising, let each one be in the service of expressing the Buddha mind seal.
[10:28]
Another way to say this is cleaning the temple means clean all actions of their karmic, of their karmic quality. So when an action arises and there's a thought that this action is under control of the self, then it's a karmic activity. Self owning and doing this, and also this is under the control of self. And not only is it under control, but it actually was done just the way the self wanted it. That's the way things look in the land of confusion. When there's clarity, you see there's an action and the self doesn't own it, and the action did not happen the way somebody intended it. It happened, but not according to somebody's plan. Nobody's in charge of these activities in consciousness.
[11:39]
They look like somebody's under control in the state of ignorance. When there's not thorough attentiveness, it can look like somebody's in control and things are happening just like somebody wanted them to. expressing the Buddha mind seal actually is the state of reality. And so we can join it by letting all phenomena join it. And when one person in one moment, at one moment, allows this action to express the Buddha Mind Seal, the entire phenomenal world is already and right now expressing the Buddha Mind Seal.
[12:47]
So we clean the clean. And if we don't clean the clean, we don't understand. The clean and then not understanding the clean then the actions seem to hinder the expression of the Buddha mind seal. In the text, it actually says Buddha seal. I'm adding Buddha mind. I'm adding the word mind. Buddha mind seal. And the word seal, the Chinese character there is a character that's used for the familiar Sanskrit term mudra. So it's sometimes translated as Buddha mudra. And a mudra, the Sanskrit word is often applied to physical shapes.
[13:55]
For example, The way we hold our hands in meditation we call a mudra. It's a shape of the hands. And it's also a symbol of meditation. It's called the Cosmic Concentration Mudra. It's a shape, it's a physical shape, and it's a symbol and it's kind of a circle. But another meaning of, I don't know about the Sanskrit, but another meaning of the Chinese word that's used for mudra is, again, symbol or seal, but also like a trademark. So the trademark of the Buddha mind, the symbol of the Buddha mind, the shape of the Buddha mind, to express that in every gesture.
[15:14]
So this Cosmic Concentration Mudra expresses the Buddha seal. This is one of our trademarks. We put this trademark against our body, below our navel when we're sitting. This is, joining the palms together, is another Buddha mudra. The sitting posture is a Buddha mudra. These are all symbols of the Buddha mind. What's the Buddha Mudra again? Well, the Buddha Mudra is an awareness.
[16:19]
It's an awareness in which we practice. And everything we do everything that is done in body, speech, and mind can express this awareness. This awareness which is a symbol, which is the shape of Buddha's mind. We we can use perceptible actions as an opportunity to express an imperceptible mind, an imperceptible Buddha wisdom mind. And when we use a perceptible shape or sound or thought to express the imperceptible Buddha's wisdom, the whole phenomenal world joins in that Buddha mudra, that Buddha symbol, that Buddha shape.
[17:57]
Again, we need to be consistently, continuously cleaning the perceptible, cleaning each action so that the action is not confused with any self-cleaning, any self-identification or dis-identification, so that the perceptible phenomena is now purely in service of expressing the Buddha mind. And again, how do we clean a perceptible action? by being very attentive to it.
[19:16]
Because if we're not attentive to the particular perceptible phenomena, if we miss being there for it, we miss how it is the delivery point the place of giving this expression and receiving this expression. The giving and receiving, the awareness is, the awareness is the awareness of how we are all giving and receiving this Buddha mind. But we need to be there with each thing to witness and express. to not miss it. It's already going on, the site is already clean, but we need to clean it. The expression is already there, we need to be there for the expression in order for the expression not to be missed.
[20:23]
All this practice in the midst of a swirling, turbulent universe. And another thing, too, if there's ever an impulse to wish that the universe was less turbulent, we clean that wish. We don't say, get out of here, wish, for a less turbulent universe. That's a stupid wish. No. We just let that wish be and drop away any, that's not my wish, that is my wish, let that drop away and let the wish for an easier place to practice be. Already during this session there may have arisen thoughts in somebody's mind
[21:31]
I wish we had a little bit less difficult place to sit. Or I wish sitting at this place was a little easier. Or I wish we could have a little less of this that's going on now. I wish this would come to a conclusion soon. Such thoughts arise and they are treated with compassion. and treating them with compassion cleans them of any involvement, any clinging, anything stuck in them. They're just thoughts. And treat them as thoughts. Let them be. Then we can go back to the work of expressing the Buddha trademark, which is this action right here, this action right here, this posture right here, this practice right here, is the same practice and the same enlightenment of all beings.
[22:52]
That's the shape of Buddha's mind. everybody's on the same path, practicing the same practice, practicing the same enlightenment. That's the Buddha trademark. And because of that, perhaps it's obvious that if that's the Buddha trademark, then everything would be an opportunity for its expression. everything and everybody. No matter what's going on in consciousness, everything there, all phenomenal entities are opportunities to express the trademark, the symbol,
[24:02]
What's the symbol? The symbol is the words. This is the same practice and the same enlightenment as all beings. That's like a symbol. That's an image. The Buddhas have dharma wheels on their palms and on their feet. They have the same practice as us. We are no different from them. That no difference is the Buddha mudra. there's another term that's used not so much for the Buddha mudra, but for the mindfulness to express it.
[25:25]
And the term is, the original term is ro ba shin, which means old woman mind or old woman heart. Also translated as grandmother mind or sometimes as parental mind. But literally it's old woman mind. and this is a term used in China and Japan and especially I've touched by the way Dogen Zenji used the term grandmother mind which is that the Buddha way is to express the Buddha way in every action.
[26:37]
A body, speech, and mind. That's the Buddha way. The Buddha way is to express the Buddha way, the Buddha mind, in every action. And remembering to do that is called grandmother mind. and having the house clean so that you can remember to do that and not be distracted from that and also not think that there's some other job besides cleaning the house so that you can do this job that's also grandmother mind. A mother mind and father mind might be maybe a little bit like, well, we're taking care of the kids, but there's something more to life than this. I love these kids.
[27:43]
I'll give my life for them. I'm totally devoted to them. But I would like to talk to an adult sometime. Or I would like to go to the movies or go to dinner. You know, I like to clean the temple. I really do, and I'm totally devoted to it. But there must be some other Buddha way besides that. But the grandmother has no other life. You know, doesn't like to take the grandchildren, and of course their parents, and then some other life. That's all she's got, and barely has got that. It's almost every moment like, how much longer will this opportunity arise? But we can, even if we're not grandparents, you can imagine if you, particularly if you're going into a room where a baby was sick, or where your mother was sick, I mean, and you know, really sick, like almost maybe any moment,
[28:55]
they might pass away. When you go in the room you're probably not going in there just for your own personal entertainment. Although you actually might really want to go in the room and it might be a joy to go in, still it might be easy to remember that every action like adjusting a pillow or putting flowers in a vase, or checking on the temperature, it might be easy to realize all these actions are for the sake of this life, this life of this person. It wouldn't be like, when you go in there, remember that what you're doing in there is for that person's benefit. Don't forget and get involved in what's fun for you. A grandchild coming into the room of a grandparent might actually be interested, you know, in her coloring book more than her grandmother.
[30:06]
And can I watch TV? It's delightful. But the grandchild might not be like, I'm going in there to express care for this old lady who is almost dead. But the grandmother, the grandfather, it's easy for them to just only think of one thing. That same mind in the bodhisattva path is to only think of one thing, expressing the Buddha mind seal, expressing the Buddha way. And we have to keep cleaning any distraction from expressing that one thing if we want the whole world to realize it. And every moment there's a new room full of children who want to watch videos.
[31:13]
And each one needs to be related to in a way that each one is cleaned of any self-confusion, is free of any self-view, self-pride, trying to control, or self-love, self-affection. And then again, we remember the simple thing of offering everything that's going on here to the imperceptible mutual assistance of all beings, which is imperceptible
[32:18]
mutual assistance is a symbol for an inconceivable, imperceptible mutual assistance, which we cannot consciously know, but we can be consciously ready to give everything in consciousness to this inconceivable Buddha mind. For example, we offer the opportunity for you to have individual interviews with practice leaders during session in some room outside the Zendo. This is an example of an activity in consciousness.
[33:24]
And the thought arose that there's ten practice leaders in this session. And the thought arose, what if somebody wanted to have interviews with each one? That would be ten interviews. What if they wanted to have two interviews with each one? That would be twenty. So then if someone tried that, that might not be good. That thought arose. So then I have to clean that thought. But still, as I'm cleaning it, I can tell you about it, is that I don't think it's a good idea for us to go to many, many practice instructions to go out So I request, without trying to control you, that try to just have two, one or two, have zero one or two meetings during the session, not three, four, five, so on.
[34:43]
That's an example of a thought. which I expressed, and as I was expressing it, was it offered to the Buddha Mind Seal? I'm watching. So the concept of grandmother mind is a little bit different from expressing the Buddha mind seal. However, when you're practicing grandmother mind, you can use that also as an opportunity to express the Buddha mind seal. But the grandmother mind is more like remembering to always practice the Buddha mind.
[35:50]
And we can't actually remember. we can remember to think, what would be helpful? How can I use this opportunity? Or, I want to use this opportunity to express my devotion to the Buddha way. I want to use this opportunity to express my devotion to the well-being of this sick person, or even this apparently sick person, or even this apparently sick Buddha way. Sometimes in the history of this tradition, some people have looked at the Buddha way and thought, the way it appears, the way it's perceived is that it looks sick.
[37:05]
But even if the Buddha way looks sick, if we use our meeting with it, with the sick Buddha way of our perception, we can use that meeting as an opportunity to express the healthy Buddha way, right with any appearances of sick Buddha way. Also, with appearances of healthy Buddha way. Like sometimes it looks like, woohoo, the Buddha way is really healthy today. Fine. I have a perception that the Buddha way is healthy today. Fine. Now let's just clean that perception of any self-involvement like pride that the Buddha way around here looks really good. And just let that appearance of a healthy Buddha way be that, and then use that, that thought, that opinion, as an opportunity to express the Buddha trademark.
[38:25]
And similarly, if the practice ever looks unhealthy, be just as kind to the unhealthy appearing practice. Treat it basically the same way. Let it be cleaned of any self-confusion and self-pride and self-view, even though there still is self-pride or self-embarrassment and self-view. Even if it's there, let them be too. And then the image of a deteriorated, below-average Buddha way can be used to express the Buddha mind seal. I've heard that it actually does happen in this temple in some consciousnesses.
[39:25]
that the thought arises, this is below average Zen. That thought has arisen in some consciousnesses and then also sometimes the thought has arisen, this is above average Zen. And I have not heard very often people saying, I saw this idea in my mind that this is average Zen. I haven't heard that one yet. I mean, I said it, but I really don't... Actually, now I do think that this is average Zen. But it's just a thought. And the reason why I thought it was... I don't know why I thought that, but actually it was kind of fun to, for the first time in my life, think, this is average Zen. All these years, I never thought that before. But I admit, a few times I thought, this is above average.
[40:35]
And a few times I thought, this is below average. I won't go any further than that. So some of our ancestors really, in some cases, put a strong emphasis on this grandmother mind, the mind which naturally remembers that every moment of daily life is an opportunity for the Buddha way. never forgets this moment is a precious, sick grandchild. All I care about is taking care of this moment as the Buddha way.
[41:42]
May our intention
[41:50]
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