Today I'd like to begin with the work which is called Two-Fold Entry into the Way and the Four Practices, which are attributed to Bodhidharma. Perhaps sometime, when we have some discussion time, if you'd like to talk about the scholastic and historical debate around Bodhidharma and whether or not he really is who we say he is, we can do that. But for now, I feel that I see in this teaching, whoever wrote it, what I think is the way that has been transmitted to us. I see the thread here.

[01:02]

There are many roads for entering the way, but in essence they do not go beyond two kinds. One is entering through inner truth, and the other is entering through practice. Now, the first point I'd like to mention here is that this is about entry into the way. This is not the whole story of the way, this is about entry, and right from the beginning

[02:18]

you can see that they have on one side entry to the way through inner truth and through practice. So there is here an interface between effortlessness and effort. And this interface is very subtle. Entering through inner truth is effortless, and practice involves some effort, and yet practice also can be effortless and effortful. So it's very subtle. Entering through inner truth means using the teachings to awaken to the source.

[03:28]

It means deep faith that living beings, both ordinary and sage, are one, and that ordinary and sage share one and the same reality-nature. It is just because of false coverings of alien dusts or external objects that it is not manifested. If you abandon the false and return to the real, concentrate your attention and gaze like a wall, then there is no self and others, ordinary and sage are equal, firmly abiding

[04:40]

and unmoving. You no longer fall into verbal teachings. In silent communion with the way, you no longer are a slave of words. This tacit, silent accord with inner truth, this is tacit, silent accord with inner truth, without discrimination, it is still and nameless. This is called entering through inner truth.

[05:42]

This way of entry is so direct that silence is really the only way to explain it. Stillness is the only way to practice it. This is initiation by stillness. Or the initiatory experience is stillness and silence. Entering by inner truth, there are no alien dusts.

[08:19]

That means no external objects. The sound of the frost melting on the roof is not alien, is not external. Those sounds are inner truth and if you can see them as not external, this is non-discrimination.

[09:34]

This is non-discrimination. This is non-discrimination. This is non-discrimination.

[10:35]

With inner truth at the hearing of these sounds. As these sounds hit the ear, as these sounds meet the ear, can you realize the path arising there? If you can realize that these sounds never meet your ear, then you can realize that

[12:02]

they're never separate from your ear. Right there, in the meeting of the organ and the object. If you can see that they never meet, that's what we mean by renunciation.

[13:08]

That's what it means to leave home. Right there, in the meeting of the organ and the object. Right there, in the meeting of the organ and the object.

[14:12]

Sometimes we say that we sit here in the Zen-do and listen to the street for nine years. But entry by inner truth means that Bodhidharma did not gaze at the wall. The practice of facing the wall, the practice of wall contemplation, is not looking at the wall or listening to the stream. It is one piece. No self or other. It is gazing like a wall.

[15:26]

How does a wall gaze? It is listening like the stream, like the sound of the stream. This is non-discrimination, which does not mean that you do not discriminate. It means that you understand what discrimination is, that you understand it never really happens. Right there, in the meeting of the organ and the object.

[16:56]

Sometimes this is called the counter-clockwise swastika. This is going in the opposite direction of the world. This is going upstream to the source instead of downstream to the ocean. So these few sentences by Bodhidharma, even one sentence, one of these sentences is food enough for a lifetime of practice, for a lifetime of effortlessness. Deep faith that all living beings, both ordinary and sage, share in one nature.

[18:18]

Deep faith that you are already in the way. Unmoving, firmly abiding in silent communion. I feel foolish to talk about anything more than this, but I'm going to go on, not only to the Four Practices but to a lot of other stuff. Next is the Four Practices. What are the Four Practices? First, the practice of repaying wrong action.

[19:31]

Second is the practice of going along with the causal nexus, or obedience to karma. Third is the practice of not seeking anything. Fourth is the practice of according with dharma. What is the practice of repaying wrongs? Also sometimes called requiting hatreds. When receiving suffering, a practitioner who cultivates the path should think thus.

[20:42]

Okay, you're being told to think thus. And now, quotation mark, you're being instructed now to think of some words. Quote, during countless ages past, I have abandoned the root and pursued the branches. Abandoned the source and pursued the branches. Flowing into various states of being, giving rise to rancor and hatred. The transgression, the harm done, has been limitless. Though I do not transgress now, this suffering is a disaster left over from former lives. The result of deeds have ripened.

[21:52]

This suffering is not something given by gods or humans. Unquote. Recommending that you think these words. These are words to help us free ourselves from words. We've been talking for countless ages. And by this talk, we have gone down the stream away from the source and accumulated vast amounts of past karma. Because of this past karma, this is what's happening.

[22:57]

This suffering is a disaster. Disaster means dis-aster. A disturbance in the stars has been created by my past action. My true destiny is disturbed by all the thinking and talking I've done. And so this is what I've got. Even though now I'm a Tassajara and I'm being a good boy, still, I now experience the ripening of so much rancor and hatred. You should willingly endure the suffering without anger or complaint. This is an effort.

[24:07]

This is a practice. To willingly endure suffering without anger or complaint. Why? Because this suffering is the unavoidable ripening of my long-past karma. This may sound passive, but it's not passive. It takes a big effort to not react to this suffering and search for somebody to blame. This is a teaching. Marx said something like, religion is the opiate of the masses. So someone might say, this kind of teaching would tell the suffering people of the world

[25:16]

just to sort of not do anything about it and would pacify them so they wouldn't rise up against their overlords who are oppressing and exploiting them. You could understand this teaching in that way and you could practice in that way. In other words, you could become passive. But it wouldn't work. You wouldn't really be accepting your suffering in this way if you did it passively. You have to do it actively, otherwise it doesn't really work. In other words, you will not gain relief unless you actively engage in embracing the suffering. Which also means you have to really clearly locate it. This isn't a general acceptance.

[26:18]

This isn't a general endurance. This is an extremely specific endurance. It's an endurance of a particular discomfort, a particular suffering. You have to find it. You have to locate exactly what's bothering you. Get clear about it. Settle with it. And you will be released. A sutra says, encountering suffering, one is not concerned. Why? Because one is conscious of the basic root. When this attitude towards suffering is born,

[27:20]

you are in accord with inner truth. And even as you experience wrongs, you advance in the way. Thus, it is called the practice of repaying wrongs. Every experience we have, according to Lord Buddha, is the result of past karma. We are paying our past bills constantly, but if somebody else sends the check off for you, you don't experience the relief. At my house, my wife pays the bills. She writes the checks. And in a way, I'm not doing the practice of repaying wrongs

[28:26]

by letting her pay the bills. All those irritations that come in, she has to focus on them and write those checks. If I don't do that, I miss something. However, I do some of the other practices, which you'll soon see. So it's okay. But that's what I mean. You have to specifically meet the irritation, the suffering. And many of us are going around and something's jiggling inside of us. Something's bothering us. Or we meet someone and something's unsettled. Something's unclear. Something's not quite... I don't know. We're not facing it. What is it? It's not the other person's problem.

[29:29]

What is it in you? What is it that you feel? Find that thing. Settle in on it. And it will move and change. But if you don't look at it and find it, it'll keep biting at you and nipping at you. Because you have to really pay back. And you have to witness the pain. Otherwise, it keeps... It keeps annoying you and unsettling you. And you can't appreciate the path that you're already on. Again, I could spend so much time discussing this point, but I would go on. This next one, again, the first practice, as you see,

[30:34]

if you can have this attitude towards suffering, you accord with inner truth. So really, this practice takes you back to the first practice of entering through inner truth. And also this next one is a practice, a way to make some effort in entering through inner truth. It's called going along with the causal nexus. Nexus means to bind or to connect. What we are is just the connection of all of our past karma and all of the things that are happening in the universe at this moment. We are just that nexus. And we are actually constantly going along with that connection. We are going along with that nexus, that binding.

[31:39]

And we are bound by that nexus. We are bound by that causation. We can't move an iota from that place that we are. We are totally caused. And yet, unless we we celebrate our total entrapment, unless we celebrate the fact that we are absolutely bound, that our bondage is absolute, we don't really go along with it. This is also called obedience to karma, which means to listen to karma and be obedient. Everything we experience is just karmically created.

[32:49]

But inner truth is that this karmically created experience that we are totally in bondage to is non-dual with the uncreated. But, if we do not go along with the causal nexus, we also cannot realize the non-duality of this causal nexus and the uncreated. If we hedge on our karma, we hedge on our no-karma. If we're afraid to be who we are, we also rob ourselves of who we aren't, of that which is far, far beyond this little karmic world.

[34:04]

The karmically created is the content of and inseparable from non-discriminating awareness. The causal nexus is the content of non-discriminating wisdom. And if we don't accord with the causal nexus, we lose non-discriminating awareness. Non-discriminating awareness operates on the particular causal nexus, and that's the only kind of causal nexus there is. If you vaguely, generally, accord with the causal nexus, it doesn't work. Just as before, to vaguely honor your suffering doesn't work. You have to honor the particular turd on the road. And because I believe in Bodhidharma's teaching,

[35:37]

I can pick up that turd. With my whole heart and my whole shovel. But if I don't believe Bodhidharma's teaching, then the andhra should pick it up. And if the andhra doesn't believe in Bodhidharma's teaching, then I should pick it up. Sentient beings have no selves.

[36:42]

But that doesn't mean there's no self. Sentient beings have no selves, but are transformed in a manner causally linked to their deeds. We are transformed in a manner causally linked to our deeds. This is the causal nexus. These living beings receive both suffering and happiness. Both are born of causal conditions. If we get good rewards, glory and fame and the like, this is brought about by past causes. We receive them now, but when the causal nexus ends, they will not be there. How can we rejoice? Gain and loss follow the causal nexus.

[37:48]

Mind is neither augmented nor diminished. When the wind of joy at gain and the sorrow at loss do not stir, you deeply accord with the path. This is called the practice of going along with the causal nexus. Now, I'm pretty familiar with Eric's turds. I've seen a lot of them. And I know approximately the diameter of the two. And the other day in the courtyard I saw some shit. And it was too narrow to be coming from the colon of this 95-pound dog.

[38:50]

These little turds were fashioned by a smaller colon. So I asked Gabrielle if this was Zoria-sized stuff. And she said she wasn't sure, but she was the quantity was too great for Zoria, she thought. There was the causal nexus. No one else at Tassajar was going to pick that dog shit up. Actually, I didn't even know what kind of animal did it. But to this day I'm sure that wasn't done by Eric. Laughter Nonetheless, I picked it up.

[39:55]

Because I'm pretty sure that is the causal nexus. Now that it's over, it's gone. And no one knows what happened. Laughter On the way down here, I came down with my wife and we stopped for one night and stayed at a at a bed-and-breakfast place and they had TV in there. And I turned the TV on and there was a show about elephant seals. We have elephant seals in California, I believe, right? And elephant seals, the alpha males are very big. I think they weigh either 3 or 6 tons. I forgot which it is. So they weigh 6,000 or 12,000 pounds. And...

[41:00]

Anyway, I won't comment on their looks too much. But anyway, they weigh about that much. And they told that at some time of year I forgot what time of year. The males land on the beach ahead of the females. The females are still out on the water. The males land on the beach and they they interact, or whatever you want to say, to establish not territory, but access to the females, reproductive access. It's not the same as territory. And after some period of time they establish who has access and who doesn't. But the males that don't have access can still be on the same beach. They just aren't allowed to mate. Then the females come. And shortly after they land they give birth.

[42:04]

They're in the water pregnant. And they give birth and the pups weigh 60 pounds at birth. And the females nurse them for one month. And in one month they go from 60 pounds to 200 pounds. And they're very rich. The females give very rich milk. And the females lose half their weight in that month. I don't know how much they weigh. They probably weigh maybe 3,000 to 6,000 pounds instead of 6,000 to 10,000 to 12,000 pounds. Anyway, they lose half their weight in nursing producing this 200 pound pup. Then when the pups weigh 200 pounds the females go into estrus. And then for the next period of time I forgot how long it is maybe a couple more months they mate. And once the mating starts the males, the alpha males

[43:06]

have 50 to 60 whatever they call them, cows that they have to relate to. And during that time they do not eat or sleep for about two months. They're always awake and mating or trying to mate. And the reason why they can't sleep is because the other males who are allowed to be in the same area aren't supposed to have access, right? So he has to not only be mating but also watching that the other males don't get in there into his area. But the person who is moderating or narrating the show said something like after he said about them not sleeping or drinking for two months

[44:07]

or whatever it is he said something like it's really quite a hard job. I don't remember exactly how he said it but it struck me that he didn't he was sort of sympathizing with the guy with this alpha male as though he really just sort of got himself into a really tough position that he got really big and strong over many years and probably as the males grow up they fight for many years and then finally some of them become alpha males as they grow bigger and the other ones die off. So for many years he struggled to become an alpha male and then gain all that weight and develop all that stuff and then he got this really hard job of you know as I said but the narrator didn't say this you know

[45:07]

and this what selfish greedy bossy guy indulging himself he sympathized with what a hard job it was to cope with the situation. I mean he sort of there was some sympathy for the fact that this alpha male couldn't do anything other than that. I mean he he had to stay awake for two months and not drink anything and he couldn't he couldn't do otherwise. But I kind of you know before he said that I was kind of thinking boy this guy is kind of weird or foggy or whatever I had I had some feeling like he couldn't do otherwise. I noticed when he said that that really this poor animal was just completely stuck in his causal situation and can't get out of it and it's a hard job. And the females too

[46:08]

nursing and losing half their weight that's a hard job too. And the pups and every every living being is really trapped absolutely and there's nothing you can do about it. And one kind of Buddhism says transcendence of this situation is impossible. However this situation is non-dual with the non-karmic world. Completely non-dual with the world that's not cause and effect. Where there is no discrimination no coming and going

[47:08]

no birth and death. We can't do anything about that world because that's exactly what that world is that's the world where nothing is done. But we can realize the Dharmakaya the true body of Buddha which is the non-duality of the karmic world and the unkarmic world the uncreated and the created. And the way we do it one way we do it is to accord with the causal nexus to go along with the causal situation in which we are completely trapped and to re-honor our complete utter entrapment. And not wiggle and try to get out of it. Now if you wiggle and try to get out of it then you're a worm and you're trapped in being a worm and you should be a worm

[48:09]

and wiggle and squirm and be a greasy worm. And not try to be the slightest bit better than that cause that's exactly what you are. And if you can do that with no hesitation if you can come into the world and be that person this is to accord with inner truth. And very few people have the courage to be who they are in all their whatever worminess or whatever it is. Very few people have the determination and confidence in the Buddha's teaching to be who they are and to honor their causal situation. But this is to deeply accord with the path. So that's the second

[49:16]

of the four practices. Which provide a way to make effort in order to accord with inner truth. So the first way is just direct non-dualistic entry by inner truth. The second is according with inner truth through repaying past karma. The other is enter according with inner truth by obedience to karma or according or going along with the causal nexus. So next time I give a talk I'll talk about the next two or the next one of the four practices which are called not seeking and according with Dharma. This morning

[50:28]

during breakfast I was pretty sleepy. At one point there was a server standing over there behind the altar. He's standing there. The way they stand up they finish serving people. So I thought maybe I should to take him over here. I wasn't home but I guess he just ran out of food but I was pretty sleepy anyway. One time when I was shiso I was you know facing out in the old zendo and the junko was standing in front of me. The back his back was to me and I was looking at the junko and then suddenly the junko was at the end of the row. He just he leaped 60 feet. Do you understand? Do you understand? Do you understand less? You don't, do you? I actually saw him

[51:34]

swing through the air but actually you know what happened was he was standing here and the next time I saw him he was standing up in the row you see and I put the two together and created this person jumping 60 feet. It's the wonders of discriminating mind. Anyway I was I was kind of sleepy during breakfast this morning and I thought boy if the rest of the people here are sleepy like I am it's going to be pretty hard for them to stay awake during my lecture. Not so hard for me because I'm going to be talking but so I kind of is this a is this a time can you stay awake at this time? Or should we have lectures some other day? Tomorrow? Maybe we could have lectures in between days or something. Anyway you did pretty well if you're sleepy as I am. Thank you.

[53:15]

Thank you.

[53:40]

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