We'll begin with having you say your name. Mahayana Adhyatma. Is there any more description in the classroom? What was it? So in Sanskrit we say avidharma, and in Pali it's avidhamma.

[01:15]

So the avidharma can be described as a systematic presentation. of the Buddha's ethical, psychological, philosophical teachings. And the Abhidharma also is a large body of literature that carefully defined almost all the basic terms that the Buddha used to teach ethics, psychology, meditation and philosophy. It actually was very important and was considered to be part of the Buddhist canon.

[02:24]

The Buddhist canon was formed a few centuries after the death of the Buddha. The three parts of the canon were the discourses of the Buddha, this Abhidharma material, and the literature on ethics. So Abhidharma is closely related to ethics, but the Abhidharma goes into perhaps more of the psychology involved in ethical life. and the ethical, the Vinaya section of the canon, the sutras, the Abhidharma and the Vinaya, the Vinaya section, is not quite as analytic in terms of psychology as the Abhidharma is. And it doesn't make as much effort to clarify and define what the words that are being used are. So it's more, I would say,

[03:28]

The Buddha taught philosophically, psychologically, and anecdotally. The Adhidharma is more psychological analysis and philosophical analysis. It has to do with lots of study of language, using language, etymologies, philologies, and criticism and polemics. Whereas the Vinaya, I know other people who have read it might say, but it seems to be mostly anecdotal. Would anybody disagree with that? It's mostly stories about the Buddha's past lives, and the Buddha's present life, and the stories of disciples having problems with practicing ethics. Some people tell the story that the Abhidharma was very successful in bringing together religion, ethics, and psychology, and philosophy.

[04:44]

And the Abhidharma also, however, carried a drawback that most systems carry. So once you make the effort to clearly define terms and processes you lose some life in the process. And so the Abhidharma became so powerful and so useful that it seemed to undermine the actual practice of the way. When the Buddha taught, the Buddha came up with words somehow in response to people and sometimes the Buddha would choose a word to speak to people about that word would have many meanings in the group, many people would interpret it in different ways, and the Buddha would work with the fact that people were hearing the word in different ways, and the next word would be in relationship to people taking the word different ways.

[05:49]

So, in the presence of the teacher, things were much more dynamic and alive than they became after the teacher's words were clearly defined. and agreed upon by many wise scholars who were disciples of the Buddha. And the Buddha did offer a conceptual approach to the practice of ethics and meditation and the attainment of freedom. together with other people. And he did define terms in many ways, gave lots of examples to help define the terms he used, to put understand what he meant.

[07:00]

He did analyze things in considerable detail in his discussions with his students. However, he was also demonstrating and speaking from a state which was completely free of all conceptual approach to life. He was completely liberated from a conceptual approach to life. And he taught the path of freedom from concepts, and especially freedom from the concept of an independently existing self. But also he taught freedom from concepts of all kinds. He taught that, and he taught it

[08:04]

using concepts to people, partly. He spoke language and gave concepts to people, but he also demonstrated without language. He was also demonstrating without language and without giving a conceptual approach. So he gave a conceptual approach, he spoke to people, but he also was simultaneously demonstrating a non-conceptual approach. However, in the early days, they didn't write down much about the non-conceptual approach. They didn't much describe how the Buddha was teaching non-conceptual, immediate realization, which he was. He wasn't like conceptually approaching being who he was. He was just who he was. He was the Buddha. And he showed that to people. But he also talked quite a bit.

[09:12]

And he wrote down what he said. And he also said what he did when he was walking around quietly, because there is some of that, but not much. And he said, we're going to walk over there. So it looked like what happened was that it was necessary to bring out all the, you know, you can't actually bring out through words the way the Buddha was teaching without words. So what they did is they brought out a kind of another level of teaching, which was they felt implied by the Buddha, which was a way that there was no conceptual approach to. A way of practice without conceptual approach.

[10:15]

And this way was, seemed to, needed to be articulated because the conceptual approach had become, apparently, somewhat too heavy and spultifying. And the Abhidharma is like, a systematic presentation, the school, the worked out systematic school of the conceptual approach. So this new movement had to come, which we call the great vehicle, the Mahayana. And the most influential first expression of that is the perfect wisdom scriptures. And so at Zen Center we chant the Heart Sutra as one of the most important perfect wisdom scriptures. In Chinese it's only, I think, 254 characters, but it's said to be the heart of the whole mass of this great teaching on perfect wisdom.

[11:21]

And what the sutra says to a good extent is that But the Buddha, however, is not speaking in this sutra. The Buddha is in a state of quiet meditation. And as an emanation of Buddha's meditation, Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva in Infinite Compassion, starts talking. Or rather, actually, somebody tells us that Avalokiteshvara is meditating with the Buddha. And while Avalokiteśvara was meditating, he saw that all five aggregates lacked inherent existence. And thus, by that vision, all suffering was resolved. Five aggregates.

[12:31]

In Sanskrit it's called Sanda, which means aggregate, or heap, or mass, or collection. He saw that the five aggregates were empty of inherent existence, or he saw that the five aggregates were empty of separation from himself. And this relieved all suffering. Then he starts talking. And then he says, Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form. So he picks the first of the five aggregates. The first aggregate of the five is called form. The second one is called feeling. The next one is called perception. The next one is called formations or mental formations. The fifth one is called Consciousness.

[13:38]

Those are the five aggregates. So then the Bodhisattva starts teaching Shariputra, one of the Buddha's disciples. As a matter of fact, Buddha's prototypical wise disciple. Shariputra is the disciple who is known to be best at wisdom. So now the Bodhisattva is teaching this disciple of Buddha who is preeminent expert on Buddha's teachings and wisdom in the first turning of the wheel. He knows, he understands very well the conceptual approach to wisdom. He's the best teacher of Buddha's disciples. Now the Buddha's disciple tells Shantiputra that the first category of the five categories that encompass all of our experience is In other words, the categories, the conceptual categories by which we can analyze our experience and achieve freedom in the midst of our experience, these categories themselves lack inherent existence.

[14:55]

That's what the Bodhisattva, coming from meditation with the Buddha, had to say to So this is the deconstruction, the beginning of the deconstruction of the conceptual approach to liberation. This is not what we call Mahayana or the Dharma, it's more what I would call the Mahayana deconstruction, in some sense liberation from the Abhidharma. So once again we have the Buddha teaching a conceptual approach and one of the conceptual approaches the Buddha taught is a description of our experience, an analysis of being a person in terms of these five aggregates.

[16:07]

persons are really just five aggregates. People are collections of categories of experience, nothing more. The Buddha taught that, and by meditating on this one could realize that there's no separate person. But that teaching lost its life to some extent, and seemed to be needed to be revitalized, and the revitalization came in this form of saying that these categories by which you can attain liberation from belief in self and the suffering that comes with that, these categories themselves have no substantial undetermined existence. So it means the Mahayana, the most important 30 scriptures of the Mahayana, the Prajnaparamita religion, basically turn to the Avadharma teachings as what they talked about.

[17:25]

So the content of the Perfect Wisdom scriptures is to a great extent, especially in its essence, are the most important conceptual approaches to our experience. Except that what it does is basically tells you that none of these conceptual categories by which you analyze your experience themselves can be grasped. It's not that they don't exist, it's that they only exist interdependently and you never can get a hold of them. They never can be grasped. that there is an immediate possibility without any analysis to wake up. And he was taught, and these teachings were specifically directed to the professional meditators who learned this system of meditation.

[18:28]

It was not directed to lay people. Lay people wouldn't even know about the five skandhas. And we have a strange situation now here in America that lay people are getting exposed to a teaching which is addressed to professional meditators. And so now the question is, do you need to become professional meditators in order to receive the teaching that was given to professional meditators, which basically said, you don't have to be professional meditators anymore. So maybe you don't have to become professional meditators in order to become free of what professional meditators a long time were hung up on. But still, this isn't Mahayana or Avidharma, this is the Mahayana dealing with the Avidharma in terms of letting people become free of it. However, there's dangers in this method, and one of the main dangers of it is called nihilism.

[19:35]

Which means that if you teach people that there's a direct, unmediated, possible practice, that maybe they won't understand that they have to study ethics and study the psychological processes involved in ethical practice. They'll think that these things aren't important, since you can't get a hold of them. You cannot grasp, actually, ethics. Ultimately, you cannot be found. So the second teaching really needs the first teaching, needs people who are committed to ethics, which means people who are committed to studying the psychology of behavior. Then, based on that, the Mahayana saves people from being bogged down in the rhetoric of language and the sexual psychological processes.

[20:48]

But if you just look directly at the Heart Sutra, you may not understand that this is a teaching for people who are professionally committed to ethical practice, who are being supported to practice ethics. You might not understand that. But rather than go back to the previous stage, now comes a new wave of teachings, which are called the Mahayana Dharma, which will again revitalize and study again these same teachings about the way the mind works in relationship to behavior, and when behavior emerges from mind, and how mind and nature are related, and all these kinds of conceptual discussions now come forth, they merge based on this understanding that all things are emptiness, and emptiness is really all things.

[21:52]

So to some extent it seems there needs to be some commitment to studying psychology in order to realize a non-nihilistic practice of immediate awakening. So just to stay on the same topic here about the five elements. So basically what it's saying is that if you look at any of your experience, it will be either a form, a feeling, a perception,

[23:02]

some kind of mental formation which includes greed, hate and delusion, which includes concentration, which includes agitation, which includes being diligent or non-diligent, which includes faith, which includes doubt, which includes the ability to be ashamed when you're not doing what you think is appropriate. which includes also even pride that you are doing what you think is appropriate. It includes being concerned of feeling bad when you don't do what you think is appropriate and being concerned that other people will think badly of you when you're not doing what's appropriate. All these kinds of mental formations are the fourth aggregate. And the fifth aggregate is simple knowing the other four aggregates, that's consciousness.

[24:06]

So part of what is involved in the study of psychology is to become aware of these kinds of processes, and then when you're aware of them, you would be able to look around and see what the self was, and whether there was anything different from these five other aggregates, or not. And this would be a way to achieve freedom. And it would also be a way to set up understanding then the next level of teaching, which will then speak of the nature of these five aggregates. So first of all, see if you can learn how these five aggregates describe your psychological existence, and if you can, then see if you can actually use that to become free of personal self-belief, or belief in a personal self, and when you can do that, you can move on to actually looking at how even all these conceptual approaches are empty.

[25:19]

And then, use these conceptual approaches again to realize the nature of mind, and the nature of mind's relationship, In order to do this, one of the teachings that the Buddha gave, which you also can find in the scriptures, of course, but also in the Abhidharma, is what is sometimes called the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, or the Four Frames of Mindfulness. There's four of them. The first one is called Body, Foundation of Mindfulness. Oh, and by the way, I think it's interesting to look at the etymology of the word foundation.

[26:30]

This is Pali sati upatana. So one etymology of this is sati means mindfulness and upatana can be etymologized in two ways. as Upatana and the other is as Tattvana. If you analyze it as Upatana, that means sort of like the approach to mindfulness. If you analyze it as patana, it would be the object of mindfulness. And I would suggest, I'm of the mind to use both interpretations, that what the four foundations of mindfulness are about are both about

[28:19]

object of mindfulness and the approach of or to mindfulness. So the four foundations are body, feelings, consciousness, and what are called literally So it's Kaya Smriti Upasthana, Medhana Smriti Upasthana, Chitta Smriti Upasthana, and Dharma Smriti Upasthana. So the first three I would suggest to you are things that you experience, that you're mindful of, body sensations, feelings, and states of consciousness. This is what we're take them as objects, and you take them as they happen, moment by moment.

[29:23]

So, for example, right now, you could be aware of your body posture. I was just aware of inhaling and burping. You could be aware of also, of course, hearing. Particularly, you start with the gross thing of just your body, that you're aware of your body posture. Now, I'm standing, You're sitting in Samadhi, and also you're breathing. These basic body awareness, that's the first object, the first where, the where of what you're looking at. And then the next one is feeling like you have a positive, negative or neutral sensation right now. Perhaps you can notice that. How many people right now, please raise your hands if you're having a positive sensation? Please raise your hand if you're having a negative sensation.

[30:26]

Please raise your hand if you're having a neutral sensation. Please raise your hand if you're having a positive sensation. That was nice, I noticed some people changed, that happens. You have a neutral sensation, then you have a positive sensation, then you have a negative sensation, then you have a positive sensation, then you have a positive sensation. This happens. Sometimes most clearly when you have negative sensations for a while and then suddenly, boom, a positive sensation just sits up there. Wow, it just happens. So that's the feeling. And for consciousness, it would mean that be aware your consciousness, but you're feeling a general feeling of irritation. Consciousness is pervaded by a sense of irritation, a sense of fear, fearful consciousness, an unwholesome state of consciousness where you're thinking of various unwholesome thoughts, you have impulses to do unwholesome things, or a state where you have impulses to do wholesome things, or you feel impulses to do things which you can't tell are wholesome or unwholesome.

[31:41]

You have experiences, so one way to analyze them is, is it a wholesome state, is it an unwholesome state, or is it an indeterminate state? So this is one of the basic meditations at the Buddha temple, is to look at your state of consciousness, analyze its ethical quality, and then again, moment after moment, just keep track of the ethical quality of your state of consciousness. If you look to analyze the ethical state of your consciousness in terms of skillful, unskillful and indeterminate, if you weren't able to determine it, then it could be either that it was difficult to determine or that you were in such an unwholesome state that you couldn't even look. So you might notice, actually, I'm looking to see the state of my consciousness but I can't see if it's wholesome or unwholesome or neutral, but now that I'm looking I notice that part of the reason why I'm having difficulty seeing whether it's wholesome or unwholesome or indeterminate is because I'm resisting this exercise.

[33:07]

I think it's stupid. Now I see more clearly that this is an unwholesome state. Because I don't want to play the game. And it isn't just that I want to play the game. I'm resisting. I'm not playfully not playing the game. I'm in a resistant, tight way, not playing the game. Is wholesomeness just leading to happiness? Is wholesomeness just leading to happiness? Well... How is it defined in Alchemy? The main way to define it is as fruitful, and fruitful I think means fruitful according to your wishes in life. So the root of the word, I think the closest, best definition I think of this is analysis of your state of consciousness. Okay, once again, where am I now? I'm looking at the fourth, the third area of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which

[34:11]

analysis or awareness of your state of mind, okay? And the first type I'm bringing up for analyzing your state of mind is this level of skillfulness, or category of skillfulness. Category of skillfulness. And so I'll ask, what's the definition of skillfulness? You said, what's the definition of skillfulness? I'm using wholesomeness and skillfulness interchangeably. But skillfulness in some sense is etymologically closest because the word is kushala, which derives from the word kusa, it's a type of grass. The Buddha recommended that when you meditate, that when his monks meditated in that part of India they had a kind of grass called kusa grass, which is very similar to pompous grass which you have here in California. We used to have some out behind the kitchen. I don't know if it's still there. Pampas grass and kusa grass are tall grass that has wide blades.

[35:18]

And if you ever try to collect it with your hands, it's easy to cut your hand on the edge of the blade of grass. It's very sharp. And so I think the monks, in the process of collecting it, would cut themselves sometimes. But as they became more skillful at collecting the grass, they would cut themselves less. So they made their seats from this grass and the word for skillful or wholesome is associated with the skill of being able to collect it without getting too caught up and to make your meditation cushion without necessitating a blood transfusion. So it's like, I wish to make a meditation cushion, I collect the grass and I'm able to sit now. of your life successfully, that's sort of the meaning of wholesome. When you have states of consciousness which you can see are antithetical to your own well-being and the well-being of those you care for, those are unwholesome, unskillful.

[36:27]

You're not skillfully living the life which you want to live. When you're not contributing to the welfare of the community which you hope well, does well, then those kinds of activities are unskillful. Does that make sense? But part of being skillful is to notice what kind of mind you have, because the skillful state of mind is the basis for skillful speech and skillful physical activity. So if you notice your mind is agitated, That's also generally characteristic of an unskillful mind, is the mind is agitated, so upset that it can't even remember what it was that it thought was good. Noticing that your mind is agitated is the result of looking at your mind, which is the third category of where we're supposed to be paying mindfulness.

[37:31]

The fourth category is more in the area of looking at things which hinder the development of skillfulness, or hinder the development of mindfulness, or things which, when you look at them, augment or help you develop mindfulness in the process of meditation. So under that category are various kinds of hindrances to looking at what's happening, various kinds of hindrances to looking at what you're feeling, what your body's doing, and what state of mind you're in. Now, if you look at your state of mind, you might notice some of these hindrances, but when you look at the fourth category, you see a systematic presentation of those things which you might notice in your mind, which are hindering awareness of what's happening. So the traditional thing is that five fetters are listed, five hindrances.

[38:40]

Which are? What are they? Your will? Sensual greed? Torpor? Doubt? Worry? agitation, sloth or torpor on one side, agitation, excitedness on the other, worry, ill will, sensual greed, and thought. Those are things which hinder, for example, being aware of what's happening with your like you might doubt that it's worth your time to be aware of your body, or you might be too sleepy to be aware of your body, or too lazy, or too depressed, or you might be too excited to be aware of your body, or you might be worrying too much to be aware of your body, or you might... guess I gotta know.

[39:56]

And similarly, to be aware of your breath. or to be aware of your feelings, or to be aware of, for example, that you're excited, slothful, whatever. And the next categories that are in this approach to teaching are the five aggregates. So the five aggregates, if you're able to practice awareness of the first three fairly well you start to calm down and as you become more and more calm you're able to actually then start to look in more detail at the categories of your experience both in terms of what's hindering you to meditate goes very nicely with the first three of the body, the feelings, and the states of consciousness, because the states of consciousness are actually like, for example, the fourth aggregate, which has all these different mental phenomena in it, and the second aggregate is the feeling aggregate, and the first aggregate is the form aggregate, and so on.

[41:28]

Any questions about how to do this kind of mindfulness practice and how it applies to these conceptual categories of experience? Did you have something to say? Yes? Was the first meditation of mindfulness, dharma, was it, would you say it's like, is it mind-object, is it like concepts? Would you say, you said it's like teaching, but is it like all concepts? Just dharmas, is it? Just teachings? Is it teachings, you just said? Yeah, you described it as teachings, so I was wondering if there is any contrast between dharmas versus specifically being aware of body feeling and being aware of the teachings. You described it somehow, dharmas, as being aware of the teachings, that is, the study of mindfulness. The fourth category, I would suggest that you look at the fourth category or the fourth way of practicing mindfulness is the approach, rather than what you're looking at, is more of an approach to looking at things.

[42:54]

It's not so much the things you're looking at, but more the approach that you have. So for example, if you learn about these five categories, And then you're experiencing physical sensations, or physical movements, breathing and so on. But that's what you're experiencing, and the way you look at that might be in terms of these five aggregates. Say that's the first aggregate, for example. So it's teachings in a sense, And it's also things in a sense, but it's teachings and things in a sense of how you approach your experience. That's the fourth category. Is it conceptual? All this is conceptual. But the fourth category would apply to all of the previous three. And the fourth would also It would also help you look at the relationship, when you're looking at your body, it would help you look at the relationship of the body experience with your feelings and your mental state.

[44:03]

If you look at your mental state, it would help you look at the relationship between your mental state and your feelings and your body state. The five aggregates would help you remember how to look at any individual experience in relationship to the totality of your experience. Are they a subset of consciousness? They're not much a subset of consciousness, it's just that they arise with consciousness and consciousness arises sometimes with them. When they arise, consciousness arises, but they don't always arise with consciousness. But when they are there, they are with consciousness, and therefore they will be characteristics of the state of consciousness which they arise with. And you might not be intentionally looking at the fourth category, in other words, the fourth category telling you how to look at the other three categories, but if you looked at your state of consciousness and you noticed that it was slothful, in fact you would also be looking at the fourth category.

[45:21]

But if you're looking at the fourth category, you might also just say, well, maybe I'll just check on my state of consciousness now, through the frame of this fourth category. Maybe I'll look and see if any hindrances or fetters interrupt your meditation right now. And you might find some of those hindrances in your state of mind. So you'd be both doing the first category of the fourth and the third category at the same time. Plus, you could also then move on to notice the relationship between the other two, which aren't happening at the moment, and the one that is happening, the one you are focusing on. Yes? I think that you once said that there is a certain intense state of mind of anxiety. that we all feel complacence or separation from others.

[46:29]

So, that is always part of the state of mind. Maybe liberation comes from not being attached to that basic primal desire. I have a question there, but I don't quite know how to say it. So, Elena is suggesting that, she's heard a teaching that as long as we are not free from the sense of separation from our experience, that sense of anxiety which arises in dependence on ignorance, or another way to put it is that it arises in dependence on ignoring that the sense of self is not really an independent thing, really, it's just an idea or whatever, that feeling of anxiety itself

[47:53]

could be something which you're aware of when you look at, for example, your state of consciousness. But you might be looking at your body posture, and at that time you wouldn't necessarily be aware of your anxiety. However, you might also look at your posture and be able to also say, I wonder if there's any anxiety there. And you might be able to find some. At that time, in some sense, you're looking in the, for example, you're probably looking either as a feeling, somebody has a negative feeling around anxiety, but also you might find anxiety or fear in the... Actually, it's interesting that Fear, per se, is not listed in the usual Buddhist analysis of experience.

[48:56]

It's not usually listed in the psychological analysis, except for fear of how you feel when you're doing something you think is harmful, or fear of what other people will do to you if you're doing something unskillful. That fear is there, but just fear by itself is not listed. which is a big thing to meditate on, Harkonnens, even though it's said in a very basic quality. You might even say, well, I think the reason why it's not mentioned is because fear is dukkha, and what dukkha is, basically, is fear. And then dukkha is not actually listed as one of the feelings, except in the sense of dukkha as painful sensation. But there's a teaching which also occurs under the fourth category. And the teaching which appears under the fourth category is the teaching of the four noble truths. And the first noble truth is the truth of suffering.

[49:59]

And in that, under the truth of suffering, we learn that there's three kinds of suffering, basically. The suffering that we feel when we're having negative sensation, the suffering we feel when we're having positive sensation, and the suffering we feel when we're having neutral sensation. So in some sense, if you're practicing mindfulness of feeling, it's also possible to have an approach to practicing mindfulness of feelings as you go from positive sensation, positive sensation, negative sensation, positive sensation, neutral sensation, positive, negative. As you notice in each case, you can also be looking from the point What kind of suffering is there when there's positive sensation? What kind of suffering is there of fear and anxiety is there when there's negative sensation? What kind of fear and anxiety is there when there's neutral sensation?

[51:01]

You might be able to identify these three different varieties of dis-ease and fear that you have in association with the constantly changing feelings that you have. So in that sense, the fear is not listed in some sense as a separate psychological fact, but I think that's because it falls under the category of basic dis-ease, or the basic thing that's wrong with this anxiety, and that applies to all states of feeling. So you could meditate in that way on anxiety through the personal retreat. And then the second Noble Truth is saying the reason for the anxiety is because of ignorance. So you can also meditate on how you're ignoring interdependence as you have positive sensation, as you have neutral sensation, and as you have negative sensation. Because you can feel the insomniac's ease around all three of those types of sensations.

[52:06]

And that way you would be bringing in the first and second Noble Truth. And the more you apply the first and second Noble Truths, which is the fourth foundation of mindfulness, the more you apply those truths to your positive, negative and neutral sensations, the closer you're getting to the third Noble Truth. Remember that one? The cessation of the suffering, the cessation of the anxiety, the more you're aware of the fear and anxiety and discomfort you feel around positive, negative, and neutral sensation. The more that you're involved in that mindfulness, the more you develop in the mode in which you realize the cessation of this dis-ease around positive, negative, and neutral sensation. Now there's also dis-ease around inhaling and exhaling, sitting and standing, and so on, right?

[53:09]

There's this ease around all of those too. The Four Noble Truths can also be applied to the First Foundation Mindfulness. And also, if you look at your state of consciousness and it's calm or agitated or alert or slothful, whatever your state of consciousness, also these First Noble Truths apply to all the states of consciousness. So this meditation is is that you're practicing, you're psychologically studying all your states and also you're bringing to all those states these teachings which help you approach and deepen your mindfulness of the states. So you can bring five aggregates to any one, you can look at one aggregate and bring the five to help you refine the way you look at the one and then that changes and you bring the five just better the way another one happens but you can also bring the five You can also bring the formal truths to bear, particularly the personal truths will apply to all kinds of psychological phenomena.

[54:17]

There's the definition of what is suffering, and then he basically says form is suffering, feeling is suffering, perception is suffering, consciousness is suffering, and mental formations is suffering. In other words, these five aggregates, the basic definition of suffering is the five aggregates. He doesn't just say five aggregates, he says upadana panchaskandha. Upadana panchaskandha. The five aggregates of clean are suffering. If you look at any of these experiences and you notice suffering, you're also noticing clean. If you look at clean aggregates, of suffering, dis-ease, anxiety. In other words, it's grounded and your meditation is grounded. You're grounding on your psychological experience and you're using psychological categories to help you ground your experience in psychological realities.

[55:27]

And then you're also bringing teachings which help you, psychological teachings, which helps you analyze and become more and more sophisticated about your moment-by-moment experience. And the more you apply the teaching which says suffering, skandhas, the more you can close your eyes. And this is a conceptual approach to the cessation of anxiety through awareness of the anxiety as it applies to moment-by-moment experience which means also it's a cessation of ignorance by noticing the relationship between states of feeling and different varieties of anxiety or suffering, by noticing the relationship there, you start to understand that none of these things have self.

[56:59]

Can the more you understand that, the less ignorant you are of that truth. But of course this is difficult, because it's a real major transformation in our attention from whatever you want to call it, to mindfulness. And not just mindfulness, but mindfulness in detail. about what's happening moment by moment. So mindfulness is to remember to be mindful, and it's also to be mindful. So if remembering to be mindful, it's also remembering to be mindful of what's happening right now. And it's also to be enthusiastic about being mindful about what's happening right now, and remembering to be enthusiastic about paying attention to what's happening right now. Yes?

[58:02]

Sometimes it's helpful for me to be able to visualize an example, and I just want to know this is on the spot, so if it doesn't come up, it's okay, but I was wondering if you had an example from your own application of these, like, in going about your day-to-day life in the world where one of these things is happening. Well right now I'm here in this room and I'm standing on my left foot looking at you and my right foot's on top of my left foot and I have one hand on the couch and one on my body and I have kind of a constantly changing feeling Now it's positive.

[59:06]

Now it's positive. Positive for you. A lot of positive ones come out there. Now what about any kind of anxiety about that positive stuff? Now, if I was enlightened, there wouldn't be any anxiety. So, I hesitate to go on with this example. And the reason why there wouldn't be any anxiety would be because I realize that these positive sensations are impermanent, that they're not separate from me, You're not separate from me.

[60:08]

Therefore, I don't have to worry about you being jealous that I'm having all these positive sensations. If I wasn't enlightened, I would probably say, oh, I'm telling these people I'm having a lot of positive sensations that might attack me any minute. You know, just to say, oh, you think you're having positive sensations? Well, take this and take that. I would be afraid to tell you what I was actually feeling, because if I told you what I was actually feeling, you could easily attack me. If I don't tell you what I'm actually feeling, it's harder for you to get me. So someone might have difficulty being aware of their feelings, And then you might find out the reason why they're difficult to be aware of their feelings is, even before they're aware of their feelings, they're already afraid to become aware of them, because someone might ask them what they're feeling. And then if they told someone, they would be endangering themselves and their feelings.

[61:12]

So they're not even going to, like, they can't, they feel so, and so this fear, this worry, they notice, obstructs them from even noticing what feelings they're having. But if they notice that, they're starting to wake up, if you notice the worry. What are you worried about? Again, you're worried to notice your feelings because someone might ask you what you're feeling and then when they find out, you might get in trouble. Also, if you have any negative sensations, they might say, well, what did I do? Did I do something wrong? Is it my fault? You don't want to get into that with them, right? If you're not enlightened, you wouldn't want to get into that with them. Because you'd be afraid of what would happen to you because you feel like you have some life separate from this person who's jealous of you or who's going to blame you for them feeling guilty if you're feeling bad. Or that they feel angry at you because they feel responsible to fix you when you feel bad. So don't tell them anything. These kinds of things one could notice if one weren't enlightened. You'd have a show like that. You understand? If you're enlightened, however, you look at your feelings and you don't have anxiety.

[62:17]

Why? Because you have a negative sensation, and you're not afraid of it going on or stopping. Why? Because you don't feel any separation from it, and you don't feel any separation from other people who don't have it or do have it. So therefore, when you realize the sensation of suffering in relationship to your negative sensation, like your pain, big pain, but no suffering because You understand that this thing doesn't exist by itself. You're separate from you, separate from other people who are asking about your feelings. The positive sensations you're also not afraid to lose, not because you understand they're impermanent, but because you understand that positive sensations are not created by you alone. So no one can really take it away from you at the moment, or give it to me. It's just created together with you and everybody. But again, if you don't understand this, we do have lapses in this understanding, then you get to notice, oh, I have positive, negative, or neutral sensation, and there's some anxiety around each one of them, and each anxiety is a little different, and each one of those anxieties come because I feel separate from other people, and I feel also some separation between me and my feelings.

[63:42]

And the more you notice the different types of anxiety you have around your different feelings, the more you're starting to open up to everybody else. If you have a negative sensation, everybody else in the universe makes that thing with you. And you might say, well, so what? It's called a negative sensation, yeah? But if you have a negative sensation and you realize that everybody in the world is working You have a negative sensation, but you really don't have any suffering. If I said to you now, if I told you you could have an experience of everybody cooperating with you, and supporting you, and you supporting everybody, at the moment of having a negative sensation, would you like to have that experience? It's worth the price of admission. It's a small price to pay, and I haven't even had some sessions anyway, so I guess I would like that.

[64:53]

Yes, does that take that knot for you this time? Yes. I'm wondering, to start to look at that anxiety, when you don't, when you're not in it, doesn't that potentially make it worse? Potentially make it worse? I suppose. I have not actually seen that too much. I think people make it worse. but there is a potential. The path of awareness is, there are dangers on the path of awareness, but it's the path of awareness with dangers that comes to conclusion as liberation.

[66:02]

The path of not becoming aware because you think that will be safer, I think it does in some ways reduce certain dangers by turning your awareness way down, There are certain things which I think do get kind of like less likely to happen when you're less aware. However, that path, you never become free on that path. So this path is not without dangers. But that particular problem I haven't seen of somebody becoming more aware of that anxiety haven't really been a problem. It seems like it's good to be aware that you do have all the seasons, actually, to open up to that. and to learn how to notice that you also maybe have the various fetters around noticing your disease. So, the fetters are not the same as basic... The fetters are not the same as the first noble truth. Those are the things which make it hard to look at the first noble truth.

[67:05]

Like, a lot of people, when they start to notice the first noble truth, get really sleepy. But one of us is somehow sleeping. or get excited. So the sleepiness and excitement are ways that disturb our awareness of our anxiety. But the anxiety itself, I think once you start seeing it, if you see it a lot, usually I haven't seen that to be a big problem. The problem seems to be the inability to look at it in an effective way, free of agitation and slothfulness are free of worry, are free of ill-will, and free of doubt, and free of sensual desire. These things make it harder to look at this, but the awareness of anxiety itself does not create those states of candor to meditating in itself.

[68:12]

Yes. I'll just put it up here. There's reading lists here. This is not a real extensive reading list, but it's enough to make you sick. So if you wanted to see a lot of books about how the Yama was dead, there's two pages up here for you to look at. Anything else? Can you talk about approaching the five elements and how can we skillfully relate the five elements in order to have more mindfulness? Well, let's take one. Let's take doubt. The basic way to approach doubt is to talk to a meditation teacher about your doubt.

[69:23]

Basically, you doubt whether the meditation practice is going to be a good thing to devote your attention to. That's basically it. You doubt that it actually would be helpful to the world and you to do a certain practice. For example, to be aware of what's going on with you. You doubt that. Or you think it would be good to be aware, but you doubt that a certain method would be helpful. So, like Alex raised that question, maybe becoming aware of your anxiety will make you too anxious or something. So, raising that question, raising your doubts and discussing it with the teacher and or consulting the texts which teach these meditations, both by studying the texts But the oral transmission is usually much more effective. Talking with the teacher, that's how you deal with the hindrance of doubt. Which, you know, it really works.

[70:27]

Talk about your doubts, get them out there. And it's not just that the other person is going to resolve them. But again, when you get your doubts out in the open, you can't forget them. And the doubts stay in the back. they can undermine you. So getting your doubts out there, generally speaking, I've seen great success in people getting over them, at least temporarily, by just conversing about it, hearing themselves talk. The other person doesn't have to say a lot. For you just to hear your doubts already usually starts to set you free. Not necessarily. Sometimes you might bring out doubt A, and as you start talking about it, doubt B and C come out too. So it seems like Oh God, I brought out one dog and now I have three. But you had three before, you actually have 19. And the more you bring them out, the more they come out. Until finally you got pretty much all of them out there, and then they're ready to cook. Then they start to work on each other very nicely and they become free.

[71:33]

Worry. The basic way of working with worry. Practice the first foundation of mindfulness. Meditate on, be mindful of your breathing. Mindfulness of breathing, generally speaking, helps one become less worried. Again, you become aware of your worry as a physical phenomenon, rather than getting caught in the ideation that's driving the worry. You start to notice the physicality of the worry, and you notice that the physicality of the worry is not doing anybody any good. People a lot of times think that worrying is really helpful to the world. Like sometimes you're looking for someone, you can't find them, you start worrying about them, and you notice that the worry is debilitating you And then if you ever see them again, you're really going to give it to them.

[72:39]

Of course, you're happy to see them. But anyway, you can get in a really bad state of mind by worrying about things. It doesn't really help. But sometimes when you tell somebody who you were looking for that you started to be worried and you gave it up, they sometimes actually wished you were worried. But of course, they're just testing you. Really, this great boy is talking about testing you to see if you really got over this belief that worry is helping. It's actually a hindrance for you to be aware of yourself. So I also gave this story several times. I'll give it again. Once, there were some acrobats. There was an acrobat, and the acrobat's trying And the acrobat, I think, was a man. The apprentice was kind of a small woman, like his daughter or something. And she got up.

[73:41]

And there were bamboo acrobats. And I think he put a bamboo thing on his head or on his nose or on his chin. And then she would climb up on his shoulders and climb up on the bamboo pole to the top, bouncing on his head. So she gets up on his shoulders, and he says to her, now, you watch out. You look out after me, and I'll look out after you. And that way we'll be able to pull this feed off successfully and get our money and go home. And she says, excuse me Master, but you got it wrong. You look after yourself and I'll look after me. And that way we will pull off this dangerous feed, collect our money and go home. So the basic principle here is first take care of yourself. Then you can take care of others. If somebody needs your help and you're worried about them, take care of yourself. Deal with your worry.

[74:42]

Calm down with your worry. Be mindful of your worry. Notice the anxiety around the worry. Notice that that makes it hard for you to actually take care of the situation. Calm down and then start taking care of the other person. So the way you take care of other people is different than the way you take care of yourself. The way you take care of other people is based on taking care of yourself. Based on being aware of your body, your feelings, your state of consciousness, and the anxieties, for example, and the first and second Noble Truth you feel around your experience. That's the way you take care of yourself. The way you take care of others is you practice kindness, Patience, non-violence, that's going to take care of them. But if you don't take care of yourself, you can be violent with people. Because you're worried about... you can be violent with people you're worried about.

[75:48]

You can be impatient with people you're worried about. You can overlook loving-kindness with people that you're worried about. You love them, and you're totally worried about them, and you feel ill-will towards them. You want to punish them for behaving in a way that made you feel so upset. And you get impatient with them, and also impatient with the pain you feel of worrying about them. So you have to, before you relate to them, patient, loving, non-violent way, you have to take care of your worry. When you do, then you can take care of it. When you take care of other people that way, patiently, lovingly, and non-violently, when you take care of them that way, that takes care of you. When you take care of yourself, then you can take care of them. So it's totally reciprocal, but there's a difference. It's fine to be aware of other people's body, other people's feelings, other people's state of mind, other people's anxiety.

[76:59]

That's fine. But first be aware of your own before you try to be aware of theirs. Skipping over yourself is not the way, Master. Buddha says the apprentice is right. And she was very respectful in correcting her Master. So if you want to, maybe next week we more about the other hip feathers, but those are the first of the two. Doubt and worry. Be mindful of them. And then, to be mindful of them is noticing the fourth category of emotional states that interfere with being mindful of your body, your feelings, your state of mind. How do you take care of this desire for awakening without opening up another candle?

[78:10]

How do you take care of the desire for awakening? In this kind of study? Yeah, in this context of awareness so that we have skillful... You notice a desire for awakening? If you notice a feeling of a desire for awakening? So, you know, what category would that go in? It's not exactly a physical thing, it's not really a positive sensation, but it could be a characteristic of a state of mind, and you notice, hey, there's a mind there that has an aspiration to attain enlightenment. Without further information, which type of state of mind would that be?

[79:11]

Positive. Positive, yeah, I'd say. Would you say positive? Without further information? I guess I associate it with anxiety, actually. That what's going on right now... Yeah, it's definitely associated with anxiety for someone who has not yet attained it. That's right, that's correct. That's correct. If you notice that, again, that's good too. And if I hear, if I'm like in charge of judging the states of mind, if I hear that in your mind you notice an aspiration to obtain a way, and you notice an anxiety about that, and you tell me you notice an anxiety, I say, wholesome, wholesome aspiration, And the anxiety is not wholesome, but the awareness of the anxiety means you're practicing, in some sense, the form of the truth. You're noticing anxiety around the state of the aspiration.

[80:14]

Because also, the aspiration to attain enlightenment is based on anxiety, because we want to be free of anxiety. enlightenment would be freedom from anxiety. So actually that's a pretty good state of mind that not only has the aspiration, which is connected to suffering, and compassion for that suffering, but also notices the suffering at the same time as the aspiration. So even the aspiration itself is an interdependent thing. So anxiety is not unwholesome. Anxiety arises, however, from unwholesomeness. And stillfulness becomes a condition for anxiety. Noticing that having aspiration is a wholesome thing to feel, noticing anxiety is the result of wholesomeness.

[81:19]

to realizing what we're talking about. This is an example of an early way to go to talk. This is a conceptual discussion. Yes, did you have your hand raised already? Okay. Yes? I want to know what Alex said earlier. Alex said that in the medical setting where people feel that anxiety or that it might grow. It seems to me that oftentimes, in a literal study, that there's no more options. There's like, what you, your teachings, bring an option of something other than more study and analysis of, it seems to me, some sort of freedom or light or something, I don't know what I mean. Yeah, some possibility that medical people typically don't have.

[82:29]

People who study medicine typically don't have that. Well, if they do this meditation you're talking about, then they would have it. And they're allowed to do so. If you're a Zen student and you don't do this meditation, then you may feel like you've got no options too. So anybody who picks up this meditation, whatever their situation is, the doors to liberation start opening. And medical students and medical professionals, if they don't do something, if they don't, what is it, if they don't take care of themselves, then it's harder for them to take care of others. They can get impatient with their patients, interesting combination. They can lose track of loving kindness to their patients because they're not taking care of themselves. And they can even have to be in an environment with their patients, because they're not taking care of themselves. So, it seems to me that whatever line I'm working in, you have to take care of yourself.

[83:33]

I don't see an option to taking care of yourself. Now, what I'm talking about here is the conceptual approach to taking care of yourself. The other approach is non-conceptual. That's the way which says, all these ways that I just told you about, which are quite effective and wonderful, actually, you can't get any of these methods. But that teaching is for people who know a little about these methods, so that's why I'm talking about this. Before you empty these methods, it's good for you to understand how they work a little bit. And that they do work. They do work. You've just got to be careful not to turn them into independent entities because then that starts to undermine their effectiveness. The nice thing is when you're learning them, you're suddenly a little bit more flexible and you get better at it. It's getting close to the end. Yes, Paul?

[84:37]

Yes, you had talked a little bit about the skandhas and One of the questions I've got about this, this kind of perception is, why is it called perception? Because other author or like authors like say, like Charles Look, translate Samya as, or what the Chinese equivalent thereof as conceptualization and to me perception in English means sort of more of like raw image making whereas conceptualization means something like a higher associative function of consciousness and And I've just never really been satisfied without my own sort of trying to figure out the Somnus Iscanda.

[85:53]

And so I was hoping to be able to maybe shed some light on it. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to ask it first. No, it's okay. Just watch my answer. It's a big topic. And the actual discussion of what that word means is the type of discussion which you find in the Abhidharma. The etymological, philological, psychological and philosophical analysis and logical analysis which follow around that particular word by very much what occurred in the early Abhidhamma, and also by the Nirbheda in the Mahayana Abhidhamma. In between the two we have the Prajnaparamita which says the same is true of Samya. In other words, it's empty, it has no inherent existence.

[86:54]

But the early Buddhism talks a lot about it, and the Mahayana Abhidhamma talks a lot about it, and it's a very important term. very important. It is so important just to be a skandha all by itself. So, it's very important, and we'll bring it up next week. I may say a little bit more about it, but actually it's such a big topic that I think it's actually not going to be talked about in the fall, because perception is so I just also say one more thing, is that a few years ago, I think when I was first Abbott, I changed the Heart Sutra together with the help of my friend, and for a number of years the Heart Sutra said, feelings, form, feeling, conceptions, formations and consciousness.

[88:02]

because I felt that conceptions... I also felt conceptions, in some sense, is etymologically more correct. But, for various reasons, it switched back to be perceptions. So, perceptions and conceptions and cognition are interrelated terms, and to understand them is very important. early Buddhism and later Buddhism. Early Buddhadharma and late Buddhadharma. But it's past nine o'clock now, so maybe we should stop. Help yourself with these reading lists if you like. May our intention equally extend to every being and place.

[89:04]

With the human love God's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Divisions are impossible. I vow to enter them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. This way is unsurpassable. I vow to become

[89:49]

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