A training in Bodhidharma's teaching of mirror concept and Vasubandhu's teaching of mind trained like a wall to cultivate the essence of mind which all buddhas realize. As long as we have not realized a mind that's like a wall, we will continue to be susceptible

[01:11]

to the inclinations of these two kinds of grasping, grasping at personal self and grasping at the self of things. As long as we don't realize that any kind of thinking which goes beyond direct sense experience imprisons us in the realm of mirror concept, as long as we don't realize that any thinking we're involved in beyond direct, meaningless, non-identified, non-local, non-located

[02:14]

flux of experience, any thinking beyond that imprisons us, limits us to the realm of mirror concept. As long as we don't realize that, we are defenseless against tendencies of mind which keep us trapped in the realm of birth and death. And even so, with a consciousness that thinks all this is mirror concept, all this is a prison that I'm confined in because I'm thinking. Even that kind of thinking has to be abandoned.

[03:20]

Even that is not what it's like to have a mind like a wall. A mind like a wall really has renounced all imaginings. It realizes that it's imprisoned, but it realizes that it's imprisoned when it's thinking without using any imagination to remember that. Buddha's truth cannot be perceived. A mind like a wall cannot be perceived.

[04:22]

When you understand this, this is called a mind like a wall. What's it like when you really renounce all imaginings and recover the world of dependent co-arising? Grass. Grasses are green, flowers are red. That's what it's like. Some people are smiling, some people are not.

[05:31]

The second bowl has stewed fruit, the third bowl may or may not have dairy products. Before we reach that world of dependent co-arising, before we're willing to have that be it, we have to suffer. We have to die of these imaginings. If we don't die of the imaginings, we suffer because of them. And if we still are imagining, in addition to suffering for the imagining, we must also

[06:50]

suffer the detachment from the imagining, so we get double suffering, going down deeper and deeper into the suffering, uncovering layer after layer of denial, opening more and more to the endlessness of the misery of birth and death. Until finally, we're just a human being, a living being, and there we just clearly observe and no word reaches it.

[07:58]

The reward of this sasheen for a number of people is a deeper awareness of confusion. I enjoyed this morning adjusting your posture, because by the sixth or seventh day your bodies are basically not resisting anymore. When I make a suggestion, your body listens. You've accepted your suffering enough so that if someone makes a suggestion to you, it's not a big deal. It's not like, I've got enough problems, man, don't ask anything more of me. It's more like, I've got a lot of problems, go ahead.

[09:16]

I'm open to more. I want to go down to the bottom of this. It's okay that sometimes people get into a blissful state in sasheen, it's all right. It's not against the rules. No problem. However, that's just a blissful state, a temporary blissful state that I'm thinking of. Perfection of concentration is to let go of that state if there's a request to do something

[10:25]

that would disturb the causation of that bliss. When we have sasheens in the city of Green Gulch, if I go home to where my wife and daughter live on breaks, if they're there, I often find them involved in human interactions. Caught up in the sufferings of imagination, somehow I've tuned into a realm, sometimes very relaxed and tolerant of my life situation.

[11:35]

When I see them having trouble with each other, I sometimes advise them to be tolerant of each other, forgiving and patient and loving. At that time, they wish me to leave and go back to the Zenda. At that time, I'm not really a bodhisattva. I don't know what I am. A bodhisattva is somebody who's working with the karmically created material that all human beings are working with.

[12:37]

And if they have any imagining about that, they suffer. And if they have no imagination about it, they have no distance from it. They have no elevation above it. As a matter of fact, all they have, all they have is that karmically created stuff as karmically created stuff. They have no advice to give to those who are caught in these imaginings about this karmically created material. They simply live with people and die with people. If they pick up imaginings, they suffer with people.

[13:48]

Otherwise, they're just born and die together and share. The human situation, they have a mind like a wall which protects them from these powerful inclinations to attribute existence to these concepts. This non-separation from these concepts, this renunciation of imaginings, which is also non-separation from these concepts, also makes them non-separated from all beings.

[14:58]

All they do is be with beings and their light of non-discriminating wisdom is there for whoever wishes to enjoy it. They don't try to pull people up out of this misery. They just sit through it with them, showing simply, Oh, your name's Charlie. Your name's Mike. Your name's Pam.

[16:03]

They have already gone down into the dragon's cave and they are giving up everything. They don't try to stop other people from going down into the dragon's cave, pulling them up out of it before they get to the bottom and realize at the bottom the problem is this imaginations that we're holding on to. So, without trying to pull people up out of it, still bodhisattvas talk. They don't talk to pull people out of it. They talk to help people pull themselves out of it.

[17:18]

People are reached by words. Words are what put people into bondage. Bodhisattvas speak words and people are released. Case 37, the Book of Serenity. It's called Guishan's Karmic Consciousness and the introduction says, driving away the plowman's ox, pulling its nose around, taking away a hungry person's food, holding his throat

[18:24]

tight. Is there anyone who can administer the poison? Guishan asked Yangshan, if someone suddenly came up to you and asked about, quote, all living beings just have karmic consciousness, boundless and unclear, with no fundamental to rely on, unquote, how would you prove it in experience or how would you test it in experience if all, no, all living beings only have karmic consciousness, boundless and unclear,

[19:27]

with no fundamental to rely on, how would you test this? Yangshan said, if a monk comes and asks me about this, I call out to him, hey you. If he turns his head, I say, what is it? Guishan said, good. A monk asked Yunnan, yeah, Yunnan. The flower adornment scripture says, the fundamental affliction of ignorance is itself

[20:47]

the immutable knowledge of all Buddhas. This principle is most profound and mysterious in the extreme, difficult to comprehend, the monk said. Yunnan said, this is most distinctly clear, easy to understand. The Avatamsaka Sutra says that the fundamental affliction of ignorance itself is the immutable knowledge of all Buddhas. The fundamental affliction of ignorance, which is all that sentient beings have, boundless

[21:59]

and unclear, with no fundamental to rely on, this itself is the immutable knowledge of all Buddhas. This monk thinks this is pretty difficult to understand. Yunnan says, it's distinctly clear and easy to understand. See if you think so. He says, there was a boy nearby with them, sleeping. I guess they had questions like this during soji. Yunnan said, watch this. He said, hey boy. Hey you.

[23:00]

The boy turned his head. Yunnan said, is that not the immutable knowledge of all Buddhas? Then he said to the boy, what's your Buddha nature? The boy was at a loss and stumbled off. He said, is that not the fundamental affliction of ignorance? There it is.

[24:04]

There it is. One suffering and misery. The other is simply turn your head. The two stories are the same. Can you see that? The first one, when he said, hey you, the monk turns his head also. This is the immutable knowledge of Buddha. It's not something that's an object of consciousness. It's not something you can know. And yet there it is in the turning of a head.

[25:17]

Somebody says, hey you, the head turns. There it is. It's invisible, but also when someone says, what is it? And you can't move. That's the fundamental affliction of ignorance and you can't see that either. Invisible, deeply ingrained tendencies of the mind stops us. What's Buddha? He got us. What got us? Invisible, entrenched habits stops. Invisible inclinations of mind to think. Now that's a big question. I better give a good answer to that one.

[26:28]

This is about reality. But hey you, most of the time, unless it happens to be our name, we just respond like a wall. Hey you, like a wall, not you, like a wall, just like a wall. Stupid, so stupid, like a fool. When I first, one of the first meals I had with Suzuki Roshi in the Zendo at Sokoji, he was eating his breakfast and he had his little bowl there with his rice in it. And he was eating his rice out of the bowl and he had his bowl down like this and he had his bowl tilted.

[27:29]

I can't tilt this because it's got water in it. But anyway, he had a bowl tilted sort of forward and he had made his rice into kind of a little ball. And I thought, gee, the way he's tilting his bowl, it looks like the rice might fall out. I thought, well, I guess Zen masters can get by with that. And then the rice fell out of his bowl onto his lap. Now this was before we had such a high style here. Nowadays, if that happens, you're supposed to put that in the corner of your wrapping cloth. And then the servers pick it up, right? But he just picked up the whole ball and put it back in. And then he practiced eating with the bowl more horizontal. And managed to finish the meal without further spillage.

[28:37]

I noticed also they look very much like a monkey. Could this be love? There's lovely ways to put it, you know? But we have to be willing for them. All these lovely ways to put it can be described as like a fool, like an idiot. They're not in contradiction with that kind of simplicity.

[29:39]

It's a radical simplicity. No words, you can't bring any words to it. It's just you. You. If you're a smart guy, it's you a smart guy. If it's you a skillful person, it's you a skillful person. But you're not bringing anything to that. On some level you're really stupid, you're really simple, you're really innocent of all words. And you got that way through accepting your suffering. And learning that your suffering was due to these words which you carry around on top of yourself. So they describe it in more lovely ways.

[30:46]

For example, waveless, windless. There, in the midnight water, an abandoned boat. Swamped in moonlight. It's what it's like when there's stood fruit in the second hole. And that's it.

[31:47]

How many times do we have to go down into the dragon's cave before we understand that adding anything to that is just unbearable? Well, in order to see that, we have to sit through a lot. And then we'll be able to let go of all this stuff. So, as we're doing, we're sitting through it until we can just sit. All of us are a hair's breadth away.

[32:56]

But that last little bit is very subtle. It's very subtle. Our mind is so creative and so skillful. This habit, you know, this powerful habit. It's like, you know, what do you call it, the military-industrial complex of the United States. It's so powerful. It can get the most clever ways to slip something in there. When there's almost no room left, when there's almost no way to think of anything to add, because there's so much resources, you can think of something to slip in there. Something which looks like the way, the middle way. All the people who taught the middle way say it's very difficult to understand it.

[34:09]

They don't say that to discourage us. They say that to encourage us, because we're trying to understand and we're having trouble. So they say, it's very hard. Don't worry that you're having a hard time understanding this thing. We have to sit through a lot, a lot of stuff. A lot of garbage. A lot of shit. A lot of pain. Until we finally see and clarify our view. So if we're having a long, difficult practice to realize this, this is not something wrong with us. It's that unless you understand it completely, the power of your habits will overwhelm you. You have to understand it exactly on the mark. Your mind has to really be like a wall.

[35:11]

In other words, you have to be completely protected from any imagining. Otherwise, the poor little reeds and the poor little flowers, a word reaches them. And that one word pulls us down into some sorrow. All we've got to work with is karmically created consciousness. If we can learn the middle attitude towards it, that karmically created stuff, which we've got, and we shouldn't try to get anything a little better than what we've got, that karmically created stuff is itself the immutable knowledge of all the Buddhas. We've already got what it takes to be a Buddha.

[36:19]

If we can just develop this subtle, balanced, middle attitude towards it, it's so deliciously close. It's what we really are right now. What's that noise? I want to tell you a story now about this.

[37:25]

I know this story pretty well, but there are certain little turns of a phrase which I haven't memorized yet. Which are really neat, so I'm going to read it. It's a story from the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4, which is called Faith and Liberation, or Faith and Understanding. What's happened before this is that all these disciples of Buddha, Subhuti and so on, have just found out that things are a lot better than they ever imagined. Buddha has actually told them that they've got what it takes. Not just to be arhats, which they already are.

[38:30]

These are enlightened disciples at the arhat level, but Buddha is telling them, actually, you guys can be Buddhas. As a matter of fact, you're going to be. So they're very happy to find this out. They had no idea. It never crossed their mind. Well, it crossed their mind and they crossed it all. They thought, no, no, I can't be like Buddha. These people really like Buddha. They thought he was fantastic. They just never imagined that they could be a Buddha. But they have karmic consciousness. Therefore, they've got what it takes. They've got the basic affliction of ignorance. What does a Bodhisattva need in order to... What does a being need in order to be a Bodhisattva? What does a Bodhisattva need in order to come into the world and become a Buddha? What do they need, folks? Huh? They need ignorance. They need what?

[39:32]

They need birth, yeah. And you're born through defiled consciousness. You're born through karmic consciousness. Bodhisattvas need karmically created consciousness in order to function. And in order to be a Buddha, you have to be a Bodhisattva. You have to do the Bodhisattva thing for a while. You don't go from arhat to Buddha. You go from arhat to Bodhisattva to Buddha. And Bodhisattvas work with the crap that arhats have... What do you call it? Vaporized. They've dried up and tossed away. Bodhisattvas have re-injected fluid into this crap and are now working with... Juicy... Juicy suffering. Juicy ignorance. To show the full impact of the slightest imagining of inherent existence.

[40:41]

Actually, the slightest imagining of anything. So anyway, they're all celebrating how wonderful it is to hear that they now can be Bodhisattvas and therefore work to do what Buddha did and become Buddha. And Buddha tells them about this. So... So Subuddhi wants to tell Buddha a little story about what it's like for him, how he feels. He's going to tell a story, a parable. So he says... Subuddhi says, World Honored One, I now wish to speak a parable with which to clarify my feeling. Suppose there were a person, a man, who was young in years and who also, forsaking his father and running off,

[41:42]

dwelt long in another country, whether ten or twenty or as much as fifty years. Not only did he grow old, but he also was reduced to destitution. He became very poor and emaciated, running about in the four directions in quest of food and clothing. At length, in his wanderings, he accidentally headed towards his native land. His father, who preceded him and who had sought his son without finding him, had stopped midway in a certain city. The father's house was great and rich with treasures and jewels immeasurable, gold and silver, amber and other jewels.

[42:43]

His treasure houses were filled to overflowing. He had many servants, vassals, elephants, horses, carriages, chariots, oxen and sheep, without number. The profits that flowed in and out would fill the whole realm, and also merchants and itinerant traders were very numerous. At that time, the poor son, poor child, having visited various settlements and passed through kingdoms and metropolises, at length reached the city where his father was staying. The father and mother were thinking of their son, for it had already been more than fifty years since they had parted with him. Yet, without mentioning such matters to others, they merely thought to themselves, their hearts harboring regret and resentment. Old and decrepit,

[43:45]

we have much gold and silver and many precious gems with which our treasure houses are filled to overflowing, but now we have no son. One day we shall die, our riches shall be scattered, for we shall have no one to whom to bequeath them. For this reason, we are earnestly and constantly thinking of our son. Again, they thought, if we should get a son to whom we could bequeath our riches, we should be calmly happy and have no further cares. World Honored One, at that time, the poor son hiring himself out as a laborer in his wanderings, by chance reached his father's house, where, stopping by the side of the gate, he saw in the distance his father,

[44:47]

seated on a lion throne, his feet resting on jeweled footstool. Governing officials and military leaders, householders, all deferentially surrounding his father, his body adorned with pearl necklaces valued at thousands of myriads, attended on his right and left by vassals and servants holding white feathers dusters in their hands. I don't know if I should read all this. Anyway, as soon as the poor son had seen his father in all his glory with his great power, straightaway, harboring great fear, he regretted having come to this place. Privately, he thought, I better get out of here. This is either a king

[45:49]

or somebody equal to a king. But, at any rate, this is no place for a person like me to hire out for a job. The best thing for me to do is to go to some poor village where I can find a room and use my strength to the fullest, where I can get some food and clothing by easy means. If I stay in a place like this, I may be coerced to work. When he had this thought, he quickly ran off. At that time, the great and wealthy parents, on their lion thrones, seeing their son running away, instantly recognized him and were greatly pleased in their hearts. Straightaway thought, our treasures, our houses,

[46:51]

now have someone to whom they can be bequeathed. They intended to follow the young man, who was now in his late fifties, and bring him back. The messenger, running quickly, went and overtook the son. The poor son was alarmed and cried out resentfully, I've committed no offense, why have you seized me? The messenger, grasping him all the more firmly, forced him to return with him. At that time, the poor son thought to himself, I am guiltless, yet I have been seized. Starting to get the message? Starting to feel familiar? Especially during sashin,

[47:53]

sometimes people feel this way. I remember one time, you know, in the early days of Zen Center, when people weren't used to sashins, you know, and like Suzuki Roshi would be carrying the stick, in the side of some people's heads, even some big strong people, inside their heads they were thinking, oh, these people have tricked us, these Japanese creeps. This is their revenge for losing the war. I must get out of here soon. This surely means that I must die. All the more terrified and helpless with agony, he fell to the earth in a swoon. Seeing him from afar, the father said to the messenger, I do not want this man. Do not force him to come with you.

[48:55]

Then sprinkling him with cool water, he brought him back to his senses and spoke no more to him. What reason? The father knew that his son's ambitions were mean and knew that he himself, being so rich and powerful, would be a source of trouble to his son. He knew perfectly well that his son was his son, but for reasons of skillful device, he did not tell others. This is my son. He did not tell others. The messenger said to the son, I am not letting you go wherever you wish. The poor son rejoiced, having gained something he never had before. Rising from the ground, he went to a poor village to seek food and clothing.

[49:59]

At that time, the great man wishing to entice his son devised a skillful plan. He secretly dispatched two of his men, whose appearance was miserable and who had no dignity of bearing, saying to them, you may go to that place where my son is and, he didn't say son, to go to that place and say gently to that poor fellow, there is work here for you to which we will accompany you. If the poor fellow agrees, bring him along and put him to work. If he asks what you wish of him to do, then you may say to him, we are being hired to sweep away shit. You may also join us in this work. At that time, the two messengers sought out the poor son directly.

[51:03]

When they had found him, they told him the above details. The poor son first took his pay, then swept the shit with them. The father seeing his son was struck with both pity and amazement. Then on another day, through the window, he saw the figure of his son, weak, emaciated, wasted away, grimy and soiled with shit, dirt and dust. Straight away, he removed his necklaces, his fine outer garments, his ornaments and put on instead a rough, torn, dirty, tar-stained garment and smearing dust over his body, took in his right hand a shit shovel. Now, frightful in appearance,

[52:04]

he addressed his workmen. You men work. You may not slacken, but by this means of contriving to approach his son. Then he addressed his son saying, Ah, my man, work here always and do not go elsewhere. I will increase your wages. Whatever you need, whether pots, vessels, rice or noodles, salt, vinegar or whatever sort of thing, do not trouble yourself about it. For I have other servants, aged and decrepit, whose needs I supply and who can well afford to put their minds at ease. I'm like your father. I have no more cares. For what reason? I am old. My years are great. While you are young and vigorous,

[53:08]

whenever you work, you are never guilty of lying and cheating, of anger and resentment or of hateful words. I have never seen you guilty of these evils, as are the other workmen. For now, you shall be like my son. Straight away, the great man gave him a new name and called him his son. The poor son, though delighted by this treatment, continued, as before, to call himself a lowly workman from elsewhere. For this reason, for twenty years, he kept constantly at work, clearing away shit. At the end of this time, he had complete confidence in himself

[54:11]

and came and went without anxiety. Yet he lodged in the same place as before. It goes on. And the father says, comes back to him and says, Well, now that you've been shoveling shit all this time, I'd like to put you in charge of the shit-shoveling crew. And the young man, because he has so much confidence, can accept that responsibility. What? He's getting old, yes. And after leading the shit-shoveling crew for some time, his father says, And I'm getting older myself. I'd like you to come and work in the house and learn how the house works. Again, like you're my son. And the boy now can

[55:14]

accept this responsibility. The son can accept this responsibility because he has confidence from shoveling that shit. Confidence in himself. And then the father says, Well, it's... You've learned all the things in the house now. You're just like my son. As a matter of fact, you are my son. And the son is very happy to find this out after all this time. But he always was the son. He just couldn't believe that his situation was exactly the situation of all Buddhas.

[56:17]

Because he believed his imagination. But Buddha never... never thought he wasn't his son. But still, he knew that his son would have to shovel shit for a long time before he would realize that his imagination, that he wasn't Buddha's son, was just that. Until finally, by all that work, he finally dropped belief in his own idea of what enlightenment was, what freedom was, what happiness was. .

[57:22]

. Oh, when I, you know, when I went out and gave that talk, at the end I sang a song. I was the first speaker of the day. And I don't think I gave the best talk, but I'm the only one who had singing at the end. And as usual, afterward people said, I really liked your song. One very intellectual woman, she said, you know, that song just cut through everything. So it was, When the red, red robin comes baa, baa, baa, up along, up along, there'll be no more sobbing when he starts robbing his soul. Sing song. Wake up, wake up, you sleepy head.

[58:48]

Get up, get up, get out of bed. Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is in the long night. I get weary and sick of trying. I'm tired of living and scared of dying. But old man river, he just keeps rolling along. And then we go to sleep at night

[60:07]

and we get rested and we start another day. And somehow, again, I allow myself to discuss the essence of mind, which all Buddhists have realized. I'm tired of living

[61:16]

and it seems to me that those who have realized it have absolutely nothing. And yet, if you poke them, they sometimes make a sound. Like, how are you today? Teacher? Sun face Buddha, moon face Buddha. If you're a student of Zen,

[62:20]

if you carry something around, you know you're a fake. And if you don't care of anything around, if you think about it, you're carrying something around and you know you're a fake. But it's not easy to drop everything and have nothing and know nothing. And not even know if you know or understand anything. And it's not just that, because it's not like you're standing there not knowing anything. You're not knowing anything and you're getting inundated by karmic consciousness.

[63:23]

As a matter of fact, that's all that's happening. Other, besides that, nothing's happening. So, you get weary, unless you can die. But dying is hard. So, I forgot, I got distracted yesterday when I was telling you the story about when I go home during Sesshin, and I give this sage advice to my squabbling family and they invite me to leave. I forgot to tell that one time during Sesshin, I developed back problems. I could still sit, but I couldn't really walk.

[64:29]

And when I did try to walk, my face turned kind of green. And I couldn't hide my pain. That Sesshin, when I went home, I gave no sage advice. And when I came home, they hardly noticed me, but I didn't bother them. And when I left, they weren't glad to see me go. After the Sesshin was over, they said I wasn't too bad that time. So, Guishan asked Yangshan, if someone suddenly appears and asks you about, quote,

[65:31]

all sentient beings just have karmic consciousness, boundless, unceasing, uninterrupted, and unclear. Non-stop delusion is all they have. Including, of course, hoping for something better, or even thinking that they've found something better. As a matter of fact, even thinking that they're enlightened. Non-stop delusion. Thinking that they're practicing Zazen. Thinking that they had a good Sesshin. Or a bad Sesshin. Anyway,

[66:35]

unceasing karmic consciousness is all that living beings have. And there's no fundamental to rely on. There's not some kind of good stuff down there underneath all the crap that you could find. That you can hold on to for safety. It's all mere concept. Even suchness is mere concept. You can't even hold on to suchness. And the fact that you can't hold on to suchness, that is suchness. And you can't hold on to that either. So, this is the situation in which Bodhisattvas work. So, if someone comes up and asks you about the situation in which Bodhisattvas work, Guishan said to Yangshan,

[67:39]

Hey you, how would you check it out? He said, if they come and ask, I say, Hey you, if he turns his head, I say, what is it? He hesitates. I say, not only do all sentient beings just have karmic consciousness, but there's no fundamental to rely on. Guishan said, good. .

[68:39]

It seems like what we need to do is to accept this situation. To drop all our ingrained ideas that it could be different from this, or that we have attained something above this, or that it's possible to transcend this. To drop all that and accept this kind of function. . Without a fundamental to rely on. And then respond moment by moment. The responding we do at that time is described as a mirror that reflects forms without subjectivity,

[70:08]

or a pearl rolling in a bowl of itself. . . This essential

[71:11]

mind, this essence of mind, . .

[72:14]

. . It has no place to work except in this world of illusion. . And it works in the world of illusion when the world of illusion is empty. It works in the world of illusion when the world of illusion rolls on itself. . When the karmically created

[73:53]

rolls on itself . And there's not the slightest bit more or less than that. And there's no fundamental there underlying the whole magical illusory show. The show is just the show and the show is not even happening. This is the playground of the essence of mind. .

[74:59]

This fundamental situation of ignorance itself, this fundamental situation of ignorance, as it is, this fundamental affliction of ignorance rolling of itself, on itself, like a spinning top, is the immutable knowledge of all the Buddhas. . This broken down,

[76:18]

tired out, scared, confused illusion of the moment rolling on itself is just sitting. Who can accept that function? Without hesitation. Accepting this function, this natural, spontaneously intimate of itself function is the immutable knowledge

[77:22]

of the Buddhas. Sentient beings think, their karmic consciousness thinks that enlightenment is something other than that. Buddhas are those who simply see illusion for what it is and they don't even see it with any subjectivity. There is simply

[78:22]

illusion reflected in the mirror as illusion. Hey boy! He turns his head. Is this not the immutable knowledge of all the Buddhas? What is your Buddha nature? He hesitates. Is this not the fundamental affliction of ignorance? If you can comprehend this, you become Buddha immediately. One calls

[79:27]

and one turns his head. Do you know the self or not? Vaguely like the moon through ivy and a crescent moon at that. Do you know what a crescent moon is, Rafael? No. You know a moon? Moon, yes. Crescent moon? No. Crescent moon means like this. Half moon. Thinner, more thin. Yes, I understand. Like a crescent roll, croissant? Yes. Crescent moon. Understand. One calls, one turns his head.

[80:28]

Do you see the self or not? Vaguely like looking at the moon through ivy and a crescent moon. Like looking at a crescent moon through ivy. The bodhisattvas of the highest stage, when they see reality, it's like looking at a moon through gauze. Do you know gauze, Rafael? Gauze is fabric that you can see through, like that. The bodhisattvas of the highest stage, when they see reality, they see it like looking at the moon

[81:31]

through gauze. But what's the gauze? The gauze. What's the gauze? Karmic consciousness. Karmic consciousness. Bodhisattvas see reality through karmic consciousness. And a crescent moon at that. How do arhats see the moon? How do they see reality? No gauze. What do they see? Full moon, no gauze. See the difference? Can you see the moon through this?

[82:33]

No gauze. And it's not some fundamental there behind this. It is only through this. This is how you see it. There isn't any gauze. There isn't any gauze. There isn't any gauze. And that's how you see, by the gauze. Without the gauze, there's nothing. Arhats sees... I don't know what arhats see. They're happy. They know something. They have complete enlightenment. But they don't see any... What do they see? They really see karmic consciousness in the form of a

[83:58]

bright moon. And... And... Okay. I'm also talking about, you know, the world of dependently co-arisen phenomena. The world of imagining that this stuff has substance. And the world which sees dependently co-arisen phenomena without imagining anything about it. Okay?

[84:58]

So listen to what these guys say. One young man Yang Shan, the person in this story, was talking to a friend of his named Shan Dao. They were looking at the moon. And... Yang Shan asked, When the moon... When the moon is a crescent, what happens to the round shape? And when the moon is full, what happens to the crescent? Shan Dao said, When the moon is full, the crescent is still within. And when the moon is crescent,

[86:05]

the round shape is hidden. Yun Yan said, When it's a crescent, the round shape remains. When it's full, it's still not round. When it's a crescent, the round shape remains. When it's full, the crescent shape does not exist. When it's full,

[87:10]

the crescent shape is within. When it's crescent, the round shape remains. If you look at the moon, all these things are true. Since the moon can be round, why should it take... Why should it be bent like a hook? Why should it be bent like a hook?

[88:19]

The essential function of every Buddha, the functioning essence of every ancestor, it is completed, it is manifested in not thinking. It is completed in not emerging. Manifesting without thinking, its manifestation has intimacy with itself. Completion through non-merging, completion is verified by itself. It is a

[89:54]

manifestation It is a manifestation of the essential function of every Buddha, the functioning essence of every ancestor. Where is it? Where is it? How does it become manifest? It becomes manifest

[90:58]

through no thought. How is it completed? It is completed through no interplay, through no merging. The mountains and rivers of the immediate present are the manifestation of the essential function of all the Buddhas.

[91:37]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ