and the concept of transformation that undoes it. So, Bernard's saying burn it off, another way to say is remove the signs, another way to say is stop strongly adhering to the imputational character as being the other dependent character. And also I just want to mention, this is a huge thing to mention, but I just want to say again, I've said this many times, this is a wisdom teaching here, this name of the book is The Wisdom of the Buddha, it's a wisdom teaching. In this book which is called, the title on the red book is The Wisdom of Buddha, there is instruction on tranquility practice, there is good instruction on tranquility practice in chapter 8, and it says in the scripture, Bodhisattva asks the question, if you're meditating

[01:01]

on these wisdom teachings, this is my rendering of it, if you're meditating on these wisdom teachings but you haven't yet attained tranquility, are you practicing wisdom, is this a state of wisdom if you're meditating on these teachings and you're not in tranquility, and the Buddha says no, it's an intensified effort, it's concordant with or similar to wisdom but it's not wisdom itself, so this is why I parenthetically mention that we should be in a state of tranquility all the time around here, and unless you've got a really powerful hit of it sometime in the past, it's still lasting, you probably should do something once in a while to reinvigorate or plunge back into the ocean of tranquility on a regular basis, otherwise you won't be

[02:05]

as successful as you could be at incorporating these teachings, so some of you have come and told me about your practice, and your meditation practice you're doing is tranquility practice which is fine, and keep doing it, please, on a regular basis, and another practice that you have to do on a regular basis is practice patience, with the irritations of living with a group of people, with having a schedule like this, with having pizza that you can't cut, with the assistance of innumerable minions, what do you think minion means? I don't know what it means, but I don't know, assistant, many, many, many people,

[03:12]

it means darlings, anyway, people were trying to help me cut the pizza last night, but no one could cut it, so I just ate the whole pizza, it's not the pizza, it's the implement to cut, you're so right, anyway, patience, patience with how difficult this teaching is, and how etc. etc. it is, and also practice the precepts, you know, for example, receive what's given and don't try to get what's not given, you needed the double-edged sword to cut that pizza, don't slander yourself as being smart or not smart, don't praise self at the expense of others, don't get angry, don't be possessive, in other words, practice the precepts, of course, practice the precepts, be generous about this whole

[04:16]

thing, and I just mentioned tranquility, so we have six perfections that we're practicing, right? This is a wisdom teaching, but in order to understand this wisdom teaching really well, you have to be very, very loving, be very calm, be very diligent, be very patient, be very virtuous, and be very generous. Those practices you have to keep cranking all the time too, right? As you do this wisdom teaching. But the wisdom teaching is different from the tranquility teaching, because in the tranquility teaching you give up your discursive thought, when you hear the rain falling, you're really stupid about that, you really don't have anything to say about it, no comment, not even, oh, gee, it's really great that it's raining, oh, how lovely to be practicing Zen, oh, gee, here I can just sit here and all this stuff, oh, this is the pleasure of Zen, you know, all these wonderful things, I'm so happy to

[05:18]

be a creator, this kind of stuff, that kind of real simple, stupid practice like that, part of the time you have to be really like a scarecrow, this end of it. You need a little bit of time out on the discursive thought which is developing deep discriminating wisdom. But then when you're calm, then you can start showing the sutra again, and you will be exposed to it right after you get calm, in the morning service. I hope that that message is continually churning around, and the first five parmitas always have to be practiced as the legs of this great study of wisdom. I would appreciate some clarification about sannyā.

[06:21]

Yes. I think I've understood it as together knowers, so when blue comes up with this, something comes up, and this is how I've always thought of it, and I think this is from a class of the past, where the sannyā looks through the file, some kind of file, and says, pulls out, oh, that's blue, but is that actually, is that not sannyā, is that a rule, or is that a mistake? Conception works like that. Conception is very similar to sannyā, sannyā is to gather and nyā, knowing, so it's a kind of gathering kind of knowing, where it's categorical. So for example, there's lots of different visual forms which we feel okay about calling blue. We put a lot of things in the category of blue. That level of categorization depends on the concept of blue.

[07:25]

But even at the sensory level, the mind is taking in a certain level of information and simplifying it. So like, for example, I think there's a hundred million sense cells in the retina, but there's only a million going up the shaft to the brain. So for this hundred here, all the different types of stimulation for these hundred, they all go down the same tube, so the brain always gets a message from the same person, or the same messenger. Whatever happened out there for those hundred different ways, the same person brings a message each time. So the brain works that way, so that's kind of like conception. So conception is, in a sense, conception is neurologically based. Even at the sensory level, there's a kind of gathering.

[08:29]

We can't, our brain can't deal with everything that our senses bring up. It has to simplify them into categories in order to bring them in and work with them. Then when they get there, they get the impulses through the optic nerve, I forgot the name of it, but there's another juncture point where that information gets mixed with lots of other homeostatic information, and then they have a conference and then decide which one of them is going to bring the message to the brain. So, this is what happens at the sense level, and that's kind of like conception. But you can also call it perception, because it's what we think is happening. And the blue happens, all that happens, but calling it blue happens somewhere else. Calling it blue happens somewhere else, right. So, electromagnetic radiation of a certain type affects those, causes a slightly different chemical reaction in the retina than electromagnetic radiation of another type.

[09:34]

But it's possible that different radiations are coming into a certain section of the brain, and which one predominates to say, which is the predominant chemical reaction of those hundred sense cells, that's the message they'll send. And there's a lot of variety there that gets lost for the sake of cognition. But that's not, at that level there's no like, it's blue. But we do have the ability, when different colors of blue are out there, to get people to respond differently, even though they don't even know the word blue to use. They can't tell you it was blue, but you can verify that they did see it, they did know it. And through medication you can verify that the way they knew it was, in addition to getting

[10:36]

that information and knowing that it was not that physiological category, it was also mixed in with that when it got to the level of consciousness. This other element that is necessary because of manas is in there, which is projecting a sense of out-there-ness on it. So even at that level, there's out-there-ness. But I don't think there's, I don't know if the out-there-ness pervades all the way into every one of the retina cells, but it probably does. Because selves, one of the definitions of self in the American dictionary is the way a self identifies what does and does not belong inside. And also I've heard, if there's any botanists here, check this out, but I've heard that in the cells of the hairs of the roots of redwoods, that they can tell the difference between, you know, when they touch a cell from one of their own root hairs, or touch

[11:36]

the root hair of another cell, they can tell whether it's the same DNA or not. Not the DNA of the same cell. So the sense of identification is very deep into the cells of living beings. How do you want to clarify your question? No, I'm totally lost for that one. But I just wanted to continue with your question about color blue. How about feeling blue? Where does that go? Feeling blue? Right. Because I think we've taken the word blue beyond... Tell me what you mean by blue. Yeah. So, I'm so like confused with this whole thing. When you talk about the emptiness teaching and you say, okay, I see something, and for me right away I have a label for it. And in emptiness they should not be labeled, so I'm not imputing anything. Is that, am I... Well, before I answer that, I just want to say that when you're speaking of the blues, I saw this ad, I was at the community center in Mill Valley and saw this ad on TV for this

[12:40]

kind of, I think, arthritis medicine. And they had this old man sitting in a rocking chair with his guitar and he's singing the blues, you know. And the punchline of the thing is, the blues, you know, you feel the blues in your heart, not your knees. Same thing, exactly. Right. So the blues... The blues is extrapolated. You can feel the blues even if your knees don't hurt. Even if you're taking arthritis medicine, you can walk still, you can still feel the blues. Children can feel the blues sometimes, even though their bodies are like real relaxed and so on. So blues, blues is a kind of heart pain, yes. What kind of heart pain is that? It's a subtle, it's a subtle dependent co-arising. So where would that fit in, in this whole configuration that you've brought up? Would that be in the mind? I guess I would put it in the second skanda.

[13:47]

Okay. Which is a feeling of, which feels positive, negative and neutral sensation. You know, probably a very subtle form of negative sensation mixed with something else. It's probably a kind of an interesting concoction that we could dream up. We could discuss what it was like and figure out what elements we'd use to build it up. And, you know, that would be a nice discussion. And then we could see, is there any self in addition to that any place? And I probably wouldn't find one. We would just be blues singers. But there would be no blues singer in addition to the blues, which is a really nice idea of how to sing the blues. Just the blues, not me and the blues, but the blues. Like tea ceremonies, it's not me and the tea ceremony, it's just tea ceremony. Is that enough for the day? Yes, Mark? Well, I'm wondering if, since we have, we seem to have innately this sense of self,

[14:55]

so even in sensory perception as you were describing just a moment ago, I'm wondering then, when there's some transformation and the sense of self, the gripping and clinging to sense of self is diminished or let go of in some cases, I'm wondering if there's a transformation at the sensory level as well. Yes. We actually start to see the world. I know. Does it pick up that kind of questions? I don't know. Probably not. So, if a lie is transformed, what's that's nice thing about this theory is if a lie gets transformed, the sensory level is going to get transformed too. So, yeah. Because the sensory level is arising dependent on a lie. When we're first born, you know, and lie settles down into the sense organism, connects and apprehends the sense organism, when consciousness apprehends the sense organism, a lie is born there,

[16:00]

and the being is born there with it. Then, based on that union and that bonding, sense consciousnesses arise in relationship to the dominant condition, which is the sense organ getting stimulated to give rise to the consciousness, which depends on the object stimulating it. But again, it's not just the object, it's whether the organ responds. You can have real loud objects, but it wouldn't be organs. Organs on break. The nice thing about organs is organs can only respond when they're abreast. If you just turn them on, they can't... If an organ is turned on, even if something really strong happens, it can't be an organ at that time. Right? So, it arises. The sense consciousness arises in dependence on a lie. When a lie gets transformed, the sense consciousness is transformed. Now, there is a predisposition.

[17:03]

A lie is not just the resultant, which allows us to have images of the world. It is also the resultant, which is the predisposition towards images of the world. And what basically gets transformed is not that we lose our ability to image the world. What gets transformed is the predisposition towards conventional designation. So the Buddha, while still having a body, can still image the world, but he doesn't have predispositions to image the world. He could even imagine the self, but he's not predisposed to imagine the self. So the Buddha would just imagine it. And we imagine it too, but we imagine it compulsively. We can't stop. So to be able to stop, when it's good to stop,

[18:06]

means that you stop and see the second turning of the Dharma. You stop and see emptiness. But then you can go back and look at it again, and image the world again, and imagine a self, and use it to talk to people. And then when you're done, you stop. Give it up. There's no predisposition. So that's why it's transformed. The sense consciousness is transformed. Things don't look like they're out there anymore unless you want to imagine them that way. That's the way they always were. They always were imagined as being out there. And you can imagine them again, but now it's done as a creative act of compassion, but not by innate predisposition and compulsion. And that's a big job. It's such a huge transformation. But that's another reason why we practice diligence. And again, diligence means that you find some way to find this really interesting and enjoyable, so you're not worried about it lasting a long time.

[19:09]

As a matter of fact, I look forward to endless eons of practice. How wonderful to be able to study Dharma, and [...] get clearer and clearer about this stuff over the centuries and eons, endlessly getting more and more subtle, learning better and better ways to help other people understand. How wonderful. How great. And then be patient with the fact that sometimes it seems to be going backwards. I forgot all the stuff I used to understand. I'm not acting according to my understanding. Yes. So when we're practicing things like diligence and patience, are we employing Manas to influence our predispositions? Let's ask the first part. Are we employing Manas when we're practicing? Right. Well, almost always, if you're aware that you're in a room

[20:11]

and you're practicing patience, Manas is operating there, otherwise you wouldn't have any conscious awareness without having a mind organ. Right. And also, if you haven't transformed your whole consciousness, there's probably still some sense that there's you in the practice of diligence, or you in the practice of patience, or you in the person who's irritating you. There's probably some sense of that still. But you also, along with practicing patience, you might also be practicing wisdom practices, which tell you that this person you're looking at is a dependent core arising, and so on. And if you're meditating on that while you're still being irritated because you still think they're separate from you, you start to have more and more virtuous response to them, a more patient response to them. Manas is operating on both levels for a long time. So, how does that choice occur, though? If I'm sitting here and becoming impatient

[21:16]

with the understanding of the teaching, and I have this other concept of patience, and not slandering myself as being stupid here, that arises while I'm being frustrated, now I have these two concepts. What are the two concepts? One is that I am impatient and stupid. Yeah. And the other is that I'm practicing the precept of not slandering myself. Yes. So I'm holding these two concepts. Yes. What's the mechanism where I choose one over the other? Well, you don't have to choose, right? But in the situation you chose, in the situation you were in, you could practice the precept of receiving what's given, which is having two concepts. So you just work with that, that I have the idea of this precept of not slandering myself, and I also seem to be slandering myself. That's my present situation,

[22:16]

and I work with that, which is practicing the precept of working with what's given. So that's a kind of virtuous response to recognize this is my situation. Thank you very much. I'm in this... So then you're practicing precepts. Now, if you were very much in the present of what that felt like, if it was uncomfortable, and you're very much feeling that present moment of discomfort with these conflicting images, then you'd be practicing patience also. Now, if you're asking what chooses or what are the conditions by which you would be really present and accept what's given, I really don't know the conditions for that. I just know that those events sometimes occur, and that's called practice of patience and practice of the precepts, in this example. While dealing with a conflicted situation between impatience and slander, and the fact that patience is good

[23:18]

and precepts are good, those two go together. But part of the condition for them going together is that you've heard that it's a good idea to be aware of what's going on. You've heard that. That's a condition for being aware of what's going on. And that you've heard that precepts are good and patience is good. That's part of the background by which that might arise, by which that conflict might arise. As a matter of fact, some people who have not received the precepts and committed to the precepts are in some ways more comfortable with breaking precepts than people who have received the precepts. People who have committed to the precepts and are not following them are quite uncomfortable, generally speaking, with the not following of them. But people who are not committed to the precepts sometimes are not that uncomfortable with violating them, because they never said they would. And if you point out to them or ask them a question about this, say, yeah, right,

[24:18]

I was just really harsh and cruel and insulting to that person, but that's just the way I was. So, I'm that way sometimes. And you might say, do you regret that? And say, well, no, I don't. But if I really commit to be kind to people, I actually don't feel so good about being cruel to people. If I really commit to it. As a matter of fact, I feel kind of like, no, I'm not really that comfortable with being cruel to people. Because I actually do not want to be cruel to people, and not only that, but I said I was going to really work on that. So, I'm feeling kind of uncomfortable with that. But being patient with that discomfort does not undermine my feeling of discomfort or being motivated. Being patient will support me feeling uncomfortable with violating the precepts. It will support me feeling uncomfortable violating the precepts. It will let that discomfort sink way down and transform my consciousness.

[25:21]

Like, this is not what you want to do, remember? Way down there, oh yeah, right. I want to be kind. Yeah. And then that pain can make you really sit up and be kind. And knock it off. Knock off that impatient nastiness. Like I said to somebody, someone recently insulted me. It wasn't that big an insult, but then I laughed and the person said, I like that much better than the way you used to respond to my insults. You used to kind of take it seriously, not just laugh. Yeah, enlightenment is not that bad. It's really nice to laugh, not just laugh, I don't know what, nastily, but really enjoy people insulting you. It's much nicer.

[26:23]

Yes? Well, most of my original question was answered already with this question, but I'm coming back to this mechanism that we have where all the stimulus that comes from everywhere somehow is processed by this center which decides what actually goes to consciousness. And I imagine that what does actually end up going to consciousness is determined by our predisposition or alaya. That's one of the factors, predispositions are a big factor, yeah. And so, I... The predispositions, but also your, like I said, your sense organs, if your sense organs are turned on and something stimulates them, they can't send any more information. They have to rest before they can receive.

[27:29]

So sometimes something might be happening which you might have a strong predisposition to be really interested in, but your sense organs are pooped out, you know, so at that moment you pass on that one. So it's a very complex process, but predispositions are the part that cause the suffering. Right, so... We want to get over the predispositions. The sense organs, they're going to operate, usually, if the predispositions are dropped, the sense organs are going to, like, more and more be in a harmonic relationship with the universe. And they're going to notice just exactly what the universe wants them to, with no interference. May I ask a second question? Then, suppose that there's a bodhisattva whose alaya doesn't exist anymore, or who has no predispositions, and there's an accident. So, a lot of people are watching a car accident, for example.

[28:35]

So this bodhisattva probably will see this event very differently from the rest of us, whose alaya is seeing us to, oh, it's a disaster, it's terrible, look at that, a child died or something. The bodhisattva would view that event in a very different way. Yes. Their view, the bodhisattva's view of the situation would be based on realization of relinquishing all views of the situation. So they relinquish all views of situations, and based on that, they take up views of situations. So, I think we talked about this the other day, if alaya was transformed into mirror-like wisdom, which is the name of alaya when it gets revolved, can a person function in the world? Now, instead of alaya being the basis of their action,

[29:38]

what the basis of their action is, is great mirror-like wisdom. But the great mirror-like wisdom can get in touch with images that might be necessary in order to benefit beings. This is a bodhisattva who wants to help people. So this mirror-like wisdom can reflect all the alayas around and get all the information it needs in order to imagine what might be going on in the most beneficial way. So they might be able to say, yeah, we're on downtown Mill Valley now, they can come up with that too. But the predominant thing, instead of being alaya, in its defiled form, it's now been converted finally into mirror-like wisdom, which can reflect all the situations in the universe too. And use it. Yes? Earlier you said in Yogacara there are two types of alaya, and is that what you meant, the purified and the defiled alaya?

[30:42]

Well, I might have said there are two types of alaya, but I'm just saying basically that there's alaya, and then when alaya becomes transformed, it becomes wisdom. In some sense, alaya becomes quiescent or appeased, and in other words, the predispositions get turned off. And alaya was originally predispositions towards these things. It wasn't just a resource from past. History of the universe, it's also predispositions towards certain ways of processing history and present events. So I don't know if there really are two kinds of alaya. And alaya doesn't get transformed all at once. It's being transformed all the time, but there's a certain level of transformation where it's no longer a problem.

[31:45]

It's no longer something that blocks us from seeing what it is. So in a sense, alaya is the other dependent character, and in another sense, alaya is the way we know the other dependent character such that we can't see it. So in one sense, alaya's nature is to obscure itself. Yes? Can we go back to the car accident? The bodhisattva is looking at the car accident, and the bodhisattva's mirror-like wisdom creates imaginations of all the possibilities of what could be done, and they choose the best. You just said the bodhisattva's mirror-like wisdom imagines all the possibilities and chooses the best. I don't think you actually imagine all the possibilities.

[32:47]

All the possibilities are there, actually. And you don't really imagine them. As soon as you start imagining, the possibilities start getting narrowed. So I don't think the bodhisattva imagines all the possibilities. Well, he's imagining. What I would say is that the bodhisattva imagines, always imagining, benefit of beings, and then their imagination converts the possibilities into beneficial images, images that are beneficial. And then they start participating in that world with people, including people into that world. That's quite interesting. Could you try to explain that? I'm just saying that in any given situation, basically what's happening is possibilities. But possibilities aren't happening.

[33:50]

So when I say basically what's happening is possibilities, I mean basically what's happening is nothing's happening. Basically what's happening is that things are naturally, the second turning, is basically what's happening. So no matter what the bodhisattva does, it's the most beneficial thing. You jumped a little bit too fast there for me. I'm still back at what's happening, basically what's happening in every moment. Ultimately what's happening is that all the possible events are quiet right now. They're in a state of nirvana. They have no own being. You can't grasp them. That's basically what's happening. Now the bodhisattva who understands that, because of their vow, will imagine something about what's going on. And when you imagine something about what's going on, then there is this illusion of things happening, and things arise. And what arises, with this mirror-like wisdom together with this compassion,

[34:53]

this would be the bodhisattva's life, which is the life we want. Which is the life we want. Now it could be changed, of course, but usually in most situations it's just what it is, because of those conditions. There were other possibilities, but the level of wisdom with the level of compassion manifested this way. And it is possible that the wisdom would get even more developed, and the compassion would get even more purified, and the result would be quite different, but even more spectacularly wonderful, and more to the point of what's possible, the best possible thing in the universe. The best is never really achieved. Well, it's the best at that moment. The best at that moment is achieved. Actually, the best at that moment is... I mean, you say, give more wise and more compassionate, and achieve better. Yeah, but at the given moment,

[35:54]

we actually always do achieve the best we can do, and the worst. That's the thing. And the worst. But there doesn't seem to be too much difficulty in ascertaining that there's a little bit of lack of wisdom around here. So we know that this is... We know that we haven't really hit the top yet, because we can still detect some clinging to what we think is happening when somebody insults us. But sometimes there's a little bit of a lack of appreciation of how funny that is. But if we got to the place where we... Somehow, we were told, you know, by some kind of... Maitreya came down and said, you're doing great, kid. At that point, we might wonder, you know, if anything better could be done other than what we just did, or what was manifested. And we would understand that, yes, it can involve even more, which means more people are included in it.

[36:56]

So, even though you're doing the best you can, you still have to take into account everybody else's development in the situation. Some people can't appreciate the situation as much as they potentially could. And so maybe there would be a way that would make it possible for them to appreciate it even more than they did. So you can see that that was the best you could do at the time. And that was great. But you can see it could be better, because these people didn't really get it, you know, and they're still grumbling and being impatient and breaking the precepts and stuff like that. And they're miserable. So you did your best, but there's more to do. Until they're on board too, right? But given the causal situation of their development, there just doesn't seem to be the wisdom to make them leap from that level of development to Supreme Buddhahood at that moment. Which is usually the case, right?

[37:58]

It's rare to get everybody in the room to jump to Supreme Buddhahood, even though that's a possibility. Also, another big question that was raised, Catherine asked me, what's the relationship between these teachings and Wong Bo's One Mind teaching? I didn't ask you that. So she asked about alaya, whether that was mind. He said that was much later. I like that one. What was the question? Whether in shamatha, the description of shamatha, or mind that was being referred to was alaya, or not. Yeah. So in chapter 8, when they describe how to practice tranquility, they say one of the instructions is to pay attention to the mind which is contemplated by all minds. And it's the mind which is contemplated by all minds, alaya.

[39:03]

And so, maybe now that we brought up tranquility, would that be alaya? And the other translation is the uninterrupted mind. That's a separate place, isn't it? It's a separate place in the text. It's a separate place in the text. But you could also ask if the uninterrupted mind was alaya. I have a note. I think that actually... I'm not quite ready to answer that, but I'm going to say it today. I think that alaya is... alaya isn't a continuous mind. More like potential?

[40:07]

Is it more like potential? I don't know if I would say yes to that. So, I guess I just maybe have to think about that some more. But now the question is, when Longbo is talking about the one mind, or, you know, that all Buddhas and all sentient beings practicing together are just one mind, how does that relate to this teaching? Okay. So, I have this book here. It's called One Mind. It's written by me. If anybody wants to read, the answer's in here. But please don't bite it. You can bite it a little bit,

[41:11]

but not real hard. And you can invent something with it, and you can also read it. It's possible to read it. And you can build a sanctuary with it. So, do you seem to be quiet now? Just save us from biting it. Is it all one taste? Oh, definitely. Well, as far as I know. Just a second. Actually, the top was dustier than the bottom. Don't try to swallow it. It might choke. Please don't try to swallow it. It might choke. Maybe you could swallow this. It's all shiny now.

[42:12]

The next Dharma King will be able to open this. Or the Dharma Queen. Or the next Dharma Queen will turn into a Dharma King, or vice versa. Okay, well, it looks like you're quiet. We have some questions for us to think about, and I'll look at them in our Dharmakusha, and we'll think about this, how alive it is to that instruction of Tranquility Practice in Chapter Eight. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy practicing generosity and ethical discipline and patience and diligence and concentration and wisdom.

[43:19]

May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of purest way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Divisions are irresistible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[44:22]

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