As I entered the room I saw the face of one of our old-time practitioners, who has said to me on a number of occasions, dumb it down, and I thought, I wonder if today's discussion will be dumbing it down enough. Almost no one says, smarten it up. I think the people who feel like they want it smarter feel like that's not nice to ask for that. You know, talk more intelligently. Yesterday I think someone asked something like, is buddha nature the same

[01:05]

as emptiness, and I think I said, no, but we need to realize emptiness in order to see or realize buddha nature. I think I said something like that, and I said it again today. Emptiness is the object of purification. When you look at emptiness, when you see it, when you cognize it, and particularly when you realize it non-dualistically, it removes obstructions to understanding, purifies your body and mind of hindrance to realization of perfect understanding. But I don't think buddha nature is just that,

[02:15]

it's what you can see, it's the way things are after you can see, after the obstructions have been removed. It's more the way we're actually working together with all things and all things with us. It's the way we're born at the same moment as the mountains and the rivers and the great earth, and they with us. And realizing emptiness, we can realize this buddha nature. Realizing emptiness, we are freed from the kinds of problems we have when we don't see clearly, but also we enter into the way of working that's not just being free of problems,

[03:19]

but it is celebration of peace and harmony. I've been just saying right out the way I've heard things already are. That we already are practicing together with everyone, and all the buddhas already are practicing together with us, and I suggested that the path of enlightenment is to sit in the middle of the awareness of the way things already always are.

[04:20]

To sit in the middle of the awareness that we are embracing and sustaining all beings, and all beings are embracing and sustaining us. This is not something we have to create, but that we are always in the process of creating with all beings. But I didn't mean to look at those words and then bring those words along with you, necessarily, but just listen to them if you want to. And you already did listen to them, and if you don't understand, one way to understand is just keep listening to them. And then you'll understand them. When you understand them, in a sense, you won't have to listen to them anymore, because that's just the way you'll understand.

[05:26]

So then again you will be in that awareness, because we are in the awareness of how we understand. Our understanding is our awareness. And yesterday Frederick said, I bring gratitude to the situation. Someone else might think, well, I'll bring this awareness to the situation, but it's a little bit more like, you've heard about this, you've heard this proposal about the way things are, and just sitting and listening to that, you're not really bringing it, you're just sitting in the midst of hearing that. If you don't hear it, you don't have to bring it. Then you sit in the midst of not hearing it. You sit in the midst of whatever is happening, and then the awareness or the observation of how you arise with whatever is happening, that is the awareness.

[06:34]

And it's possible to learn how to be aware of what's happening, and then be aware of what's happening, and be aware of what's happening, and be aware of what's happening without bringing into the moment the awareness of what's happening. But just as things arise, be aware, without making being aware a tool, or something outside of what's happening. Watch the awareness arise of what's happening. Watch the arising of what's happening with the awareness of what's happening, and vice versa, without bringing the watching along with you into the moment. And giving up bringing yourself along into the moment, then don't make that another tool. Learn how to do that. Listen to that. So that's some words.

[07:39]

Thank you. Satsang with Mooji I don't think you've gotten to the part of the Chapter 7 where the Buddha says that he has taught different ways at different times. The way he taught in what has been sometimes called three wheels, or three turnings of the wheel. In the first turning of the wheel, he taught in a kind of theoretical way, a conceptual way.

[09:29]

He offered a conceptual approach for Noble Truths. And as you read, at the beginning of the Chapter, the Bodhisattva Paramartha Samudgatta says, you taught the own character of the Four Noble Truths, and you taught the own character of the Five Aggregates, and you taught the own character of all these things. In that phase of his teaching, he taught a conceptual approach to the practice of the Buddha way. Later, and then the Bodhisattva says, after listing all these ways, there are a lot of the ways in which the Buddha taught conceptually. After mentioning a lot of the conceptual approaches to the practice that the Buddha offered in the first turning,

[10:37]

he says, but then you said, all Dharmas lack own being, are unarisen, unceasing, quiescent from the start and naturally in a state of Nirvana. What did you have in mind when you were teaching that? That teaching of all Dharmas lack own being, all Dharmas are empty, that teaching is the second turning of the wheel. Someone asked me one time, what's the difference between the Theravada and the Mahayana? And I said, well, there's no difference. And they said, well, actually this is the San Luis Obispo. And I said, there's no difference. And the person said, well, even though there's no difference, what's the difference? And I said, well, there's more emphasis on emptiness in the Mahayana.

[11:42]

And somebody called the Theravadan teacher and he got really upset with me saying that. He said, you know, how uncareful I was to say that. He said, don't you know that there's a sutra, the early Pali sutra, where Buddha says all Dharmas are empty? And I, to tell you the truth, I just let it drop. But I still think that is a difference. The Buddha did teach that Dharmas are empty in his early teachings, but the level, but the stress of his teaching, if you look at the whole vast thing, there's two sutras, the large and small scripture on emptiness, but if you look at the vast ocean of his teaching, mostly he's teaching this conceptual approach. He says, this is the approach here, Four Noble Truths and so on. The Heart Sutra says, no Four Noble Truths.

[12:44]

The sutra on all Dharmas are empty, and he doesn't say, oh, the Four Noble Truths, there's no Four Noble Truths, there's no path, and so on. He didn't say that. He just said everything's empty, but he didn't say, in the entire edifice of teaching I've given you, there isn't such a thing. He didn't say that. The second wheel says, rejects, denies the validity of the conceptual approach given in the first. It rejects, as mere fabrication, the whole edifice of what he gave at first. So Bodhisattva said, what did you have in mind when you were teaching that? The second wheel is stressing the immediacy of wisdom. It's saying, enter right now. It's already the case, what's happening is happening, just enter it. Don't use a conceptual approach.

[13:45]

Any conceptual approach you use will have to be cut through. And then, after you enter wisdom in emptiness, then you can practice, after that, in the world. So sometimes, actually I believe in case 56 of the Book of Serenity, the commentator says that there's two gates to the teaching, or in the teaching there's two gates. The natural gate and the cultivation gate. Usually we enter enlightenment through cultivation. We go from ordinariness to sagehood.

[14:48]

And the cultivation is usually, or often anyway, something. Whatever it is, if it's something, it's conceptual. The natural gate is to first attain enlightenment. Not cultivate and attain enlightenment. Before you start cultivating, attain enlightenment. Don't do anything, just attain enlightenment. And then, enter into practice. Go from sagehood to ordinariness. In this sutra, it talks of a third wheel. First wheel is using some conceptual approach, giving people some foothold to enter the way. Second approach is no foothold, just enter.

[15:55]

Third approach is based on no foothold, based on emptiness, based on the immediacy of wisdom, and don't reject the first wheel. So based on the second wheel, implement the first wheel. And construct an understanding of all meaning, underlying both the immediate approach and the gradual approach, or both the conceptual and the non-conceptual approach. So here sometimes we have the first wheel, sometimes we have the second wheel, sometimes we have the third wheel. And when you have the third wheel, you have the first wheel and the second wheel. Or you have the second wheel and the first wheel. So round and round we go with many kinds of teachings

[17:06]

in the Buddha field. The Master Rinzai, in the first discourse in his record, he is invited to ascend the seat. He gets up in the seat and he says, I've been asked to sit in this seat so I'm sitting here and if I would strictly accord with the ancestral way, I wouldn't be able to open my mouth. So that's the second wheel. The teacher just gets up and sits there and those who wish to study look at the silence

[18:07]

and stillness and don't even use that to enter. But then he says, if I do that, people may not have a foothold, so I'm going to talk or I'm going to show you something. So then he says, come here. And the monk comes up and I don't know what he did, he might have said speak or something and the monk hesitated and he slapped him. So there's some conceptual approach there for you. But in a way, he was teaching how to be non-conceptual, but giving you a little conceptual peek at a non-conceptual way. The monk comes up and he says speak, the monk starts trying to figure out what speaking means and he cuts him off and makes some non-Buddhist remarks.

[19:14]

Yes, did I take care of you? I also said come up here and you didn't, by the way. When Buddha showed the flower to the congregants, the large gathering, one person became aware. That's an example of the non-conceptual. That's a very good question. But that was earlier in the teaching. Right, I said that's a very good question. I didn't say I was correct. He's referring to the story of the Buddha holding up a flower and turning it and winking. You never heard that version? Those who have heard that version, raise their hands.

[20:26]

See, I'm not a trickster. Or rather, I am a trickster, but these people are making me that way. He raises the flower, he twists it, he goes ... And most of the monks, unlike you, sat there like ... One smiled and Buddha said, I now transmit the treasury of true Dharma eyes, the ineffable mind of Nirvana, to this guy. So, Frederick Sinks, wasn't that an example of the non-conceptual, did you say? Looks like it. But, Dogen says, that the bat is actually what he calls, or what has been called,

[21:40]

expounding mind and expounding nature. And then he goes through, as I may get to, and points out various moments like that, of what seems to be a median enlightenment, which he says, are examples of expounding mind and expounding nature. In other words, he's saying that, in a sense, what people think is a gradual approach, is happening right at the time of what looks like a sudden approach. And so, I may, I have that before me, I brought that text actually to read that example. And I think I might get to it, we'll see. So I'm not saying that that's not true, I'm just saying a lot of people would think that that that was an example of immediate non-conceptual realization. But again, it's non-conceptual also means non-dualistic,

[22:45]

not using something to get something, no gaining idea approach. Master Ma said, oh no, somebody said to Master Ma, I think, what is Buddha? And he said, one time he said, mind itself is Buddha. Somebody said, what's Buddha? And he said, mind itself is Buddha. Japanese, Sokushin Zeibutsu. Mind itself is Buddha. And I don't know how many times he said that, but then a monk came up to him and said, I heard that you teach people that mind itself is Buddha.

[23:48]

And Master Ma said, I say that to help children stop crying. The monk said, what do you do after they stop crying? He says, I say, not mind, not Buddha. And then Dogen says, mind itself is Buddha? Buddha, practice, no, explanation. No, I think practice is difficult. Explanation is not difficult. Not Buddha, not mind. Explanation is difficult. Practice is not difficult.

[24:52]

Now, if I explain to you what that was about, it will be rather easy, but the practice, based on an explanation, will be hard. The practice with that, which would be easy, would have a very difficult explanation. Want to hear the easy explanation first? The easy explanation is, mind itself is Buddha. If you study mind, you'll understand Buddha. And explaining the mind is not difficult. But the practice of this explanation is very difficult, very complex. The conceptual approach is very difficult. You saw in that first chapter 7, he taught all this stuff, the own being, the own character of all this stuff,

[26:01]

but then he just said, all things are empty. Easy explanation, actually, hard explanation. The easy explanation is the complex one. The hard explanation is the simple one, but the simple one has a very easy practice. You don't have to do anything, just enter right now. No mind, no Buddha, just enter. Mind itself is Buddha, easy to explain that, but very difficult to practice it. Now the no mind, no Buddha approach to that, the explanation will be very difficult, because I can't say anything, but the practice will be easy. Not easy, but not difficult. All right. So, there's a chapter of the Treasure of True Dharma,

[27:43]

called Expounding Mind and Expounding Nature. And nature, maybe you could say is Buddha nature, the actual state of Buddha. So one day, one day the Master Dungshan, Tozan Ryokai, was walking along with his close friend, who we call Uncle Mi, Sung Mi was his name, he was walking along with Uncle Mi, and Dungshan said, you know, he points at a temple nearby, and he says, inside there is someone expounding mind

[28:44]

and expounding nature. And Uncle Mi says, who is it? And Dungshan says, being asked one question by you, elder brother, Uncle Mi, I have directly attained the state of having died completely. Uncle Mi says, that concrete state is expounding the mind and expounding nature. No, that concrete state of expounding mind and expounding nature

[29:46]

is who? But not a question mark at the end. Dungshan says, in death I have come alive. Dungshan points to the temple and says, in that temple there is someone expounding mind and expounding nature, apparently giving some conceptual approach to mind and nature and their relationship, like the first wheel of the Buddhist teaching.

[30:50]

His elder brother says, who is it? Or who is it? Or who it is? Who it is. Who it is. And Dungshan says, being asked one question by you, dear brother, I have directly attained the state of having died completely. Uncle Mi says, that concrete state of expounding mind and expounding nature

[31:56]

is who? Dungshan says, in death I have come alive. Which wheel is that? Hmm? Third. Yeah. Probably the third or all three. Hmm? It's the Mi wheel. This is one of the few stories of Uncle Mi and Dungshan where Uncle Mi comes out unscathed. Laughter Where Uncle Mi seems to be not just the Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes or the, you know,

[32:59]

Bud Abbot to Luke Costello, but really seems to be helping out his younger brother attain the way. Again and again, attain the way. So again, usually expounding mind and expounding nature is seen as an intellectual approach, a conceptual approach to the wonderful understanding of mind, nature and their relationship. Like during these talks, in some sense someone might say, Oh, he was expounding mind and nature. Or mind and nature were explained by somebody and he was expounding mind and nature. Or being in that zendo. Or being expounded by someone in that zendo. And they're chanting scriptures which discuss three wheels and which are three turnings and one of the scriptures they chant

[34:01]

is a second turning scripture. Another one is a third turning scripture. And the second turning scripture is saying no conceptual approach, no suffering, no origin, no path, no stopping, no birth, no death, no attainment, no attainment, no gain, no loss. Just enter directly. They chant those kind of scriptures in that room. Without any expounding, they just chant it, there's no expounding. And then they chant other scriptures which talk about integrating no expounding with expounding. And then they do a lot of stuff in that room. But someone could point there and say there's expounding mind and expounding nature going on. There's someone in there expounding mind and expounding nature. And Dungshan says,

[35:01]

Who is it? Who is expounding mind and nature in this room? Looking at that, not using it, just listening to that, Dungshan says, One question from you, I've died completely. And the uncle Mi says, That's who? That state of dying completely, that's who? And now, I'm alive. And then Dungshan quotes a Zen teacher, a very important Zen teacher who says that basically because

[36:03]

people today like to expound mind and expound nature and they like to discuss the profound and discuss the fine, they are slow in attaining the way. They are slow in attaining the truth because they like to discuss the truth. When they simply throw away the duality of mind and nature and forget about the duality of profound and fine, then so that dualistic forms do not arise, then they really

[37:04]

experience the state. So he's saying, forget about this expounding mind and nature and just throw out the dualistic ideas. Subtle. Because in some sense, there's been expounding of mind and nature in this room about throwing out dualistic ideas. Dogen, for various reasons, speaks in a way that sounds somewhat harsh towards this teacher. He calls him extremely stupid. And he uses the image of

[38:11]

on a thousand-mile path, the first step you take on the path is the first step on the path. And the thousandth step you take on the path is the thousandth step you take on the path. The first step is on the path and the thousandth is on the path. They're both the path. Extremely stupid people think that when we are learning the Buddha way, we have not arrived at the Buddha way, right? When you are in like Buddha schools, learning the Buddha way, you haven't arrived at the

[39:14]

Buddha way. They think that if it is the Buddha way only, that it is the Buddha way only in the time beyond realization of the effect. So some people see the Buddha path as having two sides, a mundane side and a super-mundane side. The mundane side is when you are practicing the Buddha way dualistically. I'm doing the practice. And the super-mundane is when you are doing the practice but not thinking I'm doing the practice. When the practice is happening as you, the practitioner, but you don't any longer think I'm doing the practice, you no longer see things that way. That's the super-mundane way. And some people say the actual Buddhism part starts after

[40:15]

you give up your deluded idea of who you are. That's the Buddhist part. Other people say the whole thing is the Buddha way. Even the people who are practicing in a deluded way are still practicing the Buddha way. Even the people who are causing themselves more trouble. Preparing for giving up believing in a self is part of the Buddha way, and practice after giving up the idea of self is the Buddha way. But some people say this first part, if you can skip it, skip it. Why not? No problem, skip it. But after you skip it, be careful not to think that the people who are not skipping

[41:16]

it are not with you. And even those who go through the first phase and attain the second phase and become Buddhas, they're never separate from the people who have not yet attained Buddha. Is this expounding mind, an expounding nature? If so, who is it? If so, who is it? Uncle Mi and Deng Xiang were walking along on another occasion, and I don't know if it was before or after this story, and they were on a road apparently, and I think, I'm not

[42:19]

sure if it was a rabbit, just a regular rabbit, or if it was a white rabbit. Does anybody remember if it was a white rabbit? It was a white rabbit. Yeah. You know those little Chinese candies, those little white rabbits? You know? You know those? They come wrapped in paper and then you pull off the paper and they have another wrapping which you can eat? You know about those? You don't? How many people do not know about these white rabbits? Wow! And this isn't Iowa. What? It's rice candy, yeah. So they're called white rabbits. Well, it wasn't one of those. It was like a mammal white rabbit. It was, you know, non-vegan white rabbit. What? There was a bobcat right behind her, right? So anyway, this white rabbit,

[43:29]

this mammal white rabbit zips across the road in front of them. They're shuffling down the road. Rabbit. And Uncle Me says, fast. And Dung Sean said, who it is. And then he says, how fast? How fast, Uncle? And Uncle Me says, like a commoner being made prime minister of the empire. There was a little bit of democracy to some extent in China that if you worked hard and studied and expounding the mind and expounding nature, if you studied hard you could go from being a commoner to being a prime minister, if you worked hard. But this

[44:34]

is like from commoner to prime minister, like that. And then Dung Sean says, elder brother, so venerable and esteemed, and you still talk like that? And Uncle Me says, how about you? And Dung Sean says, after generations of nobility, temporarily fallen into poverty, how about you? You did? What kind of smile did you get? The kind of, the non-appreciation? You're kind of smiling. You're trying to stop smiling. You are overwhelmed by a smile.

[45:39]

Well, explanation is easy to your mind. So now there will be expounding of mind and nature and the explanation will be easy. Before there was a very difficult explanation which you couldn't understand, but the practice was easy, but you couldn't do it, right? Even though it was easy, you couldn't do it. You couldn't smile, even though it was easy, because the explanation was so difficult. After generations of nobility, temporarily fallen into poverty, what's poverty? Do you know what it is, Linda? What poverty is? Linda? Your name's not Linda. Your name's Carol. You don't know what poverty is? You don't? Just say no if you don't. You

[46:48]

don't know what poverty is? Does anybody know what poverty is? Yes, Trevor? What? What's poverty? What's poverty, Beth? What? Delusion, yeah. What's poverty? Yes, Jackie? It's the what fast rabbit? Yeah, the slick fast rabbit is poverty. A smart rabbit. Of course a dumb rabbit is also poverty, but a real smart rabbit is really poverty. Poverty is our little conceptual mind, our tiny little super-powerful, super-powerful conceptual mind, a mind which can create weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass distraction. Our conceptual mind is extremely powerful

[47:52]

fantasizing machine, but it's really a poverty situation, because it squeezes our vast life into a little power unit for dominating other forms of life and promoting one and its offspring. That's poverty. But this poverty we have of being smart or relatively smart, it's a situation we've come into after a long time of being in a noble situation. We always are in the this tight little box of limited responsibility for what we think we can control by our tight little poverty unit. But it's just temporary. It's not always that way. It's actually always

[49:06]

noble. It's always really noble. It's always really noble. It's not always exactly what we want, but we temporarily fall into, so we can talk, so we can converse, so we can go to high school. We get small, so we can sign our name on the test and get into college, and etc. We get small to get small things, and we have to. And that smallness is totally not separate from our nobility. It's just a temporary fall into a little box. And when we see a rabbit's cross, we can think, geez, I could go from this box to a much bigger box, yeah? Or I could go from this box into

[50:14]

a limitless box. But, Deng Xiang is saying, you've already been in the big box a long time. You're just, well, we would say, you just have knowingly and willingly left the unlimited, the boxless, the unpackaged, unlimited harmony. You have intentionally left it for a while and come into this little box, so you can talk to other people who have come into this box. And it's just temporary, but it's difficult in this little box, so we have expounding mind and nature to those in the box. Thank you very much. Do you understand now, Linda, a little bit?

[51:40]

Zen folks get weary. Zen folks get weary wearing that same shabby robe. So when they're weary, try a little tenderness. They may be waiting, just anticipating things they will never possess. So while they're waiting, try a little tenderness. You won't forget, you won't regret it. They'll never forget it. Love is their only desire.

[52:47]

So when they're struggling, try a little tenderness. Yes, Bernard? I don't know what to say. Okay. Well, thanks for dropping by. See you around. Oh, yes, Borden, of all people. Who let you in? No, I didn't say I was going to dumb it down. I said you told me to dumb it down. I didn't say it was going to be easy. I just said that you... I didn't... Did I say it was going to be easy?

[53:53]

Huh? I did? Oh, my God. Overthrown, overruled. It's a revolution. I'm in trouble now. Is that it then, Gordon? Okay. Yes. To live in the world of measuring gain and loss is to be in poverty. The rich people are, you know, they're relieved of that. And that's why they like to be with other rich people, because they can make, you know... We don't have to worry about gain and loss anymore, right? Of course, actually rich people are scared to death of losing their money, but they hope that if they get rich enough, they can stop measuring how much money they have.

[54:55]

We finally have so much, we'll never be able to measure it so we can stop. Yeah. So anyway, poverty is to be concerned with gain and loss. And bodhisattvas willingly enter the realm of gain and loss out of love for beings. They enter into the tight little space of the gain and loss counting room in order to help beings who are suffering there. Huh? They enter the kitchen, yeah. They escape the zendo and enter the kitchen. There he goes, he's happily getting out of here. Did you have a follow-up?

[55:58]

Did you have a follow-up? Did you have a follow-up? Are you trying to get anything? What? Well, I don't need to go to the kitchen, so, you know. But I would like to get out of the sitting, so how do you know? Oh, you would like to get out of the sitting, ah. Catherine, Catherine. I've got to hurry up here. Now she's tipped her hand. So, I think you started at the beginning, you were talking about sitting and not doing, just sitting, not doing, just sitting, and see what arises, see what comes. Sitting and not doing, not doing and sitting and see what arises. And sometimes what comes is a little story about the little rabbit. Sometimes a little rabbit story comes up? A little rabbit story comes up. Yeah? Yeah.

[57:08]

Yeah. This is expounding mind and expounding nature stories. Yeah? And then so sometimes they're relieved, but then that relief also seems like just another story. And then, I don't know, these kind of tangled stories, for example. Well, there's a relief which can be another story, but there's also a relief which is not a story. But the story about the relief is non-dual with the actual relief. The actual relief, however, the story doesn't reach. But all the stories are based on actual relief. And actual relief is actually what's going on all the time. We are actually alive. We're actually alive, actually. This is life. This is what it's called. We call it life. However, life is a story about life, and life does not reach life.

[58:08]

Life does not reach life. However, if life is inseparable, especially our style, life is inseparable from life or vice versa. But usually we have stories of life, but not always. Sometimes we can't find any stories of life. At that moment, we're in our wealth. We're back in our nobility. We nobly do not deign to have anything, because we can't find anything. We're so rich, we can't find anything. We can't find any beings. Now we're set to help beings, now that we can't find any. Now that we're noble, we're ready to help beings. Now we can re-enter the story of beings and non-beings, and we can really help people, because we have realized emptiness, where we couldn't find any stories. And we're right there in the middle of our nobility,

[59:13]

which is the way we're generously helping all beings, and so generously helping them, we don't even have to not accept their help. We don't have to be in the position of being the helper. We can be the helper, we can be the girl or the boy, we can be Bodhidharma or a cut-off arm. We can be whatever, because we can't find anything. So everything's possible if we're so noble, including that we can come back into the story and find it again and say, Okay, here we're going to use this story to be born. But the story of release is not release, but oftentimes when there's release there's a story, but not always. Sometimes there's release, but there's no story about it, so you can't find the release, but it's there anyway. But we have to find it and bring it, or we have to find it and come and live with it

[60:16]

and show people how not to cling to the story of release. Yes, Jackie? Yesterday I understood your answer. Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away, but today I've lost my understanding. Yes? I have always understood emptiness and the ultimate to be unconditioned. No, it's not unconditioned. No, it's not. Did I say I said it was conditioned? Right, it is conditioned. I do not myself use ultimate with unconditioned. If we mean unconditioned, if we mean something's unconditioned

[61:18]

and we also mean that it's a dependent co-arising, then you can say unconditioned. But emptiness is a dependent co-arising. In other words, emptiness depends on conditions. Now, if we say it depends on conditions, then I say, okay, that's emptiness. But if you want to nickname emptiness unconditioned, that's fine, nickname it unconditioned. But understand that this unconditioned emptiness is dependent on conditions. So it's dependent. So, we pray that the profound wisdom that is ultimate in unconditioned, profound wisdom is ultimate in unconditioned. Uh-huh. So what is that? Well, wisdom is different from emptiness. Right.

[62:18]

Wisdom is understanding emptiness. But that's unconditioned? That's what the Sutra says. But before we get to what the Sutra says, I'm saying that understanding emptiness is wisdom. But it's not... Okay. Now, is it unconditioned? Again, I would say that that translation I don't like. I would say... Did you say ultimate and unconditioned? I would say ultimate and unconstructed instead of unconditioned. And I think the original doesn't mean unconditioned, but it means unmade or unfabricated. In other words, the wisdom which understands emptiness in its deepest way, non-dually, is unconstructedness and stillness. It's not... But it is a dependent co-arising.

[63:19]

It is a dependent co-arising, and therefore it's impermanent. So wisdom is a dependent co-arising, like all things, but it's a special dependent co-arising. It is the most exalted state for a compassionate being to achieve, because then it purifies the compassion of all obstruction. So, this is exalted, ultimate wisdom, and it's unconstructed. In other words, it's the wisdom which isn't a mental construction. Ultimate, final. It's the last thing you need to look at in order to be liberated. Well, absolute in the sense of it completely does the job. Absolute sometimes means complete. It's just not a substantial absolute. It's a working absolute.

[64:20]

It's an absolute in the sense that it works completely to liberate us from delusion. But it's not the whole story, because then, after we're liberated, then we can really go to work in our practice. Linda? You made up a song? For me? Thank you. No. Just kidding. Did you like my joke? It scared you? Jackie didn't like my joke? How many people didn't like my joke? How many people liked it? Okay. How many people want to hear the song? Brought to you by popular request.

[65:26]

Linda, the singer. Get ready for this. Do I know it? I have heard it, yeah. Do you know that song, The Great Pretender? Well, maybe somebody can sing The Great Pretender. Anybody want to sing that? Okay, John, let's hear it. Does it go? Does it start like, They call me The Great Pretender? Let's hear it. Let's hear The Great Pretender first. Yeah, right. Let's get four platters. Who's going to be the platters? Okay. Bernard, Trevor, who else? Susan? Okay, well, you guys try.

[66:31]

I don't know. I'm wearing my face like a what? I'm wearing my face like a crown? I'm wearing my face like a clown? I'm wearing my heart like a clown? I'm wearing my heart like a clown? Crown? I'm wearing my heart like a crown? Crown or clown? Let's hear it. How many people for crown? How many people for crown? Okay, we're ready for Linda's version.

[67:38]

Come on, Linda. Come up here and use the mic. Or stand up. Sing it. Come on, girl. I mean, boy. Heretic. Heretic. Burn her at the stake. I don't need any more help than I'm getting. Okay. That's more like it. The song arose on the path to the beach amid various causes and conditions. It was like a song for rest. Oh, yes. You're the great illuminator. Illuminating all over the place. You seem to be sentient.

[68:44]

But if I'm really repentant, you're just my original face. Illuminating all sentient, non-sentient beings throughout time and space. I thought she was going to say that I was the great urinator. All over the place. Following up on what Jackie said yesterday. You know, where she said, do you sometimes make it to the toilet? And I said, I never make it.

[69:45]

So it looks like you finally understood the joke. The universe had to create life, and then it created a joke for life to get. But it's been painful. Between the creation and then the joke for us to get, so we could laugh. But that's sort of why most of us came to Zen, wasn't it? Because we heard about that it's possible to laugh at this whole thing. And after laughing, to embrace it all and sustain it all. Isn't that what we came here for? But it's been difficult, hasn't it? That's why it's very important to be tender with these weary Zen students. You should change that to try a little emptiness. Pardon? Change the words to try a little emptiness.

[70:53]

Try a little emptiness, thank you. Hey, thanks. Try a little emptiness. Good, thank you. Well, I'll be tender with you today. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. With the true merit of the helpless way, beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Traditions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless.

[71:54]

I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[72:07]

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