Today the surround sound is stronger, so maybe, can you hear okay? As we have mentioned several times before, the bodhisattva universe consists of compassion, realization for supreme enlightenment, for the welfare of all beings, and realization of non-inherent existence. And I'd just like to make a little demographic comment, and that is doing doksan...

[01:03]

as you might imagine, I find out that people are working on different aspects of the bodhisattva training course. Some people are working on compassion. Some other people are working on compassion and developing this aspiration to realize ultimate reality for the welfare of all beings. And some other people are working on compassion and this aspiration and also working on activity. Some by doing Samatha practice, some by doing book Samatha and beginning to meditate on emptiness. Some people are also working on realization but forgot about compassion along the way. So they are reminded that compassion is ongoing. It has to constantly support, especially as you get into the... a difficult confrontation with this innate misconception, this innate view of a real self.

[02:31]

As you start to meet this thing, Be very compassionate about this meeting. And compassionate means kind, generous, patient, enthusiastic, conscientious, practicing loving-kindness, But once again, I'm going to be emphasizing the meditation on emptiness. It says in the Heart Sutra, or at least the translation, one of the translations, it says, a bodhisattva depends on prajnaparamita.

[03:46]

with nothing to attain means there isn't actually some inherently existing thing to attain. There really is nothing to attain. And as there's nothing to attain, you're starting to depend on prajnaparamita. Realizing that there's nothing to attain, you're ready to look even more deeply add what phenomena is, what phenomena are. So, when the bodhisattva has nothing to attain and depends on prajnaparamita, the mind is no hindrance without any hindrance. But you could also say, even though it doesn't say it in the sutra maybe, that with nothing to attain, the bodhisattva depends on prajnaparamita and attains the mind, which is no hindrance.

[05:03]

The mind which is a hindrance is the mind which imagines an inherent existence of the person or an inherent existence of things. That mind is a hindrance. But when we realize there's nothing to attain, then we attain the mind which is unhindered, which doesn't attain anything, which can't attain anything, because it doesn't have this view of something to attain. It doesn't have an inherent existence to attain. So there's no hindrance, and when there's no hindrance, there's no fear. Our bodhisattvas don't have fear. And the bodhisattvas who realize the lack of inherent existence do not have fear.

[06:13]

They're not afraid of helping people who are suffering. So there's many hindrances, but the two that are spoken of here are the hindrance of afflictions, and those hindrances with belief in the real or the inherent nature of the person or the self. And the other hindrance, which is sometimes translated as the hindrance of knowledge, and sometimes translated as to knowledge. I think both ways have some merit. But since the other one is translated as the hindrance, not to affliction, because afflictions are not hindered, it's of the afflictions, and I think it's probably better to say the hindrance of knowledge.

[07:26]

But the hindrance of knowledge goes with the belief in the inherent existence of phenomena. For example, it goes with the belief of the inherent existence of feelings, smells, Cadillacs, perceptions, consciousness. Of course, these days almost no one believes in Cadillacs but people believe in BMWs. The inherent existence of BMWs. Have you noticed? And this turns into a big hindrance because they know BMWs inherently exist. So this hindrance is the hindrance of knowing the inherent existence or knowing the concept of the inherent existence of BMWs.

[08:32]

So that's a hindrance of knowing, but also is a hindrance to knowing the lack of inherent existence. So both are true, but I think better translation is the hindrance of knowing. When these hindrances are removed, there's no fear. One other thing I want to say in terms of the big picture, and that is that compassion is really wonderful and important. Bodhicitta is even more splendid in a way, and rare. But bodhicitta means that you do aspire to realization. part of the deal for bodhisattvas. Some Buddhists, I guess, people who want to be Buddhists or think of themselves as Buddhists do not aspire to realization, but bodhisattvas actually commit themselves to realize emptiness, thoroughly realize it.

[09:42]

But I also want to mention that they not only commit to realizing emptiness but they do it for the welfare of all beings so although they realize emptiness they do not uh they do not attach to that realization they not only realize emptiness but they realize emptiness thoroughly in other words they realize that emptiness also has no inherent existence so they don't grasp emptiness Realizing emptiness, one attains nirvana. You attain it. But you don't live there if you're bodhisattva. You attain it, but you don't live there. So like it says in the Genjo koan, after you forget about the self, in other words, after you forget about the idea of an inherently existing self, body and mind of self and other drop away.

[10:44]

And then there is a ceasing of traces of enlightenment, which causes one to forever leave the traces of enlightenment, which is cessation. Which is cessation. So you will realize nirvana, but you leave it. You give up. You care enough to give up the very best. Now if I was a Christian and you were Christians, you wouldn't mind me mentioning something about God and Jesus, would you? Or maybe you would. Huh? You are? Get out. But follow the schedule when you leave. Pardon? You're projecting getting involved on me? How nasty. It's okay.

[11:48]

We are compassionate towards those who project involvement upon us. We uninvolved ones. That's why being involved doesn't hurt that much when people accuse you of being involved. You are involved. Go to involvement prison. Pay an involvement fine. Maybe we should have involvement fines. Involvement maids. English citations to people who are involved. Takes one to know one, right? So we should be able to find good maids or mistresses or masters or squires. Okay, so, before I was so rudely interrupted, what was I talking about? Huh? Huh? What?

[12:51]

Oh, Jesus. Yeah, well, God cared enough to give his only begotten son. Can you imagine you had this little baby, your little precious little baby, and what do you do with it? You give it to them. Give it away. So that spirit is the spirit of bodhisattva. You finally get this little nirvana, or little baby nirvana, or sweet nirvana. No suffering. Bliss, like indestructible bliss. Indestructible, unshakable freedom and bliss. What do you do with it? Give it away. So there you are. You've got an enlightenment, but there's no taint or trace of cessation. Because you gave it away. So those of you who don't have realization are very much like bodhisattvas who do.

[13:52]

But the thing is you should get realization too so you can give it away. Then you'll be just really just the same. So we do the bodhisattva training course does involve commitment to realization and realizing realization and then giving it away. So round and round. Compassion bodhicitta realization. And compassion means you come back into the world of, you know, innate misconception of self. And work it out. You're not afraid, though. See, that's nice. You're not afraid to be there anymore. And I also want to mention, which I think came out yesterday, and... Before I mention that, I just want to mention, go back to case 32. In case 32, I would just try out the idea of that case, that that monk, he settled down, he realized emptiness, but in his realization there was a taint, there was a trace of cessation.

[15:15]

So he got the robe for like settling down and patiently not being involved with what's happening. True conciliation and reconciliation, true tolerance with what's happening, complete non-negotiability with the world of suffering. and then realization of its lack of inherent existence, then you get a seat. You get Buddha's seat when you realize emptiness. But he didn't give away his emptiness. He didn't give away it. So he didn't get the room of Buddha's compassion. He didn't come back to the world. Buddha's compassion for being lack inherent existence.

[16:22]

Buddha's compassion for empty beings. But although beings are empty of inherent existence, they are not empty of dependently co-arisen existence. And that's what I was about to say. Some, I think Vicki brought up that your actual experience is of dependently co-arisen existence, of a dependently co-arisen self, of dependently co-arisen experience. You actually have some sense of that, and that's fine. That's good that you have a sense of that, on the dependent co-arising of the self. And For some people, that awareness, that contemplation of how the self arises with physical phenomena, it just sort of happens.

[17:24]

For other people, they have to learn it. But anyway, such a self, such phenomena that dependently co-arise, there is evidence for. They are evidenced. You can prove them. They're empirical phenomena. Okay? Whatever extent you're meditating on the dependent co-arising of the self, good. That's not a problem, that's good. However, there still may be, in all of us, this innate false view. So one could be, as I said, be happily meditating on how the sense of self arises in dependence and is not separate from or exactly the same as the skandhas and be very happy with that and that might be very nice meditation. But meantime, you're still holding of yourself. You're still holding on to this innate misconception of inherently existing self.

[18:28]

So your meditation on The dependent core rising in the self is a good idea and will be useful at some point. But if you don't connect it with this thing you're holding, this holding continually drags you into anxiety, fear, etc. Again, what did Jesus say, Rosie? Yeah. Bring forth... Pardon? Yeah. Right, so... Right, so you have this innate, you know, genetic, programmed misconception of the self. And if you didn't hold it, it shows up in language. If you listen to the way you talk, listen to the way other people talk, it surfaces, it's right there in the way we talk.

[19:30]

The conception, the misconception is in our language. Now, the Buddha can use that language, which is a misconceived language, to hold it. But most of us use the language and don't notice that we're holding to that I we use. So anyway, it is within us. This is an innate inner misconception. If we bring it out, the bringing it out and the thing itself, for liberation. But if it stays inside, even if you're meditating on the opposite of it, like emptiness and selflessness, [...] if inside you're sitting there and holding it, I hate these creeps. When can I kill them soon? You know? That thing, you're just a time bomb. It's going to blow up and hurt you soon. This gripping, this misconception inside, it will destroy your happiness.

[20:31]

But if you can bring it out, then it could be juxtaposed with this meditation on interdependence. That'd be fine. Let's get it out there. And again, it's best not to be too heavy duty about pushing it out there, because if you push it out there heavily, it disappears fast. It's right there, you know, it's just be quiet and still and don't get involved. It will show itself. So some people actually are discovering it. Some people are getting quite excited about discovering it. And many of those people I say, congratulations. Now go sit down and calm down. Getting too excited. So then you have to calm down again. And the calming, again, lost. The more calm you get, the more vividly it stands out, actually, if it's being held. The more embarrassed you'll be. But then the more embarrassed you are, the more excited you'll be, so the more calm you have to be, and so on.

[21:33]

So that's the first thing in the meditation on emptiness, is to find out how your view, your anti-emptiness Emptiness view that you have Discover this innate view of a real self And the next thing to discover is that Discovery that emptiness Pervades or emptiness occurs with every instance of not being inherently the same or inherently different from the body.

[22:39]

Whenever there's a situation where the self or being is not inherently the same or inherently different, there's emptiness. There's lack of inherent existence. If there is inherent existence, then there must be inherent sameness with the body-mind or inherent difference with the body-mind. And that, again, I think takes a little bit of work, I think, to get that. But that's the thing about not just boxing yourself into being the same or different, but realizing that only if you're inherently the same and different, inherently the same as the body and mind, or inherently different than the body and mind, only if you are that way, will you be inherently existent.

[23:58]

By the way, if you're not inherently the same as the body and mind, and you're not inherently different from the body and mind, then yourself is empty of inherent existence. If you can get that, then all you got to do is take this self that you found and then just check out to see if it's inherently the same as the body and mind or inherently different. But as I said before, some people actually tell me that they have almost a sense that it's inherently the same. And actually, the innate sense is that it's inherently the same. Some people actually tell me that they sense that it's inherently different. And people can sense that, but this is something you learned, you know, in the movies and stuff like that. This is not innate.

[24:58]

This is different from your body and mind. This is called an artificial or learned view of it. And again, I said this before, I'll say it again, without being convinced that emptiness pervades every case of where you're not inherently the same as the body or not inherently different, if you're convinced of that, find out that you're not inherently the same as your body and mind and not inherently different, then you are convinced, or not convinced, you conclude you have an inferential knowledge that you're not inherently existent. And if you work on that and work on that, you can be convinced of it. And then this being convinced, then you can take back into your meditation, back into your stabilization work, and use that convincedness, use that conviction actually as your meditation topic.

[26:19]

Stabilizing yourself on your conviction of lacking inherent existence. So that you become totally homogenized and totally realize lack of inherent existence. So that yourself and lack of inherent existence are the same being. This takes quite a bit of meditation, but... Just want you to get the overview. So that's kind of a review. And I could stop now for a little while if you want to bring anything up. one mississippi yes well i may have said that but i thought i said with nothing to attain the bodhisattva depends on prajna and the mind is no hindrance

[27:43]

When you calm down, yes? When you calm down, the mind becomes a help because? When you calm down, the mind becomes a help because? Well, I'm not quite getting the point you're saying. When you calm down, the mind becomes a help because... What's the reason? Because then you can actually see how you're thinking, how you're imputing inherent existence. The mind shows you, demonstrates how you're imputing inherent existence onto... onto everything, onto the person.

[28:53]

So the mind is a help for you to realize how that's happening? The mind's showing you that? Right. But you can see that even before you calm down. It's possible. Some people are quite agitated and... and yet they sense that they believe in this inherent existence and they're quite upset about it. But... If you can be calm with it, then you could be convinced that it's not so. But if you're excited with it, I think it's pretty hard to then study it into basically, what do you call it, extinction. or freedom from that thought. So you don't necessarily have to be calm for this to surface, but you do need to be calm to study it.

[29:58]

And some people are calm and it doesn't surface. So that's the case. Some people are fairly calm here, but they don't see it. What they do see is this nice... Dependently co-arisen version of the self, which is fine, and that's no problem. Just keep seeing that and keep being familiar with how that works. That's good. But this other one needs to be, you know, brought out of the basement, out of the closet, wherever it is. It's, you know, it's in your body, yes? Yes. In trying to become familiar with the dependently co-arisen sense of the Self? In trying to become familiar with the dependently co-arisen sense of the Self, yes. I find myself... Interpreting that, I see that my sense of self is not

[31:11]

Mm-hmm. That's fine. You mean like a permanent self? That's the one that's important to look at. The other one, actually, I wouldn't go looking for. Because that's going to look for something really nice, you know. Don't go look for it. If it forces itself upon you, say thank you very much. It's nice to see a little reality here, you know. But that's not your problem. So the other one that you just happen to notice, this kind of like this that runs through. Now, there is something about self that there's some continuity to it. That's part of what the self is, otherwise it wouldn't be a self. But the sense of it running through could be even converted into being permanent is often associated with it exists inherently.

[32:24]

So maybe this one that's running through, maybe if you look at that, you might be able to find that there's also a belief that it inherently exists. Even the sense of self that's dependently co-arising, there's a kind of a thread. Like the person says, well, I see the self, but the self arises with these memories. But these memories are changing, so the self is changing. So there's continuity in the identity, but it's not an inherently existing identity. But you have a sense... This is my story yesterday, and that was my story yesterday. This is my story today, which is different, but it's still my story. It's the same my. So there's some continuity there. So there's a self there, but it's not an inherently existing self. It depends on these stories, plus it's impermanent. It's an impermanent, dependently... but there's still continuity and identity. But it's also possible that there's another version, which there's also continuity, but there's permanence and non-dependence, self-sufficiency.

[33:34]

That's the one that's harder to see. It's harder to see that one. It's more subtle. So, here it is. So look at that thread and see, is there also around that thread a belief in inherent existence of the self that's in that thread? Is it a permanent or just a continuity among impermanent phenomena? How do we avoid interpreting that continuity as self? You don't have to avoid... The way you avoid interpreting the continuity as something permanent is by, first of all, admitting that you're interpreting it as something permanent, bring that permanence out there, and watch it carefully. So, that's the permanent part.

[34:38]

In the Sutra Kajjana, if you watch the arising of phenomena... as they arise, as they come to be, you will not be able to hold the view of extinction or annihilation. If you watch this phenomena cease, cease, As it comes to be, you will not apprehend the view of eternalism, of permanence. You won't. So if you watch carefully how this happens, how it arises and ceases, in that observing this, you will give up these views. That's how you will... But when you start looking, you may be holding that view when you start. So you may come to meditation holding one or both of these views, but if you watch the arising and ceasing of phenomena, including the self, you'll give up that. That idea will be relinquished, will be avoided. Yes? Yes?

[35:42]

No trace of extinction, yes. No trace of attainment? Well, there's a little trace of attainment, I guess, in a sense of... There's a trace of attainment. Well, it's not exactly a trace of attainment. It's like, you know, it's like, you know, Hollywood. It's like this fantastic advertising for attainment. Bodhisattvas are big time, you know, More than a trace, it's like they're pretty much just advertising attainment. But there's no trace of extinction. Trace of extinction would be, they would be kind of like, you know, they'd be with us, you know, but totally like, you know, totally cooled out. Sorry, I'm sorry, I just don't have a problem. I mean, their bliss factor would be so significant that you'd feel like there's a trace of cessation of suffering here. I mean, like, I don't see any suffering in the neighborhood. But bodhisattvas can come right down to the world and go, you know, but they deal with it as joy.

[37:00]

Like, how do you come to suffer with it with so much joy? Do they know what? If they were into that there's no trace of extinction, there would be a little bit of a trace of extinction, yeah. Their attainment is sometimes quite obvious and inspiring. That's part of what they're doing, is trying to, like, recruit, right? They're doing this skill and means, and skill and means are attracting people to the practice. People come up and say, you know, they're in the line at the cafeteria, and people say, what are you doing? What are you doing? I mean, everybody else is getting lunch and you too, but what are you doing? How come you get that? How come you're non-dairy? What are you doing? How come you gave up non-dairy? So their attainment is not hidden.

[38:04]

Their attainment is inspiring, but they don't attach to extinction. They're not in nirvana. They realize this extinction. They realize cessation. You know, I have no further involvements. And Bodhidharma says, well, you haven't, you haven't got into extinction, into cessation, have you? And he says, no. Prove it. How is it? Well, I'm just clearly observing. So, you know, I can do anything with you. That's helpful. So, the attainment's there. The attainment is there, but there's no trace of extinction. They're completely willing to be back in the situation with people. Yes? If one settles down with the permanent view of the self.

[39:07]

If one settles down with the permanent view? With the view of the permanent self? Yes. experience some release from that. It seems extremely difficult not to get excited and sound like a kid. Wait a second now. You settle down with the view of a permanent self. Right. And then what happened? And then you're studying it. You're studying it. And you experience sort of release from it. And you experience release from it, yeah. And then, you know, you're like, oh, wow, this is great. And then you go to work. Wait a second. You got released. Why are you going to pound at it? No, wait a second. You were calm and you were working on it and you got released, right? Oh, you got some release. So now you switch from, oh, I see. Okay, so I get it. I get it.

[40:08]

So you start to be aware of it, you calm down with it, and calmly being with it, you study it, there's some release, and then you get excited and think, I want to get complete release. You lose your calm, yeah. It all backfires, yeah. Yeah, right. It's ongoing. Compassion is ongoing and stabilization is ongoing. However, we do kind of lighten up on the stabilization sometimes in order to do a little research. Like, sometimes you're fairly calm but you want to now check on... Do you have a firm sense, you know, you got this sense of you've done your discursive examination of your views and you've actually been convinced that your views are water.

[41:21]

I mean you, you know, you look for something and you didn't find it and you really like remember that you didn't find it. But even remembering that you didn't find it is a little bit agitating. but that still you can use later you can use that remembering that you couldn't find this inherently existing self that actually can be used to deepen your calm but remembering it sometimes and bringing it back into your meditation sometimes can cause a little agitation so you don't want to you don't want to get too excited but you can get a little times when you're doing this examination of your views but then if you're successful and get some release Some energies released in the process and you feel more buoyant and happy then Still some holding to that view You know the view hasn't completely perforated your body even though you've been intellectually convinced Some part of your body reacts You get excited

[42:39]

And that drives you then to try to get more. So, then you have to go back to not getting involved in all that. It's just a discipline. Pardon? Discipline. It's a discipline, yes. Mm-hmm. Is that all? Yes. Yes? Is the experience of... Is the experience of affliction an indication of... Is it an indication of an inherent self? No, it's not. Nothing is an indication of an inherent self. There is no indications of inherent self. Okay? There's never been any indications of inherent self. There's no indications... Okay?

[43:42]

However, there is evidence of affliction. What is affliction evidence of? It is evidence of the view of an inherent self. Okay? See the difference? What? Could you speak up? I have an amplifier, but you don't. Is what what you're looking for? Are you looking for that? I'm suggesting you kind of look for it, yeah. See if you can identify your view of an inherently existing self. See if you can identify birdism. That's a good place to look, yep. The afflictions, where are the afflictions? In your head?

[44:44]

Yeah, your head's a good place to look for this thing. Your views are often located around your head. Buzzing around in your brain. And you know, your brain's like built to make these views. And as I mentioned, it's innate, but your mom has to help you, and you can't grow up without social stimulation to kick in these brain functions, but normal, happy children develop these false views. And they're... related to the head, but the head's related to the rest of the body, right? All the nerves coming out of the head into the toes and stuff. So it's a total body experience, actually. So it's a head and it's a total body experience. That's where it is. That's where it'll look. Okay? Have you seen... What? You don't know?

[45:46]

Oh, okay. Anything else? Yes? Did you say sometimes the view of inherent self seems like it's arising from someplace that's not your mind? Is that what you said? Just a...

[46:23]

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