Most, if not all of us, are contemplating the global situation, the arms buildup that's occurring, the threat of a horrible war. And we wonder what is the way of practice which might promote or might make possible some contribution to realizing peace and protecting life. In the stories I've heard about the founder of the Buddhist tradition in India, Shakyamuni Buddha, he lived in a time when there were wars, when there were armies, and he was teaching the path of peace, the path of freedom from fear and hatred.

[01:43]

He was teaching a way to become free of fear and hatred in a world where there was fear and hatred. His teaching was somewhat successful during his lifetime. I've heard that once there was an army coming to invade his country and his people asked him to stop the army from invasion. And he, according to the story, went out and sat in the road down which the army was coming. And when the army saw the Buddha sitting in the road, they stopped and went home. And again I heard that they came back a second time and the second time he sat in the road and they went back.

[02:52]

But again when they got back they thought, wait a minute, how come we let that enlightened one stop us from our just war? So they decided to attack again and the people again asked him to go out and sit in the path and stopped the army. And he said, this time they will not stop. The Buddha could see. The first two times, there was the possibility of stopping them. The third time, he did not go there and sit. And they did invade his country. had an easy victory because Buddha had pretty much disarmed his country. So it was easy for them to invade and take over his people because they had already started to become more peaceful.

[04:02]

However, the Buddha was not destroyed completely, and his teaching went on from years after that On another occasion, there was actually supposedly a mass murderer, serial killer, who was actually going to kill the Buddha. He was actually going to kill his mother, according to the story. And the Buddha saw this and interposed himself between the murderer and his victim, his intended victim. So then the murderer decided to go after the the Buddha. And the Buddha was so skillful that he managed to convert this murderer on the spot. And this murderer became an excellent monk and no more murders. Buddhism holds up the possibility that

[05:12]

if we could become wise like the Buddha, we could make each one of us some contribution to helping individual people and even groups of people become free of fear and hatred by teaching them how to awaken to Buddha's wisdom. Because of Buddha's wisdom, Buddha loved all beings and was not afraid of anyone and didn't hate anyone and could teach many people, not everyone. Some people were not ready to hear even the great teacher and receive the Dharma. But he could help some people. But even the people he couldn't help, he didn't hate. He didn't hate his worst students. and all beings are the Buddhist student.

[06:21]

But some beings are really, really retarded students of Buddhist wisdom. And it is the job of the wise person to be patient with the slowness of the learning of the students. And the students are sometimes very slow. The final solution to hatred and fear is Buddha's wisdom. But Buddha's wisdom is also practiced together with Buddha's compassion. And so Buddha taught compassion and wisdom. This year my intention is to emphasize Buddha's wisdom, but I have to remind us again and again, that although we may be emphasizing the teachings and practices of wisdom, we also must be practicing compassion too.

[07:31]

So there are teachings of compassion and practices of compassion, and there are teachings of wisdom and practices of wisdom. The teachings of Compassion are sometimes summarized or taught in a summary way as comprising giving, precepts or ethical study, patience, diligence, and concentration. These are compassion practices. They're ways to relate to beings and things as an expression of loving care and hoping to help beings become free of suffering and ignorance, or ignorance and the suffering which arises from it.

[08:35]

The compassion practices are how to care for and relate to living beings and non-living things. They're teachings of how to relate to your own body and mind and other bodies and minds. The wisdom practices are not so much about how to relate to things. The wisdom teachings are about the nature of things, the nature of phenomena, the nature of the things we know. And the wisdom practices are ways that we come to see the actual nature of phenomena. Wisdom is not really doing anything to the phenomena. It's not really caring for the phenomena. It is understanding the nature of phenomena correctly.

[09:44]

When we have the correct understanding of phenomena, then when we join that wisdom, that understanding, with our compassion practices, then as we relate in these compassionate ways to beings and things, we relate with understanding. We understand what we're relating to. And that purifies and liberates our compassion. So even before we have wisdom, we can try to practice giving We can try to practice the precepts of ethical study and ethical discipline. We can try to practice patience. We can try to practice diligence. But if we don't understand the nature of phenomena, it's pretty difficult for us to understand how to do those wisdom, those compassion practices. So Buddha's wisdom grows out of compassion.

[10:53]

And Buddha's wisdom purifies compassion and makes it into Buddha's compassion, which means the most effective, the most skillful way that each of us can be. It means unleashing our full potential to bring peace and harmony to the world. but even our full potential may have limits. But at least we can reach our full potential then. If there's an opportunity to make peace, we would be able to find it. Both wisdom and compassion are really types of meditation. And again, the fifth type of compassion that I mentioned is called concentration or samadhi.

[11:56]

And that type of meditation is what a lot of people think meditation is. And they're right, that is meditation. but it's not the full range of meditation. It's just one very important type. It's the type of meditation through which our mind becomes calm and present with what's happening and relaxed and flexible and bright and buoyant so that with that kind of mind we can do all the other compassion practices, and also that complements the wisdom practices. When we are in a state of calm, we are temporarily relieved of affliction, because in a state of calm we have given up involvement in the kinds of conceptual thought, the kinds of discursive thought,

[13:05]

upon which suffering depends. However, that type of concentration, that type of meditation by itself does not overthrow our deep misconceptions of the way phenomena are. And we, generally speaking, almost all of us, have not yet completely overthrown some deep misconceptions about the way things are. And until those misconceptions are, I say overthrown, but also until those misconceptions are not believed in at all, we are always vulnerable to misunderstanding what's appropriate. because we don't see clearly what's happening.

[14:08]

When we finally realize Buddha's wisdom, we are able to look at reality. without veering off to the right or left. Being able to face reality means we are able to give up ignoring it. It's hard to look at it because we're not used to looking at it, and we're born to look away from it. So it's a major reeducation to somehow coax ourselves into hearing the teachings of how to reorient our vision to the way things are.

[15:22]

and to contemplate, or actually to hear the teachings about the way things are, and then to contemplate those teachings as you're actually experiencing something. Or in other words, to apply those teachings to an actual experience right now. That type of meditation is wisdom meditation. So calming meditation, which is very good and very important, is that when you experience something, like your posture in meditation, the meditation is to give up discursive thought about your posture. For example, give up thinking that your posture is good, give up thinking that your posture is good, or give up thinking that your posture is not good.

[16:46]

Give up thinking that your posture is not as good as the person sitting next to you or that it's better. Give up thinking that your posture is not as good as Buddha's or is. So when you experience your posture in whatever way you experience it, that's it. And then when you hear the sound of a bird, again, you don't think it's a good sounding bird or bad sounding bird. When you have a painful sensation, You don't think, that's more painful than I was had before or less painful than before, or how long is it going to be painful, or what did I do to make it happen, or why me? You give up wandering around among the different objects of your experience.

[17:49]

You experience this person and that [...] person. And that person could be another person or it could be you. You experience this person sitting here and this person sitting here and this person sitting here, just like that, which of course is what you're doing anyway. But usually in addition to that, we run around between the different persons sitting at our own seat. We run to past versions of this person, future versions of this person, or alternative present versions of this person, or alternative past versions. If I had only been a better such and such last week. People sometimes think that way in meditation. They wander around, they run around back and forth between where they are and where they've been and back again. And this running around is discursive thought.

[18:52]

And discursive thought is not all bad because, as you will see, discursive thought is used in hearing and understanding the teachings about wisdom. But in calming meditation, which is an aspect of compassion, in calming meditation, in concentration practice, you give up discursive thought. And when you give up discursive thought, you become serene. But not serene like just soggy, but serene like a serenely inflated red ball. you're full and firm and soft and bright and fresh and awake, you're in a good state of mind because you gave up discursive thought.

[19:54]

However, if you have been ignoring reality prior to that meditation in which you are now calmly enjoying it, You have not yet given up your ignorance of reality. You've just taken a major rest from it because you're not cranking it because you need discursive thought to crank your delusions. So it's a real rest. It's an excellent therapy. It's good for your health and it's actually good for everybody in the neighborhood. but it does not overthrow our belief in certain misconceptions about the way phenomena are. So some of you, I think, would do well to spend many of your meditation periods from now on in this calming type of practice, calming type of meditation, which is a wonderful practice of compassion.

[21:07]

But mostly what I'll be teaching for the rest of the year is not about that, except to continuously remind you that you should be doing those compassion practices, that you should be becoming skillful so that you would eventually be able to, like, cool out on the spot any time or any place. So you can always, like, be tranquil and serene and present and relaxed. That's always a great skill. But I'll just remind you of that every now and then. Mainly I'm emphasizing now, what are the teachings about the nature of phenomena? And how can we apply those teachings to what's happening right now? So it might be the case that some of you will spend some of your meditation periods both in the meditation hall and in your daily life Because insight or wisdom meditations can be done more easily in daily life than the tranquility meditations.

[22:17]

That's because you can do insight work while you're talking. Because actually, usually you need to talk to yourself while you're doing insight work. You need to be saying to yourself the teachings of the Buddha, the teaching of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas that you've heard and read which are telling you about the way things are. You need to actually be talking to yourself and reminding yourself of these teachings and checking out to see if things are actually, if you can see that things are actually like you've heard they are. Or even if you can't see that they're that way, if you just think about them being that way, if that seems to be good. But that's quite a different type of meditation than giving up that very kind of discursive thought which you're now using to develop wisdom. So wisdom is the fruit of using discursive thought, and tranquility is the fruit of giving it up. We need to know both types.

[23:22]

Once again, I'm going to be emphasizing how to use your discursive thought to be able to see the way beings and things are actually. In the earliest teachings that we have of the Buddha, the Buddha first taught basically, he said, I found a middle way. And this middle way is peaceful and joyful and free. It is liberation. The middle way is the middle way that everything is. You could say, in a way, the nature of all phenomena is that they have a middle way of being.

[24:23]

You and me and all living beings and all inanimate things have a middle way of being, a middle way of existing, a middle way of subsisting. And the middle way is that they are not on the side of lasting. They're not permanent. They're not permanent. As a matter of fact, they don't even last for two moments. The way you are right now is all over. It's history. You can't even be the way you are for one more moment, and neither can I, and neither can Buddha. You can have the same name. That doesn't change every moment. But you do, and I do.

[25:29]

In other words, you're not permanent. You don't go on forever, even in the shortest version of forever. Also, when you change, you don't get annihilated. You don't go into non-existence. You never go into non-existence. You're never annihilated. The way you are is between those two extremes of existence and non-existence. That's the way you are. That's the way everything is. And that's, in a way, the first wisdom teaching of the Buddha. So if you want to, you could apply that teaching to every moment of experience and see. if you go along with that reality, or if perhaps you don't. And you might find out that you don't, that you actually think some things don't exist and some things do.

[26:44]

And the things that do exist really do exist, and they exist for more than a moment. They last for a while. And actually, you think they last for longer than a while. Matter of fact, you think you last really a long time. So you might notice that and say, okay, I confess, I do not see the Buddha's teachings. I do not agree with Buddha's teachings. I am an extremist, not a middle wayist. And in the chant we just chanted, it says, by revealing and disclosing your lack of faith in practice before the Buddhas, you melt away the root of transgression. if I continuously admit that I'm an anti-Buddhist, that I really don't believe that things really do change all the time, and really I think they last. I keep confessing that. I keep confessing I do not, I actually doubt, I do not have faith in these teachings, and I do not practice these teachings.

[27:50]

If I do that over and over, I will become free of that veering off in that direction. And some people actually think things, actually most people in America also think sometimes things don't exist. Like, I know some students who I'm being patient with, who when we're reading scriptures, they tell me that the stuff in the scriptures don't exist. They tell me that. Right in my face, they say that to me. And I just sit there and go, oh, really? Sort of. I say, I'm patient. They read these scriptures which describe the behavior of these extremely compassionate beings, these bodhisattvas who are becoming Buddhas, where they tell you about how great these bodhisattvas are. And the person says, this is depressing. This doesn't exist. They say that. They think these greatly compassionate beings are irrelevant because they don't know anybody like that.

[28:51]

Also, most people, a lot of people anyway, think that when they die, that's it. That's like, it's kaput, you know, no more me, like annihilated. This is quite common in this country. It's called nihilism, or believing that things don't exist, like they're gone. So if you notice that one, you can confess that one too. So maybe many of us actually are into both the extremes And so we know, okay, the Buddha found the middle way and walked the middle way, and I'm contemplating being a student of the Buddhist tradition, and I'm like totally into the two extremes that the Buddha avoided. But contemplating that you are like doing the two things that the Buddha avoided, if you contemplate that, if you notice that and you confess that, still you are Buddha's disciple. You just haven't got yourself into the middle yet. Actually, I shouldn't say you haven't got there.

[29:58]

You actually are already in the middle. The Buddha says you are all in the middle right now. It's just that most of you reject this teaching. Most of you don't like this teaching. Most of you are ignoring it regularly, more or less nonstop. But you actually are in this middle way. And actually when you switch from one extreme to the other for a second, you might be able to feel yourself go through the middle. As you're on your way from like things don't exist over to that they do, you might notice a little place there where you just left that they don't. You haven't got to they do yet. You know, like, okay, like those bodhisattvas like they don't exist, but here I go over to I do. And then right there before you quite got to I do, there was a place in the middle where you let go of, you weren't into the bodhisattvas not existing yet, you didn't get into the you do.

[31:02]

These incredibly, magnificently compassionate beings, like they don't exist, that's just fantasy, but really weird world leaders who are really stupid, they do exist. And they're permanent. And we should move them over to the non-existent side. Rather than, you're never going to get rid of these people. They can't be annihilated. You have to deal with them. And they're not permanent either. You have to deal with them not only the way they are now, but the way they're going to change into. Like they're going to change into your children and your parents and your teachers. This is the middle way. The middle way is you've got to deal with everybody. And not only that, but everybody not being stable and reliable either. So we have to confess, perhaps quite frequently, that we really probably should consider changing religions, because Buddhism is really in the front to our nice extremist ways.

[32:22]

And then after you don't come here anymore for a while, maybe you'll think, well, maybe that teaching wasn't so bad after all. Maybe I'll go back and listen to some more. And again realize, although I'm listening to some more and it's not so bad, I still don't believe it. I mean, I don't believe the middle way. I think things exist and don't exist. But am I confessing that regularly? If I confess it regularly... I give up the transgressing away from the middle to the extremes. This is a wisdom practice based on a wisdom teaching. Wisdom teaching, number one, middle way. Wisdom practice, give up the extremes. And if you haven't given them up, confess that you haven't. And if you confess that you haven't, you will give up. going into the extremes.

[33:28]

Very simple, and you can do it quite frequently because you're a frequent flyer, a frequent transgressor, and you're a frequent experiencer. You frequently have experiences. Within every morning, you frequently have experiences when you get up, and you have quite a few experiences every second. They have lots of opportunities to practice wisdom. Now, if you get too upset noticing what an ignorant person you are and how much you hate Buddha's teaching and are rejecting it, and you don't want to confess so much, then you can just take a break from wisdom teachings and go practice calming practice and cool out. Then you feel really good again and say, oh, this is nice. I'm relaxed now and kind of upbeat and buoyant and flexible and serene. Maybe I could take a little bit of that wisdom teaching again, which means take a little bit more of how I don't like the wisdom teaching

[34:34]

So I might be talking more here about the Middle Way teachings, but then again I might not. I'm going to be talking in Berkeley this upcoming month. I'm going to be talking in Berkeley about the wisdom teaching of the Middle Way. But I thought here I would teach about a different wisdom teaching, which comes from the sutra called the Samdhinirmocana Sutra, the scripture revealing or disclosing the Buddha's deep intention. And in that scripture, the Buddha teaches about the nature of phenomena and also teaches how to meditate on the nature of phenomena. And during this practice period we finished a few weeks ago, the January practice period, during those three weeks we emphasized the teaching of the three natures.

[36:01]

And so some of you have heard about these three natures and some of you haven't. How many people have not heard about the three natures of all phenomena? Raise your paws, please. Some of you are too busy to raise your paws. Anyway, not too many of you raised your paws. Maybe that's because you don't think you have paws. Raise your hands. Have you heard about the three... the three natures, the three characters of phenomena? So the three characters of all phenomena are... One character is called the... the imputational character. All phenomena have a kind of like merely conceptual nature.

[37:04]

And all phenomena have an other dependent character or other dependent nature. And all phenomena have a thoroughly established character. So those are three characters. These three characters are closely related to the middle way. And so that may be disclosed as time goes on, how the middle way teaching and the three-character teaching are kind of closely related and really teaching the same thing, because they're two different ways of teaching the way phenomena are. So again, if you listen now, you can hear a teaching about the way phenomena are.

[38:20]

And then when you hear this teaching, then at some point later, you can look at phenomena in terms of that teaching. And then you will see perhaps how your life goes when you contemplate phenomena in light of the teachings. So the presentation of the three characters started with the imputational character or the merely conceptual fantasy character of things first. But really the one I recommend starting with in your contemplation is to contemplate the other dependent character phenomena. And what is the other dependent character phenomena? It is that they arise in dependence on the power of things other than themselves.

[39:32]

So, your body, your mind, other people's bodies, other people's minds, your activity, the activity of your body, the activity of your mind, these phenomena, and inanimate things like floors and ceilings and rocks. All these things exist through the power of things other than themselves. They all have that character. We all have that character. So that's a teaching about the nature of phenomena. If I contemplate that, if you contemplate that teaching and apply it to, for example, your body, and you apply it to your body over and over, you keep listening to that teaching, listening to that teaching, hearing that teaching, and then actually seeing it applied to your body, you come to understand

[41:07]

through that teaching that your body is impermanent, that your behavior is impermanent, that your health is impermanent, that your ill-health is impermanent, that your spiritual practice is impermanent, that the people you love most are impermanent and the people you love least are impermanent. And the people you love most do not exist by their own power. They cannot keep themselves going and they cannot control themselves and they cannot produce themselves and you cannot produce yourself or control yourself. If we do not listen to that teaching by our natural ignorance of reality, we quite naturally, quite easily, think things are permanent and worthy of confidence.

[42:35]

And we kind of like being able to have confidence in things. And if things actually were worthy of confidence, then confidence would be appropriate. But they're not worthy of confidence, and confidence is not appropriate. It's not appropriate to have confidence in yourself or other people. because they're unstable and impermanent. But don't you think some people are worthy of confidence? So there again, I guess I don't believe this teaching. But don't you think some people that you love are not worthy of competence?

[43:42]

Aren't there some things that you care about that aren't worthy of competence? Again, the Buddha teaching people who are resisting the teaching, Buddha doesn't think those people are worthy of competence. Matter of fact, the Buddha sees these people are not worthy of competence. They are continuously rejecting the teaching. but I can't even have confidence that they're going to continue. Any moment they might stop projecting it. As you realize this teaching in terms of the things of your life, your attitude towards things starts to change. You become disenchanted by things. and or you start to notice that you are enchanted by things. Or you notice that you're disenchanted by some things and still enchanted by others.

[44:48]

In other words, you notice that you're hearing a teaching in some cases but not in others. You become disaffected towards things. You become discouraged that things will give you happiness. that people will give you happiness, that beautiful people will give you happiness, that lovely people, that nice people will give you happiness, you start to become discouraged at that possibility because of hearing his teaching. And then when beautiful people don't give you happiness, you don't become frightened and hate them for it. or when beautiful people become not beautiful, you don't try to make them put their makeup back on. Your behavior changes from being inappropriate because you're treating things that are impermanent, you're treating things that exist in a middle way,

[46:01]

appropriately, your behavior is wrong. You are excessively involved with things. You change from that to be appropriately involved with things. In this way, if you had been trying to be compassionate towards people, you're now able to be more effectively compassionate because you're more appropriately involved with people. because you hear the teaching that this person is impermanent, this person is unstable, this person is unworthy of confidence. This person is not going to give me happiness. What's going to bring happiness?

[47:25]

What's going to give happiness is to respond appropriately to this person, is to treat this person with true compassion. That's what's going to bring happiness, not the person. The person will also not bring unhappiness. What brings unhappiness is to treat them inappropriately, treating people with excessive involvement makes us unhappy, and treating people with the proper amount of involvement is happiness. This teaching helps us see things so that we will relate to them in such a way as to realize freedom and happiness. I guess I recommend that we listen to such a teaching and apply it moment by moment to the things we meet, to the people that we meet, to our own feelings and thoughts.

[49:00]

and see how life changes when you listen to this teaching and see how it applies to phenomena, see how your behavior changes. And maybe notice that you actually want to continue to be excessively involved with some things. And you don't want to listen to this teaching. And you want to continue to be excessively involved. And you don't particularly like the unhappiness that it brings, but you do kind of like the comfort of the habitual side of it. Because at least you know that if you bang your head against this wall, it will hurt. So that's kind of comforting. rather than what would happen to you if you actually started to see people the way they really are and see your own behavior the way it really is.

[50:09]

So a lot of people become afraid as they listen to this teaching and let it sink in. because you're starting to open up in this way to a vision of reality which you're not used to. And it's kind of like scary because part of the way people assuage their fear of reality, because reality is always lurking up there, you know. Reality is actually here somewhere. And it's kind of scary. Every now and then you get a hint of it. And sometimes the way we assuage our fear is by saying or thinking we can control the way things happen. But this teaching also says, implies that you can't control your own behavior because your behavior doesn't come from you. Your behavior is dependent on other things.

[51:14]

So then you get scared because how are you going to keep control if you start taking in a teaching which says that your own wishes and intentions are not really that influential. But it's actually no problem because when you see things this way, when you see the other dependent character, although you are not in control and you never were, The behavior that arises from you, which is not under your control, is virtuous. Whereas the behavior that arises through you when you're trying to control is not virtuous or severely undermined because you're ignoring the teaching. and you're taking credit for something which you shouldn't take credit for, namely your own action.

[52:19]

You know, take credit means take all the credit, all the credit. So again, as I mentioned before, when you don't listen to this teaching, then you take all the credit for what you do. So you switch from being ashamed to being proud. Whereas when you hear this teaching, you're more like grateful for your behavior, for your conduct. You're grateful that you can move your leg, blink your eyes, say hello, lie down, stand up, roll over. you're grateful that it can happen. And part of the reason why you're grateful is because this is a virtuous lying down, standing up and rolling over. It's the behavior that arises from you being appropriately involved in a moving body.

[53:22]

not excessively involved. Like excessively involved is, I move the body. That's excessively, that's excessive. That's praising self and ignoring the power of others, which is really what makes the thing happen. So that's a kind of introduction and for some people and a review for others. And is there anything you want to say or express or? Anything coming up that you want to write that out? Yes? . My own feeling about it is that

[54:46]

So your experience is that disenchantment could be depressing? Nightmarish? No, not nightmarish. It wouldn't be nightmarish. Nightmares are enchantments. you get disenchanted from nightmares. Disenchanted. No more nightmares with this teaching. Nightmares happen when you think things are permanent and then you get a vision that maybe they're not. And then you wake up screaming in the middle of the night because of the vision of the gorilla coming to get permanent caffeine. No more nightmares. Nightmares are enchantments. They're enchantments. Nightmares are enchantments. There won't be any more nightmares when you get disenchanted. Nightmares come from people who think, you know, that they're going to enter the enchanted land. They'll go together. But the depression, that's more likely.

[56:10]

Like, no more Camelot. You heard of Camelot? That's depressing for some people. No more Prince Charming. Some people find that depressing. So if you open up that there's not going to be a Prince Charming, or if there is a Prince Charming, as soon as you meet him, you're going to lose him. He's going to get ripped out of your grip. If you get too depressed, then I say, take a break. Don't get too depressed. Go practice tranquility for a while. And then when you're buoyant and rolling around, all happy and relaxed, then come back and face the disenchanting teaching. And if you get depressed again, you know, you can't really study this teaching. And if you get depressed, you can't apply the teaching to your behavior. You're going like a, you know, that's too much. Then you heard the teaching, Some disenchantment happened, and then you thought the disenchantment was like reliable and stable and permanent.

[57:21]

If you really see how fleeting disenchantment is, you won't get depressed, but if you slip back into it, you can get depressed. When you start to get disenchanted, depression can happen. It is a danger. So that's why take a break and go practice compassion for a while in the form of patience. Practice giving, you know. Practice things to bring up your enthusiasm again and practice tranquility. And then when you're feeling better, come back to the wisdom practice because wisdom practices are potentially very shocking. to the empire of ignorance. And the empire has various ways to strike back at anybody who disrupts the program. And one of the ways to strike back is depression. Another way to strike back is boredom. Boring. Life is boring without these people being enchanting. Boring is the big one.

[58:25]

Boring is the big batter that they keep waiting in the back until things really get scary and like wisdom's going to like really take over. Then they bring boredom in. Depression's a step before that. So anyway, if that starts to happen, give up. Take a break from wisdom practice and go back to the tranquility side for a while. And when you feel better, more rested, not so depressed, So that's why I'm warning you beforehand, if this gets too depressing to you, just turn off your discursive thought, which you need to hear me talk, and just relax and just forget about these teachings for a little while. Yes? Scotty? Yeah.

[59:29]

Yeah. If I could comment on that. You want me to comment on that? Three cheers for Buddha. Hip, hip, hooray. Hip, hip, hooray. Hip, hip, hooray. Like my comment? Huh? You like it? What?

[60:31]

What? What? Yeah, that was my comment. Did you like it? Pardon? What'd you say? Did you say, when I do? Yes. Good question. She said, when I talk about the three characters of phenomena, she feels like I'm objectifying phenomena. And that's right, in a sense, because phenomena are objects.

[61:33]

That's what phenomena can also be called objects. Yes, only kind of objects that are a mind object. Object means something known by a subject in this context, okay? So phenomena are objects. They are known by subjects. So yes, phenomena are things that can be known. Phenomena are objects. Okay? So that's right. We don't have to get into that quite yet. that it's all about mind, because all the schools of Buddhism, even the schools that aren't mind-only schools, would also say that all objects are objects of thought. the word subject is something that knows an object. A subject is a consciousness that knows an object. So just in terms of vocabulary, phenomena are objects.

[62:38]

So I'm not exactly objectifying them. They are just simply, they are objects. Now, this connects into the three natures because the imputational character or the fantasy character of objects is that fantasy that objects are out there on their own separate from what knows them. That's a fantasy. So objects are things known by subjects. All schools of Buddhism would agree on that. But none of the schools say that the objects are out there on their own because objects, of course, depend on subjects. There's no meaning of an object without a subject. But human beings tend to think objects are out there on their own, separate from our knowing of them. So we tend to think a wall is out there, and whether I know it or not, it's really out there.

[63:43]

It's out there on its own. It doesn't depend on me. That's the way things look to us. That's a fantasy. That's a fantasy. And we, generally speaking, when we see anything or anybody or feel anything, we think that the object of our awareness is out there on its own. And that's the fantasy side. And we need, as part of our wisdom work, to be able to see that we have that fantasy, that our consciousness and what we know that our awareness and the people we know, we actually have a fantasy that they're actually substantially separate. We need to identify that and also identify that we believe that's true. And we need to stop believing that if we want to realize Buddha's wisdom. But we can't skip over noticing that we believe it.

[64:48]

Like Mike said to me yesterday, he said something like, seeing suchness, seeing the way things really are, suchness, which is a thoroughly established character phenomena, wouldn't that be just if there was no conceptualization, no concepts, no fantasy? For example, no fantasy that things were out there on their own? And that wouldn't be seeing suchness. to see the way things really are, and the way they really are actually, is that they are free of our fantasies about them. So for example, when people you see are actually free of your imputing onto them that they're out there separate from you, they're not actually out there separate from you, and no matter how much you think that, they're not touched by that. However, if you think that way, you suffer. But if for a moment you didn't think that, you didn't project that onto them.

[65:50]

So you saw somebody, and it does sometimes happen to people. It's happened to some people I know quite well, that they look at somebody and for a moment there's no conceptual imputation. For a moment they don't put onto the person that they're out there on their own. They don't. And at that moment you might say, well, don't they see suchness? But I would say no. To see suchness would not be just that there's not the imputation of the fantasy that they're out there on their own, but it would be actually to see that that imputation is not in that person or in that thing. and see it in such a way that you would stop believing that the next time it did happen. So just taking a break from it isn't sufficient because that's sort of what calm is. When you're in calm, you kind of take a break from these imputations.

[66:54]

But as soon as you come out of the calm and when the imputation happens again, you believe it. So you have to look at the way things are long enough so that you actually stop believing your fantasies about them. So right now, you still are believing your fantasies, probably. And if you can identify them and notice that you believe them, then you have a chance to get over your belief. And that's seeing suchness, to get over and purify your mind of that belief, for example, that things are out there on their own. But in order to do that work, we first of all have to do the basic work of meditating on how things are other-powered, how everything depends on things other than itself, and go through this process of disenchantment wherein our behavior is transformed into virtue.

[67:58]

And then we're ready to do the work of looking at how we... impute not just objectivity to objects because they are by nature objects, but how we attribute separate existence to objects. Objects are the things we know, but we imagine that they live separately from us, that they're out there separate from our awareness. Obviously we think that. So like we think, you know, that the way somebody is, they would continue to be that way, even if we weren't thinking of them that way. Okay, Hector? I mean, is it a reflection or a conception? Is that a reflection that's a conception? Yes. In general, it's not just a size difference.

[69:00]

However, in my mind, I thought, wow, you know, I'm very... Yeah. Try wisdom practices. Yeah. And I found that... Well, I find myself now dealing with a lot of anger and resentment. Or rather, in this case, it totally looks a lot more like depression. There's something different about anything. Like, I'm starting to kind of step back, and I'm starting to keep calm. And I can't seem to do that. You know, I use my thin little bars. . You're squeamish about the pain? . Sounds good.

[70:27]

Well, I think it's been going on for a while. Maybe we can adjourn to the reception that we'll be following. May our intention be as happy as we can be.

[71:09]

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