Lassie, Lassie, come. Lassie, come here. Lassie, come. Come here, Lassie. Lassie, come here. Lassie, come here. Tonight the people in the Elder Hostel Retreat are here for this talk and I was thinking of just going ahead with the topic that I was And so, in a sense, this might be sort of a challenging lecture because you're kind of coming in the middle, but I'll try to

[01:13]

keep in touch with you, and I'm just holding Razi here in case you can't follow what I'm saying. Just think of Razi. Thank you. I think last week I started out by just saying a few words. Zen meditation. Can you read that?

[02:33]

Is that Med? Can you read it? Med is short for meditation. Zen meditation is something in the spirit of, here's a practice, here's a practice for everybody, and this is a practice which directly indicates ultimate reality and the realization of Buddhahood. Just a direct practice, directly about Buddhahood. That's what I sometimes have said, right?

[03:35]

Have you heard that before from anybody besides me? No? Well, fine. So anyway, Zen practice is not so much, you know, like, do this and then you're going to be Buddha. It's more like, just, if you like, just as Buddha, for Buddha, by Buddha, with Buddha. Just sit and relax in Buddha mind. You don't need to wait any longer. You don't have to wait any longer. You can actually right now just sit down in Buddha mind, in Buddhist practice. Or, you know,

[04:39]

So this is a very direct and kind of like a practice of spontaneous Buddhahood. spontaneous has different definitions but one you know uh in chinese the word they use is you know self with another character which means we you know like makes it into a gerund like just be yourself as buddha or just be buddha as yourself just naturally automatically spontaneously Get with the program. You know, Buddhas do not want anybody to wait any longer. You're welcome to realize that you are Buddha's child. And then after settling into Buddha mind or Buddha's mind, then live your life from there.

[05:54]

which of course means live like a Buddha. Be devoted to other beings' wealth. Think all the time about what you can do to help people also join the Buddha way. Not just people, all beings. So Zen techniques are, Zen teachings and practices, Zen offerings are most just like Drop our resistance to Buddhahood. The Zen teaching is you already fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddha. Fully, already. But most people don't get it. They don't know what that would be like, or they have other things they'd rather be doing. So the Zen teachings are basically about just giving up resistance to that basic teaching. And the, you know, giving up the resistance means, you know, like, for example, instead of going around, trying to hold on to your body and mind.

[07:06]

Does this look familiar? Work. Does that look familiar? Instead of that, how about just, like, let the body-mind drop off. Just let all your resistance drop off and just enter the Buddha-mind. So Zen practice is about how to, like, promote that realization. So that's Zen Med, sometimes called Club Med. Zen Meditation Society. I just thought, and I mentioned last time too, that there's other kinds of Buddhism. Mantras. sometimes called Vajrayana, sometimes called Shirland.

[08:32]

These are other forms of Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is a type of Buddhism for people who want to realize Buddhahood, who want to realize Buddhahood. Zen is one of the types. A similar type of a hero also is called Mahamudra. Mahamudra. Mahamudra developed in India. Zen developed in China. And they developed it about the same time. They all started right up around the 15th century. These are the scrolls of life. Just accept it. Just let go of your resistance and wake up.

[09:38]

This side over here, about what types of practices where one to those kinds of visual magical rituals one commits. It's another way of becoming a Buddha. What is Buddha? And that, there's another presentation of God's life.

[11:13]

And that, you know, God told the spoiler. And that, you know, And this picture where it's at, it's related to the flow of water to the mountain. This is what we're looking at. This is what we're looking at. It's a very large, very big sensor of the windstorm. I'm not that kind of woman. I'm not that kind of woman. I'm not that kind of woman.

[12:14]

He has to have a shirt on when he's farting. What's that? Nothing. This is the standard of plastic model. Look at that. Look at that. Thank you.

[13:38]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[14:43]

Something about that. We're talking about love with zero attachment. Including so little attachment that you're perfectly willing to be attached if it's of any use to anybody. So, three of these are about realizing the perfect union of wisdom and compassion. And... I just feel that, again, teaching the Zen methods, I just And I'll be bringing that up again and again. But I want the community to understand the basic agreement of that actually is going on, whether you In a literal way or not, you need to sort of like know about it, I think, as part of understanding what you're doing in Zen or in Tantra.

[16:32]

In all these different types of Mahayana Buddhism, there's many things they do, but they all come down to emptiness. They all come down to understand the most thorough selflessness. What would be understanding in a literal way? Understanding what in a literal way? You said something about... Well, again, I'm going to show you. And then you can understand it literally, and if you do that, I'll try to help you not cling to it. So now, without further ado, did you get that part about what the bodhisattva, the basic practice of all the bodhisattva practices is what? Emptiness. Emptiness is the wisdom. Emptiness is understanding. It's wisdom and compassion in perfect union. Love and emptiness joined. That's the practice of all the schools of Mahayana Buddhism.

[17:36]

Because that is Buddhahood. Buddhahood is the realization of emptiness which is conjoined with, perfectly conjoined with compassion. So again, I started last week the standard model and These two are like sprouting out of the standard model. And just parenthetically, I would mention that this one, this type of meditation, this type of practice, is kind of a revitalization or resurgence of the prudence of magical and ritual techniques of the shamans and the brahmins. We're coming to make this type of . But this type is like, well, that's why it's so nice.

[18:37]

Nothing against all the other modern, because this type is like nothing. It's very portable. You don't have to have a big lot of equipment with you. OK, so the standard model is what? What's the first thing? What? Compassion. What? Compassion. And the one is compassion. That's the first thing in the... That's the first thing in the basic standard classical presentation of the path of Buddhahood, is it starts with compassion. Now, you could say, well, doesn't it really start with suffering? Well, I guess you could say so, because there must be suffering before there can be compassion. So you could say it starts with suffering.

[19:39]

It doesn't really start until there's compassion. And so I talked a little bit about compassion when I was done. And I'll talk about it more. But for now, I'll just say that it starts with the practice and training, training in compassion. The next big part of it is what? Wisdom. What? You have wisdom? That's a good guess, but I mean, well, sort of wisdom, but what? Huh? Huh? What does he ship to? The next one is, you know, the will. The will. Hope. devotion to enlightenment for the benefit of other people people say what about me it's okay it will be beneficial to you but if you're trying to get enlightened for yourself from us people until you're like really enlightened forget

[20:55]

This is not about you. It's about everybody else. Of course, that would be great for you. This is the thought of enlightenment. The Hori Chitta is the arousal of the thought of enlightenment. And enlightenment is not your enlightenment. Enlightenment is everybody together, helping everybody, covering everybody. That's delighting. You want that. And you want to understand it so well that you can be of the best service to all beings and, in other words, be a Buddha. This is the next one. It arises, again, spontaneously. You can't make it arise. You can think of it, but to really feel it. It's really a, it's something, it's a gift in a way. But it does somehow, it's, it's, that this gift is, is being offered to us all day.

[22:00]

We're training ourselves in compassion for certain, for certain good. Although some people are trained in compassion, but they're not quite ready to let this thought in. As I told you, I think I've told you many times, lots of people come to me and say, I'm just sorry, I just don't... This messianic thing of wanting to save all beings, it's too much for me. And this Buddhahood thing, I'm not into that. Okay. It's okay. But anyway, I can't even know what bodhisattva path is. Bodhisattva path is this happens to someone. And then at this point, you're actually like in the bodhisattva path when this happens to you. You're a bodhisattva. I want to also mention to you that there are some people walking around who are very wise and do nothing. It just won't happen to you. And there are some people who are not very wise, who are really very, very, very foolish.

[23:05]

Jesus happened to be. They're very foolish, they're very confused, I mean, like, they're very confused, and they're really, like, deluded, and they're really selfish, and they're really scared, and they just, like, want for the welfare of all beings. Of course, it starts to change them, and they fall, but they really aren't very developed. They're still a bodhisattva. You see a lot of people who hunt this way who are really not very confused at all, really not confused. They're quite clear. They're liberated beings from suffering, their own suffering. But they come to the Buddha, and he's not fixed on them. And I think what people don't understand, they'll say, yeah, that's fine. So I think those of you who are not yet, but this hasn't happened, number two hasn't happened to you yet, please could you make a talking about number two of a badgered reduce of initiative. But I do want to...

[24:11]

Subdivision of number two. A and B. A is this actual wish, or a yearning. The second part, yearning. This E with the circle on it is yearning. So this is part of the 4D chip of the thought of enlightenment by intention. The next one is the thought of enlightenment.

[25:21]

Settling in the ocean. Some of one and some of two. Yeah, well, most people that are into two are into one. Right. That's right, yes. Any other question? Okay. Some people are into two, one third goes into two, into one. But even if people are operating in two, you still develop one indefinitely. Like for example, you could actually have this thought hit you, but still there might be a few people left in the world that you don't dearly love. You still have more work to do and compassion. So this can be developed and developed and developed and developed, even after this happens.

[26:28]

Usually this is a little bit cool for this, but for the one who feels really shocked, if you're practicing no compassion, you suddenly want to be a Buddha. It might not feel the same. It might not feel the same. Usually this is chorus and pretty strong in the next one. This one is too strong more. This one is too strong. So this thought basically grows into a Buddha. Do you have any questions? So, do you have a wish or a goal to be compassionate or to go back to that all just be supposed to go to something? Yeah, I'll tell you, you're like wishing to be compassionate. You're training yourself with being compassionate. You're trying to extend your compassion, deepen your compassion. Be frequent by compassion, by compassion. So that's what the training feels. But that training doesn't stop when you get to number two. It's just that that training culminates in actually wanting to go all the way up.

[27:34]

And then, so in the training, one part of the tip is actually yearning for whatever. Actually wanting to do whatever for the welfare of all humans. Can you get me up there? The next part is actually, like, sending an emotion, and that's the actual vow. And that's the part. At Dente, we do that by the Bodhisattva initiation, so we actually get up there with the vows. You actually, like, vow in the presence of a teacher who's, like, has received this vow, and is carrying this vow. And you join this vow formally. with the teacher, and also with all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. So at the beginning of that ceremony, we invoke all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and the people who receive whispers, call out to the Bodhisattvas, all the Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, please concentrate your hearts on me now.

[28:39]

So in that context, we enter the Bodhisattva. Now, some people receive the precepts and have not thought about whether this has happened to them, but that's what that ceremony is about. It's about that you initiate yourself into the prayer. That's the second part. OK. And the third part is the practice. Okay. You missed the practice. All right. Mr. Chair. It was the answer which led to all of my head. I can't stop. I like what you said earlier. You got it. All right. You're saying something that looks like you're

[29:43]

I don't know what you're referring to, but one of the things I was referring to is that there are some people who actually have authentic, in some sense, Buddhist wisdom. They actually understand what you immediately like, a chunk of illusions of what the self is, you know, first we liberate from suffering. Okay? We call these people arhats, which means those who are like really worthy or those who are burned away There's some people like that. And some of these people do not yet have this aspiration to change the world. That's one kind of like people that are watching. Is that the point, too? Yeah, but how at the beginning can you say, then, we have Buddha, we gave that to Buddha?

[30:51]

I love that. I love both sides of what you're saying. Well, the other thing which I said was that Buddha... In this tradition, in the tradition of becoming Buddha, in the vehicle of becoming Buddha, the Bodhisattva path, the Bodhisattva are those who wish to become Buddha. And that path, the literature of that path says that when Buddha awakened, he saw that all beings, that you, fully possessed the wisdom and virtues of the Buddha. That's what the Buddha sees. That, you know, why? Well, now the Buddhist said, he said, wow. He said, wow, that guy fully possessed it. That woman, that guy, that woman. These people fully possessed the wisdom. This is very happy for the Buddhist. The wisdom and virtue of the Buddha is fully possessed. That's what he said. Then a little bit later in the same text he says, wow, that. They don't see it.

[31:52]

They don't realize it. They don't realize what they're really like because of attachments and... But even these people who don't realize that they're Buddhas, still at certain times, they notice they're suffering, they start to develop compassion, and they wish to become Buddha. They start to think, well, maybe this is possible. Since I just heard in these texts that I fully possess the wisdom and virtues of Buddhists, so maybe that's true. So maybe I can realize, wouldn't that be great? I really want that. But so far, I haven't changed much of anything. I'm just basically a jerk. A sad, scared, dishonest jerk. That's the wisdom and virtues of Buddha. I just don't get it. But I would like to, for the welfare of everybody else. Not for the sake of this juror, but for everybody else's sake.

[32:56]

I would like that. This is possible. Well, the lowly, developed people have actually been blessed with this thought and have become great police officers. I think that's what this intuition says. Okay, so here's the way I just practiced. This is the practice. This is the standard scriptural presentation and also commentaries on the scriptural presentation of the big path, the extensive path to become a Buddha. I told you the first two steps, and here's the practice. So the practice is... Those two things I mentioned before that we want to have integrated. So the practice is compassion and wisdom. But now, not just in terms of just feeling and wanting to benefit people, but now getting into the more active side, which in the active side of it is often presented in terms of compassion as being giving,

[34:12]

Ethical discipline, patience, concentration. These practices, and they're practiced then together with the guidance of wisdom. Now, if there's not any wisdom, you can still practice them if they're not defective. What you do, even before the wisdom, to practice, to do the religious practices which follow from previous two stages. So number one, compassion. Number two, this aspiration. Number three, start practicing. And you practice in the world. So the bodhisattva is practicing in the world. Now, in the world could be in a monastery, but it means in the world, you know, like with rocks and people and poop and pain and birth and death.

[35:17]

You practice there. And you practice giving. And you practice, you know, forbearance and get the insults you can try to forgive them and this kind of thing. You practice ethical discipline. You try to follow the precepts so you don't harm anybody. That's all. And you practice being really happy and enthusiastic. The aforementioned practices. And you practice concentration. Okay? Okay? I have a question about listening and compassion. Yes. We always, in words, we always make people think about, I think, compassion, but they feel like misleading. I don't know. It's my understanding that without, I mean, talk about them as two things that we're trying to join, but without compassion,

[36:22]

wisdom without compassion. I think that's true. Or another way to put it, there could be wisdom without compassion, but it would be sterile, it would be lifeless. But it might be, you could almost conceive of someone of truth by itself. Okay? And not mentioning anything about giving or patience, you know. This person maybe is, you know, you don't see anything about this person practicing these other things. But they do see. There is vision. But this vision, if it isn't connected with these other practices, it's not Buddha's vision. It's not a living, it's not a bodhisattva or Buddha wisdom. Buddha wisdom is in the world So, but you're right. Wisdom, living wisdom, it's not just connected to compassion. But still, it would be easier to see how there can be compassion without wisdom, because there can be compassion without wisdom, I think.

[37:31]

Is it compassion without wisdom just alterated? Yeah, but, well, yeah. Compassion, altruism is good. Compassion is good. I'm trying to help people. That's compassion. Wanting them to be happy is compassion. Being willing to be devoted to people and spend your time trying to help people, being patient with people when they're mean to you, being careful about what you're doing, including yourself, being honest and so on, being concentrated. This is compassion. But these things can be done with various misconceptions right alongside of them. So compassion can operate without much wisdom. It has to be some, of course, otherwise you can't even see how good it was to practice compassion. But anyway, some people are really, really, really kind, really, really sweet, really, really care about other beings. Just like a Buddha cares about me.

[38:35]

Just like Buddhas and Bodhisattvas care about me and want me to be happy, some people really want some people to be happy. I guess when I say altruism, when I say just altruism, I mean, like, good works, the goal of, the ultimate goal of working with good stuff. Like, of course, motivated, and then we motivated that. It can't be that imperfection, that there, that really there's this, this, this, uh, this, this associated, this defilement, which is really trying to help something, which is really interfering with the process that we're working through here, and also not going to work. So, that's why we need wisdom. But still, If we don't do those practices before they're perfected, we're not going to be able to practice wisdom anyway. Maybe somebody can practice wisdom without doing those things.

[39:41]

then, as you said, that wouldn't be real wisdom. So anyway, they do need to be joined, but they really are already joined, just like you already do possess the joined quality. So it's a question of realizing they really aren't separate. But they seem that way. Okay? Okay, so... And so the practice is, first of all, means of compassion, and then the wisdom. And by the way, I noticed as I'm thinking about this that meditation is two ways. In one sense, the whole bodhisattva course is a course in meditation. In one sense, this whole course in learning is to actually practice this course, you have to actually hear about the course, you can see the course, understand the course, and you're actually meditating on the teaching of the whole course, if you're on this course.

[40:58]

And so part of your meditation is to meditate on giving, precepts, patience, enthusiasm, and concentration, which is often translated as meditation. But also part of your meditation is to contemplate, in addition to those, one part of meditation is to meditate or contemplate the entire path to beautifulness. Another part of meditation is sometimes the part that is attributed to concentration. But another part of meditation is the meditation which helps us realize wisdom. And so this whole course is a course of meditation, and now I'm going to start shifting to meditation and the sense of meditating to develop wisdom. I'm not quite ready, Gila. Next stage, again, means, and that means, you know, five perfections.

[42:12]

Five perfections, giving and so on. And the means give life to the wisdom. Also, These tools are like two sides of the middle way. So the middle way, one expression of the middle way is, one expression of the middle way is need for education or self-indulgence. That's like a practical middle way, right? Don't eat too much, don't eat too little. Don't have too good a reward at all. Don't have too poor a reward at all. That's all. Don't be too cute.

[43:22]

Don't be too ugly. That's a practical middle word. That is a practical middle word. Don't be too ugly. He could be a little cute. And a little of it. The philosophical middle way is don't grasp the extreme of existence and don't deny existence. Or don't deny existence and don't affirm existence. Don't say you exist, don't say you don't exist. Just avoid those extremes. So what's your position? The middle position. Because I want to practice the Buddhist teaching.

[44:25]

But another way to say that is wisdom and compassion, because compassion means Perfections, they shun or avoid the extreme of non-existence. Good? Good, no. Because of wisdom, Okay? Because of wisdom, you shun the extreme of existence. Can you put that a little more concretely? Because of need or compassion, you do not abide in nirvana.

[45:26]

You do not abide in peace and quiet. You come into the world. If you don't practice... giving and patience in peace and quiet. Sorry. He practiced patience in places like this. And some people say, well, this is easy. You're right, it is. Relatively easy. So wherever you are in the world, you have a chance to practice the perfections, patience, giving, and ethics. You practice it in the world. You don't practice it in nirvana. with peace and quiet, there's not really any ethical issues. Don't be not trying to get anything. I mean, you're like, cool. Totally cool and blissful. You're not going to steal anything. And you're not going to hold on to anything. You're not going to be stingy. You're not going to give anything. Because, you know, anyway. Because of means, because of compassion, you don't abide in nirvana. which is non-existent?

[46:32]

No, nirvana is like peace and bliss. Okay. That would be like abiding in nirvana would be like denying existence. Nirvana isn't denial of existence, but staying there would be like denying existence. It would be like denying existence of all these suffering people. But in wisdom, in wisdom you don't abide in the world. but you don't abide there because you don't make the mistake, you know, of thinking these things exist. You can see a world if you have enough wisdom, but these virtues bring you into the world because you practice the virtues in the world. You practice giving and patience in the world. You practice concentration in the world with your psychophysical experiences. You're concentrating your body and mind. But with wisdom... There is really no world. So you don't abide there.

[47:34]

But as long as you're joined, you practice the middle way. You're in the world without abiding it, and you're practicing virtues and avoiding the extreme of saying things don't exist. So those two are working together. Okay, it's getting kind of late. So I just wanted to... Before I go into the meditation, I want to say just a little bit more about wisdom. So my plan... Well, my plan was going to be... I'll still do it. The next part is, in order to make these compassion practices perfect and complete, we need wisdom. So we're already practicing these compassion practices, and now we're going to try to develop wisdom.

[48:43]

And in the standard presentation of the Mahayana in the sutras, wisdom is developed, Wisdom is developed in three ways. Three ways. I'll just say them so I can go faster. One, the first way is through study, learning, listening, studying under a teacher, reading scriptures, studying under a teacher. You have developing wisdom in this model. The second way is through considering these teachings that you've learned, that you've been taught, that you've read. Considering them, reflecting on them, thinking about them, and analyzing them on experience and in terms of logic and scriptural authority.

[49:48]

And the third level of developing wisdom is wisdom in terms of meditation. that developing wisdom. And now we have the previous two, again, are under the overall picture of meditation, but specifically the third type is bringing meditation to develop the wisdom. And I... I... I want, if there's time later, I want to go through these three in more detail with you, these three levels, these three types of wisdom practices. But not tonight. Tonight I want to move on to just give you, again, a sense of how meditation is applied to developing the third type of wisdom, the third way of wisdom, how meditation applies to the third type of wisdom in the classical model.

[50:52]

And the way meditation is applied is basically the same way that it's applied in early Buddhism. And it's applied by this two-fold meditation process. One side is the calming side, and the other side is the insight side. And these two, again, these two are not really separate. They're presented one, and then the other, and then joined. Okay? So, I guess, if you can stand it, I will then, in later classes, I will go a little bit into the calming, and then, probably that'll be just one class, and then I'll go a little bit into the insight. Okay? And then, I'll go a little bit into...

[51:59]

And then I'll go into... After you've got these wisdom, the common wisdom joined, then I'll go into... And this is probably too much for the practice period, but I'll just tell you tonight what's probably too much for the practice period. They might be able to actually do this, what I just said, to go into the climbing practices of the standard model and the insight practices. But I don't think so. I think two more classes will give you some sense of it. But the part that would take more time would be after you've learned how to practice these first two ways, and you've learned the third way, enough to get started in then developing it deeper and deeper, then once you can actually actually get going, then again, you will take this meditation practice back into the world, okay?

[53:07]

So, we sort of took a little break from the means practice for a while to look at wisdom, and then we're now looking, if we look at meditation, the three kinds of wisdom, and we're back and looking at meditation which develops the wisdom. And after we do that, then we take natural practice back into the means. You see how that works? So first means, then wisdom, then break down wisdom, break out. And the third type of wisdom, you go into the meditation, which has these two sides, and you learn that, and you're applying that then. Now you have the three kinds of wisdom are being worked on. You're working on them in your meditation. Okay? You're actually working in all three because in the third type what you're looking at in your insight work is what you learned in the previous two types. But you're joining it now with calm, yes?

[54:09]

So you mean three types of wisdom so much as three ways of studying wisdom, is that...? Yeah, well, three ways of studying wisdom, yeah. Or three levels of wisdom. He's trying to get this picture of how the cycle works, so compassion, bodhicitta, they just practice, you practice virtue, okay? But then you want to start practicing wisdom with your virtues, and then you have to, like, do some meditation practice, then you start practicing wisdom through these three levels. Now you're in the... which is going to help you with your wisdom, okay? That you're going to do first calm and insight. Join the calm and insight, now you've developed... Wisdom. Now you take that wisdom which you developed and then you go back into the beings, back into the world of compassion. And then from then on we're going to go through stages of working with wisdom and compassion together after you know how to practice meditation on your wisdom. Okay? And I just want to quickly mention that this course that starts now, from this point after doing all this preparatory work,

[55:19]

in the early Buddhism, in terms of five paths, but also in the standard model of the Mahayana Sutras, it's presented as five paths and then the same five paths. Okay? It's just that in addition to those five paths, interjected into those five paths, the stages of a bodhisattva. which are the ten, now the five paths are not the five, before the five paths were the five paths to individual liberation, now they're the five paths to Buddhahood. Okay, so I think, I think it's just among the various things that you learn in your lifetime, you might learn these five paths, which are the path of accumulation, the path of concerted effort, the path of vision, path of meditation or cultivation, and the path beyond learning or beyond training, which are the five paths. Path of accumulation, path of effort, path of vision, path of yoga, meditation, development, and the path beyond training, which are the five paths.

[56:36]

We'll get into that more later. I mean, I don't know if we'll have time, but I just want you to see, skip the picture. And then, so the path, the path of accumulation is where you're, basically you're just, we're just working on, we're working on all these virtue practices, we're working on all these compassion practices. Working on these five compassion practices, working on these five compassion practices with trying to develop wisdom along simultaneously with these compassion practices, and again, working on wisdom in these three levels, through studying, learning these teachings about wisdom, learning the teachings about reality, you know, with the teacher, with the scriptures, and then meditate, reflecting on yourself, and then entering into this concentrated insight work with those teachings. Okay? At the same time that you're like, I don't know.

[57:44]

You know, some other kind of worldly situation where you'll have lots of opportunities to practice these virtues, and sometimes occasional non-virtues, but then the second virtue is the virtue of the precepts, which includes confessing your non-virtue in the other areas. So anyway, it works out really nicely, as you know. So that's the path of preparation, or path of equipment for preparation. Did I say preparation? Yeah, preparation. Huh? I said preparation? I didn't say preparation? I think you said preparation. This is actually the part where you start salting yourself. It's a path of preparation, a path of accumulation. So you're doing this, you're getting, you're starting to... You know the ropes now, okay? You learned the ropes. You got the basic... Your compassion and bodhicitta. You've learned, you know how to meditate now.

[58:44]

You know the different types of wisdom. You know the basic practices, and now you're working on it. And you work at it and work at it and work at it. For quite a while. That's for quite a while. And if we ever had time, see what a wonderful and extensive practice, the practice of the path of accumulation. It's also sometimes called the path of equipment. like, you know, packing up for the triple part of the path. It's a big, big practice. Anyway, that's the first one. Next one, the next stage is the path of... Concerted effort. Concerted effort. And in that path, things start heating up. The meditation starts heating up. And it goes through... In the standard path, it goes through these nice four stages, which are called the Nirveda Bhagyas. You know, and it kind of like, it's like... The first one is heat. Actually, you start heating up. And the next one is called, I think it's called the patiences.

[59:49]

And the next one is called the summits. And the next one is called the highest worldly dharmas. So you start heating up your practice. And then finally, there's enough compression and sophistication in your practice that you break through and enter into the path of vision where you start to actually see differently. And the path of vision, so this is a progression, right? Well, we can talk about that. It sounds like a progression, but the school over here, the Zen school and other schools are like telling you it's not really a progression, but it's presented in such a way that prior to being enlightened, it might look like it's a progression. But if you understand that you're already Buddha, not to mention if you've accepted that, then you don't see the progression. When you're enlightened, you don't really see that a flower is progressing when its petals fall off, or that it's progressing when the stalk comes up, or it's progressing when the bud forms.

[60:59]

It's just the whole thing is like this wonderful, you know, living of the flower. You don't see it as progress or steps and stuff. But it looks like that, and it has to be presented that way. It looks like... I don't have to, but that's the way it's presented, so it can look like steps and stages. But it's not real. It's just skillful means for us to understand all that's involved in the process of being a Buddha. So when you just say, you know, just be Buddha, fine. Now, after you've accepted that, then now let's find out what you've accepted. What you've accepted is something that has all these different dimensions, which can be seen as aggressive, but really it's just dimensions of Buddha. But they depend on each other in a certain logical way, so that one can't happen before the other. But it's still not progression. From the point of view of enlightenment, it's not progression. I'll be down in a second with a corset that takes three years.

[62:06]

Right. And that's why Zen's very appealing, because he could just jump and put his lap in. You know, your head. Then you can go do this three-year-old thing. But you're already home. And you just like celebrating your house, your family. You're not going any distant. So anyway, we're now at the heating up phase. This is the conservative effort. And then pop. Actually, you had a transformation of your vision. You no longer believe in the... individually existing self or person. And you have the insight, which is the beginning, the traditional beginning of the Buddhist path in the early Buddhist presentation. Now you're really like, strictly speaking, you have, your wisdom has been realized at the first basic level.

[63:10]

And this is also at the place where the first stage of a bodhisattva starts. And this stage is called the joy. or this is also sometimes called the stage of extreme joy. And this stage of actually entering this path, now you're entering the path, you're in the third path, the path of vision, the path of insight, and you're also simultaneously in the first bodhisattva path. So you're in the bodhisattva path, number one, stage number three of the bodhisattva path, This corresponds to the first stage of Bodhisattva's path, third Bodhisattva's path, and third Bodhisattva's path. There's five paths, ten stages. The first stage corresponds to the third path.

[64:12]

And the practice, the main practice of this path, of this stage, is the practice of giving. But now, ladies and gentlemen, your giving has become perfected. You've got wisdom, and your wisdom has broken through, and your vision has changed. You can see now the way you really are. You're practicing the same practice which you've been doing all along, but in a slightly defective way, because you thought you were doing it. You no longer think that way. Now you see gift, giving, and giver as like one mass of joy, extreme joy. You also come fear, no more fear, like zero fear, none of it. So the first day you go to Sattva, you're like, you've done that one. Been there, done that forever.

[65:16]

You no longer afraid. And then we move into the first path, the path of development, the path of bringing the rest of the Buddhahood into being. And this path leads to the next nine stages. So the rest of the stages. Yeah. And then the rest of the stages are, what's the next one? It's called? Vimala. Right. The next one is called purity, or vimala. And the virtue practice, the compassion practice that's emphasized in that stage is what? Ethical conduct. Yeah, ethical conduct. Yeah, right. Ethical discipline, the precepts. That's the one there. Okay? Now we're going to go fast.

[66:18]

The next one. What? The next one is radiance. The next stage is radiance. This is stage number three, or we stop at stage number three, radiance. And the practice there is patience. Next stage is the flunging. Diligence or heroic, enthusiastic effort in all the other practices. The fuel of the practices. And then the next one is called hard to conquer. And the practice there is concentration. Now, in each one of these... All these virtues are now perfective, perfective, perfective, because you have this basic insight. So now you're perfecting these, you're perfecting these means. And then the number six is a big one. It can, it is sometimes called face-to-face, sometimes called, translated as presence.

[67:23]

Number six is face-to-face or presence. And there the perfection of wisdom is realized. And the topic of meditation is dependent core arising. So this is a great, very important stage. On the second stage, which is called far-reaching, and there, it's somewhat contradictory, but there, all other kinds of means are developed and perfected. And the eighth stage is the immovable, called the immovable, and there are the perfection of vows. And stage nine is a stage called goodness, and there is the perfection of power. And stage 10 is called the dharma cloud, and there is the perfection of power. And so each one of these stages is tremendous.

[68:25]

ocean of practice for bodhisattva. And now we have completed the fourth path in the tenth stage. Okay? What was the fourth one called? The fourth path is called... You can translate it as the path of development, path of cultivation, path of meditation, path of bringing all these bodhisattva stages into being. And now we come to the fifth path. No more stages. No more training. The path beyond learning. The fifth path, and of course that's Buddhahood. And it would be, of course, we all would love to have... world enough and time to hear wonderful teachings about what each one of these stages are like, which are given in so many wonderful sutras.

[69:27]

But I just wanted to give you a picture of it so you have some sense of the scope of the bodhisattva path. And once you're Once you practice Zen and you accept your Buddhahood to some extent, then you can go to work to realize it and not be afraid that it will take you three long eons. No problem. You're already home. This is just our work, just our bodhisattva work. So you're just learning the work which, if you want to be a bodhisattva, you eventually take on. And although it's a huge mountain, if you're asked, do you want to do it? You say, mm-hmm, I would love to. So again, I think next time I'll go back, either next time I'll go back and look at more detail at these three types of wisdom, or next time I'll start looking at the calming. I think I'll do that, or I should follow the order of the standard model.

[70:31]

So one of the things about Zen is we don't necessarily follow the order of the standard model. We leap to the end. It would be your work. This is Buddhahood? Well, how so? Well, come here. I'll show you. So next time, we'll try to start to look at the calming practices of the traditional classical presentation of the Bodhisattva meditation. And next time, the insight work. Next time, the three kinds of wisdom and maybe get into the calming and so on. And in terms of thoughts to read on your reading list, The Avatamsaka Sutra gives this huge presentation of these ten stages, and the Prajnaparamita presents the five paths, the Avatamsaka Sutra presents the five paths, and Sambhiramacchana Sutra presents the ten stages, and the Avatamsaka Sutra presents the ten stages, and then in terms of commentaries,

[71:39]

presents the indian rendition the indian commentary on the process in terms of the chinese jury presents the chinese summary of the process and depends on what presents the overall picture so these three great scholars look at the maya sutras and kind of like express and put it out for us so if you want to check out and go over in detail you can look at those books you don't have to do that you know Eventually, of course, you will, but, you know, you don't have to do it by next week. Okay? So thank you for listening to that kind of boring...

[72:19]

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