Tonight's show is from the other half of the retreat I did for this talk, and I decided to go ahead with the topic that I was having to deal with for the opening night. And, um, so, in a sense, it might be sort of a challenging record for the kind of thing I'm doing, but I'll try to be helpful to you. And I just hope you all enjoy it, and I hope you can keep it, and follow it, and, um, think about it. I think last week I started off by just saying a few words about, um, preventive education.

[01:32]

And, um, I hope you all enjoy it, and, um, I hope you can keep it, and follow it, and, um, think about it. Preventive education is, um, sometimes offered 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. Directly about Buddhahood. That's what I sometimes get said, right?

[02:56]

Sorry, that's a problem a little bit inside me. No? Oh. Fine. Um, oh no, this, this, this, Zen practice is not emotional. Like, I'll do this, and then you're going to be Buddha. It's more like, just, if you like, just sit down and write your mind. Add Buddha, or Buddha, by Buddha, with Buddha. Sit, sit, and, uh, relax, and Buddha, Buddha mind. You don't need to wait any longer. You don't have to wait any longer, you can actually, right now, just, just sit down, and Buddha mind, and Buddha thoughts. Or, you know, stay in the way of it.

[04:00]

So this is a very direct, and kind of like, you know, spontaneous Buddhahood. And spontaneous has different definitions, but one, you know, in Chinese, the word they use is, you know, self is another character that means we, you know, something to adjourn. Like, just be yourself. Like Buddha, just be Buddha as yourself. It's naturally, automatically, spontaneous way of a Buddhist program. You know, Buddhists do not want anybody to wait any longer. And you're welcome to realize that you are a Buddhist child, in a Buddhist family, and, uh, so. And then, after, after settling into Buddha mind, or Buddha mind, then live your life from there.

[05:13]

Because, you know, you're not a Buddha. Be devoted to everything you do out there. Just think all the time about what you can do to help people also join the Buddha way. Not just people, all kinds of people. So Zen techniques, Zen teachings, Zen practices, Zen offerings, are mostly about how to practice this way. Drop our resistance to Buddhahood. Buddha, the Zen teaching is, you already fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddha. Fully, already. But most of you don't get it, because you have some idea of what that would be like, or there are other things you'd rather be doing. So Zen teachings are supposed to be about giving up resistance to that basic teaching. And, uh, you know, you're giving up resistance to anything like, for example, instead of going around trying to hold on to your body and mind.

[06:24]

Because that's what's for me. Instead of that, how about just like, let the body and mind drop off. Let all your resistance drop off. And just take a breath. So Zen practices are about how to like, promote that realization. That's Zen medicine. Sometimes call it prawn medicine. Zen medicine. Zen meditation society. Zen meditation society. I just thought it might, and I mentioned last time too, that there's other kinds of Buddhism.

[07:33]

Sometimes called mantra. Sometimes called bodhidharma. Sometimes called Pure Land. 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 these types. A similar type over here also is called Mahamudra. Mahamudra. Mahamudra developed in India. Zen developed in China. And they developed it about the same time, in the 4th, 7th, going up to the 9th. 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st.

[08:45]

These are the schools of love. Just accept it. Just let go of the objective and realize that. No more excuses. This part over here is about types of practices. There are one... There are various kinds of visualization. And how people look at it. And see it. There are many kinds of visualization.

[10:22]

This is another type of visualization. That is the type of visualization. This is a way of visualization. This is a way of visualization. This picture [...] is a way of visualization.

[11:26]

This picture is a way of visualization. [...]

[12:50]

This picture is a way of visualization. This picture is a way of visualization. This picture is a way of visualization. Okay. [...]

[14:01]

Okay. [...]

[15:08]

Okay. I just said a little bit about earlier, and I'll be bringing that up again and again, but I want you to understand the basic agreement of the science that actually is going on, whether you follow it in a literal way or not, you need to know about it, you have to understand it, what you're doing, and all of these different parts of the mind are on duty, and there's many things they do, but they all come down to understanding, they all come down to understanding, and that's their responsibility, what we're doing, and we have to understand it, and that's what we have to do, and that's it. Well, again, like you just told me, I'll show you,

[16:12]

the literal way, and then you can understand it literally, and if you do that, that's how you have to know, and now, before, without further ado, did you get that part about what the bodhisattva, the basic practice of all the bodhisattvas has to do with? Now, that's the, emptiness is the wisdom, emptiness is what the bodhisattvas understand, it's wisdom and compassion in perfect union, love and emptiness joining, that's the practice, of all the skills of the bodhisattva, so that is Buddhahood, Buddhahood is, the realization of emptiness, which is that, in joining with, perfect union with, compassion. So again, I started last week, the standard model, and, remember, these two are like,

[17:13]

sprouting out of the standard model, and it just turns out that I've mentioned that this one, this type of meditation, this type of practice, is kind of a revitalization, a resurgence, of the two buddhas, and, magical and ritual techniques, of the samins and the brahmins, that kind of make this type of meditation. But this type is like, this type is like, nothing against any other type, but this type is good, quite modern, so this type is like, nothing. It's very portable, you know, you don't have to have a big, lot of equipment here. So, the standard model is, number one in the standard model is, compassion.

[18:19]

What? Compassion. Number one is compassion. That's the first thing in the, that's the first thing in the basic, standard classical presentation, I would have to do, is this thing, is compassion. Now, you could say, well, nothing to do with the suffering, well, I guess you could say that, because the most important thing is compassion. You could say it's like the suffering, but, it didn't really start with compassion, until I talked a little bit about compassion, and I'll talk about it now, but for now, I'll just say that, it starts with a kind of practice, and training, training in compassion. The next, the next big part of it, is, what? What? That's a good guess there, isn't it? Well, a third of you are thinking,

[19:20]

what? Huh? Huh? What are you thinking? The next one is, you know, the, the wish, or the will, of, hope, devotion, unity, and love, for, the benefit, of other people. People say, well, what about me? It's okay, there will be benefits for you, but if you're trying to get enlightened by yourself, to most people, I'm telling you, the real enlightenment is this, not, this is not about your enlightenment, it's about everybody else's enlightenment. Of course, that would be really great for you, it would be really great for you. Well, this is, this is the thought of enlightenment, the third principle, is the evaluation of the thought of enlightenment,

[20:22]

and enlightenment is not your enlightenment, enlightenment is everybody's suggestion, your personal opinion, and everybody together, helping everybody, helping everybody, that's enlightenment, and it's that, you just, you want that, and you want, you understand it so well, that you can do it, and that's where the practice is, and that's your freedom. And this arises, again, spontaneously, you can't make it without it, you can think of it, but to really feel it, to really feel it, is something, it's a gift, but it does somehow, that big gift, is what you've been offered here, all day long, is to train yourself, you've been taught, you've been told, that's what you need to do. There are some people, who have been taught, but they're not quite ready to let this thought in. As I told you, I think that's what it means to me,

[21:23]

that lots of people come to me, and say, I'm just tired, I can't take on this thing, I'm just, there's nothing on this thing, I'm just, I'm just bored of those things, I'm not into that. It's okay. But anyway, I just want you to know, that's what the practice is, that's what the practice is, it happens, it's a gift. And then, at this point, you're actually ready. And you're going to stop it. And you stop it. And you're going to stop it. And this is also meant to be, that there are some people walking around, who are very wise, and do not, that they did not have this gift before. And there are some people, who are not very wise, who are really, really, really good at this. And this is not meant to be. They're very curious, they're very confused. And they're not really confused, and they're really, like,

[22:23]

they're really, and they really stop when you reach for it, and they're just like, the geometry of Buddha, to the left there, to the right there. It's quite just like, changing things, and stuff. And you, you can't help it. It's very, very tough. And some people, I'm just like, you're not there, you can't help it, you're not there. They're quite there, they're in the middle, they're in the second, they're in the third, they're in the fourth, they're in the fifth, they're in the seventh, And they think that's a good thing, and they're not, they're not there. So, I think, for those of you who are not yet, because it hasn't happened, it's not been seen, it hasn't happened before, I think you're getting the same feeling that we're getting too, so... we need to start getting there. A and B. A is the natural word for that, a yearning, a yearning in your heart, to speak to it.

[23:50]

The second part, let's repeat. A is the natural word for that, a yearning, and B is the physical part of it, the forwarding, the thought of it, the intention. And then the next one is the part of it that is heavy, heavy in your heart. So, some of one and some of two. Yeah, well, most people that are into two are into one.

[24:58]

That's what it's for. Some people are into one, but not into two. Some people are into two. But even if people are into two, you still develop one, you develop it. Like, for example, you can actually have a strong history of killing a few people left in the world. But you don't kill them all. You just kill them. You've got more work to do. You have to. And just because you develop, [...] you don't have to kill them all. I'm just giving you just a little bit of time. I don't want to give you too much time. In fact, if you're not compassionate, you probably don't want to follow through with it. So, if you like, anytime you're not concerned, you can. Just give me a little bit of time. Usually, usually, it's difficult when you're too strong, when you're too weak, when you're too strong, when you're too weak. So, just thought, thank you, just for a little bit.

[26:01]

Thank you. So, do you wish to know about compassion? That's all there is to know about compassion. Yes. Up here, you're like wishing to be compassionate. You're training yourself to be compassionate. You're trying to expand with compassion, deepen with compassion. You're thinking about compassion. You're not compassionate. How much time does that take? About ten to fifteen minutes. There's nothing that can stop you from doing it, too. That training culminates in wanting to go all the way back. And then, there are two types of learning, too. One type of learning is the journey to be with it. As you want to be with it, you also want to be in with it. And the next part of that is the journey to know it. And that's the actual path. And that's something that we do, that's how we go to that initiation.

[27:08]

And then, actually, you get up there and step up and bow. So, you actually, like, bow in the presence of the teacher. You, like, receive this bow. And, you know, you join with that. And you come into unity with the teacher. And also, with all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. So, at the beginning of the ceremony, you know, you go to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. And the teacher will receive this bow. You call to the buddhas, all bodhisattvas and mahasattvas, please concentrate your focus on me, now, in this ceremony. In that context, you enter this state of awareness. Now, some people receive the precepts and have not thought about it. But that's the beginning of the process. And that's actually initiating into the world. Okay? And the third time, you receive the precept.

[28:11]

Okay? You receive the precept. Okay. Can I ask you a question? Yes, please. You have to let go of the microphone. All right. Okay. Yes. I like the ability of these two guys to do this. They're very wise. They take such a good interest in this. I'm kind of concerned. I don't know. No, no. They didn't. They have number one in their system. I don't know what's the principle. One of the other things is that they're accomplished, that they're actually authentic in something within. They actually understand what's being done in the real life.

[29:18]

And they see from the vision of what they're suffering, and the person they're with is suffering. Wise people. Okay? We call these people outcasts, which means those who are really weary, or those who are burned away to leave. There's some people like that. And some of these people do not yet have this aspiration to leave. That's one kind of people that we're talking about, that don't have something like that. Is that what you were trying to say? No, but part of the beginning of what you're saying is, you're not here. You're still very far away from Buddha. And I love that. I love both sides of what you're saying. Well, the other thing which I said was, the Buddha, in the tradition of becoming Buddha, in the vehicle of becoming Buddha, the Bodhisattva path, the Bodhisattvas, are those who wish to become Buddha. And that path, the literature of that path, says, that when Buddha awakens,

[30:19]

he saws all beings, like you, who you are, fully present, the way you exist. That's what the Buddha said. And he said, Wow. And you know what Buddha said? He said, Wow. He said, Wow. That guy fully presents. That woman, that guy, that woman. These people fully present the wisdom. They're very happy to present the wisdom. All the wisdom they can do, he fully presents. Then a little bit later, he comes back to Buddha. Wow. But, they don't see it. They don't realize it. They don't realize what they really want, because of attachments and misconceptions. But even these people who don't realize that they're Buddha, still, sometimes, they notice their suffering. They start to develop these attachments. And they wish to become Buddha.

[31:21]

And because they'd like to become Buddha, they wish to not become Buddha. Because, the curse and the curse that I've told you to bless the world in the name of the Buddha, shall never be fulfilled. Because, maybe that's true, but maybe I didn't realize it when I didn't get to say it, I didn't want that. But so far, I haven't seen much of anything that's supposed to be a curse. That's a very dishonest curse. But I fully present the wisdom and virtues of Buddha. I wish I did it. But I would like to, for the welfare of everybody else. Not to take it as a curse, but for everybody else's sake, I would like to, if it's possible. And so, sometimes, with love, learning from other people, and actually, I've been blessed with this thought, and it comes to me, every time. And so, here's a little discussion. This is a practice, this is a standard, scriptural presentation,

[32:24]

and also, commentary on the scriptural presentation, of the fifth path, the essential path, to come to Buddhism. I told you, the first two sections are the practice. The practice is, the first two sections are the practice. But, as I mentioned before, the first two sections are the practice. And then, the first two sections are the practice. And the practice is, compassion, truth, But now, not just, not only just feeling compassion for people, and longing to benefit people, but now, giving them to you, and asking for it. Which can we ask, inside of a Buddhist practice, is compassion. Compassion is being, living, having ethical discipline, teaching, living, and compensation. So, these practices,

[33:27]

and the practice coming together with it, are the guiding practice, wisdom. Now, if there's not yet wisdom, you can still practice them, if they're not successful. But to do your best, even before there's wisdom, is to practice, to do the religious practices, that follow from, the previous two sections. So, number one, compassion, number two, the contemplation of the Buddha, number three, self-practice, and the practice in the world, which is based off of the path of Buddhahood, is practicing in the world. Now, in the world, could be in a monastery, but being in the world, you know, like a rock, and people, and a pool, and pain, and birth and death, and practice death, and practice giving, and practice, you know, forbearance, and the two sections,

[34:27]

the practice of giving, and the practice of, the practice of physical discipline, the practice, you know, all the two sections, and harmony, and so on. And, and the practice of being happy, and being reactive about being, and being optimistic, and being positive, and the practice of concentration. Okay? Um, I have a question about what you're saying about compassion. Yes. we, we always, in Buddhist literature, we always make the distinction of, if we see a person as compassionate, that they're compassionate to you, because, I don't know, it's my understanding that, without, when you talk about them as, as people, it seems that there's something that's going on, but, it seems more like, without the compassion, wisdom, if you were a wisdom, without wisdom, compassion, if you were a compassion. That's fantastic.

[35:28]

Or another way to put it, there could be wisdom without compassion, but it wouldn't, it would be sterile, it would be lifeless. But it might be, you could almost conceive of someone, of a vision, of truth, by itself. Okay? It's not mentioning anything about giving, or patience, you know, this person maybe, is, you know, you might be thinking about this person practicing, these other things, but they do, see, there is vision, clear 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 vision. Buddha vision is in the world, but you're right, really it's not real wisdom, it's living wisdom, connected to the compassion. But, still, it's maybe easier to see, Bodhisattva vision, compassion without wisdom, because there's only compassion without wisdom. Yeah, but,

[36:36]

well, yeah, that's compassion, also wisdom's good. Compassion's good. 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 need you, being careful with what you're doing, so you don't hurt anybody, including yourself, being honest and so on, being concentrated, these are, these are, this is compassion. But, these things can be done, with, you know, embracing, accepting that you're on the side of them. So, compassion can operate, without much wisdom, just in some way, of course, but there's, there's, there's three qualities, like, compassion. But anyway, some people are really, really, really kind, really, really sweet, really, really care, about what they're doing. It's such a beautiful thing. It's such a beautiful thing, that's a paradox, when you want people to be happy, sometimes it's a beauty,

[37:36]

you want ten people to be happy. I guess I could out there, you know, just out there, I mean, like, this work, this, this goal, this job, this ultimate goal of human existence, and success. Well, yeah. Yeah, there still might be that imperfection, that there, that really, there's this, [...] this associated, this defilement, which is really, trying to help something, which is really interfering with the process you're working with, and that's not going to work. So, there is, that's why we need wisdom. But still, if we don't do those practices, before the perfection, we're not going to be able to practice wisdom. Anyway. Maybe somebody could help. But anyway,

[38:37]

somebody could come out and practice wisdom without doing any training. And, as you said, that would be really, really concerning. But anyway, there do need to be joint, but, there really are already joints. It's like, you already do possess the joint qualities, so it's a question of realizing. There really aren't joints. But there do seem to be. Okay. Okay. if there's practice, there is, this one, we need, we need to be helping people, we need the compassion, and then the wisdom. And by the way, I noticed that a video like this that comes about meditation is in two ways. In one sense, the whole body of that course is a course in meditation. Because, in some sense, this whole course

[39:40]

in learning, to actually practice this course, you have to actually hear about the course, you have to see the course, understand the course, and you're actually meditating on the teachings of the whole course, if you're on this course. So, and so part of it, part of your meditation is the meditation within precepts, patience, enthusiasm, peace. And concentration, which is actually translated as meditation. But also part of meditation is to concentrate in addition to those wisdoms. So one part of meditation is to practice the meditation of concentrating the entire path to Buddhahood. Another part of meditation is sometimes the practice of peace together with the 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 in such a

[40:41]

shift between the meditation sense of meditating of developing wisdom. I'm not quite ready for this. The next stage that I'd like to mention is that, again, is the meaning of my five perceptions. Five perceptions, giving wisdom, and peace. Right. So I'm talking about five meanings, okay? And peace is wisdom. So the wisdom guides the means and the means gives life to the wisdom. Also, these two

[41:43]

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 either self-multiplication or self-revelation. That's like a practical middle way, right? Don't eat too much, don't eat too little. Don't have too good a wardrobe, don't have too poor a living. Okay? Don't have too good a haircut. Don't be stupid. Don't be gay. That's the practical middle way. That is the practical middle way. Don't be stupid, don't be gay. Don't be a noob. Don't be a noob. The philosophical,

[42:45]

the philosophical middle way contrasts with being of existence and contrasts with being of knowledge. Or, something lying existence is going to turn you. And so you exist and so you're going to avoid those things. What's your position? My position is a middle position because I want to practice a Buddhist teaching. But there's another way to say that is working in compassion because this compassion means that by perfection they can or avoid the experience of non-existence. Which Good, no.

[43:55]

Because of wisdom. Okay? Because of wisdom it is shown you can have existence. Another way to put it is because of because of me, the compassion you do not abide in the violence. You do not abide in peace and quiet. You come into the world but you don't practice giving and patience and peace and quiet. Sorry. You practice patience like this. You can think of it as a relative reason. Relative reason. Whenever you are in the world you have a chance to practice compassion. Patience, giving and ethics. Ethics. In the world you don't practice abiding in the violence. And peace and quiet

[44:58]

does not mean you have to get peace and quiet. You are not trying to get anything. You are like cool. You are not going to steal anything. And you are not going to hold on to anything. You are not going to be stingy. But also you are not going to give anything because you do not bring it. Because of me and because of compassion you don't abide in nirvana. Nirvana is like peace and bliss. That would be like abiding in nirvana would be like denying existence. Nirvana wouldn't be denying existence but staying there would be like denying existence. It would be denying existence but always having people. It would be wisdom. With wisdom you don't abide in the world. You live in the world but you don't abide there because you don't make mistakes in making mistakes in the world. But the

[46:01]

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. Like you're picturing with your psychophysical experience. You're concentrating the body's mind. But with wisdom you're in the world. So you don't abide there. But when you're joined you practice them in the world. Which is you're in the world without abiding in it and you're practicing virtues and avoiding these things. So those two are working together. I feel it's getting kind of late so I just wanted to before I go into the

[47:02]

meditation I wanted a little bit more about wisdom. So my point is that in order to make these compassion practices perfect and complete you need wisdom. So we're always practicing these compassion practices. And now we're going to try to develop wisdom. And in the standard presentation we're going to develop three ways. The first way is to study, learn,

[48:02]

listen. Studying under a teacher, reading scriptures. Studying under a teacher. That's the first way of developing wisdom in this model. The second way is to considering these teachings that you've learned, that you've been taught before, considering them, reflecting on them, thinking about them, and analyzing them in terms of your own experience, and in terms of logic. That's the third way. And the third level of developing wisdom is looking in terms of meditation. And that's developing wisdom through meditation. And now we have the previous two again are under the overall picture of meditation, but specifically the third level bringing meditation to develop

[49:03]

the wisdom. And I want, if there's time, later, I want to get through these three in more detail with you. Maybe I will speak about the wisdom practice later. But not tonight. Tonight I want to give you a sense of how the meditation is applied to developing the third type of wisdom, the third way of wisdom, how meditation applies the third type of wisdom in the classical model. And the way meditation is applied is basically the same way as applying the third way of wisdom. It's applied by the two-fold meditation process. One side is the calming side, and the other side

[50:03]

is the easing side. And again, these two are not really different, but they present one and the other in a joint. So, I guess if you can stand it, I will then, later, in the next part, I will go a little bit into the calming, and then probably I'll do it one time, and then I'll go a little bit into the calming easing. And then, I'll go a little bit into the calming and then I'll go into the After you've got the calming wisdom going, then I'll go into the calming

[51:15]

and then I'll go you've got the going, then I'll into the after you've got the calming and then go into After But after you're now, you've learned how to talk to people in these first two ways, and you've learned the third way, and that's when you've started in developing people and users. And once you can actually have the feedback going, then again, you will take these people, these conversations back into the world. So, you sort of took a little break from the meaning practice for a while, to look at wisdom. And as you're now looking at meditation, and you look at three kinds of wisdom, and go back and look at meditation, which develops the wisdom. And once you do that, then you take that whole practice back into the meaning.

[52:22]

You see how that works? First mean, then wisdom, then break down wisdom, break out wisdom. And the third type of wisdom, you go into the meditation technique, two sides, and you learn that, and you're applying that then. Now you have the three kinds of wisdom that you're working on in meditation. And you have to get them all free, because in the third type, what you're looking at in your insight work, is what you learned in the previous three types. What you're joining now is confidence. What's the difference between the three ways of studying wisdom? Yeah, well, three ways of studying wisdom, yeah. Like three levels of wisdom. So, I'm trying to get the picture of how the cycle works. Compassion, friendship, and the religious practice. The religious practice is the practice of virtue. But then you want that type of wisdom with your virtue, then you have to take the meditation practice,

[53:24]

then you have to take that type of wisdom to the three levels. And the meditation practice is going to help you with your wisdom. So then you can first come in an insight, join the common insight, and you develop wisdom. Now you take that wisdom that you've developed, and you're going to go back into the meaning, back into the world of compassion. And then from there on, you're going to go through the various stages of working with your compassion together, helping you know how to practice meditation on your wisdom. And I just want to quickly mention that this course, that starts now, from this point, after doing all this preparatory work, is presented in early Buddhism in terms of five parts. But also in the standard model of the Mahayana system, it's presented as five parts, and in the same five parts, it's just that in addition to those five parts,

[54:25]

in the objective of those five parts, are the ten stages of the Bodhisattva path. Which are the ten... Now the five parts are not the five before the five parts, but the five parts in individual liberation. Now are the five parts through the root. It's just among the various stages of learning the five parts. Which are the path of stimulation, the path of concerted effort, the path of vision, the path of meditation, of cultivation, and the path beyond learning, beyond experience, which is the five parts. The path of stimulation, the path of concerted effort, the path of vision, the path of yogic meditation development, and the path beyond experience, which is the five parts. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if we're going to have time,

[55:30]

but I just wanted to get the picture. And then, so then the path of stimulation, is where you, basically, you're just working on all these virtue practices, you're working on all these compassion practices, the five 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 on a deep level. Studying, learning the teachings about wisdom, learning the teachings about spirituality, with the teacher, with the scriptures, reflecting on yourself, and then entering into this concentrated insight work with those teachings. At the same time, you're like, I don't know. Who knows that? You know, some other kind of worldly situation where you have lots of opportunities to practice

[56:36]

in virtue, and you're chosen in non-virtue. But then, the second virtue is the virtue of the precepts, which includes concessions and non-virtues in other areas. Or even in the precept areas. So anyway, it's all worked out very nicely, as you know. So that's the path of preparation, or the path of equipment of preparation. Did I say preparation? Huh? Did I say preparation? I didn't say accumulation? Oh, preparation! This is actually the part where you start salting yourself. So it's the path of preparation, or the path of accumulation. You're doing it, you're getting it, you're starting to... You know the ropes now. You learn the ropes. You've got the basic footing in compassion and bodhicitta. You've learned, you know how to meditate now. You know the different types of wisdom. You know the basic practices, and now you're working out.

[57:37]

And you work out, and you start to look at it. It's quite a lot. And that was just the way to go. And if you ever had time, you look in the scriptures to see what a wonderful and extensive practice the practice is. The path of accumulation. That's what we call the path of equipment. You know, packing up for the trip. It's a big practice. That's the first one. The next one, the next stage is the path of... What was it again? The third effort. The third effort. In that path, you start heating up. The meditation process. And it goes through... In the standard path, it goes through these four stages, which are called the nirveda, bhajna, yajna. It's kind of like, it's like... The first one is heat, that's when you start heating up. And the next thing is called the... The next thing is called the concentration. And the next thing is called the summit. And the next thing is called the highest point of awareness.

[58:39]

And you start heating up the practice. And then finally, there's enough compression and sophistication in the practice that you... That you break through. And enter into the path of vision. And you start to actually see it. And the path of vision is... Well, we can talk about that. It seems like a progression. But the school over here, the school... 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, you might look like it's a progression. But if you understand that you're already Buddha, and not to mention that you're, like, a sceptic, and you don't see it as a progression, when you're enlightened, you don't exactly... You don't really see that a flower is progressing from the pedestal. But it's progressing when the stalk comes up.

[59:44]

It's progressing on the bud form. It's progressing... It's just the whole thing is, like, this wonderful living of the flower. You don't see it as progress or scepticism. But it looks like that. And it has to be presented that way. It looks like... It has to look like a progression. It has to look like scepticism. But it's not really that way. It's just a bit of a means to understand all that's involved in the process of being a Buddha. So when we just say, you know, just be a Buddha, fine. Now, after you've accepted that, just find out what you've accepted. What you've accepted is something that has all these different dimensions, which can be seen as progressives. But really, it's 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. You know, from the point of view of an organism, it's not progression.

[60:44]

Okay. You know, if you've done scepticism, there's a course that says... ... [...] Great. And that's why I'm saying, just keep jumping here and laughing, real good. You know, you're home. And then you can go do the Sri Yantra. But you're already home, and you're just like celebrating your house, your family, and enjoying the kitchen. So now it's a heating up phase. This is a concerted effort. When you pop, you have the transformation of your vision. You no longer believe in the individually existing self of a person. And you have the insight, which is the traditional beginning of the Buddhist path, in the early Buddhist education. Now you're really at the stage where you have your wisdom and you realize that this doesn't work.

[61:55]

And this is also at the place where the first stage of a Bodhisattva's life. And this stage is called the joy stage. This is called the stage of extreme joy. And this stage of actually entering this path, you're in the path, you're in the third path, the path of vision, the path of insight, and you also simultaneously enter the first Bodhisattva path, the stream of joy. So you're in the Bodhisattva path, number one, stage number three of the Bodhisattva path. This corresponds... Pardon? First stage of the Bodhisattva path. First stage of the Bodhisattva path. Third... Third Bodhis... First... First Bodhisattva stage and third path. Third Bodhisattva path. Five paths, ten stages. The first stage corresponds to the third path.

[62:57]

Okay? And the practice, the main practice of this path, of this stage, is practice of giving. Now... Now, ladies and gentlemen, your giving has become perfected. You've got wisdom. Your wisdom has broken through and your vision has changed. You can see now the way you really are. Now, you're practicing the same practice that you've been doing all along, but in a subject-affective way, because you thought you were doing it. You no longer think that way. Now you see giving and giver as one massive goal. You enjoy it. And in this stage, you overcome fear. No more fear. Like zero fear. So, the first day before you started, you're like, You've done that.

[63:57]

Been there, done that. You're no longer afraid. Of yourself. And then, you move into the fourth path, the path of development. The path of bringing the rest of the Buddhahood into being. And this path involves the next nine stages. And then the next stage is... What's the next one? It's called... Right, the next one is called purity, the Vimala. And the virtue practice, the compassion practice that's emphasized in that stage is what? Yes, ethical conduct. Ethical discipline. That's the one there.

[64:59]

Now we're going to go fast. Next one. What? The next one is radiance. The next stage is radiance. This is stage number three. Next stage is blaming. The practice there is diligence. Or heroic, enthusiastic effort. And all the other practices. The fuel of the practices. And then the next one is called hard to conquer. The practice there is concentration. Now, in each one of these stages, all these virtues are now protected. Protected. Protected. Because they're the safety, they're the protection. They're protecting the being. And then, number six is a big one. It's sometimes called face-to-face.

[66:02]

And sometimes called, sometimes they're called cousins. Number six is face-to-face, but cousins. And there, the action of virtue is realized. And the topic of meditation is the same for all of them. This is a very important stage. Then comes the seventh stage. The seventh stage, this is called bearing. It's far-reaching. And there, all other kinds of illusions are developed. The eighth stage is the immovable. It's called the immovable. And there, the perfection of vows. In stage nine, the stage called goodness. And there, the perfection of tolerance. And in stage ten, it's called the dharma class. And there, the perfection of knowledge.

[67:04]

And each one of these stages is a tremendous ocean of practice. And now we have completed the fourth path in the tenth stage. Okay? The fourth path is called, you can translate it as the path of development, the path of cultivation, the path of meditation, the path of bringing all these things up into being. And now we come to the fifth path. No more stages. So it's called, no more preliminary stages. No more training. The path beyond learning. The fifth path, and of course, that's Buddha. And it would be, of course, we all would love to have old enough in time to hear about the wonderful teachings about the two kinds of stages which are given in so many wonderful sutras.

[68:10]

But I just wanted to give you a picture of it. To have some sense of the scope of the Bodhicattva path. And once you practice them, 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 too long, you know. No problem. You're already home, right? This is just our work. It's our Bodhisattva work. So you're just learning. You're learning the work which, if you want to be a Bodhisattva, you eventually will take on. And although it's a huge amount, if you're asked if you want to do it, you say, mm-hmm, I'd love to. So again, I think next time I'll go back, and either next time I'll go back and look in more detail at these three types of wisdom, or next time I'll start looking at the common, I mean, it's not direct.

[69:12]

It should follow the order of the standard one. But my thing about Zen is we don't necessarily follow the order. We leap to the end, and then come back to remedial work. This is Buddhahood? Well, how so? Well, you know, sure. The next time we start talking about the common practices of the traditional classical presentation of the Bodhisattva meditation, the next time, the insight is, the next time the three kinds of wisdom can mitigate into the common, and so on. But in terms of things to read on your reading list, all the times I've assumed to give a huge presentation in ten days, and you're trying to find me to present the five paths, and all the times I've assumed to present the five paths, and some of the times I've assumed to present the ten stages,

[70:13]

and all the times I've assumed to present the ten stages, and then in terms of commentaries, Kamala Sheila presents the Indian meditation, the Indian commentary on the process, in terms of the Chinese, and then the Jew presents the Chinese, and the way of the process, and then seven times I've assumed to present the overall picture. So these three great scholars, look at the nine and a half pictures, and kind of go through the whole program, and figure out, if you want to check out and go over it in detail, and look for, you know, how soon that's going to be. Eventually, of course you will, but you know, you don't have to do it by next week. Thank you for listening to that kind of boring thing.

[71:02]

@Text_v004
@Score_JI