The wonder of the thought, the way Zen practice is sometimes presented with the standard presentation of the Bodhisattva path. On Sunday I talked about this term in Soto Zen called I am a person, which is a dramatic kind of image for the Bodhisattva. It kind of emphasizes the strength of the Bodhisattva's commitment to practice in the world and not being dissuaded from the path of difficulties

[01:11]

and anxieties that are presented by the world. Someone said to me that during the talk scene that what I was talking about was real and that the standard presentation of the Bodhisattva path seemed like a fairytale. There are many possible reasons why the Chinese Buddhists came up with a presentation of the practice that didn't, in a systematic way, mention the systematic way of the Bodhisattva path. As I mentioned many times in Zen school,

[02:11]

sometimes called the scripturalist school, they seem to sometimes avoid mentioning the scriptural presentation of the Bodhisattva path. They even say that they are Bodhisattvas, sometimes not even mentioning that. With the hope, I think, my interpretation would be with the hope to help people get the actual Bodhisattva, rather than just going around holding on to the word Bodhisattva. So maybe not even mentioning it at all is a good idea. At the same time, if someone comes here and mentions the Bodhisattva and mentions their practices and tells how wonderful they are, some of the students here may say, why don't we do those practices? And that happened here one time, actually. A teacher visited and talked about various Bodhisattva practices and the students here

[03:16]

said, why don't we do those practices? But most of the practices that they wondered why we weren't doing, we were doing. Like they said, why don't we do prostrations? And why don't we pay homage? Didn't you notice during our meal chants? But we don't say, now we're going to do the Bodhisattva practice of paying homage, now we're going to do the Bodhisattva practice of prostrations to purify us for the meditation. We don't systematically lay it out. So people are doing this stuff but they never notice. Why don't we practice confession and repentance? Why don't we study precepts? And various things that we were doing but we didn't mention that we were doing. So when we heard about it, we wondered why we weren't doing it.

[04:16]

So, I guess I would like you to think about how this standard practice relates to some practice. And I've been talking to you about that. But if you continue to think about that, contemplate that. Now, the main elements of the standard model of the Bodhisattva path are compassion, and thought of enlightenment, and realization. But realization means not only to realize the bodhi mind, the thought of enlightenment, the mind of enlightenment, but also realization is wisdom.

[05:19]

So I've been talking about, actually warming up to talking about, again and again, trying to warm up to talk about the third aspect of the path, of the practice, that of wisdom. But again, before I do that, I'd like to again stop and look at the first element of compassion, and just again say that we're not spending much time on it in this practice period, but we can easily spend the whole practice period on certain aspects of developing compassion. But we haven't been doing that because I've been trying to move you over to look at this traditional, this scriptural presentation of wisdom for the Bodhisattva. For me, you know, one of the key elements in developing compassion is to check to see

[06:27]

if everybody is as dear to you as the dearest person you know. Now if you're a parent, or a grandparent, then you've got somebody dear in your life, sort of built in. You don't have to go looking around to see if you like someone, if someone's dear to you. So for me, I keep looking to see, is every person as dear to me as my grandchildren? And you know, it's kind of a sobering meditation, sort of like, come up, come up to that level of dearness with everybody you meet, that level of compassion, that level of appreciation. Especially for a young grandchild, who hasn't learned much yet,

[07:29]

so you don't expect them to be like, wild and kind, so if they bite you or scratch you, you know, it doesn't like, you understand they have to learn that, but it doesn't like holding that dear. So when adults bite you and scratch you, can you feel that they're that dear to you? And you know, when you're asking them, sort of knowingly, in an educated way, can you be as dear to them as an uneducated little child? This is a little challenge, this is something we could really like to spend time working on, considering how we're going to have that kind of compassion. But we haven't been doing that in our meetings here. But I'd like us to work on that, I'd like you to think about that, I'd like you to think. Have you reached that level that sort of everybody in Greenbelt and everybody, you know, everybody, that you meet, that you feel that dear about?

[08:31]

And if you don't, would you like to learn how? And that brings great challenge and that brings something. And that is, supposedly, part of the standard presentation of the Bodhisattva of Development and Compassion, and if I work and work and meditate and meditate and meditate, I finally can actually feel that way. About, you know, like a really sick dog on the street, like the story of Asanga, you know. He was, actually I think he had, yeah, I think he was like, yeah, he was like into Maitreya. He was doing Maitreya meditation, trying to relate to Maitreya, the Bodhisattva, who's going to be the next Buddha, and he's like really working hard, but finally he gave up, he didn't get anywhere. And so I said, well, maybe I could be like, you know, if I can't relate to Maitreya,

[09:41]

if I can't develop an intimate revelation of Maitreya, if I can't get Maitreya to come and practice with me, if I can't become Maitreya, maybe I could like take care of at least one being, and he, I guess, ran into this dog that was very sick, and had lots of open sores, and the sores were maggots that came out from Maitreya. I think for Asanga, he didn't know what we know today, and that is the fact that maggots are keeping the wind clean. So he wanted to help the dog out by picking the maggots out, you know, very quickly, to try to pick them out very carefully without hurting the maggots. He wanted to help the dog and not hurt the maggots, but he couldn't do it, so he got him out with his tongue. But then, finally, his meditation on Maitreya started to become successful,

[10:43]

and Maitreya said, oh, OK, and appeared to find one. So he got happy. But anyway, that's an example of learning how to be dear to something. The first thing that showed up, he didn't pick that dog just because the dog was difficult, he picked the dog because he said that was the first thing he ran into. So that's compassion for her. Next part is bodhichitta, and again, so that, I guess, that's, again, I've gone over this, but I want to say again, this is the, that you actually have the intention to become a Buddha. And then the next part is that you actually make vows, make these things, the vows of the bodhisattva, the vow of someone who wishes to realize the enlightenment of the Buddha for the welfare of the world. And again, some people, I think, are unfamiliar with this bodhichitta,

[11:47]

this thought of enlightenment, they're unfamiliar with it, but we do have, and we do these vows here, we do these bodhisattva vows on a regular basis, right? But a lot of people say, well, I'll do them because I'm not going to be a troublemaker, but I really like them. They don't really apply to me yet, which is fine, but this is part of our practice, is to contemplate these four vows, and I just want to mention these four vows are related to the wisdom practice, which is kind of unfamiliar to us. So the first vow is the sentient beings, that are the numberless, I vow to save them. So in that first vow, wisdom is implicit. You vow to save them, but it doesn't mean like just, of course it includes like pulling them out of hot water, or protecting them from getting run over by a truck, or giving them food, or medicine, or giving them kindness.

[12:51]

It includes all those things, but that doesn't really save them. What saves them is wisdom. So if you vow to save them, you need to have wisdom to complete the job. So it's implied there. In the second one, the afflictions, you're going to cut through all the afflictions, and that also bears on, it's not just to complete the affliction, but to open up the samadhis, which will bring your wisdom to fulfillment. In the third one, the dhamma doors, the Chinese dhamma doors, or dhamma gates, are boundless. And we've changed it to, I vow to enter them, which is nice, but it literally says, I vow to master them, or awaken to them. And dhamma doors or dhamma gates,

[13:52]

gates are actually, you can say gates or doors, that's fine, but it also means schools, or, you know, like schools, schools of Buddhism. So it means all those meanings, but the one that we usually don't, I think, emphasize or center in it, is that this vow includes that you would learn all the schools of Buddhism, that you learn them all. You might not become a proponent of them all, you don't have to become a proponent, but you would study them all. That would be part of the vow. And in the last one, you vow to become, you vow to realize Buddha's way, Buddha's way, Buddha, Buddha's enlightenment. So we say that, and that's part of the culture of this place, but we don't tell you, we don't emphasize that this is part of, what is like the vow work, this is part of bodhicitta,

[14:53]

we de-emphasize it, almost de-emphasize it, not de-emphasize it, we don't emphasize it, but tonight I emphasized it a little bit. And then we come to the last part about the wisdom. In a way, Zen Center didn't, the first few years I was at Zen Center, Suzuki Roshi, I think, set an example as a compassionate person, but, you know, I don't remember Suzuki Roshi saying compassion very often. I just don't remember that word coming out of his mouth very often. Did he say it a lot in the 1990s? No, he didn't say that much, but he was, he was about as compassionate as the next guy, as far as I could tell. And he did all kinds of, like, skill and means, I think, too, to attract people, attracted a lot of people to practice.

[15:56]

So I think he really was compassionate, but he didn't use the word much. And the people who attracted me to Zen, the stories of the people who attracted me to Zen, the word compassion didn't appear in those stories. It was obviously not what I look at as compassion, but the word compassion wasn't there. Which, you know, again, some people think that's the way Zen people do it. They don't mention the word, they just show it. They like that better than using the word compassion. But anyway, it is part of our practice, but it's not so explicit, the compassion part. But somehow, not mentioning it ever, even though the teacher might be demonstrating it, because the teacher didn't mention it, and because also Shintaro Ueshiba used Iroha, he sometimes said way-seeking mind, he said that a few times. Way-seeking mind in Japanese is dōshin. It's one of the words that they use to translate for each other.

[17:00]

Way-mind. But way, the character for way, like in Dao, that character also means enlightenment. So it means way-mind, or way-seeking mind, but it also means enlightenment mind. Dōshin. In other words, you say way-seeking mind a lot. Some people didn't know he was talking about bodhicitta. But he also talked about beginner's mind. And the word for beginner's mind is not the word for bodhi-mind. It's not the word. Bodai-shin, in other Japanese, is a bodhi-mind. But he said soshin. And that he talked about quite a bit. And hōtsu-bodai-shin means that the bodhi-mind has arisen. And the Sanskrit sentence is called hōshinji,

[18:03]

which means the arising of the mind temple, or arising of bodhi-mind. But really, the spirit of the Sanskrit sentence, from the founders, it should be called more like hōshinji, beginner's mind temple. And they do call it beginner's mind temple, don't they? In some sense, technically, not following tradition by calling hōshinji, beginner's mind should be translated as arousing the mind temple. And the mind that's being aroused is not the soshin, but the bodhai-shin. The mind that's aroused is the mind which wishes to become a Buddha. But beginner's mind, as some of you know, is not the wish to become Buddha, for the welfare of beings. It may be more like the wish to become a Buddha for yourself. For your own benefit, and actually only your own benefit. Maybe not even be Buddha, but just be the smartest kid in the neighborhood.

[19:05]

That's more like beginner's mind. Now, some people are making faces because they think, well, Bruce is a gracious and beginner's mind is really cool. I think I heard them said that. Like, it's really good. But again, traditionally, beginner's mind means like beginner's mind. It means like, it has all that nice stuff about beginner's mind. Like Sister Hershey also said, the nice thing about Americans is that they're kind of empty. They don't know anything about Buddhism, so it's easy to teach them. So our beginner's mind included that we didn't even know that we're supposed to be thinking about becoming Buddha, some of us. So it's easy to teach us. But nothing about beginner's mind is that we were like, you know, not very compassionate, things like that. We were, you know, we were drug addicts. We were like, we were like a pretty rough crew at the beginning there.

[20:07]

But we wanted to practice somehow. We had this, we wanted to practice. So the thing about the associant, as opposed to hotsuburdaishin, or buddhaishin, or hoshin, that's actually, that's the mind of when you have to become a bodhisattva. That's quite a feat, that you want to do that. This other mind is like any way that you approach practice, no matter how undeveloped you are. So again, in the early days of Zen center, and after Sister Hershey died too, there wasn't so much emphasis explicitly on compassion, or on precepts. Suzuki Roshi emphasized precepts mostly in the last few months of his life. I don't know why, but he did. You look at his lectures, if I define lectures on precepts, you'll find that almost all of them start like in June, and end in August of 1971. Where it's actually like, the lecture is about precepts,

[21:14]

it's about taking refuge, and so on and so forth. He didn't mention it much before. And when I got ordained, I heard somebody give me a tape of my ordination, with Paul Disko, and on the tape I heard Paul and me taking refuge, and I was really touched, because those guys sounded like they were actually taking refuge. I mean, they sounded like really sincerely taking refuge. But I didn't think about taking refuge in that ceremony. That was not what I was doing. I mean, I wasn't going, I'm going to take refuge, and I'm going to take the precepts. That was not an issue for me, but yet, I was there, and I was saying that stuff, and when I listened to it, I was deeply touched by what I heard this guy saying, these kids saying. Very, very, totally sincere, and with no intention of taking refuge. It wasn't his voice like, oh, I'm taking refuge, listen to this, boy, this is great.

[22:18]

It wasn't nothing like that. And I remembered that it was not an issue. I knew that these precepts were going to be given, but that was not an issue. All I cared about was becoming a priest, my teacher. And my precepts had nothing to do with it. For me. Now, when people receive the precepts, mostly, much more educated situation here, people think very carefully, they say, geez, I don't know if I can practice the blah, blah, you know. They want to study, learn about the precepts, which is great, but you know, I'm just saying. That's more like Hotsubai, Bodhichitta, people have now. They're more like Bodhisattva. I was like a pre-Bodhisattva. But yet, maybe in the beginning of my history, I'm not saying it was, but maybe it was. So what I'm getting around to saying is that the first part of Zen Zen, maybe the first, you know,

[23:18]

all the years he lived and then, several years after he died, very little emphasis on, I shouldn't say very little emphasis, very little explicit, organized emphasis on meditation, on compassion, and precepts. And Bodhi mind. Very little. Compared to other things. And in a way, what I'm warming up to saying is that beginner's mind emphasis is like an emphasis on wisdom. It's an emphasis on non-duality. It's an emphasis on emptiness. It's an emphasis on, these guys are great, they're Bodhisattvas, I mean, these people want to be Bodhisattvas, that's wonderful, but this slob has beginner's mind. He doesn't know anything, and he's not the least bit obscuring any non-duality between himself and Buddha. So in some ways, the beginning part of Zen Zen was more emphasis on wisdom,

[24:19]

but again, the wisdom was not articulated in the traditional way. It was articulated more like, look at these slobs, they're practicing anyway, aren't they? It's amazing. These people practice. It's just wonderful. They wear zoris and wash their feet. It's amazing. But that's about it that they can do. Like, in someone, someone, I've told this story before, someone at Zen Center said one time, at Muktananda's place, they shake their kundalini, and they shake, you know what I mean? Especially when he comes over. And then, at the Rochester Zen Center, they have Kensho. At the San Francisco Zen Center, they have babies in bad backs. So, in a sense, that's emphasizing wisdom.

[25:21]

It's not like we're getting better and better. But there is that side of practice. There is that side of practice. And also, Zeku, as you did talk a few times, this is not stepladder Zen. And I mentioned also earlier, in the early days of Zen, we're trying to not get into steps and stages, not get into them, not fall into them, not get stuck in them. But still, they're there. And I think, again, still at Zen Center, there is the vow, in conjunction not with soshin, not with beginner's mind, but in conjunction with Bodhi mind, there is the vow to learn all these steps, all these stages, all these schools. There's that spirit too, which is also the spirit of doing something impossible, doing something outrageously difficult. There's that spirit too.

[26:28]

And that's also part of Zen Center. But it's just that you don't have to be somebody special to do that. You just have to want to do it. And some people don't want to do it. And I'm not exactly trying to talk you into it, but I guess that's sort of it. Okay, so the three kinds of wisdom. First kind of wisdom is the wisdom that comes, that arises in a situation like tonight, where somebody's talking to you about Dharma, and you're listening, you're studying, you're studying texts that he's referring to, you read them, you recite them, you memorize them, and there's a transformation. So it's called, the first kind of wisdom is called shrutamai-bhajna. Wisdom, usually we say, wisdom that arises from listening.

[27:29]

But we understand that wisdom arises from study. Study of the teachings about the truth. Study and learning with the tradition, with the teacher. Charlie typed up two versions of some of the sections in the Sambhidharmachana Sutra about the three wisdoms. There's three sections here. And also a section from the Abhidharmakosha about the three wisdoms. And I'm bringing this up right now because in the Abhidharmakosha it said something sort of interesting, I thought, because when it etymologizes, it does etymology on shrutamai-bhajna. When it etymologizes, shruta means hearing or learning,

[28:32]

but mai usually is understood as caused by or arisen by the bhajna, the wisdom that's arisen from hearing or the other sources. One etymology is that it means transformation, or transformative. I thought that was another thing because sometimes it feels like that. It's almost like what you're hearing gets transformed into an understanding. So I thought that was interesting. So this is, we're working on this kind of wisdom here. Now that's one thing we used to have at Zen Center, and still do, is we have talks where people listen. We do that, we've been doing that all along.

[29:34]

But we didn't say that this is training in shrutamai-bhajna, we didn't mention it. But in fact it was. And people were like sitting in those lectures for like, how many years now? Almost 40 years. No, more than 40 years. Zen Center's like 43 years old now. Not Zen Center, but Zen Center's like 41 years old. It started in 61. These last 40 years, people have been actually practicing this first kind of wisdom without anybody mentioning it to them, or them knowing it themselves. They've been sitting and listening, and having insights and understandings. They've been doing that kind of wisdom. It requires wine, but it can go out. Does that make sense? But we didn't mention it. The next level of wisdom we've mentioned even less. The next level of wisdom is the wisdom

[30:36]

arising from reflection or thinking literally, wisdom arising or the wisdom which is the transformation through thinking. The transformation which arises through thinking and reflecting. It means actually thinking, but it also means pondering, it means investigating, it means analyzing, and it means being critical of what you learn. It means being critical of what you just understood. So as I mentioned last week, at the first level of wisdom training, you take the teachings literally. You depend on words, and you take them literally. At the second level, you're still depending on words, but you don't take them just literally. You can take them literally and not literally. But you mostly don't take them literally. You're mostly being critical and analyzing. And examining.

[31:38]

So that's been going on to some extent, the critical side, yes. But when you mention it, people go, what? Analysis? Investigation? And part of the reason is that one of the main meditation instructions in Zen is give up discursive thought. But you need to use discursive thought in order to do investigation and analysis. But, take the next step, after you do use discursive thought and have successfully pondered, analyzed, investigated the teachings which you understood from learning, now you have this new understanding which incorporates the critical spirit of the mind, which I'll expand a little bit on. But then you take that understanding and you

[32:50]

let me set it aside for the moment, and then you start practicing what we're more familiar with. And you smile. Then you give up discursive thought. All along, you might have been practicing giving up discursive thought. I mean, your life might be broken into two parts. When you're using discursive thought to criticize and analyze the teaching, when you're using discursive thought to work in the kitchen, or to argue with people, or whatever, you're using discursive thought. And the other part of your life, when you were practicing training yourself by applying the teachings which you heard about how to practice samadhi, you heard those teachings, you criticized them, you understood them deeply, and then you applied them. You use your discursive thought to understand the teachings about how to give up discursive thought. And then you actually practice giving up discursive thought, and you were somewhat successful, or you weren't. Whatever level of success you had

[33:54]

at giving up discursive thought and thereby calming down and entering into the actual calm life space of samadhi. Whatever success you have, now, after learning about some teachings of the Buddhist tradition, you have that understanding, so you just let go of that understanding, and now go back to training yourself at giving up discursive thought again. And then, when your body and mind become at ease, and buoyant, and bright, and clear, and calm, stable, flexible, then, you turn back and look at what you understood before. You joined your previous wisdom with the samadhi. And then you have a deeper understanding.

[34:57]

And then you totally harmonize these two. And then you have realization of whatever that teaching was. There's a very wide variety of teachings, a variety so wide, that, again, most people, at some point, will say, no, no. Again, like my grandson, no, no, no. They don't want to study all the dharma gates, all the schools. The bodhisattva's vow is, I vow to master them all. But one at a time is fine. You can also do them all simultaneously if you want. So then, finally, you have a direct understanding of what you understood before. So that's the three kinds of wisdom. And I also want to refer to this diagram here, that we passed back in the last practice period. How many people did not get this diagram? Well, you can have one.

[36:00]

You're up here. You can come and get it at your class. And I'll just, basically, I'll just draw you circles quickly. These are concentric circles. Concentric. They're on the same center. It's the root of the word concentration. So these are three concentric circles about concentration. And John Ayer has requested that you understand that these circles, these lines, are actually, have lots of holes in them. These spaces, they appear to be solid lines, but actually, they're not. These are semi-permanent membranes. So these are the four kinds of samadhi. The first kind of samadhi is the samadhi which is the basic nature. One of the basic qualities of all consciousness is samadhi. All states of mind are actually

[37:05]

the knowing and the known are one point. They're not two separate things. And this is called samadhi. One-pointedness of thought. Now, again, many people, this is an example of, you hear things literally, like I hear things literally. I read a lot of books about samadhi and I hear people say, samadhi means one-pointedness of thought. That is, that the mind is on one point. Or the mind is one-pointedly focused on an object. Well, that's sort of okay, but it sounds like the mind and the object are two different things. That's not samadhi. This is when you criticize the words you hear. That's not what samadhi means. Samadhi doesn't mean that the mind is on a point. It means that the mind and the point are not separate, are not two. The one-pointedness of the mind is the one-pointedness of mind and object. Not that the mind, which is separate from the object, is now onto the object.

[38:07]

Slightly different, but that's an example of criticism. So that's the first kind of samadhi. Samadhi number one, all minds have it. Samadhi number two is to become absorbed in that quality of mind, so that not only all your states of mind have this quality of samadhi, but you feel like it, you've realized it. Everybody's got samadhi every moment, but most people do not realize it. In other words, they don't feel calm. In other words, they do not feel that the awareness, the awareness that they sense of the objects that they know, they feel like they're separate, they don't feel like they're one. By practicing the second kind of samadhi, you realize this and you experience calm that way. So this is the samadhi, which is also dhyana.

[39:11]

So dhyana also means trance or concentration or absorption. You're absorbed in the samadhi issue. The third kind of samadhi is samadhi which has been conjoined with wisdom. And as you look in the Abhidharmakosha reference, you'll see that in the Abhidharmakosha, in the Abhidharmakosha is one of these, is representing two of these schools of early Buddhism. Two schools are represented in the Abhidharmakosha. The school of the Vaibhashikas and the school of the Satrantikas. They're both in that text. And in that text, it describes the three wisdoms. So the three wisdoms are part of the level of Buddhism where the insight that's connected with this third type of samadhi is the insight or the wisdom which understands the selflessness of persons

[40:14]

or understands the way, paints the way persons are. And these two schools have slightly different versions of what that selflessness of persons is and that's why there's two schools. But they're both in that one book. I think I will. If all goes well. I mean, I shouldn't say if all goes well. If all goes a certain way, when the time is right, it will happen. The fourth kind of samadhi is a samadhi which is joined with the wisdom which understands the emptiness of all phenomena, not just persons. And this is the samadhi of the Buddha and some bodhisattvas. And the second level of understanding selflessness of all things, not just of persons, removes the hindrances to the omniscience

[41:16]

which the Buddha needs in order to help beings fully. So me presenting this to you, you learning this, this is shrutamaya prajna, you got it. If you don't yet, you're still working on it, you're still studying to get it. Now, I'd like to say a few more words about the second level, the second kind of wisdom training. Even in the early Buddhist presentation of the second level of training in wisdom, the training which is to ponder the teachings which you've understood, to examine the teachings which you've understood, to analyze the teachings which you've understood, even in the early Buddhist presentation, even there, the meditators, the yogis were encouraged

[42:23]

to learn all the different disciplines. Now, they hadn't yet seen the Mahayana in early times, so they weren't being encouraged to learn the Mahayana also. But they were encouraged to learn all the schools that occurred up to the time these books were written. And all the schools actually, all the individual vehicle schools and the universal vehicle schools, they were all basically completed pretty much in their basic form, their basic four school form, they were all completed by the end of the 5th century. All four of those schools seemed to have continued to exist for the next 700 years in India until the Muslim invasion. And then, I think that was the first one. But, all four schools did not get clearly transmitted

[43:25]

all over the rest of the world. But, in Tibet, you still can find, until recently, you still could find people who were actually representatives of these four schools. And these four schools, you might find people who are in the same order as Tibetan Buddhism, who held these schools, who were teachers of these different schools. And in China, you could find some, but not recently. In Japan, I haven't heard of it very much. I've heard there was an Abhidharmakosha school in Japan. And, actually, Eijo, Dogen's main successor, was, supposedly, a proponent or a teacher of the Satrantika school. So, there was something like that in Japan. And in... there's a school called... what was it called? Yakushiji?

[44:25]

What was it called? Anyway, there's... I forgot the name of the temple, but it's a temple which is named... Anyway, it's a temple. It's not one of the main famous temples, but it's a temple that represents the Hosto school, which is one of the Mahayana schools that existed in India. But I haven't heard of a temple in Japan that was like a Majamaka school, the other Indian Buddhist school. I haven't heard of it. So, what happened, because of Zen, Zen basically absorbed all these schools and mixed them up, and China disappeared. So, in some sense, I'm doing archaeology here for you. The archaeology, in terms of Indian Buddhism,

[45:26]

but also the archaeology of how this stuff is invented, might be even more complicated. So, part of this study of the wisdom which contemplates the teaching... Excuse me, I skipped something. And that is that also in the Vinaya, it suggests that you learn all the schools, and not just learn all the Buddhist schools, but also learn the non-Buddhist schools. So, in the early Pali Canon, and Sanskrit Canon, in the Vinaya, there's instructions for the yogis to learn all the Buddhist stuff and all the non-Buddhist stuff that's relevant. To learn all the disciplines in the pre-Mahayana phase. And in the Mahayana phase, the Bodhisattvas are encouraged even more so to learn all the disciplines,

[46:26]

all the non-Buddhist disciplines. All the non-Buddhist sciences, and all the Buddhist sciences. Start with the Buddhist, but then eventually go in... That's what I'm trying to do, to learn the non-Buddhist schools too. I haven't gotten very far, but that's my spirit, I want to learn all of them. And not just because they... not just because I heard on the poster. It just seems reasonable. Like, for years and years and years, I've been feeling bad that I don't know much about the Middle East. Haven't you felt bad about that? Isn't there something a little awkward? Haven't we been sort of like not doing our homework? For years and years, I felt like I wanted to learn more about this one. I haven't been able to get there much. The suttas, the vinaya,

[47:28]

and the abhidharma. The suttas are for samadhi, the vinaya is for discipline, for precepts, and the abhidharma is for wisdom. So, and so, in Pali, they have the three, the Tripitaka, and in Sanskrit, they have the Agamas. But the same categories. Sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma. In other words, Abhidharma. Excuse me. In both traditions, the Northern and Southern of Indian traditions, the Sanskrit and the Pali, they have these three baskets. In both cases, it's the Abhidharma that emphasizes the wisdom. Of course, there's wisdom teaching in the sutras, but the Abhidharma pulls out the wisdom teachings particularly, and pulls out the samadhi teachings that you need to practice the wisdom teachings.

[48:29]

But the sutras are mainly for samadhi. So, in the earliest school, I think, the earliest Abhidharma school in the North, which is the school that had the biggest influence on Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, and so on. The Abhidharma tradition is the tradition of the wisdom practice. And the earliest one is called the Savastavadins. Savastavadins are a subset of the general category called the Vibhashas, the Vibhashikas. That's one school. The other school is what? Actually, it says, according to the Vibhashikas, there it is right there. But the systematic presentation is not on that paper.

[49:34]

The word Vibhashika is there. The Abhidharma kosha, as I mentioned before, you actually find two of the early schools. You find the two individual vehicle schools, two vehicles of the Arhat, two vehicles of individual liberation by understanding the selflessness of the person. Those two schools are the Vibhashika and the Sautrantika, and they're both in the Abhidharma kosha. One is the front line, and the other one is the critic. But they both present these three kinds of wisdom. I also thought I might mention tonight something that I think it's good to know. It's a teaching that I think it would be good to listen to and memorize, and at the right time, recite for others

[50:38]

and then eventually understand. And that is the basic characteristics, sometimes I say three basic characteristics, sometimes I say four, of a Buddhist teaching, the teaching of the Buddha. So the first point is that all products are impermanent. That's the first characteristic of all products. No, like you go to the grocery store, all the products there are impermanent. They're all perishable. All people are products. Chairs are products. Houses are products. Horses are products. Things that are composed,

[51:39]

things that arise, cease. The teaching has that quality that has one of the Buddhist seals on it. If it doesn't have that, it's missing something in Buddhism. Next one is that all things with outflows, all phenomena with outflows, sometimes you can say impure, sometimes they just make it simple for you and say all impure phenomena are miserable. But the word impure or contaminated or defiled, the actual word that's used there is sastrava. Sastrava, and sa means with,

[52:41]

and trava means outflows or floods. All phenomena with outflows are miserable, are suffering. Keep miserable. That's another basic, if it has that, it's a sign that it might be Buddhist. If it doesn't have it, something's missing. If you'd like me to say more, more about outflows, I will when I finish the list. The third point is that, that all phenomena are selfless. Sometimes there's three, but then sometimes there's four. The fourth is nirvana is peace.

[53:44]

Nirvana is peace. So those are the four characteristics of the various Buddhist teachings. And one of the key points is that the different schools, these four different schools, have different versions of what selflessness is. It's one of the most important differences. They have other differences too. They have differences in terms of their teaching about the psychology of the mind. They have different teachings about the arising of mind, ceasing of mind, and transmission of karma, and so on and so forth. But they also have, most importantly, different teachings about what selflessness is, what emptiness is. Outflows in the Abhidharmakosha,

[54:49]

the text that's one of the references here, and in the text which presents the Vaibhashika position, and then criticizes it from the Satrantika position, that text, I think pretty early on in the text, they say, I think it says, how many phenomena, how many dharmas, dharma means teaching but also means phenomena, how many kinds of phenomena are defiled or have outflows? And in that system, the Vaibhashika system, they have a system of 75 dharmas, 75 types of phenomena, and 72 are phenomena that are made, so the 72 that are made and therefore impermanent,

[55:50]

and then they have three which are not made, according to that school. The three that are not made are two types of nirvana in space, according to the school. Those two types, those three dharmas are not made, and the 72 are made. And the 72 are like all the different kinds of phenomena of your experience. You're going to be accounted by those 72 types of phenomena. They say the 72 have outflows. In other words, all your experience has outflows. And those three do not. Two types of nirvana in space. But then they say there's one more thing that doesn't have outflows. Some of you know that, right? What's the one other thing that doesn't have outflows? No? Close. The path.

[56:53]

The path, and the path, of course, the practice, the Buddhist practice, of course it involves the 72 dharmas that have outflows, but they're put together in such a way that there's no outflows. An outflow is basically, like I said, I say outflows, but first of all it means flood. Srava means flood. It means like things are coming into you, but also means things are going out of you. So it's like the psychophysical effect of dualistic thinking, of self and other, of gain and loss, of existence and non-existence. If you think in terms of existence and non-existence, if you think in terms of this and that, that sets up a flow. So like even faith, which is one of the dharmas in the wholesome states of mind, even faith, if it's faith in something,

[57:58]

there's a kind of circuit there, and there's an outflow. Even in samadhi, it has an outflow. All those dharmas have outflows, unless they're gathered together into the path. And they don't. So all those things that have outflow, are suffering. That's the basic Buddhist teaching. Now, people sometimes say that the Buddha taught that life is suffering. It's more like the Buddha taught that life with outflows is suffering. And outflows are created, and also in the Abhidharmakosha it points out, in the chapter 6, where this quote comes from, before the quote starts, they tell the Four Noble Truths. And they also tell about the Two Truths. Four Noble Truths, I guess you know about.

[59:00]

Two Truths are the Truth of Conventional Truth and Ultimate Truth. So they tell that, just before the section you have here, they tell these two basic sets of Truths, the Four and the Two. In this so-called individual vehicle school, they tell you, all the schools have these Four Noble Truths, and the Two Noble Truths. And when they're talking about the Four Noble Truths, they say, we already told you them earlier. And then they tell you where and earlier they told you. In the place they told you first, the Truth of Suffering, or the teaching of True Suffering, they told you, when they told you, that, what is it? It's the things, the aggregates,

[60:01]

the aggregates, you know, that have clinging are suffering. In other words, phenomena like the skandhas, which include those 72 dharmas, with clinging, that clinging involved with those skandhas creates the outdoors. So, we say, clinging to the five skandhas, the five skandhas of clinging is the definition of suffering. But that's the same as saying, five skandhas with outflows are suffering. The outflows are created by grasping, by grasper and grasp. That sets up the circuit that creates the disturbance in the system. But within the practice, when there's practice, which includes, when there's wisdom, then we see, the skandhas with no grasping, then the skandhas have no outflows. And then, the skandhas are not suffering,

[61:02]

because they've been purified by wisdom. Which is, you know, the next thing brought up after they introduced it. Oh, they also say that, that when they told you, that grasping the five skandhas is suffering, they also told you the second truth. Because the origins of the first truth is the second truth, which is the clinging to the skandhas, the grasping of the skandhas. And they also told you about the path, when they told you about what Abhidharma is, which is wisdom. And they also told you about the third truth, when they told you about the two kinds of nirvana. So, that's the style of this book. They say, we already told you.

[62:03]

And they make up for that, we already told you, by telling you some stuff that you don't need to know. Anyway, so those are the four seals of all Buddhist teachings. And the different schools of Buddhism all have these four seals. I really had trouble for a long time, like, how could they have these different views and still be Buddhist? I mean, they really have different views about what selflessness is. It's amazing how different they are. But they do share these four. They all say, all phenomena are selfless. But some of them don't require the realization that all phenomena are selfless. They're not into that, even though they agree it's so.

[63:06]

So even in the early schools of Buddhism, first schools, they were a little bit ahead of the Mahayana. Even there, they do admit that there are Bodhisattvas, that there was a Bodhisattva that became a Buddha. And that there are possibly a few people who are Bodhisattvas, in other words, people who are going to understand not just the selflessness of a person, but the selflessness of everything. But although their path is not actually set up to realize the selflessness of persons, I mean, of all phenomena, would go with this Samadhi, they're actually stopping here. They do admit that there is this, so they all agree, actually. But not just people, but all things are selfless. But this Samadhi has not yet realized that the Samadhi is selfless. Anyway, I'm just saying that as I studied these schools, I could hardly believe

[64:08]

that both schools were Buddhists. Just like sometimes if you hear about some arguments that occurred between certain Zen masters, and if you hear about some arguments that occurred within the same monasteries in Tibet and China, the way they argue over certain points, you feel like they must be different religions. They're so different. But, you know, that's the way it is sometimes, right? You kill off what's nearest to you, what's most like you. But I really like, I'm really challenged to understand how these people are really in the same religious camp, different Buddhist schools, that's so different. But they all satisfy these requirements that I just mentioned. Yes? Do they take it on faith?

[65:24]

I guess, in a sense, they take it on faith, but another way to put it is that they accept the teaching even though they haven't yet realized it. Does that make any sense? They accept the teaching that all dharmas, all phenomena, are selfless, even though they do not have a direct realization of that. Pardon? I don't like to say Hinayana, but anyway, that's what they're... The lesser vehicle is a vehicle that has the goal of being in our heart. This is a person who has attained liberation from cyclic existence. They're actually liberated from samsara. And they've learned all that they need to know for that liberation.

[66:29]

And that's their goal. But even the people that propose that path, they still, in some cases, will admit that there are people following another path called Bodhisattvas and are on the path to becoming Buddhas because they're going to realize what the Buddha realized. They accept that teaching, but they aren't teaching it, they're not practicing it. Yes? Well, what I'd like to say is that these different schools, I mean, in India, like in the 6th century, 7th century, 8th century, 9th century, 10th century, 11th century, and 12th century, in those centuries, there are people all those years,

[67:29]

in some sense, was the golden age of Buddhism. In a lot of ways, it was much more developed than during Shakyamuni's time, even though they had the Buddha around. These four schools, each one of them are super amazing. They're different, but they're all really wonderful and they all offer something special and unique for certain people at certain times. So they're really, if you or I were living in India at that time, we would have a hard time if we were actually to see representatives of these four schools. We might choose different schools, you and I, and both feel very grateful that we got the school we chose. And the Buddha might say, that's great that you all picked that school, that's a great school for you all, that's a great school for you. The first school, you know, the Vaibhashika school and the so-called Sarvāstivādins, they had the most detailed

[68:32]

and beautifully worked out system of philosophy of all Buddhism. But, they can be refuted by the Satrāntakas. The Satrāntakas also, what Bhāstavānda was, Bhāstavānda was originally a Vaibhashika and a Sarvāstivānda, and he became a Satrāntaka and criticized his old school, and he was like a genius at his old school, and then surpassed his old school. So if you study Abhidharmakosha, you see actually two phases of one person doing those two schools, but they're both wonderful schools. And then you have the next level of the Yogacara, the Mahayana school and the Middle Way school, the Madhyamaka school. Each one of these schools is offering a great opportunity so I think the Buddha would be very happy that this, and then these schools have sub-schools, but this wide variety of schools

[69:32]

administering to all different types of philosophical opportunities and psychological needs were there, so nicely worked out. But still, the Bodhisattva would like to understand the relationship between them and which school is, you know, first in some sense, most basic, addressing the grossest level of ignorance and which is addressing the highest level of ignorance, or grossest level of enlightenment and highest level of enlightenment. And in fact, there's some agreement about how to order these schools and the reasons for the order. But the lowest school is very useful because, for example, the highest school is, in some people's view, the Madhyamaka school. The founder of that school, Nagarjuna, said

[70:34]

that before you deal with the ultimate, you have to be a master of the conventional. So he'd also say before you do the higher schools, some people need to learn the lower schools. And you wouldn't be able to get to the higher school without the lower schools. The lower school is very useful. Some people don't need the lower schools. But they're all useful. We shouldn't throw them out. Just like we shouldn't throw out non-Buddhist schools. We should learn about all kinds of disciplines. We should use music and music. And that's one of the nice things about Zen, I think, is that Zen people have learned cooking, gardening, architecture, road making. Doing rituals is another skill. All these different things are actually part of the Bodhisattva path. They learn all these skills. For some years, I was a little worried

[71:35]

about Zen Center because we had carpenters and cooks and almost no mechanics. Yeah, it's kind of a problem. Well, you know, we've got Blanche, we've got Lee, we've got Daniel. But, you know, relatively speaking, we don't have very many mechanics. But then when the computer age came, I was really happy because Zen students are doing pretty well with the computers. In other words, I felt bad because it seemed like Zen students are kind of like, I don't want to get dirty. I don't know what it was, but anyway, they shied away from carpentry, you know, Jesus and all that. It was okay. But there are certain areas that Zen students are like, but I really felt good that they've come down to earth and working with computers. It's nice. But in some ways we have other skills to learn as part of our

[72:37]

Bodhisattva work. And one of them is to learn all the doctrines both religious, scientific, psychological, and philosophical of the Buddhist and non-Buddhist world. Any way you want to do it, it's fine with me. Yes? Oh. Yep. The goal is to... The goal... The goal of the Bodhisattva is to be able to simultaneously study all these systems at the same time as you study

[73:37]

the emptiness of all of them. That's what the Buddha can do. Because the Buddha embraces completely and understands all minds. But most of us would have to study one at a time. And also... And then you have to pick one after you study one at a time and after you're familiar with them then you kind of need to pick one and then work at realizing that one. In other words, not just studying it but actually realize the self... It's a Buddhist one. Realize the selflessness of that school that you chose. And... If in fact... Well, I'm not sure about this, but if in fact you realize the selflessness

[74:40]

or the wisdom of a higher school then you probably wouldn't have much trouble understanding the selflessness of a lesser school. If you happen to skip that lesser school. But most people would have to realize this one and then realize the next one. But also I would like to say most Buddhists do not realize what I'm talking about here. Most Buddhists have not yet taken on this implication of a Buddhist self-life work. Even though they are truly Buddhists they have not yet started this wisdom work. You don't have to take this on to be a Buddhist. All you have to do to be a Buddhist is to truly deeply wholeheartedly take refuge in the Triple Treasure. Accept some of the

[75:43]

teachings of the second treasure. Accept these teachings. And most Buddhists do take refuge and most Buddhists do want to practice the precepts and most Buddhists do want to be generous and most Buddhists do want to help people. Whether it's Theravada or Mahayana most do. But most do not take on the study of wisdom at the level of the second and third level. But still Bodhisattvas are saying they don't just want to be a Buddhist they want to be a teacher. They want to teach people and save people. They don't want to just like get a little bit better at Buddhism for themselves. They actually want to learn the whole thing because that's what the Buddha knows. That's why I'm bringing this up. To give you a feeling for this

[76:45]

and then if you can if you and I can get a feeling for this and open to this and know what we're talking about then you know what you're talking about. Then you know what we're talking about and then you can kind of spend the rest of your life getting used to it. Relaxing with it. You may not learn anything but at least you can get relaxed with the project. Say okay I'm relaxed. And again I told you this before that great Dogen Zenji said towards the end of his life he said there are ten million things about Buddhadharma that I have not yet understood but I have the extreme joy of having realized the right faith the right confidence. So we may not be able to realize all these all these arts and all these sciences and all these disciplines that are available for the Bodhisattva to study but we might have a very settled and deep confidence that it would be a good idea

[77:46]

if we learned everything for the welfare of the world. And kind of just get used to that and also get used to feeling like you haven't gotten very far. And kind of like well how much have you understood? Well not much. But I'm really glad to even have the opportunity to say that to you. So we'll see during the session we'll see if it works out to go deeper into these different understandings of selflessness. I sort of go by the look on your face. Right now it looks like you maybe take a couple more hours to get there. But sometimes you look like leave me alone

[78:46]

don't talk about that anymore. I'm getting discouraged. Or and then I start talking louder and people wake up and go Okay, so here's some basic quotes for you. Basic stuff on the level of wisdom. Anybody who needs this chart of the four kinds of samadhi or meanings of samadhi can have that too. Thank you for walking this path into the free wisdoms with the tradition. Appreciate your patience with it. I know it's a little

[79:48]

difficult but I appreciate your openness to it. Thank you.

[79:54]

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