I kind of concentrated on concentration, or Samadhi, and at least one of the things I'd like to concentrate on this year, or focus on this year, is Wisdom. I presented a diagram at the beginning of the year, or at the end of the year, at four concentric circles, and most of you know about those four concentric circles, but how many people do not know about them? So, yes, the minority don't know about them, but there's about twenty of you, I think. And, yes?

[01:04]

It's really hard to hear you back in here. There's a seat up here in front. Right there. Right up in the front here. Anybody else have any trouble hearing in the back? There's a seat up in the front. It's a challenge. It's a challenge. There's a seat up here, if you want to sit there. I'll put it to meditation. It's sometimes presented as two different gestures of mind.

[02:19]

One is called, sometimes, calming, and the other one is called vision. Actually, sometimes higher vision. Samatha, which is the Sanskrit for it, for the calming side, and Vipassana for the vision side, or the insight side. Now, when I presented the material on Samadhi, Samadhi is sometimes seen as the calming side, but really, Samadhi doesn't necessarily just mean calming.

[03:21]

Samadhi can also be a state of consciousness where calm and insight are united, but sometimes Samadhi is used to emphasize the calming side. A lot of Zen students

[04:23]

spend their time in meditation trying to practice some form of calming practice, and some other Zen students spend their meditation time practicing insight. I don't know the actual demographics for sure, but most Zen students are pretty confused about the relationship between the two, as far as I can see. So I wanted to help clarify the understanding of meditation, and go into teachings about wisdom or insight this year. Calming, or being calm,

[05:40]

tranquil, being in a state of Samatha, one is also flexible, one's mind is flexible, pliant, buoyant, bright, clear, and very workable. It easily works on any kind of wholesome activity that seems appropriate. It's sort of an excellent condition of mind. What we mean by Samatha or calm? Sound familiar? About such a possibility for a human mind? And this kind of state of mind is the fruit,

[06:44]

it's actually a result of a certain kind of cultivation. It's the fruit of giving up discursive thought. Discursive thought, the root of the word discursive thought is helpful. It means running about. Discursive means running about etymologically. Or coursing about, discoursing. So discursive thought is a type of thought that's running about. So that's probably familiar to all of you, right? A thought that's running about.

[07:46]

Tranquility is the fruit of giving up this running about mind, or running about in the mind. The mind is actually never just running about, but the mind has running about facilities. And when these facilities are given up, the mind becomes calm and serene, but responsive, flexible, and many other nice things. So basically the cultivation of calm comes from the cultivation of giving up this running about in the mind, even while the running about is going on. Insight has basically three varieties.

[09:10]

Or one way to look at it has three varieties. One is insight arisen from hearing, like the kind of insight that might be accumulating in you right now as you're listening to me. Insight that comes through reflection, and insight that arises in conjunction with tranquility, or meditation in the sense of being calm. The first two types of wisdom are the fruit of using discursive thought. So wisdom in its first two phases of development comes through not giving up discursive thought, but using it.

[10:15]

So in a sense, part of what's going on right now in this room is that people may be using discursive thought, listening to these words, and maybe insight is being developed by using discursive thought about this teaching. The third kind of wisdom, which is the most profound, is wisdom which arises when the wisdom fruit of using discursive thought is united with the fruit of giving up discursive thought. This produces the deepest wisdom. So you can achieve wisdom without doing any tranquility work, without doing much anyway.

[11:18]

I mean, like people who play the piano, they may not even notice it, but in the process of getting their fingers to be in a key in certain ways, they actually may be giving up some discursive thought in order to perform certain physical activity. They may not even notice it, but some level of giving up discursive thought is necessary in order to play the piano, but also discursive thought is necessary in order to play the piano. So sometimes people don't really consciously train at giving up discursive thought and developing calm, but they get some anyway in their daily life somehow through various other kinds of disciplines. But anyway, without much tranquility, you can develop quite a bit of insight, but for the deepest insight, you need quite a bit of training in giving up discursive thought. So the Buddhist meditation program,

[12:20]

to cover the whole field, you need to do both these styles. Although I would say, overall in Buddhism, especially in what is sometimes called Theravada Buddhism, there sometimes is not as much emphasis on the tranquility side, and in Zen Buddhism in Japan, in some cases there is not much emphasis on the tranquility side. So people who study Koans, Koan work is generally speaking more emphasis there is on insight, on using discursive thought in dialogue to develop insight. But still, in order to fully realize insight, the insight which arises from, for example, studying Koans, in the end needs to be united with tranquility, which is developed not by studying Koans,

[13:22]

but by giving up discursive thought. So when you hear teachings, Zen teachings or otherwise, sometimes it's hard to tell whether you're hearing an instruction to do shamatha, or an instruction to do vipassana, an instruction to do practice calm, or an instruction to practice insight. Sometimes it's hard to tell. And sometimes the teacher actually is giving an instruction which can really be heard, either way, or both. So we need to, again, dare use, and in order to hear these teachings and understand them, using both giving up discursive thought sometimes helps you understand what they're talking about, even though you're not trying to figure it out. And sometimes using discursive thought helps you figure out what they're talking about, even though you are trying to figure out what they're trying to talk about. Practically speaking, in the meditation hall, I guess many students don't feel so,

[14:26]

generally speaking, they don't feel like, geez, when they hear teachings about shamatha, they say, is it okay to do that in the zendo? They usually feel like, that's probably okay to do in the zendo, to give up discursive thought. But when they hear insight teachings, they sometimes think, is that okay to do in the zendo? And my feeling is, as far as I'm concerned, it's okay if you do tranquility work in the zendo, or insight work in the zendo. And you can do, I would suggest doing the tranquility work while you're walking, and the insight work while you're sitting. Just kidding. I just throw out for your consideration that

[15:32]

when the Zen teacher, the so-called Zen teacher, not really a Zen teacher, but when the Buddha ancestor, Dogen, wrote his, what is it called, the general encouragements for the practice of the ceremony of Zazen, which is also in Japanese, Bukan Zazengi, he says, at one point he says, after giving instructions about how to sit, physically how to sit, he says, after you've settled into a steady, immobile sitting position, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of Zazen. So he gives you this instruction of how to physically sit in a certain yogic posture, and then he tells you to think of not thinking. And then,

[16:39]

how do you do that? Non-thinking. Again, you can interpret these things various ways, of course, maybe not of course, but I've suggested you can interpret that instruction various ways. For example, the instruction to sit upright, crossing your legs and so on, you can interpret that in various ways. Most people don't interpret it in various ways, but I'm telling you, this is a free country. You can interpret that in various ways. And he even helps you later in the text when he tells you that the Zazen I'm talking about has nothing to do with sitting or lying down. So he told you what kind of outfits to wear, what to eat, how much sleep to get, where to sit, what kind of a room, you know, where to sit in the room, how to adjust your body and so on. He tells you all that, and then later he says that what I'm talking about has nothing to do with what I just told you.

[17:40]

In other words, you can interpret what I'm talking about when I give you this instruction about sitting meditation. At first, when you hear instructions about how to cross your legs and sit up in meditation, when you hear those, after you hear them, you could have some insight about what they're talking about. The first level of insight that arises from hearing instructions about how to take care of your body in Buddhist practice, the first level, comes at a level of taking it literally. No interpretation, please. Deeper level, of understanding what the instruction is, means that you start interpreting. For example, what you think. Now, he says to sit upright, but I wonder what he really means. Maybe he doesn't really mean sit upright. Maybe he means lean to the left. And you can tell that to somebody

[18:43]

and they can say, you're crazy, and so on. All these years, no one's ever come to me and said that that's their interpretation. Even though they do it. So anyway, I'm just saying that he gives this instruction, you have some understanding, you practice it, but your level of insight about that instruction can vary. Then he gives the instruction think of not thinking. This is an instruction to a person who's supposedly going to do zazen, and he says, this thinking of not thinking, how do you think of not thinking, non-thinking, that instruction is the essential art of zazen, he says. But that could be interpreted as an instruction in insight, not an instruction in common. Generally speaking,

[19:43]

but you could also say, no, it is an instruction in common, because he says, think of not thinking. So he could understand that, if he's saying, think of not thinking discursively. That's the way you could hear it. Does that make sense? But then he goes on, and he says, how do you think of not thinking? When he says, how do you think of not thinking, that could be taken as a question that you're supposed to answer, or it could be taken as a rhetorical question, since he answers it himself. But that question, generally speaking, are not encouraging giving up discursive thought. Discursive thought, etymologically, at its root, means running about,

[20:46]

but the definition, first definition, is ranging over a wide, or a wide range of thought, which goes over a wide range of topics. When you say, what is thinking not thinking, or how do you think not thinking, this is like encouraging discursive thought. It's saying, what is that? What is thinking not thinking? This is like, go to China, find out. That's where that guy who was doing this lived. Go visit Yaoshan in the Tang Dynasty. Visit Dogen in the 13th century. Visit all the ancestors. Talk to them. Question them. Be discursive. Find out what is thinking of not thinking. And then, he answers the question, non-thinking. And what's non-thinking?

[21:48]

What is non-thinking? What is non-thinking? Non-thinking is the way to practice thinking of not thinking. I would, this morning, I would interpret think of not thinking as think of emptiness. Or, think of ultimate reality. In other words, look at what will purify your life. How do you do that? By living beyond thinking. Which again sounds like giving up discursive thought, except it's even more profound than giving up discursive thought. It means giving up, even when the thought's not running around, it means give up what you think is happening. Even if you're not being discursive.

[22:54]

Give up what you think is happening and give up thinking that what you think is happening is what's happening. In other words, find out what's happening in the absence of what you think about. Find out what's happening in the absence of your ideas about what's happening. That is thinking of not thinking. This is wisdom which is looking at the ultimate truth. So, I'm just saying that in this teaching we can interpret that Dogen is teaching insight work to Zen students, to Buddhist students, to Buddhist disciples. But, you could also take just the first line and say the first line he's encouraging stabilization or calming practice.

[23:56]

But then he says the Zazen I'm teaching is not learning meditation. So he says the learning meditation is usually interpreted as calming practice. So he said this is not learning meditation. But again, I would say it doesn't belong in that basket, but it uses that facility. So, he does use his calming practices I would say, but not exclusively. And in thinking, not thinking, which is the essential art, it could easily be understood as insight work. So, in particular, the topics for the study of insight

[24:57]

or wisdom or studying wisdom means studying teachings about how to study the nature of events, the nature of a phenomenon, the nature of our experience. And some of us have been studying for a few years a text which has not been available in English translation for very long, but now we have three translations. It is called in Sanskrit the Samdhinirmochana Sutra. And that

[26:00]

could be translated as unravelling the thought, the scripture unravelling the thought, or the scripture revealing the thought, or the scripture about the hidden meaning of the thought. So, it means that's from various translations. It means revealing or unraveling the thought of Buddha. Buddha has been represented to us through words and writings and through physical postures by who has been representing the Buddha

[27:01]

to us through words and writings. Who is presenting that stuff to us? Ancestors. Ancestors. Clergy. Clergy. Ancestor clergy. Publishers. You. You. Yeah, me. Various people have been presenting Buddha to you. Have you ever seen Shakyamuni Buddha? I have not seen him actually. But there are people who are representing him to us. Males and females of the homo sapien variety have been presenting his teachings to us. And if you listen to all the things that they've said, they're kind of all tangled up. Those representations. People say Buddha said this. People say Buddha said that. And there's contradictions in the teachings. Kind of all twisted contradictions, but enough similar so they're not just two different ballparks. They're all tangled together. The various things

[28:04]

Buddha said. The various things Buddha said are all tangled. This sutra is trying to like, untangle them. And then, even though that happened and the sutra appeared in the world, in India, still in China they still had, in China and Tibet particularly, they still had spent centuries trying to like, not just understand this sutra, which is trying to unravel a thought, but unravel a bunch of other things which the sutra didn't deal with. So, again, what the Buddha taught to a great extent was what he taught to somebody on some occasion. And then he went and a few minutes later he was teaching somebody else something very different because that person needed something different. And then people kind of remembered what he said to both of them and they sounded different and which one is right. Well, it's not so much which one is right, it's just how come he taught this to this person? How was this right for this person? And how is something different from this

[29:05]

right for that person? And this sutra kind of explains how he taught these things to these people because that was good for them at that time. And then later, but there's some problems with that, but they needed that teaching at that time. It was helpful to them even though it wasn't really complete. And then later he thought, now I can teach this and now he's teaching why he did that because that actually is not, that can be misunderstood too. Now he's teaching something else. So all along he was trying to teach people the nature of what's happening. And one of his teachings which again is fairly common is that people misunderstand what's happening and because they misunderstand well, they they crave and they grasp and so on and then they suffer. So his what do you call it? His diagnosis

[30:05]

of the human condition is that there is this illness in our population based on which we do various unskillful things to say the least. And that the illness and the unskillfulness is based on misunderstanding. So misunderstanding of what's going on. Like sometimes somebody comes up to you and goes like frowns at you you know and you think that's like they're being mean to you right? And you think that right? Whatever happened to you? You think they're being mean and then you believe that what you think is true and then you get angry at them or whatever. Or you think they disagree with you and that's really what's happening and you think that's dangerous to you so then you get angry. And this happens to people maybe not to you but a lot of people it happens to. Or you think somebody

[31:07]

is being nice to you and then they want to go away a few feet but you won't let them because you want them to stay and be nice to you. And you do all kinds of unskillful things so they won't go away from you. Like maybe I don't know what anything because you misunderstand what's happening. You think that what's happening is what you think is happening. That sound familiar? We get caught by our version of reality which is we think our version of reality is often what we think is happening. Which is it's not that that's not some reality because sometimes what we think is happening is what we call conventional truth. For example here we think it's Thursday. So that's

[32:09]

conventionally true. It's not true in Japan. It's not Wednesday in Japan. But you know we can work that out. So in a sense it's true that it's Thursday. It's Friday in Japan. See? We worked it out. We had a convention. I said what day I thought it was in Japan. We interacted and as a result of the convention we've changed it to Friday. Can you open the window? Is it okay to open the window here? Is it okay? No? Who's near a window that's okay with opening a window? How about back there? Back by the door there. Anybody can open a window? Can you open some windows? Well that didn't open

[33:19]

much, did it? Nobody wants to open a window? Who wants the windows open? I'd like a window open. Could you change places and sit over there? Stop! If you want weed you have to leave. So this scripture we're studying is a scripture which is presenting teachings about you know the way things are. And it's a really difficult scripture but

[34:19]

and so in three weeks you can have a really good a really deep sense of not understanding something. And your thoughts of not understanding those discursive thoughts about how you don't understand you could use those thoughts of how you don't understand in a way to develop some wisdom. While you still don't understand while you think you don't understand anything you could learn for example to let go of that thought and become learn that that thought has nothing to do with your understanding that's part of what the two sutras are about. And not even understand that is impossible. So that's what I'd like to do is bring up what's in this sutra. For your for your study to help you to help you learn some of the teachings

[35:20]

that these scriptures are offering about the nature of events. Once again the calming type of practice is not initially it's not about understanding the nature of events. It's more about giving up running about from event to event. The calming practice isn't so much about understanding the nature of events it's more about giving up movement between or among the events. So there's events occurring in our life right? Phenomena are appearing to us objects are appearing to our awareness we know things and discursive thought is to run from object to object or event to event run back and forth or run about among the various objects that's where the mind runs about in the field of objects

[36:21]

which we know. Run from experience to experience you know. Or you're having experience and you want to run to a different experience or you run to a past experience or you don't want to work with just what's happening you want to not you want to but the mind has a tendency to run about. So what's calming is not to like look at the so much look at the event but give up running around in response to the event that's what calming is. Insight work is to look at the event and use discursive thought to understand teachings which draw your attention to the event and illuminate and unpack the event so you can see its actual nature. Its superficial nature and its profound nature and then we have insight. So I'm just saying that in the beginning I'm introducing the calming practice which I suggest you do that you give yourself to some calming practice

[37:22]

during these three weeks but if you don't want to do any calming practice if you feel already calm enough like some of you like I've already pretty much given up discursive thought I'm just walking around in tranquility all the time those people may not want to do any more calm tranquility work this practice period and just do insight work but for a lot of other people insight work tranquility work would probably be a good idea because that would help you relax around this potentially exciting material which draws draws your attention to the nature the dynamic nature of events so when you initially look at events and hear teachings about how they are happening and how they really are how they really are that doesn't necessarily calm you to do that kind of work it can even make you

[38:23]

more upset than you already are so its good to be fairly calm in the first place so that you can afford a little upset and if you're if you feel like you're not calm enough to afford any upset then while you hear these teachings just practice calm while you're listening to them and you won't be able to understand them very well in that state but eventually you will but initially you'll just be calming down in the midst of in the midst of the presentation about how to look at the nature of events so once again insight is that it penetrates to reality and calm promotes that but it's not trying to penetrate it's more like trying to relax with phenomena give up running around so you can spend if you want to just you know practically speaking you might spend

[39:23]

some period some of you or let's say an individual person like me I might spend some of my periods of meditation in the Zen Do practicing calm like I just mentioned this period is a calming period so I just sit and give up discursive thought or I sit and devote myself to giving up discursive thought I might not be able to but or you know it might not happen much but you know I just say this period is dedicated to practicing tranquility and so I sit there and that's clear and then the doctrine of tranquility may arise if there can be the renunciation giving up discursive thought when there is giving up discursive thought there is tranquility I'm telling you that's something and but then the next period I might say in this period I'm going to actually look at what is happening and I'm going to use the teachings

[40:24]

I read in the Sami Nirmachana Sutra to help me actually see reality and become liberated because Samatha does not liberate you by itself it has to be coupled with a vision of reality that overthrows my misconceptions of reality it overthrows my belief that what I what I'm thinking is what's happening or that what's happening is what I'm thinking so I spend that period maybe working on insight and then my next period I might practice tranquility again or I might practice tranquility when I'm walking around Green Gulch and doing things like that and when I'm in Zen Do I might concentrate on wisdom or I might just concentrate on tranquility in Zen Do and when I'm walking around work on wisdom you see these different possibilities and discursive thought is used to give yourself your meditation assignments tranquility doesn't really give you meditation assignments

[41:24]

you need to use discursive thought to clarify your intention as to what kind of meditation you're intending to do now so it's ok with me if you come to these classes and you decide before you get here or in the middle of the class you decide I'm going to do tranquility practice now I'm going to give up discursive thought which is like running around among the various things he's doing I'm going to give it up and just be calm here is this ok with me? I myself when I'm doing these talks of course I'm trying to do them both at the same time trying to give up discursive thought while I'm like playing with it they can be united the discursive thought and the giving up discursive thought can be united with using discursive thought if possible but you may want to do one or the other for a while to get a feeling for it

[42:25]

so any questions about what I've introduced so far? so the two types the first two types of wisdom that comes from this is the thought about investigating and inquiry that kind of our investigation and inquiry part of that process? yes again a lot of Zen students think we don't do analysis in Zen right, I'm like that yeah some people look at Buddhism and they listen to the teachings of Buddhism and they say oh Buddhism and then they name Buddhism the religion of analysis before Buddhism before the Buddha appeared in the world there was already this tranquility practice yogis were already practicing giving up discursive thought and entering into states of great tranquility and blissful flexibility and light that was already going on at the time of the Buddha

[43:25]

but the Buddha brought an analysis of phenomena and that his analysis was new and has been very influential in the world really what's typically Buddhist is the analysis of phenomena and seeing how they actually are and analyzing them into like conventional phenomena and ultimate phenomena and then explaining how what an ultimate phenomena are like and then how to see them this is typically Buddhist it's analytical it's investigative it's examining it's inquiring it's penetrating Buddhism also connects to this common sense as I just said but what's really uniquely Buddhist is the analysis is what was found by the Buddha and succeeding generations what was found when inquiring into phenomena experience and so on so that's the work

[44:26]

the wisdom work and that's what that's what's unique about Buddhism is Buddhist wisdom Buddhist concentration practices are not not really unique it's just you find them in a lot of other yoga traditions yes are you using insight and wisdom interchangeably? pretty much, yeah there's subtle differences in usage basically, yeah three kinds of wisdom three kinds of insight now in this text it says in this text the sutra I'm referring to it says in the text it says three types of vipassana but in other texts other Buddhist texts it says three types of wisdom three types of prajna so prajna and vipassana are a little different but actually they're quite similar because the etymology of vipassana is higher vision and the etymology of prajna nya means

[45:27]

knowledge or understanding and pra means penetrating so prajna is like a penetrative understanding a penetrative knowing so penetrative knowing and higher vision are similar but they're used a little bit differently in the Buddhist texts but as I say there's various practices yes on the various practices ok now I'd like to talk about something else which before I underline this ok I'm not telling you to stop doing the practice that you like to do because it might sound like that as I proceed I'd recommend it

[46:35]

as a calming practice and sometimes they suggest practicing following the breath as a calming practice sometimes they suggest counting and then following sometimes it's suggested to focus on an image of the Buddha either sometimes externally but usually if you look carefully they're really looking at an internal image of the Buddha sometimes they suggest meditating on on death as a calming practice sometimes meditating on the triple treasure sometimes meditating on a color or a sound these are various things that people suggest to people to meditate on in order to achieve calm does this sound familiar? but I kind of would like

[47:35]

to tell you that the teaching for example in the sutra which has a big section after introducing the teachings on the doctrines of wisdom then it talks about the practices to meditate on the doctrines once again it presents teachings on the nature of phenomena and then it talks then it gives you how to practice with those teachings and it starts so it presents the calming practices and the insight practices and when it presents the calming practices what it says basically to do is what do people say? nothing huh? nothing what's the instruction for achieving calm? it says basically give up discursive thought what it actually says is attend to the mind which is always there or attend to the mind like quality of mind yeah

[48:36]

the mind like quality of mind it says actually to attend to a non-conceptual image but what that means is attend to an image without getting conceptual about the image so like you look at Max you know M-A-X and you stop there you don't like run around the word Max you know you don't run to good Max bad Max another Max who's next to Max you just go Max and Siobhan and Laurie your mind works like that which it always does anyway but what you're actually attending to is the way the mind is capable always

[49:37]

of not running from one thing to the other of not conceptually elaborating on what it knows so you're not actually focusing on the breath or the body or a color you're focusing on the way the mind does treat each one of them the same way and when you give up discursive thought you are actually by giving up discursive thought you're actually then becoming intimate with the mind just knowing each thing one by one case by case not running from one to the other with discursive thought leads you to feel like things are so I'm not telling you to stop following your breath or counting your breath and actually one presentation of a Buddhist meditation which is called the six subtle dharma gates the first subtle dharma gate

[50:39]

is counting the breath the second subtle dharma gate is following the breath and the third subtle dharma gate is stopping or resting but actually actually they sort of said yes, the breath stops the breath is there and it's stopped in other words you're not running among the breaths but in that particular presentation it's like a gradual weaning from the moving breath you start saying ok, people they don't have they can't understand what giving up discursive thought is so let's let them look at the breath which they see as a process of discursive of the breath running around so first help them tune into this running around mind by counting the breath which they think is running around then follow it and then finally

[51:39]

just stop breath rest with it which means don't be discursive with the breath so people think maybe that what you're doing is focusing on the breath but actually what you're doing is you're learning to focus on the way your mind is not running around your mind actually is not running around all the time and for most people it's also running around most of the time so there's a not running around mind which is always there and there is a commonly accompanying quality of running around but it is possible that the running around is either attenuated or just virtually not there and it's just the mind knowing something but I'd like you to understand actually that it's not the following some object that calms your mind but giving up

[52:40]

running around the object that calms your mind it's not being focused on an object that calms your mind it's not running from object to object that calms your mind giving up the running around that calms the mind so if you want to follow your breath it's ok but if you think that getting yourself focused onto the breath is going to calm you that's sort of a misunderstanding of the relationship with the breath so if you can be with your breath and give up running around with it then that the focus is really like ok I'm with my breath but really what I'm focusing is not my breath but the way I am with my breath and the way I am with my breath is I don't move around it I don't get involved with it I give up being conceptual about it plus I also give up being conceptual about how well I'm following my breath and I give up running back and forth

[53:40]

to see how I'm doing and if those thoughts arise like hey you're doing pretty well that thought can arise but it's not I don't move from the thought I'm doing very well I don't move from that thought or the mind doesn't move from the thought I'm doing very well to the thought I'm not doing very well to the thought of the breath you don't move from inhale to exhale there are inhales and exhales appearing to you because that's still the way the world looks but you're not you're focusing on the way your mind doesn't move from inhale to exhale you're focusing on the mind and you're focusing on the way the mind doesn't move you're focusing on a concept actually of the mind but you're focusing on the way the mind doesn't elaborate on the concept that is what you focus on that's what comes and sometimes following the breath helps you sort of slip

[54:40]

into that way of being with things I like to use the example of that's a children's story about the the duck that was separated from his mother when he was very young but somehow he was old enough to survive after the separation and he was wandering along one day and came by a pond and the pond had quite a few ducks in it and they were like swimming around and the duck said to the this duck had been separated from his mother come on in and the duck said I can't swim and they said what are you talking about you can swim you're a duck he said no I'm not he said yes you are he said no I'm not they said okay and then one of the one of the one of the kind ducks said he said

[55:44]

oh here here's a sky hook just hook this onto the sky and hold on to it and then you won't sink so the little duck took the sky hook hooked it on the sky went into the water and swam around with the ducks and then one day the little duck who didn't think she was a duck was running around with the other ducks on the ground and some people came by and all the other ducks jumped in the pond and the little duck jumped in the pond but forgot her sky hook and she was paddling around with them you know and then one of the ducks said where's your sky hook and she said oh I forgot it and they said what are you doing and she said oh my god I'm swimming I'm a duck so actually you don't need any kind of like

[56:45]

thing like that all you got to do because you are basically you're a duck you actually already have this mind you just need to attend to it but if you can't find it then you can use the sky hook by following the breath but remember that's just to help you the following the breath isn't really it isn't the following the breath that's the common it's by following the breath you might discover the way you don't mess around with the breath so gradually you start to follow the breath but after a while you're not following the breath you're just with the breath with the breath with the breath you're not moving with the breath you're just breath breath breath or breath not breath breath not breath breath bird sounds breath pain in the butt breath whatever various things are coming to you but gradually you learn you learn how to give up moving among different objects when you give up moving among the objects you start to realize how tranquility

[57:46]

so if you want to use these other methods they're ok but really I'm trying to encourage you just sort of like what I also say is just whatever comes completely relax with it if you relax with it that's another instruction but don't move from it to the next thing or the last thing just let go of being discursive with it that's my basic instruction I like it better than following objects because following objects really isn't what calms you but still if you find it helpful then use them go ahead and use them it's ok but I'd like you to understand at the same time that you're a duck that you really don't need these things because they're not actually what calms you what calms you is your mind being appreciated for what it is if you just appreciate the way your mind actually is you'll realize you have this tremendous resource sitting right underneath your cushion all the time under your cushion all around you above you it's completely

[58:48]

surrounding every experience it's your unmoving cognition every moment there is unmoving cognition and that's what that's focusing on that means you give up that delightful moving cognition which we like so much so you have to give up figuring out what's going to happen this afternoon and just deal with the way the fact that you're knowing this [...] you're not moving from this to that you're knowing this you're knowing this you're knowing this focusing your attention on that calms the body and mind body and mind calm by that means so I'm not going to recommend people that counting and following the breath I'm recommending the third stage of just stop or resting with the breath or resting with your body which means resting with every event just rest just give up running around

[59:49]

that's what I would emphasize and these other ones are approximations getting you ready for that but they're okay alright is that Shikantaza you're talking about? no Shikantaza is not is not separate from you can give up discursive thought in Shikantaza but Shikantaza is also included non-thinking Shikantaza is not just that you're giving up discursive thought but that you actually see that the city let's say you're giving up discursive let's say you're giving up you have a person who is sitting here and giving up discursive thought okay you have a person sitting here who has given up discursive thought in other words you have a tranquil person okay now Shikantaza is not just that

[60:50]

because again pre-Buddhist meditators achieve that state Shikantaza in addition to a person who is sitting there relinquishing discursive thought this person also is seeing the nature of reality this person is also not fooled by the objects which appear so calming is that when objects appear you don't run around them insight is when objects appear you see what they really are so the sitting and giving up discursive thought is calm sitting and the sitting and seeing the nature of sitting is just sitting in other words when you see that when you see that sitting is just sitting okay you're not just you're just sitting but that means

[61:52]

that you see that you're just sitting everybody who's sitting is just sitting really right but just sitting means not only you're just sitting but you know it not everybody who's just sitting knows they're just sitting you notice some people are just sitting going to zendo and they're just sitting there I mean you can see they're just sitting right but if you pry open their top of their head and look inside they think something different is going on you know what I mean they think they're in Hawaii or they think they're in they think they're you know in a torture chamber they think they think primarily they're planning their revenge in a Buddhist tradition that's what they think is going on you think they're just sitting so but they are

[62:52]

just sitting so when you're just sitting you're just sitting and you know you're just okay you know you're just sitting however knowing when you know you're just sitting when you know that you're just sitting that means you know you're just sitting it means you're just sitting you're not doing what you think you're doing just sitting is not you thinking that you're just sitting because again you can be walking around thinking you're just sitting but you're not sitting And you can also be sitting and thinking you're sitting, but the sitting you're doing is not the sitting you think you're doing. So you're not only just sitting, and now you know you're just sitting. You're not just sitting. You're not just sitting.

[64:01]

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

[66:59]

Yes. [...]

[68:16]

Yes. Yes. Right. Mine's already doing it. Mine can elaborate. But basically, mine just knows. Elaboration is often there.

[69:17]

And for most people, it seems like it's continuously there. But I don't think any of us have elaboration. Once in a while, everybody has just a slap on the face. You know what I mean? So like this woman... Remember that story of that woman who had all these horrendous things happen to her, you know? Her husband got killed, and her kids got killed, and her mother got killed. She just totally went nuts. And she's wandering around, totally crazy. She walked up to the Buddha, and the Buddha said, basically, regain your presence of mind, sister. You know? And she snapped out of it. So sometimes, even somebody who's like really extremely heavy into her inner comment, to such a point of being insane, sometimes they can hear something and just hear it. Just like, you know? And just that. Just presence of mind. Sometimes it can stop. So I think everybody has some breaks in this discourse. But there's not a break in the awareness.

[70:22]

The awareness is constant. Whenever there's experience, there's awareness. So focus on that mind which is always there, in each case. And that's the non-elaborative mind. Give up the elaboration, which is where you make your money, and go back to the mind which is your life, which is always with you. And focusing on that quality of mind, we calm down. And then, that's fine. We've been developing that skill. But that's not enough for insight. We have to use our discursive thought to hear the teachings and the guidance about how to look at phenomena, and then we use our discursive thought. But we need to do both. I think. Yes? In the teacher didn't you say that there were six sabra dharma? Yes. You mentioned three. The next three are the insight, going to the insight phase. In this text, we're talking about counting the breath, following the breath, and stopping. And the next one is contemplating,

[71:25]

the next one is returning, and the next one is purifying. You could still be aware of your breath through this whole process, but the last three, you're starting to turn around and examine the nature of phenomena, or the nature of breath. Breath is a phenomena. But again, breath is, we sometimes say, not breath. Ultimately, breath is not breath. In other words, what you think breath is, is not what breath is, ultimately. And when you can see, when you can see the phenomena of breath, in the absence of what you think breath is, you are seeing breath in such a way that you're seeing the way the breath ultimately is, that it's free of your ideas of breath. When you can see that freedom, or that absence of your ideas in the breath, while you're looking at the breath,

[72:26]

then you suddenly don't see, or you do see that there's no breath there. When you see that, that's called purity. In other words, your mind and body are purified of all affliction, of all suffering. You're liberated from suffering when you see that things are actually, everything, breath, pain, pleasure, you, me, all phenomena are free, are empty of our ideas. When you can see that emptiness of your ideas about things, your body and mind are purified. So that's the sixth subtle dharma gate. And so this sutra is to help us see the nature of phenomena. Okay? Yes? So, when I'm sitting, and I see sitting, aching butt, this is stupid, I want to leave, and I follow that, and I think that's out of things. But if the mind is just sitting, aching butt, stupid,

[73:28]

I want to leave, and just go, really follow the thought, just talking. Who is that? Who is it? Well, it's you. It's you all the time, but you is not something that's independent of what we just talked about. And that's what you'll understand. That you are not something that's in addition to, or less than, all those thoughts. You're not something in addition to that. So you say, who is that? Well, it's you. But you are not another thing on top of that stuff. But you think you are. Yeah. But you're not something in addition. And when you give up the running from one thing to another, you get more relaxed, and when you get more relaxed, you're more ready to hear the teaching which shows you that there's not a person in addition to the person. The self is something in addition to the person. It's a metaphysical thing on top of your person.

[74:29]

You are a person. You know, you are what you are, but what you are is not your ideas of what you are. You're just all these conditions coming together, creating your life. There's not another person on top of your life. Who is you? You are your life. Period. And so calming practice makes us more ready to hear teachings which kind of suggest that, and get us to actually look at that, how that self... Because otherwise it's very irritating to hear that kind of stuff. Because it goes against our deep misconceptions. You didn't ask your question yet, did you? Go ahead. So when you see that there's no additional self on top of yourself, are you then... When is it in the current situation where there's an additional self, that self is suffering, that self is not happy with what the circumstances are?

[75:31]

Well, you say the self is not happy, but you can also just say there's unhappiness. There's affliction. But it's not so much that the self is the one that has the affliction in addition to the experience of affliction. There's just affliction. And affliction comes from thinking that there's a self on top of your life. So whatever the conditions are, same conditions that you now find unflicted. So same conditions, if there's no extra self, you're no longer afflicted. That's right. And that purifies the body and mind of affliction when you see that the idea, for example, of what's going on doesn't reach what's going on. It's absent, not there. When you look at the absence of your ideas in what's happening, you're purified of affliction. Or rather, your body and mind, which compose a person, are purified of affliction.

[76:33]

So then whatever the circumstance is, whatever the circumstance is, you're okay with it. So it's not the circumstance that's the problem. Whatever the circumstance is, you're okay with it. However, there is a certain type of circumstance which is no longer happening. What's no longer happening, the big change is that there's no superimposition of the thoughts of what's happening onto what's happening. There's just what's happening. And you're aware of the absence of any superimposition on what's happening. That awareness is the new thing. But whatever's happening could be anything except, I think, the continued seeing superimposition. You break from that for a little while. So at that moment, nothing changes, but you don't see anything anymore.

[77:34]

All the stuff you used to see, you don't see because everything you used to see was superimposition. So as the Sutra says, and I think now you're ready to start studying the Sutra, right? So we have one of the chapters of the Sutra, Chapter 5. It's a short one. It fits on one piece of paper. And one of the examples in that is that what's actually happening what's actually happening is like a very clear crystal. But our thoughts are like a color. You know, for example, red. And we mix the red with what's happening with the pure crystal. And then because we think that what's happening is that mixing, or taking the pure crystal as the red,

[78:36]

we see a ruby. And we think a ruby is happening. We think we're a ruby, but actually we're a very clear crystal. When you can see the crystal, the very clear crystal, which of course you can't see, in the absence of what you think about it, the red, then you see the way things actually are. You see the absence of the color. And then you're purified. So that's the example in the scripture which I'll be chanting soon. Could you write the name of the scripture on the board? Sure. In Sanskrit, Marie? In English, I'm not sure. In English, I'll just say The Unraveling of Thought. Let me pronounce it for everybody. The Unraveling of Thought is a translation. S-A-N-D-H-I-N-I-R-N

[79:47]

S-A-N-D-H-I-N-I-R-N-O-C-A-N-A Sandhya Nirmal Chandra S-A-N-D-H-I-N-I-R-N-O-C-A-N-A Sutra So, we'll introduce the sutra to you, but you don't have to, you know, you can practice shamatha. Keep that if you want to. Yes, please. I'm going to talk about running about in the mind. I can focus on the running about and the problems. But actually, there is... I also think in the nature of experience, there is movement. So, it's not just a movement,

[80:50]

not that the movement means a new experience, a new experience, a new experience, a new moment. So, actually, there's a lot of change, but somehow it's the linkages that are a problem. There's change. Now, there's change, but not movement. Movement is a phenomenon. This doesn't move... It isn't that the experience moves from this experience to the next experience. This experience... Experiences that arise, cease. So, they change. They go into arising and ceasing. And then there's another arising and ceasing. So, there's change. And if we make a linkage between this and that, then somehow we lost the awareness of... then just this and just that... The mind... We have the ability to make... The mind has the ability to create a phenomenon

[81:53]

which arises called making a link between two phenomena. That's another phenomena, the linkage. That phenomena, between sitting and pain in the butt, that phenomenon connecting the two is discursive thought. By running from... The mind runs from sitting to pain. That linkage is discursive thought. So, you can have the arising of this thought, but not necessarily discursive. Discursive happens when the next thought arises and is connected to the previous thought or to a future thought. It's the connecting, the running back and forth that's discursive thought. And discursive thought is also something that arises and ceases. Does that make sense? It's a phenomenon. Connecting... We just studied the connection. Yes, so in fact, part of the practice of giving up discursive thought is to confess that you haven't given up discursive thought.

[82:54]

By confessing... Just confessing that discursive thought is going on, I think helps give up discursive thought. So, noticing and confessing discursive thought doesn't need to be discursive thought. So, your attention is on the awareness of discursive thought rather than going from discursive thought to some other kind of thought you should be having. Yes? I think discursive thought is exactly just that. Is that the adding in, the color, the red? Yeah, that would be adding in a color to the situation and thinking that there really is a movement. Like when we look at the waves going up and down in the ocean, the up and down we use to create an image of a wave and then we actually think there's a wave there. You know, the wave moving from far out up close.

[84:03]

It's an illusion created by the up and down motion of the water. Yes? In the example of the woman who lost her mind because her children were killed and her husband was killed and so on and so forth, come back to your question about mind. And she was jawed out of her madness. Now... Come back to your presence of mind. Thank you.

[84:46]

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