We've talked here a little bit about the first noble truth and the second noble truth and the third noble truth, is that right? Is that right? Remember that part? And now we'll talk about the fourth noble truth, before it's too late. The fourth noble truth is the truth of the path which leads to a cessation of suffering. And that path is spoken of as having, originally taught as having eight aspects or eight dimensions or something. The first one is called right view.

[01:06]

The second one is called right intention. There's a third one called right action. Right speech, right speech, then right action, then right livelihood, then right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Is that right? So those are the eight forms that he brought out, that the Buddha brought out early in his teaching. So, in short, or kind of like also forecasting some considerable discussion, what I would

[02:35]

start out by saying right means, is right means, without outflows, right means non-dual, right means non-conceptual, right means selfless, right means interdependent, right means free of any illusion of inherent existence.

[03:39]

So you can see that those are many aspects of what are many ways of rephrasing what right means. So in other words, the Buddha taught the eightfold path of these right view and so on. In other words, the eightfold path that leads to nirvana is not just your view, your intention, your speech, or my speech, or my intention, or my livelihood, or somebody else's. It is the right view, and it has to be a certain view, a certain intention. Not all views will lead to nirvana. Some views, as a matter of fact, are exactly leading you into hell. Some views obviously lead you into suffering. So it's not just to have a view and an intention and so on.

[04:49]

It's to have the right view and so on. But before getting into what right might mean in the case of view and intention and so on, before getting into the details of this, now that I've introduced all four noble truths, I want to again step back and look at the whole picture again. Now, first of all, again, to mention that the four truths are a rational, conceptual

[05:51]

presentation of Buddha's inconceivable mind of liberation. The one mind of Buddha translated into a conceptual form of four truths. Initially, one can approach these four truths as separate. It's okay, initially, to approach them that way. But ultimately, since they come from one mind, where these four aspects are trying to explain one thing, ultimately we need to understand that they're interdependent. Just as we need to understand that the eightfold path, the eight folds of the path are interdependent.

[06:56]

The four truths are interdependent. The Buddha said, when you see the truth of dukkha, you also see the arising of dukkha, you also see the cessation of dukkha, you also see the path leading to the cessation of dukkha. When you see one, you see the other three, ultimately. We'll see that. Because whenever you see any one of the four noble truths, you see the other three as well. Whenever you see clearly one of the noble truths, you'll see the other ones as well, because the four noble truths are interconnected, like everything in the universe, the four noble truths are too. But what that means also, which Nagarjuna brings out in chapter 24 of his fundamental verses on the Middle Way,

[08:01]

what that means that they're interconnected is that none of them, none of the four noble truths have inherent existence. There's not actually some thing called the Buddhist path. There's not a thing called nirvana, there's not a thing called suffering, there's not a thing called the arising of suffering. These always arise interdependently. You never have suffering arising by itself. As soon as suffering arises, you've got the second truth. Even if you don't talk about the truth, as soon as suffering comes up, there's coming up. And as soon as there's coming up, even if you don't know the truth, it's still true, that as soon as something comes up, its cessation is right there. The fact that as soon as something comes up, its cessation is right there, there's the path. So, in fact, even before you realize the truth, the first truth, even before you understand the truth of the first truth, just in simple, you know, there's no way to avoid the truth, in other words.

[09:04]

As soon as suffering arises, all four truths are right there. The other three are right there. Now, if you see the truth of suffering, then even more you see the truth of the other three being there. But, since it's hard for us to comprehend the simultaneity and the interdependence of them right away, they're presented one at a time. By understanding them one at a time, in the old days, when Buddha first taught, he thought that would be the way to do it for people. Teach one, and let them understand that one, and move on. However, in the Zen school, not the Zen school, but in the tradition which they call Zen, our tradition, you don't find much teaching about the Four Noble Truths, and part of the reason is this kind of idea of them being learned one by one, which, in fact, has certain problems.

[10:07]

Because you then mix in your usual habit of separating things, and dealing with things as independent, you mix that into your Buddhist studies, which some people feel like, let's just stop that right now. Let's not be codependent with this idea of independence anymore. Let's have a teaching that right off teaches oneness, and let people struggle with that, rather than getting them to think in terms of multiplicity and separateness, and then kind of trying to help them get over that. Without being rigid about that, of course. When we studied Chapter 24, Nagarjuna's MMK last time, it was hard for people, but now, maybe with this preparation, it might be easier for you to read that chapter.

[11:16]

We'll see. ZEN TEXTS after the so-called Golden Age of Zen, from then on you don't find the step-by-step type of traditional Buddhist instruction that you find in the Indian and Southeast Asian ancient texts. Then people started teaching differently, they started trying to teach, you know, wholeness right off, like this morning's story about a hare's-breadth difference.

[12:24]

The whole, all Four Noble Truths are focused into that one issue of a hare's-breadth difference. The slightest duality, if there's the slightest duality, if there's no duality, if there's not a hare's-breadth difference, then there's no suffering, there's no arising of suffering and so on. So one of the prototypic stories of our lineage is the story of when the, what's his name, Sagan Gyoshi, Daiyosho, went to visit the sixth ancestor, Huineng. Sagan Gyoshi is Qing Yiran Xingsa. He's the guy that the monk asked him, what's the ultimate, what's the essence of Buddhadharma? And he said, what's the price of rice and Lu Ling? And Xingsa means, Qing Yiran is a name of, sort of a name of a temple where he lived, and Xingsa

[13:31]

was his Buddhist name. Xingsa means, sort of like, walking and thinking, or walking continuous thinking, thinking while he's walking around he's always thinking, like most people, but thinking about what? So he had a very continuous practice that he carried with him wherever he went. He was very quiet and concentrated. So he was this, kind of the senior student of the sixth ancestor. And when he first went, or one of the first times he talked to the sixth ancestor, he asked the great master, how can I practice so that I won't fall into steps and stages? And Huineng said, well what have you been practicing so far? And Xingsa said, I haven't even been practicing the Four Noble Truths. And Huineng said,

[14:48]

well what stage have you fallen into? And Huineng said, I haven't even been practicing the Four Noble Truths. And Xingsa said, well if I haven't even been practicing the Four Noble Truths, how could I fall into any stage? And Huineng was deeply impressed by his potential. So that became kind of like a prototype for the lineage. The Four Noble Truths are there. How can you not even practice the Four Noble Truths? So like we have this teacher, we're studying the Four Noble Truths here, right? How can you not even study the Four Noble Truths while we're studying the Four Noble Truths? Think about that all the time. I have this nice little Japanese dictionary. It's a really nice little thing. It's got

[16:10]

a nice green cover. And one time, I don't know if I looked it up or what, but at the end of the book, in the Z's, you know, they had listed Zazen. So I read what the definition was in this regular Japanese-English dictionary. And it said, Zazen is spiritual meditation. And I thought, wow, that's pretty good for a dictionary. It's spiritual meditation. It's not just like meditation. It's not like people-friendly meditation. It's spirit-friendly meditation. It's spiritual meditation, Zazen is. In other words, it's not self-help, it's not self-power, it's not something that you can do. It's spiritual meditation. So, let's think about spirit. What does spirit mean? Spirit means breath, right? And in parenthesis,

[17:18]

of God. But breath, or spirit, is not physical. Well, it actually is. People might think it is physical, right? Like, what is it? Is it air? Is breath air? Well, in a sense it's air, but it's not just any old air, it's air that's moving, it's air that moves, it's somewhat air in relationship to living beings. It's not just plain old air. It's not the air on top of Mount Everest, or way up, it's not the air 700 feet above Mount Everest, it's the air that goes into the lungs of the mountain climbers, and then when it goes into the lungs it's called breath, right? Is it called breath when it goes into the lungs? When it goes into the body? Is it breath right away as soon as it comes into the person? Or is it breath when it comes out? Or is it breath when it comes in and goes into the cells and

[18:21]

starts stimulating all these life processes? Is that when it's breath? Well, you could say, take your choice, or say it's breath when it comes in, it's breath when it creates these chemical reactions which support life, and it's breath when it's done doing its job and comes back out carrying more carbon dioxide than it had when it came in, and less oxygen. It's breath when it's oxygen potent and it's breath when it's oxygen weak. It's breath when it's oxygen when it's CO2 weak and it's breath when it's CO2 strong, right? Don't we usually feel that way? In other words, breath isn't a fixed chemical composition, is it? Right? It's something, it's some kind of chemical stuff, but it's not independent of living beings. So breath is actually interdependent phenomena, and you can't actually say what breath is, you can't really specify what breath is. It's physical, but it's not just physical.

[19:29]

This kind of breath or this kind of spirit is the kind of meditation that Zazen is. It's not something independent of you, just like is there Zazen floating out in the air someplace at Tassajar? Is there Zazen sitting up in the Zendo? Is there Zazen in the rock garden out there? Where is the Zazen? Or does Zazen only happen in relationship to us? But it's not exactly like Zazen only happens in relationship to us, just like breath doesn't exactly stop as soon as it goes out your mouth, right? It isn't like as soon as it gets out it stops because it's still in a relationship to you. It's a product of your body now. Now the product of your metabolism is out there in the world, and then somebody else comes along and scoops it up and takes it in. Somebody else has taken in your carbon dioxide, hopefully getting

[20:35]

you some oxygen for some place else along with it. So even my own breath isn't my own, and then I take my breath from you along with some oxygen I got from the trees. So it's the same with Zazen, it's not something out there waiting for us to practice it, and yet it's not just when we're practicing it that it lives. And we trade Zazen back and forth between us. This Zazen which doesn't belong to us and has no life aside from us, it's not outside of us, it's not inside of us, we can't live without it, it can't live without us. Therefore there's no such thing, nobody can get a hold of it, and nobody can get a hold of us, because we also are totally interdependent with Zazen. You can't get Zazen, you can't get us. You can't get us, you can't get Zazen. However, if you can get Zazen, then you can get us. And Zen students who can get Zazen can be gotten. And there's many sad stories

[21:43]

of those Zen students who were gotten by those mean old Zen masters. And those Zen students who could be gotten were Zen students who got Zen, they had it. So, how do you have a relationship with a spiritual meditation, a meditation which never lives without you, and you never live without it, and you're both totally ungraspable, inconceivable, inseparable, and in that realm there's no outflows. There can't be any outflows because outflows wouldn't know where to go, or who to get them, or who not to get them. So this spiritual meditation means meditation without outflows. It means selfless meditation. And when there's selfless meditation, in other words, where self is not separate from others, where breath is not separate from self, where breath is not separate from others' breath,

[22:44]

and all that interdependent world, then in that selfless realm, clearly the Four Noble Truths, again, are inseparable. And in particular, the fourth and the third are inseparable. The path, a practice which leads to nirvana and the nirvana are inseparable for one who does a selfless meditation. When you're inseparable from your breath, your breath is inseparable from you, you have selfless meditation. When you breathe the breath and the breath breathes you and you're indistinguishable, or not indistinguishable, but distinguishable but inseparable, when you're doing that kind of practice there's no outflows in your practice. That's zazen, and that's selfless meditation, that's spiritual meditation, and that meditation, when practicing that way, the practice and the nirvana are the same thing. The nirvana of such a person will

[23:52]

naturally be the practice of the person. The practice of the person will naturally be nirvana. Such a person is free of suffering. Such a person attains nirvana as soon as they do any kind of practice. And again, because the practice has no inherent existence, and all the parts of the practice have no inherent existence, the person is practicing all the time, shing-sa, always thinking of practice, and never falling into steps and stages. So, even though we may not study the eight steps, hopefully we do not fall into any of those steps. In other words, we do not fall into means to fall into a step exclusive of the other steps. So, while practicing right view, right view definitely is that this view is not separate from intention, speech, and so on.

[24:57]

So, shing-sa couldn't fall into any steps or stages because he couldn't even practice the Four Noble Truths as separate stages. He couldn't even start practicing the Four Noble Truths because you can't even start them, because it's not like they're not being practiced now and then you start. And yet, he could have taught the Four Noble Truths. So, I think that he asked to check out to see if he had fallen into steps and stages. I think he thought he didn't fall into steps and stages. Again, this is kind of a characteristic of the Zen school, not the Zen school, but the lineage that they call Zen school. Part

[26:18]

of the process is to develop relationships maybe with teachers or senior Dharma friends and by means of those relationships start to notice that you're seeking approval. Now, again, as I've talked about quite a bit, I suggest to you that human beings, although many of them do not admit it, are non-stop involved in status negotiations. Human beings are always trying to improve their status. You might say, well, how about just maintaining? They're maintaining, but the main reason for maintaining is to improve. People want to improve their status. We're built not to maintain our status, but to improve it, to increase opportunities for good situations among humans. So, it's built into us to try

[27:23]

to do that all the time. As I mentioned to someone recently, human beings a long time ago figured out that living one by one, out in the forest or out in the savanna or wherever, one by one was not as good as living in groups in terms of protecting your own life. But living in groups had problems too. So, living in groups has lots of good things for human beings and to protect us from danger and also to give us opportunities for mating. And in living in groups, you have to have some status to live in the group. If you don't have any status, they won't let you be in the group. Just like you have to have some status to get in the Tathagata, you have to do a practice period to get in here or have advanced placement

[28:25]

from Insight Meditation Society or something, a recommendation from your teacher to override. You've got to get status to get in here and you've got to keep your status up all the time otherwise. You've got to do those status maintaining activities, follow the schedule. So everybody's into that, very few people, well actually not very few, quite a few do, but percentage wise, very few people admit that they're into gaining approval. However, I've noticed that sitting in the seat on the doksan room, a lot of people come in and admit to me that they're seeking approval by coming to see me, which is a dicey thing because coming in to seek approval, you might not get it and so maybe better not to come in because better not to get disapproved, better to never try at all than to have failed.

[29:30]

But that doesn't work, so people also do want to try to get approval and get raised higher in the organization by coming in and saying something very enlightened and then basically get promoted from that recognition of your good practice. But then there's also the danger that you're doing pretty well and if you would tell the teacher what you're really thinking that you would get radically demoted if the teacher knew what you were thinking. So far he doesn't know or she doesn't know what you're thinking, some of these grisly thoughts. So how could you help but get demoted by spilling the beans? So anyway, these kinds of things come up for one who goes to see the teacher because the status thing just gets flushed out because this is a status situation. You're going in and saying, you've got high status, that's why I'm coming to see you. I even made an

[30:35]

appointment. And the teacher's saying, well you've got enough status so I allowed you to have an appointment, so you've got something to lose. And the teacher has something to lose too, because the teacher's scared too, you know, if they don't like this dog song what's going to happen? They're going to go out and say, that was a lousy dog song. Nobody signs up. He came down here to the practice period and nobody came to the dog song. Was it that they were all afraid? No. Actually one went and told everybody, you know, and said, it's no good. Why wasn't it good? It wasn't good because you didn't approve of me. Oh, well that doesn't sound so bad because you don't deserve approval, so maybe I'll go. Anyway, this is a dicey situation for all parties concerned, but it's good that you have a situation like that, where your radical, non-stop concern for status and self-promotion is flushed out and you can see it. Then you can become free of it.

[31:36]

But, again, it's very difficult. I mean, I see you can, but it's very difficult. And you have to keep telling more and more and more about how petty, petty, petty you are in order to become free, free, free of you. But it is definitely the way, and the great masters and mischiefs are the ones who went in and spilled the beans. Of course they didn't have that many beans as us to spill, but, no, they did. Shakyamuni Buddha had a huge ego. He publicly announced various embarrassing things he was into, which I won't shock you with. It's kind of a secret. His dog song confessions are a secret that's transmitted in the womb. But he was as bad as any of them, but he totally

[32:41]

admitted it. He was fearless. Okay, so, this is a background on the thing that when you finally don't care anymore, when you finally aren't afraid of being an ordinary person, and you feel like you haven't fallen into steps and stages, you're not anymore into hierarchy, you're not anymore into climbing the ladder to ultimate enlightenment and world fame, you're not into that. Then you go, these stories are about, then you go and say, the subtitle is, I'm not into status anymore. I mean, as an animal I still am into status, but some part of me is coming to talk to you that doesn't care about status anymore. Yes, there's still somebody here who's nervous and whose heart's beating and is still grumbling for increased power and authority and higher wages, but there's also somebody else here who's not into that, and that one's talking to you right now and says, how can I avoid falling

[33:46]

into steps and stages now that I've not fallen into steps and stages? In other words, you come to say, this is my truth. What do you think? You're really just like, it's not a gaining thing anymore. It's like a fun thing. It's like checking it out kind of thing. However, you may be just dreaming that you're not into status, that you've become free of status and gain. You may be just dreaming of it, so that's why you should go check, because sometimes you think, hey, I'm totally free, and you go in and you sort of like say something which basically says, I'm totally free, and the person says, oh, you're totally free, and you realize, oops, there it is. I lost it. Where did that freedom go? Well, back to the drawing board. That's what I think he was doing. I think he was free to some extent. Not completely. It said the ancestor was deeply impressed by his potential. He hadn't yet completely cleared this away, but he was pretty good for a new student. The idea being,

[34:52]

I guess, eventually, we think maybe he did clear it all up eventually. Maybe he realized his potential and lived in the world of steps and stages without falling into them. It isn't that there aren't steps and stages. You just don't land in them. You don't camp in them. You don't fall into them. That's the point. You don't camp in the Four Noble Truths. You don't camp in nirvana. You don't camp in the practice. You don't camp in suffering. You don't camp in the cause of suffering. You've developed this other way of being with things, which is called the practice. Yes? Freedom from status seeking sounds like the cockroach being not imbalanced by praise or blame. Yeah. That's what it's like. Just like that. You can imagine, you know, a priest depends mostly on good reputation. So people coming and screaming at him and yelling what a bad priest he

[35:52]

is and probably telling everybody in the village, this maybe means no more donations for a while, which means no more food. How's he going to take care of the baby? Apparently he did get food, but he was in jeopardy there. And he said, well, here we are. Here we go. Into jeopardy. How are we going to eat now? Let's see. Are they going to keep feeding me? Let's see what happens next. And then same thing when, you know, they come and praise you and say, oh, let's see what happens now. What's next? When are they going to come with the next installment on this story? Again, as I talked about before, the meditation practice that a lot of people start with is a

[36:55]

truth as separate, does see them as linear, and does see the eightfold path as separate. So people normally approach it that way. In other words, normally approach with a mind of outflows. That's understandable, but that's just to kind of warm up to the practice which does not practice them that way, which is the practice which actually leads to nirvana. The meditation practice which doesn't have these outflows. Dealing with the same truths, the same eightfold path, but without outflows, without dualities. So the way we develop this non-dual approach is to admit

[37:58]

where we're at, and if you see things as separate, then meditate on the fact that you see them as separate. Admit that, and then watch how the separateness works. And if you watch how the separateness works, you'll see if the separateness is interdependent, that you can't distinguish between the four or the eight without the other three or the other seven. So gradually you realize they're interdependent. Now there's a couple of things I want to mention, practice points. You ready for that? This is kind of like attitudinal kind of things about this study. One is about suffering. Again, studying the first truth, it's difficult to meditate on suffering, I mean actual

[38:59]

suffering. But the proposal is, again, that if you can watch, if you can observe suffering right in the suffering, right in the middle of the suffering, is the germ, the seed, the condition for the arising of suffering. So if you can clearly, calmly, joyfully, joyfully study suffering, calmly, imperturbably study suffering, you can see that the arising of suffering is right in the suffering. And since the arising is right in the suffering, the germ, the seed, the condition

[40:04]

for the cessation of suffering is right in the suffering too. The cessation is right in the arising and the cessation is right in the middle of the suffering. So if we can uprightly meditate on suffering, we will be able to see the arising and cessation of suffering right there, without looking the slightest bit off to the side of the suffering, without peeling it back and looking under it or anything, leaving the suffering alone, just as it is. Just as it is, is the way it reveals its arising and its cessation. The particularities of the suffering are what arose, not some other suffering or some approximate version of it, but the actual particular bite of suffering right in that is the arising and the cessation. And this meditation on suffering, this kind of meditation on suffering, is the Eightfold Path. All Eightfolds are in this simple upright observation

[41:13]

of suffering. And that observation can be unfolded into eight dimensions depending on other things that are going on. So like if you're working, you're meditating on suffering while you're working, in this way, while you're working, to see the arising of suffering while you're doing work, while you're involved in your livelihood. Like Liz talking about working 70 hours a week, suffering, suffering in her overwork. If she can meditate on that suffering while she's working, calmly enough to see the arising of the suffering right there in the suffering, she's practicing the Eightfold Path. She's practicing Right Livelihood. If she practices Right Livelihood, she will see the cessation of suffering in her suffering while she's working. When we talk, when we speak to each other, when we speak to each other,

[42:19]

are we there? Are you there? Or are you too busy speaking in such a way as to raise your status? And it turns out that it often is the case that not being present while you speak will raise your status more than if you're present while you speak. I'll expand on that in a moment, if you remind me. Anyway, before we get off in that sidetrack, I want to mention that we're talking here about being present while you speak, so that while you speak, you can be aware that there's perhaps some suffering while you speak. As the people who gave their talks, they were aware before they started talking, they were aware that

[43:23]

probably even thinking about talking, not to mention when they actually did talk, that there might be some discomfort in talking to the group. And was there any discomfort when you talked to the group? Some discomfort. And also when you talk to teachers, there's some discomfort. Or if you give a lecture to a group, there's some discomfort, maybe. Can you imagine that there's some discomfort when you speak to a large group? Usually there often is some discomfort, some concern with whether they're going to throw tomatoes or money. As you speak to people, to be aware that you're uncomfortable because you're trying to please and so on, to stay present with that discomfort while you talk, you can see the arising of the discomfort while you talk. You can see the cessation of the discomfort while you talk. That's called right livelihood.

[44:25]

And that's called right speech. I call that right speech. Right speech is speech, right posture, right view, right intention. Right intention is there because you're intending to stay present, you're intending to keep your eye on any discomfort that might arise while you speak. You're feeling the discomfort, you're feeling the pain in your heart, you're feeling whatever. Discomfort. You can also feel comfort. That's fine too. You get to feel that too. But also you feel the discomfort in feeling the comfort while you're talking to some people. Anyway, you're present with what's happening, you're aware of the suffering, and in that awareness you see the germ of the suffering. You see the rising of the suffering and the cessation of suffering. Then speech is right speech.

[45:27]

That kind of presence. It's not that it doesn't have outflows, there are outflows there. But again, there might be outflows there because if there's suffering there's probably outflows. But again, when you see suffering, you see the rising of suffering, suffering arises from the outflows. In the outflows is the seed for the arising. In the outflows is the seed for nirvana. So again, you see it all. You see the pain, you see the arising, you see the outflows, you see nirvana. Now, you want to hear about how it is that you raise your status more by not being aware of what's happening while you're talking? I think I told you a story before, but there's a movie called The Thin Blue Line, and the guy who made the movie was, I think his name was Morris, something Morris.

[46:46]

Errol Morris. Errol Morris was, to make a long story short, kind of eccentric. He was an expert on Ed Gein. Ed Gein is a mass murderer in Wisconsin, kind of like one of the guys who stopped the mass murder thing rolling here in America when I was in high school. Anyway, he studied Ed Gein and various other pathological beings, and somehow he got interested in doing documentaries on these kinds of situations, and he got interested in a case where somebody had gone to prison for murder, murder shooting a Texas Ranger or something, and somehow he started talking to this guy and he got interested in the case and started studying the various other people involved in the case, interviewing them. And he interviewed one of the people, and in the process of the interview, this person he interviewed, who was one of the people who put the finger on the convicted murderer,

[47:51]

that person basically committed to doing the murder, on film, audio-video reproduction systems he was recording, basically admitting that he did it, which is what the other guy had been saying all along. And one of the most interesting things this guy said were two things. One is that if you put the camera on people and you really listen to them and give them all your attention, their narcissism becomes so inflamed that they just don't tell you everything. I mean, they feel like the king of the road, you know, I tell people whatever I want, because look, here I'm a TV star, I'm a movie star finally, I'll probably make money on whatever I say. What is it? What do the press agents get you? No, they get you, what do they call it when you get known? Exposure, coverage, what's the other word?

[48:52]

Fame. Fame, but the thing that makes you famous, what is that called? Publicity. Yeah, any publicity is good publicity for the stars, right? You know, being in the National Enquirer or whatever, just get your face out there, it's good. So anyway, this guy basically confessed because his narcissism was so, you know, fueled and flared up by all this attention, now here's this guy in prison, now he's going to be in the movies, right? So he told it, and the guy said, but sometimes, the important thing is not so much that you are listening, but that you look like you're listening, and sometimes looking like you're listening doesn't mean you're listening. I mean, sometimes in order to look like you're listening, you have to sort of like not be listening, you have to be concentrating on making a face that looks like you're listening. Concentrate on your face almost, it's like... But when you really put your energy into making this face which looks like this person is totally interested and you're riveted to them, you can't hear them at the same time sometimes, because you're into this facial,

[49:55]

you're expressing yourself facially and not putting so much into listening. So he would sometimes make these faces which would like draw these incredible confessions out of these people. He also got confessions out of the police, and the lawyers, the district attorney, because this guy got convicted, it wasn't just... it was the murderer who told the lie, but then various other people ignored various other obvious information, so various people lied, and he got them all to sort of tell that they lied in the movie. He got the district attorney to say, yeah, well basically we framed them. And the policeman said, yeah, I didn't really believe that, I couldn't see that. And somebody else saying, yeah, the eyewitness right, no, I didn't really see anything. No, I didn't see him, I didn't see the other guy either, but I didn't see anything. They just told everything, because he looked like, boy, you are the neatest thing, please tell me more, you have some good information there, please tell me, oh, this is wonderful.

[50:58]

So sometimes you can listen, and also when you are listening you look like you're listening. But sometimes, as you know, sometimes when you are listening, you might be going... you know, kind of like... you might make a face that didn't look like you were listening, and you are totally listening. Sometimes in dog sign, sometimes I tell people, I'm going to close my eyes now, but I'm not going to sleep, I'm doing that so I can listen to you. Sometimes if I close my eyes, I can hear better. I only do that when I'm very alert. But it's true, I can really... sometimes the person's face makes it hard for me to hear them, when they are too good looking or whatever. So if I close my eyes, it means you are good looking. Also if I have my eyes open, it means you are good looking, whatever way. Basically you are a success, in the looks department. So Babylon, tell me more. This will be held against you, yes?

[52:00]

You don't have to, no, you don't have to. Especially if you are past breeding years, no need. You can just enjoy the rest of your life. All your misery is just habitual. Nobody in this group needs to suffer anymore. Well actually some of you young people maybe do. No. So David and Scott, you guys got to keep suffering. You got to keep working your way up the status thing to get yourself the best possible mates. Anybody who doesn't have kids, you can't chalk it up entirely to habit. You probably should keep trying to get higher status. But the old timers, forget it. You know, it's just misery. And by the way, when you forget it, your status will skyrocket. You'll be world famous immediately. You'll be on all kinds of video cassettes. Actually not necessarily. Because if you are really selfish, you might not say pleasing things

[53:07]

and nobody may come to your talks. It's... It's possible. Bodhidharma did not have big groups of people coming to his talks when he was sitting here. You know, in the icebox facing the wall. So you see anyway how it is that if you want to raise your status by sort of like looking at somebody like Oh God, that's really beautiful what you're saying. Oh my God. You do this with people of high status, right? You look at them and you think Jesus is the most brilliant lecturer and then they give you an A in the course, right? Like I told you about how I became president in my third grade class, right? I decided one day to be president. There was a vacancy. I don't know what happened to the last president, but anyway. I noticed there was a vacancy for the position. I said, well, I think I'll try for it. So I just went like this.

[54:07]

I crossed my hands in front of me, put them on the desk, sat upright and fixed my gaze, my loving gaze, my adoring gaze upon the teacher. And never, never, never deviated from this adoration and this alertness and appreciation. And by the end of the day, I was for some reason nominated and approved as president of the class. So you'd stop staring at her. Huh? Pardon? So you'd stop staring at her. And I continued throughout my tenure. As president, I continued, except for the last part when I decided it was boring to be president and my mind sort of veered off. I went back to thinking about, you know, quantum mechanics and stuff. And my next thing I'd try in the playground on recess to raise my status out there. So the teacher noticed my, you know, lack of attention and I was removed from office right after that.

[55:09]

So anyway, what makes you look good, being into what makes you look good sometimes interferes with being present and really lifts me. So that's not a right presence. That kind of being present does not lead to nirvana. What leads to nirvana is to be present in a way that you're aware of this status-seeking. Which is quite unpleasant because, again, we have built-in feelings which tell us that this isn't good. But really, the whole reason for those feelings is so that we'll continue. Because if you start noticing status-seeking it interferes with you doing it. So you have feelings which don't... which make us feel bad when we notice it so that we'll turn away from it

[56:11]

so it can do its thing unhindered by awareness. Selfish things operate best... selfish activity operates best without awareness often. When there's awareness of it the selfishness starts tripping on itself. Many students report that when they begin to practice mindfulness rather than becoming more present they feel like they become more self-conscious rather than just becoming more conscious. The more mindful they become, self-conscious and awkward. Even the Buddha felt awkward at the beginning of his mindfulness of his own selfishness. Awkward and embarrassed. So that's part of it. Part of it is that initial awkwardness and embarrassment. Normal. Okay, one other thing I want to mention is again... I want to mention these three pure precepts again and that is that these three pure precepts of embracing and sustaining

[57:12]

regulations and ceremonies, embracing and sustaining all good and embracing and sustaining all beings again, this is like an encapsulation of the Buddha's career or at least the latter part of his career. Namely, embracing and sustaining all right conduct that's when the Buddha you know ended outflows. So, to uprightly sit or uprightly do any of the rituals of practice like he uprightly sat cross-legged in the traditional yogic form, he uprightly did that and he ended all outflows in other words, he entered into the selfless practice of that form, of that ritual ended outflows and attained nirvana. So the first noble truth when it's... excuse me, the first pure precept and again pure means

[58:15]

the first pure precept means the first precept about the purity of being pure of outflows. It's a precept which is guiding us to use these forms in such a way that we notice the outflows and become free of them. By using the forms and ceremonies, it flushes out the dualities we feel about them it flushes out the dualities we feel about Zazen practice the dualities we feel about breathing and then we observe those dualities and drop them and we realize the first pure precept we realize the purity of that precept of embracing and sustaining all forms and attaining nirvana then after attaining nirvana you practice the second pure precept which is also pure of duality and you just sit in the samadhi of appreciating

[59:18]

liberation from duality the joy of being free of the dualities of practice. Just like Buddha did after attaining nirvana he sat in the bliss of liberation from duality he sat in the bliss of liberation from outflows and then the third pure precept again it's pure means it's inseparable from the previous two plus there's no dualities in it just like the Buddha then one embraces and sustains all beings again there's no duality there's no you and the beings and this embracing and sustaining all beings comes from nirvana and comes from the joy of nirvana so just like the Buddha sat on the bow tree attained nirvana, that's the first precept enjoyed the nirvana, second precept and it's expressed in nirvana

[60:19]

by embracing and sustaining all beings non-dually these are the three pure precepts now the four noble truths in a sense are kind of like they almost look like they're just the first or the second of the three pure precepts they don't kind of mention they don't articulate the third pure precept so the third pure precept is in a sense a fuller description of practice than the four noble truths because the four noble truths don't mention that after you attain nirvana you then enjoy that and then express it by embracing and sustaining all beings but of course I would say that if you look more carefully at the Eightfold Path and don't see them as dual then you realize that after attaining nirvana you couldn't continue to enjoy nirvana

[61:22]

unless you continue the Eightfold Path so since you're continuing the Eightfold Path you would continue practicing right livelihood, right speech, right posture continuing right livelihood, speech and posture means you do those practices pure of duality so you would naturally do those practices with all beings you would practice right speech with all beings in other words, with your speech you would embrace and sustain every person you met with your posture you would embrace and sustain each person you met with your livelihood you would embrace and sustain each person you met so in fact, because of the non-duality which is implied by right livelihood and so on even though the Bodhisattva vow was not part of that original presentation you would naturally spill over into embracing and sustaining all beings from this place so the three pure precepts

[62:25]

the Eight and the Four and the Four Noble Truths are identical one thing I didn't elaborate on enough for my taste anyway was that in dealing with suffering in studying the First Noble Truth we really need to do that somehow, we need to maybe in your, what do you call it I won't be here, but in practice maybe the Tassajar cheerleaders of the Tassajar Glee Club could make its little presentation some group of people should get together and express glee at the thought of meditating on suffering somehow you have to be joyful about meditating on suffering in order to really meditate on that properly

[63:26]

it's okay, I think to wince occasionally but basically, when you face suffering uprightly, it is a joy it is actually like a joy fun maybe, I don't know, too much, but a joy the Buddha the Buddha in the final meditation on suffering was smiling and after his understanding of the Four Noble Truths he was characterized as one of his nicknames was Smiley he was called Smiley did you hear what Smiley said today? or always smiling they called the Buddha, the Buddha was always smiling now some people say the Buddha never guffawed like I heard you had some good laughs the other night when certain people were doing their talks well the Buddha, if he had been here, would not have

[64:28]

fallen off his seat like some of you did but the Buddha would have been smiling before, during and after but it's a subtle smile, it's not it's not like this big wide open thing, you know that's what some people say now the Zen people, the Zen masters have transcended that, they fall off their seats they really laugh, kind of obnoxiously and show their bad teeth and stuff but the Buddha was always like just a kind of serene smile so Thich Nhat Hanh recommends try to practice a smile even before you really feel it inside so while you're meditating on suffering there's something neurological that happens when your cheeks make that shape and it sends if you really relax into a subtle smile

[65:29]

it sends certain neural impulses into your body which says, it's okay, you can look at this, it's not so bad not a sardonic, sarcastic smile but a sincere, sweet, stupid smile it relaxes you and will help you more clearly meditate on your suffering joyfully, calmly serenely, enthusiastically determinedly, energetically courageously, joyfully look at your suffering that's kind of like the ballpark of feelings that helps you settle into it clearly and see the Dong Zhuo in the middle of the suffering so this isn't a smile that you do to raise your status at Tathagata so people think, oh she's practicing it's a smile you do to help yourself settle into your suffering and maybe nobody else sees it perhaps but they might, it's possible but that's not the point, it's not to impress people

[66:30]

it's to get yourself into the practice to develop your enthusiasm and joy in meditating on the discomfort of your situation because your discomfort is where liberation first arises liberation arising where there isn't discomfort liberation where there isn't discomfort doesn't make any sense because liberation from what? liberation has to happen in the place where you're stuck that's where it counts so liberation must happen right where you're stuck and it must address the place you're most stuck and that's the most painful place so you have to be at the most painful place in order to cash in on liberation and in order to really be there you're going to have to on some level be patient and put aside self-pity although it's right around there put aside anger and impatience and just settle into the misery

[67:31]

joyfully joyfully settle into misery I think it's necessary if you're not joyful you're still holding yourself a little bit up out of the misery you're still cringing and if the enlightenment comes, if the liberation comes and you're cringing the cringe part is not going to be with the release you've got to settle in there so you can be taken away to the happy farm and the other thing I wanted to mention now is I have one minute to go and that is about practicing these forms I said it before, I'll say it again these forms can be thought of as like a trellis or the structure of an arbor does it count the plant on it? just the physical geometrical structure

[68:39]

the arbor the trellis or the arbor the forms are like a trellis and so you have this thumb shaped trellis or arbor with support things and the plant comes up out of the ground and it comes up a little ways and a lot of plants if they come up and they can't grab anything they just fall back down but they keep looking around for something to help them get up closer to the sun they want to go play with the sun but if they keep rolling around the floor they just sort of make more and more shade on themselves so some plants do not do well without something to help it lift up so anyway they're rolling around the floor and somehow they touch some vertical support and they grab it and then they get higher and sometimes they go up around the thing like that for a while

[69:39]

but usually they go for a while up in direct linear accordance with the support but then they often not too long after that go out in mid-air and express themselves in some creative way then they go up a little further on the thing and then go out in mid-air and express themselves in some creative way and then they go up a little higher and express themselves in some creative way and they go something like this and they make all these kinds of creative moves until you finally have this fluorescence of life in relationship to this structure the form is a support for the life expression the life expression goes beyond the form often, but it uses it connects with and is intimate with the structure and then based on that intimacy when it's really intimate with the structure

[70:41]

it can then express itself beyond the structure but in a sense that when it connects intimately with the structure it's selfless, it's not saying I'm going to connect with the structure my way no, you don't connect your way, you connect with the structure in an intimate way and based on that intimacy you got a good support then to go do your thing up in mid-air you do your own creative expression based on that intimacy that intimacy it's not like you give in to the form exactly, and let the form be boss but also you don't have to be boss, because if you have to be boss too much the form says, well, then you're not connecting with the form so you have to it's not the form, it's not you it's the intimacy, that's selfless but then you do your thing it's a strange plant that would be exactly the same shape as the trellis

[71:42]

in fact it's impossible the plant can't go straight, it has to at least wrap around the trellis and some plants do stay tightly around their support and don't go too far out but still they're not the same so if you look at the shape of the plant the shape of the plant is not the same as the shape of the trellis the plant is different but you couldn't have that plant without the trellis and the trellis is the support for the plant and the plant makes the trellis be a functioning trellis and the trellis makes the plant be able to be fluorescent and huge so when it comes to doing a form I'm not trying to get you to completely be the same as the form I'm hoping that you'll become intimate with the form if you become intimate with the form then you and the form will be the intimacy of you and the form

[72:45]

will be the opportunity for selflessness selflessness is realized in the intimacy with the form if you give into the form and submit to the form that's not selflessness, that's selfish if you rebel against the form that's not intimacy, that's selfish intimacy of the form is you don't rebel against it and you don't submit to it there's no outflows there that intimacy is nirvana so nirvana is like a beautifully a beautifully abundantly living plant so for example I talked to someone about about wearing jewelry and zendo and again I just tell you that I don't talk to everybody about

[73:48]

I don't talk to everybody who's wearing jewelry and zendo about wearing jewelry and zendo I actually don't do that too much I mostly talk to people who say they want some training who want some feedback if somebody's rebelling against the form or submitting to the form, I won't necessarily say anything I wait to be invited again, I think that's the Buddhist tradition the Buddha did not teach us to go and give people feedback on the way they're practicing the forms and ceremonies of our practice without them inviting and he had to be invited three times usually in order to teach because the way he would relate to people would sometimes be perplexing or upsetting their selfish system so you have to be asked so this person asked me for feedback asked me to train him

[74:49]

so I said well now that you mentioned it I've noticed that you wear jewelry and zendo I myself would think I think it would be pretty cute with a little gold earring shaved head, gold earring anyway well he didn't have a zendo we have this policy of no jewelry and zendo so this person was wearing jewelry and I said before you asked me to train you I just figured you were expressing yourself that way that's your business if your understanding of the guideline not wearing jewelry and zendo is that you wear jewelry and zendo that's fine, I'll assume that's what you understand but if you want me to train you then I'm going to ask you what are you trying to say if there's a thing which says no jewelry and you're wearing jewelry what are you trying to tell me about how you understand that precept

[75:49]

is that what you think it means, that you can wear some or what or is it just that you happened to be wearing it and it was time to go to zendo and you kept wearing it it wasn't really a statement, which is it it's kind of like asking a guy his feet were flared out is this intentional or what it isn't that I was trying to get him to take his jewels off before he went into zendo that's not it I'm trying to get intimate with him about wearing the jewels what is the reason what is the aesthetic here of wearing the jewels in zendo, tell me about it reveal your understanding of this precept of this form, let's talk about it I'm not trying to get you to stop doing that and do the literal interpretation I'm trying to get you to be intimate with this getting intimate is a lot harder than just taking the jewels off or wearing them it takes a lot more work, a lot more courage

[76:50]

and it often takes somebody else asking you a few questions not always this does not mean that you're going to get by with rigid adherence so if the person doesn't wear any jewelry and doesn't wear any other kinds of forbidden accoutrement and basically follows the forms in such a way that the literal interpretation no one would ever dare call them on it but I sense that the person is looking very tight around the precepts like the plant looks like this I see a plant like that I say I don't say anything I just go, hmm it's this plant, it's this person who's shaped just exactly like the form who's no different from the form, who's just the form

[77:53]

either this is like a perfectly enlightened Buddha or they're selfishly practicing this precept there's an outflow here it's one or the other, I think but I don't say anything now if they come and say, please give me some feedback then I say, how come you do everything exactly right how come you never make any errors how come you're always exactly on time then I ask them, can you tell me they say, oh I get it, you're Buddha or I find out that there's some, you know that they're trying to, for example impress somebody that they're the best Zen monk in the valley so I say why don't you come a little later why don't you wear why don't you put this ring on just for a week I'll tell the Inu just try it out, see if you can handle that but that would be

[78:56]

violating the rule, I'm not going to do that oh really? anyway, there's all kinds of games you can play to flush out any attachment to the forms, which might possibly be self-aggrandizing and, you know, promoting your nomination as the best behaved monk at Tassajara like in high school, you know best posture, best looking I gave a course at Schumacher College in England one time and after they had that high school thing best posture, most punctual most compassionate, all these Buddhist virtues and they gave all awards to these people best looking, whatever and Marian, remember Marian Costa he won best posture and you saw

[80:01]

what happened to him so so it's not rigid adherence that's not intimacy it's not, you know, rebellion intimacy nobody knows what intimacy is intimacy is intimacy, who can say what intimacy is except that I would say intimacy is selflessness but of course nobody can say what selflessness is either because it doesn't have a self selflessness is inconceivable, intimacy is inconceivable and the inconceivable selfless relationship with these forms, that's what they're for and when we realize that, that's nirvana that's nirvana and then to continue to practice the forms in that way that is absorption that is the samadhi of the joy of nirvana

[81:02]

and if you continue that practice you'll naturally freak out and come out and embrace and sustain all beings with this liberated selfless joy so we bring with us lots of habits about following forms about pushing ourselves too hard and then reacting into rebellion or rebelling and then reacting into pushing ourselves too hard we go back and forth from rebelling against the form I'm not going to be rigid we become extremely rigid about not being rigid we become stuck in rebelling against rigidity or we feel the pain of rigidity we become social outcasts and we submit and say, okay, I'll give in to the precept and then we become docile overly docile and submissive and that's also selfish, we do that because we can't stand social ostracism and so on

[82:02]

so we go back and forth between these things until we settle into complete intimacy once that happens, then you have the stories of the monks who supposedly have achieved intimacy and are now expressing themselves in these unusual ways and again they're saying I haven't fallen into, I'm intimate with the precept I'm not stuck in the precept so now I'm going to show you what it looks like to be intimate and free of the precept here goes, watch this and then they do something unusual and the story I did yesterday Magu, the famous, became a great Zen master, he had become free of the forms and he went around then to test his freedom of forms with various Zen teachers so he went to Zhang Jing and did an unusual form instead of walking around the teacher three times and bowing he walked around the teacher three times and stood in front of the teacher and shook his staff three times, boom, boom, boom that's not the usual form, he says, okay, how about that, is that freedom or what?

[83:03]

Have I attained intimacy with the Zen tradition and gone beyond it, what do you think? and Zhang Jing says, right, right and he goes to see if Nanchuan does the same thing and Nanchuan says, wrong, wrong but it's not right, right or wrong, wrong it's let's continue to work on intimacy here and let's continue to, you know let's continue to realize intimacy with the forms and see when you do something at variance with the form, is that coming from selflessness is that coming from a creative, joyous upsurge of uncontrollable kinetic energy or is it coming from rebellion or is it coming in reaction to submission you be there, you find out

[84:08]

you take notes on yourself and then others, if you invite them can say, when you did that, how were you when you did that, what were you doing when you did that were you present, was that intentional but I don't think we should go around if we see people doing creative if we see people doing something that doesn't look like the form I don't think we should go and ask them unless they ask us because otherwise, every time a server would do something unusual then 55 people come and ask them they'll never do anything unusual again see, that's what happens when I loosen up a little bit I'll never make a mistake again with those turkeys so no only when you're asked I would say basically, only when you're asked to give feedback unless you're in an actual training situation if you're the head server people on your crew I think they're saying I think they're saying

[85:08]

I'm willing to have some instruction here if I'm on this crew but I don't think they're saying to everybody at Tassajara that they want everybody to be their head server I think the head server I would suggest that as a matter of fact now that I'm on the topic that the head server, after the next meal you have with your cohorts your companions that you ask them do you want me to give you feedback on your form do you want me to help you with your form and maybe let them tell you later if they don't want you to because it might be embarrassing for them to say in front of others yes I do or it might coerce others if 4 out of 5 say they do and the other one doesn't feel like saying that so just ask them to let you know if they have some problem with you giving feedback

[86:10]

let's say for example nobody comes and says I have a problem then at the end of the next meal I say I haven't got any feedback that you don't want so I'm going to assume that silence means assent in ancient Buddhist tradition and so I will give you feedback on the way you serve when you're on my crew anyway I will give you feedback however that does not mean then the next question the head server could ask the group is not a question the next thing the head server could consider whether the head server was willing to say I would like your feedback on the way I'm your leader the way I teach you and instruct you at the serving so I would like your feedback and as a matter of fact I would suggest at the service I'm making a suggestion now but now that I've said it all I would suggest to the head server that before the head server asks the other people if they want feedback you should think about whether

[87:13]

you would ask the next question you would tell them that they give you feedback if you don't want them to give you feedback then I wouldn't ask them if they would like you to give them feedback but if you're willing to have feedback and you're willing to give them feedback then you might talk this practice with them and come to some agreement about how you relate to each other around the forum how does that seem? this is optional I'm giving this to the head server to initiate on the other hand if the head servers don't do this let me know head servers are dons right? let me know if the dons don't do this what I mean is that even if they don't want to do it even if they don't want to give you feedback I think you still have the right to give them feedback but again it should be worked out

[88:15]

it should be done with joy you should joyfully give other people negative feedback and you should joyfully invite feedback don't invite negative feedback just invite feedback it's also okay for the head servers to tell the servers that they did an exquisite awe-inspiring job it does happen here I have seen, I have come into the Zen Dojo and I have watched the servers and it is well I mean there's nothing so beautiful that I've ever seen I shouldn't say nothing so beautiful but nothing more beautiful than the way serving sometimes happens at Tassajara I don't know what beauty is but it was beautiful it's just beautiful especially if you just come down towards the end of a practice period and you visit and you see the way the serving gets towards the end of practice period

[89:20]

it's just beautiful and that's all there is to it from my point of view it's just beautiful and sometimes it's hard to appreciate the beauty when the servers are stumbling around in confusion but sometimes that's very beautiful too but beauty is an eye of the beholder but still it's very beautiful the way the serving goes sometimes the effort and enthusiasm and attention and skill that's been developed through all those hours of practice and feedback, it's amazing what it gets to be like have you noticed that, how beautiful it is? it's been that way for quite a long time this beauty one time when I was Shuso

[90:25]

in the old Zendo we only had one tan in those days and it was considerably higher than the tan we have now and when you Shuso you sat up there with the abbot or whatever and one time after an evening meal, the meal was so beautiful it was so beautiful just the whole thing was so beautiful that I got off the tan without touching the tan with my hands can you imagine how that would happen? I'm sitting cross-legged, right? and I uncross my legs and get off the tan without touching the tan I jumped I jumped off the tan, I uncrossed my legs and leapt off the tan onto the ground and landed without too much noise some people nearby noticed something unusual

[91:26]

but I jumped for joy at the beauty of the practice here back in 1972 it was like that and it's that way now, too when I first came here this practice [...]

[91:40]

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