I don't know if I should write it. Maybe I'll write it up here. I heard a rumor that I've been talking about this term, A-S-S-B, and somebody said, I don't know what he's talking about. So that's an acronym for Anyatar Samyak Sambodhi. Unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. So now you know what I'm talking about, right? I mentioned the ten vows and ten practices of samantabhadra, homage, praise, offering, confession and repair of unskillful action.

[01:24]

rejoicing in skillful action and virtues, requesting the Buddhas to turn the wheel of Dharma, beseeching Buddhas to stay in the world. to keep coming to the world, to practice the practice of the Buddhas with the Buddhas, to harmonize and practice with sentient beings, and to dedicate the merit of the practice. And when I think of this, I think of these ten in a circle. It goes round and round. After dedication, then we start over again. Then we also have a style of initiation in bodhisattva precepts.

[02:26]

We'll do that initiation style, initiation ritual, initiation ceremony. We'll do it tomorrow night for jnana. And that ceremony starts with offerings and homage. The praise is kind of implied. We don't exactly sing songs of praise. which are also called hymns. But we do, as you notice, we do recite a hymn to the perfection of wisdom after the Heart Sutra. It's a praise of perfect wisdom, which is one of Samantabhadra's vows, is to pretty much endlessly praise

[03:31]

the Buddhas and bodhisattvas and their virtues. But in the ceremony it's not so clear where the praise is. But there is offerings, there is paying homage by prostration and also by literally saying homage to the Buddhas in ten directions and homage to the Dharma in ten directions, homage to the Sangha in ten directions, and homage to Shakyamuni Buddha and so on. We pay homage as part of that ceremony. And the next part of the ceremony is the major activity is called renunciation. And the character that's used there is a character which also means to give alms.

[04:39]

The next part of the ceremony is confession and repentance. a kind of purification practice, a clearing away of karmic obstructions by that practice. And then again, the ordinate offers incense and bows as a gesture of request, requesting the discipline, requesting the training. And then the Bodhisattva precepts are given in response to the request. And then the preceptor asks the ordinand if they'll continue to practice these precepts even after realizing Buddhahood. And they almost always say, yes I will. And then we give a document

[05:50]

which is a kind of a certification that the person is in the bodhisattva precept lineage, starting with Shakyamuni, going through all the Indian bodhisattva ancestors, and then through all the Chinese, and then through the Japanese, up to the Western, some Western, bodhisattva ancestors. And then the person's name is written at the end of that lineage. And then there's a red line, which is called a bloodline or a precept line, which runs through all the names on the certificate and runs back from the person, the last person who has received the precepts, goes back up and goes down into Every moment is urgent, and we need to be calm with this urgency in order to respond in the most skillful way.

[07:13]

And sometimes we lose sense of that, and at that time, part of protecting that situation which we're protecting by renouncing is to show the way we're working our teachers, our comrades. And then we realize, yeah, I'm a little ahead of myself. Yes? So back to the situation. I'm trying to clarify my understanding of how How self, the way you're pointing out when you write self on the board, is experienced in the clarity? How self what? Is experienced in consciousness.

[08:14]

Because it seems that self isn't the mind object, and that I get confused. Self can be a mind object. It can't. Yeah. How does that differ from, like, the mind object, I am sitting on this chair right now. Because that seems to be different just because it happens to have I in it. It seems different. That's the self in language. That's the linguistic version of self, which is somewhat different from just the word self. They're both self. And the consciousness is aware of I am sitting in a chair, and the consciousness is aware of self. But there's this affliction also in consciousness, which is Yeah. Which is, I'm doing sitting in the chair, which is actually on equal par with the chair that I'm sitting, the self, and a lot of other stuff that's present.

[09:19]

But the affliction is not understood as on equal par. The affliction doesn't think it's on par with the self. And the affliction is the self and the tireless other stuff. That's why it's affliction, because it takes a lot of compassion to not offer that. But the thought that the self is doing the sitting in the chair is an affliction. But from the point of view of awareness, you can be aware. Me, self is doing the sitting in the chair, and the sitting in the chair, all three of those are mental events which we're aware of. One of them I'm falling for, which is, it's not just a mental event, it's actually telling the true relationship between the self and the activity. That's why I say affliction. It's a falsehood. The self isn't doing the consciousness. And the consciousness isn't doing the self, but they independently arise, they depend on each other, but neither of them are causing the other one.

[10:22]

They're dependent on each other. By studying the situation, you can see, Yeah, there used to be a falling into the tree. Again, when you're excited, it becomes a pit. The situation, unless we have compassion and calm, we tend to fall into these afflictions. But again, it can be awakening. Oh, I? Ah, yes, there was a falling into, I did that. And that was painful. And that was unnecessary. And now it's not that way anymore. It's just the option which is just sitting there, like a massive fire. The radiance of this truth, of this, I'm doing it. I'm not touching it, I'm not turning it. It's just a fire. That's the way it is. And in this space, there's I'm doing it, there's self, there's the action, they're all there.

[11:30]

And each one, if we're calm, we don't fall into them. But if we're not calm, our habits sort of push us into them, and then you're in the pain. Plus, but that's at the end of the story. If we practice compassion with them, the domination can reactivate. So, if there's no self... Wait a second. You can say if there's no self, but I haven't been saying that. Are you saying that? Yes. You're stating that there is no self? Suppose there is no self. Okay, suppose there's no self. Suppose there's no self, then the practice of renunciation is done? No. If there's no self, we don't have consciousness. If we don't have consciousness, then we still could have life.

[12:31]

And light can have a body, an unconscious process, but no consciousness. Are we done? There's nothing to do. There's no practice. The unconscious can't practice by itself. The body cannot practice. So that's one of the great things of the creation of this consciousness, is it offers an opportunity to receive teaching, and also it offers the opportunity to create all kinds of afflictions and suffer in order to wake up. But if there's no self, we just don't have consciousness. And we have also, part of Buddhist history is, they noticed that people went into certain states, certain yogis went into certain states of concentration where the self was suppressed. So they would sit down, it's about 10.40 in the morning here, they would sit down and go into this state of concentration.

[13:39]

And then they would be in this state for sometimes maybe, let's say, several hours or a day, and then they would come out, but to their consciousness, which went away when they went into this state. When they came out, they thought it was the next moment. But it wasn't. They were alive and breathing and so on for several hours. And they wondered, how come all the people just evaporated? ridden a room and went into a state. So they realized that there were certain states where the consciousness would be turned off for a while. And then they would go, well, how can consciousness arise again? So they came up with this thing about this storehouse consciousness, which is connected with the body. So the no-self, where basically we have the unconscious. We've always got the unconscious when we're alive. There's nobody there. And if you take away the self from consciousness, then consciousness is temporarily not functioning.

[14:43]

But we still have our life, and you can still walk around, and people can even drive cars without consciousness. It's not recommended. But after they come back into consciousness, all the delusions that they had when they went in to that state which, in the consciousness, you haven't developed or worked on during that time. So we can only work on the delusions any place where the delusions are. The delusions are a place where the self, where we believe, I did that. That's my car. That's my friend. I am what I'm doing. We get in a place that's excited, so in that excited place we fall into all these aversions, so that they become delusions that we suffer. If you take away the consciousness, it's quite restful. No problem.

[15:45]

But you don't evolve in dreamless sleep. You don't evolve when you're not dealing with these afflictions. You evolve We evolve. The consciousness becomes illuminated by compassionately investigating the self and the delusions about the self. Investigating the self and the afflictions that surround it. That's how we evolve towards realizing reality. But if you want to take a break, fine. But you're not going to evolve there. What is the Hatsutra talking about? One way it's talking about it is saying that in wisdom you see that eyes are not eyes. So you could say, no eyes. In other words, there's no eyes except that eyes are not eyes. You see how things are pivoting.

[16:47]

In emptiness you see. that there's no independently existing eyes. They're just eyes which are not eyes, and not eyes which are just eyes. You see, in that vision, is what the Heart Sutra is talking about. In that vision, it's being talked to as... That's the great thing about the Heart Sutra, is it might be the only vertical sutra that we have still, where the teacher, who is giving us Buddha's teaching, is the Bodhisattva of compassion. So the one who sees how this is, is the bodhisattva of compassion. If we're compassionate with our eyes, our ears, our nose, we'll see that our eyes, our ears, our nose are not our eyes, ears, and nose. We need training in compassion with this stuff. Avalokiteshvara is doing that, practicing compassion with the five skies, and sees that they're empty. Yes?

[17:51]

The word affliction and delusion are the same thing? Yeah, I would say. Let's say affliction and delusion are the same. E-illusions, some e-illusions you don't believe. Delusions are more like you believe. Like we say somebody is delusional, we often mean they actually believe their fantasies about people. And usually the illusion is that you're falling into an illusion. So when you use the word affliction, allies, I can convert to the word delusion, allies? It's the same thing? Yeah, except that afflictions are also broader, there's more afflictions than just that. You know, we translate, delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. That character that we translate as delusion is bon nom, which means affliction.

[18:54]

What is the difference? Well, afflictions are delusion, hatred, greed, these misunderstandings of the self, all that. The afflictions are wider than just delusion. It also includes greed and hate, and all the stuff that goes with that. It includes fear. But greed, hate, delusion, pretty much, those are the main afflictions. But it's not just delusion in that Chinese character. For whatever reason, we chose in the early days of Zen Center not to say afflictions are inexhaustible. We chose delusion. Yes? Christopher, I told him there were 72 afflictions, but only three of them.

[19:57]

No, 72 categories, 72 phenomena. And you said only three of them. Oh, somebody might ask about that. And I wanted to know. There's three. The three are two kinds of nirvana and space. Those are also called unconstructed dharmas. They're not composite. Space is not made of parts. And the irvana is not made of parts. And there's two kinds of irvana. And then all of the things that are composite also have outflows. They're dharmas. Like... like the way the mind turns towards the object, like faith, like lack of faith, like laziness, like energy, like concentration, like attachment, hatred.

[21:04]

These are all mental dharmas, and they all have outflows. They're all somewhat defiable. But space is not above. And nirvana's not defined. But the path which realizes the unconditioned is the path of caring for the conditioned in such a way that the whole system is not trying to gain or lose anything. And that way of working with the gains and losses is nirvana. Yes? Nirvana, one, and two, and the pillow after the curtain. Well, one, nirvana is a nirvana like, for example, The historical Buddha attained nirvana under retreat. And then, at some point, the body and the cognitive processes associated with the bodies of this person, they dispersed.

[22:05]

They entered into what's called Parinirvana. The way he died. When he died, when he no longer And so the first one, the name in the text I'm talking about, the first one is called pratisamkhya-nirodha, which means nirodha that comes from the practice that we realize. Then there's apratisamkhya-nirodha, which is the nirodha that doesn't come from the practice, which is just the non-duality of practice and realization. It's actually been that way with us all the time. But it's hard to realize it, being alive. Yes? Could you say something about self-realization, renunciation, and Nityārā-saṁhyā-sambodhi? Yeah, I think renunciation in this tradition, and this is one tradition, is necessary for self-realization.

[23:13]

If we don't renounce what's going on in consciousness, we're not going to realize what the self is. Because we've got all these afflictions that we should be giving away, letting go of. If we let go of the afflictions, we can wake up to what they are and see how they work. And seeing how they work, we realize that they're negotiable, they're reversible, and they work with the self. But we have to practice renunciation for starters And then we practice confession and repentance. And then we get these precepts, and we use these precepts to practice with all these afflictions. But in order to practice with these afflictions in a fully compassionate way, we sort of have to stop messing with them, and give them away without any kind of gaining an idea. That leads to realizing what the self is, and what the afflictions are.

[24:15]

There's still self, but we see how it works with the afflictions and then we understand, we realize it. It's free and it's not free, it's afflicted and it's not free, and so on. And that understanding is Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. Like we say, when there's renunciation, there's Buddha. It's not, I thought that Anuttarasamyaksambodhi was renouncing or going beyond self-realization? Yeah, it is. So renouncing self-realization is a more true self-realization. So we say Buddhas are naturally going beyond Buddha. As we say in our chant, we're able to enter enlightenment and let go of enlightenment. Because real enlightenment is not stuck in enlightenment.

[25:22]

It keeps leaping beyond enlightenment into delusion, and leaping beyond delusion into enlightenment. Not like, OK, now I'm going to stay in enlightenment. No. Leap beyond it and enter the situation, and transmit the teaching and the practice into the situation, and then leap beyond the situation by the practice. realizing the duration from the situation, for the sake of the situation, so that the practice can go on. Everybody's included in it. So again, going beyond enlightenment is a characteristic of true enlightenment is not to be stuck in enlightenment. Yes? I'm trying to put this teaching in context of something that happened this morning.

[26:26]

As a server, I can't help but read the seconds, and it's still serial. Was I there? Yeah, I'm hoping you can deconstruct all this. helped me deconstruct it because it seems like the opportunities you're describing are occurring just as I'm speaking. Because in that moment, myself, you, Judge, and I, it just all went through me, and I had to really work to focus on what I was going to be doing after the interview. And then even if you consider picking up on it yourself, Maybe I should have brought compassion that I'm really grateful about bringing this up to you, because I don't really quite understand it. And so I'm thinking, wow, the moment I dropped that Houston studio on the floor, I could have brought compassion to that experience at that moment. Yes. Yes. And I did. Yeah. And now you're saying that?

[27:29]

And that is compassion. That you're noticing it and bringing it out in the open right now, that's the act of compassion. Confession of missing a chance for compassion is compassion. And then you feel some maybe regret that you missed a chance, that's also part of compassion. And I could tell you thought something was going on. And if I had known, I would have given you instructions about how to clean that up, because you have a little .. I didn't see it, so I couldn't mention to you that you could clean that up. But I did it for you. I was happy to do it for you. And I felt your sincere heart.

[28:30]

I didn't know what it was about. Because there was other... I mean, what you were concerned about was on the other side of the wall, through the window. There were other places where I could see it. But I felt your sincerity and your concern for the situation. And I did not know if you were kind to yourself in that process. I wasn't sure. I wrote this very kindly myself. No, no, no. I wasn't upset with you. I didn't nag at you. I appreciate you. And I want to support you to be kind to yourself on your mistakes, and that will help us clean up better. You looked out okay, because we have this nice example.

[29:31]

which you can transmit to your disciples. All the times when I wasn't attentive, now I see there are chances for me to show the practice. I say, oh, I wasn't attentive, and I'm sorry. Yes? I'm appreciating the careful quality of this investigation. And it's reminding me of a phrase, maybe you can help me remember it. I think it's the mitsu no kaku. Mem mitsu. Mem mitsu no kaku. So mem mitsu. Mem is cotton. Mitsu is intimate or dense. So it means, like, intimate, minute attention to every thread of the cotton. So being aware of where the oatmeal's going, and what part of the bowl it's landing in, and not trying to control what's going on here, but to practice careful attention to the serving process, to the receiving of the oatmeal,

[30:54]

to the giving of the oatmeal, to the holding of the bowl, to the sense of self, how it's operating there, to the sense of other. Watching all this wonderful situation, being compassionate to all the different objects in the intense momentariness, that's methamixim. And no is a marker of possession, and kapil is our family style. Ka-fu means family wind, or family style. So the family style of Soto Zen is this kind of attention to how we interact with each other, and how we interact with our bulls, and how our bulls interact with us, and how we interact with the Han, and how the Han interact with the bell, how we interact with the bull. All these things, how we interact with our robes, The attention to that is characteristic of our style.

[31:56]

And the danger of this style is to get stuck in the details. Renza is not so much characterized by this attention to detail. And so they're more emphasizing. The jumping, maybe. The leaping beyond. So the problem, so to say, that style is stuck in the cotton. The other one is to leap beyond the form before you have taken good care of it. If you take really good care of the form, you naturally leap. But to leap before, because leaping is good. To leap before you really settle into the Self-realization, that's a danger. But also, if you're really studying the self-realization, if you go too far, it might interfere with the leaping. So we're trying to be really attentive and really careful, and leap.

[33:04]

And when the carefulness is full and round, leaping becomes obvious. So in relation to using form, because things can be very formalized depending on where you're at, depending on the situation. But we can use this as kind of a marker in creating form when we go back out into the world, that it's the attention to detail, not necessarily an elaborate process. Not necessarily an elaborate process, but It could be out in the world. It could be an elaborate process. Like a number of people have talked to me about how when they're here, it's clearer than what the details are to attend to. Sometimes in their work situation, it's not so clear than what details are to be attended to. And also here, part of the reason that we're

[34:06]

able to attend to details here is because other people are also attending to the same details, and they're helping us and appreciating us in attending to details, but we agree on what we're helping with and what we're taking care of. So when you leave a situation like this, it's good to create another one where you're agreeing with people what details you're attending to. But that means you have to create an agreement on what those are. So those would be the form in that situation. And so you have to create your own monastery. But monastery doesn't mean that it's separate from your work scene. It means that you're focused on one thing. So you could be at work, but basically be focusing on careful attention to detail. But in order to be successful, you need comrades who also want to do that. You have to talk it over and make commitments and agreements about what the forms are that you're going to be working on. So it's a process in co-creating the form before the practice of the form is maybe reinforced.

[35:15]

Yeah, it's hard to be... Yeah, we have to sort of link the forms together. Otherwise, what do we say? Yeah, it's hard to be thorough. We don't do it to operate the forms together. And like I think of operating rooms or ICUs, now they've worked out elaborate, careful checklists of the forms that they followed in these situations. And it took them a long time. Well, it took about 100 years or so for the kind of forms that we have now in our medical situation to be established. They didn't have the forms, and so they were less skillful. So they're actually more formal now than they used to be. Aren't these kind of like freewheeling surgeons anymore? And it works much better, because they check each other. And they look that out by trial and error, by a lot of suffering and confusion and harm, by not agreeing on how they're going to do that.

[36:22]

And so, we would like the spirit to be transmitted to many realms, where people are focused on how to do a really good job in this operation, and here are our precepts, and other situations. This is the first pure precept, focusing on the forms and ceremonies. And it's conducive to liberation. It's 11 o'clock, and I'm guessing maybe it's enough. I feel some people are enthusiastic. I mean, many people are enthusiastic, and some people want to continue to talk, but I think maybe it's enough for today. Is that okay? Thank you so much for your great presentation. Thank you.

[37:20]

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