This morning we chanted the Precious Mere Samadhi, The Song of the Precious Mere Samadhi. And that is a poem, Chinese, and it's written by the teacher Tozan Ryokai. And part of the story about him is that his teacher, Yun Yan transmitted that samadhi to him.

[01:08]

Then he wrote this song about the samadhi that his teacher transmitted to him. The teaching of suchness has been intimately communicated or transmitted from Buddha's ancestors. Now you have it. so that he transmits the samadhi to you. And now you have it. You have the samadhi now. You'll never get rich by digging a ditch. You have samadhi now. Even though you won't get rich, some of you will be digging ditches. And I'm making ditches along the sides of the roads and so on. So then he says, now that you have it, take care of it well.

[02:16]

Aside from some comments like, well, I don't know how I have it. How am I going to take care of it? Aside from that kind of stuff. Somebody, some happy student, after the December session here, and he told me about towards the end of the session, the way he was feeling about the way practice was going for him. I thought, you know, pretty good. He got a gift. The samadhi was transmitted to him. He was sitting there day after day, hour after hour. Anyway, the Buddha has transmitted the samadhi to him. And then he said, but now how do I take care of it?

[03:29]

Yeah, how are you going to take care of this thing? How are you going to take care of such a precious way of being. But some of the characteristics of this gift that he got are indications of how to care for it, because this samadhi is not something you receive and give. It's not something you take and hold. And the practice is not any longer something that you are doing. It's something that lifts you up and carries you forward on the path. So when he was talking about this nice gift that he got during the meditation intensive and asked me how to take care of it, I thought, what a precious thing.

[04:33]

And I thought, how do I take care of my grandson? is also a precious thing to us. And I think it's pretty much the same. You receive and give it away. So you've received the samadhi and now you can give it away. Don't worry about whether you're going to get it back again, because we're going to chant the thing again later, and again you're going to say, now you have it, so keep it well. So it's going to be given to you moment by moment. There is samadhi now. So please take care of it. The way you take care of any precious thing

[05:35]

That's a lie. Pay attention to it. Stay close to it. Don't try to control it. And if you do lose sight of it, confess, I lost sight of it, and start paying attention again. I made this little diagram, and this is the first version of it, more or less, of the relationship among different classes and meanings of samadhi. I might make another version of this with more detail, but I thought I'd not give you too much information at first.

[06:48]

So the word samadhi, you know, right out of the Sanskrit dictionary, means putting together. Joining, combining with. Union, a whole, aggregate, set. Completion, accomplishment, setting to right, settlement, proof, and then as you get into, you know, meaning concentration of thought,

[08:05]

profound or abstract meditation, intense contemplation of any particular object, and then it goes on in parentheses to say, so as to identify contemplator with the object contemplated. basic meaning, but this is starting to understand in the dictionary even that samadhi is non-dual meditation, where the meditator and the meditated upon become one. Supporting, upholding, Perseverance in difficulty.

[09:14]

Attempting the impossible. The Chinese used this character, translated samadhi, too. One way of writing it is a transliteration which is pronounced , just trying to say the word. And the other way of translating it is The transliteration, the translation of this character, which is pronounced ding, and that character means to be settled, resolute, firm.

[10:35]

And that's more of an etymological translation. If samadhi means those things, in terms of it means those words, those words are a consolation to try to... But the basic definition of samadhi is one-pointedness of thought. That's the definition. rather than a translation. There's other things I gave you were translations, except for the one that had stuff in parentheses. The definition is one pointedness of thought. In form created, citta, which means thought or mind, etat, which means one, and aggata,

[11:44]

I'm going to put that down again. This is like the object. So the one-pointedness of the samadhi. Yes. You used the word thought. Thought, mind, consciousness, awareness, cognition, pretty much synonymous. And samadhi is also, you could say, is awareness. Now one of the first things I point out is that in this chart, the center, the center of the center samadhi, samadhi number one.

[12:48]

By samadhi number one, I mean the basic definition of samadhi. But I also mean to refer to the, I guess, the psychological teaching of Buddhism. which you find throughout the . I don't know actually off the top of my head where the Buddha said this, but anyway, the psychological teaching is that all states of mind, all cognitions, every experience, is characterizing qualities or factors. And they settled on the number 10, that all cognitions have 10 qualities.

[13:58]

All people of consciousness have 10 qualities. And we'll start just by the first quality that they all have is samadhi. So that's one meaning of, you know, you have samadhi already. Every moment there's samadhi. And before I elaborate on how it is to be Samadhi, maybe you'd be interested in hearing other factors or the other qualities of all cognitions. Would you? So I told some people recently what they are. Let's see if they remember. What are the other nine? Don't be shy.

[15:01]

What? Go ahead, tell me. Impermanence? Impermanence, well, that's true, they're all impermanent, but that's not exactly a mental factor. But all states of consciousness are impermanent, and all the factors, all the mental factors are also impermanent. But what are the factors, the mental factors, that universally... arise with or characterize all states. Yes? Mindfulness. Mindfulness, yeah. Mindfulness is one of them. Isn't that something? Every state of consciousness has samadhi and mindfulness. You really locked that up here. Attention. Attention. Well, yes, but strictly speaking, they don't mention attention other than mindfulness. But there's aspects of attention that are always present.

[16:07]

But mindfulness, you could also translate mindfulness as attention. Pardon? Contact, right. Contact in false states, and contact means that the consciousness and some kind of organ that is sensitive to the object, and the object, it's as though they touch each other. And that contact between them is always characteristic. It's always there. It's an important quality of the cognition. The first one, mindfulness is smriti. And mindfulness means being aware of the object, of the cognition, noting it. particularly noting its sign, its defining sign, and also remembering the object.

[17:18]

And it's called smriti. And a contact is called sparsha. Any others? Energy. No, it's not, but let's watch out. It's something like energy. It's something like energy. Perception? Well, good guess, because cognitions are sometimes perceptions. There's basically two kinds of cognitions, perceptual cognitions and conceptual cognition. So perception is actually the most fundamental type of cognition. It means cognition before there's any mediation. Most of what we live in and are aware of, however, is conception.

[18:26]

I like the example of, well, like if you look out at a scene and it's kind of blue and you put some glasses on that are, have certain kinds of lenses, sometimes the scene seems to be clearer to you. We humans consider it to be clearer. In other words, rather than just say, what do you see out there? Well, I see a blur. It might be a landscape. And then you put the glasses on. You say, oh, it is landscape. And there's trees out there and grasses. And there's kangaroos and mountains. And we call that clearer. Sometimes. Once we put the glasses on, it's very hard for us to see at the same time that blurry scene anymore. You don't understand? And some of us keep our glasses on because we don't want to lose sight of the kangaroos.

[19:32]

Yeah? How about wisdom? Right. Wisdom. It's usually not called... Prajna, in the Abhijana list, is called mati, which means intelligence. But when intelligence is developed fully, it becomes prajna. So every state of consciousness has some intelligence, which is the faculty that can be developed to the point of being wisdom. But if you look on the Abhijana list of mental factors, they don't actually have wisdom, and its lofty term of prajna, it's listed as mati, and it's present in every state of consciousness. So every state of consciousness has samadhi, mind-boned, and kind of some wisdom and contact. Well, it is cognition. Every state of cognition, every perception has it. But I just want to say one more thing about the thing about putting glasses on, is that when we are involved in cognitions, conceptual cognitions, conceptual cognitions, I like putting glasses on.

[20:47]

Because perception is much more subtle, and it isn't like, what do you call it? You know, like in printing, you put lots of heavy metals in, they become real bright colors. Whereas if you don't use heavy metal, the colors are kind of more muted and soft. So perceptions are kind of soft and subtle compared to conception. And we, generally speaking, find conception more powerful. Most of where we spend our time, even though perceptions are going on all the time. Two, the conceptions dominate because they're much more vivid, dramatic, and sharp, and articulate, and verbal. But perceptions are a type of cognition. Well, yeah, sense perceptions are the majority for most people. They have these sense perceptions, but most people are not aware of their sense perceptions.

[21:52]

Most people, what they think their sense perceptions are, are really conceptual versions of their sense perceptions. Their sense perceptions are too subtle, unless you're, of course, That's n students. Yes? Also more distinct from each other? Yeah. They're more sharp and delineated. They're more sharp and delineated, right. Others, you've got a guess? Yes? Yes, very nice. Are you comparing ? Deceptive pain is more dramatic than perceptive pain. Yeah, more dramatic, clearer, more vivid. Deceptive, yeah. But let's go back now to the list. These are God's four. Yes? Yes. All states of consciousness have feelings.

[22:59]

They don't have. And feeling in this case means, where the Buddhist means the word feeling, what we translate as feeling also can be translated as experience or sensation, but it means the fact that in every moment of cognition there's some evaluation, and the basic evaluations are positive, negative, or kind of like can't tell. That's called neutral. There's always a feeling. The feeling may not be the object of cognition, but there is a feeling going on. Sometimes the feeling can be the object of cognition and then you like ... But even when you're not aware of the feeling, you do have a feeling with every moment of experience, every moment of cognition. Yes? Emptiness is a characteristic of all phenomena, but it's not actually a mental factor. All mental factors are empty. But emptiness is... Yes?

[24:02]

Effort. Effort. Effort is... That's what Ed said. He said energy, and another translation for energy or virya is effort. But it's not one of the ten. It is, however, a mental factor. Yes? Do you need an object? You do need an object. One of these ten could be the object. That's how we find out about them. But other things could be objects, too. But object is not actually a factor. What we're talking about is the cognition, which is in samadhi. The cognition has mental factors. These are characteristics of the cognition. So the object is assumed. Because there wouldn't be cognition unless there's an object which is in contact with the cognition in conjunction with the organ. So there is an object, but it's not a mental factor.

[25:03]

Yes? Is reception or receptivity contained in cognition? Receptivity is contained in contact, receptivity is contained in cognition, and receptivity is contained in feeling. Feeling is kind of like the way you catch it. You catch it like this, or like this, or like this. So the way you evaluate something is part of the reception process. So actually a lot of these mental factors are actually talking about how the mind receives the object. This is one of them. Context is another one. Yes? Karmic tendency. Yeah, right, there's a karmic tendency. Yes, but it's not... It's not... I haven't, it's not yet specified in Sanskrit by me.

[26:08]

Chetana is what it's called. So every state of consciousness has a karmic tendency. Every state of consciousness, if you look at it, it has like a kind of like... a kind of like an implied direction or an implied bias or disposition, how it seems to be tending towards or acting. Now, if an illusion doesn't really do that, it just looks like it's going to do that. It's like, you know, like in a cartoon. If you like, you have these various, like, if you take a little stick figure or you draw Mickey Mouse, you know, on some sheet of paper and you spin them, it looks like Mickey's moving. And if you look at one figure, it's ready to jump off a cliff. It doesn't jump off a cliff. It looks like it's going to jump off a cliff. But that is kind of the direction at that moment. So that overall tendency, the overall contour of the state of consciousness is this karmic tendency.

[27:16]

That's another one. That's right. Yes? Reaction? What do you mean by reaction? A response. these, all these factors articulate and describe in detail the kind of response that cognition is. So that's not a factor, I think, more of an overall statement. And so Chetananda liked the response in the sense, the overall response. Ed? Oh, in the... It's not... No. Ten plus citta. Yeah, so there's ten factors that come up. Whenever citta comes up, it comes up with at least ten factors. Every state of consciousness has at least these ten. It's actually what's necessary to have normal consciousness is these ten.

[28:17]

Yes? Good memory. Yeah, memory is mindfulness. So mindfulness carries both noting the object, being aware of the object, paying attention to it in that sense, but also remembering that this is the object. Yes, there's a bending towards, and that's called manasikara, which means that... the mind seen in the whole universe of possible objects of awareness, both sensory and mental, conceptual, the mind, depending on what it's paying attention to, it's shaped by bending towards, it's shaped towards what it's aware of. And then there's a closely related one to that, which I'll mention.

[29:18]

I'll let you see if you can guess it. Form. In every state of experience, there's five skandhas, except in certain very high non-material states of concentration. But the form skandha is not actually a mental factor. But there always is form. What is the difference between karmic tendency and bending towards? The karmic tendency is the overall... For example... What shape? In other words, the overall form. It's shaped by previous overall forms. So, for example, the mind could be bending towards...

[30:19]

Okay? But in this particular, let's say, some particular case, we have bending towards an unwholesome object. Let's say that's where we're starting now, at our basic core. But we may find out later that there's other mental factors that are there too. So if you now, after we delineate these ten, if we find out that the object that's being bent towards is an unwholesome object, then we would look to see are there any other mental factors beyond these basic ten. And we might find that there's an expression of tongue of wholesome mental factors that accompany every state of mind, but that accompany wholesome states of mind. For example, energy. Because energy is used, when they use the term energy as virya, virya is always directed in a wholesome direction. So certain mental factors, wholesome mental factors, a lot of them, the mind could be directed towards an unwholesome object.

[31:29]

And the attention to the unwholesome object might have to do with some past tendency to be involved with an unwholesome object in an unwholesome way. But this time, you're paying attention to an unwholesome object with lots of wholesome objects arising with that attention. So the overall state will be one where you're looking at an unwholesome object, but there's tremendous compassion, enthusiasm for doing wholesome things, for all life, including your own. And these kinds of positive factors could be surrounding this attention to the unwholesome dharma. So the overall pattern is a karmically positive situation, even though an aspect of it is to look at something negative. Similarly, you could look at a wholesome dharma and be surrounded by unwholesome dharma, and the whole pattern of the consciousness would be unwholesome. So you could look at a wholesome thing, like protecting life, and think, well, that's stupid.

[32:31]

I'm not going to do that. That's like, you know, I'm not good enough to do a good thing. I mean, where I'm at is to do better. We have an opportunity to do something good, or forget it. So it's a wholesome opportunity that's being presented to the mind, but the overall state is unwholesome karma. But let's just finish the list. Okay? Yes? Vitarka and vichara? No. No. Vittarka and vichara are important mental factors associated with some mind, with most minds. Most of our minds have vittarka and vichara. Vittarka and vichara are the ingredients of the mental factors being used basically to be involved in thought. So when we're involved in discursive thought, we have vittarka and vichara. But we're not always involved in discursive thoughts. So some states of mind do not have vittarka and vichara. So what I'm talking about is pen and a company that are there for ordinary states of mind and the loftiest states of mind and the worst states of mind.

[33:39]

So ordinary states of mind have vittarka and vichara, which is pay attention to the object and be discursive about it. Most people are into that all the time. And in yogic practice, in samadhi, at the end of the samadhi, we let go of vittarka and vichara for a while. Yes, Bob? Intention and volition, right? That's chafing up. Intention and volition is the overall thrust of the cognition. So every state of consciousness has intention, volition, karmic tendency, will. It has applied, you know, intention. Yes? Yes. Well, that's implied there, isn't it? So that is there, by implication, but it's not mentioned as bending away. It's called bending away. The one I was looking for, which is related to that, is adverting decision.

[34:47]

And adverting sometimes is related to the word aversion. When the mind pays attention to something, if you look at it, it looks like it's going like this. It looks like among all the things it's paying attention to, it's adverting to this, or it's adverting to that. So there is a quality of consciousness that it seems to be not only shaped towards what it's looking at, but it seems to be choosing what it's looking at, rather than... So there is the phenomena in all states of consciousness that it seems to be that a decision is being made. It's kind of an illusion... It is an illusion, period. All these are illusions, but it's one to study carefully. The fact that all states of consciousness have an apparent decision being made about what's cognizant. We can't actually decide, people can't decide what they pay attention to.

[35:53]

The mind's working determine what could be the object. And actually not just the mind, but the mind working to determine what the cognition is of. But it looks like the mind has the quality of deciding. And then we think that the mind can decide. And then we think that the self, which owns the mind, can decide. And this is one of our great agonies. But they're all within the apparent division. Do we have them all yet? A Sanskrit called adimukti. Adi means like towards and mukti, the face. You turn the face towards. It's called adverting. Adverting. Actually, it's really just adverting or turning the face. Adverting decision or decision. Yes? Understanding. Understanding. Well, that's kind of like, you know, maki. And also it's like cognition itself. The kind of understanding you have will be partly determined by these ten plus what other factors are there.

[37:02]

And, for example, has maki become wisdom? So the understanding is the whole consciousness which is determined by the object and all mental factors. This will account for our understanding. Yes? . No, it doesn't accompany all states. I think some states do not have that. Most people do most of the time, but there is actually a . You do get little breaks. It's not always there as part of the event. Yes? . Spaciousness is there, but it's not a mental factor. Faith is a factor of life. It's a factor of life, but it's not a mental factor.

[38:08]

If you're cognizing spaciousness, if you feel spacious, then spaciousness is not an object that you're aware of. Yes? A living being? A living being? Living beings are conscious. Yeah, you might be right. Maybe I forgot. Maybe if we only get to nine, maybe that's the ninth, tenth one. Really? Huh? We need two really. Yeah, which I mean, if we can't, maybe like Ed's saying, energy and Greatest Saying, a living being, there is a dharma, which is called jivita, which is like light and warmth. But I don't remember that it's one of the ten, but maybe it is. Yes, Ed?

[39:09]

Oh, yeah. There's number nine. Yeah, I'm renaming perception as conception. Formations, the four skandha formations, the four skandha includes, in all states of consciousness, will at least include eight of this ten, because two of these ten are skandhas in themselves. So among the five skandhas, we're talking about mind, which is one skanda, and our skanda. And we say perception, but, you know, I think it's better to say conception, because if it's perception, then it's just a renaming of the fifth skanda.

[40:11]

So I think, and actually the word samnya, which is the word for perception, we say perception for the fifth skanda. Samnya really means conception. I mean, to gather together, So there always is Samyā. That's the ninth one. There's always concept in every state of consciousness. Consciousness may not be mediated. Well, birth is not actually a mental factor, although in every consciousness, in jivita, it all means birth and also means life principle. So life principle is part of what happens, it's not a mental factor. So, just like there's always five skandhas in our experience, form, feeling, conception, and formations, the fourth kind of formations, and formations include samadhi, mindfulness, faith, energy, contact.

[41:22]

There's like 64 dharmas in the fourth kind of, and I'm just saying that eight, of that fourth skanda are with every state of mind at least. And the second and third skanda are with every mind at least. Because they're mental factors. They're with every mind. But also with every mind is form. And form, of course, arises with this in all states except certain yogic transits. And there is a birth of each . And there's a birth of the body. In the conventional sense, there's a birth of the body. But each moment, there's a birth of these five aggregates. And then there's a ceasing of these five aggregates, and a birth of these five aggregates, and a ceasing of these five aggregates. So the tenth one is? The tenth one we haven't found yet. Laura? Right.

[42:24]

Desire. And the word is chanda. But it doesn't mean desire in a negative sense. It means desire in the sense of just wanting to do something. That chanda, which is desire... can develop into virya. You know, it can... Not every state of mind has a positive, wholesome desire. But every moment of consciousness has this chanda, this desire. So those are the... And some of them are really good news. Yes? These are all good news. So the loftiest states of consciousness would have... Concepts would have concepts. Okay. Yeah, they have concepts, but they're non-conceptual in the sense that they don't interpose concepts between the cognition and what is known.

[43:33]

If it's a sense perception, there's the awareness of sense perception. So, in the Samadhi Nirmacana Third Sutra, one of the nice chittis of that sutra is that every dharma has these three characteristics. The imputed, or the conceptual, the dependently co-arisen, in other words, the way that things really are happening, and the perfected, or the accomplished. Every dharma has a perfected or accomplished quality. And if we can perceive that perfected quality, then that's wisdom, that's liberation from suffering. If we can perceive the quality that all dharmas have, And what is that quality, that perfected quality of the Dharma?

[44:45]

It is that the conceptual is not confused with the dependent, the co-arisen. So the liberating states of consciousness are where you still have conception, but you don't confuse it with what's happening. You perceive things as they're happening, You could hear a pebble hit bamboo, or you could see a peach blossom open. You could see a peach blossom open, and if you could see that the concept of the peach blossom was separate, not confused with the original image, then that's a perspective quality. But the ability to conceptualize is still there.

[45:47]

Lofty state projects haven't lost their ability to conceptualize. They just don't confuse concept with the object. . Those are with every state of consciousness. So starting with those ten factors and make this nice little consciousness into a real health kit. Also, you can add nothing to this state You can add no dharmas to it, and it's kind of neutral. And you can add other dharmas to it and make it into a really compassionate, wholesome, enlightened consciousness.

[46:49]

So, yes. Could you try to explain this briefly? Well, it's just like, you know, like now if I turn... Okay? People might say that I made a decision to look at him. Right? See, you decided to look at him. So there is that sense that whoever I look at or whenever I listen to, that there was kind of a decision to listen to that rather than that. So it doesn't really... This decision is kind of an elaboration. It's really adi-mukti. is more pure, which means sort of like to face towards. But they add in the word decision sometimes in the translation because it looks like a decision when the mind recognizes this object rather than that object, because there's lots of different things you can pay attention to. And people feel that way. They feel like the mind is deciding.

[47:52]

But the mind has a factor of looking like it's deciding, and then we add into that that there's a person who runs the mind that makes the decision. But it's really just that... Well, like Jane would think, when you bend towards something, there's the implication that you're bending away from something else. So... There's a kind of illusory sense of decision-making that happens in every moment. But it's not really like the mind's the fighting. The mind is powerless, actually, to decide this or that. But the mind can be cultivated in such a way that it pays more and more attention to what is wholesome, what is beneficial. Focusing, well, focusing is more like samadhi, the way the mind is focused. I think it's more like samadhi.

[48:56]

Yes. Isn't there a whole thing? Yes. A million cues that go on in a nanosecond? That's right. Well, it includes the nanosecond before, but it includes all nanoseconds prior to that one. So it's not only just to complicate it in the moment, as you can see from this little bit of unfolding of these ten days together, but past moments and past mental factors, when they rose and they ceased, there was a consequence of that. So depending, there's a consequence of everything that arises and ceases, and every overall pattern of consciousness has consequences. That's one of the One of the interpretable teachings of the Buddha is that karma has consequence. Karma has fruit. So whatever shape your mind is right now, that shape has consequence.

[49:58]

If your mind is shaped... towards harm, and there's approval of that harm in that mind, then there'll be consequences for that shape. So the current shape you have is influenced by and dependently co-arises with all those past minds, including the nanosecond one just before and the nanosecond one now. So that's right, it's dependent co-arising that determines the shape of the mind. And then people think, well, then Buddhism is determinist. But it's not because of the Buddhas. Buddhas are... teaching to it all the time in this deterministic, dependently co-arisen pulse space. So we're getting all these Dharma teachings coming to us, and that's part of the dependent co-arising too. So you're not in control, the Buddhas aren't in control, dependent co-arising is really in control, but dependent co-arising

[51:00]

to dharma practice so that we can evolve in a positive direction if we... if we dependently co-arise in such a way that we can, like, subject ourselves to dharma teaching. Even though we're not in control of that, still, that's our possibility of freedom. Otherwise we just would, you know, our past unwholesome states of consciousness would just have consequence of of misery. That's all they would have. And then they would produce more and more. But there's also past good ones which are producing good things. So it's a big mess. And so that's Samadhi. Yeah. Yeah, here. Patty? How is that choice? Choice, as I say, choice is kind of an illusion.

[52:05]

Choice often we mean by, I have choice. So if somebody thinks they have choice, it's often skillful to say, please choose good, or please choose harmlessness, or something like that. And that may be part of the dependable arising of them being involved in wholesome action. But it really isn't. It really wasn't choice. It was dependent co-arising that maybe leads to them being involved in wholesome action. But since they can make choices, then it might be nice to deal with them in that language. Okay, then make this choice. You know? And then they think they made that choice, but they really didn't. And if they keep making these good choices, if you keep making good choices and good choices, if you continue in your deluded path of making choices, but you make better and better choices, you will eventually see you don't make choices.

[53:09]

The results of making lots of good choices is that you become free of the illusion that you make choices. And you get to see that it's actually all the Buddhas and all whole universe that's helping you do the things you do, which appear as choices. And when this wonderful vision resonates back from you in a choiceless way, now you see it's not a matter of choice. But if you still want your choices, then let's make the best choices we can. In other words, damage control. You said it's good that we have samadhis, is that to encourage us, or to prove, as proof, or what? Well, that's what I'm saying now. If we go back to samadhi, the thing that's good about samadhi is that we don't have to go get samadhi. It is already the nature of your mind that it is one-pointed, that it is non-dual with its object. You already have that.

[54:11]

So what I mean by... I mean, it's good that we have samadhi because samadhi is necessary for realization, like a mental factor that's already reflecting nonduality. Otherwise we'd probably go get, you know, like, it'd be like, well, reality is nonduality, but we are dualistic. Whereas actually reality is nonduality. And we also have a dual mind, too. We also have dualistic minds, though, too, because that's the thing that nonduality allows, is it allows a dualistic mind and a nondual mind. Nonduality allows a dualistic mind. So we've got the dualistic mind. Most people know about that. Dualistic mind is you are not me. So that samadhi, right? that you recited this morning, the song of that samadhi is, you are not me. In other words, dualistic mind. But I am exactly you.

[55:13]

Non-dual mind. Non-dual mind allows I am exactly you and it also allows... And we've got that non-dual mind. We already know we have the dualistic mind. And dualistic mind is not really samadhi. It's an illusion that arises in minds that have already basic dualistic perceptions are derivative from the samadhi mind. It's like all of our delusions are derivative of the dependent core arising of all life. So the fundamental thing, the fundamental enlightenment is the way we're being helped and helping. And part of the way that this fundamental enlightenment evolved is that it produced, well, not produced, but it allowed this wonderful thing called, you know, that we're enemies, that we're fighting against each other, that we hate each other.

[56:20]

that our lives, you know, that you can live at the expense of others, and that's good. These kinds of things have arisen out of a situation of one-pointedness of thought. Are you hot? You look like you're cooking over there. You look like a tomato. No. Do you want more windows? Yeah, I want your fans there. And also, sometimes people say one-pointed is a thought, and what they interpret that as is you put your thought on one point. So you, in that sense, you focus. And there is something to that, and the mind can do that. But it can't, you know, that's not the one point of this thought.

[57:25]

That's like, mind's over here, and the point's over there, and I put the mind on the point. That's not samadhi. Okay? And actually, we're not too good at that, are we? We're not too good at putting the mind on the point. Unless, perhaps, chanda... You know, yeah. If we have desire, then the desire runs the mind over to the thing. But if you just like decide, okay, I'm going to pay attention to that, and then Chanda changes the dial, you're done for. I like to pay attention to my breath. Chaka Brownie. Chanda changes channels. But that doesn't disturb samadhi. But it does determine when Chanda before was, I want to concentrate on popcorn. I want to concentrate on breath. I want to concentrate on wholesome. That's what Chanda wanted. Samadhi isn't directing attention all over the place.

[58:30]

Samadhi is the fact of the non-duality of consciousness. In other words, the non-duality of the universe. We already have that. So, it is also the case, however, that people talk about developing or cultivating samadhi because when we realize, when we understand one-pointedness, that... So, samadhi is also calm. It's a calming influence. And that calming influence can be strengthened or developed One more window's open. It's real hot up here, I don't know how it is. So, people hear about this but they don't feel calm.

[59:34]

Samadhi is also calm. I mean, it isn't really calm, but when we understand samadhi, And that's why the Chinese character means when we're settled in samadhi, when we're convinced of samadhi, when we're resolute about samadhi, that's common. So the next circle, so I introduced the word samadhi, and now I've introduced the words dhyana, Jhana is Pali. And these are sometimes translated as absorption, sometimes translated as a trance.

[60:35]

But on the chart you see the way I sustained or uninterrupted samadhi. Now, dhyana, the definition of dhyana is basically samadhi. Samadhi is really the nature of dhyana. Now, all of us, all the time, have samadhi as a factor of all of our states of consciousness, but some of our states of consciousness, you might not say, well, the most, the essential ingredient of the states of consciousness is samadhi. Do you know what I mean? But when you're in dhyana, you feel like, well, what do you say about that person that's in dhyana? You say, well, samadhi is the main thing. I mean, one-pointedness of thought is really the main thing with that person who's in this absorption. So in some sense, the one-pointedness of thought, the samadhi, is the definition of the dhyana.

[61:42]

So I said uninterrupted or sustained. And it's almost like, of course, the samadhi is rising and ceasing along with everything else, right? The mind, cognitions are rising and ceasing, and all the factors are rising and ceasing. And each cognition is different. rising, ceasing. So they're not really continuous, but when there develops a sense of samadhi now, and then samadhi now, and samadhi now, samadhi now, samadhi now, as that becomes more and more sustaining and consistent, calm is realized, tranquility. And the concentration is deepened. Even though in every moment of consciousness we have this concentration, our mind is concentrated. it's not distracted from its object. It's always one with its object. But we don't feel that. We feel like it's moving from object to object. And that makes us feel agitated and distracted.

[62:49]

But actually it's not moving from object to object. That's an illusion. So what's calming, what helps develop, the first thing that helps If jhana is practiced as samatha, samatha helps develop this sense of uninterrupted appreciation of samatha. And samatha means tranquil abiding or calm abiding. And the Chinese use a nice word to translate it. This word here, which is jir, in China or Japan, and I don't know about Korea. No, I think just China and Japan, if you get to a corner where they have a stop sign, they have this Buddhist term.

[63:51]

Cars are supposed to stop and calmly abide there. Samatha is translated as stop, and stop means stop moving among the objects. But then again, when you say stop moving among the objects, people think that they're supposed to like fix onto an object. You are. And you're supposed to fix onto the object, the meditation object, of not moving among the objects. but you're not supposed to fix onto an object among the objects. See the difference? You don't fix to an object. You fix to a meditation object, which is not really one of the objects. It's the object of not moving among the objects. You won't actually see your meditation object. Because your meditation object is not one of, you know, except in these foreign countries, meditation object is written out at the corner.

[65:02]

You don't see it, people don't go up to you and say, If they did, then you could hear that, and that would remind you. We can't actually get our mind to focus on something so well. But this kind of object, we actually can stay focused on for a long time. This object of not moving among the various objects. So, you do see different objects, but you don't move among them. And when you don't move among them, you calm down. So how do you move among the different objects? You look at all the different people in your life, how do you not move among them? That's the path of calming down and settling into sustained appreciation of samadhi and entering, you know, not necessarily entering these full trances, but calming down. Yes, John? Well, a metaphor has came to my mind of watching television.

[66:07]

I mean, you have a lot of different images coming on television, but you're still focused on the television. Is that the next question? Yeah. Yes. You said at the beginning of this, that the mind isn't actually moving amongst objects. Our perception is that we go from that nexus on top. Our understanding, really. OK. You're not moving among objects. Moving among objects is a conceptual thing. There's no perception of moving among objects. But we have a concept or an idea that we move among objects. And then if we go with that idea, we feel editable. We don't understand what it means that we're not moving among objects or that samadhi is happening. So I said, how can we then practice not moving among objects when, in fact, there's lots of objects coming and going?

[67:14]

How do we not move among them? What? Zazen. Yeah, zazen. Zazen is how you don't move among them. Okay? Any further elucidation you'd like? Ralph? Not grasping them, yeah. So whatever object comes, really what you're doing is you're not grasping each one. So you're not really moving among the objects. Your effort is to treat all objects the same, namely you don't grasp them. So this effort is not going from object to object. This effort is actually staying with treating everything the same. In that sense, that's how gets translated into samadhi as an abstract concentration. Abstract in the sense that you take yourself away from the object, you take yourself away from the object and you come inward to work on the way you deal with the object.

[68:23]

So it isn't that you close your eyes to the objects, it's just you come, you abstract, you withdraw from the object and turn the light around and shine it inward on the way you relate to objects. And the way you relate to objects could be a way that will calm you down. You could also turn the light around and shine it back on the way you relate to objects and find that the way you relate to the objects is upsetting you. But if you did that, then you would see that it was upsetting you, and then you'd start to calm down. Because you'd see, oh, I see every object I grasp. And that creates all kinds of tension and anxiety. So then gradually you would probably come, if you could consistently observe that, you'd probably come to I think I'm going to try non-grasping for a while. So treating each object with non-grasping or to meet each object with non-seeking, to meet each object with complete relaxation.

[69:26]

This is like a shamatha practice, a calming practice. where you turn your attention and shine it back on the way you meet each thing. Rather than going from thing to thing, I should say you're doing, it's still happening, but we're not in control of what's given to us. We try, but it's a waste of time in terms of calming down. So the first step in developing samadhi in the second circle is to develop and concentrate on the way you treat all objects. And if you treat all objects the same, this way of treating all objects the same is you're not moving from object to object. You're sitting still, you've stopped running around. You're just going to deal with everything the same. And there's an infinite number of instructions possible about how to do this.

[70:30]

So like the fourth ancestor of Zen says, basically all these shamatha practices come from your heart. So you can dream up your own way of treating everything the same. Another way to treat everything the same is to say mu to everything. Or no is okay too. Whatever way you do, you start to calm down. And if it's a bad instruction, but you're consistent and treat everything the same, that will be revealed to you. And you'll give it up. Because you'll calm down. You'll see. So, the next step in calming down is to be passionate. And Vipassana can be translated as, so if you look on one of the books on the list, it's called Stopping is Seeing. When you stop, you will see. So part of the samadhi practice is this withdrawal from the object, turning the light around, and treat everything the same.

[71:42]

In other words, don't use, you give up your, you give up your discursive thought. You give up your running around and calculating. And you calm down. And then after you calm down, then you start to actually... And when you see, now you look at the objects which you have been treating all the same. Now the mind can tell that there's a difference between... The mind can discriminate between the different objects. Has been able to do it through this whole process. Now the Samatha practice is, while you're making these distinctions, treat all these different distinctions, all these objects that you're distinguishing, treat them all the same, calm down. And then after you've calmed down, then look at the distinctions you're making. And then you look at the distinctions and the distinctions don't hold up. So first of all you give up moving among the objects, then you give up the distinction that they're different.

[72:47]

you give up moving among the different objects, and then you see that the objects are not different. You see that. Now, of course, they are different distinctions, but you give up the distinctions. When you give up the distinctions, they're not different. Now, when these two practices are joined, then we really enter into samadhi, we really realize samadhi, and then you actually understand All these things, everything you're aware of is really your mind. You understand the teaching that everything is your mind. Not, I shouldn't say everything is your mind, but everything you are experiencing is your mind. There's more than just what you're experiencing. And this then, now wisdom is starting to develop. And then we get ready to move into the outer rings of samadhis. which are the awarenesses that are made possible by developing the second ring of samadhi.

[73:55]

Okay? Daniel? diagram. Yes. You put it so that there are concentric circles. Does that mean that with each outer circle that it contains that which was in the inner circle? Yes. I thought about this for a while and I thought, yes, I think that's true. That the outer circles contain the inner circles. Does that mean that also prerequisite for the outer circle? Yeah, and it goes both ways. This whole system, the outer circle being the great bodhisattva samadhi, are based on the individual vehicle samadhis, are based on the ordinary samadhis, and the ordinary samadhis are based on the normal endowment of a human being. So a normal and dominant human being is what it takes to make certain kinds of Buddhas, the kind of Buddhas we have in this world system. They need regular human equipment.

[74:58]

And they still have their human equipment when they realize these most walking states of understanding. And walking states of understanding include all the dualistic understandings, and they also include all the wholesome and unwholesome understandings. Everything is contained within the big outer circle. So a normal and dominant human being is what it takes to make certain kinds of Buddhas, the kind of Buddhas we have in this world system. They need regular human equipment. And they still have their human equipment when they realize this most lofty state of understanding. And lofty states of understanding are all the dualistic understandings. And they also include all the wholesome and unwholesome understandings. Everything is contained within the big outer circle. So the Mahayana is totally inclusive. There's nothing outside it. There's no like... And, you know, people can never attain enlightenment, but the teaching evolved to say, no, no, we're including everybody, even them.

[76:08]

Even the super deluded people, we're going to include them. So, like I mentioned yesterday, a lot of people approach samadhi as... and get rid of distraction. And if they do, they can get somewhat concentrated that way, but usually they're just upset. And even if they can, by that method of getting rid of distraction and getting concentrated, calm that way, still, once they get calm that way, to take the next step, they have to give up their calmness. So the bodhisattva who's in these uttering samadhis looks at the whole world of concentration and people who are trying to get concentrated and people who are trying to get distracted and people who are trying to avoid distraction and people who are distracted and upset that they can't get rid of it.

[77:11]

All they think is there's a non-duality at all. That's the bodhisattva samadhi. And seeing a non-duality is really calm. There's no disturbance whatsoever. And there's no attachment to it. So the bodhisattva doesn't try to get concentrated. Because the bodhisattva is concentrated. Oh, it has been. And also it's totally distracted beings that there are. And not afraid of them. Not trying to get away from these really sleazy, distracted people. who never want to concentrate ever and would like to make the whole world get distracted and pay them for it. Bodhisattvas love these people who are meditating on non-duality and are totally concentrated and calm. Yes. I'm trying to relate what you were just saying to the chart again.

[78:14]

So you said the next step is to develop vipassana and then that deeper samadhi. So would that be the third circle? Good question. Before getting to the third circle, you can have this deeper samadhi. However, you're sort of... and mind only, you actually have leaped to the fourth circle. So maybe I should take a step back from that realization and just say, prior to realizing mind only, the Samatha and Vipassana come together so that you're not only calm because you're not running around between different objects, and you're treating everything the same, you're relaxing with everything you meet, and you're calming because of that. You're not only calm because you're giving up discursive thought, which means running back and forth, and you're calming because you're giving that up.

[79:22]

For example, you give up running back and forth between past, present and future. Try that one. Very calming. So you're calm because of that. That's the shamatha. Then when the shamatha has happened and the mind is like relaxed and bright now you start to see and you start to see that the things that you weren't that you gave up running back and forth among really aren't here and there. And that is insight and also a deeper calm. Because before you could still be disturbed if you start to slip back into going among the objects. But you're not doing that so you're calm. But if you stop that effort to withdraw from that involvement and running around among things, you get excited again and upset. But once you're calm and you see that the odd difference, you can't be upset because there's no different objects.

[80:24]

Samadhi, you're calmer. It's a more stable calm. It's a calm based on understanding rather than this kind of calming exercise. And samadhi applies to all the way along because samadhi was there even before you start doing these practices. But this is a deeper sense of samadhi. Now, when you start to take up and see topics of selflessness, which are right on the verge, right on the edge of starting to see that different objects are not really separate, you're starting to open up the vision of selflessness. As you start to open up the vision of selflessness, you move into the next circle. which are the individual vehicle samadhis. And then when you open up selflessness to non-duality, then you move into the fourth circle.

[81:25]

And there's been a request, some people have requested a little bit more study halls than might occur if they have lots of classes, then there wouldn't be very many study halls. So part of the balance of this practice period would be how to balance the sitting in the hall, the classes, and the study halls. We wouldn't have very many study halls, but it might be possible to have. Maybe we can go to the kitchen and study. So how many people want to go to the kitchen? Let's all go to the kitchen. Yeah, right. If they want to mess around with it and really feel the effects of that stuff on the other hand, if you pass it into the kitchen, just not grasp and just handle stuff and play along with the deal. I think that's a really great way to balance the business of bidding, bidding, bidding.

[82:39]

So is that pretty well, has that been arranged now? You've been invited. We're on our, you know, this is like an adventure that we're on. I don't know about, you know, I mean, it's like a river. We're out on the river. We're plunging along in some rapids. We're going to have an adventure. There might be a few ordeals. If you come into the kitchen, you can hit some rocks. I mean, I don't know about that. Maybe that's too much information. Have a wonderful time. Get sent out on the boat. And if you're ready for that, come join us. Are you ready? No, we're going to go, buddy. We're going to get them, please. We're going upstream. Okay, well, so this boils down to... You can either go to the kitchen.

[83:43]

After dinner, you can go to the kitchen and clean up or make a mess, whatever. I'll cook tomorrow's breakfast. Or we could go to the zendo, have two periods of zazen, or we could have study and one period of zazen. So what do you want to do tonight? Study hall? Well, tonight, I'm just wondering, do you want to have study hall and then one period of sitting, or do you want to have two periods of sitting tonight? No. Those are the two choices that are on the schedule. So how many people would like study hall and one period? And how many people would like two periods? Okay. So, yes. Was that a different thing? Does study hall mean virtual study or does it mean group? It could be. Well, like I said, if you want to, you could get together and... You could, just in some cases, you could recite texts together.

[84:46]

And otherwise, we study one person on one book. You could also have different people get together with some texts on the reading list. There was a slight majority, I thought, for the study hall in one period. So you want to try that tonight? Yeah. Is that okay? Yeah. And then tomorrow is an open day, so you can... What? It's in the dining room and the library. And if you want to recite text, and you can recite text in the Wheelwright Center or some other room or something. So, yes? Instead of going to study hall? It's OK with me.

[85:49]

Yeah. Is that all right? Sure. And it's also coming into the kitchen. That might be a good idea, just everybody go in the kitchen for a while.

[86:06]

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