In the service, did you chant the chapter number five from the Rinpoche Sutra? Yes. So the service weren't there, right? And some other people weren't there? The new service won't be at lunch either. The new service, right? So, you'll miss that sutra. In that chapter, the Bodhisattva, is it The bodhisattva Vishalamati asked the Buddha, how are bodhisattvas wise with respect to mind, consciousness, and intellect?

[01:18]

And then the Buddha teaches about how bodhisattvas are wise with regard to mind, consciousness, and intellect. And he explains what mind, consciousness and intellect are. These are different transformations of consciousness. He teaches them. And at the end he says, but it is not just by bodhisattvas understanding these three dimensions of consciousness that I designate them as whys with respect to why mind, consciousness, and intellect. It is that they do not perceive, for example, they do not perceive eye consciousness. Is that what you said? No. Ear consciousness, what?

[02:20]

No. Nose consciousness, body consciousness, Smell. Smell. Does this know consciousness? They don't have any of these consciousnesses. They don't perceive anything else. They don't perceive. Is that it? You know, the appropriating consciousness. Thoughts. Thoughts. So, they don't. And based on that, plus the fact that they understand these teachings about the nature of mind, I designate them as wise with respect to mind consciousness and intellect. In the Heart Sutra, which you also chanted this morning, but service probably heard that before. It said, for example, it says, all the five aggregates are empty.

[03:23]

In other words, the category of experience, physical experience, is empty. Category of feelings, category of perceptions, category of mental formations, and categories of consciousnesses. All these categories of consciousness are empty of inherent existence, empty of any self. And then it goes on to say that in the context of this emptiness, There's no eye, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind, color, sound, smell, touch, taste, mind objects. And there's no realm of eye consciousness, no realm of ear consciousness, no realm of nose consciousness, no realm of body consciousness, no realm of mind consciousness, and so on.

[04:28]

So all these different categories of experience lack inherent existence or self, and also in the context of that lack, when you witness, when you understand, when you understand this emptiness of all these types of experience, therein you don't perceive these experiences. And so perceiving the emptiness of all experience, in the process of perceiving the emptiness, you actually don't even perceive it. You're alive and well, but you're free of perception. You're a human who's been freed of perception. There isn't any, actually, perception of these things anymore. That's the Heart Citra. This sutra is a little different, though, because first of all, the Buddha teaches you about these things.

[05:34]

Then he says, then he teaches you that you understand that they're empty, or rather that you don't even perceive them. So one of the differences between this sutra and the Heart Sutra is the Heart Sutra just completely just says everything's empty. When you see this emptiness, in the context of seeing emptiness, you don't see anything. In the context of witnessing emptiness, there isn't anything in that context. This sutra, first of all, tells you about all this stuff. And the sutra also tells you later, in chapter 7, that the teaching of the Heart Sutra should not be taken only literally. Of course, you have to take it literally, first of all, in order to hear it. But it shouldn't be taken only literally, because if you take it only literally, then you might think, that if in emptiness there's no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and so on, then you might think that eyes, ears, tongue, and so on don't exist at all.

[06:45]

And that would undermine the entire Buddhist teaching. That would be nihilism. The sutra makes that point. The heart sutra doesn't mention that to you. The heart sutra just doesn't say, don't just take this literally. Of course you have to take it literally, but not just literally. To start literally, but then not just literally. This sutra teaches you what the heart sutra apparently throws out the window. Namely that all perception is illusory. And all analytic presentations of the teaching, and for example, analytic presentation of teaching is five aggregates and so on. Any presentation of teaching actually is analytical because as soon as you describe anything, you're analyzing what's happening into some kind of presentation.

[07:49]

So that's chapter five, and that's a little bit about how chapter five of the Sanjivarmanam sutra is related to the heart sutra. Now I'd like to just briefly sketch an imaginary lineage from that sutra, that chapter, which is Tuvasu Bandhu. And there's a story in Zen history of our lineage, which is called the Transmission of the Light by Keizan Jokin Dayosho, which those of you who have surfaced probably heard about this morning. Did you hear that guy? Keizan Jokin Dayosho Konk. So he wrote a book of Zen history and one of the ancestors in our lineage is Vasubandhu.

[09:10]

I think we say Vasubandhu. Vasubandhu. Is that right? Vasubandhu. Vasubandhu. Vasubandhu. So, anyway, that's the name of a great Buddhist master, great Buddhist teacher, great Buddhist yogi and scholar, who lived around the time this sutra was probably appeared in the world. It's Samvilimucham Sutra. Some person might even think he wrote it. But anyway, he was teaching one of his students, or he was talking to one of his students, whose name is Manarhita. He's the next one in the list. Manarhita said to Vasubandhu, what is the... What is the...

[10:20]

The answer is the original nature of mind. And Maharika says, well, what's the original nature of mind? And Vasubandha said, it's the emptiness of the six sense bases. the sixth sense organs and the sixth sense consciousnesses, whereupon Manaripta woke up from delusion. So, in a sense, he just quoted the sutra at the end of that chapter in which And it was just at the right time, but that student woke up. The student probably already, Bhaskar Bandhavid, taught extensively about the sixth sense fields or the sixth sense bases, the sixth sense organs, and the sixth sense contents.

[11:30]

He taught a lot about that. He actually, these are called the 18 Dhatus, or the 18 elements. He taught about this extensively in Abhidhamma Kosha, Chapter 2. which actually is called the Dattu chapter. So he really liked the Dattus and there's a wonderful teaching about different dimensions of these analysis of experience. So the student was already, had been probably extensively educated in these 18 Dattus. Just like in the chapter we just read, they were extensively educated in the six sense consciousnesses. So looking deeply into these phenomena and then told that they lack inherent existence, he awoke. Then go ahead and just zip down to the last Indian ancestor in our tradition, in our imaginary tradition.

[12:35]

His name is Prajnatara. He's a teacher at Bodhidharma. And Prajnatara was invited for lunch, vegetarian lunch, at the palace of an Indian Raj. And the Raj said, Master, why don't you chant scriptures? Usually, a lot of times anyway, or usually when you invite a Buddhist monk to your house for lunch, they would chant either before, during, or after their lunch in your house, and then they'd dedicate the merit to your house or to your kingdom or queendom.

[13:42]

But Pranastara didn't, I guess, recite scriptures, which was the usual thing for monks to do as a service to the benefactor. And the great teacher said, this poor wayfarer doesn't dwell And this isn't the translation. It appears in Cleary that technically speaking, what he said was, this poor wayfarer doesn't dwell in the realm of the five aggregates when breathing in. Breathing out, I don't get involved in the 18 elements. I don't get involved in the sense basis, the sense organs, or the sense consciousnesses. I think Cleary translates it more... He just says, breathing in, I don't dwell in the realms of body and mind.

[15:00]

That's the way he says it, by the way. And breathing out, I don't get involved in myriad circumstances. Is that correct? the non-technical way of saying the eighteen dhatus, which Vastu Bandhu was speaking out to the student. So, it says, breathing in, breathing out, this is something which we all do, breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, I don't get involved in the five aggregates, breathing out, I don't get involved in the eighteen elements. I always recite this scripture. One hundred, one thousand, one million scrolls. So he is reciting a scripture.

[16:06]

He's in our Zen lineage. He's reciting the scripture. He's actually seeing these analysis of experience, his traditional analysis of experience, they're there, but he doesn't get involved in them. And he meditates on that scripture all the time. So he meditates on the scripture which is traditional Buddhist analysis of experience. and also the emptiness of that experience by which we do not get involved in it and become liberated in the midst of experience. That's the last Indian ancestor. Actually, I say the last Indian ancestor, but it's the last Indian ancestor that didn't, what do you call it, emigrate to China. Actually, the last Indian ancestor is his disciple, Bodhidharma, who traveled to

[17:09]

They traveled to China. It's kind of a thing about, it's a little bit amazing that Buddhist monk would make that effort in those days. Travel from India to China by boat or walking or whatever. But apparently they might have done it by what they call relay race. But somehow Buddhism got transmitted from India to Central Asia and Southeast Asia to China. And Bodhidharma, so the spirit came to the spirit, which is exemplified by the Heart Sutra to this Sutra, to this Samyamacana Sutra, to Vasubandhu, to Prajnatara. And then Bodhidharma, the spirit gets transmitted, the spirit of meditation, on phenomena in this way. It's transmitted to China.

[18:15]

And then in China, we have now supposedly the beginning of the Zen school with this figure called Bodhidharma. And there's not too much record of what he taught. And I often bring up one of his teachings, which is very brief. But I bring it up again today. And he taught this to his main disciple, the second ancestor, who was a Chinese person. What he taught was, first I'll write it on the board. And now it's smaller.

[19:18]

How about horizontal? Usually Chinese is not written horizontally, but it works better for you to see. Okay, so the first, I'll just write these characters for now.

[20:36]

This is outside. Use the way it's translated. It's outside or outwardly. Cease all involvements. So that's a parallel to his teacher saying, breathing in, I don't dwell in the realms of body and mind, breathing out. I'm not involved in myriad circumstances. But outwardly doesn't necessarily mean that we believe that actually, just to mention right away, outwardly doesn't mean that we believe that our objects of awareness are out there separate from us. So you could translate outwardly as objectively or cease all involvements with objects without believing that objects are separate from subjects.

[21:43]

Because believing that objects are separate from subjects is a kind of involvement with objects. So ceasing even the idea that objects are out there separate from the knowing of them. ceasing involvement in the appearance that the people you meet are separate from you. That's one of the... So there's people, their involvements, I mean, their objects. So you don't get involved with people, you don't dwell in people, but also you don't dwell in the idea, the mind object, that people are separate from you. or that objects are separate from. So anyway, all, cease all, this character means all, and this character means involvements or conditions. It's a character that they usually use for like, you know, talking about dependent co-arising or arising in dependence on conditions.

[22:49]

This is a character for conditions. So in their translation, the cease all conditions, outwardly cease all conditions, Is the second character cease? This is kind of, this character is one big punch. This character, the second character is kind of a punch, big punch character, big punchline character. Because it means cease. It also means relax. It also means rest. It also means repose. And da-da-da-da-da-da, it means breathe. Ah. Ah. So I just this fall discovered that this thing I've been quoting for years of cease all involvements could also be translated as outwardly breathe through all involvements. That character means breathe also. A respiration.

[23:52]

Breathe or breath. You have verb or noun. So that's a big instruction. Now, the other punchline word is this word here, the fourth character, which means involvements, which means conditions, but also means stories. or history. So, just a little rhapsody now in different ways of saying this instruction. Outwardly, give all stories a rest. Give all histories a rest. Cease all historical involvement. All the histories you have about your life, give them a rest.

[25:04]

All the histories you have with different people about how they betrayed you or helped you, give them a rest. Of course, it's okay to be grateful to people that helped you. But don't get involved in the story of how they helped you. Give it a rest. Breathe through it. Breathe through the histories you have with all these people. All these people, these myriad people, all these histories, you breathe through them. This is Bodhidharma's instruction. This is also the same as... All five aggregates are empty. So, that's the big instruction. And I just, this is a brief sketch for you maybe to see how this instruction is connected to the Heart Sutra. And then how this instruction is worked a little differently in Yudha Sutra you just chanted this morning, which is basically saying the same thing, it's just that it also introduces you and educates you about the things that are said to be not perceived.

[26:17]

And then this lineage goes on to... Vasubandhu, who uses it to enlighten people, goes on to Prajnapura and Bodhidharma. So I see a connection here. between these sutras and these teachers, these Zen teachers. And then it goes on from there, and then it goes on from there. And I think I'll just mention that briefly, explaining a little bit more of the Zen lineage, just to pick a few examples. On Bodhidharma, you go on about eight generations. six, seven, eight generations, eight and a half generations, or eight and nine generations. In the eighth generation, you have the great Master Ma, and he has lots of wonderful disciples, and one of his disciples is named Baijong. And Baijong says to Master Ma, what's the essential import of the school? And Ma Su says, it's the place, it's just the place, it's just the place

[27:25]

where you let go of your body and your life. This is Madsen's way of saying the same thing. Just let go of your body and your life. Well, how do you let go of your body and life? Breathe through all your stories of your body. Got a story of your body? Got a cute body? Got a big body? Got a little body? Got a broken body? Got a sick body? Got a healthy body? Got a German body? Got an Irish body. Got a Jewish body. Got a Buddhist body. Got a male body, female body. What do you got? Give up that body. Let go of it and let go of your life while you're at it. This is the same instruction. Do you see it? Same instruction coming down. Eight more generations. Seven and eight more generations. And then... How?

[28:29]

What's the essential of the import of the school? And the word for school, by the way, could also be translated. It's a character which also means source. Source. Source. Importance or significance. What's the significance or meaning? You know the famous, one of the most, one of the standard phrases the Zen students asked their teacher for a number of generations after Bodhidharma was, why didn't Bodhidharma come to China? Why did Bodhidharma come from the West, India? is a kind of Zen school way of saying, you know, what's the point of Buddhism? Why did Buddhism ever come? And then they say various things, like, piece of shit. Which of course means, what?

[29:30]

It means breathe through your shit. Breathe through your turds. Give your turds a rest. Give up your turds and your life. That's what it means. But the import, the import of the source, so the source is our school, but the source also, we never really can reach the source. We never can reach the source. We never find our school. But our source has an import. What's the import? Well, it's all this stuff that people say. It could get us to understand the source of why they make the effort to come from China or Tibet or India or whatever, or Japan, why they make the effort to travel to help people and tell people to just let go of your body and life. And then many generations later, just to sort of not take too long, we get to the last Chinese ancestor in our tradition, Ru Jing, says to his student Dogen, the first Japanese

[30:39]

Ancestor. It says, Sanzen, practicing Zen, practicing Zen is body and mind dropping off. We sometimes translate it as dropping off body and mind, but then it sounds like you're supposed to drop off body and mind. But it's more like you're there with body and mind dropping off. That's practicing Zen. That's what we mean by Zen meditation is body and mind. It's the place. where body and mind are dropping away, where body and mind are being dropped off, where mind and body and life are being relinquished. This is where we practice Zen and realize the way. And then Dogen says, learn the backward step, which turns the light around

[31:40]

and illuminates your experience so that body and mind of themselves drop away and your original face is manifest. So this is one story of the transmission of give up stories. But we don't hold to this story so I can tell, every day I can tell a different story of the transmission of the teaching of give your stories a rest. But it's not just get your stories at rest in this tradition. It's also that we have stories that we give rest to. So we also have these stories. We have a story now of this practice period which you can give a rest. You don't have no practice period. We have a practice period that you cannot get involved in. Now, the next line of the instruction is inwardly, inside the mind, there isn't any.

[32:58]

And this character here has been translated as coughing, sighing, gasping. I didn't, you know, when I looked up, I think when I looked up this character, which I found out this character here, which means cease, and also means breathe. When I was looking up this character, I ran into another character in the neighborhood of the dictionary. The character was written like this. like this, and I looked at that character.

[34:02]

This character means to sigh or to groan. This character. So I thought, hey, maybe that's the character that they're referring to when they say, inside the mind, no sighing. So it says no sighing or no gasping or no coughing. Okay? So this character, this means no sign, so I thought maybe that's the character that's in Bodhidharma's expression, up inside the mind, no sign. But when I, when I had read that before, when I, I thought, I thought of sign kind of like, well, you know, sign means ah. I thought of it more of the emotion of sign, like ah. But I didn't think at that time that when you sigh, actually, it's a breathing thing.

[35:05]

It's not just a mental thing. It's actually you go, huh. You exhale in a certain way. Huh. I thought maybe that's a character. And then I looked at what makes up this character. And the left side of the character means mind. And the right side of the character means spirit or breath. This character here. It's a big character. It is... This character means breath. It means spirit. It means air. It means soul. It means heart. It means mind. It means actually every dimension of your life that's animated by vitality. It means consciousness. It means life, basically. But life in terms of breathing. So you put mind together with this breath and you get a character which means sigh. but also means breathlessness and means anger. So the funny thing is that we put our certain dimensions of our mind together without breathing, the breath is kind of like blocked or distorted into sighing, groaning, bitching, anger, and so on.

[36:22]

Unless the mind is cultivated and purified of any kind of clinging, when you put the mind together with breath, you get problems. So I thought, maybe that's the character that they meant here, when they said, inside the mind, no sign. But that's not the character. This is the character. And this character also has a, I can etymologize, and this part of the character is a mountain, This part of the character is kind of a grammatical thing in the context of, and this is mouth. So it's like in the context of a mouth, you have mouth. In other words, your mouth, your breathing passage is being squashed. In other words, your breath is being constricted and you kind of gasp. And when you're like that, you're anxious, right? You have asthma and you're angry too. You've got problems. because your breathing is squished and squashed.

[37:24]

Okay? But the character before that is a character which means there isn't any. So, when you give up all stories, then there's no blockage of your breathing anymore. Your mouth is squished and distorted and is saying mean things or untrue things or disparaging things or slandering things. Your mouth just opens and all that comes out is, well, you know, om. Om. You know. Beneficence of the uninstructed vitality comes out of your mouth. No more constriction of your oral cavity. Because you give your stories a rest. So when you see people that you have a story of how nice they are, you give it a rest so you don't say, you don't tell them lies to make them like you more. And stay in your body.

[38:24]

And you see people who have a story that they're a noxious and lousy student, you don't say mean things to them. Because you keep the story of their... You keep the history of their lousy practice of rest. And so your breathing is not obstructed. Your vitality is not obstructed. Your breath is not obstructed. And then Bodhidharma says, with a mind like a wall. So he was a... So we had this restaurant called Green, you know, vegetarian restaurant. They do serve things that are related to animal products. You know, they use dairy there. And so they had one of their desserts used to be called Bodhidharma, a Bodhidharma. And it was a torte, I believe, a walnut torte.

[39:31]

Ha ha ha ha! Because Bodhidharma was a walnut. He loved walls, supposedly. There's a beautiful picture of him in the Doksana room over there in Cloud Hall, room one it is. Beautiful picture of him sitting there looking at a wall. And he's just like glowing joyfully in his practice of looking at a wall. But really it's not the looking at the wall. It's the being like a wall that's what's wonderful. And being like a wall means you don't reject anything. You don't reject anybody. And you don't attach to anybody. and you don't get involved in your stories.

[40:34]

You're a human being, so you have mind, and your mind creates stories. Your mind creates stories, history, conditions all the time. But with a mind like a wall, you don't get involved in that stuff. And not being involved in the stuff. Then you enter the Buddha way. You enter the way of the Buddha. You enter the way of the Bodhisattva. When you have a mind like this, And so, it's a very simple practice, actually. Because you know you have stories. You see them all the time, moment after moment. All the time you see stories. If you don't see any story, you don't see anything. And you give up your stories, and if you give up your stories, you might not see them anymore. Part of what it's like to give up stories and give them no rest, because maybe you won't see any for a minute. There won't be any eyes or ears or nose or tongue or body or mind or me or you or Buddhism.

[41:37]

You open to that possibility. And then there's no obstruction to your breathing, to your vitality, to your spirit. And thus, you have a mind like a wall and you enter the way. This is a very simple teaching. This is a regular Zen teaching. And it's a wisdom meditation. Dogen also calls it in the Fukan Zazangi, besides learning the backward step, to learn this way of meditation is to learn the backward step. Dogen also calls it think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. Same instruction, which we could unpack some other time. So this is a kind of basic instruction in What is actually Zen meditation? It's just dropping off body and mind. Not getting involved in body and mind. Giving body and mind a rest.

[42:39]

This is Zen meditation. Yes? What I mentioned just occurred to me that telling us to give up our histories and give up our stories is also telling us to give up our our biological histories, where the ability to... By the way, it's not exactly telling us to do that, I don't think. It's just saying that that's what the practice is. But Buddha isn't exactly telling you to practice. So it is giving up your biological history, yeah, that's right. It's giving up... Stories, the ability to tell stories was adaptive. Yeah, right. It still is adaptive. I hope. I just told a story that I hope is adaptive. I just want to mention, it just occurred to me that telling us to give up our histories and give up our stories is also telling us to give up our biological histories.

[43:49]

By the way, it's not exactly telling us to do that, I don't think. It's just saying that that's what Buddhism is exactly telling you to practice. So it is giving up your biological history, yeah, that's right. It's giving stories the ability to tell stories was adaptive. Yeah, right. It still is adaptive. I hope. I just told a story that I hope has helped you adapt. I hope the stories I told you helped you adapt to your stories. Because basically, people that are suffering are people that are having trouble with their stories. That's what it looks like. Or having stories with their circumstances. Having trouble with their circumstances. Basically, people are grasping your circumstances. And even people in good circumstances, when they grasp them, they get scared to death.

[44:51]

Like America, so rich and so powerful, and we're grasping it. So we're totally, you know, it's total... It's terrible. We're so rich and so powerful, and we're scared of being a little bit less rich and powerful. So we go to war. Because somebody might scratch us. We just have to have world military domination. That's what the government's into, is world military domination. And in order to have world military domination, we have to work with the rich people who get us an office so we can dominate the world. And in order to get the rich people to support us, we have to let them do business for no taxes. And unfortunately, we have to have the middle class people support them, keep the government going so they have a nice country to do business in. So the middle class people

[45:53]

pay for this nice country or for these corporations to have this wonderful business paradise. And then all I've got to do is pay the politicians and let them stay. And then they can do that, and the politicians can use the money to stay in office to work on military domination, which promotes making a nice place for them to do business. Any place they want to on the planet, pretty much. things that your energy is flowing freely. There's no obstruction to your life energy. Again, I'm standing up, so I'm at a level of the room that's warmer than the rest of you.

[47:08]

How's the temperature? You're too warm. They're getting a little warm? How are you guys over there? It's okay. It's not too warm? No, it's good. How are you guys back there? Warm. Warm? Want to open the windows, open the door a little bit? If you want to. No. Cold paint. So the biggest trouble is they take off. Yeah. I wore this royalty, really. Because I know what happens in these classes. The heat's not on, right? No. But we have about 100 watt bulbs going. Plus giving off humidity, so it's gradually turning into a sauna. Not a sauna, more like a steam room. Detox, too, yeah. Speaking of detox, nice question.

[48:20]

You talked about mind like a wall, you know, copying a sign. I'm just wondering when stories arise, I guess, I think what's happening right now is I'm able to regard them as like you're saying, people come up and there's attraction and aversions around, as some stories are. lovely, some stories are kind of thorny, and I guess it's not good practice right now just to disregard the stories that are arising inside as like something coming up outside. Sometimes the instruction, no copying or sign, I don't want to repress what the writer said. These days, I'm not seeing so much coughing and sighing as an instruction, but actually more like a consequence of the instruction. And the instruction is to give the stories a rest.

[49:24]

And then the idea would be that if you give your stories a rest, you won't be coughing or sighing. You won't have these uneven breathing experiences, like being blocked and then being sort of popping. So it's really small. The first line is the instruction, the second line is described in some sense, in a sense, a standard or a touchstone for whether you've been somewhat successful of entering into the practice of the first one. And also someone asked me recently at Tassajara, well, is it sometimes beneficial to get into the stories? And I said, well, I think I said to her, no, but then later I thought, well, it's okay to get into the stories if your intention of getting into the stories is to let them go. So sometimes if you get a little bit more into a story, it helps you release it.

[50:26]

But you've got to look to see, are you going into the story to prove you're right or change it, you know, to make it better or worse? If you're going in for that reason, you're going to get more trouble. But if you're analyzing the story and looking at it and attending to it to help you let go, finding out a little bit more about it in order to help you let go, then maybe it's okay. And it's also good to talk with somebody who's into letting go of stories as you're going there rather than talk to somebody who's into like grasping stories who will collude with you and getting more entangled. So again, now, this is a warning about doing wisdom work.

[51:28]

So this kind of instruction, you've heard an instruction, and as you apply this instruction, you actually use your thinking to apply the instruction, give this story a rest. You know, give this story a rest means give all stories a rest, and also it should be like this story. So when you want to say give all stories a rest, or give every story a rest, and then apply it to each story, say give this story a rest, but understand it isn't just that you give this story a rest and not the next one. Anyway, you have that instruction, and if you were meditating on it, you might get entangled in it, in that story, in that instruction. So meditation instructions are also stories. So when you hear a meditation instruction, that becomes a condition or a circumstance of your life, that you're in a place where you hear meditation instructions. So you have a story about what Bodhidharma said, and so do I. So even the instruction about giving stories a rest should be given a rest.

[52:38]

You shouldn't adhere to that too strongly either. And if you do get involved in meditation instructions, particularly wisdom meditation instructions, and you start feeling kind of tangled up, then of course you should like give that a rest. So if you get involved in stories and you're getting more tangled or continuing to be entangled, what would help you give it a rest? Keep giving it a rest. So giving it a rest is related both to wisdom and tranquility. So some of you, I know already, are going to be spending a good deal of time in meditation trying to basically practice tranquility. Tranquility is slightly different from giving stories a rest. Slightly different. Wow.

[53:38]

In the practice of tranquility, whenever an object arises, in a sense, you breathe through it, or give it a rest. Not just to give it a rest, but you focus on resting with whatever comes up, or relaxing with whatever comes up. That is a tranquility way of being with with whatever's happening. So what's the difference between that and listening? Seeing your relationship with what's coming up. I didn't say in your relationship with what's coming up. Seeing the relationship of the work coming off would be the wisdom. Yeah. So, just giving up the story is not necessarily wisdom work.

[54:47]

Because wisdom work, we want to actually also notice that although we're giving the story a rest, we still believe in some stories. For example, we still believe in the story that objects are out there separate from us. So we develop a mind which doesn't get involved with objects. But we still actually, neurologically and biologically and consciously, have the destiny. Oh, this character also means destiny. This character, whether it's story or history or circumstances, it also means destiny, I believe. Yeah, it means karmic relations, ties, affinity.

[55:59]

love stories. So in the wisdom work we bring teachings to bear on these stories which we give a rest to. We import Dharma instruction to the phenomena which we are breathing through. We import Dharma instruction to the phenomena that we're breathing through. So we're breathing through our stories. Maybe I'm breathing through my story of you. I'm breathing through your story of me. I'm breathing through my story of our relationship. I'm developing a mind like a wolf. In a sense, that is conducive to tranquility. But it also sets up then the possibility of practicing wisdom, which will be to bring teachings to this meditation on phenomena, to bring teachings to this breathing through stories, bring teachings about the stories to further clarify whether I am letting go totally,

[57:31]

of any adherence to a false idea of the relationship with the story or of the relationship on the story. So, when Bodhidharma gave the second ancestors that instruction, he heard the instruction and tried to practice it. But then... Then he spent, I believe one version, one story is he spent seven years working on this instruction. And for seven years he went to Bodhidharma and he said, the disciple has no further involvement. Or the disciple has no further stories. I put them all to rest. And then Bodhidharma had a little talk with them to test them. But there wasn't a big test. because he could see that he already got it, but there had been tests for seven years where the student was meditating on letting go and interacting with the teacher about the thoroughness of the letting go, the thoroughness of the giving it a rest.

[58:44]

So you're meditating on letting it go in a sense that is tranquility meditation. relaxing with all your stories, that's tranquility. The wisdom meditation will be to bring the sutras, to bring the teachings, to go see the teacher and interact in such a way as to see if you can continue to let go of the story while you bring in new stories about stories, or new additions and new information and new teachings which bear on circumstances, which bear on phenomena. And part of the information about phenomena is being revealed to you in detail, or some detail, in the sutra which you're going to be exposed to. Which is going to tell you about how the mind works. So that you can start to see where it catches, and why it catches, and what happens when it catches. and what happens when the catching stops and how that process reverses and how all this works.

[59:48]

So that's one of the virtues of this sutra is it describes, it goes into detail about the etiology of suffering and the process of reversing the etiology of suffering to liberate beings. That's described in the sutra. Whereas the heart sutra doesn't actually tell you how you can... It says that when you see emptiness you become... When you understand emptiness, you do become liberated from suffering. That's what it says. This sutra completely agrees. But it doesn't tell you how you get to be a suffering person. And it doesn't tell you how it is that when you see emptiness, the mind unravels from the infusions that produce misery. This sutra gives some detail. particularly in Chapter 7. So, the wisdom practice is you actually meditate on teachings, you give up discursive thought in general as a tranquility introduction, and then in the ongoing process of giving up stories, you start to imbibe stories from the Buddha,

[61:11]

You give up, you certainly give up all your daily life discursive thoughts as much as you can, but you can't thoroughly give them up unless you receive instruction on the profound aspects of giving up your daily life stories. So give up your daily life stories as much as you can, and that gets you ready to hear teachings about how to give them up more thoroughly. But the teachings will in some sense be new stories about your stories, or new circumstances about your circumstances, to help you more deeply and more deeply and more deeply understand your experience and be liberated in the midst of your experience.

[62:14]

And as I say this to you, I hear the sutra in my head. The sutra is in my body and mind, so it's rumbling back there. I'm kind of saying it to you. It's different from the way it's literally in the sutra. So in this way the sutra can be a resource for people like Bodhidharma and so on to say these things which aren't in the sutra. The sutra doesn't say what he said, but what he said is really a wonderful, short version of the sutra. Breathing through all circumstances, outwardly breathing through all circumstances, inwardly no obstruction to your vital energy. With a mind like a wall, you enter the way, and entering the way means you enter the way of studying and practicing the Buddha Dharma, which is basically endless.

[63:27]

Now you can really go to work and study all the different... all the different rooms of the Dhamma Palace, which are just, you know, for us, just to help us be free of all of our contents, which are rising and ceasing. And so I introduced this last little section of saying a warning, so if you find yourself becoming agitated or distracted by your stories, or even agitated and distracted about these teachings, then for a while anyway, don't import the teachings, just let them go. and just work on breathing through what's immediately arising to you and just let your body and mind become calm and concentrated.

[64:41]

And then if you're in a class and this material is coming to you and you find your mind grasping and you find yourself becoming agitated because you're trying to get this stuff, then it's probably good just to rest from trying to get it for a while. And then when you calm again, and you can let the teachings come back, you can continually, it's all right to continue to let your non-dharmically approved stories go. You don't need to import them anymore. But you eventually, I think, probably need to import the Dharma stories. but you may not be in a place to impart the Dharma stories until you're fairly calm and at ease. Although they're good stories, they're not necessarily good for you when you're not calm. So yesterday we just sat, even though partly I wanted to immediately start offering you material to work with,

[65:52]

Because the basic thing is we start basically with being calm, somewhat, calm enough. Maybe I should say, it's not just that you're calm, but you're calm which results from your giving up grasping. You're calm which results from letting go of your discursive thought. You're calm which comes from not getting involved. And so then that sets a base for studying scriptures where you can, in a sense, get involved again. So you could potentially pick up this material lightly. Does that make sense?

[66:55]

So you need to, in a sense, excuse the expression, be a little bit like a carburetor or something like that to adjust the richness of the flow of the material. If it's getting too rich, tone it down a little bit, go back more to idle and just stay warm and relaxed. And when you feel warmed up and ready to go, you can turn up the richness of the quantity of material by meditating on some of these teachings. Can you just read that one more time through? Lord Donald is saying it outwardly. Outwardly. The second character can mean cease or breathe.

[67:57]

All. And the third character, fourth character means circumstances, involvements, relations, stories, histories, destiny, karmic relations, circumstances, ties, affinity, All those things. And the next line, did you want the next line too? Yeah. The next line is, inwardly, inwardly, inside the mind, or in the heart, you could also say, there isn't any gasping or groaning or sighing or coughing or asthma, you know.

[69:02]

This character, this character here, this character here, the one that's in Bodhidharma's expression, together with the character for breath or stop or cease, put those two together, it means asthma. But this is in your mind. This is your total vitality. There's no asthma. There's no constriction. Your life starts flowing. So this mind like a wall, you're really like cooking. You're really like that picture in my room, you know. Bodhidharma is like, you can see him. He's cooking. He's glowing, you know. There's this yellow aura around him. Warm and warm and ready to go in your practice when you do this. And then the next line is, with a mind like a wall, you enter the way. Anything else this morning?

[70:05]

Yes? I haven't been here for a year, and this time last year we were doing the questions at Gulankara. Yes. what have you been doing for the last 12 months because we're still in fact we've gone back to chapter 5 but we'll probably go on to chapter 7 well at Tassajara we did we started with chapter 6 questions of Gunakara and then we did chapter 7 and we kind of finished chapter 7 in 3 months we're right on the verge of chapter 8 at the end of three months. But also towards the end of that practice period, we went back to Chapter 5. I thought they could do Chapter 6 without Chapter 5, and they did actually pretty well, but I thought later, I thought it would be helpful if they looked at Chapter 5 for a while. So you're getting Chapter 5 too. And although we're probably not going to study Chapter 8, I would guess we probably won't in this practice period.

[71:16]

I'm actually giving you Chapter Eight already. Chapter Eight is the questions of Maitreya, but it's also the questions which the Chinese translations say it's the analysis of centering or analysis of yoga. So the actual practice part of the text is in Chapter Eight. In Chapter Eight you apply Chapter Five, Six and Seven to your experience. So that's what we've been doing is going into more detail, particularly in Chapter 7, quite a bit of detail. So we'll look at Chapter 7. I think probably this part will get into Chapter 7. Did we ever do Chapters 1 to 4? In certain smaller study groups, I did 1 to 4. And I'm not saying they're unimportant. They're really wonderful chapters. I think you can do one through four and not find any way to apply them because they don't get into analyzing experience.

[72:26]

One through four are really about emptiness or suchness. And so we will, in the next chapter, we'll be introduced to our friendly neighborhood suchness. We'll be introduced to the ultimate in the next chapter. And in a sense you got introduced to the ultimate in this chapter because you heard that bodhisattvas who are wise with respect to mind, consciousness and intellect do not perceive mind, consciousness and intellect. In other words, they see the emptiness or the suchness of mind, consciousness and intellect and in that vision they do not perceive mind, consciousness and intellect. So without being told What was discussed in the first four chapters was implied because that's what the bodhisattvas who do not perceive mind, consciousness, and intellect are looking at when they don't perceive mind, consciousness, and intellect.

[73:31]

They're looking at suchness. And suchness, as some of you know, is the absence of the imputational character and the dependently coercent nature of mind, consciousness, and intellect. So when the bodhisattvas understand the dependently co-arisen nature of mind, consciousness and intellect, they understand the fantasy nature of mind, consciousness and intellect, and they see that the fantasy nature of mind consciousness and intellect is absent in mind consciousness and intellect, is absent in the other dependent nature of mind consciousness and intellect. Seeing that, meditating on that, they do not precede mind consciousness and intellect. But you don't really need to have read the first four chapters, I think, in order to hear what I just said, do you? But still, the first four chapters are really wonderful. But you can read those, I think.

[74:34]

And if you have any questions, ask me, and I'll give you excellent answers. But I think it seems to be working pretty well for a lot of people, anyway, to go directly into chapter five or six at the starting point. without the wonderful warm-up on ultimate in the first four chapters. And then, I'm not going into chapter eight, probably, but I'm teaching you chapter eight by telling you what Bodhidharma said, because this is Bodhidharma's way of telling you how to meditate on chapter four, five, six, and seven. although he doesn't say 567. He hears of this persuasion of this sutra. He is coming from the Heart Sutra and this sutra. Bodhidharma is supposed to have brought the Lankavatara Sutra with him, which is a kind of amalgamation of the Samdhinirmacana Sutra and the Paramita Sutras.

[75:48]

But I think actually it's time for the Samadhi Nirmacana Sutra now. But I don't think it's time for the Lankavatara Sutra. That's my opinion. But in a few years I think we can go to Lankavatara Sutra and do fine there. But right now I think this is more appropriate, this sutra. This is a really totally great sutra. And the next two chapters after this are, you know, so wonderful. So you're advised to not, you know, to give them a rest. To breathe through them. Don't get grippy, crappy, clingy to these wonderful concepts that are going to be coming at you. Eight, the end. No. No. And then after eight comes... Comes... After eight comes... And then, in accordance with the popularity of the decimal system, it stops.

[76:58]

The sutra arose in a time when the decimal system was just starting to be available in India and the Near East. It's a lot of tens. A lot of tens. Yeah, a lot of tens appearing. Tom Saka Sutra's coming up around this time, too, so there's lots and lots of tens now with Tom Saka Sutra. Before that, they liked sixes and sevens and eights, fours. This is a kind of tens, the decimal era. And after Chapter 7, you described the stages you go through as you meditate on emptiness and how you deepen your understanding and your practice by continually meditating on thoroughly established character phenomena. But I think the first thing to do is, before we talk about the stages of enlightenment, we need to just get enlightened, okay?

[78:08]

Yes? Do you have recommendations of book or e-book or books that might have some commentary? There's a reading list here. And so I guess I think all the things on the reading list are good. And there's more than that, too. But this reading list has excellent commentaries on it. But again, I think more important than the commentaries is you memorize the text so that you can actually think of the text. So when you're walking around, you can say to yourself, independence on the absence of strongly adhering to the imputational character as being the other dependent, the thoroughly established character is known. So you can say that to yourself wherever you are. So you can realize what you need to do in order to see suchness and become free. And then you should also be able to say how the imputational character is known by dependence on symbols and words.

[79:17]

and so on, you know, and what the other dependent, how the other dependent is known by strongly adhering to the imputation of us being the other dependent, you know. These kinds of things are more important. You learn those. Not so fun, maybe. But it doesn't take that long to memorize these chapters. They're only, like, this chapter you did today is only two pages. And the next chapter is also only two pages. You memorize that chapter, and you can skip the part about the repeated different colors and stuff like that. Excuse me. But certain sections of the next sutra are not that long. I recommend you get the stuff, get the teaching in your body. I think there will be a background on various terms that, you know, even if I memorize it, I wouldn't... Well, after you memorize it, then learn the terms. First get it in. First get it in, and then study it. But if you start studying before you get it in, you understand the terms.

[80:21]

But then, what did it say again? You're walking around, you have to go get the book. What am I supposed to do now here? I think traditionally, first you do is you learn it. And part of learning it is the terms. And so yeah, there's the commentaries. It looks like it's getting to be about time to stop. Is that 10.25? Also, Gene said, you know, last year we seem to be ahead of where we are this year. And another thing about this particular scripture and about these practices is that go it's they're repeated you go over around and around and around you don't just read through it once and that's it this this is this type of material has you have to go over it's practice material so it isn't just okay it's like okay now do it again okay now do it again okay now do it again and then kind of like oh my god wow finally things are like i understand

[81:45]

and then do it again. So, somehow, anyway, I noticed that I have no problem making no progress. No problem, like with the priest group we had studying the sutra, we got all the way to Chapter 8, and we got deep into Chapter 8, and I said, oops, we've got to go back to the beginning. Because they didn't understand well enough I used to say, we didn't understand well enough chapter 7 to do certain kind of work that chapter 8 was raising. But we couldn't just go back to chapter 7, because we didn't understand chapter 6 well enough to understand chapter 7. So we went back to the beginning. So we went deep into chapter 8, and now, after another year or two, we're back to chapter 8 again. Not deep into it, though, yet. And it seems like the priests understand better, don't you, this time, too? Yeah, so it's... So, you'll understand better this time, even though we may not get much farther.

[83:03]

It is possible to regress in practice, but nobody's doing it around here. That place.

[83:18]

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