The lofty priest of that temple, who is also called Dogen. So this is one of his personal literary expressions of his vows, his bodhisattva vows. And we often chant it at the beginning of Dharma talks. And I particularly wanted to have you chant it because maybe I'll refer to it in today's discussion. Did you want to remind me of something? Did it have something to do with Zen calisthenics? So there's a story that there's a fairly good-sized city in northern China near a temple which is called Shaolin.

[01:29]

which is the temple that we say Bodhidharma practiced at for a long time. And in this town, most of the people that live in the town are involved in various forms of martial arts. They propose there's a tradition that all those martial arts exercises came from the Zen tradition. I don't think they say that all the Tai Chi practices and all the gum food practices come from Bodhidharma, but there's some close association for a number of many, many traditions of Chinese martial, physical disciplines attributing their roots to the Zen school. But there's no monastery that has all those different schools of martial arts going on.

[02:33]

And some monasteries today, the teacher is a martial artist and teaches martial arts. Just like in some monasteries, the teacher's a tea teacher and teaches tea ceremony or the way of tea. Some teachers are carpenters. Some teachers are painters. They have... some art that they're working on, and they teach it and practice it, practice it and teach it. But I think that there are certain main things that you find in almost all Zen temples, which is you have the bodhisattva precepts, And those Bodhisattva precepts differ somewhat from different schools. But in the Soto school we have the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. And we also have the Buddha Mind Seal. in all the Zen temples. But the types of Zen exercise varies from place to place, and some temples do not practice any particular martial arts, and some do.

[03:43]

And in this temple, many people do practice martial arts or tai chi, tea ceremony and other things like that, but it's not necessarily part of our basic program. Also, we sometimes have yoga classes offered, but it's not part of our basic program. Our basic program is the yoga practice in the zendo that we're doing on a daily basis. But many people find other physical disciplines very supportive of our basic physical exercise. So today I wanted to just talk about karmic consciousness. We have this expression, I think therefore I am.

[04:47]

Or another expression is There is awareness. And I am there in that awareness. There's an awareness that I am here. There's not an awareness that I'm over there. There's a teaching that I'm over there. But I'm kind of aware that I'm here And the place where that there's an awareness that I'm here, that's what I would call karmic consciousness, or for short, consciousness. In addition to the sense that I am here in this consciousness, there's also a sense that I have certain activities

[05:59]

that I am involved in action, I am involved in karma right now. I am making gestures and I am thinking and I am talking. That's the kind of awareness that I would call consciousness or karmic consciousness. So there's two types of kind of I present. One is the I that's here, and the I that's here, the I that's here, the I that's here, and then there's the I who is making this gesture, and now there's the I that's making that gesture. So what I'm doing is constantly changing, but there's kind of a basic sense that I'm here every moment. The I'm here is maybe the most basic and subtle sense that somebody's here, that there's a self-process here. And then the activities are a little grosser and easier to spot.

[07:02]

I mean, the self that has activities, the self that has a body, the self that has friends. But even if I don't see any friends, If there's consciousness, there's a sense that I'm here. And I call the one that's here, I or me. And I also, in that space, can see other beings. And I imagine that some of them also have this kind of consciousness. Yes? When you say, I am here, is there a significance to the here? Yeah, that's right. And another characteristic of consciousness is that consciousness has a here. And another characteristic of consciousness is that it has a now. So it comes with concepts of here and now. And when we have a consciousness that doesn't have a here or a now, we often feel very disoriented.

[08:09]

almost like in collapse. Normal functioning consciousness, karmic consciousness has a now, a sense of now. The sense of now is very much like the sense of self. It's not a thing in itself, it's a process, it's a cognitive process. it's highly recommended to pay attention to these three things. To be aware of the sense of self, to be aware of the sense of now, or the process of now, and be aware of the process of here. Or space and time. The consciousness has space and time also. However, this is not the totality of our life. We also have a body which is not necessarily conscious.

[09:18]

The body is not always conscious. And with the body is a, for human beings, basically inconceivably marvelous cognitive process which accompanies a body, a body that's breathing, a body that has a functioning heart, digestive system, sense organs. And that cognitive process is not conscious. But if that cognitive process were to collapse, the person would be, after a while anyway, the body would be irreparably disintegrating into non-living tissue. So I'm proposing that

[10:25]

There can be a life form, and it could be a human, that doesn't have consciousness but does have cognitive process. And in the area of cognitive process where that's not conscious, there's not a sense of I'm here. Or, you know, I'm talking to you now and my sense is I'm not there. I'm not present in that cognitive process I'm talking about. But I imagine I'm being supported by it all the time. in this conscious space where I live, or where actually, which is at the center, in a way, of where I live, or I would say this cognitive process is within my life, because I don't live just in this cognitive process of consciousness.

[11:47]

I live in a more, a much more What's the word? A much, not even much more. I live, I live in an inconceivable realm also, which isn't, it's not exactly more, because more and more of it, it belongs to the realm, the little realm of consciousness, more and less. It's beyond more and less. And I'm, as long as I'm alive, I'm living with that. So I, So the thing I'm working up to is to discuss karma. And karma occurs, time of functions in consciousness. Yes. cognitive process and consciousness.

[12:51]

Yeah. Cognitive process. So maybe I should say unconscious cognitive process and conscious cognitive process. The... The unconscious cognitive process is going on in intimate relationship with our body all the time that there's life. These two are working together. And these two, the body, the body and the cognitive process which lives with it, give rise to consciousness. where there's a sense of self.

[13:52]

And in that realm is where karma, where the action of karma occurs. Because action of karma is the pattern of a given moment of consciousness, which is called intention or volition. But there's not there's not that kind of intention in the unconscious cognitive process. So in that sense, there is not karma in the vast, inconceivable cognitive processes that are unconscious. You thought cognitive had to do with thinking?

[14:59]

I think cognitive has to do with calculations and representations, but it's not, cognitive is not necessarily happening in a space where there's somebody there who's aware of the calculations that are going on. and the representations. I think I just misunderstand the word. I think I just misunderstand the word. I don't want to grasp at that word cognitive. Maybe conscious cognition. Well, maybe as you listen now, it may become clearer in consciousness.

[16:08]

Yes? Repeat what you said about the pattern in a given moment of consciousness is the definition of karma. Action is not the definition of karma. Action is a translation of the word from Sanskrit into English. But the definition of action is intention. And intention is the way consciousness is organized in a given moment. Yes. Yes. Yes, we do. Non-humans, as far as I can tell, a lot of, especially mammals, are very easy for me to imagine that they can imagine that I can imagine them. Some animals, I think, can tell that I'm imagining them and they're concerned about how I do. So they can develop karma?

[17:17]

Yeah. So, for example, some animals, like some dogs, they seem to be aware that I'm here, and this is my house, and this is my boss, and these people work for me. And other primates, too, seem to have a sense of, I'm here, this is mine, and also that's not mine. They seem to have, they at least have that sense this is my action, this is my stuff. And I think they have the other one too, I'm here. But they may not be able to get the subtlety of that. But they do seem very conscious. Some other animals, I don't see that they're conscious. But I do see that they're cognitive. They can do amazing, amazing physical adjustments.

[18:19]

And the body does them with the aid of lots of, I would say, calculations and calibrations and learning. But I don't see that they have a sense of, I'm here and this is mine. But this sense of consciousness could go quite far among the living. And I think Buddhism, the Buddha is teaching, is particularly directed towards the conscious beings on this planet because the conscious beings in the realm of consciousness where there's a sense of self, they get very uncomfortable there and very frightened and they're at risk of being violent towards themselves and others. And now we have these amazing appearances in consciousness of just horrible violence.

[19:25]

And again, in my consciousness, in the consciousness where I live, I have an imagination of of human beings and other animals too, who are so wise that they never are afraid and they're never violent and they will never hurt anybody. No matter how things turn out, they're able to not be tricked by the false appearances They understand the realm of consciousness, so they do not do harmful actions. As a matter of fact, they can even on many occasions help other people who have not yet learned about karmic consciousness to learn and become free.

[20:32]

Karmic consciousness is a place where there is a self-process, but part of the problem of karmic consciousness is that the self-process appears deceptively. The self-process appears deceptively. The self-process does not appear with a label on it, process, it just says self. There's not a process written under it. or written above it, this is not a thing in itself. This is an interdependent process. This self depends for its existence on things that are not it. This self is an other-dependent phenomena. It does not make itself. It does not inherit itself. It depends on other things. It is inconceivable and ungraspable.

[21:44]

Those labels are not on the self. And those who have learned what the self is are now sending light to us to illuminate the self. But when the light enters our karmic consciousness, it gets turned into words and stories. So in karmic consciousness there's a stream of words and the sense of self in that karmic consciousness where there's a stream of words, that sense of self is there and there is a constant influence of the stream of words, which is not necessarily disorienting, but it definitely spins us or turns us. If we resist it, we suffer.

[22:46]

If we go with it and don't take care of our orientation, we also will suffer. And the situation of karmic consciousness not only appears deceptively, but it's another label on it. So there's not a label which says this is a dependent process that's ungraspable. There's not that sign which we're trying to put on. The teaching is trying to get us to put that on everything. But there's another thing that's a sign that's on it that we can't read, but it's on it. And the sign is, this is real. This appearance of independent existence is real. It's real. And there's no question like, well, why is it real? It just says, it's real. And so the sense of separation, the sense of independence of the self looks real.

[23:54]

So it's quite easy for the one who's there to believe that she actually is existing separately from other beings. And it's quite difficult to learn that everybody is actually showing you what the self is because everybody is actually part of the process which creates the self. It's hard to learn that. So we have these ethical precepts to teach us that, like the precept of not killing. Don't Don't lose track of the fact that everybody is your life. Buddha's wisdom is a life of not killing. The precept actually isn't don't kill, the precept is not killing.

[25:00]

Not killing is Buddha's reality. Buddha's reality is not killing. It's not don't kill, it's not killing. That's because everything that you see is your life. We also had don't praise self, or rather not praising self at the expense of others. When we think we're an independent self, we sometimes think we're pretty good and we sometimes think other people are not quite as good. But actually the goodness of us is totally due to other people and more than just other people. All of our goodness is other-dependent. Our goodness is not dependent on ourself. Our goodness is dependent on others. So we have a precept, don't praise this wonderful self at the expense of others because that's antithetical to Buddha's wisdom. praise others as yourself, including the others who are frightened and violent.

[26:12]

We don't praise the violence, we praise them as teaching us about ourself. So I I wanted to talk about karma today. And karma occurs in this kind of consciousness. And the other kind of consciousness, the other kind of cognitive process, is transformed in each moment of consciousness. Each time I think something, each time I say something, each gesture I make, each vow that I make, each vow that I break, all those conscious activities immediately transform the unconscious cognitive process.

[27:16]

And the unconscious cognitive process supports the conscious cognitive process. So it's in the unconscious cognitive process that I know how to speak English, that the actual knowledge of how to speak English. And it's in the conscious process where I speak English. It's in the conscious process where I learn to speak English, And as a result of the actions I have been taking in consciousness, over years I have learned to speak English. But if I would stop speaking English for a long time and speak Japanese, not to mention try to learn Chinese and French also, and not speak English at all, the unconscious process which is now supporting my speaking of English would be transformed by my lack of practicing English in my consciousness, and I would not be able to speak English the way I do now. I still might be able to do it a little, but I actually might lose a lot of it.

[28:24]

Now if I had a second language, like Japanese, and then I stopped speaking Japanese, if I could speak Japanese well and I stopped practicing it consciously for a while, after not too long of not practicing, there would be almost no conscious evidence of speaking Japanese. Does that make sense? There would still be a little bit of residue of my past conscious activity to learn Japanese, but it would be so weak that it couldn't support much going on in consciousness. So there's a close relationship between these two. And there's learning in both areas but there's a special type of learning that can occur in consciousness which is the learning of how to be free from the deceptiveness of consciousness and the clinging that occurs because of being tricked by the deceptiveness.

[29:31]

So the basic suffering which leads to fear and violence The basic suffering occurs because of grasping at appearances of graspable things. In consciousness there's an appearance of something that can be grasped. That is a falseness, that is a misperception. There are no things that can be grasped. These are deceptions and they're very useful. So they're going to keep being there. We're not trying to get rid of the deceptions. We're trying to learn how to not grasp them, to give up clinging. Because again, that is the key to giving up suffering, which leads to not just discomfort, but fear and violence and cruelty and lack of compassion. And it is the lack of wisdom that we've been clinging.

[30:36]

Still, one of the main things I wanted to bring up today is that karma has consequence. What I think has consequence, and what I say has consequence, and the gestures I make have consequence, And the consequence is the transformation of the non-conscious cognitive processes. And the non-conscious cognitive processes are of two varieties. One variety is shared by all living beings.

[31:47]

Another variety is not shared by all living beings. So Buddha taught karma is the intention of our consciousness and karma has consequence, and some people feel the Buddha also taught, but even if the Buddha did not articulate this, disciples of Buddha like me, or people who wish to be disciples of Buddha like me, are suggesting now that the consequences of karma are the transformation of unconscious cognitive processes of living beings. And when the unconscious cognitive processes are transformed, the body is transformed because the unconscious cognitive processes are very intimate with the body.

[33:00]

And the body that the unconscious cognitive processes are intimate with is not the body that we're conscious of. It's the actual body that's in actual relationship with our cognitive processes, not just our idea of it. Normally when we have a body we have ideas about, you know, for humans it has arms and legs, fingers, toes, heart, and so on. It's not that there's no arms and legs, fingers and toes, it's just that the way those things are is inconceivable. It is not consciously known, just like the cognitive processes are inconceivable, not cognitively known, not consciously known. Yes, when the body changes, the unconscious cognitive processes change with it, and therefore the consciousness changes.

[34:22]

So, some of us are noticing that the body is changing, and we're noticing it in consciousness, and that's actually connected maybe to the fact that the body is changing, and the cognitive processes are changing, so somehow that information is coming up into our consciousness. So, for example, language. Our bodies are changing, and when our body changes, even if we keep speaking English, we notice that we're speaking English differently. And we notice that our speaking English differently is going along with our aging. We notice that we have slurred speech. for example, in consciousness. And that's because the cognitive processes are changing and the body's changing. And now we have what's called

[35:25]

What's it called? Anyway, all kinds of neurological exercise programs for people to consciously do things to transform the unconscious process, to transform the body, to support a more long life to the ability to speak English as the body changes. I'm still now heading to one of the main points I want to make today which is the Buddha said that karma has consequence and again two kinds of consequence that it has of transforming the unconscious cognitive processes that are not common and transforming the conscious processes that are common.

[36:35]

The unconscious cognitive processes are basically, I mean, the unshared unconscious is basically that part which is connected to the sense organs of a living being. the unshared part, I mean the common part, is that part which is called the physical world. The sense organs are physical. The sense processes are a combination of the physical sense organs and the cognitive processes. But another karmic consequence is the physical world in which the living beings share life.

[37:47]

So the physical world and the living world are both the results of karma. All life is a result of karma and all things which we might even call inanimate things are also the result of karma. physical things that are not living tissue are shared cognitive process. The living part that's not shared is the other part. But both of them are cognitive process.

[39:06]

And even the body is cognitive process. So everything I do, everything I think, all my karmic activity has consequence. But the way I feel and the way I am is not just due to my karma. Because my consciousness, which is the place where my karma occurs, is supported by a cognitive process which is due, which is the consequence of my lineage of past karma, but it's also due to the lineage, not to the lineage, but to all of your lives.

[40:09]

all of your lives make the cognitive process which supports my consciousness. And all of us contribute to the cognitive process which supports your consciousness. And each of us can make a unique contribution to that cognitive process, which is different from other people's contribution. And I should say, not each of us can, each of us does make a contribution. to the inconceivable shared cognitive process. And each of us makes a contribution to the unshared cognitive process. Therefore, and the unshared cognitive process and the shared cognitive process give rise to consciousness where we suffer or where we hear the Dharma and realize liberation.

[41:26]

So we are all responsible for what's supporting our conscious world where we're trying to practice with what's going on in consciousness. We're all responsible. We're all making contributions to it. None of us are completely in control of anything that's arising in consciousness. all of us are responsible to everything that's arising in consciousness. Okay? So, I think at this point, if the people were raising their hands, I hope you can remember that you have hands that you raised. And now I'd like to pass out a scripture attributed to the Buddha. about karma.

[42:28]

This was, what I've been saying was partly to help you understand this scripture better. This scripture is called, as you will see, Shivaka. It's in the Samyutta Nikaya collection of the Buddha's Discourses. I have the thought that we could read this rather than chant it.

[44:18]

In other words, take into account punctuation. That we could read this together and then we can discuss. Shall we start? Everybody have a copy? On one occasion, the Blessed One was dwelling at Rajapak, the bamboo grove, the world's sanctuary, that no longer overlooked. Approached the Blessed One, he safely faced the victim. When they had concluded their greetings and cordial talk, he sat down on one side and said to the last one, Master Wilhelm, I've got some aesthetics in my arms and walls, such as I've turned into your face. Whatever our personal experiences, whether it be classes that are being vocal, or we're not even judging all the number of lessons, all of that is caused by what is happening at us.

[45:25]

But what does my spirit of life want to say about this? Some of the ailments you have happened arise here originating from vital disorders. The rest of the ailments arise here originating from vital disorders. One can know for oneself, and that is specific to teachers living in the world. Now, there is a set of factors that are often solved, such as how quickly the ailments exist. Whatever a person experiences, whether it be a lesson or being fallen, or nearly their painful normal lesson, all of them is promised by God as a sign in the past. They can overshoot what one reveals as far as the self, and they can overshoot what is specific to the real world. Therefore, it is the strength of the strong and the power of those who stand before us. Some of you may be sure of that, but I assure you are originating from plenty of sources. Originating from military sources. Originating from the balance of the theory.

[46:28]

Produced by a change of climate. Produced by a therapist to get in here. Caused by an assault. Produced as a result of the novel. That self-impedance is a last year produced as a result of a conglomerate will not be developed for one's self, and that is its desire to be true in the world. Now, when we build this aesthetics in an audience holds such a document, we fear the stress. Whatever person experiences this, whether only their painful complacency. All of that to satisfy what is left in the past. They overshoot what went on the other side of the South, and they overshoot what is specifically true in the world. They're there where I say it, but this is wrong. I'm not part of the specific synopsis. And this was said, and one wonderer, what will you do? Said the blessed one, make a sick master grow tall. Make a sick master grow tall. From today, let a master grow tall, and remember me as a lay follower, who has come for refuge for life.

[47:35]

By old friend, and also women, and I will explain it to you. Perilous dissonance sought the crown of exalted fear. Shall I say something about that? So, some people say a man is made out of mud. A poor man is made out of muscle and blood. Muscle and blood and skin and bones. A mind that's weak and a back that's strong. Some people say that whatever you experience is due to your past karma.

[48:38]

And the Buddha is saying that some people say that. Or somebody said to the Buddha that some people say that. Buddha says, some feelings are due to phlegm. Some feelings are due to actions which are not intentional. Some feelings are due to other people's actions upon you, attacks. Some feelings are due to imbalances in the humors and the phlegms and so on. So he listed eight things each of which some feelings are due to, he says. And you can sense in yourself that some feelings that are happening to you are because someone is being attacking you and you have a feeling about that.

[49:42]

And also, if you would tell people about your feeling that you have that somebody is attacking you, they would kind of they would say, yeah, right. So in the world, people would say, yeah, your feeling is due to what that person did, and you would feel that way too. And the Buddha says, in that case, it's not going beyond what you know. If you would say some feelings are due to your past karma, then most people would say, yes, that's right. And also you would feel that way. And that would not go beyond what you know or what the world would agree with you on. So that's one first layer of comment on what this thing says. But if you would say everything is due to phlegm, you would be going beyond what most people think, right? And you would not actually have direct experience that everything's due to phlegm.

[50:49]

If you would say everything's due to humor, most people do not know that with you. It's not a common understanding. And you don't have a direct perception of that, the Buddha is saying. The Buddha is saying nobody has a direct perception of humor. Humors of the body are the reason for everything we feel. But the monk didn't come to him and say, people are saying phlegm is the cause of all feeling. They say karma is. And maybe part of the reason they say that is because the Buddha taught how important karma is. Okay, so that's my first level of comment. And maybe I'll just stop there and see what kind of responses we get. Linda? Right. Right.

[52:13]

Can't be used in a way that's very cruel. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, this, such an important teaching about, you know, assault and climate and these other reasons for assault. The part of the, part of my story, my story, about why I'm talking to you about this, okay, this is a story about why I'm talking to you about this. This is not why I'm talking to you about it. So the story is that some Japanese priests were visiting and they were talking to me about how can we understand karma in a way that doesn't come in conflict with human rights? How can we discuss karma or bring the teaching of karma forward that doesn't conflict with or undermine human rights.

[53:16]

I think that in Asia, the monks are finding the concept of human rights is starting to have some stress with the teaching of karma. So a lot of the monk priests are staying away from teaching karma because they're sensing that it has problems in terms of human rights. That people are saying, if this person is poor, well, If this person is being treated badly, well, that doesn't promote human rights. The next level of comment that I have is that the Buddha said that the actual way that karma works is inconceivable. the actual way that I have come to have a conscious feeling and interest to talk to you about this, I just told you a story of a particular set of conditions that I thought led me to bring this up with you.

[54:37]

And it's not like that's not connected to the causal process, what I just told you, that story. But that story does not actually elucidate how this is happening right now. And the Buddha said, it is inconceivable how karmic causation works. So when he said here that if you say that everything's due to karma, even in your cognitive realm of storytelling, that doesn't work. Because other people in the world do not agree with you. And you do not have direct knowledge of that. You only have a story that all your feelings are due to past karma, or all her feelings are due to past karma. And a lot of people don't agree with you.

[55:42]

But if you would say some of her feelings are due to past karma, That you can kind of have a sense of yourself, and you're not going too far, and other people would agree with you. I just ask for clarification. In this context, when you say past karma, you're meaning personal past, my own past karma. Because if we use karma as in not just what I did in my past, but whatever this person who is attacking you did in his or her past, and what was done to him or her, I mean, if we think of all of this as past karma, are we still saying that we can't say all feelings can be attributed to past karmas? the part that makes people shy away from the teaching of karma is the idea of personal karma leading to personal feelings.

[56:46]

And I'm saying to you that that isn't how it works, even though I don't know how it does. And I told you a story of how it works, but that story of how it works is just gives you an inkling of how inconceivable the process is, because all my feelings actually are due to karma, but not just mine. So the Buddha is saying, and when the Buddha says that there are seven other categories of conditions that lead to what we feel, I'm saying this to you now. I didn't say this in this particular text, but I'm saying to you, that there's eight factors he lists here, and I'm saying to you that the seven others are not your own personal karma, but they are also the results of karma. But they're the results of all of our karma, the humors. Other people, you know, your own and other people's accidental actions.

[57:54]

the violence of other people, all that is due to the complex inner relationship of all of our karma and all of its causal results. And how all those causal results then are the basis for our conscious activity. In which, in other words, our conscious cognitive activity. So I am responsible for all of you And for me, and I do not understand, it is inconceivable whether I'm more responsible for you or for me at a given moment. Whether my contribution is relatively more or less important. And all of you similarly are responsible for me. In other words, we're doing this together. totally, and there's no, and in this process there's no way to place blame. So people would, it would be very difficult on this basis of this to actually blame anybody for anything.

[59:02]

So we have a lot of hands up there. Brandon and So if all seven of his other causes, for example, are stemming from shared karma, including my own carelessness... My own karma is supported by the results of past common and uncommon karma. So all eight are supported by the results of our past karma. Including my own? Including your own. It's mixed. I'm suggesting that the support of conscious life wherein we suffer

[60:07]

It has two dimensions. One is a shared and unshared cognitive process. Part of our cognitive process is shared with other people's cognitive process. No things are caused, as far as I can imagine, No things are caused by your karma alone. And your karma alone is actually not your karma alone. Because everybody supports you in all your karma. The world is created by karma and it's also created by intentions of those beings who are free from the misunderstanding of self. So in the early teaching, the Buddha said, the world is created by not a god, and actually says in the Abhidharma-kosha, not by a god and not by somebody's conscious design.

[61:18]

The world is created by karma. And he goes on to explain, and not just by one person's karma. The world and all the beings living in the world are due to karma. But nothing that I'm experiencing is due just to my karma. Yes? When the Buddha says it's inconceivable to understand how karma works, basically, was it inconceivable for him as well? It was inconceivable and he understood it. He understood... He touched on why it's inconceivable. He touched on why it's inconceivable, right. At various places he would kind of give you a little feeling for how inconceivable the process is. And he's also saying this process is the main process I want to teach you about because misunderstanding this is suffering.

[62:28]

And so his story of the 12-fold chain of causation, that is a story about karmic causation. That's not how it works. That's a picture of how it works. And he clarified that picture. And that picture clarified his inconceivable wisdom. Now, I just want to, maybe I'll call on a couple more people, and then I'll tell you some stories. I see your hand, but I want to say something to you before I call on your hand. which I didn't really call on him exactly because he didn't get to say whatever he wanted to say. But he asked me, there's a story that Muhammad is one of the causes and conditions. I think that there's a story that he's one of the causes and conditions that also led to this discussion today because he asked me some time ago, when we chant this ehe koso, it says, liberate the body or save the body, which is the fruit of many lives.

[63:35]

And he said, do we have to take this many lives literally? This thing about many lives? And I would say, don't take it literally. Meditate on its literalness. Don't take it. Look at the words. many past lives. Study what that many past lives means. It is in karmic consciousness those words are appearing. The fruit of many lives, those words are appearing. And they're words, they're literal. By studying those words in karmic consciousness, there can be liberation of that body. So that's part of what I'm bringing this up is to study the phrase save the body which is the fruit of many lives by studying it literally.

[64:39]

And by studying it literally, then you can move on to study it non-literally. And then you can move on from there to study it literally and non-literally. And you can talk about it non-literally Literally. In other words, you can help people understand it. So, Muhammad? How do we apply this? Are we all responsible for the war? Also the murder? How do we work with that? This is my understanding, is we are all responsible for the war and we're also responsible for every individual person's actions.

[65:39]

Nobody's actions are separate from my responsibility. That's my understanding. And now I want to tell the story. The story is of the Zen teacher, Bai Jiang, in China, in the Tang Dynasty. And he gives talks to the assembly. And on many occasions, I think they even say, always in the back of the room, there was an old man. And then one day, after the monks had dispersed, the old man came forward and said, I'm not a human. I'm a wild fox spirit. And I used to, in the time of Kassho Buddha, you know, we say, Bibashi Butsu, Kassho Butsu, Shakyamuni Butsu.

[66:49]

In a previous eon, of the previous Buddha, I was head monk of this monastery. And someone asked me, does a highly cultivated person fall into cause and effect? And I said, no. As a result of that statement, I have been born 500 times as a wild fox spirit. Now I ask you, Master, to give me a turning word. to turn the words here in brackets, to liberate me, to liberate me from my karma or from karma. So he said a highly cultivated person does not fall into karma, cause and effect. And there was a consequence of that. What I'm saying to you is that that's not the whole story of why he is feeling the way he's feeling.

[67:59]

I'm saying that's not the whole story. It wasn't just because he said yes. No, a highly cultivated person does not fall into it. I'm saying that's not the whole reason. But I don't know. So he asked Bajang, so Bajang says, ask me. So the old man asked Bajang, does a highly cultivated person, a bodhisattva, fall into cause and effect? A very well-trained bodhisattva, do they fall into karmic cause and effect or not? And Bajang said, she does not ignore cause and effect, or she does not obscure cause and effect. The teacher didn't say, yes, they do fall into it. Didn't say, no, they don't fall into it. He says, they don't ignore it, they study it.

[69:00]

But studying it includes observing what you think you're doing and also simultaneously remember that what you think you're doing is not the totality of karmic causation. If I would think that, that what I'm seeing me do and what I'm seeing you do is the way karma is working, that would obscure, that would ignore the inconceivable process. But if I don't pay attention to what I think I'm doing and what I think you're doing, And if I don't pay attention to, I did this and then that happened, if I don't pay attention to, I did this and now I'm doing this, if I don't pay attention to that, I won't be able to contemplate the inconceivable process of karmic causation.

[70:10]

Ignoring the conceivable process, ignoring the conceivable process, I will ignore the inconceivable process. So Buddha teaches, be mindful of your karma. Your karma has consequence. But he didn't say, be mindful of your karma as it appears to you and think that that's the actual process. He didn't say that. And some people must say, why watch a process if that's not actually what's going on? I just told you. If you don't watch the way the process appears, if you ignore it, then you will ignore karma. the actuality of karmic cause and effect. Not ignoring karmic cause and effect means not ignoring the conceivable and the inconceivable. If you do this, this is what a highly cultivation person does.

[71:13]

They believe that it's good to pay attention to the way cause and effect appears as a story in consciousness which is the way it appears in consciousness, and realize and study that story and simultaneously remember that the actual process is inconceivable. And this kind of practice is the practice of a person who will understand causation and understand also that it's inconceivable and have an understanding of the inconceivable process. And what I said to you about the nature of cognitive process in relationship to consciousness perhaps gives you some confidence of how inconceivable this thing we're doing together is. We're all contributing to creating a world. And a lot of other people who have very different consciousnesses from us are also contributing.

[72:22]

And by contributing to this cognitive process, their contribution is giving rise to our consciousness, where we're trying to study our consciousness. And in the story, when the man asks for a turning word, and Bai Zhang gave it, the man said that he was free. And Bai Zhang did not disagree with him. But that does not mean that Bai Zhang's turning word was what made him become free. And Bai Zhang didn't say that. He didn't say, this is what made you become free. What he said was, that the path of freedom is to not obscure the process of what I say to you.

[73:25]

But don't think that what I said to you is what makes you become free. Because that would be obscuring the process, to limit it that way. Okay, I see a lot of hands. Kiva? Kiva? Yes. Now, the second part, you can understand that you don't understand, but your understanding of your not understanding is something that can mature. You can have different understandings that you don't understand over time. And honoring all those ideas of your level of understanding is part of not ignoring karma. And if by any chance you would think someday that you did understand instead of I don't understand, then not ignoring karma would be to pay attention that you had that thought.

[74:37]

Today I understood. Okay, fine. That's something that's occurring in consciousness, that thought. That deserves as much attention and compassion as, I don't understand. The conscious version, the stories of our consciousness are conscious versions of karmic causation. But we don't like to say, well, they're just conscious versions. We don't ignore them. We study them. They will lead us to understand what's not a story. So there was a lot of hands. Everybody raise your hands again. OK. Rita, Maggie, Michael, John. Tell me your name again.

[75:40]

How do you say your name? Aviad. Aviad? OK. Let's try those. Who was first? Who did I say first? Speak loudly, please. No. Karmic consciousness, we're not all swimming in the sea of karmic consciousness. I'm swimming in my sea of karmic consciousness, and it's not your sea of karmic consciousness. But we are swimming in another sea, a sea of inconceivable, unconscious, non-conscious karmic process. But there's no karma in that C. There's no karma in that C. That C is karmic consequence. Karmic consequence, it supports the karma.

[76:42]

We're swimming in non-karmic cognitive process all the time. And in that realm is where we actually have the same life and the same practice and the same enlightenment. In that place it's not like I'm enlightened and you're not. We're working together all the time. And the way we're working together supports the way we think we're not working together. And it also supports the way we think we are working together. But the way I think I'm working with you is not the way I'm thinking working with you other than just that story part of it. And the way you think of me is your story of the way you're working with me. And that's part of our life. And the trouble part is that the story you have about how we're working together, it looks to you like it's real. And the story I have looks to me like it's real. So we're such excellent storytellers and they have this little label under them, this is actually what's happening.

[77:45]

And we're not together in that realm. Yes, there's an opportunity to be liberated. You know? Let's see, does it affect the whole sea? I think what we say is that at those moments, at that moment there is a renewal of the magnificence of awakening in the way. At that moment the awakened potential of our life together is renewed and refreshed and the possibilities for more people to have the activity of liberation is promoted.

[79:06]

by moment, by these awakening events, by these moments of asking for teaching, receiving teaching, and being transformed by the teaching. Maggie? I was not clear about one point you made. Could you speak up, please? I was not clear about the point that you made about the unshared and shared consciousness. Yeah, so the unshared is like my sense organs are not shared with your sense organs as they function as organs. But my sense organs as colors and shapes and tangibles, that's the shared part. So like this table, is an example of shared cognitive process.

[80:14]

We share this, this table. Now this table is appearing in my consciousness and your consciousness and that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the actual physical basis that this table offers for my body to interact with it and the actual physicalness of my body interacting with it. That interaction is due to... is a part of the cognitive process which we share. But the way my body interacts with the table and the way that cognitive process is going is different from the way your body interacts with the table.

[81:17]

That's unshared cognitive process. So we share the table and that's due to your past karma and all of our past karma and my past karma and all of our past karma creates this table which we share. And the unconscious process that happens when my body touches this table, or when your body touches this table, that unconscious cognitive process we don't share. And the shared part, the table that we both use, and the unshared part, which you use in a different way than I do, give rise to our individual consciousnesses. How you relate to the shared part.

[82:19]

How you relate to the shared part is the unshared part. I agree. The way you relate physically to the physical world that's not... the way your unshared organs relate to the shared physical world is the way your unshared cognitive process relate to the shared cognitive process. That relationship is a process, a cognitive process, which is unconscious and unshared. And that's your actual sense activity. But what you're relating to is a cognitive process which you and I share. And both of those cognitive processes are the results of past conscious activity. And both of those processes support our present conscious activity. This is a story to give us a feeling for the inconceivable complexity and richness of our life together, which is described briefly in the chant called Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi, where the teachers talk about how we're working together

[83:45]

with the walls and the tiles and the pebbles and the grasses and the fire and the water. All these things are working together. All these things are shared cognitive unconscious. And the way we relate to them is unshared cognitive process. But the way we're actually relating to the physical world right now, the physical world, which is cognitive process, the way we're doing that is inconceivable. And the process of the physical world, cognitive process, is inconceivable. And the way we're actually working together in harmony is Buddha's work. And that work is there for us to enter into and appreciate. But this doesn't appear in consciousness. I'm telling stories about it, and we're going to read a story at noon service about it, but that story is not it. That story is given as an encouragement for us to study our stories. Because if you study your stories, you open up to our inconceivable life.

[84:50]

And also you, by doing this, we will be responsible for everything. We will accept responsibility, not, we'll accept responsibility, shared responsibility for everything without shrinking back from personal responsibility from anything. There will be no blame. There will be Sorry, Kathy led the room, but there will be a very profound and happy humility that we can participate in this inconceivable process of liberation. Accepting the inconceivable power and importance of karmic consciousness and learning how to pay attention to it in a more and more skillful way and more and more consistent way.

[85:51]

Accepting responsibility for how things appear in our consciousness and also welcoming teachings to help us not fall for how things are appearing in consciousness as the way things are. Mikael? Speak up. You can even stand up if you want to. I don't know where I've heard the translation for karma as habit. Yeah, I wouldn't translate it as habit. You could say action habits, karmic habits. So you wouldn't... You just said you wouldn't translate it as habit? No, I translate karma as action. The definition of karma is intention or volition or overall pattern of a conscious moment.

[87:00]

That's a definition, that's not translation. And the habits are kind of like, to a great extent the habits are really downstairs in the unconscious cognitive process are highly habitual, which is really a wonderful thing. Like being able to go down the stairway is because of habits. Being able to do a flip in the air is because of a habit. you don't spontaneously learn how to do a flip the first time. Maybe once you can do a flip, you can do something new. But a lot of the things we see in karma, in karmic consciousness, the story we have of what we're seeing, are based on some really deep and well worked out habits among our species, deep unconscious habits.

[88:13]

And these deep unconscious habits can be transformed. But you can't transform a habit in consciousness. If you see a picture of a habit, like I always do it that way, you can't consciously change it at that moment. But you can do something which will change the support of it, and that changes. But how that works, I do not know. But there are habits. They are well-established habits. And it's part of what we are trying to be joyfully engaged with. And patiently, joyfully, and compassionately, patiently, carefully, generously, diligently engaged with these habits which are inconceivable. It does, it changes the habit.

[89:18]

Or it even, it even starts to loosen it and [...] loosen it. And if you loosened them all, all of a sudden the person would probably not be able to function. But it's a gradual process of being, of learning how to function in the world as you're dismantling the whole habit structure. So the long-term project is the entire support of conscious activity will be transformed into wisdom. And there will be no habits and no basis for conscious activity anymore. And there will be no conscious activity anymore. There will just be inconceivable perfect wisdom. and then you'll be stuck in the situation of just being a wisdom light for all the beings who have not been completely transformed yet.

[90:21]

Could you go downstairs? There's no downstairs. And there's no upstairs. However, other people provide upstairs and downstairs And when you touch them, when you, the light touches them, they transform that into their processes. But when they do, their processes start to evolve in the direction of freedom and peace and understanding. They're just light. and compassion. That's all there is. And it is the light and compassion of all those people, all those beings who have not yet been fully transformed and are helping each other become completely transformed. This is, again, inconceivably and conceivably optimistic or positive view of this process, that we are all doing Buddhist work right now

[91:28]

we're moving in the direction of perfect peace and happiness together, of understanding that everyone is our life and there's nobody to blame, including ourselves. We're all responsible. We're doing this together. There's just one great life, and all of us have the same enlightenment and the same practice. And when you left, I said, one of the things that happens when you enter into this is you become wonderfully, brilliantly, joyfully humble. And you're happy to serve all beings, and you don't know how, but you want to. Because you understand all beings are your life. And you are life. And that process is going on. And karma is the part of the process that appears in consciousness.

[92:32]

Because karma is activities that I do with you here and now. That's where karma is. And if we don't pay attention to that process, we will grasp things there, and then there will be suffering, and then there will be more terrible stories occurring in consciousness. In a way, you say something like... I heard you say we respond with compassion. And this responding part somehow is... You have a way to respond as a habit. No, the responding isn't really a habit.

[93:34]

The responding is a spontaneous... wonderful creation based on a habit structure. And there's teachings for how to deal with the habitual appearance of even compassion. This looks like habitual compassion. It can look that way. And then there's ways of dealing with that, like be compassionate to the appearance of habitual compassion or sentimental compassion. Sentimental compassion is allowed in this consciousness because it happens. And then there's teachings which say, allow it. Let it be. If you understand it, you'll be able to move on to deeper levels of compassion. Actually, it's not really habitual. It just looks that way in consciousness. And There's reasons why, you know, it's based on past actions which lead it to look that way.

[94:41]

Was there anybody who I called, who... Yes. Say your name once again. Aviad. Aviad. Shared unconscious cognitive process. Mm-hmm. In what sense is it cognitive? In that it's an idea. In that it's an image. In that it's a representation. And I just want to stop. Second, can you hold your second for a second? That was kind of an important thing, just give that some space.

[95:46]

In that it's an idea. He said, in what sense is the physical world cognitive? And I would say it's cognitive in the sense that it's a representation or an idea or an image. Now you can say, of what? But I would say I was, like I said the other day, let me tell you, I don't know. I don't know what the images are of. I don't know what the images which are the world are of. I'm just saying the world is just an image. And I'm not saying all there is is just an image. And it's like I'm not saying all there is is just the world. I'm just talking about worlds because worlds are the problem. Worlds are where we suffer.

[96:46]

And there's an unconscious world, which is an unconscious cognitive process world. And there's a conscious world. So in consciousness a world appears and in the unconscious cognitive process there's a world too, which is an inconceivable network of images of a world. but there's nobody there who knows about it. And those images are constantly working together according to past karma. And present karma is transforming them, these images of the world. So the world as image or the world as idea is the world as a cognitive process. And I'm suggesting to you that there's not another world in the sense of being a world. Are there other possibilities? Yes. But possibilities are just possibilities. And I don't say that as a demeaning thing about possibilities. I mean that they just haven't come into the realm of happening.

[97:52]

And part of this teaching is that perfect wisdom is a place where things are not happening. It's not even in place. It's the not happening of our life. So part of our life is not a world, not an arising, not a ceasing. Worlds arise and cease. And how do they arise? By karma. How do they cease? By karma. The arising and ceasing of worlds is by karma. But that's not all of our life. Our life is also free of worlds. Our life is also no arising and ceasing. no increase and decrease, no birth and death. That's also part of our life. But that's not the part of our life that's created by karma. That's part of our life that we open to by understanding karma, cause and effect. Number two, your second question? I agree with you I agree with you and what you said is true for you

[99:13]

And who is it not true for? The Buddha. The Buddha says, that's the way, what you said is very good for you and for me. But not for Buddha. Buddha actually, and Western philosophers also, I think, agree with you, generally speaking. And I agree with you, generally speaking. But it's a pretty big general, too. But there's this other thing called Buddha. Buddha does directly realize this inconceivable thing. And the way the Buddha recognizes the inconceivable karmic causation is not by a story about it, like we do. What is the Buddha? The Buddha, and even what is the Buddha's body? The teaching of this tradition is the Buddha's body manifests as the liberation of all beings.

[100:40]

The liberation of all beings understands the inconceivable karmic process. Understanding the inconceivable karmic process is the liberation of all beings. This is what we're working on. This is what we're trying to open to. And what you said is true of me as a sentient being, and even true of me if I was a bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas evolve to become Buddhas as they evolve to become the liberation of all beings. And the liberation of all beings is going on right now. And Buddhas are that realization of the liberation of all beings right now. And that is a direct realization of the inconceivable process. And from that place comes teachings which tell us about the inconceivable process of karmic causation, and also the simultaneous realization and understanding of this process, which is the liberation of all beings.

[101:51]

And that's Buddha. And only that Buddha, only our Liberation understands this karmic causation. And only understanding karmic causation is our what? Is our liberation. In the meantime, most of us are deigning to enter into karmic consciousness. And we've got plenty of challenges there. And what you said I agree with about the way karmic consciousness is. And there's another teaching which all sentient beings have is karmic consciousness. That's all we've got to work with. Our unconscious cognitive process we don't have. We don't have unconscious cognitive process. Unconscious cognitive process has us.

[102:54]

We are the babies of unconscious. Our conscious process are the babies of the unconscious cognitive process. But the consciousness doesn't have the unconscious. However, the conscious process transforms the unconscious, which then supports us again. It's our womb. And in the way we're actually working together in that realm, how that's actually working, the reality of that is the liberation of that, and also the liberation of all the consciousnesses. It feels a little bit black and white to me, in the sense that, that's how it feels to me, in the sense that I think my experience is not unique in being beyond what I can speak of. if most people's experience is beyond what they can speak of.

[104:03]

If the doctor says... I agree. Okay. Okay, now, taking that... Can I say one thing? Your experience that you just talked about is not conscious. I'm experiencing it. So what I'm saying is, so you might say it a slightly different way, I don't know, but this problem of that's all I have is common consciousness or whatever, that's a problem of the thinking mind. Yes. And our entire life is not the thinking mind. I mean, what we know in some sense... Right. Our entire life is not the thinking mind. The thinking mind does not comprehend the totality of our life. But in some sense, we can. I mean, we can access our life. Access it? Well, yeah. I mean, we are our life. It's not quite what I'm saying. There's not a word for it, but it's not as if we're any of us.

[105:10]

No, I'm saying that we are inconceivably wealthy. We are inconceivably wealthy, but if we do not take care of our poverty, we'll feel poor. But if you take care of your poverty, you'll realize that you're inconceivably wealthy. And our inconceivable wealth is our actual experience. What's going on in karmic consciousness is not our experience. That's just our idea, our story of our experience. Karmic consciousness is our story of our inconceivable wealth of life. And our wealth is not something that we possess by ourself. Our wealth is something we share with everybody. So when we go to that con of all sentient beings have is karmic consciousness.

[106:22]

Yeah. All sentient beings have all they possess. All you get to possess is karmic consciousness. You don't get to possess your inconceivable wealth. We are inconceivably wealthy, we just don't get to possess it. What do you get to possess? This little peanut called karmic consciousness. And in that peanut there's a world, and the world is big enough to suffer. But it's a poverty. Our karmic consciousness is a poverty compared to our actual inconceivable life experience. I'm suggesting that our life is too great to possess. And I would say, no. Our life is our experience. It's not like you experience your life.

[107:22]

Life is experience and experience is inconceivable and life is inconceivable. However, life is so rich and so wonderful that it allows us, it supports us to have a dream that is this little conceivable thing. Life allows us to make our experience so little because I don't know. There's various theories about why life has supported the creation of this impoverished, of this poverty. Why did life create beings who had such a poverty-stricken version of their life? There's lots of theories about how useful that is for the life process. Well, one Zen teacher says, it thickens the plot. That's a kind of idiom.

[108:24]

thickens the plot, it makes the story more interesting. Or rather, stories make this inconceivable process more interesting. These little twisted stories are, you know, they're so interesting. That's one possible theory for why we had this poverty version of our inconceivable life together. Who's interested in that? Yeah, you can say who is interested in that, yes. And actually, that who is an acronym for World Honored One. The Buddha is interested in all these storytellers. The Buddha cares for all these storytellers because the people who are not just interested in these stories, but the people who believe these stories are sentient beings. I just want to tell a story that one of my friends is a Vipassana teacher in addition to being a Zen student.

[109:34]

And his Vipassana student said to him, does Zen people have concentration? He says, well, they become concentrated, but they don't get to have it. we are great, all of us are inconceivable vast beings, and we are inconceivably intimate with all life. That's the way we basically are. But we also have these wonderful little karmic consciousnesses which we have to study in order to open to this reality. So, Miu Yu and then Stephen. Our experience is our great wealth, or can the way we experience be our great wealth? I would say the way we experience is our experience.

[110:36]

The way we're living is our experience. Experience is life. But there's some confusion in the language of our culture, that we use experience for our story of experience. I'm trying to revolutionize, but also return to, for example, I'm not saying Kant had it all together, but Kant also said, basically, living beings do not know their experience. They only know their idea of it. And the Buddha says the same thing. But Buddhas do know the experience. And knowing that experience of our life is knowing the liberation of all beings from their story about their experience. Right. That's what I was trying to get to, I think, is like the great wealth Yeah, you could say how we experience or you could say our great wealth is our actual experience, which is inconceivable.

[111:51]

And we have problems with inconceivability in our consciousness because our consciousness is dealing in the medium of language, of literal things. So it's hard for us to, we have to train to open to this inconceivable realm. And that's what we're doing. We're opening to it. So I'm able to talk to you like this because you're somewhat open to the teaching that your story of what's happening here is not necessarily the reality of what's happening here. And you also are opening to the teaching that each of us has a different story about this morning. And none of our stories is the reality of what happened. However, the reality of what happened includes that we have all these stories. Every moment we have 80 stories. The next moment we have 80 more stories. And I also just popped in my mind something I've said before, is there was a TV show when I was a kid.

[113:01]

It was called The Naked City. and the Naked City was actually New York City. At the beginning of the TV show, the narrator would say, there are eight million stories in the Naked City. Tonight you will hear one of them. And at the end, I think they would say, there are eight million stories in the Naked City. You have heard one of them. And I heard that So in that sense, we're going to hear one story of the naked city? Okay. But the thing I'm trying to bring up, which I didn't really highlight in the show, was that New York City is naked. The actual New York City is naked. It's like a big naked vastness. What's it naked of? It's naked of 8 million stories. Not to mention the people watching on television. So we clothed New York in eight million stories.

[114:06]

In a given moment, boom. In the next moment, eight million more. But New York's naked. Our actual life together is totally nude and beautiful, but inconceivable. And we sometimes say, okay, can we have a story about that, please? Okay. Well, there's this nice lady walking down Fifth Avenue and I'm wondering if this is sort of like talking about air. I don't own the air, but I do get to breathe it. Yeah, it's like that. You don't own the air, but get to breathe it, and also you share it with me. And also the stuff in the air, which is past Stevens and past Revs. It's, yeah, and this is a conceivable version of the air. The actual air is like, whoo! Okay, well that was a little talk about, yes?

[115:07]

Well, is the transitional object or the vehicle of transformation actually bound to transform the cognitive consciousness? You said transitional object, and that's interesting because I think consciousness kind of is a transitional object. And so in order to fully embrace our actual experience, in order to directly realize inconceivable karmic consciousness and also inconceivable Buddha activity, we have to work with the transitional thing of consciousness and have vows in there. So consciousness does have intentions, but we need to work on these intentions, and we need to transform some of the intentions into vows.

[116:10]

Intentions are not strong enough to accomplish the full realization of our life experience. All of our intentions transform cognitive unconscious process. vows also transform them. But to fully transform the whole life that we have together, we need to intensify our intentions to the point of being vows in order to accomplish the full transformation. It is not possible to make the full transformation to the realization, to the full realization

[117:12]

of the reality of our life together without intensifying the intentions that are going on in consciousness. So we have consciousness, there are intentions, they are transforming our life together. We need to intensify this process. That's why we have a January intensive. To intensify these things to the point of being vows, because that's necessary in order to transform the unconscious process to support a consciousness which is illuminated, which allows itself to be illuminated by the Dharma. Zazen is the complete realization of the liberation of all beings. And that's what Zazen is.

[118:17]

It is the manifestation of Buddha's body, which is the liberation of all beings. That's Zazen. But in order to practice that Zazen, we have to vow to practice it. We not just want to practice it, but make it into an intense commitment and a deep deep promise that we're going to give our life to that zazen in order to transform our life in such a way that we support more and more integration of this zazen among all beings. Yes? You mentioned something about being illuminated by the dharma. Yes. Yes. I've been wondering throughout this class if this reality I'm experiencing arises due to the karma of all living beings in the universe.

[119:20]

Is dharma within that creation or does it exist outside of this karmic creation that we're all It doesn't exist above or aside from it. It is the reality of how... It is the reality of the causation of all living beings. The way we're actually working together, the reality of that, that inconceivable reality, is the Dharma. I'm confused how to distinguish it now from karma. It seems like... The way you and I are interacting right now, the complex way that we're interacting right now is inconceivable. That's not karma. I'm not intending the way we're interacting. The way we're actually interacting, I cannot intend. I can vow to realize it. But the way we're actually interacting, even if we play ping-pong, neither one of us can imagine how that's going on.

[120:27]

It's, you know, not to mention how we're all playing ping pong with each other all the time in an inconceivably different type of game. We're playing ping pong, and we're playing golf, and we're making love, and we're having conversations, we're cooking lunch. The way we're actually living together, that inconceivable reality, is no karma can reach it. Karma is kind of simple. It's kind of like, I'm talking to Elijah. That's the kind of thing karma does. Karma is kind of simple. And it has effect. And if you ignore that karma with that simple little karma of the way you talk to me and the way I talk to you, which is not the way we're really relating. Really, we're dancing in the clouds right now in an inconceivable tango. But, you know, I don't know that. And everybody's holding up our toes, you know, on the tips of golden scepters.

[121:35]

It seems like we just have this term dharma, like, I don't know, kind of like this God word, this capitalized word, because we don't, and we know we can't fully understand the effect of dharma. You can fully understand the effects of karma. You can, just not with your conscious mind. Your conscious mind will make an impoverished version of this grand life we have together. It'll make a nice little pipsqueak version of it. But we don't demean that. When I say pipsqueak, we just mean it's little, it's tiny. If I ignore that little pipsqueak version of our inconceivable life together, then I will ignore our inconceivable life. If I fully open to the little story I have of my relationship with you, then I can also open to the realization of our actual life together, which is that my relationship with you is not just with you.

[122:43]

It's because everybody's messing with my relationship with you. And your relationship with me isn't just with me. Everybody, not just everybody you know, but everybody is involved in your relationship with me. When you practice with me, you're practicing with everybody, and when I practice with you, I'm practicing with everybody. And my karmic consciousness can talk about that, but my karmic consciousness makes a constricted version of it. But if I don't take care of my karmic consciousness, I won't open to the inconceivable. When I open to the inconceivable, there can be realization of it, which is the same as realization of the Dharma. The Dharma is inconceivable, and the Dharma is the way all living beings are actually working together. That's my story. Thank you very much.

[123:45]

May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of all Buddha's way.

[124:00]

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