Last week, I passed out a little chart of concentric circles in an attempt to start to describe the relationship among the different classes and meanings of samadhi. Anybody not have that thing? Could you pass these out, please, to the people who The center circle I call samadhi one. The basic definition of samadhi is pointedness of thought. Did some people not get one?

[01:02]

Three people didn't get it? Four people didn't get it? Well, maybe you can share and I'll bring some more next week. Can everybody see one? All states of consciousness have this, you could say, quality or character that they are one-pointed with their object. All subjects are one-pointed with their objects. Every moment is like that. The next circle, which I call Samadhi II, the Roman numeral II, also could be called dhyana.

[02:08]

In this circle, the samadhi quality of the consciousness has been, in some sense, developed, or there's a sense that in this moment, we're appreciating the one-pointedness of mind, and perhaps in the previous moment we also appreciated it. We feel that in the previous moment we did, and maybe even the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that, and we have a sense that we would be able to, if we wish, continue to in the future moments, as long as we, well, I shouldn't say as long as we want, but let's say for quite a while, up to the point where we felt like we could do it as long as we wanted, to continue to appreciate this quality of mind. And the more we feel like we have been appreciating it, and the more confidence that we have been appreciating it, and that we will be able to appreciate it,

[03:21]

In fact, generally speaking, unless we're psychotic, we feel actually calmer and calmer the more we have confidence in that quality of mind and that we have been appreciating that quality of mind. I would also just say that the the ability to appreciate this quality of mind and have confidence that we have been and will be able to appreciate that quality of mind, the calmness is deeper and deeper as we give up more and more sense of doing something to make it happen, because it's not like you actually make your mind this way. It's just simply a matter of being immersed in this. So dhyana is often translated as trance, which I think has disadvantages. But another, I think, better translation is absorption, that you're absorbed or immersed in the one-pointedness of thought.

[04:28]

So the definition of samadhi is one-pointedness of mind. And the nature of dhyana, or the nature of this sustained concentration is samadhi. But samadhi is already the nature of mind. So it's just that this practice of dhyana, this practice of samadhi number two, is to be immersed and settled in the settled quality of mind, samadhi. And again, the settled quality of mind isn't just being settled. because you could also be settled on some vengeance. You could be settled on some ill will. You could be settled on greed, resolute about cruelty. And in that sense, the word samadhi, you know, literally means to be resolute or settled or firm.

[05:32]

You could be firmly devoted to do some kind of unskillful thing. In a sense, it would be a samadhi of unskillfulness. Samadhi in the sense of the word samadhi means to be resolute. But when you're resolute about the nature of samadhi, then you're calm. And it's a calm samadhi. And it's a wholesome samadhi. This nature of mind, when appreciated, not only calms the mind, but opens the mind up to its nature and opens it up to its non-dual nature because mind is non-dual with its object. This second circle, the practices there are basically the same in a variety of traditions.

[06:32]

this is not a particularly the observation of the one pointed nature of mind i think has been made not just by buddhist psychologists other traditions have discovered this other yogic traditions indian yogic traditions maybe hebrew yogic traditions christian yogic traditions so the center is just sort of the nature of mind which lots of different yogic practices have recognized this. On the next circle, too, this appreciation of that quality of mind is not particularly Buddhist. And this was known prior to the Buddhist teaching. Towards the end of class, I think Nancy said something like, she started off by saying, that she thought we were supposed to be following our breaths or counting our breaths, something like that.

[07:36]

And she changed it from supposed to to something like, what about following your breath or counting your breath? Did you say counting or following? Following. Well, following the breath or counting the breath sometimes is recommended as a concentration practice. And in a sense, it would fall into the category of the second circle. Just counting the breath and following the breath, as one cultivates this, one can in some sense start, most people do start, with the dualistic attitude about the practice. They think in terms of the mind actually not being one-pointed with the object.

[08:37]

So although the mind is one-pointed with the object, generally speaking, people don't think it is. or maybe sometimes my mind is one-pointed with the object, but if I decide, for example, to put my mind onto my breath, my mind and my breath don't seem to be one-pointed because I think about something beside my breath. Does that make any sense? So typically, people try to count their breaths or follow their breath, have some difficulty. They have a mind, but they don't notice, they don't find that the mind is connected with the breath. They find the mind is thinking about whether tomorrow, what's for dinner, what work later, various evaluations of their own practice and the people sitting around them. In other words, many other things besides the topic of the breathing. Make sense? You ever had that experience? A lot of people have. So in that case, they think, oh, my mind is not one pointed with the meditation object.

[09:44]

Well, if you say the meditation object is following the breathing, mind is not one-pointed with the meditation object. However, your mind is one-pointed with every one of those things that you're thinking about that isn't the meditation object. Is that clear? So you're choosing perhaps the breath as a way to develop calm concentration or in some sense you might say to develop Samadhi but you got to be careful when you choose something like that because if you choose it at the beginning you think that your mind is not one pointed by nature but only one pointed when you're on that meditation object whereas actually it's one pointed by nature and not just one pointed when it's on a meditation object however Some people find that when they try to count their breathing and they're somewhat successful, they start to believe that their mind is one-pointed. Or it always was.

[10:51]

They somehow couldn't appreciate it until they were able to follow their breathing quite in a lot of different moments. Does that make sense? Did I use the image of the sky hook in this class? So that following the breathing is kind of a sky hook for people who don't think that the mind is mentally one-pointed. So by following the breathing, sometimes as they get more successful following the breathing, they start to believe they're a duck. In other words, they start to believe that they're a being whose mind has the nature of being one-pointed with its object because they think, well, at least my mind is one-pointed with the breathing. So I guess you start to feel like what that's like, to feel like you're one-pointed. And then after a while, even if you're not following your breathing, you still feel concentrated because you have confidence in this one-pointedness. Well, you notice, I think you might find, I've observed in people, that the more you try to get yourself or to get your mind on the meditation object, the more grossly dualistically you approach it,

[12:05]

the more you find that doesn't work very well. Because in fact, the way you're trying to focus on the object and get your mind unified on the object is basically based on not believing that your mind's that way. So you use this kind of dualistic approach to realize the non-duality of mind and object. And as you, through your frustration, and perhaps confession of your frustration, and noticing how it doesn't work to have this kind of excuse me for saying so, fascist attitude towards getting your mind under control. The more you do that and accept that, the softer your mind gets and the more you start to actually feel this one-pointedness through that exercise. At this point, I would say that some insight into the nature of mind may be developing. And this insight into the nature of mind to help you actually have confidence that your mind is one-pointed and you start to be more and more firm and convinced of your samadhi and again feeling more and more you can do less and less to get yourself to be concentrated and the more you feel like you don't have to do much to be concentrated

[13:34]

the more relaxed you become, and so on, the more concentrated you become. Now, discounting the breathing meditation is taught in many Buddhist scriptures. But strictly speaking, I would say it's not non-Buddhist. It's just that it's like, you know, Buddhist scriptures also teach probably that there's, I don't know what, seven days in a week or something. but that's not particularly Buddhist. It's sort of conventional. So this aspect of meditation is, although it is important, and it is included within the, strictly speaking, when I say Buddhist, I mean enlightened samadhis. It's included within them. It's part of them. Both the inner circle and the next circle are within the next two circles. but the inner circles are not Buddhist, they're just sort of natural yogic fact and how it works.

[14:37]

And you will find teachings in Buddhist scriptures which are similar to teachings in other traditions for developing this dhyana. I just maybe again want to refer to what Nancy was saying. because after she said about following the breathing, I don't know what happened, but at some point in the conversation she said, well, do we just sit then? And I don't know if she was actually, are you familiar with that term, just sit? Yeah, so she, you've heard it before, yeah. So in a sense I thought maybe she just stumbled upon that term, but it is actually the word we use, just sit, is the word we use for describing the practice of the outer circle, samadhi number four. If you're following your breathing, counting your breathing, but in fact, while you're counting your breathing, you're just sitting.

[15:45]

or not even you're just sitting but while there's counting breathings going on actually what's going on is just sitting and although there's counting the breathing and you're in that second circle you're actually also in the fourth circle doing some somewhat mechanical and to some people's view somewhat dualistic technique to try to get yourself concentrated But actually, you're also, if you're practicing just sitting at the same time, you're just sitting there, not trying to get concentrated, trying to get unconcentrated, not trying to be distracted, not trying to be undistracted. They're just sitting. And when you're just sitting, you can follow your breathing and you can cut your toenails. But no matter what's going on, Actually, you're just sitting.

[16:49]

And the funny thing is that just sitting, how just sitting works, is inconceivable. We can't figure out how something works when there's no dualistic operation. But just sitting means non-dual practice. Skip the third circle and went to the fourth because of Nancy's comment. we go back from the fourth to the third i also want to say something about the fourth circle fourth circle is being resolute against some and being resolute about not seeking samadhi all inclusive mind of buddha surrounds all these other kinds of samadhis, one way to describe it is to be resolute and firm about not seeking samadhi or anything else.

[18:01]

But let's just, because of this class, let's talk about not seeking samadhi. So, you signed up for this class on samadhi and the most all-encompassing samadhi is the samadhi not seeking Samadhi which is to be resolute firm and settled and not seeking Samadhi can seek a little bit you can see quite a bit there can be all kinds of seeking all over the place okay but in the midst of all this seeking There is the samadhi of not seeking samadhi. So with all this creepy seeking all over the place, you know, little tiny seekings, sneaky seekings, heretical seekings, authentic seekings, all this human activity, in the midst of all that.

[19:13]

You see, when you're When you're resolute, when you're in samadhi about not seeking samadhi, you're also not trying to get rid of seeking samadhi. Because I can tell you that seeking samadhi is antithetical to samadhi, so if you wanted to get samadhi, you'd want to get rid of seeking samadhi. So you're not trying to get rid of seeking either. You're not indulging in seeking, you're not avoiding seeking. You're not indulging in concentration, you're not avoiding concentration. You're not indulging in distraction, you're not avoiding distraction. You're not seeking samadhi. You're not seeking anything. And you're convinced. You're resolute. You're settled in not seeking anything, including samadhi. And that's the samadhi of just sitting. In other words, you just sit. You don't sit to get anything. You don't sit to avoid anything. You're resolutely settled in not getting anything.

[20:18]

Is that anything like the difference between thinking about doing something and just doing it? Is that any different between thinking about something and just doing it? It's more like the difference between thinking about something and being that thing. That's the Samadhi number four. This and the way That not seeking anything, that being settled and not seeking anything, realizes the liberation of all beings, just you, but all beings, that is the outer circle. We have to go back to the third circle. The third circle, there's samadhis in the third circle too. Again, two ways that the samadhi are operating in all these circles.

[21:19]

One way that the samadhi is operating is samadhi in the sense of the definition of samadhi, and then the other way is what the word samadhi means. So samadhi is both being settled and firm, and also it is being settled and firm about one-pointedness, about non-duality. So... in the center it's the nature of mind in the next circle it develops calm and stability and the next circle we're going to it's going to be samadhi about it's going to be these three samadhis and there's there's more come more samadhis here in the second third circle but it's going to be the samadhi the settledness first of all the settledness the resoluteness the being convinced about selflessness of the person. It's going to be being convinced about wishlessness and it's going to be being convinced about signlessness.

[22:25]

It's going to be in the third circle which is now Buddhist in the sense that you are now awakening to the reality that the person, the people you know, and yourself, the person you are, does not have a self, is selfless. There are people, there are persons in all these circles, but in the third circle, there is insight into that persons are not isolated selves. When we see, when we have insight into the person not being an isolated self, we are basically awakened to reality that persons do not have isolated selves.

[23:30]

And by the way, isolated selves are basically always seeking when we understand that that's an illusion that the person is isolated from other beings this is also the end of seeking around that person. Samadhi first of all means that you're convinced and settled in this reality that the self the self that appears or the person that appears is not isolated The other aspect of samadhi here is that I'm talking to you about this now, and you've heard about this, some of you, many, many times, about that the person is not an isolated thing, that there is a person, okay? We don't say there isn't a person. There is a person, but it's a person that just arises dependent on various causes and conditions.

[24:32]

You take away the causes and conditions, there's nothing left. There isn't like a... essential person there that just sort of gets built up with characteristics. When you take away all the causes and conditions, there's not anything left. There's no core to the person. You've heard about the selflessness, this teaching of no self, the teaching of the interdependent self rather than the independent self. You've heard about it, you've heard about it, you've heard about it. You're somewhat convinced about it or not. Samadhi is to be convinced and also to have your convinced mind be one-pointed with this teaching. So it isn't like any more you over here and that teaching of independent self over there. And that takes back to what Gerald said. You move from thinking about Buddha's teaching of selflessness and thinking about how selflessness applies to you.

[25:34]

and thinking about how you don't believe that actually becoming that teaching you you you become the selfless person so another word which i've mentioned before bovena bovena is a general term for meditation bhava means being and bhavana means bring it into being or become it so by practicing samadhi on the topic of selflessness you gradually become a selfless person rather than just thinking about it because you realize that the thought that there's not there's not a person over here or mind over here thinking about this teaching there's just the teaching of selflessness this is liberation and this is a Buddhist liberation and other traditions may have this liberation too but anyway this is an authentic Buddhist liberation and it is the liberation in which selflessness is realized and it is individual individual self is liberated and you can see how other individual selves would be liberated

[27:00]

You can see that. And you can teach other individuals how to do that. So it's good. It's wonderful. And it's conceivable. And it's psychological. It's a psychological liberation. I feel the end of anxiety when this happens. Because you're no longer like you doing the practice or you living your life. your life's not behaving itself very well if you're one pointed with it there's no anxiety about this irascible life but if life's going quite well and you don't realize the samadhi of your mind in other words your mind really is thinking about something which is one pointed with and if you don't realize that you feel anxiety And the anxiety in some sense is knocking on you, bop, [...] threatening you because you are denying the nature of your mind.

[28:04]

You're overlooking the fact that the mind is one-pointed with what the light is looking at. Start to appreciate that you are not separate from your life. And when you finally realize that and understand that, come then. way which is the way you already are but you just have not fully become it then you become what you are and you become free of being threatened by what you're not if there isn't anything that's not you because everything that you're aware of is one pointed with your mind so this is liberation and this liberation can be there's a initial liberation which is authentic It's called the path of seeing, where you have this seeing, you understand this and you're liberated. But then gradually after you have this insight, where you actually see that it's not true, that you're isolated, then you still need to do quite a bit of meditation with that insight so that you become that insight.

[29:12]

And when that's finished, this is what we call in Buddhism an arhat. Buddha actually was an arhat. That was part of what the Buddha went through, was being an arhat, personally liberated. And another name for this is an ashaiksha, which means somebody who has no more to learn about how to be liberated personally. That's the third circle. And tonight I'm not going to go into the other two too much, the samadhi of wishlessness and the samadhi of signlessness. If I have time, I'll do it later. I'm just going to emphasize the samadhi of the emptiness of the person, the selflessness of the person, and that that is authentic liberation of the person from the fear and anxiety that the person feels when the person thinks she's isolated and independent of the world.

[30:15]

free of being threatened by the world which you are misconstruing as separate from you that this is Buddhist it's liberation for the individual and is conceivable and stop the thank you he next samadhi force them back to the fourth samadhi again i actually want to say that it's this samadhi is actually beyond buddhism it's not even buddhist anymore and the the third circle A conceivable insight occurs in the third samadhi.

[31:18]

And this third samadhi is a super mundane samadhi, transcendence of the world samadhi. And again, the world is the world that arises based on the sense of self being separate from the world. many kinds of worlds i suppose but the ordinary world that we usually talking about here is the world of self and other being separated this third circle is liberation from the world of the person being separated from the universe is insight into the selflessness of the person in the third circle however In the fourth circle, there is insight into the selflessness of all things. The first way we suffer is because we feel separate from each other and from the world.

[32:26]

The second way we suffer is that we think all the little things that make us up Even if we no longer feel we're separate beings, we still may feel that our teeth, our eyes, our feelings, our concentrations, our delusions, our pains, our pleasures, all these things, we may feel that they exist separately from each other. In fact, that's what's being suggested here is that in the third circle, the beings who have this insight and who have not yet entered the fourth circle do understand that the person is not separate from other persons. The person is just actually something that arises when you have feelings, consciousness, conceptions, perceptions, emotions, and bodily sensations.

[33:30]

that when you have all these ingredients you have a person and there's no independent self with that person but it is a further insight which they do not yet have in this third circle that all the little elements that make up our experience that make up the experience of this selfless person all the ingredients of the selfless person's experience each of them also has no independent existence Once we realize that, then we realize something beyond the second circle. We realize non-duality. Did I say second circle? Third circle. In the third circle, there still is a sense, as I said before, that dust is separate from soap. that eyes are separate from ears. No longer do I feel that I'm personally, as a person, separate from you.

[34:36]

I still think my hearing is separate from my seeing. I still think in this third circle, in this third samadhi, although I'm convinced of selflessness and other things that are true, I still think that my liberation is different from my bondage. I still think that freedom is different from bondage. I still think that enlightenment is different from delusion. I still think that there's something that maybe is not included in this samadhi. Some dirty thing, that some terrible thing can be excluded from Buddhist meditations. Because of that, this third circle, although it is authentic personal liberation and coming because you see the truth, you don't see the full truth.

[35:39]

You see the truth of the person, but you don't yet see the truth of all things. And because of that, you don't see the non-duality of all things. Once you realize that all things... also are not separate from each other and are empty of their inherent existence, you realize they're all equal. Or not equal, but non-dual. Something can happen that couldn't happen before, and that is that the person who has this kind of realization can enter into any realm and be with any being with no fear, with no trepidation. the fourth circle. And that's the circle which you need actually the third circle and the fourth circle to make a Buddha. Pure energy state? Yeah, you could say it's pure energy state. That'd be fine. And also this fourth circle, as I said before, it is just sitting.

[36:45]

It is also... and it is also not about personal liberation anymore or even liberation of somebody else. It is about the liberation of all beings. The way I'm trying to convey the practice of samadhi will be in a way that includes all these realms, that doesn't... that will include all kinds of uh... concentration practices uh... calm the mind uh... not with the agenda of calming the mind a way of calming the mind stabilizing the mind concentrating mind not by doing anything, but by waking up to the concentrated stable quality of mind.

[37:53]

And also the way of waking up to that will come, I'm suggesting, when we give up trying to get it. Last summer, I guess, did we talk about renunciation? Renunciation is is key to entering into these, entering into the ultimate samadhi. And it's also involved in the inner samadhis too. But again, I've said this before, but now I'd like to talk about, again, ways of talking about renunciation, but now see them maybe as ways of talking about samadhi. I said before that the outer samadhi is the samadhi of not seeking samadhi.

[39:00]

Say it again to translate samadhi. It is the... and not seeking samadhi. It is giving up seeking. It is non-seeking. Non-seeking, renouncing seeking, calms the mind, stabilizes the mind, also brings you to the outer samadhi of not seeking to get control of anything, and also not grasping. It's grasping. the outer samadhi we're actually we're talking about how the entire world is saved there's no grasping and seeking possible in this inconceivable realm of liberation the practice of giving up of being firmly convinced that you that you're willing to learn how to give up grasping and seeking calms you and in a sense establishes the

[40:26]

samadhi number two and you move through samadhi three into samadhi four by this simple practice. Another way to put it. All right. It's a practice, a samadhi practice. In other words, it's possible to be resolute about giving up discursive thought. will say stopping discursive thought but I like giving up better than stopping because giving up of discursive thought particularly to be settled and firm about giving up discursive thought which is the samadhi of giving up discursive thought can occur while discursive thought is still going on when the bodhisattva can be in the samadhi of giving up discursive thought in the midst of discursive thought.

[41:33]

Bodhisattva can walk into discursive thought and be involved in discursive thought while simultaneously letting discursive thought drop away. That's why stopping is misleading. You're willing to stop and actually you're completely firm about that and you don't seek for the stopping giving up the discursive giving up the discursive thought that's going on is very similar to giving up discursive thought there were no discursive thought going on there would be You can still give up your discursive thought even if there wasn't any discursive thought going on because you can always initiate discursive thought if you want to. There are times when discursive thought isn't happening. Like sometimes somebody might just twist your nose, you know, or pop you into something.

[42:41]

And in that moment, there might be no discursive thought. But you could still be totally upset because although you're not discursively thinking at that moment, you wish you were. But if it is going on... If it is going on... And you're not attached to it... And you're not attached to it, then you're giving it up. I think it is stopping it, actually, because when you give up discursive thought, that giving it up, that is stopping it. doesn't stop that discursive thought, which you're not getting involved in. Like if somebody's sitting next to you, demonstrating discursive thought, and you don't get involved with it, they could continue with their demonstration, but you are not involved, you're not attached, you're not trying to stop them, you're not trying to get them to continue. When you're with them that way, then you have stopped discursive thought. At that moment, you're like that. But stopped makes people think it's not happening anymore, but to try to stop discursive thought is a kind of discursive thought.

[43:44]

And also to stop discursive thought in the sense of discursive thoughts going along and you stop it. That's the kind of discursive thought. Discursive thought is related to, you know, the word discourse. Discourse means to flow apart. If you look at, they call the Buddha's early teachings discourses. The Buddha sat up there and talked like he was talking to them. He did that because that's all people could handle at the time. Now, in the Mahayana tradition, there is the teaching that when the Buddha first came out of his enlightenment and people asked him to teach, he didn't teach discursively. He taught concursively. He taught as a concourse, which means to be led together. And people just couldn't handle it. They couldn't, like, join the Buddha's mind. So they said, would you please separate from us and throw something at us? giving up discursive thought, renunciation of discursive thought, opens you, giving up discursive thought opens you to concursive thought.

[45:03]

Is that what it is? Is that what con is? Can't handle that right now. Okay? Yes, it is. You give up your discursive approach to the koan and enter the concursive relationship with the koan. So when you give up discursive thought, you give up you thinking about what's going on. You give that up and you enter into what's going on doing the thinking as you together with everybody. That's the fourth circle. which is inconceivable but which you can enter when you give up the usual thing of you driving your mind all over the place which is discursive thought discursive thought is me and those thoughts and me moving with those thoughts around those thoughts moving among those objects

[46:12]

me moving among those objects, that's discursive thought. Giving that up, even if it still seems to be going on, turn into all those thoughts and me not moving among them anymore, me now becoming intimate with them rather than separate from them. Give up my distance from them, my lack of intimacy, my trying to control them, And when I'm firm about that, I enter into another kind of relationship with them, always here trying to control them and get them to go someplace, believing that if I don't, my world will fall apart. And getting a lot of agreement from other people that that's so, bring that up and entering intimacy with the thoughts where the thoughts come together and where these amazing things happen like we read about in the endeavoring of the way.

[47:17]

This again is calming and it includes both of those world-transcending samadhis, number three and number four. This is how to enter it. It's a simple practice which you can hear about right now, you understand it, go from understanding it to maybe some discussion or questions about it to becoming this instruction. And becoming this instruction, you become this samadhi. And becoming this samadhi, you actually calm down, third circle, second circle, move through the third circle, Realize the third circle. But you don't stop there. You don't hold there. You don't stop at your individual liberation from anxiety. You keep going all the way beyond that conceivable liberation to the inconceivable liberation.

[48:23]

It goes very nicely with you continually giving up discursive thought when it's there and when it's not there. means again when there's discursive thought you don't grasp it you don't seek it when there's not discursive thought you don't grasp it you don't seek it you're about it you contemplate being settled in it you thought it and think about it until you stop thinking about it and become it enter the third and fourth samadhis. And as you get into it, you start to calm down. So I'm suggesting this kind of instruction, which I actually hope will work on all these levels, partly because I think it's unrealistic to have a whole bunch of different practices to go through these different samadhis.

[49:30]

a way to describe this way of entering these samadhis. I'm talking about, in a sense, ways of entering these samadhis. And again, I don't want to have it be something that you do, but just something that you hear and you hear and you hear and you think about until you don't think about it anymore. You hear about it, you think about it, you understand it, you don't understand it, you ask questions, you do understand it, you think about what you understand, you think about what you understand, and you think about how you understand and what you understand until you stop thinking about it and you become it. Then you enter these samadhis. But you don't make these samadhis happen. They're already happening. All four of these are already happening. It's just a matter of becoming them. And how much instruction do you need so that you understand how to enter?

[50:37]

And then you think about your understanding until you actually become your understanding of how to enter. I think that's enough. And then we'll show. No escape. What about it? I think that in a sense, the fourth circle, the wisdom of no escape is like the fourth circle. It's like no escape means no seeking. There could be an insight into the value of practicing no escapism. In other words, you could have some insight into the reasonableness of giving up trying to escape. Maybe that term already has some appeal for you because you brought it up.

[51:37]

We have to work with that teaching and I guess be clear about what it means. Actually be somewhat transformed by understanding the value of giving up trying to escape. Because giving up trying to escape is another form of discursive thought. Seeking is discursive thought. Discursive thought is seeking. If you think it's a good idea maybe to give up seeking and discursive thought, then talk to yourself about what a good idea it is until you're done talking about it and you become it, until you become a no-escape person. In other words, a person who's actually willing to just sit here. so you be good if you understood how that saves the universe from suffering not just you that would have that would be part of what you might probably would be a good idea for you to understand that would help you be more firm in like totally wasting your time really not trying to get anything out of this life anymore

[52:47]

most perfectly reasonable ordinary people are trying to get something out of this life it's perfectly understandable we're built for it and this is what has to be renounced our usual mind which is trying to get something out of life rather than be what life is rochelle and then I was at your last statement. You said you have to study or prepare so that we are open to the time. Confused by it? What about it confuses you? Well, I would think that I am at samadhi without just sitting or, you know, such as sitting or... sitting okay so uh she said she would think you could arrive at samadhi without any instructions by just sitting okay but do you think don't don't you see that when you just sit you are enacting well you're first of all you're you're understanding on some level the teaching of just sitting you hear about the teaching of just sitting okay

[54:07]

So then you go and try to practice it according to your understanding, whatever your understanding is. But you're still, when you first start just sitting, like in a sesshin, when you first start practicing just sitting, you're probably operating at the level of doing what you understand just sitting is. Any sense? Yes, it does. Yeah. I would think that you could get there without. I haven't seen anybody who gets into a meditation hall without any idea of meditation hall and who actually goes and sits on a cushion and practices just sitting without having heard about just sitting. I haven't heard of anybody doing that. But it is possible that someone could just stumble into a meditation hall and just go over there and plop down on the cushion without any idea of I'm going to sit on the cushion. I think I was reacting to how much preparation you need before you put... This practice of just sitting, maybe some of you have heard Suzuki Roshi say, we say our practice is just to sit.

[55:14]

But it's not so easy to understand what it means to just sit. A lot of people, they hear about just sitting and they go, they walk up to a sitting person and they go like this. They say, okay, I'm just sitting. And they think that they're just sitting, and they think that just sitting is what they think just sitting is, and that they're doing what it is because they think that it is what they're thinking it is. Okay? But it isn't. Just sitting is not your idea of just sitting. But if you sit there long enough, don't you come to a point? Yes, you do. If you sit there long enough, that's the skyhook thing. So when you first go into practice just sitting, like some people go into practice breathing, right? But let's talk about somebody who's going to try to, who's now going to like, going to try to do the Samadhi four, right? Samadhi four is definitely not, it's, you know, it is like being settled in ultimate reality.

[56:21]

And ultimate reality is not a mental construct. Ultimate reality is not what I think ultimate reality is. But I do, you know, most people have some idea about ultimate reality. I shouldn't say most people do. Some people do. I do. Some of you do. But my idea of ultimate reality isn't it, and neither is yours. so you might want to go do this great samadhi which is being totally settled in ultimate truth which is selflessness of person selflessness of all things the non-duality of all things this is ultimate truth go now and do that practice and if i just sit there long enough Me sitting there, me thinking I'm sitting there and me thinking that I'm doing that practice, if I keep doing that long enough, I will, not I will, it will happen that my idea of what I'm doing, namely practicing Samadhi number four, my idea of practicing Samadhi number four will drop away.

[57:37]

idea that my idea of practicing samadhi four is samadhi number four that will drop away it will drop away it's already happening and you'll get with the program if you sit long enough okay now whether or not it would help any for someone to mention to you you know as you're sitting there day after day, year after year, whether it would help for somebody to mention to you, come up and whisper, Rochelle, you're totally dualistic about this practice of non-duality. Whether that helps or not is somewhat some debate about that. But in the Zen tradition, there are all these stories about certain senior members of the community going up to the junior members of the community and accusing them of dualistic practice. And the junior members perhaps saying, you know, get out of my life, you know, or who do you think you are, or whatever, or thank you very much, or whatever. But sometimes they say, well, what would we do in non-dual practice?

[58:43]

And sometimes the person tells them. it would be that you would be sitting there and give up your idea that you're doing the practice but you've been sitting here and you've been gradually puffing up and puffing up over all these years you think you understand and you don't and you think that your understanding is correct and it isn't your understanding is just your idea of the practice And then the monk storms out of the zendo, storms out of the hall, walks over the mountaintop, and he says, hmm, maybe I should go back and check this out one more time. And he goes back, and the teacher says exactly the same thing to him, and he gives up the ghost. He stops resisting, and the body and mind drop away, and the actual just sitting is happening. That's instruction.

[59:43]

First you get instruction. Go sit there, don't move, whatever. You try it and you think, well, I'm not moving. Then you get instruction. You think that you sitting there thinking you're not moving is not moving. That's not not moving. What? Get out of this hall. What? That's not moving. Me getting out of the hall is not moving? Wait a second. Isn't my idea of what not moving... I had this idea of not moving and now you're telling me to leave the room and that's not moving? It's the instruction to help you understand that not moving is not your idea of not moving. And just sitting is not your idea of just sitting. Just sitting means... giving up all your ideas about what sitting is, about what Buddhism is, about who you are, about who I am. That's what just sitting is. Just sitting means somebody's sitting there and that's it. Sitting, period. Not sitting thinking I'm sitting.

[60:45]

or not sitting there thinking I'm not sitting, or not sitting there without the idea of thinking that you're sitting or not sitting, but just that there's just a sitting. The person may be sitting there saying, well, you know, I'm doing pretty well here. But at the same time, there's somebody who's just sitting there who's not commenting on her practice. How do you get with that? Well, there's somebody else who's sitting here commenting, like, I'm doing pretty well, I'm not doing very well, you know, blah, blah, blah. I know how to do this, but I just don't need any instruction. So as if somehow you can get involved in all that or not. Not being involved in it, giving it up, not grasping it, not seeking anything, that's the practice. Most people require a little bit or a lot of instruction. not only to require the instruction but then they need to like give up the instruction come the instruction and basically if you sit there long enough you will get to that point and i'm not trying to rush you all right it's true if you sit there long enough it'll be fine however

[62:10]

And doing it in a dualistic way, would you like to hear about that? And if not, then say so. And when you hear yourself say so, then you hear yourself say so and you realize, I just said I didn't want an instruction. That's interesting. And that will, you know, that will illuminate the process. Right. Right. It's 9, 16, or 17. And that's a good question. And I'm totally ready to answer it. But it's 9, 17. And I did call on you. And I would like to ask you to help me remember a question next week. Are we going to come next week? I'd like you to help me remember a question this week, and I hope you can come next week to hear the answer.

[63:14]

It'll be lots of fun. It's a very good question. How do these two worlds come together, and what's the difference between when you come from delusion or enlightenment when you deal with cooking dinner? This is what it should come down to for the bodhisattva. So let's start with that question maybe early in the class. And if anybody else has questions, write them down, please. Either send them to me or I'll bring them to class next time. Because I think now maybe I have enough background so we can actually walk into your life and do the practice. And I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to read this chant. But again, this is about how things happen in concursive thought. This is how things happen in enlightenment, okay? This is inconceivable, but why don't you read it? And then I think maybe next week, let's start by reading this.

[64:16]

Let's just say we'll start by reading this, and then we'll go right into, like, how would this apply to cooking dinner, all right? In the meantime, you can look at this and meditate. This is the fourth circle, okay? And the simple practices I've been suggesting, which are basically, these aren't concursive practices because actually everything that's happening in your life right now is actually concursive. These are practices to give up the discursive attitude about what's going on and that giving up be ready to enter into the reality of these samadhis, which are concursive, which are everything coming together with you to create your life. But these practices are practices which, you know, you understand them, whatever level you understand them now, and just keep working at them however you're working at them, working with them, until you become them, until you can actually

[65:26]

become settled in not seeking anything, at least for a few minutes sometimes, some limited little space where you can actually dare to become settled in not seeking Samadhi, when you can become settled in not seeking any improvement, when you can become settled in not seeking to be you and not seeking to be somebody else. Just for a little while, see if you can give yourself over to being that way. Tell me how it goes from there. Okay? Thank you very much.

[66:09]

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