So there's a teaching which I mentioned to you quite a few times, that living beings just have karmic consciousness. In other words, living beings live within a storytelling environment and also living beings are prone or you could even say addicted to this storytelling and addicted to believing that the stories are not just stories. And our problems occur in that environment and only in that environment. That's where the problems are. And freedom from that situation is not like you go someplace else. It's just that freedom from that belief in these stories is freedom from those stories, which is freedom from the suffering of those stories.

[01:05]

And some of you have heard, so I told you a story about a wonderful relationship between a teacher named Guishan and his student Xiangyan. And there's another lineage of teacher-student relationships, or you could say hand-chick relationships, which I could share with you maybe next time at Noabode if you want. There's particularly four generations of hens and chicks. So you have a hen, a chick, and then you have no hen, no chick. And then as a result of that you have a hen, and a chick, and then you have the chick gets out of the shell and you have no hen, no chick.

[02:14]

And then you have a hen and a chick, and again the chick gets out of the shell and you have no hen or chick. In each one of these cases, each of these three examples, the chick becomes a hen, the chick becomes a hen, and the chick becomes a hen. So I have a story about particularly three generations of this kind of hen-chick relationship coming to fruition and chickens and hens going beyond chickens and hens and then next generation transmitting this teaching that what we're dealing with from morning till night is our karmic consciousness. By the way, there's a Zen teacher, and the Japanese way of saying his name is Zuigan. Zuigan. Can you say Zuigan? Zuigan.

[03:15]

So when Zuigan got up in the morning, he said? Zuigan. That's pretty good. But that doesn't apply to you. So it might be good for you to say when you get up in the morning, master or teacher. Maybe teacher is better because master maybe sounds masculine. Does master sound masculine? Yeah, so either say master if that's comfortable with that or say teacher. Okay, get up when you get up in the morning if your spouse is not sleeping. Go out of the room and say teacher. And then say, yes. And then, are you awake? And then say, yes. And then say, all day long, don't be fooled by karmic consciousness. I won't. Or yes. The way that it's usually said is, all day long, don't be fooled by other people.

[04:22]

But in other words, don't be fooled to think that other people are anything but your karmic consciousness. All these lovely people, don't be fooled by them into thinking that they're other than your mind. So I like to actually change the story. All day long, don't be fooled by karmic consciousness and thinking that it's something other than karmic consciousness. I won't, or yes. So anyway, this lineage of hens and chicks I'd like to go through with you maybe next time. But I want to mention something. I want to mention two things. Yes, Charlie? Could stories be a synonym for karmic consciousness in this context?

[05:28]

Could you say, don't be fooled by stories? Yeah. Stories are karmic consciousness. Stories aren't like solid objects in space. They are your mind. Like the story, This is Charlie, that's my karmic consciousness, you know, for me. And for you, This is Charlie is your karmic consciousness. So all day long, don't be fooled by stories. I won't. And being kind to stories will promote not being fooled. Two things I want to mention. I guess I'll mention this number one first and number two second. Or I could reverse it if you want. So number one is part of understanding our mind in such a way that we're not fooled by it, is to let other people edit our stories.

[06:37]

And also to hang out with people that will let you edit theirs. That promotes not being fooled by your stories. If you are fooled by your stories, you probably are not going to be very receptive to people editing them because they're not stories, they're reality. Right? So they can't... you're not going to let them edit reality. Sometimes people tell me their stories and I try to edit them and they won't let me and then I try again and they do let me. When they do let me, It's good. They feel somewhat liberated from the story. They tell me these stories like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I look pretty unhappy, but they don't want me to change the story that they're unhappy with because it's reality, so I can't change it because it's truth. Sometimes I take a little break and come back and try again, and when they let me, it's good.

[07:42]

They feel relieved. that's part of being generous and ethical with our stories or with our karmic consciousness is to let other people have something to say about it and suggest some other version of our story and also return the favor. I just want to tell a story about a TV show, a TV series, it was called Deadwood, and it was about, it was a story that occurred week after week, a story about Deadwood, South Dakota, where, that took place during the gold rush there, or anyway, when they were mining gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

[08:55]

And I heard the, I think the person called, so-called the creator, not necessarily the writer, but the creator, the person who thought of the program, And maybe he did some of the writing, but he had other people writing, too. But he was kind of like, he had the idea and then he worked with all the writers and the actors and the cinematographers and the set builders, you know, etc. And probably a lot of other things, too. And there's one thing that struck me is what he said I think he said this sort of towards the end of the series, or at the end of the series, he said that it was so wonderful to create an alternative world

[10:05]

And when I first started saying this, I was going to say an alternative reality. But you're not creating an alternative reality. They actually aren't really alternative realities, they're alternative worlds. So they created this world of Deadwood, South Dakota together. And he said it was really wonderful creating this alternative world because when you make an alternative world, It has the potential to relieve you from believing your world. Even though it's only maybe... In this case, of course, they're working all week. Each week they worked all week on making this world. So they're spending quite a while in this alternative world to conjure up this alternative world. And a lot of people working together on it. And I would say, you know, and I think the person who was speaking was also saying, a lot of generosity went into creating this alternative world, a lot of ethics and carefulness, a lot of patience, all the, you know, to take care of all these details and people doing things in many different ways, a lot of, and they were creating a chaotic world, too.

[11:25]

The world they were creating was really wild. It was a you know, a gold rush town where people were drinking a lot of alcohol and swearing a lot and shooting each other and making a lot of money and stealing. It's a wild thing they created, but the main thing was the alternative and a lot of good energy had to go into making this alternative world in such a way that this world was produced and And you could actually, you know, it was a program you could watch. It took a lot. But the thing that struck me was the happiness that comes when you consciously make a world. It's not so much that you're in that world, so you're happy to be in that world, because that world's a pretty rough place in this case. but the happiness of being relieved from your ordinary world and the happiness of returning to your ordinary world after creating an alternative world.

[12:33]

So you work eight hours a day or whatever making this alternative world and then the rest of the day you go back to this other one, but you have this wonderful perspective, change of perspective, and less belief in both, of course, As you get into creating alternative world, it starts looking more and more real. But you stay conscious of the magic, probably. But the more real that one gets, sort of, or the more engaging that one gets, the more you become free, not of engaging in your world, but of being rigid about your world. So I thought that was really another way of saying letting your world be edited And when we come to know abode, we create an alternative world too. Like during work period, it's kind of like a gold rush town out there. People are like digging in the earth and finding a lot of gold, right?

[13:40]

I'm not selling. And people are tempted to jump claims and stuff like that. People are scraping in the ground and repairing security systems. But in this particular Gold Rush town it's very harmonious and everybody's very peaceful and loving. Which is nice, but Don't lose sight of the fact that not only is this a lovely alternative world we're creating here, but it's just an alternative world. And the point is not to attach to this one either. Yeah, so I wrote here, you know, that the people in the show found a liberating vitality and joy of a group of generous, careful, patient, enthusiastic, concentrated people repeatedly creating an alternative world together.

[15:07]

Like us. We're doing that too. We get together and make this Zen world. And once again I just wanted to say, and maybe kind of ask you how you feel about it. In a way, a sentient being might feel somewhat insulted when they hear somebody say, all sentient beings have is karmic consciousness. You know, which is, did I mention, is giddy. All you've got is a giddy consciousness. Did I say that? Some people might feel insulted.

[16:11]

Are you telling me that I've got a giddy consciousness? Well, I'm not exactly telling you that. I wouldn't say that. I would never accuse you of that. I'm just saying the ancestors said that, not me. The Ancestor says we have a consciousness that's quite excited and disorienting so that we keep forgetting sometimes what's really important to us because we keep getting flipped around by our consciousness. So one could feel insulted by such a comment. But the other side of it, the good news is, of course, this is not the good news, the sort of The whole story is that this giddy world where you keep forgetting what's important, you feel a lot of regret and embarrassment that you keep forgetting what's important, right? You're sorry that you sometimes forget compassion. You sometimes forget being careful.

[17:11]

You sometimes forget being patient. You sometimes forget being generous. You sometimes forget the teaching, right? that goes with being giddy. And you can't get out of this situation and go someplace where you're never going to forget these practices. So that could be considered to be kind of an unhappy picture of our life. But the good news is that that's the only place where we have problems. That's where we have problems. That's our human predicament. And if you study the situation, you can become free of it. And you don't have to become free anyplace else. That's what the problem is. That's where the Buddha said the problem is. So, in some ways, the situation is simplified. This is where the problem is, and this is where freedom will be found. By respecting

[18:13]

the practice of ethics in this giddy world of consciousness. We will find freedom, and we need to bring it together with the teachings, which is that we will not find, we will be free, we will realize freedom, we will realize something, which is impossible to know and grasp the reality of it, which is part of the reason you can realize it, because it's not fixed. If it was fixed, you couldn't realize it, because it would be done. It would be current and would be excluded right now, or we'd already have attained it. But it's not done. We don't know what it is. It's impossible to know the reality of freedom. Therefore, freedom is impossible to avoid because we don't know where it is or what it is, so we can't get away from it. And we can't move towards it. What is it? It's so big you can't get over it. It's so little you can't get under it.

[19:18]

Or something like that. So wide you can't get around it. So deep you can't get under it. So high you can't get over it. In its fineness, it fits into spacelessness. In its greatness, it is utterly beyond location. A hair's breadth deviation will fail to accord with it. So we have to train. But you can meet it. No, you can't meet it. You can realize it. You can't meet it. It's not an object. But if you meet things that you can meet in the realm where you can meet things, if you meet things with compassion, you realize what cannot be met. I really, really need help here. She needs help. Really help. For some reason, I keep seeing there's more than just a kindness.

[20:19]

There's this vigilancy of in and out. There's more than kindness? Yes. Yeah, there's more than kindness in a way. There's also wisdom. Okay, so maybe I need to look at things in a different way. Yes. Right. Yes. Always. Thank you, thank you. Yes? So, it seems like our mind or our consciousness It's just non-stop. I was trained otherwise, just non-stop developing stories. Every visual event, every sound event.

[21:21]

Yep. The only way to stop it is to make the story a stopping. Yes. However. However. The question is, is this something that we're born with? Is this something that we learn? Yeah, we're born with it. It's innate. Some people say babies are enlightened. This story is that babies are not enlightened. their nervous system is in a different state of development when they come out of the womb usually, if they're full term. If they come out earlier, it's even more so that their nervous system isn't fully developed, along with their digestive system isn't fully developed. Humans, their respiratory system is not fully developed. The human beings seem to deliver their babies early because if you deliver them later, the head gets so big that the mother's hips would have to be so wide that she couldn't walk upright.

[22:30]

So the evolution made a compromise to make the female's hips wide enough to deliver a pretty big head, big enough for the baby to survive outside, but not waiting for the head to be fully developed because then the pelvis would have to be even wider, but that would make upright posture difficult. So we deliver the babies before they're actually able to get up and walk around with a fully developed nervous system. But even so, they're diluted in the womb. Not the way they'll be diluted in a year or so after coming out. Certain aspects of the delusion system will develop further, but basically They have the concept of things being substantial in the womb. They have karmic consciousness in the womb.

[23:32]

That's the story. But it's at a different stage of development than it will be at 18 months or at 18 years or at 70 years. Yes? Yeah, in my bodhisattva practice I've been thinking a lot about karma. Yeah, bodhisattva practice does, one of the assignments of bodhisattva practice is to think about karma. And it's taken a long time for me to realize this, but I think I've kind of realized that the karma that through predispositions, conditioning, whatever, that I'm realizing has kind of become like a gift to me. What's the gift? The gift. What's the gift? The gift. Like the karma, like whatever true nature has presented itself in my life. You're saying that our karmic consciousness is a gift?

[24:37]

Is that what you're saying? Yeah? That's a good way to see it? If you're generous to karmic consciousness, karmic consciousness becomes a gift. Yeah. I've realized that a lot of my life has been insults. A lot of your life has been insult, and if you're generous towards the insult, the insult will turn into a gift. Yeah. Well, congratulations. It took a long time, but it was worth it, in my opinion. That's a great... So karmic consciousness and true nature and true expression are kind of all synonymous? You could say karmic consciousness is synonymous with true nature. You could say delusion is synonymous with enlightenment. You could say that. But you could also say that although delusion is synonymous with enlightenment, delusion goes with suffering.

[25:47]

And enlightenment goes with freedom from suffering. But they're not really separate. And it's through caring for delusion that we realize enlightenment. It's through caring for delusion that we become free of delusion. And caring for everyone is not being separate from myself. is enlightenment? Caring for everyone as not separate from myself is enlightenment, and caring for my delusion that people are separate is... well, at least realizes enlightenment, because enlightenment is about... Buddhas are those who are enlightened about delusion. So enlightenment about delusion helps other beings become enlightened about delusion. Being enlightened about karmic consciousness helps other beings be enlightened about karmic consciousness.

[26:52]

The person who's studying karmic consciousness in an enlightening way shows, in some way, other people how to do the same thing. Even though other people are watching that person through their own story about the person, still something can get through. And what it gets through is a way of practicing with karmic consciousness, which everybody's got the karmic consciousness to practice with, but not everybody has learned how to practice with it. So if somebody's learned, they can show somebody else how to. But it's not so easy to show people all the time because people are circumscribed by their karmic consciousness, but still my karmic consciousness about you is based on you. So if you're practicing, it can get through to me. Particularly, an easiest way for you to get through to me, to start to get through to me, is if you're practicing generosity.

[27:58]

Generosity is the easiest thing to penetrate my story system. The first way to open me up to practicing generosity with my stories, is if somebody else is practicing generosity with theirs. Theirs about themselves and theirs about me. And there's always somebody practicing generosity. There always is somebody practicing generosity. Whether I want to believe it or not. Whether you want to believe it or not. That's the party line, is that somebody's practicing generosity right now. whether I believe it or not. Even if I'm feeling like hell? Even if I'm feeling happy, somebody's practicing... Some people are feeling happy in a way, but they don't feel like they're practicing generosity, and they don't think the happiness was a gift. They think they bought the happiness.

[28:59]

That wasn't a gift, I paid for it. But some people practice generosity and they realize that happiness is a gift and they also realize that feeling lousy is a gift when they practice generosity. So although they feel lousy, they feel joyful that it was a gift. You can feel really sick and, you know, and realize and be generous towards it. And you can see other people who are sick and be generous towards them and they can learn to be generous towards their sickness and both of you can be very happy and very peaceful even though you are sick. So we have a sutra about that which we can start studying right now. Ready? It's called the Vimalakirti Sutra and it's about a bodhisattva who is sick. And why was he sick? Because other people are sick. But he was very happy to be sick for the welfare of all beings.

[30:08]

Very happy to be sick and also be at peace with his own sickness and other people's sickness and happy to teach other people how to be with their sickness. And he was going to continue to be sick until everybody learned how to practice with their sickness. Yes? I was thinking about the time When I was young, I had lots of stuffed animals. When you were young? I mean, when I was younger. Younger than you are now? Do you have any stuffed animals now? No. Would you like one? Sure. Here I am. You can meet me tomorrow morning and make me some tea. I'll be one of your stuffed animals. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

[31:10]

What I decided for Brooke to say? Yeah. When she was young, she used to have a lot of stuff Hannibal's, but now she has me. Oh, damn it. You have lots. And I used to fully believe that they were real, or that the stories I had about them were real. And I made a newspaper for them. You know, I was really into it. You had like a town newspaper? Yeah. Yeah, she made an alternative world. Yeah. Which is kind of a relief, wasn't it? It was. And I looked at my mom and I said, mom, are these stuffed animals real? Are these stories about these stuffed animals real? And she said, no. And I had a tantrum. For a long time. Until recently? It was totally nothing. Anyway, and then she says, yes, they're real. After the tantrum. Yeah. That was smart.

[32:13]

They're real, they're real. Yeah, so now, yeah, now, You still have stuffed animals, and you can also realize that they're your creation, and they're as real as the unstuffed animals. Both are simply conscious construction. So to clarify what you were talking about earlier about editing, in that example, Erin, when she was younger, resisted her mother and edited her story about the stuffed animal. Later, Erin got to the point, perhaps, of being able to edit her own story. Edited her own story and also let us edit her story. And her mother allowed Erin to edit. Her mother's story. Yeah, right. Her mother was ready to let Aaron edit her story.

[33:16]

At least, you know, sort of. Maybe she didn't believe it. But you can also let people edit your story without believing that the edited version is real either. You know? Like that famous story of me and my wife, you know? You know that one? Yeah. So we're driving along. I'm driving along in San Francisco, you know, and I see a traffic jam. So I turn left to avoid the traffic jam and get into a worse traffic jam. And then I say, Oh, that's not the story. And then I say, oh, she's kind of, and then I say, that's the stupidest thing I've ever done. That's my story. And then she says, even when you confess, you give yourself a compliment. I was thinking of a story where we're having dinner over in Tiburon, can you imagine?

[34:23]

And the couple we're having dinner with, my wife says to the to the male member of the couple, it was a male-female couple, she says to the man, where do you work? And he says, I work in Riverside at the University of California, Riverside, no, it's not Riverside, it's Irvine. University of California at Irvine. And my wife says to the guy, what's Irvine like? And he says, it's beautiful. And his wife said, it's ugly. And my wife said, you should learn that. Oh, sorry. It's a good thing you told us. We've got him now. That's nice. I don't remember. So, yeah. So he says it's beautiful. She says it's ugly. And he says it's ugly. And my wife says you should learn that.

[35:24]

So, yeah, so. Did you learn it? Hmm? Did you learn it? Well, I'll say yes and she'll say no, and I'll say no. But in that example, it isn't that he actually thought Irvine was ugly. He could just say it was ugly. And then also doesn't mean that he really believed it was beautiful still after he said it was ugly. You know, it's like, the important thing is, what my wife wanted me to learn was not that Irvine was ugly, but learn to give up my story and let her edit it. Let her edit my story. She didn't want me to edit hers. So you say. So I say, yeah. And I didn't say, when she said, you should learn that, I didn't say, you should learn that. I didn't say that. But I did think, this is going to be a good story to tell people.

[36:29]

And it was. Say it wasn't. Say it wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't. Actually, I wanted to say something else. You did? May I? Yes, you may. It's actually a question. Okay. Is it okay? I don't know. In the Ganga Koan... I don't know if it's okay, but you're welcome to ask it. Okay. In the Ganga Koan... It doesn't have to be okay. Okay, and Brad doesn't have to be okay. In the Ginga Kwan, when Dogen says, when you're out in the midst of the ocean or in a land-disson sight and view the four directions, the ocean looks circular and doesn't look another way, but you should know that the ocean is neither round nor square. You should know that the ocean is neither round nor square. Its features are infinite in variety. It is like a palace. It is like a jewel. So in saying that... But to you, it looks like a circle of water. and does not look any other way. Yeah. And then he also says something about when enlightenment does not fill your body and mind... When dharma... When dharma does not fill your body and mind, you think it is already sufficient.

[37:44]

But when dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing. So if everything is just constant construction, what is he talking about that's missing? What is he talking about that's beyond the ocean that we see? I don't think he's talking about that there's some... I don't really think he's talking about that there's something beyond conscious construction. So what's missing, when the Dharma doesn't fill your body, when the Dharma does fill your body and mind, what you realize is missing is substantiality. in what you're seeing. Not your understanding. Or that what's missing is substantiality in your understanding. Your understanding of insubstantiality is also not substantial. So I think what's missing is a self or a substance to the circle of water.

[38:47]

It's not, you know, a substantial circle of water. Because there's infinite variety, it is like a palace, it is like a jewel. It doesn't sound like he's saying something that I've created. Yeah, but I'm not saying that he or anybody saying, all there is, is what you've created. There's a difference between saying nothing but mind and saying there is nothing but mind. Which one are you saying? I'm saying nothing but mind. Not there is nothing but mind. So there is nothing but mind would mean that that's all there is, so therefore there's no ocean in addition to the circle of water. But I'm not saying there is or isn't an ocean in addition to the water.

[39:49]

Because the ocean, which is the basis of the circle of water, although it's infinite in variety, it's not really other than the circle of water. It's the basis of the circle of water. But the circle of water isn't the ocean. But the ocean isn't really beyond the circle of water. It's not something in addition. If you make it in addition, you're just making another circle of water about the ocean. But there's no circle of water without the ocean, and what's going on in the circle of water depends on the ocean. Ana has a question. But do you, before she does, are you done for now? I have to think about it. It's kind of like, it's like something, it's like a misty landscape.

[40:54]

Okay, yes? You say something is missing. It's missing that conscious construction only is not realized. No. Can you repeat it? Because I couldn't hear it. She said maybe what's missing is conscious construction only is not realized. But the example is you're filled with that. When dharma fills you, you realize that something is missing. So when conscious construction only fills you, you understand that conscious construction only is conscious construction only. In other words, what's missing is something substantial called conscious construction only. When the Dharma fills your body and mind, you realize what's missing is a circle of water and ocean. They're both missing. Can't find either one.

[41:57]

But it's not that something's missing so there's something in addition to what you're experiencing. There's not a reality in addition to the... There's not a reality in addition to your conceptual cognitive enclosure. There's not another reality. There's just freedom from this one. But that doesn't mean, and that also doesn't mean that this conscious construction isn't based on something. But what it's based on is not something in addition because something in addition is another conscious construction only. But anyway, the teaching is not there is only conscious construction. It is conscious construction only. Not there is only. There is nothing but mind. The teaching is nothing but mind. So even if there is something that your current mind is based on, it also is nothing but mind. That's not what's missing.

[43:00]

What's missing is any substantiality anywhere. What's missing is the possibility of knowing reality. in particular, knowing the reality of freedom. But it doesn't say there's impossibility of realizing freedom. It doesn't say that. It's the impossibility of knowing the circle of water or knowing the ocean So the substantiality is missing, and rightly so. Is that what it is? It's not like, it's missing, so we've got to go get it. That's right. So you realize something's missing. It's a good missing. And it ought to be. It's a liberating missing. It's a liberating absence. And you realize it. without knowing it, because it's missing being available for knowing. If you know it, then you're back in the circle of water again, which is fine.

[44:02]

Start all over. Yes? Yes, it's kind of what I meant. Oh, good. I think if you realize there is no substantiality, then it's not missing, is it? What you're realizing is an absence. What you're realizing is an impossibility. That's what she said. right should not say that i think like are you saying that absent would be a better word than missing missing seems to imply we lack we like we like we want it like my keys have gone missing you know and i need them but not my not the substantialities you know it's not something we missing seems to have implications that we need to get it back right is that what you're saying But as in missing the point of stillness, to be still with it, that's what we're missing.

[45:10]

Another way to put it is, when the Dharma doesn't fill your body and mind, you're complacent. You think you know enough. When the Dharma does fill your body and mind, you continue to study the Dharma. In other words, you continue to engage in phenomena for the welfare of all beings. Is dharma another story? Yes, it is. Dharma is also nothing but mind. Ready? May our intention equally extend to every being and place.

[46:12]

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