collecting my robes just now to sit down, I became aware of how much cloth there is involved in this costume that I'm wearing. And the expression my Sunday best. I'm wearing my Sunday best. I've come here today to speak with you and I got all dressed up. I'm a little embarrassed to be all dressed up but anyway Kind of my best outfit for you.

[01:03]

And for... You can't hear? Can you people in the back hear? Okay. Can you hear better now? You can hear better now? Okay. At the beginning of this year... I spoke here and announced that this year my talks would be, my offerings would be concentrating on delusion. So I wanted to tell some of you, perhaps, have you heard me talk before? Yeah, so I want you to know that's what I've been working on for the first year. Particularly on Sundays, I've been talking about delusion. Now, you may have heard... Have you heard anything about Buddhism before?

[02:14]

No? Well, Buddhism is an English word kind of like... based on the word Buddha. And the word Buddha... is often translated the awakened one or the enlightened one. Buddha is the past participle and bud, the root bud means to awaken or to be enlightened. So the Buddha, the founder of this tradition in India, we call him the Buddhist Shakyamuni, he was an awakened one, an enlightened one. And he taught that he wasn't the only enlightened one. The founder of the tradition said, he did say, yeah, by the way, people say, well, what's happening with you? He said, well, I'm awake.

[03:15]

I am an awakened one. And People said, well, please tell us about how that is and how one realizes such a thing. And so he started to teach. And he taught for 45 years in historical time. But he said, I'm not the only in a way. There are other ones. There are other ones right now throughout the universe. And I had predecessors. And I studied with Buddhas in the past. I wasn't a Buddha, but I studied with Buddhas, and Buddhas predicted, one Buddha predicted that I would be a Buddha. Now that's the situation. So this is in a sense a tradition of enlightenment, but enlightenment is inseparable from delusion. So I'm

[04:19]

I could say I'm focusing on enlightenment, but that was last year. Or maybe next year. But anyway, enlightenment and delusion, I propose to you, are non-dual. They're not separate. The Buddha's enlightenment, the content of the Buddha's enlightenment, is the process of delusion. Buddhas greatly, deeply understand delusion. We living beings, all of us, have plenty of delusion. But we don't necessarily profoundly understand it. We haven't studied it completely yet. We have more study to do. The Buddhas have studied it and understood delusion thoroughly. So delusion and enlightenment are close.

[05:25]

And there's many delusions, but the fundamental delusion that permeates all the other ones is the delusion that we're separate. It's the delusion that mind and what it knows, mind and its objects of awareness, that they're separate. That's our basic delusion. The word delusion is appropriate, but also another word which is appropriate is affliction, our basic affliction, our basic ignorance. is that things appear to us in a mistaken way. Things appear in a false way. We are innately mistaken about the way things are.

[06:27]

The innately things appear to be out there on their own separate from us. Other beings, living and non-living, appear to be out there separate from us. This is our basic delusion, our innate ignorance, our basic affliction. And again, this basic affliction is inseparable from awakening because awakening looks at that affliction and understands the whole process and understands how liberation can happen in concert with practicing, with studying, and practicing with delusion. So this is a kind of liturgy that I'm doing because I've been starting every talk sort of with the same basic message and then expanding on it a little bit in different directions.

[07:30]

Today I'd like to talk about the harmony of the gradual process of enlightenment and the sudden process of enlightenment. Both processes, both the sudden and the gradual, are working with delusion. The sudden process of enlightenment is to engage the present, wholeheartedly engage the present delusion, and perform it authentically. and verify in this performance of delusion, verify that delusion is inseparable from enlightenment.

[08:45]

To authenticate delusion is enlightenment. To be authentic is enlightenment. And, in fact, we are all actually authentically deluded. But we need to perform wholeheartedly with no reservation a deluded being. We must, in other words, be authentically ourselves. because we are authentically deluded beings. We're not the only deluded beings. There's ones outside this room. But we are authentically, truly deluded beings. We are truly afflicted creatures. But the realization of that right now is to perform it, is to engage it and be authentically ourselves, be authentically deluded.

[09:54]

That's done right now. You don't have to do any adjustment of your delusion. Completely be yourself. And that may be quite rather difficult. But when one is completely oneself, one is awake. So that's one kind of practice. It's called a sudden practice of enlightenment. Working with delusion also. Fully engaging it and realizing Buddha's wisdom in this way. way is a gradual method which is also to engage delusion but in a gradual way. It's a way of studying the delusion and hearing teachings about the delusion and studying the teachings about delusion and applying the teachings of delusion to the delusion

[11:06]

and listening to and conversing with teachers about the delusion until we understand the delusion. And this is a long process of studying. And in the process of studying the basis of the delusion becomes completely transformed. So what I'm on the verge of bringing up here is a teaching about the basis of delusion, about a consciousness which is the basis of all deluded states of mind, and how working with our deluded states of mind transforms the basis of all deluded states of mind. The basis of all deluded states of mind is completely transformed That is the true body of Buddha.

[12:08]

The completely transformed basis of all defiled, afflicted, deluded states of consciousness. So right now, not right now, but for a good part of this year, we've been warming up to and entering into the study of an approximately 1,500-year-old text which teaches the gradual method of enlightenment, which teaches the gradual method of transforming the basis of deluded consciousness. And now, today, we'll start to bring out that text to you. We already chanted an unsurpassed penetrating and perfect Dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million eons, kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept how to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words.

[13:23]

This text is not literally the work of the historical Buddha. This book, which I hold in my hands, and it's called The Summary of Mahayana, The Summary of the Great Vehicle. This book is said to be written by or composed by the great bodhisattva, Asanga. who lived in the fourth century of the common era. He is supposedly the author of this book. So for me, I venerate this teaching by this bodhisattva like I would venerate the teachings of the historical Buddha. And so this is a This is a text which is the summary of the teachings of the great vehicle, the summary of the teaching of those who are on the path of Buddhahood, who vow to realize enlightenment for the welfare of all beings.

[14:38]

These are the beings who are on the path to realizing Buddhahood for the welfare of all. This text is for such beings. And it's written by one of those beings, one of those bodhisattvas, Asanga. The way the Chinese translated this text is interesting. The character they used, which can mean summary, because the character means to gather or collect, but the character also means to embrace. or to be embraced and sustained. So I like that translation that this is a way to embrace and sustain the great vehicle and to be embraced and sustained by the great vehicle. When I read this, I am embraced by the great vehicle.

[15:40]

I am sustained by the great vehicle teachings. And also when I read it, or when you read it, I am embracing and sustaining the tradition. I receive the tradition. At the same time, I support the tradition. I'm supported by the tradition. I receive and transmit. If you listen to this, you're listening to this teaching. You are embraced by this great vehicle teaching. But also, you're listening to it, nourishes it. Because this is the purpose of this teaching, listen to it. The first chapter is called The Support of the Knowable. The support of all we know. So,

[16:53]

The ancestor of Sangha says, it is first explained that for the knowable is termed the container consciousness. So this is a consciousness which supports all our knowing. It's a kind of knowing itself, all of our conscious knowing. It itself is what you might call the unconscious. This unconscious supports all of our conscious activity. This unconscious supports all of our deluded, afflicted states. And you might say, well, no thanks. Go away, great unconscious. But anyway, it's not an option. according to this teaching, all of our states of mind by this vast consciousness which is called the storehouse consciousness.

[18:09]

It's called the storehouse consciousness because it is the result. It is a consciousness that is presently supporting active consciousness. like our active hearing right now, our active smelling, our active seeing, our active thinking, it's supporting this current conscious activity, but it is the result, it is the result of all past karma. So the support of our present active consciousness is the past. And the past that's supporting the present is present. This is the past which is simultaneous with the present. The past which is simultaneous with the present is unconscious and carries and transmits all of our past action.

[19:12]

or I should say it transmits the results. It is the result of all of our past action. And the past action supports our present action. And everything changes in the next moment. A new result, a new container consciousness, which contains all the past plus the last moment, supporting our present active consciousness. All the skillful and unskillful past actions have consequence and these consequences have been received by this consciousness and are now carried and transmitted by this consciousness and support this active consciousness. through which I am speaking and listening and through which you are listening. Then Bodhisattva Sangha asks, where has the world-honored one, the Buddha, spoke of this consciousness?

[20:27]

And then he asks, where did he call it the container? And then it says, in the basic of a scripture called the Abhidharma scripture, the Abhidharma Sutra, it says, from beginningless time, this realm is the support of all things. Only if it exists Do all the destinies exist? Do all the destinies of worldly existence exist? Only if it exists is there access to nirvana, access to peace and freedom.

[21:33]

So this consciousness is the basis of all defiled states, but also this consciousness is the basis of the gradual path of freedom. And this consciousness is that which gets gradually transformed, and when it's completely transformed, this completely transformed consciousness is the true body of Buddha. How does this consciousness get transformed? How does this consciousness get transformed? But now I'm going to tell you again. It gets transformed because it receives the results of our actions.

[22:49]

So right now, I am in conscious life. I am acting. I think I'm thinking. I think And the way I talk has consequence. And the consequence of what I'm doing with my voice and what's happening in my mind and how my hands are moving and how I'm sitting, all the actions which I'm now expressing have consequence. And those consequences are sometimes called permeations or impressions All the things I do will make impressions. Make impressions. And they make an impression on this consciousness. So I'm supported by a consciousness to have this conscious activity, and my conscious activity makes an impression on its support.

[23:56]

So all of our conscious activity transforms into support for our conscious activity. Wholesome, and so the storehouse consciousness is constantly being transformed, but it gets transformed differently depending on... It gets transformed one way if you do skillful things, another way if you do unskillful things, and another way if you do things which it's not clear whether they're skillful or unskillful. And in that way it has been transformed for a very long time by past action. And now it carries the result. All the transformations are available to support according to causes and conditions the next moment of active consciousness.

[25:00]

And there's another element in the process which is that the completely transformed consciousness of the Buddhas makes gifts. The gifts are called . The true body of Buddha gives the truth, offers the truth to beings, to conscious beings. And the conscious beings, if they receive these gifts, the action of receiving the gift of the teaching of the truth, those whose consciousness has been completely transformed, receiving that teaching transforms, has a consequence of transforming the consciousness. So the more we receive the teaching, the more impressions are made on the storehouse consciousness.

[26:04]

So the storehouse consciousness is also called the consciousness which possesses all the seeds. All the seeds for what? All the seeds for active consciousness. But this consciousness can also receive the seeds for awakening by receiving things which are given to us by the enlightened ones. And what are the things that are given to us by the enlightened ones? How about everything? How about learning to see that everything that's given is a teaching?

[27:07]

Now if there is a teaching, I said before, If the Buddhas are teaching us and we open to the teaching of the Buddha, letting that teaching in has an impression or an effect or permeates our consciousness. The action of letting the Buddha's teaching in transforms our consciousness. And if we would let the Buddha's teaching in moment after moment after moment after moment for quite a long time, the consciousness which supports defiled states, deluded states, would be transformed. And all the seeds for deluded states would be eliminated. And there would be no possibility of deluded states anymore. Of course, it takes a very, very long time sometimes many of us, or some of us, have felt like we heard a teaching, like we met a teacher who is a teacher.

[28:41]

Or we read a scripture of the historical Buddha and we read it and we thought, oh, that's a teaching and I'm receiving it. Sometimes people read the scriptures of the Buddha and they look at them and they say, I just don't understand how this is teaching. I don't understand what he's saying. I don't understand what she's teaching. I don't see it as a teaching. You know, a text that everybody agrees this is the teaching of the Buddha. I don't see it. And some people, they see something which almost nobody sees as a text teaching the Dharma, like a billboard or a soft sign. They see a soft sign and they say, oh, the Buddha's teaching. And in fact, you know, in Japan and China, it's easier maybe to see a stop sign as a teaching of the Buddha because the Chinese character of the stop sign means calm down.

[29:44]

It also means stop. It means stop, but also it's the character that the Buddhists use for tranquility. and concentration. You know, most Chinese and Japanese, not Koreans, I don't know what their songs look like, but in Japan and China they have these signs which, you know, if you're a Buddhist and you've studied Chinese Buddhism, you see these signs all over the place saying, concentrate. Which also, at that time, you're supposed to stop your car. But if you're a passenger, you're meditating and then you see a reminder to meditate. But a lot of people, Japanese and Chinese people, they don't see that that's a teaching. They maybe think, how inconvenient. I'm supposed to stop now and I don't want to. I'm supposed to concentrate and I just want to get through this stop sign and go someplace. In other words, they don't want to see it as a teaching. Somebody says to me maybe, you know, you're really stupid.

[30:57]

Someone might say that to me and I might say, I might see that as a teaching. And I might say, thank you. Not that it's true that I'm stupid or false that I'm stupid, but just that it's a teaching. It's reminding me to practice receiving the Buddhist teachings. I don't know if you have a Buddha. Let's say you have a Buddha. The Buddha is radiating the teaching. And the teaching, when it comes to the English word stupid, it doesn't stall and get blocked by the word stupid. It goes right into the word stupid, or the word smart, or the word I like, the word love. It goes right into the word stupid. It's unhindered by it. The Buddhist teaching is unhindered. Nothing stops it. It's going everywhere. But because of our past karma, which is conveyed to us by this storehouse consciousness, there are seeds for rejecting

[32:09]

the world of truth and saying, this is not the teaching of Buddha here. This is something to get past. This stop sign isn't an opportunity for transformation of consciousness. This stop sign is something just to sort of like, I don't know what, deal with in some other way than seeing it as a teaching. Or I can't drive and see everything as a teaching. I need a chauffeur so that I can just ride through the world and see everything as a teaching. Because if I see everything as a teaching, I might not stop. And then when it changes to green, I might not go. I might not know what it means that it's green. I might not know what the teaching means and that might interfere with my driving. And so, for the sake of driving, I reject green lights and red and yellow lights as the Dharma of the Buddha.

[33:23]

And that transformed my consciousness. But it keeps it being the kind of consciousness that supports defiled states. When you see a stop sign and you say, oh, that stop sign's out there, separate from me. or this car is separate from the other cars. That way of thinking creates the impression of transforming the basis of that very thought into being the basis of a future thought like that. Thinking dualistically has the impression of transforming your into the next support for the next dualistic thought. But seeing something and seeing that it's out there and then remembering the teaching that it's not out there separate, that's transferring your consciousness towards enlightenment. That changes your consciousness into a consciousness which will eventually not believe that anybody's separate from you or anything's separate from you.

[34:31]

So there's a teaching that everything that comes is Dharma. It doesn't say that a bad thing is not a bad thing. It's saying that when a bad thing comes, the Dharma is there. And when a good thing comes, the Dharma is there. And if you remember that the Dharma is there in this unfortunate situation, your mind gets transformed, your basis consciousness, your unconsciousness, your unconscious gets transformed towards enlightenment. And if you say that this good thing is just a good thing, rather than it's not just a good thing, but it's the Dharma, And this good thing is not separate from me, even though it looks that way. Being honest is part of receiving the teaching, too. I honestly think that you're out there separate from me, but I see you as a teaching.

[35:48]

I see you appearing separately, but I see you teaching me that you're not separate. I see you as the Dharma coming through you. that transforms the basis for the future states of mind. So this basis consciousness arises simultaneously, not before it arises simultaneously with the active consciousness. So the basis consciousness is the result of past active consciousnesses and is the cause of present active consciousnesses. And present active consciousnesses, in a sense, are the effect of the cause, which is the sum total of their effects. And then they, simultaneous, before going away, they transform that which supported them to arise.

[36:54]

And then a new situation arises. And this mutual influence supporting the other to arise, the other transforming the one that supported it. And as the active consciousness more and more lives in a world where everything you meet is the Dharma. It supports future moments of active consciousness, of thinking everything you meet is Dharma. And sometimes what you're meeting is, okay, I'm meeting this, this is the Dharma, and also I'm meeting that I feel uncomfortable meeting. I'm meeting a painful situation. I'm meeting a body that's recoiling, that's shrinking, that's uncomfortable, that's tensing up.

[37:55]

And in that body that's tensing up, the Dharma is also being offered to me. But it's hard to remember that. Even though it's hard, you're hearing that possibility now. And also, when you do hear the Dharma in everything you hear, and you do see the Dharma in everything you see, and you do feel the Dharma in everything you touch, and you do smell the Dharma in everything you smell, and you do taste the Dharma in everything you taste, bitter, like sweet. To not miss that moment, to receive the teachings of the Buddhas in the tasting of something sweet or something sour, that transforms the support of future states of mind.

[39:05]

And that supports this gradual process, supports sudden enlightenment. It supports you being able to use this taste and this touch to use this pain and this pleasure, to use this as an opportunity of performing enlightenment by being this person who's having this taste, who she feels is out there separate from her, and to totally enact that because this is a dharma opportunity. This is an opportunity to hear the teaching and be transformed towards Buddhahood And the more this gradual process goes on, the more likely that you can immediately now suddenly perform this deluded mind as enlightenment.

[40:15]

Until someday there would be no interrupt. The uninterrupted performance of sudden enlightenment is possible because of the complete transformation which is a gradual process. So I'm today talking about the harmony of the sudden style of practice which is characteristic of Zen and the gradual process which is characteristic of the teachings of the great vehicle. And Zen completely agrees with these teachings but sometimes we don't hear about the Zen school practicing these gradual methods. I'm trying to harmonize them by both practicing the sudden practice and the gradual practice together. I see some people going to work in the kitchen, so that means I've talked enough.

[41:22]

So I feel okay about my commitment to continue to talk about enlightenment, I mean delusion, I get the two confused, for the rest of this year. But now that I've started this text, which is about how this basis consciousness is totally transformed and how that's the realization of the true body of Buddha, I think I'm also going to continue this text And that will last for more than one year because we've just done one page so far. And if I do one page, and there's 150 pages, so there'll be 150 Sundays, and I don't talk every Sunday. So it would be approximately 12 years, right? 12 times 12 is 144, right? So if I talked once a month about this text here, Wouldn't that be something?

[42:34]

If I talked about once a month, I talk here approximately once a month, if I talk once a month, then in 12 years we'd be on page 144. So it's more like 13 or 14 years we'll be done with this text. But still, you might not all be completely transformed Buddhas. So we might have to go on longer. So... If we're working on this, I pray that we all live for 14 more years so we can complete this wonderful, this amazing teaching of the great vehicle. I really think it would be wonderful if we all became that if our storehouse consciousness was completely transformed into the true body of Buddha. which supports all kinds of enlightened activity. I think there's a song about this, but I can't remember what it is.

[43:44]

Oh yeah, it's that one I sing all the time. There may be trouble ahead. There may be delusions ahead. There may be suffering ahead. There may be afflictions ahead. There may be. But while there's music and moonlight and love and romance Let's face the music and dance Before the fiddlers have fled Before they ask us to pay the bill

[44:59]

Of all our delusions, let's face the music and dance. Soon we'll be without the moon. Amen. And then there may be teardrops to shed. So while there's music and moonlight and love and romance, there's delusion and dance. Yes. I wanted to share something that came to my mind at the beginning.

[46:02]

I heard a certain thing. I heard a thought, because I heard a certain abstracted thinking or a teaching from different things, like a self-taught thought. left that for our food, and it was kind of seen how that itself can be a hit for us. I was with an important meeting. I wanted to make sure I get to sleep. And I went to bed. I realized the only thing that was making me ask was me trying to make sure, like, oh, I have to sleep well? That's the only thing that came to me. I mean, generally, I sleep very well, except that one night. So I think, you know, there's value in being... attention to what... again, but paying too much attention or trying to seek too much teaching to transform the conscious... I agree.

[47:12]

Being mindful, the root of the Sanskrit word or the Pali word for mindful. In Pali, the word is sati. In Sanskrit, the word for mindfulness is smriti. The root meaning is to remember. Another aspect of mindfulness is to be alert. Another aspect is... Anyway, to be awake. But mindfulness, to be mindful of a teaching, there needs to also be... Yeah, it's just remembering. It's not exactly trying to remember. It's just remembering. So, most effective mindfulness is relaxation.

[48:41]

So if there's a teaching to learn to see everything that's happening as teaching, then to remember that will be most effective with that teaching. Like sometimes I, this has been the case for quite a few years, maybe 30 years, about 30 years ago I noticed that if I had trouble remembering something, if I tried to remember it, it usually didn't help. And like a telephone number or a name, if I just relax with the sense that, you know, I was kind of wondering, what's that person's name? It often comes. You don't try to meet the people you never met, usually. So you've met somebody maybe many times and you don't remember their name.

[49:50]

But you're only concerned with remembering their name because you do remember them, actually. Your body does remember them. Your name is in your body someplace. And there's a lot of places you know everybody. And in a lot of the places where you know people, their names are right there too. So if you are stressed about trying to find the name of somebody, you look in the places you think it's most likely going to be, right? But it's actually a lot of other places too. And the places you're going to find it, you're not finding it, but just relax, all the other places will come and tell you. So we have a lot of... When teachings come to us, actually, they, again, they plant seeds in our unconscious. So we do have, and if we've been studying a long time, we have a lot of seeds for practice in our unconscious.

[50:54]

And so every time we receive another... more, our unconscious is more like a Dharma resource, a truth resource. But sometimes we lose access. So at that time, we should be kind to being lost. Be kind that we can't. What's the point of life again? I forgot. And relax with that. And oh, yeah, right. A lot of people come to see me and they say, blah, blah, blah. And I say, blah, blah, blah. And they say, why did I forget? I knew that. Why do I forget? Why do I have to keep coming back to you whenever you're reminding me? That's what I'm hearing. Remember what you already know. You already know, but you need a lot of help to remember what you already know. So, ask for help to remember what you already know.

[51:57]

Anything else you'd like to discuss? Yes? Would you come up here, please? And use this so get recorded better? First, I would like to express my gratitude for the yesterday sitting we had. And from that sitting, what came to me was the profoundness of the details of everything that is here, that is here. It's already been said prior to coming it. And I was somehow able to just be in that. Then the next thing that came to me was that I want to be that I. The I that was able to see all that, to meet that I. So that is my asking.

[53:02]

And then I have a question that came up for me for the talk. Can I say something? Yes. So I hear you saying, you want to be wisdom. And you call it an I, it's fine, call it an I, call it a B, call it an A, call it an I, call it whatever you want. But I think what you want to be is the wisdom, you want to be that seeing. Then my next question is when, and I'm trying to remember the word used, was when you were talking about the experience of the unconscious and the conscious, when the unconscious, for example, you experience bitter and you experience sweet, when as you were describing it, in that moment, is bitter and whole and complete and sweet is sweet and whole and complete.

[54:04]

Then my not understanding is when that experience is whole and complete, where does the seed come for the next There is no next. It stops there. What's that next moment which is connected to this last past moment? To me, it looks they are totally independent. Am I clear on the question? This teaching is saying that when you taste something, did you say whole and complete? Taste something whole and complete. This teaching is saying that that way of being with tasting has a certain effect right now on your unconscious. On this unconscious, which is the receiver of the consequences, of your actions and now your action in this moment your example is here's a whole hearted experience of taste and that transforms your unconscious right now in a way different from when you're half hearted with taste

[55:18]

And then this mutual influence of your unconscious supporting your conscious tasting wholeheartedly, something about your unconscious has supported you to have a conscious, wholehearted experience. And that conscious, wholehearted experience then has an impression that you've supported it. And then they both go away. And another moment arises with another unconscious supporting another active consciousness. And the new unconscious incorporates the impression of that past wholehearted conscious way of being with and supports a new active consciousness. And then again, if the new active consciousness, if you're wholehearted about that, that transforms immediately, makes an impression on your unconscious, and then they both go away, and you have a new unconscious arising with a new active consciousness, or a new, what do you call it, but consciousness with a new superliminal consciousness.

[56:23]

They're rising together and the unconscious has been transformed by your practice in the previous moment. Now if you are half-hearted then it's transformed in that way. So the more we receive the teaching, wholeheartedly embrace your conscious activity, which means be very kind to all conscious activity, that transforms the basis for future conscious activity. And in this way, gradually, the unconscious is transformed into just things more and more practice. Okay. Then I'm not clear. When things go away, to me, there's nothing there. So from that nothing there, how could the next impression, how can the next... When things go away, there's nothing there, but you're not conscious of nothing there when everything goes away. The consciousness is conscious when the past now supports the arising of another consciousness.

[57:25]

So some people talk about there's something between states of consciousness. I myself don't find that so important to work with if there's some space where there's nothing between states of consciousness. But it's just there's a rising of state of consciousness and it has these two levels, a conscious and unconscious, and there's a ceasing of unconscious and a ceasing of conscious, and there's a rising of a new unconscious which supports a new active consciousness, and then they come up together, influence each other, and go down together. Now we have a new situation which incorporates that past mutual relationship, it incorporates that. Now we have a new unconscious supporting a new conscious, incorporating the past reciprocity of past unconscious with conscious. In this way, it evolves positively or negatively. The more we receive and accord with teachings in the conscious realm, the more we influence the unconscious, and then the more the unconscious can support more practice in conscious life.

[58:39]

And they're both arising together, influencing each other, and ceasing together. And the unconscious receives the current event and transmits the current event, other past current events, into the support of the present current conscious event. That's the teaching of this summary of Mahayana. Okay, so it's always, the present event is always dependent to the past event, always, right? The present, yeah, right in the present. is dependent upon the past, the past is present. And the past is what conveys and transmits the past action. Past action is gone, but there's a consciousness which is the result of past action, and the result of past action is actually present. The past is actually this kind of consciousness.

[59:43]

This storehouse consciousness is the actual functioning past. And we have actual functioning past which supports, which is present. But it's not things that are gone. It is the effects of everything that's gone. So another name for the storehouse consciousness, it's also called the resultant. It's the resultant. But it's the result that is the support or the cause of the present active consciousness. And then the result of the present active consciousness immediately, simultaneously... the resultant, and changes the resultant in the present, and then it goes away, and then that supports a new resultant, which supports a new conscious, active consciousness, so that the resultant actually then becomes a cause of a result, which is the active consciousness, and the active consciousness, which is a result, causes for an impression on the on the unconscious.

[60:46]

So this is the dynamic which a Sangha is teaching. I have to say this, the last but not least, I always felt I love Buddha and I didn't know why. Today it came clear because, and I have to say that when I met you, Reb, same feeling, I was feeling that I love you, and that was because the teaching and you and Buddha It doesn't let me go anywhere but just here. And that is so, so... May I continue not to let you go anywhere but here. And may you continue to support me not to go anywhere but here. Anybody else want to bring anything up? Please. I wanted to review with you and then ask you about, I've heard Thich Nhat Hanh talk about beads.

[62:01]

He calls them bijas. Yeah, bijas is the Sanskrit and Pali word for seed, bija. And he has a very nice way for me to picture them. It's like the yin-yang, you know, you can picture that, yin-yang. And underneath the line are, are there only like 56 principal primary seeds? That's what he has taught. Well, maybe he means 56 categories of seeds, because there's infinite, there's infinite. Because every time active consciousness arises, it plants a seed. And it's a seed of that individual moment. But there may be 56 categories. Like hatred, for example. There's a seed for hatred. But there's many, many seeds. There are different seeds. But they all go in the hatred category.

[63:03]

And so the ancestors have analyzed the situation, and so there are categories, but the actual seeds are more or less innumerable. So, to think about only so many ways of a human being, like myself, responding to a stimuli, like of those 56, he talks about nurturing the beneficent seeds, like compassion, loving-kindness, and he calls them watering those seeds. So that as I water a seed, in my future karma, the more that I practice compassion, loving-kindness, etc., then the more frequently or the more opportunistic, let's say, that would be a response.

[64:08]

to any stimuli of mine in the future. Yeah, that's the theory. So do you have any advice or suggestions on, as a student of Zen, nurturing compassion or loving kindness versus let's say then being an open or a blank canvas or an open book, let's say, to somebody approaching or an event. So what my question is then, is it valuable, you're saying then that it is valuable to nurture and water compassion and kindness and then those seeds more apt to then appear to any future event in my life.

[65:10]

And that would be an active way, I guess, of practicing, of being in the Zen, or of practicing the Mahayana, rather than... Anyway, yes to that. Thank you. If you want to talk about rather than, that's another matter. But yes to that. Yeah, please come in. Okay. Well, as he was talking about... If you turn it towards, just like this, hold it like this. As he was talking about watering the good seeds, I was feeling sorry for the bad seeds that don't get watered.

[66:14]

And I was thinking, if... Well, feeling or, you know, caring for the bad seeds is another good seed. Okay, so because I was thinking... Caring for the bad seeds like, you know, wanting the best for the bad seeds. Right. Okay? That does actually starve the bad seeds. If you want the bad seeds to starve the bad seeds, then they'll grow. But I was thinking, how can they get transformed if they die without being... Well, maybe what you mean is be compassionate to the bad seeds, and that doesn't necessarily mean... Well, actually, the consciousness gets completely transformed. In the end, that consciousness is actually completely transformed and all the seeds, period, all the seeds even for wholesome states. So we have defiled states, wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate.

[67:24]

So even wholesome states are defiled by this affliction of sense of separation. So like you feel generous towards someone, you want to be gentle and kind to the person, you want to be careful and patient with the person. So this is a wholesome attitude, a wholesome state of mind. You really feel positive towards the person and want to help the person, but you still have a defiled mind because you still think they're separate. So the process is actually supposed to eventually arrive at a... where there's no seeds for defilement anymore. They're gone. Now, if there's no seeds for defilement, there's also no seeds for greed, hate, or delusion. Well, the basic delusion is the thing that's been overcome. By constantly being kind with whatever state of consciousness is arising, seeds for delusion are transformed into seeds for Buddha mind.

[68:28]

So, one should be kind to the seed of hate. Yes. And when you are kind to the manifestation of hate, not the seed of hate, when you are kind to the actual appearance of hate, inwardly or outwardly, as the impression of being kind to the seed of hate. And the kind thing to do with the seed of hate is to be kind to the seed of hate with the active manifestation of hate. And that kindness to the seed of hate will eliminate the seed of hate. And it's not a mean thing to do the seed of hate. The seed of hate actually is okay to get eliminated. When it becomes unemployed. Unemployed hate is one of the dimensions of happiness.

[69:29]

Yes. When you talk about and you look around the world, like, for example, I read about Yemen in the newspaper yesterday and how they want to make an agreement for maybe a new government or if they want to reconcile with the former president or the current president or whatever he is. How would you take that kind of situation and do you sway or stand steady and how do you address that seed of very real-world, violent, oppressive hate. Well, right now, you're telling me about it. Yeah, it's my... You're telling me your perspective. I'm hearing your perspective. And so right now I'm working with you right now. And I'm working with how I feel about you. So I'm not in Yemen right now. I'm dealing with what you're telling me about it.

[70:36]

Now if I was watching a television show I would be a different person. What I'm saying is that this teaching is saying work with your present consciousness and your present consciousness, your present view of what I'm doing, and your present view of what you think is going on there, work with that and be compassionate with that. That contributes to the birth eventually of an awakened mind, and that awakened mind will be most serviceable to beings who are still involved with greed, hate, and delusion. Along the way, it's possible too, because you're demonstrating a way that if beings would see that, they might be encouraged to practice it. So even prior to completely transforming your unconscious, you're demonstrating a way of transformation, transforming the unconscious to other beings who are also in the same process.

[71:40]

Everybody's in the same process. It's just that some people are mostly making their unconscious more a storehouse of more unwholesome states, and they're promoting the maintenance of the production, the maintenance of the support for more unwholesome afflicted states. They're doing it too, but actually in the long run everybody's striving the same direction because the pain of these defiled states, you know, pressures people to get some help with this, to get some instruction, because, you know, in Yemen, a lot of them are really suffering, right? So they're in some sense, they're calling for teachings, they're calling for the Koran, they're calling for the Buddhas, they're calling for all wise beings to send them some teachings, but they may not know that they're calling for that. So if you, what you're calling for, you can demonstrate to them that you're doing this, and they might remember, oh yeah, that's what I want to do too, in the middle of this

[72:49]

very painful situation i would like to receive some teachings to transform the basis consciousness so that my active consciousness can encourage other beings to care for their active consciousness in a way that would positively contribute to their evolution so in the middle of a war or demonstrations or violence if you can be compassionate to your state of mind to the person you're looking at. Same thing. You're kind to your anger or you're not angry. You're kind to their anger. Being kind to their anger, their hatred, being kind to any hatred that arises in you, learn to do both. If you can do it with yourself, you can do it with them. If you can show that to them, people can be encouraged to enter into this transformative process right in the middle of very difficult situations.

[73:54]

But of course it's difficult even in a Zen center, it's more difficult. So somebody said to me, you know, during the break, this is difficult. It's difficult to meet negativity with love. I'm not talking about liking it. I'm talking about being gracious and careful and patient and calm. Negativity. is an opportunity to receive the Buddhist teaching. And it's difficult to meet negativity in that way, but that is the way of meeting it that transforms the unconscious support of our active life into the support of more practice, which you then can experience the effects of and also demonstrate it to other people. And if you don't demonstrate it to other people, you can perhaps do the practice of noticing you're not demonstrating.

[74:55]

And then noticing that, plant the seed for noticing the next time you do it. And the more you notice it, the more you're going to say, I really want to do something different here. I want to not forget to use this moment as an opportunity for practice. I want to use all moments as opportunities for practice of compassion. Now I remember that. that actively, it immediately impresses your unconscious. It has a consequence in your unconscious, which will support remembering it again. But support doesn't mean you will. It just means it supports you doing it. But in the Mahayana, teach differently. They don't so much talk about these teachings about the workings of the mind. They just simply tell you you are going to attain Buddhahood. Everybody is going to attain Buddhahood.

[75:58]

Everybody's on the path unconscious. But there's bumps in the road and some people are actually currently transforming themselves deeper into greed, hate, and delusion by their current greed, hate, and delusion. But that's going to not be the end of the story. They are eventually going to open to the teaching to study their active consciousness and transform their unconscious, and by transforming their unconscious, study their active consciousness more, and more and more learn to be Buddha with what's happening. But it's difficult. I don't hear any of the ancestors saying, you know, this practice is easy. They don't say it's easy. They say it's possible. It's possible. And some of them say, it's not only possible, it is inevitable. Everybody's going to eventually do this difficult practice and be successful.

[76:59]

It's really hard, and of course very hard, to be consistent. Once in a while you do it, but imagine doing it consistently with no breaks. That takes a lot of practice. And if we have a practice called confession and repentance. I'm sorry I forgot. I did forget. I admit I'm honest. I admit I forgot. But now I wish to start to try again. Please. Could you turn down a little bit, please? Please. You're welcome. Hi. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. I have a question about two feeling states. Okay. Two feeling states? Yeah.

[78:01]

When I feel threatened and I get angry, and even though I want to be practicing non-violent communication or, you know, something, you know, I want to not be rejecting of the person that I met. I feel so threatened and there's a feeling that I will just collapse if I don't support myself. I will just be victimized. Okay, could you stop for a second? So, number one, you're saying you feel threatened? Yeah. And when you feel threatened or you notice you're at risk of being angry. Yes. Or aggressive. Not nice. Not nice. Yeah. That's the first part. Can I say something about that? Yeah. So that's an example of when people are separate from us, basically they're threatening us.

[79:06]

When they're outside of us, they're threatening. If they're nice, we're threatened with them going away. Or we're threatened with them switching from nice to not nice. If they're not nice, we're threatened with them. The main thing that gives power to the affliction is the sense of separation. So when we're separated from people, we're more or less uncomfortable and afflicted. and then we're afflicted and frightened, we're liable to become angry, dashed. That's part of what is situation now. When we feel afflicted in that way and feel frightened in that way, it's good to, if possible, before you get angry, practice compassion with that fear. But you've got to be fast. Got to be fast so that when the fear comes, you're right there with the fear arises and with that fear, you practice with that fear.

[80:08]

You say, oh, this fear is an opportunity for practice. This fear is an opportunity for patience because fear is uncomfortable. This fear is an opportunity for graciousness. This fear is an opportunity to be careful, to be vigilant because fear is dangerous. This fear is an opportunity to calm down. This fear is an opportunity for practice, for compassion. If you can do that, you might not get angry. But let's say you try, but you're not able to, so then you get angry. So now it's the same. This is an opportunity for those same practices, which could have been done with the fear, with the threat. And now maybe you can do it with the anger, or maybe you can't. So you miss two opportunities. So then you go on to, maybe then later you look back and say, I missed the chance, but now I wish in the future to do that. So then you plant the seed of, I'd like to do that even though I missed the chance. And that wishing to like it will contribute to the other wishings.

[81:11]

The wishing to practice that way will contribute to the other wishes that you've made in the past, which also planted seeds. And when there's enough moments of wishing to be compassionate, you start to eventually be compassionate at least once. And that will then plant another seed. So I really think, basically, nonviolent communication, which she's referring to, is a form of more or less verbal practice. But I think we should learn verbal and physical nonviolent communication. So when people verbally and physically assault us, we should learn the art. with those verbal and physical assaults so that we can, we're going to, into a situation where we're going to be possibly assaulted and we're going with the intention to learn to better receive and better be and better be patient and better be calm with verbal and physical assault

[82:28]

we need to practice it. Now, for most of us, we don't have to go to some special place to get verbal, but we might have to go someplace to get physical assault, go to actual martial arts class. But I think we do need, I think, to not just be skillful with verbal assault, we also need to be skillful with physical assault. And the Buddha was skillful with physical assault. He was physically assaulted. in his teaching career, and he was physically assaulted before his teaching career, too. When he was growing up, he was trained to deal with physical assault. So we should all be trained, we should all train ourselves in dealing with physical and verbal assault. One of the ways to deal with physical assault is by dancing with people. So that's why I say assaults ahead.

[83:41]

But while there's moonlight and music and love and romance, let's face the assault and dance. We need to learn to dance with assault, both physical and verbal. Yes. It's hard. Is it hard to learn a dance? Yes. Learning a dance, it's hard. So learning to dance with physical and verbal assault is a difficult thing to learn, but we need to. And we can be inwardly assaulted. People physically assault themselves. They eat bad food. They overexercise or don't take care of their posture. It's kind of a physical assault. The way we sometimes walk is a kind of physical assault on ourselves. Excuse me, carry on like this. To walk unmindfully is a kind of physical assault.

[84:47]

People sometimes do more damage to themselves than other people do to them by improperly conducting their posture, by uncarefully walking. Like me, you know, my major injury in a way to my body was when I was riding a bicycle. Now, a truck was crowding me off the road. It's true. But the truck didn't actually hit me. It was just crowding me off the road. So as I tried to get off the road, I, the way I operated the bicycle, and the way the cement was conformed, the combination of that is I, in a sense, was physically assaulted. But no person exactly physically assaulted me. It's just the combination of my body, my mind, my mindfulness, and the bicycle, and the momentum, and the cement all came together. So physical assault does happen. And actually, the first moment after I hit the cement, the first moment I did not practice so well.

[85:56]

On first impact, I said, shit. In English. But the next moment, I said, relax. So just like that, the next moment I recovered and said, relax. This is an opportunity for practice. Kind beings came from ten directions to help me. People's cars stopped and they stuck their head out the window and said, do you need any help? I said, I'm not sure, but please stay. Other people came with, it was hot, it was hot, Texas. People came and put umbrellas over me. People, you know, it was wonderful. So, but some people might just say, shit, [...] you know, and then blah, blah, blah, truck driver, and not notice.

[86:59]

When you say, relax, when you practice with this assault, you open the doors to the Buddhist compassion and the Buddhist teaching. And so the whole process, although it was quite painful, it was also blessed. Because of past practice, I could say, relax and thank you. But there was a moment there where the scenes from past negativity said, shit, this is not a good thing. But I didn't beat myself up for that either, so I could move on to relax and accept this, and then all this stuff comes. So the other thing you brought up was when you feel threatened and you feel angry, or even if you don't feel angry, but let's say you feel threatened, what will happen to you if you're not angry?

[88:03]

And I'm saying a good martial artist does not need to be angry to stand up for herself. She can just, you know, she can say, thank you, [...] you know? She can offer various kinds of dances to the aggressor without hating. And she's not standing up for herself either, really. She's standing up for the welfare of all beings by... in such a way that nobody gets hurt, even though this person maybe wants to hurt, but maybe she doesn't want to hurt. Maybe she just feels threatened because this person's really big and kind of not walking very steadily and might fall on you. Some people get angry at a big drunk, you know, just doesn't want to hurt you. They just look like they're going to step on your foot. You get scared and you feel angry towards them, but they might want to hurt you.

[89:06]

So the Buddha knows how, learns, [...] trains so that when the aggressor comes, when the negative energy comes, you can meet it and stand. It's one way to put it, but I would say meet it and dance with it. The great martial artists are really dancing with the other person. The Buddha's prime example, but the founder of judo in Japan, you know, judo means gentle way And the founder of Judo, when he interacted with people, there was almost no opposition. He would just show them the consequence of their energy. If they were attacking him, he would just let that attack go to its conclusion. He was very gentle with them and non-oppositional and could dance with them in a very gentle way. And he would allow them to move him around, but he didn't get hurt.

[90:11]

They said, when you're playing with the... I think his name was Jigaro Kano. He said, when you play judo, he said, when you're playing with Jigaro Kano, it's like playing with a towel. You know? Push him this way, push him that way, throw him around. You know? It's like that. But then sometimes he would just flip you in the air and set you down sometimes. But he was just like this, you know. He wasn't standing up for himself. He was standing up for a gentle way. And he was not afraid of these people. But he trained a long time to be that way. So we have a hard training to learn to meet verbal aggression. and realize that it's a dance invitation and meet physical threats and realize it's a dance opportunity.

[91:19]

If we don't see it that way, to be patient with ourselves and say, huh, it's too advanced for me. This dance is too advanced for me. I can't dance this way. Okay. So you should be strong, because you are. You've got energy. You have a gift to give. And can you give the gift of nonviolence? And the answer is, I want to, but sometimes it's really hard, especially when violence comes and negativity comes. So it's hard, but that's normal that it's hard. That's why we have these courses, to learn this difficult art. OK. Welcome. We still have a little more time if anybody wants to bring anything up. Is somebody coming?

[92:33]

No? You're done? You're cooked?

[92:38]

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