I feel awkward to speak to you today because we've been sitting here in this valley and I haven't been with you until yesterday. So, exactly what the spirit of practice is, I may not be in harmony with, so I feel uncertain about speaking, coming from another realm. So, when I

[01:15]

was walking, as I was skiing over the snow, I began to prepare for this talk and I began to try to practice mere concept. The way I did it was, in terms of my feet, particularly my feet in the skis, and I began to, it seemed that the way to ski was to not lean too much on the inside or outside

[02:33]

of my foot, keep my feet, the weight of my feet fairly equally distributed between the inside and the outside, so the ski would stay basically horizontal, and also not to let the skis get too far apart, keep them about as close together as they could be without bumping into each other. The angle of my posture and the way of using the poles was of some importance also, but mostly I was concentrating on just the way the feet were, and at a certain place I felt

[03:43]

a weight where I didn't need to calculate how far apart the feet were, or balancing the feet, but there was a certain thing, a certain concept that I was tuning into, and I just tried to stay with that concept, which included the feet being a certain distance apart and then not leaning inside or outside, and I just stayed with that. I stayed with that because the skiing went more smoothly that way, but also I stayed that way as an example or as an exercise in practicing absorption in this situation

[04:51]

of mere concept. I noticed how much I had to renounce, how much I had to abandon in order to just concentrate on that. I forgot about how long it was going to take. I forgot about almost everything else in my life except sensory

[05:52]

impacts, like how much light there was, the snow all around, my body temperature. These things kept coming to me. And then also the ideas like how long it would take, how am I doing, am I going to make it? These ideas would come up too, but I didn't entertain them. I just let them come and go and stayed on this physical concept. I noticed another concept that came up again and again was how boring it is to stay with that simple physical awareness, how awesomely boring it was.

[07:10]

At that time, partly because I needed to, I was actually giving something up. I was giving up a world of interesting experience. Now I had a practical advantage in that it actually did go more smoothly to live in that boring world. When things got more interesting, the skiing quality deteriorated. But I was leaving behind a world. And another thought that occurred to me now and then is could I stay in this world forever?

[08:19]

Why would one stay in such a boring world forever? Why would one stay in such a boring world forever? That world is the supreme body of release. I also thought while I was skiing of the twenty-seventh verse of the Vijnapti Mantra

[09:32]

the twenty-sixth verse says that as long as consciousness does not terminate in mere concept, so long will the inclinations, will the vulnerabilities to the twofold grasping not cease. So long as we are not concentrated, as long as we are not absorbed into the state of mere concept, we will be vulnerable to the twofold tendency to grasp onto a substantial self, a substantial personality or the substantiality of elements, colors, pain, pleasure, snow.

[11:16]

However, if I then try to make my whole being terminate and be totally absorbed in mere concept, if I do that in such a way as to put mere concept out there and then try to go towards it, then the mind will not situate itself in mere concept, as the twenty-seventh says. So, first of all, my mind noticed a way of skiing. I had a concept for skiing, which I applied myself to, and somewhere around that concept was just that concept being a concept, and to be absorbed in that without making that into an object is the correct way.

[12:39]

If I still have the concept which I'm trying to absorb in out there, this is not yet being situated in mere concept. Somehow there has to be just the mere concept without somebody trying to get over to it. So, at a certain point, it may be possible while skiing, for example, not to have a person who is now trying to absorb herself into the concept of the feet being on the skis in a certain way, but just to have the feet in the skis in a certain way, or rather, just that there's a concept of the feet in the skis in a certain way. And that is even another step more profoundly boring, another step deeper into something which is not interesting,

[13:45]

wherein there is nothing for you or me. So, this is the renunciation which I've referred to off and on through this practice period. So, this is renunciation of the world. This is total renunciation. Not just giving up happy daydreams and horrible daydreams, and concentrating on what we're doing,

[14:53]

but even giving up the idea that what you're concentrating on is an object. And even giving up your idea of what renunciation of the object is. Giving up everything. And, of course, giving up renunciation. Totally renounce. Complete and utter simplicity. Requiring nothing less than everything. Until our consciousness does not situate itself in this

[16:02]

concept only, we will continue to be affected by these tendencies to apprehend inherent existence. I heard on the radio on the way down, life is what is happening to us while we're making other plans. Life is what's happening to us while we're making other plans. So, part of my awkwardness is it may be that you people have already been practicing renunciation

[17:17]

for these first three days and don't need me to say this to you. Maybe you've already died. But I've arrived to start my dying process. My renunciation practice. This total renunciation is what we call just sitting. Just sitting. Also, while I was skiing, I asked myself, is this all there is to the Buddha way?

[18:17]

And I would say, no. This is all there is. Renunciation is not the whole story. Renunciation is the part that takes you to nirvana. Yeah. But that isn't the whole story. The rest of the story is that from nirvana you come back. So, part of the story is by renouncing everything, you go up and attain nirvana. But then you come down and transform. Another time, a few years ago, I was in the

[19:30]

Austria and I was climbing a mountain. I was on another ridge. A much smaller ridge. So that it went, just like right from me, down both sides. I was on a thin point of a ridge going up. When you're a beginner, you can watch yourself learn. So, I had not had experience climbing on snowy, icy mountains. And as I got higher and higher, I got more instructions from the person behind me. And one of the instructions I got was, don't look around, you'll get dizzy. But how boring not to look around. Looking around is the whole world.

[20:31]

Without looking around, it's just white snow in front of your face. Under those circumstances, literally, if I would look around, I would immediately become dizzy. And getting dizzy at that particular place was not something I wanted to do. So I didn't look around and I didn't get dizzy. And the next thing I learned was, I had a pick, and of course my body. And this next instruction I got was, pick, step. Pick, step. Not step, pick. Or not step and pick at the same time.

[21:33]

First you put the pick in, then you take a step. You want to have the pick in when you're moving. So you stick the pick in, take a step, put the pick in, take a step, like that. Pick, step, pick, step. With no exceptions. And up you go. And at that time too I wondered, is there anything more to life than this? Pick, step, pick, step. And I thought, oh yes there is. At that very time, down below, behind me, in the valley, someone was washing my clothes and buying train tickets. There isn't just this, there's another realm too. There's a realm of when you come back down from that place.

[22:40]

So can you train yourself at this just sitting, at this mere concept, without even having an idea of mere concept, to help you do it? . [...] Arca 28 says, when consciousness with object is not obtained, there is, being no object, one is established in the state of mere concept,

[24:17]

for there is no grasping for it. When objectless consciousness is obtained, then there being no object, one is established in the state of mere concept, for there is no grasping for it. Right now, in your experience, can you obtain objectless consciousness? Can you renounce seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, touching, tasting and thinking?

[25:20]

Can you renounce it? Can you renounce seeing this world as an object? Can you renounce approaching things? Can you renounce all approach? And can you renounce being approached? Can you know without touching? Or rather, can you just give up the kind of knowing which needs to touch, which needs to approach, leaving you with nothing at all,

[26:21]

simply a consciousness which does not have objects? So there is just the sound of the stream, nothing more than that. That is your consciousness. The first step in the Buddha way is renunciation. A cool renunciation which is simply the sound of that stream and nothing more than that.

[27:39]

Can we stand with awesome boredom, the absolute loneliness, the absolute aloneness of the sound of the stream? The absolute aloneness of the sight of a tree. The absolute aloneness of a stone. The utter and complete boredom of the world as it is. Can we die all the way down to mere concept, to just sitting?

[29:00]

Can we die all the way down to mere concept, to just sitting? Can we die all the way down to mere concept, to just sitting? Inwardly, have no involvements. Inwardly, no coughing or sighing in the mind. With your mind like a wall, like a stone, like the sound of the stream. Thus, you enter the way. So cold, so inhuman, so useless.

[30:51]

This is already going on. It's just that we've been making other plans. Can you give up all your other plans and just sit? And it doesn't mean you don't have any plans. It means whatever plans arise, they're not objects. There's nobody having those plans. The plans are just like the sound of the stream and there's nobody there to enjoy these plans. There's nobody who needs to make them. They're just completely boring plans.

[32:12]

I have some material here that I could use to make this more interesting. Do you have any questions about how to practice just sitting? Do you have any questions about how to have your mind terminate or be situated in mere concept? If you were to do that, if you were to be sitting without consciousness, without mere consciousness, would you be aware of it at the time? Might you not know later? If you realize mere concept, would you be aware of it? Yes, at the time, but wouldn't it be until later if you didn't recognize it?

[33:41]

You would not be aware of it as an object. Would you be aware of it later? You might. What are you describing? It sounds like what I understood is bare awareness. Is there any difference? He says that what I've been saying sounds like bare awareness, like in Mindfulness Citrus. It depends on how I look at it.

[34:50]

There is no difference, but I can see that there's a difference. There really is no difference. This answer points you back to the practice. I can get into how it's different, and that will point you away from what I'm talking about. I'm curious about the recurring thing of boredom that you were talking about. You're curious about boredom? Yeah. Yeah. Did you get beyond boredom? There seems to be a place where boredom dissolves. Where there's nothing.

[35:53]

That's right. Boredom dissolves. It goes away. Yeah. And it also can come back. Because it's a separation from... Boredom is just like the sound of the stream. It's something that comes up. The thing is, don't let boredom frighten you away from this practice. That's all. It will dissolve, and it will come back. Is it that we would prefer something else that is what creates the idea of boredom? Many things create the idea of boredom. One of the things that creates the idea of boredom is that there's no toys anymore. There's no toys in the whole universe, because nothing's out there to play with. So that makes things pretty boring. There's no toys to attain it. You can't attain anything or lose anything anymore. This does not make a very, what do you call it, exciting story.

[36:58]

So, that can be called boredom. And if you think on the verge of entering into a realm like that, you might say, how boring. And back away. But actually that quality, that there's nothing to be gained in that realm, is kind of a hint that maybe you're heading in the right direction. And the boredom may actually manifest itself at the gate. It will go away, though. But it may come back again, because you have to re-enter again and again this place. Until you're established in this practice. And you don't have to make an effort anymore. Does that make sense? I had tried to explain to my sister what I was doing, and she said, how boring. And I had never thought of it.

[38:03]

Well, the way your sister was thinking, that way of thinking happens in my head when I enter into that realm. It happens quite often at the entry into just sitting. Just walking. Just listening. I hear that quite often. But then it goes away, and I'm into it. I think a lot of people would use that word for that. Also, how lonesome. How lonely. How useless. How pointless. How frightening. And so on. Lots of bad names at the doorway to just sitting. But they probably mean it's the right door.

[39:07]

Yes? The state of your concept, the state of compassion, and so how... Is it a state of compassion? Because of your vows of compassion, you wind up at that door. Bodhisattvas need to enter this realm of practice in order to actually be effective in their vow. But the actual entry into it may not... There's no other people there, even. There's no beings there. Those are just concepts. So do you have to come out of that state to... You naturally come out of that state. Your vow naturally propels you back out of that state, back into more interesting material, which you then need to renounce again. So you need to go round and round. To abandon everything. To abandon all objects.

[40:09]

To have no objects of thought. To make your mind like a wall. Walls have no friends. But bodhisattvas must be like a wall in order to actually enter the way, rather than dreaming about entering the way. Once you actually enter the way, you naturally come from being a wall. The wall sprouts flowers and embraces all beings from mere concept, not from acting out of being captured by these tendencies to make things into solid things, which then doesn't help people. At best, acting from that place can be harmless. The actual benefit is unobstructed when we no longer are afflicted by these residuals of grasping. Making our mind like a wall cuts that

[41:15]

and makes us free of those powerful tendencies of grasping. Something like that. Yes. No, I said, Suzuki Roshi said, calling a flower is a sin. It's a little bit different. Excuse me. Saying the flower is beautiful is a sin. You should tell your son that he's beautiful,

[42:17]

not in the way of saying... In your heart, you don't look at your son and think, that's beautiful. If you look at your son and say, that's beautiful, that's a sin. But if you just say to your son, you're beautiful, that isn't necessarily a sin. You're beautiful can be simply a flower sprouting behind the back of the wall with no idea that this beautiful is a thing out there. You can look at someone and not see them as an object and say, you're beautiful. But the reason why you say they're beautiful is not because they correspond to your idea of beauty. And you're saying that they are that beautiful. Are you following this?

[43:28]

What? I can't hear you. Does what work? I can't hear you. Do you need to say that to flowers? And do flowers need it? Who needs it? What do you need it for? What? What's just an idea? I can't hear you. Well, you tell me, where does that come from? You have to say where it's coming from.

[44:34]

Do you understand what the problem is? Do you understand what the problem is? What's the problem? If you don't make things into objects, you can do whatever you want and it will be beneficial. And I feel that many of us will not do the work we need to do. We will not renounce seeing things as objects unless we realize that we must. That in order to actually be effective bodhisattvas we must do this. It's very difficult to do this but if we finally see that we have to, we have a chance. www.mooji.org

[45:36]

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