Here is the first couple of chapters of the Abhidharma Kosha Bhasha, written by Vasubandhu. This is kind of a pre-mahayana Abhidharma text, however, as I mentioned, I think that Vasubandhu wrote this maybe after he studied some of his brother's teachings on Mahayana Abhidharma. It's somewhat adjusted to the later Abhidharma, but basically there's a lot of early analysis is in here and also the early analysis is also in later Abhidharma too. This isn't quite a Mahayana Abhidharma text, but it's a very important Abhidharma text. And what does Vasubandhu say when he says, what is Abhidharma?

[01:05]

What's his answer to his question? What is Abhidharma? Prajna. Prajna. What? Prajna. Prajna. Close. Prajna. And it's following. And it's following. Prajna and it's following. And what's its following? Prajna? No. Prajna? Yeah, it's maybe the whatever elements of experience that are arising with that moment of Prajna, all the different elements of experience at that time. And then he says, what is Prajna? What is Prajna? And his answer to that is? Discernment of Dharmas? Yeah. Discernment of Dharmas.

[02:05]

Or discernment of elements of experience. Or in some sense, in this context, it's elements of experience that have been discerned in our experience. So it's actually the elements which are resulting from an analysis of your experience. And to discern these elements individually and in relationship to each other, that's the content of Prajna in the early Abhidharma. And so we talked in the last couple of classes, we talked about elements of experience in terms of five heaps or five aggregates in which the elements of experience could be placed. In Sanskrit that's called the five skandhas, pancha skandha, five aggregates.

[03:13]

And then also another analysis of experience is, what? Huh? Yeah. Ayatanas. Which in Ayatana you could often translate as doors of arrival or doors of arising. Doors of arising of what? Of consciousness. And then the third main analysis was the dhatus. Dhatu means element or realm or sphere. And so there's five aggregates, twelve sense doors or doors of arising, and eighteen elements. And all conditioned dharmas can be placed in these five aggregates.

[04:25]

All impure dharmas can be placed in these five aggregates. All dharmas can be placed in the twelve doors of sensation and the eighteen elements. And then another analysis in this school, at the level of this text is Abhidharmakosha, another analysis is to analyze experience in terms of seventy-five dharmas. Seventy-two dharmas of the seventy-five are conditioned dharmas and three are unconditioned or unmade dharmas. So total of seventy-five is the more minute analysis of experience as presented in this text. So this text presents seventy-five, five, twelve, and eighteen. It also presents other ones too. But actually quite a few other analysis are also performed in the nine chapters of this text.

[05:37]

The relationship between the point by point correspondence between the elements as seen in the aggregates, the elements as seen in the doors of arrival and the elements. And also in terms of five groups. So the seventy-five dharmas are categorized in five groups which are not the same as the five aggregates. So here I have a chart which puts in correspondence the five groups in which the seventy-five elements are presented. The five aggregates, the five skandhas, the twelve ayatollahs and the eighteen doctrines. So there is a chart here which puts in the correspondence. You can study that and see if you understand how they go together.

[06:42]

It's right here. And then here I have a list of the seventy-five dharmas. So here is the seventy-five dharmas as presented in this school. It says of the kusha school, the kusha is a Japanese way of saying kosha, the kosha school. And then we have these thirty verses but not everybody took them and I'm just going to keep them a little longer because this is actually, these thirty verses are thirty verses which are coming out of the next phase of our Dharma teaching. So just as well as you know. I'll take them. Thank you.

[08:18]

Thank you, this is beautiful. You're welcome. Thank Vasubandhu also while you're at it. So on Saturday we're having a little sitting at one day, at one day on Saturday we're having a little sitting at Noh Abode and Bernard said something about, he mentioned the word contemplation is like, you know, that there's kind of, in the word contemplation is the word template in a way. So con goes with template. So contemplation, I think the con means, what is the con? The con means, the con doesn't mean word in it, it's calm, not con, calm.

[09:22]

Doesn't mean with in this case, it means intensive. And then, so it's just calm together with templum. Pardon? Yes. But the root is M. The root is C-O-M, calm, which is intensive plus templum Templum, and templum means an open space marked out for augury. So the word temple comes from the same thing, it's a space set up for augury, for making divinations and predictions by looking at what's in the space. So contemplate means to observe carefully. And it's related to this root, which means the root T-E-M for templum,

[10:28]

which is a temple, a shrine, an open place for observation. But template, in this case, is something we use, we carve out a space, and we use the space for contemplation and then the con is to intensively observe the space. So we have experience, and then we put a template on the experience. We carve out some part of the experience, we open part of it up to observe. The skandhas, the yajnas and dhatus are templates to put on your experience, and also you can put, as I mentioned before, you can stack them. So you put the skandhas on your experience, and it's a way of getting into it with your experience. You put the dhatus on, it's another way to get a somewhat different way of being with them.

[11:29]

You put the dhatus on them, it's a somewhat different way of being with them, and then put all three on and see the relationship, it's another way to be with your experience. And put the 75 on there is another way. And I mentioned the simple one at the beginning, like put the template of wholesome and unwholesome on your experience. And look to see, is it wholesome or unwholesome? Put the template of without flows or without outflows on your experience. Is there gaining here? Is there concern with gain and loss? Is there concern with gain and loss? Yes, no, mostly yes, of course, but maybe once in a while, maybe not. So at that time run to your teacher and say, I found a moment there wasn't any gain, it was a moment, pure moment, there was no outflows. And then the teacher says, was there any in coming here? Laughter So that's a simple, what do you call it, bipolar analysis.

[12:35]

And in the, what do you call it, the four foundations of mindfulness, you first have body and then you have feelings, and so feelings is a template, you have the teaching of feelings, you put the feeling template on your experience and then see, is it positive, negative or neutral? That's a simple analysis, relatively simple. It may be hard at first to sort of see, but you know, if you're driving, a driving car is a good place to meditate on feelings, if you're driving along, maybe not feeling too good, I don't know, maybe it's kind of gray, gray day, don't feel too good and suddenly, wham, you feel good, or wham, you feel bad. Or you feel kind of bad, you know, I feel kind of bad, I think I feel kind of bad, actually you're carving out your experience and identifying that the way of experiencing your sensation is painful, painful, somewhat painful, somewhat painful, somewhat painful,

[13:40]

and then, oh, actually kind of not so painful, kind of notice, and then you're starting to get a feeling for looking at your experience through the template of the second skanda, the first mental skanda. And so that's mindfulness of feelings, the second foundation of mindfulness. The third foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of basically mental states and under that heading, you can do the more simple analysis of like wholesome or unwholesome, or agitated, or concentrated, or not concentrated. Wholesome, with outflows, without outflows, those simpler ones. And then in the fourth foundation of mindfulness, they actually list, there you'll find the five skandas and the twelve ayat. They don't have the dhatus in the early text. So the fourth one is, in these four foundations, the fourth one is the most subtle,

[14:42]

and that's the fourth one is the one you really want to develop. There's also the Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths. There are also templates to put on your experience. Suffering, cause of suffering, cessation of suffering, but it's not that easy to find the cessation of suffering, as you may have heard. And again, the fourth truth is the truth of the path. And the truth of the path is, you put the template of the truth of path on your experience and see if you can see your experience, which is composed of dharmas which have outflows, in such a way that there's no outflows. There's a way of seeing all the impure dharmas such that the total picture is not impure. The total picture has no gain and loss involved. Then you can see all four truths on top of your experience.

[15:50]

Okay? And a little bit more on the skandhas, which I think is a really nice little thing in here, in the first chapter here. Actually, one little exercise. So, after they go through the skandhas, Vasubandhu says, All conditioned dharmas are included within the totality of the skandhas. And all impure dharmas are included within the totality of the upadana skandhas, the skandhas of cleaning. And then, all the dharmas are included within the totality of the ayatanas and the dhatus. But more briefly, all dharmas are included within one skandha, one ayatana and one dhatu. So, all dharmas are included within twelve ayatanas, right?

[16:56]

So if you look at the chart, you can see how it is that all dharmas are included within twelve ayatanas. All dharmas are included within eighteen dhatus. So in the chart, you can see how all dharmas are included within eighteen dhatus. It will take you a while to see it, but it's there. But then Vasubandhu summarizes it more simply, with three things, instead of twelve and eighteen, with three things, one skandha, one ayatana and one dhatu, you can include all dharmas, more briefly. What are those three? Rupa. Rupa skandha, that's right. Manayatana. And dharmadhatu. So if you look in the chart, you see, if you look at the dharmadhatu, which is like the eighteenth element in the dhatus, you look at the manayatana, which is the twelfth, no, it's actually the eleventh of the twelve. Dharmadhatu.

[18:02]

Oh, it's twelve. Twelve and twelve. Is that what you said, the manayatana? No, I said... Oh, there's a mistake on here, sorry. Twelve... Oh no, here it is, six. So it's six on this one. Manayatana, number six under the ayatana. That's the dhatu. Rupa skandha, number one under skandha, which has two sets of five. Number six under the ayatana. Manayatana. And number twelve under the dhatus. Under those three, you will have... All dharmas are included. You see what? You see how?

[19:09]

No. If you look at, for example, look at the rupa, so the five indriya, you see where it says five indriya under the rupa skandha? So five indriya. Indriya means sovereign, like it's related to the word indra, which means, you know, sovereign of the gods. So the indriyas are the five sense organs. Okay? So the five indriya are the five sense organs. So they correspond to, well, the five ayatanas. And then the five artas, or the five objects, they correspond to the seven through eleven of the ayatanas. And then manayatana, that's the other ayatana, and then dharmadhatu corresponds to the twelfth ayatana.

[20:11]

He could have said one skandha and two ayatanas, the manayatana and the dharmayatana, but he wanted to use one of each. But you see, manayatana is the same. So the first skandha has all five ayatanas, and then this... The first skandha has all five... The first five ayatanas. It has the first five, and it has seven through eleven. And seven through eleven. It has the first five dhatus, and it has seven through eleven. So the first skandha has ten elements in its analysis, and that corresponds to ten ayatanas and ten dhatus. So then the manayatana corresponds actually to six dhatus. You see that? It corresponds to manodhatu, which is the mind,

[21:13]

the mind's function, the mind organ's function. It also corresponds to all six sense consciousnesses, thirteen through eighteen. So, if you have the rupa skandha, and you have the sixth ayatana, the sixth ayatana doesn't just correspond to one dhatu, it corresponds to seven dhatus. You see that? So one of the dhatus corresponds to the mind organ of the dhatus, the mind functioning as an organ, so it goes with the first group of organs, and then the manayatana also includes the six sense consciousnesses, so it actually corresponds to seven. So you have one ayatana that corresponds to seven consciousnesses. And then the dharmayatana corresponds to the dharmadhatu, and in the dharmadhatu are the vedana skandha, the samya skandha, the samskara skandha,

[22:15]

and avijnapti rupa. So, and space, and two kinds of nirvana. Dharmadhatu has, in terms of skandhas, it has the vedana skandha, the feeling skandha, it has the perception or conception skandha, samya skandha, and it has what's called samskara skandha, which has all kinds of mental functions, like faith, lack of faith, diligence, lack of diligence, self-respect, lack of self-respect, concern for how other people see you, lack of that, concentration, attention, decision, mindfulness, any kind of mental factor that this 75 analysis, 75 dharma analysis has, that's not included in the other categories. Also in the dharmadhatu are space and the two kinds of nirvana.

[23:18]

So, the dharmadhatu or the dhamayajna include everything that's not included as rupa or as consciousness. And the chart shows it. That's a good little exercise to read that chart. If you understand that chart, you kind of sort of understand the relationship between the different things. Space and the two kinds of nirvana. Asamskrita. Asamskrita. Number 5 on the left hand side. Asamskrita. No, Asamskrita. Akasha. Akasha is space. So, Asamskrita is space. Akasha. Nirvana which comes from effort. And nirvana which comes without effort. Which is the natural nirvanic quality of all things.

[24:20]

So, those are the three unconditionings. They're unmade. They're existent phenomena but they're not made phenomena. They're not compounded. That's the difference. And they have no gain or loss involved in them. And they belong in the dharma doctrine. But they don't belong in the skandhas because the skandhas are all conditioned dharmas. They're all compounded dharmas. Not all dharmas. Yes? Back on the part where it talks about the following of prashna. It says the following of prashna is escorting the five pure skandhas. Are they the five pure skandhas as opposed to the clinging skandhas? Right. And the pure skandhas would be the same skandhas which are... The skandhas include all made dharmas. But made dharmas are all impure. Except under the context of the path.

[25:26]

Within the path. I think somebody said that. The suite that's the path accompanies prajna. So prajna lives in the same psychophysical field. Except it lives in the field when the field is understood in terms of the truth of the past. There's no gain or loss in the field anymore. And that's prajna seed. So when the skandhas are used as a template, they're pure skandhas? No, you can use the skandhas as a template and still see gain and loss in the field. But then they're upadana skandhas? Then they're upadana skandhas. Because when you see gain or loss, then they're clinging. Now if you see gain and loss and can see that it's an illusion, then you don't fall for it. Then they're pure skandhas. There's no gain or loss in them. And then another kind of like

[26:29]

sort of nice summary statement that Vatsubandhu makes. He makes a whole bunch of nice summary statements in here. One of them he says, this is the Karaka 20 CD. He says, why did the blessed one, the Buddha, give these skandhas, ayatanas and dhatus as a tribal designation of dharmas? Why did he give these templates? And the answer is, the teaching of the skandhas, the ayatanas and the dhatus were given because of error, faculty and joy. Okay, that's the verse. In Sanskrit. Okay, so error. The error is threefold. The first category of error is persons who go astray considering the mental phenomena as together constituting a self.

[27:33]

That's the first kind of error. People who see mental phenomena as constituting a self. The second are similarly mistaken with respect to material elements. They see the material elements. They see a self in them. And the third are similarly error with respect to both mental and material elements. So, for people who, I guess, don't have much privacy, maybe they don't so much see a self in the material, material elements like gross sense of body, you know, or more subtle sense of the body as being the organs, and also a more subtle sense of form in terms of colors and so on, they don't see a self there. But when it comes to their feelings and their conceptions

[28:38]

and their mental formations and their consciousness, they see a self, they mistake it as a self. That's one mistake. And for them, which one of those templates puts the most emphasis on the mental gives the mental phenomena the biggest picture, biggest attention? Skanda. Skanda. Skanda is because the Skanda presentation has four fifths. Eighty percent is about mind, and one fifth, I mean, twenty percent, one fifth about body. So, for those who see a self in the mental phenomena, now you have this four-fold, you have this eighty percent of materials to get them to look at the mental field more carefully, to see if there's actually a self there. For those who misconstrue the material experience as a self, they give them the, say it louder. Iotinus. What's the reason for giving them the Iotinus?

[29:40]

What? The ten twelfths. Yeah, the ten twelfths are about physicality. Right? So the Iotinus are mostly presenting a refined analysis of the physicality, plus the other part of the analysis is very brief. So it's mostly emphasizing, ten twelfths is emphasizing the template of looking at the physicality. And as you look at it more and more carefully, is there really a self there? So according to that, and then those who confuse both, they have the twelve and six, quite an elaborate analysis of the physical, and an elaborate analysis of the mental. So those are the people who see a self in these different contexts, and he gave these three different analyses. And it turns out we have basically

[30:46]

a physical or a material and mental, or body and mind, and there's not another category of our experience, as it turns out. So those three seem to take care of those who've got the problem with the mind, those who've got the problem with the body, and those who've got the problem with both. And he doesn't have an analysis for one who doesn't have a problem with either. They don't need any help. So that covers error? Yeah, right, there's two more. The next one is moral faculties. The faculty of speculative consciousness has three categories, sharp, medium, and dull. So the sharp... I'm sorry, this is embarrassing, but what are the three? Error, faculty, and sphere of influence. Why are we talking about them again?

[31:49]

Because Vasubandhu's asking, he asked you how come Buddha gave these three categories. He didn't know anything. You didn't know before this, did you? So you kind of see why he gave the three. People who make a certain type of error, those are the three basic types of error that people make of seeing self in these different experiential fields. Then he gives you these three templates to put on the field of experience, and the templates are for people who have certain types of problems, make certain types of mistakes. Now some people make all three types of mistakes, so you can use all three. But some people make one of the three, or two of the three, and so on. So for those who make three of the three, you use three. For those who use two, you use two. And for those who make one, you use one. But even for one who only makes one, it's probably good to do the other ones too, just because it refines your awareness

[32:51]

and your confidence in that the self cannot be found underneath any of these patterns. That's the error side. The other side is, in terms of faculties, the skandhas for the sharp faculty, the ayatanas for the medium, and for the dull is the dhatus. And Vasubandhu's favorite is the dhatus. He's kind of dull. The next one is, and also another way to put it is, the next one is... Is there a moral faculty? Why is it for sharp, dull, is it like skandhas are more complicated, more difficult to understand? It's more difficult to understand, but also the error is a little bit more subtle. To see the self in the mind is more subtle than to see a self in the body. But you said moral. It did say moral, but then he said, you know, I don't know.

[33:53]

It also says faculty of speculative consciousness. Actually, this faculty is the prajna... No, it's not the prajna. It is, yes, the prajna faculty. The prajna faculty of the people is sharp, medium, and dull. And the sharps for the skandhas, the teaching of the skandhas address the self to the first category of hearers, those whose mistakes are with respect to the mental phenomena, who are sharp faculties and who are fond of brief teaching. The teaching of the ayatanas addresses the self to the second category, those who make the mistake of the material and who like a medium level of analysis, a little bit more analysis than the five, so you get twelve.

[34:55]

And then the dull people like the more elaborate one, because it gives them more places to get a hold of it. So that's the reason that Vasubandhu gave. The next one is, he also says, basically, how come... Well, he just tells you that, here it says sensation, but we say feeling or experience. Feeling or experience. The Chinese character that they use to translate this skandha means to receive or experience. Feeling, experience of sensation. So you have a sensation, how do you experience it? How do you feel about it? So it's neutral. So it's the way you experience sensation. That skandha, the second skandha, and the third skandha of conception, each constitute a separate skandha. How come they get a separate skandha? Because the next skandha has all kinds of important mental factors in it,

[36:00]

but they don't get to be a skandha. I mean, not one of them gets to be a skandha. Even the vijnana skandha, there's lots of different kinds of consciousness, and they're all put into the consciousness skandha. And there's 64 elements in the fourth skandha. How come these two get to be a skandha by themselves? That's the question. The answer is, the two mental states, feeling or experience and ideas, are defined as distinct skandhas because, number one, they are causes of the roots of dispute, they are causes of transmigration, and they are the reason of the cause which justify the order of the skandhas. So they're the roots of dispute, these two.

[37:00]

Attachment to pleasure and attachment to opinions. Sensation and ideas, so attachment to pleasure and attachment to opinions, these two are extremely important in being the source of battle. Another translation, by the way, is battle, discord, disharmony. So it's because they're so important in causing trouble that they get to be a skandha unto themselves. Also, sensation and ideas respectfully it says actually respectfully, sensation and ideas are respectfully the principal causes of those two roots of attachment to opinions and attachment to pleasure. The Buddha says, you know, all sentient beings fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddha

[38:03]

but because of attachment and false opinions, they don't realize it. So these two get to be skandhas unto themselves because they're so important in being the roots of trouble. In fact, if one becomes attached to pleasure, it is because one relishes sensation. If one becomes attached to opinions, it is by reason of erroneous or false ideas. You don't become attached to opinions unless they're false. False opinions are the kind of opinions you can get attached to. Correct opinions self-destruct. Of course, the correct opinion is emptiness. My opinion, emptiness. Okay, that's the first category. The next one is sensation and ideas are causes for transmigration

[39:04]

in samsara. Those who are greedy for sensation and those whose ideas are erroneous, transmigrate. And then the last reason is that they're given separate skandhas because these two are pivotal in justifying the order of the skandhas. And so then the next verse says, we have defined the skandhas. We should now explain the order in which the skandhas are enumerated. The order of the skandhas is justified by their grossness, their defilement, their characteristics of a jug, etc., and also from the point of view of their sphere of influence. You will soon see. I mean, you'll soon hear. And perhaps you'll see. The skandhas are in the order they are because

[40:07]

material is most gross. Feelings among the mental skandhas are the grossest. They're the easiest to spot. Can you see that the feelings are the easiest to spot? Like, oh, that's painful. That hurts my feelings. That's pleasurable. I'm not sure how I feel locked up. Still, it's quite a feat. I remember one time when my daughter was quite young, she went to the planetarium at Golden Gate Park and she was looking at them. You know, they... I don't know if they do, but anyway, they open the sky up right and the kids are looking up there. And when she saw that, she said, I have this warm feeling in my... around here. A little warm and good. So at that young age, she could spot

[41:09]

and articulate a positive sensation. Children do, of course, feel it, but they can't necessarily identify. I feel good. I feel bad. But when they start doing it, they're actually able to see that skandha. So it's pretty gross. And then, when she was quite a bit older, you know the story about where one of her friends stayed overnight and they were really getting along very nicely. They had a wonderful visit. And then, the next morning, when her friend's mother came to pick her up, when her mother came into the house, the girl ran and jumped on her mother's lap. And then, you know, then they left. After they left, my daughter said, she did that just to make me feel bad. And then, you know, an hour or so later, she was sitting on my lap and my wife said, are you doing that just to make me feel bad? And she said,

[42:10]

okay, I'll give her another chance. I'll watch her at school tomorrow. So she came home from school and we said, how did it go? And she said, I saw that I got angry at her for what I was thinking about her. So she could see, actually, the second and third, the third and fourth skandhas. The anger goes in the fourth skandha. She could see the anger and see that she had some view of her friend. She was thinking her friend was a blah, blah, whatever, right? So this image of her friend, so she was actually able to articulate those skandhas. But they're more subtle. It's more subtle and the feel of pain is important to notice and very powerful for transmigration. And the images we have of things are also very powerful for transmigration. And opinions or images, you know,

[43:12]

are very powerful. But the feelings are more gross, the most gross of mental. Images are next, most gross and next more subtle. And then emotions like anger and confusion and so on are more subtle. And then the most subtle which is clear awareness, clear knowing. That's the most subtle of the aggregates. So that's why they're in that order. The order is justified by increasing subtlety or decreasing grossness. That's one justification of the order. Yes? What does transmigration mean? Transmigration means how we move from, like, one kind of state of being to another. Like how we evolve positively or, you know, or negatively. The ups and downs of our states and even the forms of rebirth are transmigration. And where do mind states fall into?

[44:15]

Where do mind states? Well, like in the, in the, what do you call it, if you're doing the four foundations of mindfulness, the third foundation of mindfulness is mind states or states of consciousness. But those tend to be a little grosser. But the fourth foundation of mindfulness is like where you're, you're, you're looking at the five aggregates and the five aggregates, you're no longer characterizing whole mind states. You're actually doing a finer analysis of your mind state. So you have consciousness which is determined by what arises with it. Because consciousness is just, is, you know, really it doesn't, it doesn't, consciousness doesn't have the color of wholesome or unwholesome or, or painful or pleasureful. It's clear. But it arises with material and mental events like, for example, it arises with a painful feeling.

[45:16]

So the state of consciousness with a negative sensation is a state of painful sensation or a state of a such and such idea. So in that the, the second, third and fourth aggregates that arise with consciousness condition the quality of the state of consciousness. That make sense? In terms of aggregates? Hmm? Yeah. So, but in terms of how this process transmigrates or gets hooked, hooked into a cyclic pattern that you can't get out of, the first two skandhas are more powerful in terms of transmigration than the later ones. The later ones are more powerful in terms of getting you free from transmigration. There's subtle dharmas in the fourth aggregate that team up with consciousness to counteract the

[46:18]

patterns which have been set up by the grosser mental phenomena, images and feelings. And then the next category is their defilements. So, in the course of external transmigration, men and women are mutually infatuated by their bodies because they are attached to the pleasures of sensation. So, that might have been hard to follow, but anyway, because of the pleasures of sensation and the erroneous images, we proceed in this way to transmigrate. And then the next one is the example of matter is the pot, sensation is the food, ideas are the seasoning, the samskaras are the cook,

[47:20]

and mind is the consumer. That seems a little I don't know what, but the point here is that in this thing, mind is the container and the food or the nourishment and the flavor is the first two mental skandhas. The actual food and flavor. The way it's cooked goes with all these other complex mental factors, but the actual substance of the food is the dish. Which is the seasoning? The seasoning is the ideas and the food itself is the feeling. So, feeling and flavor are the seasoning, I guess. In some sense, the physical seasoning goes with the first two skandhas and the cook is all the other mental factors except for consciousness which is the thing that knows this. But what does it know?

[48:23]

But the two most important are the first two. And in the sphere of influence is that in this world where we have bodies and men and women and so on and dogs and cows and stuff, in this realm the dominant skandha in a way is the rupa skandha. It's boss of this realm. And then in this realm, where we eat bowls of soup and stuff like that and have cars and wheels, rupa is the dominant one. Then in the next realm which is called the fine material realm, there you don't have bodies in the sense of male and female bodies and arms and legs and cattle eyes. There you have more subtle materiality.

[49:26]

And there the feeling is the big one. Because there there's no negative feeling and there's some neutral feeling but mostly it's positive feeling and there feeling is the dominant skandha. Then as you move into the realm called the formless realm where there's no colors or smells or tastes or touch or bodies or anything. In that realm you're mostly meditating on images and the images are like the infinity of space, the infinity of consciousness and so on. These top meditation topics in the formless realm. In that realm the third skandha is dominant. And at the highest part of that realm the fourth skandha is dominant. And finally the result of this whole process is the consciousness so it's the fifth skandha.

[50:27]

So in terms of the sphere of influence they're ordered in that order. So this is another nice kind of picture of how the skandhas are organized as delivered to you by Vasubandhu. And then we come to just to say that there's more to come of this type of analysis but we don't have to do it all before we take this next big step. After we take this next big step and recover from it we can go back and get better at this analytical work of mind and body and mind and nature. The next step is that this is all well and good but we need liberation personal liberation by this type of study. And this type of study

[51:34]

will be resuscitated later. But the next step is the step that comes with not being concerned with personal liberation but being concerned with liberation of all beings. And there another approach or another way of practice is being proposed. And that way of practice is a way of giving up or taking away all these templates. So you use these templates to observe your experience and become more intimate with it. And by becoming more intimate with it you can find out if there actually is some kind of independently existing anything in this field. If there is a self in your physical experience if there is a self in your mental experience you can actually get in there and find out

[52:36]

by using these templates and observing with these templates. And if you can verify that it's not there you can attain personal liberation. And people did do that. But the Mahayana requires that we take away all templates. So then the next step is typified by the Heart Sutra which says Avalokiteshvara was practicing Prajnaparamita and saw that the aggregates we've just been talking about are empty of any inherent existence. He saw that all five skandhas all five aggregates were empty and thus relieved all suffering and distress. Not just his own but everybody's

[53:36]

by this vision. This vision liberates all beings. And then he goes through and says in the context of realizing emptiness all these Abhidharmic analyses are not found. There is no there is no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue no body, no mind, no color, no sound no smell, no taste, no touch no object of mind, no realm of mind consciousness and so on. There's no twelve links of causation there's no four noble truths. All these analyses that the Buddha gave that the Abhidharma and like the Buddha gave these five skandhas in the Abhidharma that did all this further explanation for you how to work with them and refine them even more. In the ultimate vision of the Bodhisattva you can't find any of this stuff. And this is the second turning of the wheel. To take the templates away to take the temple away to take the Zen center away

[54:38]

to take the people to take away the people that you're devoted to saving to realize that there's no beings to save. After you committed to saving them and after you find no self in them then find that there's no beings even to save. This is the second turning and this is the beginning of this is the Mahayana. This is not Mahayana Abhidharma this is the Mahayana deconstruction of Abhidharma. This is the Mahayana taking away the conceptual analysis which the Buddha taught first. And as I mentioned what time is it now? Is it 8.35? I thought we had 10 minutes

[55:43]

but we've got a lot of time. So anyway he had this template which was a very successful thing that the Buddha gave to the disciples and they used it and they attained freedom and then he also gave this teaching and said okay now hand over the template where they used the raft to cross the ocean of suffering they get to their side and he said now let go of the raft. You can give the raft to other people who need it to get across but now I want you to practice without the raft and find out that there's another way of practice so deconstructing the raft and realizing the way without any mediation. And on Saturday

[56:51]

I suggested three stories of how these second turning types of teachings were conveyed. One way is that the Buddha gave these teachings and only some people heard them. Another way is that he gave these teachings to some people and not to all people. He looked at some of his disciples and he thought if I give these teachings to these people and I tell them to take away the template for example take away the template of is your state of mind wholesome or unwholesome? If I take that away before they're actually committed to practicing wholesome conduct and before they can identify wholesome and unwholesome if I take that away before they can do that they may not be able to continue to practice wholesome life but they must be able to continue to practice wholesomeness while taking away any template about what wholesomeness is but if I take away the template of what's wholesome they won't actually be practicing

[57:53]

anything at all but unwholesomeness and they won't even know it. Now really they won't be practicing unwholesomeness but it will look like they are and that will be very bad painful and when they realize how bad it is to be unwholesome and how good it is to be wholesome and they're really committed to being wholesome and avoiding unwholesome then I can teach them analysis and then I can take the analysis away and they can be wholesome even when they don't even know what wholesome is anymore and they can continue to practice without any idea of what wholesome is or to realize that wholesome is empty of any idea of wholesome wholesome is also empty of any idea of unwholesome and unwholesome is empty of any idea of wholesome and unwholesome too but you can't be totally devoted to wholesome when you hear such talk you shouldn't hear such talk and when he noticed

[58:54]

when he started talking that way to some people and they started to get kind of slack in their devotion to wholesomeness he stopped talking that way and said you should practice wholesomeness without delay and I'm watching carefully now show me wholesomeness please show me wholesomeness be wholesome and they forgot about the teaching of emptiness they just practiced wholesomeness but some people were able to hear this teaching and continue their devotion to the precepts and he told those people he said don't tell anybody about this unless they're people who can continue to practice intense devotion to precepts while they realize that precepts are empty of inherent existence don't tell anybody that can't continue the precepts under this teaching and then he said well there aren't very many like that

[59:55]

Wallace? and he said I know it's going to be a small group for a while so for about three, four, five hundred years not too many people could hear this teaching then they thought there's enough commitment to the precepts in the world now so we can put that out there they got the idea that Buddhism is really committed to ethics that's well established you know we've reiterated and been more specific about what we mean by these precepts we've discovered that people get way off track and we've made rules about those things now everybody's got the word now we can bring this Mahayana out so they brought it out another story is that the teachings were actually written down and hidden for quite a while with the Nagas and the Nagas brought them out after about five hundred years and another story is that after the Buddha died people couldn't like actually

[60:57]

see the Buddha as a person anymore face to face in this world but the Buddha and his successors who were good yogis could enter into states of concentration and meet Buddhas who lived in other worlds the Buddha the historical Buddha in our world was able to communicate with other Buddhas who lived at the same time as he did they weren't living in India they were living in other Buddha lands and he had correspondence with them in his meditation but very few of his human disciples were doing this because they had the Buddha to talk to so they didn't however there were Bodhisattvas who were co-existent with Buddha in history and they were communicating with these other Buddhas after the Buddha died these disciples of Buddha

[62:00]

these Bodhisattvas and people that they were teaching they entered into states of meditation and met Buddhas who do not live in this world system but who are living in other world systems or right then and they received these Mahayana teachings from those Buddhas at that time and then they wrote them down and we have them appearing in the world approximately 400 to 500 years after Buddha died and then they continued to appear for about 400 more years of these transmissions from Bodhisattvas and Buddhas to human beings in this world and they get written down and there are also Mahayana treatises when they are dictated by Bodhisattvas so there are different stories about where these Mahayana teachings came from which were basically in accord with the early teachings that Buddha said which is basically after you use these wraps give them up but you know

[63:03]

he was only around for 80 years so he couldn't keep taking the wraps away after he left and people do not like to give up their wraps when they work so they needed help giving up their wraps to come through and read it so everybody, all you people who realize how good the wraps is hand your wraps in and that's what the Heart Sutra is about hand your wraps in you people who know how to practice with the Ascandas practice with the Yajnas practice with the Four Noble Truths practice with the Twelvefold Chain of Causation you've used them long enough now open to the Mahayana open to practicing without templates these templates were given by Buddha not to be held on to they are just ways to get intimate with your life you are not supposed to be you are not supposed to attach to the template I sometimes use the example of and this can be used

[64:07]

for the early teachings we go out into a field let's just say it's like a field an acre let's say it's got grass on it growing on it we are standing there and I say you get intimate with the field now some people will just stand there and get intimate with it, flat out other people will say what's he talking about? how are we going to get intimate? let's go to a movie or you know do you like me? what are the things people do other than get intimate with the field so what you do is you put a little you make a little golf course this is a miniature golf course because it's a small field a miniature golf course where people can like hit a ball from here to there and it goes over a bridge and you have to avoid two little puddles

[65:09]

and it goes up and swirls around and goes like that and then people watch the ball and they watch the ground and they see the bridge and they see the dirt and they see the sand and they see the water and they see the little castle and they see the other guys balls and they see all this stuff and by putting this little golf course on top of the grass people get intimate with the field and they learn and they also see you don't have to you can cross over it's like an array of golf course you don't have to go down the fairway you can actually just walk over and watch out so you don't get hit because they're coming back this way you can go hang out in the rough you can go back to the clubhouse you can talk to the a lot of possibilities but if you just take away all the sand grass all the ponds all the clubs

[66:09]

all the caddies will people actually study the field? most people won't even if you tell them they will not actually study but you build this thing and they really watch where does that go how many strokes have I done what did you score and they have a really nice time because they're actually communing with nature these people will not go out in the woods and actually pay attention unless you give them a gun or a club and balls then they pay attention to the ground and they pay attention to where are the deer and they feel good because they're actually out there with the deer and with the trees and they're actually somewhat aware of each other because the other people are armed actually with this equipment

[67:11]

they feel good because they're getting in touch with their life but when you actually get in touch then you can put down the guns and put down the clubs and put down everything and just be there give me back the greens and just be there you don't need this you're already home you don't need anything anymore so in that way the people who have clubs and the people who don't are different because the people who have clubs have given them up so they're just the same as people who never heard of the clubs except that but they might not they might find some people and say become intimate with the earth right here just like the sixth ancestor

[68:14]

we don't know how many lifetimes he spent studying the Abhidharma but when he was walking through a marketplace in Guangzhou he heard some guy say a Bodhisattva should produce a mind which has no abode on here that's it he didn't need any analysis of his experience he immediately just realized what it's like to be here as a human being in Guangzhou so this is the second turning and this second turning of giving up all the templates is the basis of the third turning when we pick up templates again but it will be different the second time because it's based on understanding more deeply that this is all just a setup and we know before we start we're going to take this whole thing away

[69:16]

this whole thing is going to be taken away actually it's already been taken away and we're going to put it out there to see if we can put it out there without holding on to it so that will be part of the difference between the next wave of teachings would you like to raise your hand over here I guess I was going to refer to compassion and love and kindness yes you know I'm not very good at this miniature golf that you were just talking about but it just the whole teaching sounds very cold yeah and this last Saturday I received some teaching from His Holiness and what he emits is this amazing loving kindness and compassion yes so

[70:18]

is that the next wheel that you're going to talk about um the the first wheel is Buddha's loving kindness and Buddha's compassion the first wheel this is the Buddha this is what the Buddha taught to people that came to him to receive the teaching he taught these kinds of teachings first of all the first teaching he taught were wisdom teachings but he taught these teachings to people who were already you know highly developed yogis but later he taught loving kindness to people who were not highly developed yogis for people that are not who are not able to discipline themselves

[71:19]

and calm down and be you know patient and kind to themselves and others he taught them loving kindness and by practicing loving kindness they became calm and when they became calm he then taught those people these wisdom teachings the wisdom teachings are for those who are already well established in loving kindness you look like it didn't make sense well I'm trying to fit the emptiness teaching as to where that goes emptiness teachings are for people who are well established in loving kindness oh really? yeah you wouldn't want to give emptiness teachings to somebody who's already you know wasn't really deeply immersed in loving kindness because if you tell them that oh you know for example if you tell them

[72:20]

that loving kindness lacks inherent existence they might say well if it lacks inherent existence it doesn't matter much I guess why should I practice something that lacks inherent existence but if you're already practicing it with your whole spirit you know and you're already totally devoted to it it may be that you could hear that it's empty and continue to be totally devoted to it so that so if you continue to practice loving kindness even if you hear that all dharmas are empty then you can receive the teaching that all dharmas are empty but if you if you're not committed to loving kindness you're not ready really to hear the teaching that all dharmas are empty because just hearing that teaching without commitment to compassion is not appropriate the teaching of emptiness is for bodhisattvas it's not for people who are not committed to the welfare of others before you hear

[73:22]

the teaching of emptiness you already have to be committed to the welfare of others very deeply and again as I said if you start hearing these teachings and you start to think it's not so important to be practicing loving kindness and compassion if you think that's not important when you hear these teachings then the teacher should say we're going to take a break from these teachings for a while we need to go back now and emphasize the importance of loving kindness and then when you feel well established there then you're ready for these teachings these teachings are for those who are already good at loving kindness and good at compassion and good at equanimity and already do really appreciate when other people are doing well they're very happy to see other people doing well these people are people who are ready to receive these teachings and I said at the beginning of the class fairly quickly I said I need you to be doing those practices in background of this didn't I? do you remember me saying that? yes

[74:22]

I think I said it pretty fast but at the beginning it's probably on tape but I'm saying if you know like Linda Ruess has a class on compassion on Tuesday night right? so if that's that's that class this is a class on wisdom but the Bodhisattva's wisdom the Mahayana wisdom of the Adi Dharma is for people who are primarily concerned to achieve Buddhahood for the welfare of others that's their main thing and they're practicing they're committed to practice loving kindness and Samadhi as a basis for these wisdom teachings we want to we want to realize an emptiness that has compassion at its core so first of all you have to have compassion at your heart and then develop the emptiness to go with that the emptiness purifies our compassion but you have to have

[75:24]

compassion first there and you don't get compassion by practicing emptiness initially you get compassion by meditating on suffering and thinking about how you can help people and how good it is for other people to be happy and how good for you to be happy these basic practices are the root of these wisdom practices so again I need you to be doing that otherwise this class is losing its roots this class has to clean your roots pardon I mean when we go and we sit in the zendo are we practicing loving kindness? yes yes definitely we're not it's not like just emptiness or concentration or something when you go to the zendo to practice zazen you should go there with the understanding that you're going there to help all the people in the room with their practice

[76:25]

that you're going there to support them and inspire them to practice which you do but you need to be clued into that by reminding yourself that you're not going in there just for one person you're going in there to help a whole group the practice period and all beings that's why you're sitting there you're sitting there for the welfare of all beings yes that's the way we think when we go in zendo we go in zendo to help everybody in the zendo and everybody throughout the universe with thoughts of loving kindness compassion and so on yes yes that's the root of our practice ok and then it's ok just notice five standards empty then no problem yes you said that these teachings are for those who have committed to compassion and loving kindness and that these teachings are for people who are good at compassion and loving kindness

[77:26]

and at least in my own life I see a difference between those two things between between being committed and skillful yes yeah there is a difference and so can you speak to that well first thing that comes to my mind is that commitment is more important than the skill some people are you know like what like tonight or something they're very skillful and kind which is great but they're not committed to it they just happen to be in a good mood which is wonderful which is really wonderful but some people who are having some trouble being compassionate and having loving kindness tonight they're committed to it but they're not yet skillful at it the commitment is more important than being than than actually being able to do what you're committed to now the commitment will eventually realize what you're committed to but if you're doing what you're committed to

[78:27]

without commitment you may do it but then you may not do it tomorrow and when you don't do it you won't feel bad because you never I didn't say I was going to be kind you know so there's no problem but if I really commit to being kind then when I'm not I have a big problem with that I really feel bad if I say I'm going to be kind to everybody and then I'm not kind to somebody because I committed to being kind to everybody so the commitment is more important than the fact a given a given moment of being kind the commitment will come to fruit as great compassion as great loving kindness as great equanimity and so on it will come to fruit that way but just to be skillful won't necessarily come to fruit as great compassion and great that would be something which is wonderful it's truly wonderful but more wonderful is the commitment putting yourself on the line like I'm not just going to be I practice loving kindness with this person but I'm going to practice loving kindness

[79:27]

with everybody and not just today but tomorrow too I'm committing to that it doesn't mean I'm going to but I'm committing to it so that when I don't I'm going to feel bad because this is really what I want to do so I need you to commit to this practice and then after you commit you're going to then struggle with that indefinitely until you attain Buddhahood that's the way it goes as far as I've seen or heard the first thing is a commitment so if you make that commitment and then you're also following through on it of course it's slightly better to make the commitment to follow through than to make the commitment not to follow through but to make the commitment and not follow through then it's sometimes I don't know if it's better to make the commitment and follow through or make the commitment and not follow through and feel bad I don't know that's pretty good some wonderful practitioners

[80:28]

feel pretty bad about how bad they are at what they commit to like the Dalai Lama he seems to sometimes feel not too good about his practice but that's because he's made this great commitment Bodhisattvas do not go around saying we Bodhisattvas never slip up on our commitments they don't say that they say we Bodhisattvas admit when we slip up on our commitments and that's what protects all beings is that we admit and repent when we slip up on our commitments that's what we do so I think that's an anthropological statement it's not anthropological that we never make mistakes so we're at the stage now turning the wheel and we've we've just

[81:30]

opened the door of taking away the rug of the Abhidharma which we have just tentatively got down for you but you get the picture and now we're going to like move on to put it down again but it's going to be always in danger of being taken away so then now I think maybe next class we can start looking at pretty much the same stuff but in the context of the Mahayana which is great compassion and emptiness great compassion and give me your give me your meditation practices check them at the door if you don't have a raft I'll take it away if you do have a raft I'll give you a raft thank you for your loving kindness

[82:32]

it was exuding very nicely actually may our intention equally extend to every being and place with a true merit of Buddha's way beings are numerous I vow to save them I vow to enter them, the Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it.

[83:31]

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