I heard that the practice of the bodhisattva consists of three things, sometimes spoken of in terms of three things. Remember what they were? Compassion. Pardon? Arousing the aspiration. to attain Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings, and third, realization. Those three. I also mentioned that when the thought of enlightenment arises in the world, It's just a wonderful thing.

[01:01]

It's very beneficial to all beings that somebody has this thought arising in their heart. Even if there's not a practice connected to it, it's wonderful. But if practice is joined to this aspiration to attain Buddhahood so that we can help all beings, then the aspiration is even even incomparably better, more wonderful. Not better, just more wonderful. It's not better. And what's the practice of the bodhisattva? Short form? What? Skillful means and wisdom. Those two together are the practice. Wisdom, the bodhisattva's wisdom is realizing emptiness.

[02:10]

The bodhisattva's means are all kinds of compassionate activity. So the two together is emptiness, which has compassion at its heart. And part of emptiness is that nothing really happens. And so bodhisattva wisdom is to understand that all things are fundamentally non-occurrences. All the risings are fundamentally quiet and nirvanic. And listening to that teaching, wisdom develops in three phases.

[03:16]

First of all, to listen and study and understand the teaching. Then to be somewhat critical about it and check all the authorities to see if that's correct. and then to see if it logically makes sense. But then finally one has to take this understanding, this wisdom, which you understand these first two levels, and take it into the body. And that's the meditation practice. And it has these, sometimes, two dimensions which are, of course, ultimately unified of calm and concentration together with higher vision.

[04:18]

So these meditation practices are taught in many ways. So I'm just bringing up some. Yesterday I Bodhidharma's teaching, which can be understood, first of all, as a kind of concentration practice. A concentration practice where you don't do anything to get concentrated. It's just that he says, you know, make your mind like a wall. Which is, your mind already is like a wall. You already have a mind that's like a wall. You already have a mind that doesn't mess around with things, that's not talking to itself. So he's just saying, whatever seems to appear, whenever anything seems to arise,

[05:26]

Be like a wall. Don't do anything. Don't seek anything. Don't expect anything. So he's not telling you to concentrate on something. He's more talking about a kind of one-pointedness in your being. One-pointedness in your mind of always being the same with regard regard to whatever arises. The mind is quiet, even though lots of noise is coming up. It's a kind of uninterrupted presence in the midst of Well, you name it, we got it. So I'm talking about this lofty practice of Bodhidharma of like being there when it happens and being cool.

[06:49]

Just chilling, chill out no matter what happens. I'm chilling, but I'm awake. So now we have all this stuff happening, so much pain, and some people are comfortable, so so much sleep. The thought crossed my mind, we have this expression, sleepy suburban community. There may be some downtown neighborhoods in this end, though. where people are up on cocaine and stuff, zipping around. But I live in a kind of sleepy suburban area, where the daffodils are waving. I sometimes feel like closing my eyes, I feel like I'm going to get seasick. So much relaxation around here. Some other people are in pain, so they're not so sleepy.

[08:02]

So it's nice to be comfortable. But in order to do Bodhidharma's practice of having a mind like a wall, it doesn't count if you're asleep. Because then in your mind, in your dreams, you're probably like, You might not be like a ball in your dreams. I'm not saying you aren't. Maybe in your dreams you're kind of like something comes up and you say, one-pointedness of mind. I mean, this is all the same to me. So part of Bodhidharma's instruction of when something arises, you don't activate your mind in response to it, is that you don't activate your mind by saying, external object, real. Really external. You don't make that little comment. You're in touch with the part of mind which doesn't have a comment on what arises.

[09:10]

There still seems to be the appearance of things, but part of the mind is so deep that it can't say, I have a comment. It's kind of like something arises, there's something arising in this life, but part of the mind is like the same with regard to whatever comes up. So Samatha practice is tune into that part of the mind. Now, it very soon becomes vipassana, becomes insight, because, in fact, not activating the mind around appearances means not calling them external, which then is insight, which is then not imputing anything to what's happening.

[10:18]

So, It's very close to the union of insight and tranquility. Once again, bodhisattva practice, wisdom and means, wisdom and patience, giving ourselves to the practice, carefully managing our behavior, being patient with our pain, being enthusiastic about the practice, and concentration. They go with and support the wisdom. Now, I'd like to go back to the Sutra on Unlocking the Secrets, the Psalm de Mirmochana Sutra,

[11:22]

to the chapter on Tranquility and Insight on Samatha and Vipassana and go through it. So the Bodhisattva Maitreya, Love, asked the Bhagavan, Abiding in what and depending on what do bodhisattvas in the great vehicle cultivate samatha and vipassana? There's a long mark over the last a. The Bhagavan replied, Love, abiding in and depending upon unwavering resolution to expound the doctrinal teachings and to become unsurpassably, perfectly enlightened, do bodhisattvas cultivate samatha and vipassana.

[12:45]

abiding in and depending upon unwavering resolution to expound the teachings for the welfare of all and to attain wisdom, perfect wisdom, enlightened wisdom for the welfare of others through bodhisattvas cultivate shamatha and vipassana. When you do these practices, you keep remembering. Bodhisattvas keep remembering. Now, what was I doing this for again? Doing this like sitting here and trying to concentrate? What's this about again? Oh, yeah, it's for a good cause. What am I up here in this practice period for? Am I just trying to be real concentrated and wise just to be cool? No, no, I'm doing this for a good cause. I'm doing this so I can help people. That was the reason, wasn't it again? Yeah. Oh yeah, I'm suffering and so is everybody else. That's why I'm doing this practice. Okay, I remember. Oh yeah.

[13:51]

Maitreya said, The Bhagavan has taught four things that are objects of observation for Samatha and Vipassana. Conceptual images, non-conceptual images, the limits of phenomena, and the accomplishment of purpose. How many of these are the objects of Samatha? How many of these are objects of Samatha? One. The non-conceptual images are the objects of Samatha.

[14:57]

So non-conceptual image. Can you think of a non-conceptual image that's an object of shamatha? Hmm? What? What? The breath. Could be. What's Bodhidharma's non-conceptual image? Mind like a wall. Is that a non-conceptual image? It is. It's a non-conceptual image. It comes in words, but it's not a concept. It's It's actually a mind. It's a mind that is quiet with respect to objects. What are the objects of Samatha, of Vipassana? Only one, the conceptual images. And how many Our objects are both chamatam vipassana, too.

[16:04]

The limits of phenomena and the accomplishment of purpose. So what are the limits of phenomena? Well, that means all the phenomena, right? So that means the phenomena of the conventional world, all the phenomena of the conventional world, but also all the phenomena of ultimate truth, too. The phenomena of the conventional world that bodhisattvas meditate on, of course, they pay attention to everything, but in particular they look at, for example, they tend to focus on the actual experiential presentation, which is the five aggregates. forms, feelings, perceptions, and so on. They see them as dreams, but they don't disown them.

[17:05]

They study them carefully. They're aware of the five aggregates. They're aware of concepts and feelings and emotions and forms. They're aware of what we call the sense doors, the ayatanas. They're aware of the sent the realms of sensory awareness. These are the relative phenomena which both shamatha and vipassana deal with. The ultimate truths, the ultimate phenomena are, you think any examples? Huh? Emptiness, yeah. Anything else? Nirvana. Peace, the fact that nirvana is peace, the Four Noble Truths, the impermanence of Sanskrit to dharmas, of made things, suchness, the selflessness of all phenomena, the signless, the wishless, and the empty.

[18:19]

These are the topics of Samatha and Vipassana together. And the other thing which Samatha and Vipassana look at, meditate on, is the accomplishment of the purpose. In other words, they keep remembering what the purpose, what the point of the whole thing is, what the goal of the whole thing is. They keep remembering compassion. They keep remembering the aspiration and the point of the aspiration. Samatha by itself is not considering these topics. Vipassana by itself could consider these topics, but without being supported by this non-commentarial constant one-pointedness of mind, the vipassana wouldn't be effective.

[19:39]

it wouldn't be vipassana. Then Maitreya asked the Buddha, Bhagavan, abiding in what and depending, abiding in and depending on these four objects of observation of shamatha and vipassana, abiding in and depending on these four objects of observation of shamatha and vipassana, how does a bodhisattva seek shamatha and become skilled in vipassana? And then the Buddha's response is basically, I gave a lot of teachings. I've given a lot of teachings to bodhisattvas. And bodhisattvas listen well, apprehend well, repeat well, and analyze well with their minds.

[20:50]

And through insight, they fully realize these teachings. In other words, hearing whatever teachings the Buddha is giving to the bodhisattvas, they listen and they reason and contemplate and reflect and study and discern the authority of what's being said and analyze its reasons and logics, they do this. This is part of their listening well, reciting well, analyzing well, and developing insight in the first two levels of wisdom. So they've done that. They do that. They get really familiar with the Buddha's teachings. those who are practicing samatha and vipassana. And then, they go into solitude, like here, someplace like Tassajara.

[22:00]

And they genuinely settle their minds inwardly. And mentally, they attend to these doctrines Then, with continuous inner attention, they mentally attend to that mind which is mentally contemplated by any mind. This is Samatha. They mentally attend to that mind which is mentally contemplated by any mind. Or another way to say it would be, they attentively meditate on the inner stream of the meditating consciousness. They pay attention to that mind which is contemplated by any mind.

[23:22]

This is a non-conceptual object. The mind which is contemplated by any mind. So in this presentation of Samatha, the object is non-conceptual, or you could say the object is not determined. It's not an object in a sense. First of all, it's not an external thing because it is the mind paying attention to the mind, but that part of the mind or that aspect of the mind which all of us all the time have available to us to contemplate. The inner stream of the meditating consciousness. Can you see it?

[24:31]

The inner stream. The mind which any mind can contemplate. The physical and mental pliancy, flexibility and ease that arise through engaging in this practice in this way and continuing in this practice is samatha. This is how bodhisattvas seek samatha. This practice is very difficult to do if you're asleep.

[25:35]

It's not like you can grasp this mind. So you're paying attention to what? What is it? Well, it is that whatever's happening, mind's like a wall. The mind that's like a wall is what you're contemplating. With this mind that's like a wall, you enter the way. This inner stream, this mind which any mind at any time, at any place can contemplate, There's some minds which some of us have some of the time, but others of us don't. But there's one mind which all of us have all of the time.

[26:41]

That's the one that Samatha contemplates. It's not a fixed object. All objects arise with it. And to be with this is one pointedness of mind, which is the most defining characteristic of all kinds of Samatha. In one sense, this is an elusive mind. In another sense, it's a mind you can't get away from. It's always under your nose.

[27:44]

That's why the breath is sometimes used to get a feeling for it. Because the breath is right there too. The breath is a kind of metaphor for it. This inner stream. It's kind of elusive and unavoidable. And the way of being with what is elusive or being with what is elusive and being with what's unavoidable is one-pointedness of mind.

[28:52]

If you're with what can be grasped, you might grasp it. Grasping it, the mind is two-pointed. Being with something that you can't grasp as self or other, the mind is one. When you're with something that's unavoidable, the mind is one. If you can avoid it, it can be self and other, therefore two. Now having mental and physical pliancy, they abide only in that. In other words, realizing Samatha, having this mental and physical pliancy, which comes with being with what is elusive and unavoidable.

[30:05]

So you're being with what is happening in a one-pointed way. And what's happening is changing all the time. Otherwise, it couldn't be happening. And you're able to accept that and be present and awake for that and not lean to the right or the left, forward or backwards. How are you able to be with something that you can't grasp, can't use, can't sell, can't buy, can't improve, can't depreciate? How can you be with something like that? Well, it's a lot easier to talk about how you can't be with something like that.

[31:12]

Like right now, it's pretty maybe easy to talk about how you can't be with what's happening. So, if something is kind of like elusive and kind of ungraspable and unusable, it's the topic of Samatha. That's the kind of stuff that Samatha works with. Why did they pick those things for Samatha? Why didn't they pick something more interesting, like the breath? Well, breath's okay. And breath, as you may have noticed, gets to be like that after a while. At first you think, oh, breath, oh, I heard. Enjoy your breath.

[32:15]

That's going to be cool. But after a while, breath gets to be kind of like, well, useless. What are you doing for me? See? Ask not what your breath does for you. Ask what you can do for your breath. Well, what's my breath doing for me? It's not that interesting anymore. For a while there, it was really cool. I got calm out of my breath. Well, you know, that was fine then. But now we're past that stage, and now you're not getting anything from your breath. Your breath is kind of elusive. You don't exactly even... It's elusive and you can't get away from it. You cannot notice that you can't get away from it though. You can ignore the fact that you can't get away from it. You can ignore the fact that you can't get away from that mind which any mind can contemplate anytime, anyplace.

[33:16]

This mind this elusive, inescapable aspect of mind, which is the object of shamatha, is difficult in some ways to pay attention to because you can't get anything from it. So, if one is not able to be really attentive and focused on this kind of mind, this non-conceptual mind, if one's not able to do that, then one is not able to to practice Samatha. In other words, even if one was trying to practice Samatha, but one was not wanting to be with something useless, something which everybody has, so what's special about me? If one is not able to be with such a thing, then there are various ways that you're not able to be with it. So, can you guess some of the ways one might be unable to be with a non-conceptual object of contemplation?

[34:30]

Can you guess some of the ways one would not be able to be there with it and contemplate it? What? Go to sleep. Yeah. That's number one, actually. Now, I don't know if it's number one because it is the most popular concept, But it is number one on the list of defects in the shamatha practice. So there it is. Anyway, it gets to be up at the top of the list. It's also called sloth. So that includes the approach to sleep also. I wasn't asleep. Well, okay. I still, you know, I could still see the floor. I knew, I knew, I knew I was still a tosaru.

[35:37]

But you were drooling. Yeah, well, so what? And you had, and your chin, your chin was way down towards their knees. Your back had that characteristic curve. And your mudra, your thumbs were 17 inches apart. Sloth. Torpor. These are ways of not being with this mind, which any mind can contemplate. These are ways of not being with this boring old inner stream of meditation consciousness. These are ways of not being with the mind like a wall. These are ways of activating the mind around objects. You may say, sloth is activating the mind around object?

[36:44]

Yeah, it counts. It doesn't seem very active, but it is a way to be with the object called activating it. You actually have to be awake to not activate the mind. If you go to sleep, the mind does its stuff actively in the form of sloth. Again, I don't know if sloth is and its ensuing sleep state. I don't know if sloth is The most important. But in terms of antidotes, there are six defects in shamatha, and there are eight antidotes. And sloth gets four. Four antidotes. Half the antidotes are for sloth. The other four are for the other five.

[37:46]

So sloth gets four antidotes for sloth. So maybe it is a big one. Who knows? Anyway, what are the four? Well, one is faith. What's faith? Faith. What's my faith again? Well, you know, come on, remind me, remind me. Give me a clue. Oh, yeah, I'm a bodhisattva. What is it? What does that mean? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know. I know. Don't tell me. It's oh, yeah. All right. It's I want to I want to I want to attain. Supreme enlightenment so I can help everybody. That's it. And I was like trying to I was on this thing of developing perfect wisdom. And I was meditating to develop perfect wisdom. And then. I was looking at this kind of boring thing called the inner stream of the meditating consciousness.

[38:50]

And, you know, I was getting nowhere. So, now I'm sleeping. I'm kind of slothful. But now, okay. All right, one, two, three. Enlightenment. Oh, yeah. And one of the aspects of that is, wake up and face, what is it again? Uh, non-conceptual image. This aspect of mind which is not this uninterrupted mind which isn't commenting on things all the time. Where is that? It's right nearby. It's right nearby. You just can't get a hold of it because it doesn't tell you where it is either. Okay. Okay, okay. Okay, I'm awake again. That might be enough. And then But maybe not. So there's another antidote called zeal. So not only you've got to remember what your faith is, oh yeah, but then you've got to have zeal.

[40:01]

Zeal about what again? Shamatha? Yeah. Zeal about being intimate with what's right under my nose can't escape. That mind, this non-conceptual presence, zeal for a mind like a wall, zeal for not yakking about what's happening. This is like, what a wonderful thing. Got to like work that one up. Now, if you don't have sloth, forget it. Just set it aside for a moment and just be there, like, in rapt intimacy with the inner stream of the meditating consciousness. But if you're slothful, you need to remember what you're here for again, oh yeah, and be zealous about it.

[41:04]

Hello. Other defects in the Samatha practice, other ways that we manifest with this non-conceptual object, other ways that we aren't with it are, one of them is called confusion about the object of meditation. or forgetting, or the object of meditation drifting away. You say, well, I forgive myself for being confused about it. It's kind of a strange object, so it's easy to kind of like forget it. That mind, which any mind can contemplate, it's easy to forget that one and be confused about that one. Easy. Easy. Because what is it? It is elusive, so it's easy for it to fade away.

[42:18]

It's easy to be confused about it. It's easy to make it into some object that's not elusive. But when you make it into an object that's not elusive, that's a way of not being with what it is. It's not a conceptual object, so one of the ways to forget The object of shamatha is to make it into a conceptual object. That's a confusion. That's a fading away of the non-conceptual object and replacing it with a conceptual one. So the antidote for that is mindfulness. Mindfulness. Hey, that's a conceptual object.

[43:21]

That's not a non-conceptual object. You're talking to yourself again about this. But let's be patient and let's be sympathetic. with ourselves and with others. It's hard for human beings to practice shamatha unless they have, what is it called? Unwavering resolution. Because it's hard to meditate on something that's non-conceptual. But if you try to practice meditating on things that are conceptual without being grounded in this shamatha, then you're just going to get excited.

[44:24]

So that leads to the next two defects. This mind... the mind which is always there, is that it is uninterrupted. So it is a good basis for being kind of like stable. But it's hard because we're not used to it. So again, we know what to do with something that's hard. Take a nap. Be drowsy. That's one thing to do. The other is kind of like, well, I can't remember what it is. It's nothing to do. And the other one is, well, get depressed.

[45:25]

Get depressed because you can't get a hold of it. You can't get away from it. And you can't even be close to it. You're not good at it. It's a mess. I'm depressed. The other one is, hey, I'm practicing shamatha and this is cool and I'm good. This is another way to not be with this non-conceptual thing and switch over to the concept of, hey, I'm successful. I'm a successful meditator. I'm a professional, etc. So you get kind of giddy at the thought that you're being able to practice shamatha, which would be great if you could. So if you're going to be giddy about something, this is a good thing to be giddy about. And if you're going to be depressed about something, not being able to do it is a good thing to be depressed about. Being able to do it, yeah, why not get giddy? Why not have a party and get excited about it? Well, that's one way to not be with it. The other one is be depressed about either what it's like to be successful or what it's like to be unsuccessful.

[46:33]

But actually, depression is a defect and giddiness are defects. Just set them aside and go back to this work, which is a little bit boring from the point of view of gain and loss, but which, once again, one can practice if one has unwavering resolution. That's where we come from in this practice. What are the other defects? Let's see. We've got one more, two more. We've got slots. We've got confusion of the object, giddiness, and depression. Oh, yeah, two more. Next one is not enough effort. And the next one is too much effort. The antidote to giddiness and depression is awareness.

[47:38]

And the antidote to not enough effort is investigation. And the antidote to too much effort is equanimity. So these are eight antidotes to these six defects of contemplating the non-conceptual object. These are eight antidotes to six defects in the mind like a wall. Now, I know some of you can spot some of these defects. I don't know if you're trying to practice shamatha, but maybe you are because you've got one of the defects. So that maybe is a good sign that you actually are like not entertaining yourself that much, like climbing up various yogic ladders and to higher and higher yogic attainments and kind of like, ooh, more kind of like, this is not that interesting what's going on here, basically.

[48:59]

The same old stream of inner consciousness of this meditator's mind. It's just not that interesting. How am I going to stay awake? Well, I'm not going to stay awake. I'm asleep. So maybe some of you are actually practicing this mind like a wall, but you have these defects. Maybe some of you are actually paying attention to the aspect of your mind which is not all that conceptual. Which is not all that conceptual. In other words, which isn't really great and isn't really terrible. Which isn't really advanced and isn't really retardo. But just kind of like... Well, this is like what anybody could be meditating on. Maybe you are looking at that. Maybe you're looking at what Samatha looks at. But you just have these defects.

[50:02]

It's possible. So... I guess I'll wait before I go now into vipassana a little longer and leave it with this, the shamatha practice with these defects and these antidotes. But also there's shamatha practice which doesn't have any defects and doesn't have any antidotes. It's just simply being present with no chatter about what's happening. At first, it's like contemplating that mind which doesn't talk about what's happening.

[51:10]

But really, it is being that way of just being present. the mind which runs under everything and doesn't yak about it. It's just this quiet stillness which is available every moment. So some of you may already be there right now. Others of us may have these defects. But again, this is just not something you do. It's not really doing anything, and yet we say cultivate shamatha. And this mind isn't really an object. It's not out there. It's not external. It's right inside all the time. And yet somehow it's like, well, just face it.

[52:16]

Just become intimate with it. This is a shamatha. This is tranquility. Mind like a wall. A pacified mind. And so on. Is this thinking of what doesn't think? No. That's samatha-rita-sana, together. It's more like non-thinking. It sounds like the inner stream is the mind that's not thinking. Yeah, but thinking of not thinking is different than the not thinking. So non-thinking is more like shamatha.

[53:19]

Non-thinking is more like being with, just being with what isn't thinking. Vipassana is thinking of that, but you can't start thinking about that until you can just be with it. Samatha is stabilizing yourself with not thinking. Because thinking is always your thinking, my thinking, my thinking now, my thinking then. This is subtending thinking. This is what's going on in all of our minds all the time. It's not thinking. It's life. It's not thinking life. And non-thinking is to be with that. Then we are ready to practice vipassana, which is supported by the non-thinking, and now we're going to think about not thinking.

[54:29]

We're going to think about emptiness. We're going to think about things not happening. We're going to think about no-self. But nothing's more exciting than thinking about nothing happening. and not self. So they've got to be like stable to realistically study these relative, these conventional and ultimate topics that bodhisattvas need to study. Okay. And now Bert is asking his first question. Bert. Yes. Yes. What I meant at that time was if you have a mind like a wall, you enter into understanding that thoughts don't arise.

[55:38]

Today, you're right. It sounds like I'm saying mind like a wall is the way to be with the arising of thoughts. Thoughts are arising and ceasing. Mind like a wall is the shamatha way of being with these arising and ceasings. Okay? That's right. So mind like a wall is the way to enter into seeing that there is no arising and ceasing. But it is before, in other words, that's when it's united with wisdom which sees that nothing is happening. But before that is what I'm emphasizing today, namely the way of being with things that are rising and ceasing is mind like a wall. So you're right that today I'm talking like mind like a wall is the way of stabilizing consciousness in the midst of the risings and ceasings. Or not the way of stabilizing so much, but it is the stabilized way of being.

[56:41]

So non-conceptual things, non-conceptual object of meditation doesn't arise and cease. So mind like a wall is intimate with that more continuous, stable thing. But you could say even that arises and ceases, otherwise it wouldn't be there would be no way to relate to it. So even that, in some sense, arises and ceases. But it's the gate, this Mahalaka wall, the gate to vipassana, which sees that there really is no arising and ceasing. So you want to go back to your little grass shack? and sit there and live moment to moment with unwavering intention and resolution to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all.

[58:12]

Or would you rather just pout?

[58:18]

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