Now, as I mentioned before, this, one way to look at this series of meditation classes is in a continuity from the class last fall where we studied sort of the mind, the mind of Buddhas. Which one of the names for that is the Precious Mirror Samadhi. We studied a text which is called The Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi. And that song starts off by saying that the teaching of the Buddhas, the teaching of suchness, is an intimate transmission, it's an intimate communication. And then it says, it doesn't say from Buddha ancestors, it just says Buddha ancestors.

[01:04]

So as I say over and over, the Buddhas and the Buddha ancestors, what a Buddha is, what Buddha is, not a Buddha, what Buddha is, is an intimate communication. It's an intimate mutual transmission. That's what Buddha is. And that's what reality is. Reality is an intimate communication. I assert that. Also, I interpret the text. Buddha ancestors, what that is, is an intimate communication. And that That's how the teaching is transmitted, but that is the teaching. The teaching is a communication. The teaching is a communication, like the teaching is a dance.

[02:05]

So we studied that song, and in that song it says that this mind of Buddha's includes a road. that this mind communes with the source and communes with the process. So the mind of Buddha is like a source, like a home. It's like where we really are. And it's also a process, a life process. In this class, these pictures are kind of emphasizing the road side of Buddha's mind, or the process. The process. Buddha mind is a process. So from the beginning of the class, I've been reiterating that we we're really communing with the source and communing with the process, but in some ways we're more talking about the process in this class and remembering the source.

[03:19]

That's the process. And if anybody wasn't in the last class, as I mentioned before, if you'd like a copy of the song, you can pick one up here after the class. And also, that's what I just said is kind of a review, I hope. And if not, I hope you enjoyed something new. And another way to review is to say that these pictures... In these pictures, the first five pictures in a way are pictures in a way of a gradual deepening of intimacy between the and the cow.

[04:24]

At first, in the first picture, there doesn't seem to be much intimacy because you can't even see the cow. But you can see the cow herd. You got a cow herd in the first picture. And the cow's not in sight. The cow's not apparent. The cow doesn't seem to appear in the first picture. That doesn't look very intimate. It really is, but it doesn't look like it. And then the next picture, we see some tracks. The intimacy seems to be developing. We see then the cowherd sees. the cow. Then the cowherd comes in contact with the cow. So there seems to be apparently in the world of appearances, not in reality. In reality, of course, we're already with, there's already intimacy at the source. At the source, it's sudden.

[05:27]

The Buddha mind is in its sudden state. non-gradual Buddhahood, it's already here. We already have it. And we realize it by not moving all the time. Each moment we don't move, we realize the source. But looking at it as a process, say, well, where is it? Where is that intimacy? I don't see any intimacy. And then gradually, the first five shows increasing intimacy. And then in the sixth, with the fifth one being the culmination of the training. It's called training the ox, but it's really the training relationship is coming to intimacy in the fifth picture. And then Elena got sick and she missed the sixth picture. Yeah, we said your face.

[06:30]

So we talked about you and how much you liked that picture. So the sixth picture is the intimacy has been achieved. The first entry into intimacy is achieved. Now there is... So I would propose that the sixth picture is the initial entry into enlightenment. It's the initial entry into transmission. Before that, there is a struggle to realize the intimate transmission, but there's still a little bit of separation or fear, resistance, grasping, avoidance, distraction, greed, hate, and delusion. And it's not that there's no greed and delusion later, it's just that there's any greed, hate and delusion there is, is embraced intimately.

[07:34]

And when greed, hate and delusion are intimately related to Proper way to relate to greed, hate, and delusion. And in that proper way, intimacy is realized. And the sixth picture is when you first realize intimacy with whatever. And so it's very, it's wonderful. Great. And in the sixth picture, you're hardly even into anything being greater than something else. Because if something's greater than something else, fine, you're intimate with that. If something's not as good as something else, you're intimate with that. In the sixth picture, you've broken through to that reality. And we discussed that a little bit, and now we're discussing it some more. Now the sixth, so then there's the eighth and ninth pictures.

[08:42]

Okay? So I would tonight suggest simply that the seventh, eighth, and ninth, or particularly the seventh and eighth, the next two, are about going down. The sixth, in the fifth picture, we're still struggling. With a little bit, less than before, but a little bit of not intimacy. A little bit of you are really me, but I haven't yet realized that in truth you are me. But in the fifth picture, I break through to, yeah, you're not me, but really you are me. So in the sixth, riding the ox home, you have gone, you have gone, you've gone beyond the world.

[09:49]

The world is the place, worlds are places where things appear and we think they're not us. The worlds are places where the people you meet, you think are not you, and you kind of believe it. Or really believe it. Or you're absolutely sure about it. Certain political figures are definitely not me. Certain flowers are not me. Other flowers are. This is the world. This is a world. In the sixth picture, we've left worlds behind. And again, worlds are here that we don't understand are ourself. When something appears and we think it's not ourself, that's like the world. That's worldly. That's like regular, right?

[10:51]

That's like ordinary. That's mundane, which means worldly. So most of us have at least a peek at something appearing which we thought wasn't us, right? I know you're me, but you're not. Then we have the world. In the sixth picture, I no longer think that Kim is not me. Or rather, I'm interested in what she's not, and therefore I don't believe it. I'm free of the illusion of separation. This is the great breakthrough of number six. So I'm... I'm going to suggest to you that one way to see six, seven, eight, and nine is in terms of the mantra that's at the end of the Heart Sutra, which in English we could say is gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely.

[12:00]

Welcome Bodhi. Welcome enlightenment. So I kind of suggest you might just see this part of the ox herding pictures in those terms. So in a way, the first five ox herding pictures are gone. You're going forward. And again, you're going forward because you're not resisting where you are. By more and more deeply not resisting, you move forward into deeper intimacy. If we don't resist who we're with, we become more intimate with them. If we don't resist where we are, we become more intimate with them. In this way, we go. We have gone through the first five pictures. Now, in the sixth picture, we have gone beyond the first ones.

[13:07]

So now we've entered enlightenment, and then the next step is we go beyond enlightenment. So in the seventh picture, we have gone beyond this entry. We're not stuck in the initial entry. In other words, In other words, we're not trying to hold on to it, and we're not trying to go beyond it, and we do go beyond it. So we've gone through them, then now we have gone into enlightenment, now we go beyond enlightenment. gate, gate, now paragate. That's number seven. Then we're going to go beyond transcending enlightenment. So we've gone beyond delusion, entered enlightenment, but we don't stay there, and we don't stay there by actually being still there.

[14:12]

By being intimate with enlightenment, we transcend it. And then one more time we transcendence, but you don't have to keep doing it over and over. I mean you do, but you don't have to say it again. So, starting with enlightenment, the rest of the practice is basically going beyond it, constantly going beyond it. So, entering enlightenment, go beyond it, and then go beyond going beyond. And then number nine is you find the enlightenment in the process of ongoing enlightenment. of the world and enlightenment. The world and enlightenment. Transcend the world, enter enlightenment, transcend enlightenment, enter the world, transcend the world, enter enlightenment. So the Buddha way is basically going beyond.

[15:19]

It's basically . In a way, the earlier stages, in a sense, tentatively suggesting the first five pictures weren't exactly the Buddha way. We entered the Buddha way in the sixth picture. And then from then on, it's obviously all about . It really was in the beginning ones, but we couldn't see it. The Buddha way is basically leaping. It's basically not being stuck. And it's basically being intimate with where we are and thereby leaping. Intimate and thereby leaping. So that's a brief suggestion about 6, 7, 8, 9. And if you look at the pictures now, 6 got the person riding on the ox. The person has entered the realm of

[16:19]

...relationship with the ox. And the ox is a symbol of a mind. And I would suggest that this mind is like our animal nature, our unconscious animal nature. But it is also our nature which guides us to continue on the path of intimacy. And the cowherd, I would suggest, is the conscious mind. And when the conscious mind relates to whatever properly, it realizes intimacy with what it cannot see. namely its unconscious support, which includes impulses of survival and reproduction and various kinds of vital processes.

[17:32]

like digestion and so on. It includes the body and it includes the mind, which is intimate, which the consciousness does not directly perceive. Consciousness just has ideas of it, but it's always intimately related to it. And by doing certain practices, we realize intimacy with this vast and wondrous conscious mind. It's a mind that's not conscious. But also in that unconscious process is the Buddha's guidance, is what we're going to use to make this breakthrough into intimacy. Various things which we don't know about, which are prompting us, stimulating us to be intimate. with them and with other parts of our body and mind which are not stimulating us yet.

[18:42]

We will find out that in the end everything was stimulating us to become intimate. But some things stimulate us in such a way that we actually can say what I'm saying right now. Something's stimulating my conscious mind so I can talk like this. My consciousness is stimulating itself to talk like this. You, all of you, the whole setup of this class, which I do not know. I have some perception of it, but I don't know all that's going on in this room and how I'm being stimulated to bring this stuff up. There is also the history of the Zen school and Knox hurting pictures. All this is stimulating my conscious mind to talk to you about this process. But there's other things that are stimulating my conscious mind too, you know, like, I don't know what. I'm concerned that Elena knows she can have some of that too. So, if you look at the pictures, again, you see the nice picture of the number six, got the happy cow herd, the happy consciousness, riding intimately with the unconscious processes,

[19:59]

bodily function and the forces of enlightenment that are unconsciously interacting with our consciousness. And then in the sixth picture, seventh picture, it's called that which the conscious mind has entered into intimacy with that is forgotten. And the poem says that the whip and the rope are lying idly. So this is the seventh picture, okay?

[21:06]

The seventh picture is ox forgotten leaving the person alone. Riding the animal she is at last back home where low The cow is no more. The person alone sits serenely. Though the red sun is high up in the sky, he's still quietly dreaming under the straw thatched roof. Maybe I wrote it down wrong.

[22:08]

Anyway, her whip and rope lie idly on the ground. The previous picture riding home and maybe perhaps still using the rope but in a very harmonious way. Riding the animal, he leisurely wends his way home. Riding the animal, he is at last back home. Did you say vacuumed? I think the vacuum's coming up. We don't quite have a, the next one's really a vacuum.

[23:13]

That's number eight. Ox and person both sight. So the eighth picture is just a circle. And as you may have heard before, in some of the other depictions of the oxherding pictures, the last picture is what we have as the eighth picture. The circle. That's the end. Yes? So, is there actually one that gives... I think in the sixth picture, you realize the ox herd and the ox are one. So that you break through to the oneness in the sixth picture.

[24:18]

In the fifth picture, not one. Now in the sixth picture, the wonderful thing happens is we enter into the oneness. Oneness is, actually oneness is alone. Alone means all one. Into aloneness. you've entered into the realization of the oneness of the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. And that oneness of the two is the Buddha mind. So we have just entered the Buddha mind in the sixth picture. The Buddha mind doesn't stay in the sixth picture. It doesn't stay in oneness. It has entered oneness But in the sixth picture, you still have the ox or the cow and the rider.

[25:19]

They're very harmonious now. They're dancing intimately, singing and dancing together, sharing the joy of being a conscious mind and the joy of being an unconscious mind. And they're sharing the joy of those two minds being inseparable and non-dual. However, We don't stay there. The nature of this oneness is that it doesn't camp out in oneness. And so one of the partners disappears. We've got oneness of the two partners. Now we leap out of that, and now we have no partner. Or at least we don't have the partner we thought we had. We leap beyond who we thought our partner was. And again, in the picture, the little person has hands joined and gotten together and is looking up at the mountain.

[26:33]

Or is it the moon? Or is it the sun? And one picture is that that round object off the mountain is... the red sun. It could be the moon, though. Do you know that picture? Do you see that picture? So in the seventh picture, the little person who's now grown up and realized intimacy is paying her respects to the mountain, to the oneness, and paying the respects is to go beyond the oneness. And that's symbolized by there's no partner anymore. It's a slight, you could say, subtlety that first you're intimate with your partner, and then you don't get stuck there, you go beyond that, and then no partner.

[27:50]

No partner. So she said, is everything conscious at that point? So what's going on with consciousness at that point? Hmm? Maybe. It's possible. Yes? But you also have them staring at the mountains, the clouds, and they're all really close to each other.

[28:51]

Yeah. Yeah. They're all very close together. As a matter of fact, there's not the slightest bit of separation between them. However, that mountain, although it's not separated by the slightest bit, that mountain is actually bigger than it looks. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Say again? Close to each other as a relationship.

[29:53]

Close to each other. What are the two that are in? Are conscious and unconscious rather than one being subsumed into the other. The relationship perhaps is similar to the relationship Yes, the world that appears to be around us, that is consciousness. The world that appears to be around us is consciousness. that consciousness, which seems to have a world around it, is also intimately related with something that doesn't appear. And you can say that that body and that mind, which is not separate body-mind that appears, we call that unconscious, and that's not separate.

[31:08]

And we have gone through a process of becoming more and more intimate with a mind that doesn't appear and with a body that doesn't appear. But that's never separate from the mind in which things appear and a mind which appears to itself as a world. the way we originally are conscious life creates a sense of separation from the world that's appearing around us. The conscious mind appears as a world and if we don't behave, if we don't treat the world that's appearing in the conscious mind properly, the conscious mind appears as a world which is separate from the mind, which is not the mind.

[32:11]

We've gotten over that by this stage. We no longer relate to the appearances of consciousness improperly. We relate to them properly. We realize that everything that appears is mind. And we also realize that the huge cognitive life that supports this conscious drama is also separate from the world that's appearing and the mind in which that world appears. And realizing that initially is picture six. Now what happens in picture seven? So Fran's saying maybe that there's just consciousness At this stage, I would say, no, I'm not actually. At no stage will I say that there's just consciousness. There will be a stage, which you can probably guess where that stage might be.

[33:20]

There will be a stage where there is no consciousness and no hurt or and no ox. Where there's no unconscious process, where there's no body, and there's no conscious mind. There will be a stage like that. But in the sixth stage, when we say, seventh stage I mean, where it says, the ox forgotten, leaving the person alone, that's a stage before There's no conscious, there's no herder, and there's no ox. It's a stage before that. So I would say consciousness is still there, and I would say the unconscious is still there. And when it's... It says the forgotten.

[34:22]

It's not that there's no ox. It's not that there's no unconscious process. It's not that there's no animal nature. And it's not so there's not unconscious cognitive processes which are stimulating the person further and deeper intimacy. So unconscious is still present and conscious is still present in the seventh picture. And the sixth picture has been transcended in what sense? So this is a subtle topic. In what sense, what has been transcended in the seventh picture? Charlie? When I was a kid, my favorite bumper sticker was don't believe everything you think. It was your favorite? Was that yesterday, that you were a kid yesterday? Always. I was in school, and I was in this car near my house, and I would see it every day.

[35:23]

And that car never moved? Well, no. And so, but then, you know, bit by bit, I would ponder, well, which of these thoughts can we believe? And now... So I guess that... Is there anything that we can believe, that we should believe? Let's see. So is there anything that we can believe? Yes. Is there anything we should believe? I don't know. Is there anything we want to believe? In my case, I would say yes. So I... Thanks. I want to believe the thought. Here's the thought I want to believe. I want to believe the thought of attaining complete, perfect enlightenment in order to benefit all beings. That's a thought which I want to believe, which I do believe a little, and I would like to believe it more and more and more.

[36:26]

And this is a picture, these are pictures of deepening faith in that thought. Now, is it possible that people do not have that thought and still go through these pictures? But I would say that these pictures were painted by and the poems were written by people who wanted to, who believed in developing that thought, of taking care of that thought. It was transmitted to them intimately by Buddhas. and which they wanted to deepen that thought, deepen their commitment and belief that that's a really good thought to be devoted to. So is that thought and wanting to believe that thought present in the earlier pictures? No. Just stop there. Stop. No. It's that thought is present from the beginning picture.

[37:34]

No, that thought is there from some point and from the time it's there for the rest of the way. And does that thought appear only in consciousness? Yes. And is there a picture here that's beyond consciousness? There is a picture, there are many pictures here of real life going beyond consciousness. Actually, all the pictures are pictures of gradually going beyond consciousness. What about once that succeeded? Pardon? What about once that achieved? When the going beyond is achieved? Yes. But it's out of sight.

[38:37]

You can't see. No, it's just not. It's consciousness the way consciousness really is in that picture. And then it's consciousness the way consciousness really is in the next one. And then it's consciousness the way consciousness is in the next one. In the earlier ones, it's consciousness in a kind of misrepresentation of itself. The Buddha never gets separate from conscious beings. Buddha's an intimate relationship with conscious beings, but Buddha is actually a consciousness in the sense of like the consciousness we humans have. It's not a consciousness where there's like objects out there separate from subjects and where there's somebody there. Buddha is the intimacy of all consciousnesses. and with unconscious processes.

[39:43]

The intimacy of all that, the way all that is mutually entailing each other, is the Buddha mind. But that's not a consciousness. But it doesn't tamper with any of the consciousnesses. It just liberates them all. at whatever phase consciousness is ready for liberation. And there's different stages of liberation that are being depicted here. That whole process of going through these stages is Buddha mind depicted as a path. But also Buddha mind is a source. The ninth picture is like emphasizing kind of the way the Buddha mind is as the source. That's the ninth picture, which is bodhisvaha, gate, gate, para gate, para samgate. That's the eighth picture. Yeah, eighth picture is para samgate, gone entirely beyond.

[40:47]

What? Going beyond. What? Enlightenment. Entering enlightenment, you go beyond the world, enter enlightenment. Great! How wonderful! Don't stay there. Come on. Now, paragate. Jump beyond enlightenment. So now we have the picture of the person sitting in the nice place. You've gone be... Sixth picture was... Sixth picture is good, right? It's very nice. It's enlightenment. You've just entered enlightenment. But now time to say goodbye. Come on. We're going to the seventh picture. Which doesn't look that bad either. You got a little hut, mountains to look at. Hi, mountains. Hey, how you doing? Good morning, son. But my partner's forgotten. I'm so intimate with my partner, I forgot her, or him, or it. And then the next picture, going even beyond that.

[41:53]

And that's not the end. Now, some beautiful little palm blossoms are going to appear. This is Bodhi. This is enlightenment. Consciousness is there. Unconsciousness is there. And it's blooming. But before it bloomed, it Before enlightenment bloomed, it got heavily, not heavily, it got thoroughly transcended in the previous three pictures. We went to a lot of trouble to get to number six, right? That wasn't easy. But we got there. And we're happy campers, riding our ox, playing our flute. Okay. Now, we don't stay there. We go beyond. And we go beyond again. And now we're ready for the big blossom. With nothing tampered with, nothing excluded, everything blossoming, everything awakening.

[42:59]

So we got all the way. I mean, it was quite a feat to get even in contact with the, to be ready to be in contact with our unconscious process. and to get in contact with the unconscious processes. It was not that easy, but we did. We opened up to being deluded, and then we got to open up to other forces in our life. How wonderful. Then we struggled with them, and then we got intimate with them, and now we're riding in bliss. And beyond that, And then we're going to go beyond that. And then we're going to go beyond that and go into blossoming. And the Buddha is there the whole time. The Buddha mind is there the whole time. The process of thinking about how to liberate beings, that consciousness is there the whole time. excuse me, it's there from some point.

[44:04]

Maybe at the very beginning it isn't there. But once it's arisen, it's going to be there for the rest of the way. And then the final picture, number 10, that guy's sitting there thinking that thought, literally. ...previous ones too. Consciousness is not eliminated. It becomes more and more serviceable for the project. So, David and Carol? That was a couple years ago that you raised your hand, I know, but... ...that it might be said that the pictures up to this point have been about... a kind of an activity which built into this, a research, a learning, a looking, a finding, a realization of finding. And then it's like event is over. Say it again. The event is over. Yeah. And you are, it reminds me of an event practice you were told of.

[45:08]

Yeah. You do a lot of current visualization. Then you put yourself off from the visualization of yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then beyond that. Yes. Carol? Yeah. Parts of us are there. I feel like they're throughout this process. They're sort of intermingled. And then it's sort of become wanted to move toward widening it. Because I like to think of enlightened space, not the enlightened state to not just be one and to be alone, but to be sharing.

[46:26]

Enlightenment is sharing, yes. enlightenment is sharing and enlightenment is spreading enlightenment is sharing really is enlightenment and because of the sharing there really is not possible to find any entities so enlightenment is not an entity because it's sharing This circle is, you could say, moving throughout the world, but you can also say this circle is transcending the world. Notice this one, this painting we're looking at is ten circles. It's the same circle. It's the circle transcending circle. And the circle transcending circle is a circle of not trying to get away from the circle.

[47:33]

The circle trapping circle is the circle of trying to get something out of the circle or go someplace else. That's the circle trapping circle. But there isn't really a circle like that, except in the sense of the way it seems in the first picture is the way it is when you're trying to get a better circle. And a lot of people are in the circle circle. You've probably been in that circle, at least as a visitor, right? And the circle is not trying to get away from the getting better, of trying to get a better circle. That's enough to go the slightest bit away from that. Mike? Yeah. Yeah. I felt like you were talking a lot about stillness with what's happening.

[48:38]

Yes. And that maybe stillness didn't have to just mean physically still. I'm curious about that. What stillness might be if it's not in addition to or if it's not just physical stillness wandering? are stillness or just paying attention? What is stillness like when it's not physical stillness? Well, I'll just hold your question about what is it like over here. And I'll just say what it is. Stillness is not physical or mental. Stillness is your body being your body. That's stillness. Your mind being your mind, that's stillness. Stillness is you being you. You, psychophysical thing, you being you, is stillness.

[49:42]

That's not a mental thing. That's not a physical thing. But that is a mind. That is Buddha mind. Buddha mind is you being you. Which includes your body being your body. Like for example, looking for stillness, that's not stillness, that's looking for something. But you being the person who's looking for stillness, that's stillness. So stillness is who you really are all the time, each moment. Well I say, instead of saying, I hope that you will be still. I say, I hope, I pray that you will remember stillness. Because stillness isn't something you do. It's what you already are. So again, a lot of people try to do something to be still.

[50:44]

They go into Zendo's and they try to sit still. And we let them do that. But I'm sort of suggesting go in the Zendo and remember stillness. Or even before you go in the Zendo, remember stillness is your moment-by-moment birthright. You cannot get away from it. It is you being you. And it's nice to sort of come into a room and be with people and then remember stillness. Say, receive it because you are given. You are a given. I am a given. I am given by the entire universe. And that givenness of me being the way I am in a present moment, that is stillness. The things I'm doing, those don't seem to be stillness.

[51:46]

But the way I'm given to do the things I'm doing That is stillness. And I receive what I am, and I receive stillness. And then once I recognize I'm receiving it, then I practice it. And again, these pictures are pictures where we get more and more the hang of practicing the stillness which is given to us in each picture. When you're in the first picture, that's given to you. And when you accept what's given to you, like that you're screaming, This is the kind of person I've been made to be right now. When I accept that, then I remember, then I'm accepting my stillness, which is given to me. And when I accept my stillness, I naturally move into the next picture. But then I'll say, whoopee, I'm glad I got out of the first picture. Kind of like forgot the stillness. It's not the end of the world. I can remember it again. And as soon as I remember it again, then I move into the next picture.

[52:50]

And so stillness is, in whatever picture we're in, accepting that one as that one and not trying to go backwards or forwards, that moves us forward. That's why I said at the beginning of the class, in the 10th picture, you naturally are happy to go into the first picture. The person in the tent picture is talking to the Lord in the first picture, or the girl in the first picture. And he's not the slightest bit saying, well, I'm glad I'm not you. I'm glad I can be in the tent picture and not go into the first picture with you. Actually, he's talking, he's in the first picture, in the tent picture. But that's the tenth picture and that's for next week. This week we're up to the ninth picture, which is after transcending enlightenment and transcending, transcending, now we have the full blossoming and having the full... In this empty circle where the self is forgotten, the other is forgotten,

[54:07]

The conscious and unconscious minds have totally been let go of. Because we realize they're intimate, we've let go of that realization. And now they're both completely let go of, all realizations let go of. There's just vast emptiness. Vast space. But it's not just vast space in which if we accept that and don't try to improve on it, we move forward into the ninth picture. And now there's a beautiful peach blossom in the vast space. This great compassion is blooming in this vast where self and other are forgotten. Are they forgotten? Is that what they say? Oh, it says reaching the source.

[55:10]

So, no, that's, that's, no, eighth, eighth is, they're both forgotten, both transcend. So we, in this particular thing, first you transcend the other through intimacy with the other, you transcend the other. And the other may wish it was the other way around and that they had transcended before you, but That's the way the picture is. Intimate is forgotten. Other is forgotten. Transcending that, self and other are forgotten. Transcending that, bodhi, welcome. Now in this vast space, it's filled with compassion. And all the way through, How can I help all beings enter the way and quickly attain enlightenment? But now the thought is this blossoming.

[56:12]

It's more fully realized this thought. Do you believe it at that point? Your belief is that blossom. Your belief is a blossoming cherry tree. And you're nothing in addition to the blossoming cherry tree. It's not like you're watching it. The tree, your belief is the tree. No, yeah, it's the blossoming. It's the wonderful blossoming of your faith, which has been cultivated through this whole process. But there's some subtleties here. Yes? I have an old story. You have an old story? That I've always been. One of your stories is that this story is old.

[57:15]

Yeah. I was in an ashram with a Hindu priest, a very, very learned man. She was in an ashram and there was a learned Hindu priest in the ashram with her. With a lot of people. And there were some other people too. Giving us lectures and his lectures were all... He was giving lectures. Metaphors and very lively and very alive. And one day he said one that stuck with me. There is this mother fish Baby fish swimming in the ocean. And the mother tells the baby fish, sweetie, you know, here in the ocean. And the baby says, mother, what is the ocean? And that's my story.

[58:23]

To me, it's like when it comes to me, incomprehensible universe. Can you make any connection with that, what you were saying? Is it relevant even to what you're saying? Yes, it's relevant. You want me to tell you how it's relevant? It's relevant because you brought it up. And you are... You're not the only one, but you're one of the ones that's relevant. You are relevant in particular to being yourself with this story.

[59:26]

And if you are yourself having this story and asking about relevance, which you do, to the extent that you're intimate with that situation, you are in your particular position right now in this process, depending on how intimate you are with being the person who asked that question and now being intimate with the person who's listening to me talk. So your level of intimacy with yourself right now is relevant to these pictures. And each of us is in some position and whatever position any of us are in relative to certain pictures, none of our positions are the slightest bit separate from anybody else's position. That's what these pictures are saying.

[60:30]

And yet, we may be able to sense that we're at stage five. We're still struggling. Or maybe we're at stage four. We've got the ox and it's kind of like, I don't know if I want to be doing this work after all. Whatever. You may have a sense that you're at one of these stages. And whatever stage you're at, if you'd like, really be still with that and be you'll move forward and you will not stop if you continue to practice that way. So you'll wind up going through the whole cycle again. However, the second time through it is different from the first time. Because the second time when you come through you're not going to have the same resistance you had the first time even if it's called the same resistance. I don't see it.

[61:43]

The self in the picture is the blossom. The little guy? The little guy has become the blossoming tree. But he hasn't been, what do you call it? He has not been annihilated. They just didn't. You could, if you wanted to, you could paint the little guy on one of the branches. Or peeking over the edge of the circle. You can do that. He has not been eliminated. And his friend, the ox, the cow, she's there too. The circle is, they are there and they've been relating all the way through and they'll never stop relating.

[62:46]

But now their relationship is like, I'm going to draw a picture of it. It's a blossoming relationship. apricot tree, or plum tree, or cherry tree, of their intimacy. And it's the picture that follows from their intimacy being pictured by vast space. Our relationship can be pictured in a certain stage. Our relationship is like a vast emptiness. And that baby sees that vast emptiness. the relationship between the baby fish and the ocean could be pictured as vast space. However, if the baby fish does not try to improve on that, the baby fish will move forward into the next picture. And the baby fish's acceptance of her relationship with her mother and her father, if he did his job properly, and the ocean

[63:50]

she accepts that, she will realize that we will draw a different picture of her relationship. This tree with this blossoming compassion. There was compassion before, too, but it was at the phase where we wanted to emphasize that the compassion has no duality. Now we're emphasizing that we don't get stuck in non-duality, meaning that there isn't a relationship or there's not a blossoming. There's blossoming in non-duality. Nothing gets moved in this, nothing really moves in this process. It's just stillness typified as a process. It's stillness typified as a path or an evolution. even though evolution occurs without moving any place. Because it's more evolution of realization of what you are.

[64:56]

You don't move from what you are to what you are. You have a deeper realization of being a person who thinks about moving sometimes. You can do that. You can think about moving all day long. It's perfectly fine. But some people think about moving all day long and they're really present with it and they go through this process of evolution where they keep transcending and not being stuck in their thoughts about movement. They keep remembering stillness. They keep remembering this teaching. They keep remembering that they really think it would be a good idea to understand completely beings. Because I believe, I think, and it seems to me, that beings' problem is that they get stuck in the current picture. Or past picture, which is the current picture of the past.

[65:58]

Or future. picture of the future. We get stuck. We tense up. We don't relate properly to the picture we're in. We're not generous and careful and so on. We're not compassionate enough. We're not loving. We're not ready to be intimate with yucky stuff, smelly stuff, stinky stuff, sick stuff, deformed stuff, or beautiful stuff, precious stuff. We don't want to be intimate with it. We have a tendency not to want to be intimate with these things, but to possess them, which is not intimacy. It's moving. It's like thinking you can move to possess things. So then, again, if you move in any of these pictures... Yes?

[67:01]

If we're one with everyone, how do we arrive at nine before them? It's not that you arrive at Excuse me, but it's not that you arrive before everyone else. You arrive with them, but they don't know that they've arrived with you. But they're there with you, like your children. In some sense, you know they're never not with you. But you're not there ahead of them. You just have certain understandings with them, which they maybe say, you know, I'm not interested in this mother. But they're with you. Like my grandson, you know, and I picked it up for him at a bicycle store and brought it to him from San Francisco to Santa Barbara in my car, and I gave it to him. And then he rode it around, and I said, do you like your bike?

[68:17]

And he says, yeah, I like it. And... And his mother was with him, and the inside of her mother was a baby. And he knew already it was going to be a baby girl. And he says, yeah, I like it, but my sister can't ride it. And I said, by the time she's old enough to ride it, you're going to be in college driving cars. And he said, I still don't want her to drive it. And I said, yeah, but you'll be a different person then. You don't know what you're going to want. He said, that's totally incomprehensible. He was there with me. I was there with him. We are together. We're not separate. But he may not accept certain things which I accept. Like that a couple years from now, it's going to be a new granddaddy and a new grandson.

[69:19]

We're going to be two new people. And that's where I'm at. And I'm really happy that I'm there. I'm happy that I understand. When I understand that, I'm very happy. He does not understand it. Therefore, he's somewhat unhappy. But he's with me. And I'm always with him and I want to be with him forever until he understands what his grandfather understands because his grandfather wants him to be free of fear. And right now, he's not free. He's a big boy. He's growing up very nicely. But he's still really afraid and still really hates certain people. He's with me, though. I'm not ahead of him. I just have a different realization, which I totally, in my realization, is very happy, which I want to share with him. And I accept that he doesn't want it yet. I accept that. And I'm not trying to move. I will accept it.

[70:21]

Even though I want him to accept it, that's the picture I'm in. So we're not getting really ahead of people. They're with us. But yet we do have different realizations. We're not afraid of certain things which we used to be afraid of. And we're really related with people who are still afraid of things which there's no reason to be afraid of. And we're not separate from them. We are one with them. And the more we understand that, the more we want them to understand that and the more we don't feel separate from them. And the more we're not afraid. And when we're not afraid, we want other people not to be afraid. We even know that people we used to not want to be with because they're, you know, this person is not me. Remember those people that used to be not you? Remember those people?

[71:23]

Well, you got over that. You got over that. Now, you're not afraid anymore. Oh, look at that face. You're not afraid anymore. And you want to transmit your fearlessness to the person who you used to feel separate from. Because you understand that if that person wasn't afraid, that person would be a different person. That person is so hateful. Hateful people are frightened people. Nobody hates. Nobody thinks they're better than other people who's not afraid. And I'm not separate from the people who think they're better than other people. There aren't any people who think they're better than any other people. I'm not separate from those people.

[72:26]

And not being separate from them, if I'm fully accepting that I'm not separate from the people who think they're better than other people, who hate the people they're not as good as, that's not as good as them, to the extent that I want to share my fearlessness with that person, because I know that they won't be hateful if they could receive this fearlessness. I actually want the so-called worst people in the world to be enlightened. I think that will make them harm. Thank you very much. And next week's going to be quite a class.

[73:09]

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