In this session we can begin to talk about concentration and in particular we are talking about concentration in the context of practices of working for the welfare and liberation of all beings. It is possible to practice concentration for the welfare of the concentrator, that someone would be developing concentration for the sake of the person who is doing the concentration practice. And among worldly pleasures or worldly happiness, being concentrated is perhaps the most pleasant, the greatest pleasure is to be concentrated, to be calm, clear, joyful, relaxed.

[01:21]

In that state, afflictions are temporarily suppressed. There are many ways of developing concentration. But I feel like they all have the basic, all the methods have the basic shared quality of giving up discursive thought. Sometimes people say suppressing discursive thought, but I prefer saying to let go of discursive thought. to let go of the wandering of the mind. Discursive means, you know, to run back and forth.

[02:26]

So as the discursive mind is going on, which is normal, it's also called thinking, as it's going on, to relax with it and just basically let it go, let it go, let it go, moment after moment if one is able to cultivate that letting go of discursive thought moment after moment for some time that effort comes to fruit as concentration. Letting go of discursive thought itself is not concentration. Concentration is a state of mental and physical ease and flexibility and peace, or I should say calm. That's the result of that kind of training. It is possible to do this kind of training and become calm and then to set aside that training and just abide in that calm.

[03:46]

You don't have to continue to let go of discursive thought once you're calm. And at that time, you're in a calm state and discursive thoughts going on, but you're not necessarily being mindful to continuously let go of it. And just briefly mentioning that at that time you can actually re-engage with discursive thought about teachings. And then you're actually entering into what's called insight work or wisdom training. But wisdom training depends on being in the state of tranquility. So the discursive thought is in a context of what we call samadhi or shamatha.

[04:50]

And in that state, the working with the discursive thought about the teachings comes to fruit, becomes wisdom. One way that sometimes people practice in order to let go of discursive thought is they focus on something simple, like an image of the Buddha. They imagine they look at a Buddha and then they close their eyes and see if they can see the Buddha with their eyes shut. In order to see the Buddha with your eyes shut you have to really concentrate on drawing the Buddha in your mind. And yet people actually are encouraged to be able to see the Buddha almost as clearly in their mind as when they open their eyes. That requires a lot of concentration on the image. Another practice is to look at a disk, actually make a disk in old days on the ground and maybe of a color like blue and then look at the disk and then close your eyes and see if you can see the disk clearly.

[06:00]

And if you can see the disk clearly, that means you're really concentrating on that image in your mind. And in order to do that, you have to give up, for example, planning tonight's dinner thinking about problems in the office, planning birthday parties, worrying about whether to make this decision or that decision, this kind of discursive thought, solving math problems, or at least actively, discursively thinking about math problems, this kind of work is set aside But you don't have to pick an object like that, you can just keep giving up discursive thought. A lot of people find that difficult, so they find it easier to pick something like their posture, just keep focusing on the posture moment after moment, keep making the posture, keep making the posture. Or some people do tightrope walking, that works quite nicely, especially if you're

[07:05]

when you're on the tightrope, when you're falling it's not that easy to concentrate, but when you actually bounce on a tightrope you're usually not thinking about shopping that much. Especially if it's way off the ground and you're a beginner. If you're more advanced you may have to do some juggling in order to not be thinking about shopping. One time I was in Tassajara and I had a speaking engagement in San Francisco and I skied out because the vehicles couldn't get out over the snow, so I skied out and I had a very beautiful experience up on top of the mountain where it's flat for quite a bit. But I was skiing and it was very beautiful, sunset, And I'm not an experienced skier, so I was really concentrated on just, you know, like step.

[08:16]

I had ski poles and stuff, so I was just doing cross-country skiing, and I was very concentrated. And, you know, given my need to concentrate on the stepping and working of the poles, I was... There wasn't much discursive thought. There wasn't even much... Boy, it sure is beautiful up here. I couldn't afford to even talk about that, otherwise I might fall off the edge of the mountain. So there's various ways to focus on something in such a way that you give up wandering thoughts. And in lots of life and death situations, you are able to do it. And so then you do it and then after you do it for quite a while and continuously you come into this state of tranquility.

[09:19]

Another topic that could be used would be the topic of being devoted to the welfare and liberation of all beings, which is quite similar to imagining a picture of the Buddha, because the Buddha is undistractedly, calmly and serenely, undistractedly devoted to the welfare and liberation of all beings. Buddhas are actually not distracted from that. They are in a state of calm, always remembering that one point. So one can have that as the focus. Or even to realize Buddhahood, so you can focus on Buddhahood. But even that, you're focusing on Buddhahood, like a Buddha.

[10:25]

Buddhas aren't being Buddhas just for themselves. They're being Buddhas for the welfare of all beings. So you can be like a Buddha. you can focus on being a Buddha for the welfare of all beings, or you can focus on Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings. If you have trouble doing that, you could, if you found something else easier to concentrate on, but again, we say concentrate on it, but it's really concentrating on it so that you can give up discursive thought. Just focusing on something doesn't in itself make you calm. it's the giving up of discursive thought that makes you calm. So, you could focus on all these different topics, and this last one is a bodhisattva concentration. But you could also instead focus on your breathing, become calm, and then switch from focusing on your breathing to focusing on the welfare of all beings, or on Buddhahood. You can change. Once you're calm, you could go to another topic and

[11:27]

for a while anyway, you'd continue to be calm and you could then develop more calm on the new topic. But you actually could sit with the aid of these other practices and be enthusiastic about focusing and be mindful, moment after moment, being mindful of this topic of the welfare of all beings, of working for the welfare of all beings and the liberation of all beings. And you're focusing on that and giving up discursive thought and becoming calm on that focus. And then, when you feel calm on that focus, you could then do more work with that. So I'll stop there and just say, now I'd like to say something about, which is related to this, which focusing on the welfare of all beings, I'd like to shift it to focusing on the welfare of others.

[12:31]

just to make clear that you're focusing on the welfare of others. Now, focusing on the welfare of others will be beneficial to others and yourself. I mean, I propose that to you. And I propose to you that, and to make this statement for you to think about, here's a statement. All the suffering in the world comes from focusing on your own happiness. And all the happiness in the world comes from focusing on the happiness of others. Buddhas are happy. Bodhisattvas are happy. Both Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are opening to the suffering of the world, but they're focused on the welfare of others. They're not focused on their own welfare. They're focused on the welfare of others, and they're happy.

[13:41]

They're very happy because focusing on the welfare of others is really where the happiness is. They're not focused on their own welfare, so they're not unhappy. But people who are focused on their own welfare are unhappy. That's a proposal. And that relates to this because this is talking about being concentrated on Buddhas, concentrated on Buddhahood, which is the state of being where you're concentrated on the welfare of others. And by the way, you're at peace and happy too. But you're not doing it. concerned with your own peace and happiness, you just happen to be happy because you're focusing on the welfare of others. And you're able actually to, and the Buddhas are able to focus on it all the time. And well-trained bodhisattvas can too.

[14:44]

Beginning bodhisattvas can't. Like I said, you know, they have this inability to be consistently concentrated They're not able to be uninterruptedly concentrated, so they have to develop more enthusiasm so that they feel like, I really do want to be uninterruptedly concentrated on, you know, various topics, but one of them would be the happiness of others. You could also focus, again, on your breathing, but you would be doing that as a bodhisattva. You would be concentrating on your breathing for the happiness of others. And then if you did, you'd be happy. So I'll stop right there and see if you have any problems with this amazing statement.

[15:45]

Travis? You always thought that focusing on the welfare of others was a selfish act. Actually, the Dalai Lama kind of agrees with you. He said, if you're going to be selfish, why don't you be intelligently selfish and focus on the welfare of others? So he kind of agrees with you that focusing on the welfare of others is kind of selfish, but it's an effective selfishness. It's a selfishness that will make you happy because you want to be happy. You want to be happy. It's normal to want to be happy. So if you want to be happy, it would be appropriate to focus on the welfare of others because then you will be But when you're focusing on the welfare of others, you actually are focusing on the welfare of others.

[16:53]

And you're forgetting about your own welfare at that time. You forget about it. But you don't stop wanting to be happy. You just continue to want to be happy. That's normal. But you're not thinking about it. You're thinking about the welfare of others. And then you become the way you'd like to be, namely happy. Plus you show them how to be happy. So that helps them too. They say, how come you're so happy? Because I'm thinking about your welfare. And if you would think about mine, you'd be happy too. So it's fine to say it's selfish, no problem. But it's an intelligent selfishness that will promote what the self wants, namely peace and happiness. So I'm okay with you saying that that's selfish. In other words, selfish beings, sentient beings are selfish beings, selfish beings who focus on the welfare of others will be happy selfish beings.

[17:54]

Selfish beings who focus on their own happiness will be unhappy selfish beings. Now, if you keep focusing on the welfare of others and keep being happy, you will eventually make a Buddha in this world. And then you're not no longer, then Buddhas aren't anymore selfish. They're beyond, they go beyond selfishness. Completely forgetting the whole self thing. They don't want to be happy in a way, and they don't not want to be happy. They just simply are completely happy. That's all they are. And they're completely open to everybody's suffering and love of all beings. bodhisattvas are working towards that and some bodhisattvas get there before Buddhahood and some bodhisattvas have trouble concentrating like some of you and so that's quite common that bodhisattvas have trouble being uninterruptedly concentrated so then they have to develop more of these other practices so that they'll be able to focus on anything

[19:06]

for the welfare of others. Because it would be helpful if they would practice giving up discursive thought for the welfare of others. So bodhisattvas practice giving up discursive thought in order to develop tranquility. But the basis of this giving up of discursive thought in order to realize tranquility, the basis of it is an unshakable resolution to Realize enlightenment and teach the Dharma. In other words, to help beings by teaching Dharma. The basis of their concentration efforts is to attain Buddhahood in order to teach people how to do the practice. And they do practice concentration. They do focus on giving up discursive thought. But all their concentration practices are for the sake of realizing Buddhahood and helping beings.

[20:16]

So in a way the most appropriate meditation is just to meditate on what you're meditating for. If you're meditating for the welfare of others, you might as well just focus on that and give up all distraction from what you're meditating, what you're concentrating for. But it's okay to use other topics and then after you're concentrated, then remember what you're doing it for and focus on it. And again, there's more work to be done after that, but again, I'm stopping at this point to see if you have any problems with having your meditation practice be for the welfare of others. Any problem with that? I mean, are you kind of like, what do you call it, down with that? Yes. I have two conclusions, and I'd like to stick to both.

[21:26]

Please do. First one is, my understanding was that like the mask on an airplane, I put mine on first before I could be concerned of the person next to me. Yeah. And the second one is... Okay, let's stop there. Okay, all right. We'll stop there. So if the person next to you is who you're focusing on, you're sitting in this chair... You're sitting in this seat, but your real concern is the people in the other seats. You're on the airplane for the welfare of the other people on the airplane. That's what you get on the airplane for. Now, oxygen seems to be in short supply, so you're concerned that the other people get oxygen. That's your concern. So, you know that in order for them to get oxygen, you know,

[22:28]

with your aid, you need to put your oxygen mask on. So you put it on so you can go to work. Like you put your shoes on to climb the mountain. You want to climb the mountain because there's somebody up there who needs your help, or you want to climb the mountain to bring somebody up over the mountain. That's what you want to do. Today, I want to bring somebody over the mountain so I can put my boots on. But I'm not putting my boots on just to make my feet comfortable. I'd bring these boots on. I wouldn't even climb in the mountain. I'd just stay in my little cabin if it weren't for this person I want to carry over the mountain, which I really do want to carry them. It's much more fun to carry them than to stay indoors for my own comfort. So I really do want to help them, and I'm very happy about that, but I have to put my boots on. I really do want to put the oxygen mask on this person who doesn't have arms. or it's too little to reach it. I want to help this person. That's my focus. That's what I'm doing. And so I put this mask on first. Yes.

[23:29]

But I'm not putting it on for me. I'm putting it on for them. And so I'm a happy oxygen mask person. Is that clear now? All right. Next question, please. Our next confusion. I was hearing that focusing on my welfare would be focusing on giving ethics and patience. Yeah, so focusing on your welfare to practice giving ethics and patience is said to be not the way to go. That will make you... Right. Correct. That is correct. According to this teaching, if you practice on my happiness when you're practicing giving ethics and patience, you will be happy.

[24:31]

And I will be too. Pardon? If you're a pretzel for my welfare, you'll be happy. If you're a pretzel for your welfare, if you're focusing on your welfare while you're, like, for example, crossing your legs, if you're crossing your legs for your own welfare, you will be unhappy. If you cross your legs for other people's welfare, you will be happy. If you practice giving for other people's welfare and ethics and patience for other people's welfare, that will be the source of happiness. That's the way Buddhas practice giving, ethics and patience, for the welfare of others. And they're happy. They're not doing it for their own happiness. They're doing it for the happiness of others, and it brings happiness to them. In some ways it brings happiness to them faster than to the other people.

[25:33]

Because if you're practicing giving for the welfare of others, you're immediately happy, like that. You're instantly in nirvana. But the other people who you're practicing giving towards, you're doing it not so that you get to practice giving, but so that they learn to practice giving. But if they haven't learned it yet... They're not, you know, they're still trying to, either they don't want to practice giving or they're practicing giving for their own welfare. They haven't quite learned it yet, so they're not quite happy. As soon as they switch to practicing giving for the welfare of others, they're happy too. But the teacher sometimes in this situation is happy before the student, even though the teacher is primarily concerned with the student. but the student hasn't learned it yet. So the teacher is happy to be teaching. The Bodhisattvas and Buddhas are happy to be teaching people how to be happy teaching people.

[26:41]

But the people haven't learned yet sometimes how to teach people for the people's welfare, so they're not yet happy. So the bodhisattvas practice patience so they don't get discouraged that the people have not learned what they're teaching, which they really want them to learn because they want them to be happy. They're already happy. They're happy to be teaching people even though people aren't learning yet. Even though it hurts them to see them not learning, they're patient and not in a hurry to get over their pain when the people get happy, which they will. When people are happy, they won't feel that pain anymore of them not learning yet. But they're not in a rush about that. They're willing to suffer a really long time in order to help people. They're happy to suffer a long time to keep teaching people until people get it. That's another kind of tough one for people, that bodhisattvas are happy to suffer a long time.

[27:51]

Do they have a particular person in mind at different times? Like tonight I'm looking at my grandmother. They have particular people in mind, and they have people that they don't know in mind, too. They wish people... They don't skip over the people that are in their face. They do those right now. And then they also are ready to do people that aren't in the room. And they don't prefer the people in their face over the people who are far away. But in fact... they might be sensitive to the person right in front of them and they might not have so much of a sensitivity and they might not be able to feel the pain of people who aren't practicing that they can't see. But in the state of Buddhahood you actually can feel everybody supposedly all the suffering beings at once and you train so you can stand it. So it's like everybody's touching the Buddha and the Buddha's like

[29:02]

feeling all their suffering and being patient with all their suffering. But for now, if we're looking at an individual person, we want this person to be happy. And we look at the person when we think about that. But we kind of feel the people in the periphery, too, want them to be happy. And it's a particular person who's not doing her job that we feel pain about. Because each person's not doing their job in a particular way, it has a particular pain. It's not a general lack of education that's bothering us. It's the particular ones, I think. The general one, I guess, would bother some too, but particular one is really where it's at.

[30:05]

It's not the general insults that people are giving me, actually, so much. It bothers me a little bit that generally people have a problem with me. You know, it's just a general cloud of disapproval floating around that kind of bothers me. But actually that does Personal ones, although they're more painful, at least they're more to the point and you can deal with them better. So I actually kind of like them, even though they're more penetrating and challenging in a way. You can meet the challenge, but it's hard to meet the challenge of a vague ocean of disapproval. It's not impossible, but it's a little harder to engage it. But the feeling you have in your body of pain, of feeling disapproved of or slandered, the place in your body you feel it, that's specific and you can deal with that. And dealing with that, even though it's in your body, you're kind of dealing with the sentient being, so you do it for the sake of that thing rather than yourself, some self.

[31:15]

So you practice these practices with the different pains in the different parts of your body. But you kind of feel like you're taking care of others in a way. Yes? Yes. So, I've always kind of curious, do I have a little trouble generally pushing the wealth, happiness, safety, all that.

[32:19]

But yeah, in general, I'm specific. Do you know? Are you saying you have no problem wishing all beings happiness, but then when it comes down to a particular one, you sort of back off on that a little bit? Well, what I would say is, and that's an opportunity to practice generosity towards that, well, that lack of generosity, so you're not feeling generous towards them. You're not kind of like, okay, I want to be generous with this person. I want to like really generously let this person be the way they are as a gift. I hesitate here. So you're having trouble practicing giving with that person. And so then you should practice, you should be generous towards yourself, I would say. Now, if you can't be generous with yourself... then I would say be generous with it.

[33:21]

You can't be generous with yourself. And if you can't do that, you just keep working to it. Find some place where you can find some generosity. Say, well, let's switch to one of those other people that you said you had no trouble with. So just forget about you and this other person. Let's go to somebody that you have an easy time being generous with and work on that. And you sort of get it going on that and say, okay, let's go back and try to help Michael now, okay? You say, yeah, I think I'm ready for that. So you go back and help Michael. Then you move from Michael over to this other person. So that's the way I would do it. If you can't be generous with this person, be generous with somebody else. Or be generous with the inability to be generous. That's the closest thing, because that's right there. If you can't do that, move someplace else where you can get a hold of the practice again. And when you get on the practice, bring the practice back to this difficult time, difficult place. And they say, still can't do it. Okay, go find, go back and do it someplace else. Go back and try it again. Eventually, you'll be able to do it with this person.

[34:24]

That's one. And then, okay, well, there's another one. Okay, we do the same thing. Until you feel you're getting your giving practice going. And you feel like, wow, this is wonderful. There's nobody left that I don't feel generous towards. How great. This is like, wow, practice is working finally. I'm looking over the whole world and there's nobody I don't want to be generous towards. This is really good. And so I think I'm ready to move on to ethics now. Oops, I noticed some shortcomings here. And so on. And then the next day, maybe you find somebody else. Again, you see somebody that you don't feel generous towards, so you start over. Can I tell you how that's yourself?

[35:32]

Well, yeah, I mean, that person, without that person, you wouldn't be the person who doesn't want to be generous to them. The way you're stingy with somebody depends on that person. The unique way you're stingy with this person, you wouldn't be able to be that way without that person. Take that person away and you think, you're a different person. Like, hey, I'm not stingy anymore. I'm like Miss Generosity. Well, that's true, you are. But the reason why you are is because all the people around you you feel generous towards. And then even your sons, you know, you feel generous towards your son most of the time. But then once in a while, they come to you and they say, you know, mommy, blah, blah. And you say, no, I don't feel generous towards this guy right now. Well, the way you are depends on him being that way that made you switch from your usual mom, made you into a different mom who feels stingy. He makes you the way you are. You are him. Well, it's either one or the other.

[36:54]

When you're really engaged in practice, there really is like, there's no him, there's just you. Or there's just you and... There's no him and it's just you or there's no you and it's just him. There's not like you and him when you're really practicing. So when you're really practicing, then everybody is who you are. The whole world is who you are and you're nothing in addition to that. So it's not just that this person you're being stingy towards is who you are. It's not just that person is who you are. Also the people you feel generous towards. It's not just one person who is who you are. It's everybody who is who you are. Well, still, everything that's not you in that situation is what makes you. Everything that you say is not you.

[37:58]

Everything that's other than you. I shouldn't say everything you say is not you. I should say everything that's other than you is what creates you. You still have your history. Your history is with you still. All your past karma is with you. All your past karma, which is your unconscious mind, it's with you. But you're not your unconscious mind. But you're not anything in addition to it either, except other parts of your mind. So you're just a sum total of all things that are other than you. No. Tomorrow. Just to make sure you don't leave tomorrow. Yeah. Well, there's the there's the, I guess there's the, you could say the concentrator, the yogi, what the yogi's concentrating on and the state of concentration.

[39:30]

And, yeah, and when the yogi's not, hasn't been doing concentration very long, then the state of concentration is not very strong. But, That's not exactly... That's another factor. That's how long it's been going on. So, yeah, the thing you're concentrating on, like, for example, giving up discursive thought is what you've been concentrated on. And the person who's attempting to give up that and the state that's developing there, they're inseparable. And, yeah, and you're not doing the state... And you're not doing the discursive thought. And the discursive thought isn't exactly doing you, but you're a discursive creature. And you can pay attention to discursive thought and be gracious with it and let go of it.

[40:36]

And then you can also, and then as a result of that, this state of concentration arises and you can also be gracious with that So now you've got the state and you, and now they can be practicing letting go of the state, and that perfects the state. What perfects the concentration is to be generous towards it, the way you were generous towards the discursive thought. Well, being generous towards the discursive thought means letting go of it. It means not being possessive of it and trying to control it. And being generous towards discursive thought is basically another way of saying let go of it. And letting go of it is the exercise that gives rise to tranquility. Then when tranquility arises, you can make the tranquility a gift. Donate your tranquility to all untranquil beings.

[41:42]

Or just like give it up. and do something else and that perfects the tranquility well it could be but it could just be simply that you are giving up you're donating the bliss that comes with tranquility you're just not being possessive of that bliss that that could that could bring along with that you're giving up that I'm the agent who's making the donation of my pleasure of my bliss that could come along with that you don't do it yeah because you don't do anything by yourself right but you might not realize that if you could if if when if you were concentrated and you felt bliss of concentration which does happen quite frequently to people who are concentrated and that you're concentrated, like, hey, I'm calm.

[42:45]

And this is not only calm, but it's joyful and blissful. And I'm willing to let go of this bliss. Now, it might happen at the same moment that you notice you also gave away the sense of you gave it away. So then wisdom happens at the same time as the perfection of concentration. So that's... There they are, right next to each other. When you give up perfecting concentration... is very close to the perfection of wisdom. So they might happen really close together in time to say, hey, bye-bye bliss, and notice, oh my God, an independent agent also went with it too. Great. This is wonderful. And yeah, and I don't attach to this wisdom either. Great. So all these practices then are happening in perfection. with the wisdom and then this is the whole course where everything is unified and working together.

[43:47]

And this is what bodhisattvas wish to realize and teach to others. They wish to realize it in order to help others. And so they're happy to be doing this work. I must be. I really must be. And I'm pretty busy letting go of it. It's a lot. I have to keep part of my toes. Let it go. Let that go. Let it go. Don't hold on to that. Yeah. Well, if there's sentient beings around, there's probably some discursive thought going on.

[44:56]

You're not cutting yourself off from the discursive. In your own head? Yeah. No, there can be discursive thought. Buddhists can have discursive thought. Matter of fact, in the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says, Buddha actually says, you know, what he says is, I'm always thinking, and he says, blah, blah. Saying he's always thinking, the Buddha is saying in the Lotus Sutra, I'm always involved in discursive thought. But what is the Buddha's discursive thought that's always going on? It's like this... I'm always thinking, what are you always thinking, Buddha? I'm always thinking, how can I help all beings enter the unsurpassed way and quickly attain Buddhahood? The Buddhas are constantly thinking that. This is discursive thought going round and round in Buddha's head.

[46:00]

Always thinking, how can I help this person enter the great way? How can I help this person enter the great way? How can I help this person quickly attain Buddhahood? They're thinking that. That's discursive thought. But do they hold on to the discursive thought? No. They've been working for eons letting go of discursive thought. So now they can think, may all beings be happy without holding on to that discursive thought. May all beings quickly enter the Buddha way. They can think that, but they don't grasp it. They think it and give it away while they're thinking it. They think it as a gift. And also they watch it to see maybe they're trying to be a famous Buddha while they do that. Yeah. I wonder if the other Buddhas are noticing what a great Buddha I am. I mean, because that was really a great one. So Buddhas are always thinking, and they're always not attaching to their thinking, and they're always not thinking.

[47:08]

They're always not thinking, too. In other words, they're always, like I said before, they're always thinking so wholeheartedly that there's either there's just Buddha and no thinking, or there's just thinking and no Buddha. And if there's thinking and no Buddha, the Buddhas aren't thinking. They're just thinking. When you're really wholeheartedly thinking, there's just thinking or there's just you and there's no thinking. That's if you're wholeheartedly thinking. There's just thinking or there's just you. Most people are half-heartedly thinking, so there's thinking and them. When you're wholeheartedly dancing, there's not you and dancing, there's just you. There's just you, wonderful you, and that's it.

[48:11]

There's no dance, there's just you. Or there's just a dance and there's no you. But most people don't dance wholeheartedly, so there's them dancing. So that's what Dogen says in the Genjo Koan. He says, when you hear sounds and see sights, fully engaging body and mind, it's not like the image and its reflection in the mirror. It's not like that. In the same text, he uses an example of it. the moon and its reflection in the water. That's a different example. It's nice that he uses it. In one case, it's not like the moon reflected in the water or the image and its reflection in the mirror. It's not like that. When you're fully engaged, it's not like that. When one side is illuminated, the other is dark. So when you're fully engaged and you're looking at the moon, there's just the moon.

[49:11]

Or, If there's you, that's all there is. It's just you. There's not a moon in addition to you. When you're looking at somebody and you're fully engaged in the interaction, there's just them. Or there's just you, which brings us back to Jessica. When you're fully engaged, you look at your son, and all there is is you. There's not you and your son. There's just your son. All you see, I only have eyes for you. I can't see myself. When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore. There's not like, you know, me and the pizza pie. There's just a pizza pie. That's it. There's just a moon. That's all. There's just a moon. That's it. Boom. Okay. I'm glad. Now give it away. Hand it over.

[50:16]

Okay, good. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. And dinner we were talking a little bit about some of the basic practices. And I'm still using some breath practice, some healthy breath practice that I learned very early on. Some of them you have to... the body or the sitting posture, checking the sitting posture, and so forth.

[51:18]

Yes. Some of the concentration practices, well, certainly the trend of specific thought and the more specific thought, but there's something in the way that you're describing that I found helpful, which was any of these types of focused practices, they're giving a moment when the practice can shift to something else, for example, if discursive thought is letting go of discursive thought, then perhaps in that moment, working with discursive thought on some of these teachings we can see. And the words could be the focus, but it might be a different type of focus than those cute shoes that I think I might go buy now at the store or something. This idea of during the course of a period of concentration that there could be different helpful concentrations that could be effective.

[52:32]

Were you generous with that? Good, good. Okay. Was there any particular aspect of that you'd like to deal with? You brought up quite a bit. I was realizing I haven't really spoken directly in any way about the specifics of concentration practice for several decades. And I think this idea of what I still think of as an evening practice, say, of counting one thread or following my path, is still quite helpful to me in certain circumstances.

[53:40]

And now that I've been working with these practices, Now that these practices are very working on me. Yes. I don't know how else to say it. This idea of some flexibility with these practices. I'm moving more and more through this. Good? You want me to lend you a dime? Do you want me to lend you a dime? Well, I did before I'll lend you another one. Are you being generous towards yourself now? Because that's the first practice. Yes. You know, are you being generous with us by bringing this up? It's a gift you're giving us, this discussion about concentration.

[54:43]

I know you're not certain if it's helpful, but do you wish it to be a gift? Yeah, okay. And are you trying to get anything out of this? Well, trying to get something is an ethical infraction. So now you have to go back and practice ethics with this. That you're not trying to get something here. You're just giving. And so I asked you, if you were giving and you said, well, I want it to be. So I checked your ethics and I found out that you're trying to get something. Doing this for the welfare of all beings means you're not trying to get anything. Somehow you're asking questions, but you're not trying to get any answers. It's asking questions as a gift, not trying to get answers.

[55:54]

So if you're trying to get answers, then that's ethical infraction, and how do you feel about that? Ashamed and maybe a little freer too. First ashamed, then free. ashamed that you're messing up your giving practice with trying to get something, and then it's kind of free to go back and try again. And so approaching this process of concentration, you've got to check to make sure you're doing the practices it's based on. Now, if I'm sitting in meditation in a meditation hall, I might practice concentration in counting my breaths for five minutes, which is a long time. Then I might stop counting my breaths and move on to following my breaths for five minutes. Then I might not be following my breath, but just be aware of my breath.

[56:56]

So that's an example of going through different phases of concentration in the first 15 minutes of sitting. Or I actually might sit for five minutes and just work on my posture. I often have the experience of working on my posture and guess what I notice when I work on my posture and I'm still with my posture. What do I notice? That I'm breathing. When I'm sitting still, I notice that I'm moving. And how am I moving? I'm moving in concert with this breathing thing. And then I work with my posture some more so that the way my body's working with the breathing is good. So I adjust my posture so that my chest isn't going up and down. For example. So that I'm breathing in and out, but my chest isn't rising and falling, but just the only part that's moving is down lower. So I work on my posture. in relationship to my breathing, but I'm not really following my breathing, I'm working my posture.

[57:59]

But then I notice that I'm working with my breathing too, because my breathing is helping me find my posture. So I'm actually focusing on my posture and my breathing, and I'm actually... a lot of discursive thought is not really going on here. But there's a little bit of discursive thought, which is noticing the posture. So noticing the posture is still a little discursive, and notice the breathing is still a little discursive. But it's not as discursive as we can do. We can be a lot more discursive than that. Much, much more we can do. We can be very busy. And very distracted. But this is an example of actually not being that discursive, but a little bit still. As a general thing, people often find that when they're counting their breath, I should say this, many people feel that when they sit, their mind is a certain level of coarseness. And when they follow their breathing, when they count their breathing, the mind becomes a little bit more refined from the way it was before they were counting their breathing.

[59:11]

Similarly, if you sit and you're aware of your posture, I think you'll notice your mind becomes more refined than if you're just daydreaming. You know, here you are. Oh, this posture, this uprightness that I'm playing with. I'm making this upright posture. I'm making these eyes open and cast down. You're making this little model posture. yogi and your mind is actually becoming somewhat refined from making this posture some people can make a very high quality state of concentration by just working with their posture right like you know a great ballerina is just working with her posture and can you imagine how concentrated she is and how blissful she is at that time to make that posture just that way and how she learned to do that after many years of training, to be able to focus that, and how her teachers were giving her feedback for years and years. This little girl whose mind was jumping all over the place, they trained it to really be on that posture.

[60:13]

They're probably also somewhat aware of the breathing, too, though. But just basically posture and breathing, maybe, and here's this person who is a world-class meditator. and is very happy to be in that state. When she's not dancing, she may be a total wreck. I don't know. When she's dancing, we all revel in the beauty of her concentration, which like, you know, enraptures the entire audience. So, meditation on posture. Meditation and counting the breath can create quite a refined mind. Some minds, some people's mind would get more refined, would get so refined working on their posture that counting their breath would agitate their mind. Again, you know, a tightrope walker who is tremendously concentrated, but for such a person, counting their breath might rough up their mind quite a bit. They're already, their minds, you know, again, world-class calm.

[61:18]

Counting the breaths might disturb it. For people who are ordinary level of concentration, ordinary person on the street, counting the breaths might calm their mind down and refine it. But for some people, they're already more calm than you can be when you're being that discursive. This one to ten thing is pretty discursive for some people's minds. They're already more calm than that. But let's just say that you count your breath and you feel like, yeah, this is okay. And you feel some more refinement in your consciousness by counting. And then you feel like, I think actually my mind has now become too refined for the counting. The counting is now disturbing my mind a little bit. It's like if you take a certain level of sandpaper and you sand a table... and you would take that same grade sandpaper, okay, that you started with, and use it again, you'd scratch the table.

[62:20]

Does that make sense? If you use the same one grade sandpaper, you just keep using it, the sandpaper wears down as it sands the table, and you get a certain level of sandedness there with that grade of sandpaper. If you just take the same grade but a new sheet, you'll scratch it. Does that make sense? Now, if you go to a rougher stage, a rougher grade, of course, that'll scratch it too. But anyway, you get it to a certain level that you can get without a grade sandpaper. And again, if you actually could use that same grade sandpaper, you will start scratching it after a while. Except unless it wore out. But the counting doesn't really wear out. It stays sharp. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. It stays sharp and after a while it will scratch your mind to use it. Does that make sense? Does it? no? does the sandpaper example make sense? and so you get to a certain level where counting you sense actually counting is a little disturbing you feel calmer than the counting it's like it's like your friend's mother she goes to the dental hygienist she's sitting there and at a certain point the hygienist just becomes too irritating more irritating than going through the trouble of leaving

[63:39]

So then you go to following your breathing. And for a while, following your breathing is more subtle than counting. The following goes with your more refined mind. But then your mind, as you follow, your mind gets more refined. It's polished, sort of, or sanded by the following. And then at a certain point, the following is too coarse. So then you just go to just being aware of your breath without following. And then you go to actually... a state where you're fully engaging your breath, and when they say the breath stops, it doesn't really stop, but it stops in the sense of there's no breath. You know, there's just you. It's not really moving anymore. It stops. And then you go into wisdom work. That's one example of... You could go through those stages in one period of sitting, or you could take years. But some people do that. they count, they follow, they stop following their breath and they start working on a koan or some teaching in one period.

[64:49]

Some other people do, if they're doing multiple periods during the day, they do one period of counting, one period of following, and then one period of just sitting still, and then one period of maybe studying teachings. A lot of possibilities there. But again, if it's on the bodhisattva path, you're doing this For the welfare of others you're not doing this to make yourself into the most excellent meditator. So you, you know, are this thing. You're offering your life to the welfare of others and you're doing this stuff because you think this would really be helpful to people. For you to be practicing this would help people. And particularly it would help them because then they could learn to do these practices. but even if they didn't learn them, it's still helpful that you're in the world setting the example, because eventually they might notice and start learning. Okay? I felt like I got something.

[66:00]

Yeah. Yes. Good woman. Yes. Yes. Later. Remind me tomorrow. Yes, Tom? I don't understand the difference following your breath and being aware of your breath well yeah so I might be sitting here and following my breath like one way to follow it that Suzuki Roshi said was like when it comes out to your nose follow it from your nose down until on the end of the exhale it reaches you sort of imagine it reaching your

[67:07]

Abdomen below your navel and then inhale imagine it coming up through your body back to your nose So you're actually following it like that? Another way is you're working on your posture. This is what I usually do it is I work on my posture and And I'm aware that I'm breathing. But I'm not really focusing on my breathing. I'm just like enjoying all of this. It's like more like I'm sitting here still and I'm aware that there's a breeze blowing. But I'm not focusing on the breathing. I just, I naturally notice it. And I notice the breath moving through me, but I'm not really like focusing on following it. I'm just more like enjoying it. And that can go along with just simply giving up discursive thought about breathing, about posture, about my life, about my death, about Buddhism. And that's another way to do it. I'm kind of surprised by my breath, actually, when I am sitting.

[68:08]

It's like, oh, what a lovely guest this is. How wonderful. I can see why people want to follow it. It's such a lovely thing to follow. If you're going to follow something, that's more than nice to follow. But children are fun to follow too, and the wind's fun to follow, and the sun's fun to follow. Lots of stuff is wonderful to follow. In a way that you're simultaneously giving up discursive thought. Then it's concentration, discipline, and then you can calm down with whatever it is. Well, anything else you'd like to bring up tonight? And you are right, it is the powers that are assisting the concentration. Is that enough for tonight then? Thank you very much. May our intention equally extend to every being and place.

[69:18]

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