After lunch today, we will do a ceremony where we will do a ceremony to express our gratitude and appreciation for the beings that prepared us meals during this session. But this expression of gratitude does not need to be seen as limited just to the kitchen staff, although they will be the ritual focus. So I think it might be good to also understand that this is a ceremony to express appreciation

[01:02]

for all the beings that supported this session, which includes all of you. So you can thank the kitchen staff first, and then thank all of each other and all beings that supported this rare opportunity to practice. Also, I wanted to mention, well, I'll mention it just in a minute, I wanted to mention, and sort of give you an overall picture of practice of the Bodhisattva way, or some

[02:08]

sketch of it, which I've gone over earlier and throughout this week, and I probably will go over this, I hope I go over this picture again and again, until the picture, until this picture or some picture has pervaded all the practitioners in the Western Hemisphere. We may begin at some particular point in the process, I don't know where you want to start, but whether you start with the suffering that you experienced in high school, but anyway, at some point we maybe mention that we need to arouse great compassion, that's part of

[03:16]

the course, in a sense it's a very important moment in the course of the path, to arouse great compassion, to make extensive vows, for example, to vow to practice ethical discipline, to vow to practice generosity, to vow to practice patience, to vow to practice diligence, to vow to practice tranquility, to vow to learn and practice wisdom, make these vows, to vow to serve all beings, to vow to serve all Buddhas, to vow to practice all the practices of the Buddha tradition, and then, I think it's good to enter into the practice of tranquility. This center is set up to support the practice of tranquility. After the practice of tranquility has been entered into, and along with it, we open up

[04:24]

to and enter into the Buddha's teachings of wisdom, and we start studying the teachings of wisdom and practicing the meditations on wisdom, which we started during the Seshin, and we started before the Seshin, and again, in terms of the teachings, I recommend that you start your wisdom study by meditating on the other dependent character of all phenomena, that's the basic meditation, the basic wisdom meditation. Meditate on the other dependent character of phenomena, which is also to meditate on how it is that phenomena lack the nature, do not have the nature of producing themselves, and

[05:30]

this is a practice to start with in wisdom, but always to continue, and this practice follows upon great compassion and follows upon the vow to practice virtue, but once you enter into this practice of meditating on the other dependent, and it starts to have an impact on you, then your interest in practicing virtue will increase greatly, you'll be much more interested, you'll be much more enthusiastic to practice virtue when you realize how impermanent and fleeting this world is. You won't be so, you won't be distracted by trying to get things from compounded phenomena, so you really want to practice virtue even more than before. And remind me, I want to tell you two little examples, okay, one's about bowing before

[06:43]

going to the bathroom, the other's about Suzuki Roshi, would you remind me about that? I want to finish this outline. The next step after you enter into and are fairly steady in your meditation on the other dependent character of phenomena, the next step will be to study the imputational character, to start studying the signs of compounded phenomena. The other dependent character has the signs or is the signs of compounded phenomena. So you start studying the other dependent character, now you start looking at the signs, the sign aspect, and then you also, once you start studying the signs, in conjunction with studying the signs, you start to study the imputational character, and you start first of all to know the imputational character, independence upon words or names that are

[07:57]

connected to signs, or you understand this, you start to study and understand the imputational character as caused by the interplay between words and signs, or through the association of names and characterizations. And this study is very, you know, very subtle, but that's part of the course, is to start studying and getting to know the imputational character. And as it says in the sutra, as you study the imputational character, as you learn to know the imputational character as it really is, with respect to the other dependent character, then you learn, what? Yeah, then you learn or understand characterless phenomena, or then you understand that all

[09:06]

phenomena are signless. Once you understand that phenomena are signless, you're ready to kind of give up, give up superimposing the imputational, or give up strongly imposing, anyway, the imputational upon the other dependent. You're ready to give up bringing this predisposition to connection with the other dependent. Conventional designation, which is the imputational character, to the other dependent character. You're ready to give up superimposing the propensity towards language of this imputational

[10:12]

character. You're ready to give up this propensity towards language of this imputational character. You're ready to give up superimposing this propensity towards language upon the other dependent. You're ready to stop imposing the habit of describing held by the imputational character upon the other dependent. And when you do that, you open the door to suchness, or the door to suchness opens. And then from there, we have this long course of applying suchness to the signs to the other dependent, and the other dependent evolving in this way to complete enlightenment and meditating on the thoroughly established in conjunction with the other dependent, purifies

[11:16]

our body and mind of all obstruction to complete perfect understanding. So that's the course, and as you can see, even a few, one, the first step is a big one, giving a rise to great compassion, making great vows, that's a big step, and of course that has to be taken care of on a daily basis. Which takes me back to, someone said to me, what is this bowing before going in the bathroom? And so before going in the toilet, in the toilet there's a picture of a kind of a wrathful deity, and then by the baths there's a picture of these monk bodhisattvas going into the bath. So before going in the bath, we have a practice

[12:17]

of bowing to the offering incense and bowing to the altar and chanting, As I wash body and mind, before all beings, as I wash body and mind, I vow to be bright and shiny within and without. So we, basically, before we take a bath, we bow to the bodhisattvas, we bow to great compassion and we make a vow to bring great compassion into the bathing process. And when we go to the toilet, we bow to the guardian of the toilet, there's a guardian who protects your booty, you know, so nobody will bite you while you're using the facilities. You bow to that deity, but then really what you do is you make a vow to bring great compassion to the process of elimination of waste products

[13:17]

from your body. You make that process, you bring great compassion to that process, you do that as an act of compassion. And there's also a chance to do that when you brush your teeth and wash your face. But again, all these practices, all these chants and all these mindfulnesses are to make everything you do all day long the enactment of great compassion. So this is a big change in your life to, like, be mindful of great compassion in every action, when you open a gate, when you close a door, when you start a car, when you say hello, everything you do, you remember great compassion. I want this greeting to express great compassion, I want this greeting to remind me and hopefully the person I'm meeting of great compassion. So that's a big change if you can be consistently

[14:24]

mindful that way. And it's a basic, it's a big change in it's kind of a basic practice, it's kind of like basic. All these, in some sense, challenging and wonderful practices of tranquility and insight are based on this, in this tradition. And of course this is not on the basis, but supports them. If you get into this mode, then as you do these other practices, you're patient and kind and gentle and compassionate to yourself as you're doing these difficult practices, which is nice. It helps. And the other thing I was going to mention in the story about Suzuki Roshi where I was saying, when you're meditating on the other dependent character phenomena, you're meditating on them, you get more enthusiastic about practicing virtue. When you're mindful of how things

[15:25]

are dependent co-arisings, you're less interested in getting off on them, as we say, you're less interested in possessing them, or getting rid of them, because even if you get rid of them they come back, and even if you get them for a while they go away. But anyway, as you meditate on this, you get more interested in practicing virtue in relationship to compounded phenomena. And I thought, just popped in my head just then, when I said, you become enthusiastic about practicing virtue. If you're meditating on the other dependent, you've already probably been practicing virtue before, otherwise you wouldn't even be starting to practice meditation on the other dependent. So you're already practicing virtue, you already made vows to practice virtue before, and then you start to practice tranquility, and then you start

[16:26]

practicing wisdom. So you already did the commitment to the virtue, you've already been practicing virtue, but now you really start practicing virtue. And that's what reminded me of the story of Suzuki Roshi. Because one day, at Tassajara, he went to the Narrows, which is kind of a place in the creek where the creek narrows, and there's sharp big cliffs on both sides of the creek, and there's a nice little swimming pool in there. And the students jumped into the swimming pool, swimming hole in the creek, and he jumped in too. And he went into the water and under the water, and he was down there for a pretty long time. And the students thought, gee, he's been down there a long time, but he's our teacher, so he probably just can stay there forever. And then someone thought, well maybe we should check. So they went down and got him, and there he was down there, and

[17:33]

they pulled him out, and actually he wasn't intentionally staying down there. He didn't know how to swim. He said later, he said, I forgot that I didn't know how to swim. It was so beautiful, and I got so excited to be with all these wonderful young students, I just jumped in with everybody else. And then I was under the water, and I saw all the pretty ladies' legs. And I thought, wow, that's amazing. And I thought, wow, that's amazing. And then he said, after that, I really started to practice. So even our great founder, you know, when he got a punch of impermanence, kind of like, oh yeah, I'm going to really

[18:40]

practice now. And then at dinner that night, after he gave that talk, someone said to him, Roshi, you said that after that happened, you really started to practice, but weren't you already really practicing? And he said, yes, but then I really started to practice. So, this wasn't long before he died that he was still really trying to practice. Yesterday, after the kitchen left, I recited something from Dogon, which is the mountains and rivers of the immediate present. The mountains and rivers of the immediate present. Are the manifestation of the path of the ancient Buddhas, abiding together in their true Dharma

[19:54]

position. They culminate the qualities of thorough exhaustiveness. Because they are events prior to the eon of emptiness, they are the livelihood of the immediate present. Because they are the self before the emergence of subtle signs, they are the penetrating liberation of immediate actuality. The virtue of riding the clouds is realized from the mountains, from these immediate mountains. And the subtle work of following the wind comes from following the

[21:02]

wind, comes forth from these mountains. The mountains of the immediate present, this is the other dependent nature of phenomena. The immediate other dependent nature is always running through our life. It has the signs of compounded phenomena, but in a sense they haven't yet emerged. The signs are immediately impacting us, moment by moment, but in the process we grasp them and make meaning out of them. If we do not grasp the signs of the

[22:15]

immediate present, if we do not grasp the mountains of the immediate present, they have no significance, they have no meaning. However, we are needing immediate signification, we are needing actuality. And it says, actually, the mountains and rivers, and I would say that the mountains of the immediate present are the other dependent character, and the waters are the thoroughly established character. If we can be with the mountains of the immediate present and give up conceptually grasping them and interpreting them so that we can get meaning and make language, then we also meet the waters of the immediate present, which is suchness. So a big part of the training then is to learn

[23:25]

what this grasping of the mountains is, what the grasping of the signs is, and using them and giving that up, and bringing ourselves, letting ourselves give up conceptualization and just be in the mountains, and then just be in the water. And when we can be this way, we can learn how to ride the clouds and follow the wind. So again, as I said before, we need to learn to give up bringing the predisposition for conceptualization, the predisposition for conventional designation, which is the imputational

[24:28]

character. We need to learn how to give up bringing that to the other dependent, and learn how to meet the other dependent immediately, without trying to get anything, which is very difficult to resist that strong habit towards language. So I've heard that the Zen teacher Wang Bo, he had a kind of, in a lot of ways, a simple teaching, he just said over and over, give up conceptualization, give up conceptual thought. Meet whatever comes, giving up interpreting it in order to get meaning. Learn to live,

[26:12]

in the mountains of the immediate present, and you will learn about the waters in the immediate present. Wang Bo had a student in his monastery, who we call Linji, and Linji was his name. And there's a story about Linji, living in that monastery. He lived there for two or three years and he never went to see Wang Bo. And the head monk said to him, have you gone to see the teacher? And Linji said, no. And the head monk said, well you should.

[27:14]

Go see him. So Linji went to see Wang Bo. Oh, I think Linji said to the head monk, what should I say? And the head monk said, ask him what the true essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma is. So he went to Wang Bo and he said, what's the true essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma? And Wang Bo immediately hit him. Immediately. That's pretty fast. Actually everybody you meet immediately hits you, but you don't necessarily get it. You think, oh I'm meeting them, I'll interpret them before they hit me. But Wang Bo was so fast he hit Linji before Linji could interpret him. No, that's not true. He immediately hit

[28:22]

him but Linji was still like us. Still like us. He was too fast for the teacher. Just like some of us are too fast for the teacher. Teacher's trying to immediately hit us, but we interpret the teacher before the teacher can immediately meet us. We fend off the immediacy of the mountains. We're quick. So, what's the essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma? And Linji interpreted the Master before he could touch him. So he went back and told the head monk and the head monk said, oh, go ask him again. So he said, oh, okay. And he did that three times. And three times he got hit. After the third time he went back

[29:28]

to the head monk and said, well, he hit me again, and I'm not going to go back again. And the head monk said, I'm leaving this monastery. I used to be happy here, but I'm leaving. Head monk said, well, don't just leave, go say goodbye. And then the head monk went to Wong Bo and said, this guy's coming to say goodbye, you know, be nice. He's really a good student. He interprets a lot, I know, but he's a good student. Do you interpret the teacher? Anyway, you can interpret a teacher and still be a good student, but you need

[30:36]

to give it up. Someday you need to give up the interpreting. So then Linji went to see Wong Bo and said, I'm going away now. He stood kind of far away. I'm going away now. And Wong Bo said, well, don't go. I mean, don't go far away. Just go over the hill and visit my friend Da Yu. I think maybe things will work out better with him. So he went, I think fairly nearby, to visit Da Yu. And Da Yu said, where are you from? And he said, well, I've been over at Wong Bo's place for a while, and recently I went and asked him this question and it hit me on three occasions, so I don't know if I had any fault or not. Still interpreting. And Da Yu said, Wong Bo was so kind to you,

[31:44]

he did his utmost for you, and you still come and ask about if you have any fault or not. And Linji didn't interpret that. He felt the immediacy finally, and had a great awakening. Great vision of the thoroughly established. So then he said, wow, basically there's not much to the Buddhadharma. And Da Yu said, well, I don't know if I have any fault or not. And Linji said, you bed-wetting demon, you just asked about whether you had any

[32:54]

fault or not, and now you're saying there's not much to the Buddhadharma. Well, how much is this? And he grabbed him and held him. And then Linji gave three punches in the rib. And Da Yu let him go and said, Wong Bo is your teacher. It's got nothing to do with me. So he went back to see Wong Bo, and Wong Bo says, coming and going, coming and going, will there never be an end to this? And Linji says, it's just because of your great kindness. And then Wong Bo said, what happened? And he told him the story about what happened

[34:18]

with Da Yu. And then Wong Bo said, that guy's too talkative. Wait till I see him again. I'll give him a beating. And Linji said, why wait? And slapped Wong Bo. And Wong Bo laughed and said, this lunatic likes to pull on the tiger's whiskers. And then Da Yu said, you can't do that. And Linji screamed, and Wong Bo said, attendants, take this guy back to the meditation hall. Take this madman back to the meditation hall. So they dragged him

[35:21]

back to the meditation hall and chained him to his seat. He eventually simmered down and they released him. And then he traveled all over China enlightening people. I'll probably get in trouble for telling you this, but anyway, my daughter's boyfriend is a professional disc jockey. You know, like in, what do you call it, is it hip-hop music? You have like rappers, some number of rappers, and then you have a guy, a disc jockey who plays two turntables. That's sort of this thing that's happening now. So he's that disc jockey. He works the turntables with the rappers. So my wife says, my daughter's boyfriend is a disc jockey, and my boyfriend is a Zafu jockey. And then she's like, well, I don't

[36:31]

know. So anyway, there's this big practice up there, you know, to be done. All this great compassion and also practicing patience and generosity and disciplining yourself in the being diligent and trying to learn to do this stuff on a regular basis. It's a big job, and becoming tranquil and flexible and alert and fresh and ready to practice and then entering all these wisdom studies, learning how to give up this little habit we have of interpreting things so we can talk about them, and opening up to the immediate present of the other dependent and the immediate present of the thoroughly established, and then bringing that meditation to bear on our daily life and evolving along the path of the Bodhisattva for as long as

[37:52]

beings need to be saved. That's the project. I hope you are up for it, and if you're not, let me know and we may be able to, you know, if you need to, we'll pay you to do this. That would help. You need the encouragement to take on this big job, to enter into this, it's not exactly your job, but just enter into this big work that we're doing together. So, you read a little bit of Chapter 7 this morning, right? That's a wonderful chapter

[38:59]

which you can study for a while, and then after Chapter 7, it turns out there's a chapter after Chapter 7 called Chapter 8? And the Bodhisattva is asking the questions in Chapter 8, is named Maitreya. At the beginning of the chapter, Maitreya asks the Buddha, sort of, on what the Chapter 8 is about, the yoga practice, is about the tranquility and insight practices, how you take the teachings of the previous seven chapters and apply them to phenomena. So you learned about the nature of mind, and the nature of the ultimate, and the nature of the character phenomena, and then the different types of lack of own being are taught in Chapter 7.

[40:00]

Chapter 8 is the instructions about how to apply all those teachings to phenomena, and how to become wise with regard to them. Chapter 8 is the longest chapter. So then, the Bodhisattva Maitreya asked the Buddha, Bhagavan, abiding in what, and depending upon what, does the Bodhisattva, on the great vehicle, cultivate tranquility and insight? And the Buddha says, abiding in, and depending upon, an unwavering resolution, is the ultimate

[41:09]

to expound the doctrinal teachings and to become unsurpassably, perfectly enlightened. The Bodhisattva cultivates meditation practice. So we need this unwavering resolution. To teach the Dharma, and to attain enlightenment. That's the way the Bodhisattvas, that's what they abide in, and depend on, to enter into this big meditation course. So it's a really hard course. It's not easy. It's basically very simple, you know, just give up conceptualization. And, meet what happens without, you know, without imposing the computational, and see

[42:17]

that it's thoroughly established, that's basically it, and then just live like that. But it's hard to make the transition, right? So, but the basis of the whole, of this big change in our life, of the transition, and then the long path after the transition of cultivating suchness, that's based on an unwavering resolution, to expound the teachings of the Buddha, and attain unsurpassed awakening, in order to help all beings. So, there it is, right? And it's about 11 o'clock now, so the kitchen's going to go pretty soon, huh? One more meal may be coming. So, we probably could have questions right up to lunch, which would be okay, but we also

[43:35]

could just have some sitting, some wonderful sitting. But there's a clutch of hands over there. Would you, David, would you raise your hand too? Because all those other people around you are raising their hands. Did you have your hand raised, Matt? Did you have your hand raised? You don't? Okay. We'll take these four questions and maybe five, yes? Ladies first? I wanted to thank you for sharing this wonderful teaching with us. I'm very grateful for that. It made my long trip to come here really worthwhile, every mile. Oh, wow, great. Thank you for saying that. What I would like you to give me now, to work on as a kind of a practical, kind of a practical example, how exactly would I do this meditation on other dependent nature?

[44:48]

Well, the way I usually do it is I just listen to the teaching. I just put a little Buddha in my ear who says, other dependent character, or this phenomena, this person, this pain, this sound, this smell, this taste, this touch, this food, this car, this house, this gopher, this lawn, these flowers, this wisteria tree, whatever it is, whatever I meet, I remember this has other dependent character. This doesn't produce itself. It's produced by things other than itself, and I keep listening to that, and that sinks in. If I do it, if you do it even just about 36,000 times, you'll be really different after that. But maybe after like just 23 times, but it takes a few times before you'll notice much change,

[45:53]

but anyway, just keep listening to that, listening to the Buddha, says it, so that you just, whatever happens, you press the button that says other dependent character, other dependent character, other dependent character. Maybe you want to get your favorite singer to sing it to you, but you actually think about it and remember it all the time. You actually remember that teaching all the time, all the time. That's what you're working towards, to consistently remember that. The Buddha always is remembering that. The Buddha is always seeing other dependent, other dependent. The Buddha is always seeing that. In fact, that is what you're seeing, and you're training yourself to see what you're seeing, rather than, we usually see what we're not seeing. We usually see our fantasy about what we're seeing. That will continue for a while, so you're going to keep seeing the way you see things so you can talk about it, but you tell yourself that actually that's based on something you can't see directly at this point, that's too immediate to be meaningful. So, you tell

[47:01]

yourself that over and over. So I do that, I actually say that to myself as I'm walking around. But I do miss a few moments, so you just try to become more and more consistent of finding some way, some simple way to remind yourself of that teaching all the time. That's all. What some other people sometimes say is, mystery, mystery, mystery. In other words, what this really is I can't see, or beyond my thought, or beyond thinking, or non-thinking is another way to do it. There's millions of ways, codes that you can use to remind yourself of that. You might start with the literal one, and then expand it into other ways of saying it that are enjoyable. Because it should be enjoyable, otherwise you get bored and quit. I'm messing with you, John.

[48:24]

You can sit there and do it. I mean, it's not a comment, it's just something I'm wondering. That expression, the tiger takes the mountain, that's a very vast one. That's the immediate one. Well, it's interesting that it says it's like the tiger returning to the mountain and the dragon entering the water. There's the water and the mountain again. So yeah, so zazen is the immediate, the mountains and waters of the immediate present. And you're there, you're entering the mountains, you're entering the water of the immediate present. That is zazen. But it's actually, he says, he doesn't say entering the mountains or returning to the water or whatever.

[49:27]

It's actually that, just that way of being is the Buddha way. But that includes returning and entering and all that stuff. Matt? I was wondering about the words that go with the signs. Is it always language? Does it always have to be language? Or is there other ways to do that? You mean, is there some other kind of image that are non-linguistic that go with the signs? Yes, there's linguistic and non-linguistic. But the real force is towards language. You don't necessarily have to have the other image to get along with people. So there's linguistic signs and non-linguistic signs. There's signs before there's words. So the projection of the, the imputational projection upon what's happening happens before people can talk.

[50:36]

However, the imputational sets the structure upon which words can be set. So children are projecting a structure upon an unstructured, you know, other-dependent immediacy. They're projecting the structure on it before they even have words to put on the structure. You can see them making sounds that are actually delineating a structure, which they will later make a selection among the structures that they're expressing and put words in the structures. So if someone's raped by a wolf, they still do the same thing? They would, however, they probably would, at a certain point, you know, develop some kind of illness because you sort of need to feed the structure, otherwise you kind of, what do you call it, what's the word, you fail to thrive. Because the structure, at a certain point, if it doesn't get words inserted into it,

[51:39]

then certain aspects of the nervous system don't get activated. So usually the people who are raised by wolves, they have trouble afterwards. Just like these people who are, you know, these people who are abused and raised in closets, you know, their brain actually doesn't develop and they have to be cared for because they don't get the proper stimulation. So we sort of have to go through this. But the fortunate side is that after we learn all this, after we mess everything, after we mess the immediacy up with the imputational and learn how to talk, we can hear words which tell us about what we went through. So then we have a chance to learn about the imputational, and if you learn about the imputational, it's possible to give up strongly adhering to it as being the immediate life of Buddha.

[52:44]

Yes? Do I have to build a form of self to do that? Do I just have to kind of do it by myself? Do I intentionally do things like that? You mean, would I recommend that you kind of like see the practice in terms of yourself doing it? It's not safe.

[53:45]

I don't remember some of the things that have happened. I've talked about it. I'm thinking about something that has drastic consequences. So it can just kind of be the origin and come in and for myself to be grasping it. But that kind of comes in another layer of self. Should I just let the imputational self? Or should you give rise to the thought that you're going to come in and do something about it? Is that what you mean? Would I recommend the second part way? No, I wouldn't. And I wouldn't recommend the previous way either, because the previous way also has a self. I wouldn't recommend either way. I'd recommend giving up conceptualization without making that into something that you're doing.

[54:47]

So somehow we say this and then, you know, don't grasp that instruction. Don't turn the instruction of giving up conceptualization into, I'm going to give up conceptualization. If you can, just like here. Let it do itself? Well, that's a little bit like separate from you. Like let it do itself. It does do itself. So you can say let it do itself or you can say give up trying to do it myself, all that stuff. But that's just more conceptualization. Give that up too. And the immediate function is going on. All you've got to do is stop messing with it. Which is pretty hard, because you want some way to stop messing with it. Right? Like should I stop messing with it this way or that way? Should I stop messing with it by not doing this or by me not doing that and letting them do it?

[55:53]

So they're doing it, so okay, fine, you do it. So now we've got that taken care of. I'm glad somebody's taking care of it. And then give that up, but don't make that into something you do. But anyway, if you get in there and study it, somehow it happens. The more you practice this, the more it can happen that you don't take any credit or discredit for what's going on. Somehow we get out of the way. But you sort of have to know what we who get out of the way is, otherwise you might be just dreaming that you're out of the way. Because this tendency is there very strongly, so you have to know what it is. And then if you don't see it any place, maybe it's gone. Maybe it's taken a break. Maybe the imputational has like left town. I don't see it.

[57:06]

The disposition is actually the imputational character. But the afflicted character is that the poor little immediate mountains are in fact constantly hassled and afflicted by the predisposition towards language. That's the affliction. Well, it isn't exactly that it resides, it's just that affliction arises when the predispositions towards conventional designation are superimposed upon dear sweet life. When interdependent life is subjected to torment, that's the afflicted phenomena.

[58:40]

Well, maybe you have to study more. It says you study the other dependent in relationship to the imputational, doesn't it? And by studying that you understand the afflicted phenomena. So in the relationship between the superimposition and the superimposed upon, you see the nature of affliction there. So it isn't exactly that the other dependent is afflicted phenomena, it's more like the other dependent together with the imputational dependently gives rise to this afflicted phenomena or the affliction. The other dependent is the victim. The other dependent which the imputational never reaches and never touches,

[60:00]

the immediacy which is never touched by non-immediacy, gets a bad name, gets made into like non-immediacy. It's not really that way, but afflictions aren't truly existent, but they hurt anyway. It's like this Austrian person was eating a Viennese pastry at Tassajara once and he said, and he was eating and he was talking about another pastry and he says, you know, I don't know what it is, I mean I don't know what it's called, but I know how it tastes. So anyway, we don't know what it is, but it hurts. And the end of affliction is to study the process of affliction. Shall we sit a little bit before our vegetarian feast?

[61:09]

Okay. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Illusions are impossible. I vow to end them. Dharma is our compass. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[62:13]

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