At the end of our meeting last week, the Kai sensei asked a question about the three bodies of Buddha, and so I thought this week I would talk about the three bodies of Buddha, or the three Buddha bodies. In Sanskrit they're called, sometimes called, not sometimes called, they're usually called, tri-kaya. Tri- is from the Indo-Iranian root, which means three,

[01:07]

which is related to words like triple, and three. Kaya means body, okay? And the three bodies are Dharma, Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmatakaya. Those are the three bodies. Dharmakaya can be translated as, you know, the body of the law, the body of truth, the body of reality, or the truth body, or the reality body, or the law body.

[02:10]

Sambhogakaya, I think, literally means bliss, bliss body, or body of bliss. It's often translated also as reward body. And Nirmatakaya, Nirmatakaya means basically transformation, or it's basically what it means, transformation. Sometimes called phantom, or illusion. Nirmata means, has to do with like, you know, psychic transformation in the various possible forms. Okay? So those are the three bodies right there. And these three bodies are connected to a lot of other things, and I thought I'd tell you some of the stuff that it's connected to. Let's see now,

[03:21]

where do we go from here? Maybe I'll just tell you some stuff it's connected to, just for starters, and then I'll explain over the next, you know, two or three years, how these are connected. Okay, so these are connected, these are the bodies, and then these are connected to, these are the bodies connected to the jewels. And Dharmakaya is the Buddha jewel. Sambhogakaya is the Sangha jewel. And Manakaya is the Dharma jewel. These are also connected to the four Wisdoms, four basic kinds of Wisdom.

[04:33]

Gem, and Wisdom. These are the four Wisdoms of Mahayana Buddhism. If you go up to the Founders of Buddhism at this site, there's a pole behind it, a stupa pole, and on each face of the stupa is one of these four Wisdoms. These four Wisdoms are Great Mirror-like Wisdom, Wisdom of Equality or Wisdom of Sameness, or Wisdom of Inherent Sameness, Wisdom of Subtle Discrimination or Subtle Analysis, and Wisdom of All-Accomplishing Wisdom, or Wisdom of All-Accomplishing Action. Now, I've read some different things and I actually, occasionally there's a different interpretation of how these Wisdoms correspond to the bodies.

[05:44]

Actually, no, there's not a problem there. That's not a problem. But it's a problem about the next thing I'll tell you about. So the Dharmakaya is connected to the Great Mirror Wisdom. Great Mirror-like Wisdom. The Sambhogakaya is connected to the Wisdom of Inherent Equality. And the Nirmanakaya is connected to the next two types. The Wisdom of Subtle Observation or Subtle Analysis or Subtle Discrimination. And All-Accomplishing Action Wisdom.

[07:01]

So these two kinds of Wisdom correspond to the Nirmanakaya. And then we have, these are connected then to the Eight in Yogacara Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism. In the early Abhidharma we have basically five sense consciousness, and we have mind consciousness, or just general vijnana, and we have mind organ. So in that sense we have basically seven consciousnesses. But they don't usually speak of seven consciousnesses. They usually speak of five sense consciousnesses, and they talk about mind consciousness and the organ of mind consciousness. But they don't usually call the organ of mind consciousness one of the consciousnesses. So then they usually just talk about six consciousnesses in the early Abhidharma.

[08:06]

Six kinds of consciousnesses, with the mind organ not considered as a consciousness. But then in Yogacara Abhidharma, Mahayana Abhidharma, they call the mind organ a consciousness and add what's called a laya vijnana, or the storehouse consciousness. So they have eight consciousnesses. According to that system, then the early Buddhism, the early teaching of Abhidharma, that's in Abhidharma Kosha for example, would have seven consciousnesses. We'll get into this later. But anyway, so according to the eight vijnanas, so a near-like wisdom corresponds to the eighth consciousness, which is called a laya. The Sambhogakaya Sangha Jewel Equality Wisdom is connected with the seventh consciousness, which is called Manas.

[09:09]

And the sixth consciousness is called the Mano Vijnana Datu. Is that connected to both of the wisdoms? No, it's just connected to the subtle wisdom, Mano Vijnana Datu, which you can just call for short, mind consciousness. And then one through five sense consciousnesses are connected to this all-accomplishing wisdom. Now some people, who did not cooperate with the other people, reverse these two and say that all-accomplishing wisdom is connected to the Mano Vijnana, and the subtle analysis is connected with the sense vijnana. Which, you know, there's some teaching in that too which is of worth. But anyway, most Mahayana Buddhists and most Zen teachers that I've run into in my studies put it this way.

[10:13]

And I'll tell you about the people that switch it around someday, maybe. And then they're connected to the precepts, to the three, what we call three accumulative precepts of, you know, the basic Buddhist precepts of don't do bad, do good, benefit all beings. Those three, right? So, don't do bad, which one do you think that goes with? Right! And which one, do good, which one does that go with? Right! And benefit all beings.

[11:17]

Who said that? Okay, so that's the great correspondence of all these different things, okay? Yeah? I'm sorry, I don't know how to explain that with you. It's the same S and Sangha. B and Sangha. Those are the jewels. B with a circle around it is Buddha. S with a circle around it is Sangha. D with a circle around it is Dharma. Okay? B, S with a circle around it is Bodhisattva. S, B with a circle around it is sentient beings. N with a circle around it is Nirvana. E with a circle around it is enlightenment. A with a circle around it is ancestor. J with a circle around it is...

[12:23]

This is not in any of the books. This is oral transmission. I'm sorry. Okay, so. Now, what we want to do here is, of course, I don't know what you want to do. There's many things you might want to do. You might want to, for example, you might want to get in touch with these four kinds of wisdom. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Or even one of them. There you go. For example, you know, I was... I read this during Session and I'll read it again. This is called, I had it in a newspaper called, Gain the Competitive Edge. Today, you're up against the greatest challenge of your life. Today, you've got to win on the job, at school, in gym, and everything that you do.

[13:27]

Your success is dependent upon your strength and clarity of your own mind. If your mind is sharp, alert, focused, relaxed, then you'll gain a competitive edge in daily living. Isn't it funny that no one ever taught you how to use your mind? In school, they taught you English, math, history, biology, sports, but no one ever showed you the science in mind that can give you the competitive edge in English, math, history, biology, sports, and everything else in life. Zen is the ancient science of mind that was developed thousands of years ago in the Far East. In Zen, you can learn how to concentrate, how to use sophisticated methods of analysis and perception, how to overcome stress, and how to gain control of your time, mind, and life. There we go. That's why he's the Zen fan. Zen is not a religion or a philosophy. Zen has no gurus.

[14:30]

There are only masters of the heart and mind who can teach you how to be independent, strong, competitive, and successful. Whether your interest is enlightenment, success in business, winning in sports or martial arts, developing your artistic abilities, improving your relationships, or simply being happy, Zen can give you the competitive edge. Now, this is something that I've learned from Zen. That's deodorant. It's Zen seminars in Los Angeles. Anyway, that's an example of one of these types of wisdom. This one here. That's what all-accomplishing wisdom by itself would be like. You might want to get into one of these four wisdoms, or at least one of them.

[15:31]

Maybe you would even like to sort of try to figure out how to get into or be close to the triple jewels. Maybe you would like to even be able to realize the bodies of Buddha. Maybe you'd like to know something about the eight kinds of consciousness. Maybe you'd like to practice the three steps. Well, of course, all of these practices are related. Everything on here is a practice. These are all practices. Okay? So, where do you want to start? You can start in various places. For example, you can start by taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. That's one way to start. A very simple way to start. And taking refuge in Buddha is Dharmakaya. Taking refuge in Buddha is a great mirror-like wisdom. And taking refuge in Buddha is to not do bad. And to take refuge in Buddha is to turn the alive vijnana around, to reverse it from its worldly momentum, from its karmic momentum.

[16:37]

In the same way, to take refuge in Sangha is to realize Sambhogakaya, is to realize the wisdom of equality, is to revert the corrupting tendency of the mind organ, and to do all good. And so on. Okay? So you can start any place you want here. But since we're talking about the three bodies, we might start with the three bodies. So how do you realize, what do you do about this Dharmakaya, this law body? So there's, I don't know, there's two methods or two approaches that basically I would talk about. One is what you might call sort of the direct method, which we call the practice of suchness.

[17:40]

Or, actually earlier we were talking about to enter Dharma by inner truth. That would be one way to practice the Dharmakaya directly, one way we've been talking about it. And the way we've been talking about karma in the last few weeks, in the sense of, when you realize that you cannot, you or I, cannot improve our life, if I try to get in there and improve my life, that's based on my own discriminations of what's better or worse, or what's good or bad. And of course it just is more trouble. It doesn't improve my life at all, it just makes more karmic entanglement. And that, to realize that that's so, and to not put any more, to not think about practicing as though you're going to improve your life, or you're going to fix it up, or you're going to do the right thing. To realize that that's hopeless, is actually to have a chance to appreciate that that inexorable karmic train

[18:47]

is simultaneously non-dual with wisdom and compassion. If you can really believe that, or see how powerless you are in the face of your karmic mental, if you can realize that, then at that moment, your karmic momentum then is your exact food for non-discriminating wisdom. And you realize it's non-dual with the unborn. That the total, absolute karmic entrapment is non-dual with total, absolute freedom. That kind of practice is called, that's dharmakaya. That's a direct dharmakaya practice. Which you enter either by faith, or by realization of absolute imprisonment. Either way. That would be an example of direct practice of suchness.

[19:52]

Okay? Other examples of the practice of suchness are what I said this morning, clearly observe the dharma of the Buddha. The dharma of the Buddha is thus. This is the dharma. Not this. Thus is the dharma of Buddha. Okay? That's also the practice of thusness. That's a dharmakaya type of practice. And in other schools of Buddhism they say that Zen is a dharmakaya type of practice. Okay? Okay, and as Dogen says, if you want to practice suchness,

[20:57]

you should practice suchness without delay. Okay? So, the practice of suchness, or the practice of thusness, is a type of practice that you can do without delay. Okay? So whatever you can do without delay, that's the kind of practice which suchness is. Okay? And of course what you can do without delay is thus. That's direct dharmakaya type of practice. That's also to take refuge in Buddha. That's also great mirror-like wisdom. And that's also to reverse this. And that's also not to do any bad. If you practice immediately, without, not even immediately, but before immediately, you cannot do any bad. Anymore. So how can you abandon suchness? How can you abandon it? You can't.

[22:01]

You can think you can't, but that doesn't mean you do. For example, you could abandon being Robin. You could abandon it. Right? But of course you can't. And that's the same way you can abandon suchness. You can't. You can only dream that you can. Yes? I do explain the eighth alaya, but that is a trick to turn that around. Yeah. I will, but not right now. Okay? A little bit later. I'm talking about the direct. Before you even know what alaya is, before I tell you what it is, already, before you ask the question even, or just as you ask the question already, you don't need to know anything about that. Just the person over there that doesn't know about alaya yet can directly realize dharmakaya.

[23:02]

Okay? That kind of practice is, people think of sometimes as Zen practice. It's not the only kind of Zen practice, but it is, you know, sort of, we get credit for that kind, which is nice. I didn't understand Robin's question clearly. You didn't understand it? Did that refer to something that someone suggested that you do? In my reading, it describes these five different dharmas, and suchness is the last of the dharma, and it says you have to abandon all the dharmas and all the adharmas, and how can, and it's like, you have to go through all these different things to realize suchness, but then you're supposed to abandon that too, and I don't really understand. Thank you. Well, that's a dip that's over here. It's over on that part. That's the other kind of practice. But that's just, I mean, saying it's different categories and take care of it. It doesn't. Okay, okay, I'll leave.

[24:07]

Thank you. There's a, talking about bodies, again, I think just, you were just like, Les, do you ever handle it? Or do you? Yeah, one guy said, he said this, and then he said no, thus. Why is it not this? Well, well, you know, that refers to a story. Okay, and the story goes, the story is a story between the, also which I mentioned the other morning, just, it's a dialogue between the sixth ancestor and one of his, his two main disciples. Sixth ancestor's name is Hui Nung, and he had two big disciples, Nan Yue Huai Rong and Ching Sa. Huai Rong went to visit him, and when he got there,

[25:08]

the sixth ancestor said, where do you come from? He said, I come from Songshan. He said, what is this that thus comes? And he says, as soon as I would say, or if I would say it's this, even if I would say it was this, or as soon as I say it was this, I already missed the point. Okay, when he says, what is it that thus comes, you know, thus comes is, what is this that is Buddha? He's asking, thus comes is an epithet for Buddha. What is this Buddha? And he says, as soon as I say, as soon as I would say it's this, I would miss the point. Okay. And then he says, well, can you, could you still cultivate it and realize it? And he said, I don't say there's no cultivation or realization, only that it cannot be defiled. And in this case, defiling it would be any kind of contrived activity,

[26:11]

any kind of hesitancy, any kind of supportive devices on this situation to make it into Buddhism, all that kind of stuff. That's what we call defiling. So, the great, what's his name? Baijong Weihai said, the way of meditation does not necessarily require, does not require cultivation. And he's referring to Dharmakaya meditation. Dharmakaya meditation does not require cultivation. Just don't be defiled. If you want to do this kind of meditation, you don't necessarily have to cultivate it. You just can't be defiled. In other words, you just can't do anything contrived. You just can't do any bad. You just can't rely on the laya vijnana.

[27:15]

In other words, you have to take refuge in Buddha. When you take refuge in Buddha, you don't have no, you can't use anything to take refuge in Buddha. You know, you don't sort of like say, well, I'm going to take refuge in Buddha, but before I take refuge in Buddha, I'm going to become a better person, or I'm going to get more concentrated, or, okay? You do not have to cultivate in order to take refuge in Buddha. But you have to be careful not to defile taking refuge in Buddha. Like, don't think about whether you're good enough, or whether you can do it, or tomorrow will be better, or something like that. Any kind of thing like that should be dropped away. Just straight away do it. That's the kind of meditation. When we say it doesn't require cultivation, it's this type of meditation. As you'll see in a minute, this type of meditation does take cultivation. Okay? That's why not this. It's more, if I say this,

[28:17]

that's not the same as thus. Thus is not necessarily this. Thus includes this. Thus includes this and all the other thises. It's bigger. It's like that big question, you know. Yes, Sushant, who's next? Well, I've been thinking, I've been reading the Avatamsaka Sutra, and I have a lot to say about Bhairavachana Buddha. Yeah. And the cosmological aspects of the Dharma. Yeah. I don't know how I stopped that, but it's sort of in the bodies there somewhere. This is Bhairavachana Buddha here. All together? No, mainly this part here. Bhairavachana Buddha is great mirror-like wisdom. In other words, Bhairavachana Buddha is the entire cosmos. Every single thing in the cosmos is an epithet of Buddha. Lushen means Buddha. Buk means Buddha. Jim means Buddha. Everything, everything and part of thing in the universe is Buddha's body. Okay? That's Bhairavachana Buddha. That's mirror-like wisdom.

[29:18]

And Alaya-Vijnana is a storehouse of all possible images. Everything, you know. But it's not necessarily non-dualistic. And therefore, the Alaya-Vijnana's stance is, does some violence to things. It says some difference in them or something. But Bhairavachana Buddha turns this around so that there's no evil anymore. And everything Bhairavachana Buddha has manifested. I thought that Laya could only differentiate in conjunction with Manas. That's right. In order for Laya to be differentiated, you need this. That's right. So, and its inherent state is undefiled? Its inherent state is undefiled. That's right. So, your inherent state is undefiled. Already, inherently, you're undefiled. That's why you don't have to do anything. If you try to do something, you contradict your inherent

[30:19]

emptiness, your inherent purity. So, that's why this practice, you don't have to do anything. But it doesn't mean you don't do things, because that's also a defilement. It's just practice thusness. You just practice immediately. Yes? That's what I wanted to ask you about. In just basic, normal, everyday life, practicing the bodhisattva ceremony or something like that, there's a, it feels like there's a need to think ahead, a need to pay attention and plan, general feelings of wanting it to come off right, and practice chanting and stuff. Now, where is that practice of suchness in that activity? And where does that become defiled? Where does it become defiled?

[31:23]

Yeah, I mean, is it defiled because we're thinking ahead and we're practicing the bells? Or, how do we realize the suchness of the practice? Thinking ahead? Thinking ahead? There's no thinking ahead, you should know. That's why we say, thinking ahead. Thinking ahead. Thinking ahead is totally undefiled. And you should think ahead without any hesitation. And you should think ahead as the practice of suchness. And you should think ahead as the non-defiling way. You should think ahead as taking refuge in the Buddha. Because one way to take refuge in the Buddha is to say, I take refuge in the Buddha, but you can't always say, I take refuge in the Buddha, otherwise, well, you can't actually do that, actually.

[32:25]

At least if you stay at Tassajara you can say that all the time. I think probably people would put up with that. Maybe they would be bored. But if you said it quietly, I think you could do it all the time, you'd be okay. If you left Tassajara, maybe people would not put up with it, I don't know. But you can do that all the time. You can take refuge in the Buddha by saying, I take refuge in the Buddha all the time, that could be the way to do it. But you can also take refuge in the Buddha as, you know, various ways, like Eric is, or like Jerome is, various ways. You can take refuge in the Buddha constantly. By the way, I wasn't going to say constantly, as if to save your head from fire. Okay? And I would like to point out that the way we chant that thing, you know, before the ninju, I don't agree with that, to save your head from fire. I don't think that's right. It's to save, as if to save your head from fire, is what it says. Because we're not going to save our head from fire, that's for sure. And we shouldn't even try.

[33:28]

But we should practice as though we were going to save our, as though we were trying to save our head from fire. With that kind of urgency. But not actually to try to save your head from fire. And actually the origins of that phrase is, is as if, I mean that's where we got it from. So I don't know why it got changed, but... Can we change it back to as if? They talk about it in here. Huh? They talk about it in this book over here, about that translation. Okay. What book? You have a book over there? What is it? Dance. A study book? Soto no Yoji. Alright. Is that okay? Got it? Now you have it. Yes? Do these three gods, do they come in this order, in our tradition? Do they come in this order? Yeah. In Zen tradition they go in this order. Is there some other traditions where they are reversed?

[34:30]

There seems to be other traditions where they are reversed. Seems to be. Some Tantric Buddhists kind of feel like they are starting here. And they say that Zen people start here. So, this one includes the other two, but this includes these two too, and this includes these two too, so they mutually include each other. So, theoretically, you could start from nirmanakaya and go to the other ones, but generally speaking, most of the time in Zen anyway, they talk about starting here and going through these. But this guy is saying start at nirmana, right? Okay. Is he okay for that? Yeah, he is saying start at nirmana, right? Or anyway, he is offering it to you. So do you think the people who did Nichiren Chanting was starting at nirmana? What? If you did Nichiren Chanting, you know, if you get a new car or something, would that be a way of starting at nirmana? Nichiren Chanting is definitely gamakaya. Nichiren is

[35:34]

just like in the same place as Dogon, starting from the top, so to speak. So, this is the practice of suchness. If you do the practice of suchness for a long time, in other words, if you're intimate with suchness, so intimate that you're not even separate, in a sense, without even... Intimate does not mean one. It does not mean two. If you practice suchness without delay for a long time, you get a reward, which is sambhogakaya. That's why it's called a reward body. It's a reward for the practice of suchness. And then, because of the reward from the practice of suchness, you can transform your practice in many ways. So we call these bodies, you know, but actually, dharmakaya is meditation. Dharmakaya Buddha

[36:36]

is actually practice. It's a kind of practice, which we call correct or right meditation. It's not like some kind of body over there that Buddha has. It's actually the correct meditative exercise called zazen. Now, again, I want to make this clear. I would like to make this clear, and that is, although you are completely trapped in karmic train, you can't help yourself out of it. Just like the beginning step of AA, you got to make... You can't... You're not going to be able to figure out how to not be an alcoholic. Alcoholics can't figure that out. And deluded people can't figure out how to get undiluted. However, they can definitely try to get undiluted, which is exactly what deluded people do. Buddhas don't try to get undiluted. They realize that you cannot do that. And therefore,

[37:36]

they realize the Dharmakaya. But once you realize the Dharmakaya, in other words, once you accept what's happening, transformation does occur. In other words, you do become a better person, in a sense. Because if you do not do bad, and you do do good, you do help people. You do change. But the change is not by you trying to change, but the change is by owning up to who you are. That transforms you. In the medium of owning up to who you are, you're automatically... you're spontaneously transformed by that honesty, by that acceptance, and that entering into the suchness. That transforms you. But if you try to transform yourself, you'll never succeed at all. It's impossible. That's the karmic train. Okay? So there is possibility of transformation, but not by deluded people trying to do it because they can't figure out how to do it.

[38:37]

It's your inherent nature that will transform. Reality itself will do all the work. Or you can say the intimacy with suchness, or the intimacy of suchness does all the work. Yeah? I wonder... It's like... You're... You transform other people by changing. You change... Down here. Down here you transform yourself to help other people transform themselves. Yeah. When you change, other people change, and then they change you back. Kind of. Uh-huh. So... You know, it's like it goes out first, and then they change, then it comes back to you. Uh-huh. It's a process of identification. Right. Okay. So anyway, before I get much more into this line, this more direct line, I'd like to now switch

[39:38]

to the more indirect line, which is more the line... This is like, you might say, the line I've been talking about is practice, which is... It's the actual immediate practice. It doesn't... There's not much skill and means involved in what I've been talking about. But... To... But Zen... Zen is not just the way I've been talking about, although people push Zen up into this kind of practice. Zen is also practiced down here and here, too, if you're just Zen. And part of the practice down here is to offer teachings. You know? To appear in the world and to provide teachings. Which then take... For example, teach what consciousness is. Teach what mind is. And another way to do this thing is by studying Abhidharma, either early Abhidharma or Mahayana Abhidharma. Just by studying the mind, by introspecting on how the mind works, these things turn around,

[40:42]

and turning around these things is these other things. So, another approach is the approach that Robin was talking about, she's reading the Lankavatara Sutra, where they're into studying these things and turning them around. Or letting them turn around through the study of the mind. So, these eight Vijnanas are transformed into the Four Wisdoms, and the Four Wisdoms realize the Dharmakaya. So you can come back this way. And what we usually call Abhidharma is in this realm here. Either it's seven Vijnanas or eight Vijnanas. In early Abhidharma they didn't have a laya. Okay. Any questions

[41:44]

so far about that? I probably will get to this at some other point, but in terms of the that the organization just seems to me like the practice of suchness is closely connected to the senses. The five senses. Yes, it is. I mean, literally. That is, the five senses are organized in relation to the nirmanakaya body as opposed to the dharmakaya body. In speaking, you identified the practice of suchness as being very much a dharmakaya practice. Yes. Yeah,

[42:46]

that's right. Why nirmanakaya? Why aren't they more directly connected to the dharmakaya? I mean, why are they more connected to the nirmanakaya? Okay. Well, partly because they're not always going on. One reason. But alaya is always going on. Dharmakaya is something that is inherently always present. So the practice of suchness is never interrupted. It's the most basic. It's the entire cosmos.

[43:47]

Then there's these sub-buddhas, other buddhas around Vairochana Buddha, which manifest certain aspects in the dynamics of the total cosmic activities. And the sense situation is part of it. In nirmanakaya Buddha, all the different manifestations that the buddha body can go through in the world, those are related to the senses. Okay? So, one way to do it, one way to enter this thing is like this, over to here. And when this is transformed, then this is transformed and this is transformed and that's transformed. So, it goes like this, but you can also go like this. So, and usually, actually, in the early avidharma, you start down here and go up either to here and then over and then up or go up to here and then over here and then back down. So, for example,

[44:52]

the practice, you know, that little poem that I was telling you about, what is it? The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you, don't go back to sleep. That right there could be a suchness practice. Okay? Or it could be a sense vijnana practice, a sense consciousness practice. You have to tell what you really want. That could be a meditation on this consciousness. People are walking back and forth at the dorsal where the two worlds meet. Okay? That could be a meditation right here on meeting the place where the organs and the sense fields

[45:55]

meet, which is called ayatana in avidharma, the doors of arrival of consciousness. So, one way to practice is to realize what, for example, what eye consciousness or ear consciousness really is. You can realize what they are, you can realize what these other ones are, then when you realize what they are, then those turn around. So, if you can get in touch with the process where how the organ and the object meet or how the organ and the object give rise to the consciousness relevant to that organ, if you can see how consciousness arises in the first place, well, that's enlightenment at this level. And that's this competitive edge kind of practice that's all-accomplishing way to be able to see how that happens. And in early avidharma,

[46:57]

avidharmakosha, in the it's called the famous Chinese work called Dajer Du Lun which is the it's a kind of a Mahayana avidharma work early Chinese Buddhism before Zen and in some Zen texts and in also some Tendai texts where they talk for example the small treatise on calming and insight Xiaojer Guan in all those books they talk about these ayatana practices Zen, Tendai, this early Chinese Mahayana Mahayana avidharma and early avidharma they all have this practice which of trying to see how the organ and the field interact to produce the consciousness and which and they all go through this same story of saying eye consciousness or seeing does it come from the eye? Does it come from the mind? Does it come from the color?

[47:57]

Does consciousness come from the eye? Well, if it comes from the eye then a deaf person would be able to have eye consciousness because they have eyes if it comes from the mind then a blind person would be able to have eye consciousness because they have mind if it comes from the color then the color could instill mind consciousness but they can't do that so it doesn't come from any of the three right? So where does it come from? Well, it doesn't come from any of them it comes from the interaction between the three by meditation like that you can realize that eye consciousness is empty it's one way okay? That's called the Dattu type of meditation early Abhidharma meditation but you find that again as I say in this Mahayana Abhidharma text which is supposedly based on the Majamaka school in early China and you also find it in Zen texts like Zen Don it's in there it's in

[49:00]

the extended record by John Waihai it's in you know all over the place that same meditation through all various forms of Buddhism this is to realize that the eye consciousness is empty in other words that the arising of consciousness doesn't depend on one thing but various causes and you actually get in there and work at it you have the reason of the teaching to back you up and then you go in and try to find out for yourself introspect introspect that is a nirmanakaya that type of practice okay it isn't just plain old suchness it's an actual skillful device to get direct experience of that teaching and it's called the dhatu meditation where you look at the organ the field and the consciousness how they tie together okay another way to deal with it is called the ayatana meditation where you just watch the organ and the field watch them meet and the

[50:01]

the Sambhakaya says they interact and they don't interact when they interact they merge when they don't interact they remain in their own states when the field and the organ interact they merge into this thing called consciousness or you know or the event when they don't interact they're actually separate they're not sort of related they're actually separate they don't interact therefore if you look at that for a little while especially if you watch the experience you find out they never really meet when they interact they merge they don't meet anymore and before they interact they're in their own state they don't meet so they meet or they don't well they don't and they also don't not what's the difference between the two meditations one you're working with the three and the other you're working with the two how is it possible to study the yajna so that's because you have consciousness arises how can you how is it possible how can you take the consciousness

[51:03]

out of try it that's how it's possible I'm trying I'm looking at this and I'm getting higher consciousness greater consciousness you may have gotten consciousness but it is possible to to observe with the consciousness with the consciousness yeah so it's in there it's there but you're not emphasizing that you're emphasizing the this door you're emphasizing the door where the consciousness arises rather than in the other one you're emphasizing the interaction between consciousness and the meeting of the two so you're emphasizing all three in the other case you're just emphasizing the place where they meet it's so subtle that's subtle it's subtle that's why you have to be calm to do this practice usually you have to be pretty calm in order to watch this and that's what that's the door it's right there that's the door seal that's the Nyayatan meditation the door seal it's meditation on the door seal you're meditating on the door there's awareness of this door but you're not working on the awareness

[52:03]

you're working on the door or the door seal where these two worlds meet but they don't meet and and Bhajan says if you can see that they don't actually meet that is instant enlightenment you see that and that kind of enlightenment is an enlightenment which you have to cultivate and your ability to cultivate it will be due to the Dharmakaya and Sambhogakaya you can cultivate it down here you meditate down here in that case alright straightforward Abhidharma meditation which many of you are on the verge of doing right now you can almost do it it's a little different though from the practice of suchness however this is a way to get into the Dharma into the bodies of Buddha too can you connect those two how do you connect the non-contrivance and the contrivance at the same time the contrivance

[53:07]

and the non-contrivance are non-dual in the Dharmakaya our life we are inexorably trapped in contrivance we'll never get out of it okay if you realize how totally contrived and contriving you are and how you'll never stop being contriving if you realize that you'll immediately realize totally uncontrived that's that simultaneity of those two is the Dharmakaya so one practice of suchness is to totally just take the thusness of your contrived life and if you totally settle into that without any hesitation you will be able to realize the uncontrived which always co-exists with the contrived and neither one of them will ever stop that's the Dharmakaya now if you want to do a practice of Dharmakaya some of these practices may look like contrived practices but they're not if you do them in a contrived way

[54:09]

well, why not you can't get away from that but the non-contrived way of doing these practices is also non-dual the Dharmakaya doesn't stop you know, up there it comes through everything so there's a non-contrived way to do all these apparently these skillful means, you know so Zen teachers to give this kind of practice but they also give this kind of practice Bajang Waihai gave this kind of practice he said the practice of meditation and he didn't say but he meant this kind does not require cultivation all this stuff down here it does not require cultivation that doesn't mean you can't do cultivation you can cultivate but you don't have to you can practice up here without any cultivation and that's called not practicing without any cultivation and also not defiling it is what we call by not doing any bad alright? no, I'm not doing bad down here either

[55:10]

because down here you're not contriving either but down here you're cultivating and cultivating is not bad it's just that you don't have to cultivate you can practice up here you can do Dharmakaya type of practice which does not require any cultivation cultivation means cultivate till it comes from till and till means to work to labor the way of Dharmakaya meditation does not require work you don't have to work at it it's effortless it's just thus all the time yeah um I guess it appears sometimes that silly thoughts and those things those other things come up those other kinds of realizations come up sure, sure they do like I said some people like this meditation about putting their hands against the tummy because it gives you a way to cultivate you can cultivate then you can make an effort you can work it's almost like doing something

[56:11]

so Dharmakaya practice can be done and when you do Dharmakaya practice you don't have to do any work it's effortless however it doesn't mean you can't do Sambhogakaya practice and Nirmanakaya practice it doesn't mean you can't take refuge in the in the Sangha and the Dharma it doesn't mean that at all as a matter of fact it means you can do these other practices you can cultivate a way for example you know I just think the other day um Gabrielle asked me she said why were you interested in the fact that Mona and I uh knew each other in Germany or why was it so interesting to you and I explained well you know they actually came to Green Gulch together and I I maybe sort of vaguely knew that but I forgot that that they came together and I didn't think I just saw them as two people from Germany then I found out that they were connected and I so like I had this I had this relationship with her and I had this relationship with her you know these were kind of like partial circuits

[57:12]

and then all of a sudden this thing when they kind of connected you know and it sort of went zhoom and that uh that's kind of like my appreciation of that if you can be for saying so the fact that that's kind of real interesting to me and I really enjoy that that's a Sambhogakaya Buddha you know and then also I sort of vaguely knew that Mark came to visit Laurie a few years ago and then he started working at Greens and all that but then the other day at lunch all of a sudden I remember that they used to work at a restaurant together in Boston and they went it's the it's the Sambhogakaya Buddha again the enjoyment I enjoy that connection you know and feeling brother David over the mountain you know and Vanya's here to spend with brother David and Paul went over to visit I like that stuff I I really enjoy interconnectedness when I see it my enjoyment of it excuse me for saying so my pleasure and bliss in interconnectedness

[58:12]

is a result of practicing Zazen a long time of practicing suchness when you practice suchness without delay for a long time you love to see interconnectedness it's a great joy to you because it's such a relief from non-interconnectedness and it relates to everybody but the reward of practicing suchness of Dharmakaya practice the reward of it is this wisdom of equality where you you do all good everything's all these connections are good you know and you do that okay that's an example of cultivation you know you actually do it your mind does close these little circuits you know you're out there and that's Sangha the interrelatedness wait how is that cultivation? how do you mean that's an example of cultivation? it seemed like a minute ago you were talking about it just as something that happened as a reward it's a reward of well you see going to the Zen Dojo day after day it's kind of like cultivation

[59:13]

it's kind of like work you know actually it's not work at all but it's kind of like work to get up in the cold and climb up the stairs it's sort of like work, right? day after day again and again no matter what happens you go there and you put in your time you know and all of a sudden you really appreciate your relationship with all beings that's your reward for doing nothing again and [...] again so because of time because of the illusion of movement you have the illusion of cultivation even though each act itself is effortless and not doing anything at all you have there's some kind of sense of cultivation and then that's the reward so what's the difference between contrived cultivation and not contrived cultivation? contrived contrived you think like I was saying last week contrived you think you have some leverage on your life you know you think

[60:13]

for example you're following you think you have to do something to be mindful you've got to have some way to remember to be mindful well there's no way to remember to be mindful if you remember you're doing mindful if you forget you're not ok that's it sorry sort of remembering to be mindful is remembering it or not it's one or the other it's not you don't sort of remember you just forget or you remember take your choice which is it? you remember it's a hundred percent but if you think that way of these various gizmos that you strap on your hip to help you practice and stuff like that that's contrived activity but if you just walk around with these gizmos on your hip you know that's the kind of guy you are you know then that's not contrived activity you're just that kind of person that likes to carry around a lot of equipment but it's not like it's not like there's one person without the backpack another person with the backpack it's always one practice one suchness

[61:14]

no matter what you do no matter how many skill and means you learn no matter how many Abhidharma classes you take no matter how many times you try to you know watch the organ in the field interact and how many books you read about how to do that you don't have to see that as anything contrived you can just see that's the kind I'm that type of person I like to read the Lotus Sutra it's not like I'm this kind of unreb and then I get the Lotus Sutra and strap it on to my life actually there's not even me there just reading the Lotus Sutra that's all there is it's not an additional thing to my life it's my whole life that's not contrived but if I think the other way then it's contrived and then it's defiled and then it's forget it you know it's bad then it's not good and it doesn't help people so relatively speaking you talk about doing good like you know do something good like say hello to somebody smile at somebody

[62:15]

give a dollar to the Zen center or you know have a berk there's various nice things to do but if you do them in a contrived way they're not nice they're bad that's what evil is really so there's good karma and there's bad karma but really there's both those kinds of karma are not good the only kind of karma is uncontrived suchness and that's going through all these practices but some people can't believe they can't believe in just practicing suchness and they're just flat out so we have these other practices for them which are also ways that they that they can kind of pretend like they're doing something but actually the thing they're pretending to do just allows them to actually practice suchness it's just skill and means to get them to do it like some people if you just sit that's immediately the dharmakaya immediately and if you just keep sitting sambhogakaya comes and then the nirmanakaya comes automatically you have to work but some people

[63:15]

just can't sit because how could sitting be the dharmakaya so you say well work on a koan and they work on the koan and they work on the koan in the meantime they're sitting there actually the sitting the natural suchness of their sitting is what's doing the work but they're they're they're working on the koan because that keeps them interested and they feel like jeez I'm working away or they're working on the ayatanas or the dhatus but actually it's the suchness that's always doing the work but some people need to do some exercises which are skillful means to get people interested and if they do them without defiling attitude they work they work because you're not defiled that's what's really working it's your undefiled perfect nature and sometimes we need to do something in order you know like get ready for a bodhisattva ceremony or something to let yourself be yourself without thinking I can do anything better so you're just working on a bodhisattva ceremony you're not thinking well jeez I should

[64:15]

I should be a better person or you know I've got to make work you don't have to do any of that stuff you're just working on the ceremony in the meantime your suchness is just sitting there just going there's intimacy that's there all the time you know it's working away for you accumulating all this merit just transforming you and making you more and more joyful and appreciative of all beings but as soon as you try to get in there and contrive something like doing bodhis getting ready for the bodhisattva ceremony as a contrived activity well then you can even turn that not to mention zazen or something spiritual like that you can turn into into a burden give an example how it would be a contrived what would the general attitude of practicing for the bodhisattva ceremony that would make it contrived well you just think that it's going to make you a better person but most people probably don't think that when they're actually practicing it most dharmas are just doing their job right but don't we

[65:17]

think all this stuff is going to make us a better person all what stuff everything on that board you mean we can't stop thinking that way right you mean yeah you can't stop thinking that way right so you don't have to stop thinking that way it's okay in other words that doesn't disqualify you what time is it 8.45 okay so um so so so the abhidharma kind of stuff would the real straightforward abhidharma stuff would be then just to is really in here what people hallmark kind of stereotype abhidharma stuff is in this section here and um so next time I guess uh your homework assignment is uh

[66:18]

you know just try to work on the ayatamas and dhatus see if you can do that if you want if you're interested which is you know look at the door sill but not as a contrived activity but just as suchness if you want to look at the door sill watch the door sill see if you can see the two worlds meet see if they do meet see if you can see them merge in other words they don't they're not even there anymore or stay separate and see if you can realize that they don't actually ever meet that they're either separate and they're not meeting because if they're in two states they're not really meeting or when they meet they merge in other words you can't ever get a hold of that place where they meet in other words the origin of consciousness is empty see if you can get in that if you want that's an abhidharma type of meditation introspect in that way look at that and next time we can go more into this type of introspective type of work which is as I say psychological probably sort of psychological introspective phenomenological

[67:18]

kind of stuff which goes up this way usually but you can come down this way too traditional a lot of people call it zen practice you go down this way and there you're purifying this this purifies that purifies that purifies this but you can also go up this way awakening to the functioning here awakening to the functioning there awakening to the functioning there awakening to the functioning there or do the adoptive meditation and what I like next time what I'm going to probably work on then is to talk about how when these are transformed how they go into the wisdom how the transformation of this is this type of wisdom how the transformation of that is that type of wisdom and so on the Lankavatara sutra is about that kind of stuff okay

[68:19]

do you have any questions I Question of doing something with contrivance and not contrivance, it's all determined by contrivance. It's not like if you contrive and not contrive. You're always contriving, yes. And you're always contriving, there's no real distinction at all. You can't stop contriving. However, you can also do a practice without contriving. It's a possibility, but you have no control over it. You have no control over it, no, but it can be done. If it's done, you can say that's it, but you can't decide to do it. No. So there's nothing to defile. What? There's no defilement. There's no defilement, right. That's right, because since you can't decide to practice in a non-defiling way, it's not even defiled by that. What about vow and intention? I mean, vow is a very big thing. We're having talks on it, but it's all about vow.

[69:22]

Right. How does that plug into what you were just saying about not being able to choose? Yeah, it does. So what do you think? That's exactly why we have a vow. Some sort of mechanism to remind us to open up an opportunity to do these practices. To create a karmic nexus where we can do the practice. Don't get into creating karmic nexuses directly, okay? What is the function of vow then? Is that something that you do? Vow is very much about this stuff. So what is, how does vow, think about that. That's another homework assignment. Think about vow. Vow is very much involved here. Where does a vow come into this picture? Vow. Vow. Vow. How is vow related, under-related to ordinary karmic activity? What does vow have to do with that? Well, you know, I've already mentioned it.

[70:26]

I already told you last few weeks, but anyway. Vow is right in there. Where is it? Destroys it. Vow destroys what? The train of sorrow. It destroys it? Vow is better than that. It co-exists with it. It's non-dual with it. Isn't vow, when you remember to practice mindfulness, isn't that the result of a vow? Is it the result of a vow? That's how I think about it. When you're sitting there and you're distracted, that's how you remember it. I think vow is even more radical and helpful than remembering to practice mindfulness.

[71:27]

If you remember to practice mindfulness for disabled beings, that would be more likely. It's sort of a typical formula, which I'm not consuming. I vow to practice mindfulness, or to give canopies, in order that all beings may be saved. Yes, but is the vow the same as saying, I vow to save all sentient beings in such and such a situation? Is that the vow? Or is that karma? The vow brings you back to zero, I think. That's how I perceive it. Do you want vow to be over? Which side of the fence do you want vow to be over? Do you want it to come in there and be pushing your karma around? Vow, that's good.

[72:32]

Vow, that's great. Vow, that's good. Okay. Vow cuts through? What? What does it cut through? It cuts through... It cuts through all duality. So, right in the middle of all the mess. It has to do with the practice of affection. Yes. That you evaded that business about cutting through. What is that cutting through? All the vows that you make are impossible to attain or to do. Is that like a way of accepting that we're trapped and there's no way out of it? Yes, I think that's part of it, yes. Being willing to practice on the scale of being trapped, and also on the scale of not being trapped by taking on something which is far beyond being trapped.

[73:39]

Anyway, we have this problem because here we are with our karmic minds trying to understand again. Isn't this the dharmakaya playing itself out? You're talking, and I'm talking, and the lights are on. I mean, is the dharmakaya playing itself out? It sure is. Every little thing is a nickname for Buddha. Each question that's been asked is a local name, a local color of Vairagyana Buddha. And nirmanika, and siddhu. It's a manifestation, isn't it? I don't know about sambhogakaya, though. It's a manifestation, for sure. So you say something about, why don't you try this meditation, wherever it's going.

[74:49]

And it kind of affects us somehow. It's in the air, kind of, and some things move, and then we're in the zen-do tomorrow, and somehow something happens, and it's just this kind of thing that's happening. It's kind of like this thing I just mentioned, you know, just like this, like a koan. These are just kind of like little skill and means that we toss out there to give people access to the practice of suchness, which is part of our history of the zen school, too. Bodhidharma just gave the practice of suchness, and he gave almost practically no skill and means that he gave, just flat out, and almost nobody could pick up on it. But then a couple of generations later, as we'll maybe someday get to, some later ancestors gave out all kinds of skill and means to groups, and it became a characteristic of zen,

[75:51]

and sometimes some teachers are giving just teaching of suchness, some teachers give teaching of suchness and skill and means, and some teachers just give skill and means. They toss the stuff up, some people use it, some people don't. And they sometimes give a particular thing to a particular person, because it seems useful. So there's these little things which give people some access to the practice, because they just can't quite dig it, just straight out, this is everything that's happening here, it's not that interesting. Even if you give it a special name, unique little nicknames, it still doesn't get that very interesting. Someone starts to know that it's not one way, right? I mean, it's not like the teacher is giving it to the student, it's like the student is pulling it out of the teacher, too. That's right. The student is right now pulling these things out of the teacher. You say that is happening? Yeah. Yeah, right. I mean, it's not the teacher. And Bodhidharma, apparently, according to tradition,

[76:53]

nobody could pull anything out of him. The kind of person he was, maybe Indian Buddhism at that time, the way he was, was just really kind of like that. You just couldn't get anything out of the guy. And then a couple of generations later, they ran into a Chinese guy that was just easier, I guess, easier for Chinese people to get to. So they just got a lot of stuff out of him. Well, he kind of set it up for the later guys, right? Mr. Bodhidharma kind of created some kind of foundation. Yeah, he kind of set up, they could kind of say, well, he did that, now we can do this. Now that he was so strict, we can be a little bit more grandiose about the whole thing. It's like Kingston recognizing Red China. What time is it now? Okay, so one thing I wanted to mention is that,

[77:56]

again, another kind of bifurcation that you can talk about in Buddhist teaching about reality. And again, reality is that which helps people, right? Reality is emptiness and reality is mind. These are the two ways that we sort of split it up. And in the history of Buddhism, of Mahayana Buddhism, first they taught reality as emptiness. Next they taught reality as mind. So Mahayana came first, teaching of emptiness, that that's the real thing that works, is to realize emptiness of all things. Then they said, actually, what is reality is mind, and mind isn't reality. But we have to remember that,

[78:58]

if we go towards the teaching of mind being reality, we have to also realize that first you have to take the step that everything is empty. You can't go directly to mind as reality without understanding that everything is empty. So you have to go, historically, you have to understand that step. So Bodhidharma taught, first of all, he didn't say mind was Buddha. He said vast emptiness first. Then later Zen people could say, mind is Buddha. So the Prajnaparamita literature, the Diamond Sutra, the Heart Sutra, and the Big Sutras, and the Lotus Sutra, they said they teach emptiness. Then you go to the Avatamsaka Sutra. Not the Avatamsaka, the Lankavatara Sutra. That teaches mind is reality. But in the back of that, or before that, you already have the teaching of emptiness. So first is the Madhyamaka,

[79:58]

then is the Yogacara. So again, you go through these practices, you don't forget emptiness when you're studying these. Studying these are reality, mind is reality, but also it's all based on emptiness. So to study the mechanics of the mind actually does liberate you, but you have to remember that it's all empty. Or, you don't have to study the mechanics of mind, you can just realize the emptiness of things one by one. Again, by recognizing things just as they are, without any contrived activity. But again, emptiness, to approach things as empty is to approach things without contrived activity. Do you want to realize emptiness? Just practice without any contrived activity. That's how you do it. In order to teach those, should you be able to do those, or have some experience with these meditations yourself?

[80:59]

Well, not necessarily. Which meditations do you mean? These here? Not necessarily, no. Somebody should, because it's necessary, some beings need this kind of stuff. So somebody should, but not necessarily every teacher. So in these classes, I'm sort of actually kind of splitting things in two. I'm kind of emphasizing one kind of thing in the lectures a little bit more, and in classes they kind of go together, different kinds of emphasis in these two different situations. So the lectures are more, you know, not really speaking to your mind so much, but more maybe speaking to your suchness, or to your neurons, or your genes, or something. In class, it's more talking about mind here. But we don't have to have classes. We wouldn't have to have these classes. We could have practiced. We don't even need lectures. We can just sit. That's all we need.

[82:01]

That would be enough. You could teach just that way, and not say a word. Just adjust people's postures occasionally. Maybe not even do that. Maybe just adjust your own posture occasionally. That would be enough. That's enough. Or cook lunch, you know. You don't need anything. No lectures, no nothing. But because of my background in Abhidharma, partly, we have these classes. But it's not necessary. I forgot. I think I'll remember in just a minute. Is this actually set out this way? Like this? I mean, has it ever been set out before anywhere in the history of Buddhism?

[83:02]

Not that I know of. You are the first to witness this great synthesis. All these pieces, all these connections have been made, but I've never seen a chart of all of them before. But I've seen. I've seen this and this, this and this, this and this. This is very common. I've seen this and this. I haven't seen this and this. Anyway, there's various connections here that have been made in many different places. In Zen texts, in sutras, in Abhidharma and stuff. It's all there. Eventually, when we get into it, the texts and stuff, the whole connections. For example, the precept thing is rather not very commonly known. But yes, it's all sort of based on it, but the whole thing I've never seen before.

[84:04]

This is all based on my squirreling around. Of course. Thank you.

[85:08]

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