Tonight I have a feeling stronger than usual that the efficacy or usefulness of this meeting depends on each of us. In other words, I request your assistance. I need your help to give this talk. And the format of being in the middle of a sitting

[01:48]

is rather... it's sort of unknown how to deal with the kind of material I want to deal with given that we have been... we have sitters here and we're in the middle of sitting. I don't... what I'm planning to talk about I don't think has ever really been discussed in this kind of format, so it's the kind of thing that works better in a classroom situation where people can ask lots of questions and so on. During the sitting we've been giving quite a bit of attention to the scripture called the Heart Sutra, the Heart Scripture.

[02:51]

And this scripture is one that is making some proclamation, or as Lee said, it's witnessing the emptiness of forms, feelings, conceptions, formations, and consciousness. It just says that they lack some being of their own. It doesn't say they don't exist. It just says they don't have their own being. It says that forms, colors, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles are empty of their own being.

[03:59]

They lack an inherent existence. They're not non-existent. They do have an existence. But their existence is entirely dependent on other things. Other things, things that aren't them, completely account for them. And there's no need to mention them in addition to their causes. In our Tuesday night class we have not been so much, we have not been proclaiming or witnessing emptiness of phenomena, but rather we have been looking at their causes. The culmination of our study would lead us to at least the intellectual realization that forms, feelings, conceptions,

[05:15]

formations in consciousness are nothing but their causes. So what I want to talk about is an early Buddhist teaching, a teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha, which is preserved in the Pali Canon and is called the Seven Points.

[06:34]

Abraham Lincoln said at the beginning of the Gettysburg Address something like, The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they have done here. My father, commenting on the text, once said, Honest Abe lied that time. So with similar hopes, I would like to say this may be the most boring lecture that you ever heard. at least by me.

[07:55]

Nonetheless, that's why I ask for your support and your help to put up with what may turn out to be a very boring lecture, which you will soon forget. But if you sit through this, the world will never forget what you did. Especially if you should happen to stay awake. Now, before you go to sleep, I want to tell you something. And that is that what I'm going to read to you, what I'm talking about, isn't just something I had to say. I'm actually quoting our founder. The great master Shakyamuni Buddha is who I'm going to be talking about. But strangely enough, even though he's our founder, and even though we're all totally devoted to his lineage and really appreciate his teaching to no end, still, to hear somebody read it might be really boring.

[09:05]

Now see if you dare be bored. I won't be bored because I'm reading this. And also, I'm scared to death you're going to find this boring. So I'm quite excited. But you, I don't know what you're going to do, but I would like you to act, maybe even pretend, not that I'm Shakyamuni Buddha, but pretend that Shakyamuni Buddha is here. And like in the Heart Sutra, you know, Shakyamuni Buddha was there, remember? You know that he's there. But he doesn't talk. He enters a samadhi at the beginning of the sutra. And Avalokiteshvara talks for him. So just pretend like I'm just speaking for Buddha, who's someplace in his room, watching you, to see if you listen to his teaching. Because this is really his teaching. See if you can stand it. This teaching is about, this is the rational, analytic exposition of the Heart Sutra.

[10:14]

This is the stuff that goes into realization that phenomena are missing. Or should I say, phenomena are completely endowed with everything but their own appearance. That's the one thing they lack. So here's an analysis that leads you to that realization. At Savatthi, the Buddha said, and I'll modernize this slightly, if a brother or sister who is skilled in the seven points, who is an investigator of the three ways, he or she is called accomplished in this way and discipline. one who has reached mastership, a superhuman. Now, brethren and sisteren, if a brother or sister is skilled in the seven points, oh, and how is a brother or sister skilled in the seven points?

[11:28]

Herein, one fully knows the body, the arising of body, the ceasing of body, and the way going from the ceasing of body. Fully knows satisfaction there in the body, misery that is in the body, and escape from the body. You could also substitute form for the body. knows forms, the arising of forms, the ceasing of forms, the going away and ceasing of forms, the satisfaction in forms and the misery in forms and the escape from forms. Similarly, he or she fully knows feelings in a like manner, conceptions in a like manner, formations and consciousness, namely the seven points.

[12:31]

fully knowing the arising, the ceasing, the going to the ceasing, the satisfaction therein, the misery, and the escape from each of the five aggregates. These are the seven points that one who is accomplished in the Buddha way knows these seven points about these five aggregates. And what, friends, is body? What is form? It is the four great elements and that derived from them. This is called the body or this is called forms. And so form, or for example color, color is something that's derived from the combination of the four great elements.

[13:52]

All material phenomena are a conjunction of these four qualities, quality which is called earth, another called fire, water, and air. These are qualities of material. For example, fire is that which brings things to completion or perfection. It's that which brings the form to its congealed functioning. Earth represents the solidity or the supportive, you know, substantiality of form. Water represents the containing capacity of form, or the supporting capacity, and air to the fact that form has movement or, you know, Brownian movement. These four come together in different ways to form colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangibles.

[14:58]

There are meditations which you can do, which sometimes they talk about imagining that you're sitting at a crossroads, four crossroads, and you sit there and you can meditate on how these qualities come together to form colors, sounds, smells, and so on. From the arising of food comes the arising of the body. From the ceasing of food is the ceasing of body. From the arising of these four gross elements, these four great elements, comes the arrival of colors and so on. From the ceasing of these four gross elements, great elements, comes the ceasing of body, comes the ceasing of form. Oftentimes when speaking of a person dying, they say the four gross elements, the four great elements disperse and the body is lost.

[16:10]

And the way going to the ceasing of the body is called the Noble Eightfold Path, namely right view, right intention, right livelihood, right speech, right mindfulness, right concentration, what did I miss one? Right effort. And the ease That ease, that pleasure which arises because of body or arises because of colors or smells or sounds or tastes or tangibles, that's called satisfaction of form. Insofar as the body is impermanent, fraught with suffering and unstable, that is misery in the body or misery in form.

[17:24]

that restraint of desire and lust, that putting away of desire and lust that are in the body or regarding forms, that is escape from the body or escape from form. Whatever recluse or brahmins By thus fully understanding the body, its arising, ceasing, and way of going to its ceasing, by thus fully understanding the satisfaction, the misery of body, and the way of escape from the body, are apt to disgust, are apt to fading out. The ceasing of the body, they are truly apt. They are truly apt firmly grounded in the norm and the discipline. Moreover, whosoever recluses our Brahman, by thus fully understanding body, its arising, its ceasing, and its going to its ceasing, by thus fully understanding its satisfaction, misery, and escape from body, they who are apt at disgust for the body, apt at fading out, ceasing of the body,

[18:44]

are liberated without grasping, are truly liberated. For them it may be said, there is no more whirling around in the world. And what, brethren, is feeling? These six seats of feeling to witness, Feeling is born of contact with eye, with the eye organ, or contact with the ear organ, or contact with the nose organ, or contact with the tongue organ, or contact with the body organ, or contact with mind. This brethren is called feeling. From feeling arises contact, No. From the arising of contact comes the arising of feeling.

[19:47]

From the ceasing of contact comes the ceasing of feeling. And the going away... And the going away to ceasing of feeling is the Aryan, the Noble Eightfold Path, which is right views, right intention, Right effort or right livelihood? Huh? Speech? Right speech, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. That ease, that pleasure which arises because of feeling, that is the satisfaction that is in feeling. Insofar as feeling is impermanent, fraught with suffering and unstable, This is the misery that is in feeling. That restraint of desire and lust, that putting away of desire and lust, which are in feeling, that is escape from feeling.

[20:57]

Now, whatsoever recluses or brahmins, by thus fully understanding feeling, it's arising, it's ceasing, and it's going away, thereto By thus fully understanding the satisfaction, the misery that is in feeling, and the escape from feeling, are apt for disgust at feeling, are apt at fading out, for utter ceasing of feeling. They are truly apt. They that are truly apt are firmly grounded in this norm and discipline. Moreover, whosoever by fully understanding these things and so on, are truly liberated. There is no more whirling around. And what is conception? These six seats of conception

[22:01]

conception of body conception of sound or conception of color and conception of sound conception of smell conception of taste conception of tangible and conception of mental images that brethren is called conception and for those who understand it in these seven ways there's no more whirling around and what is the formations These six seats are the formations aggregate. Formations that are in form, formations in sounds, in smells, in tastes, and in tangibles and in mental images. These are called the formations compound. In the same way, for consciousness, what is consciousness?

[23:06]

These six seats of consciousness, sight consciousness, ear consciousness, smelling consciousness, tasting consciousness, touching consciousness, mind consciousness. This is called consciousness. From the arising of name and form comes the arising of consciousness. From the ceasing, it's ceasing. the way going to the ceasing is just that eightfold noble path, namely right view, right intention, right speech, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. So in this way, brethren, a brother or sister skilled in these seven points is liberated. So what he's instructing here is the seven points to be understood with regard to the five aggregates.

[24:20]

And in each case of each aggregate you are using the six seats or the six organs as the origins of each of these. So last week we were talking about the twelve links of causation. The first one is, what's the first one? Ignorance. Second one? Karmic formations. Three. Consciousness, four. Name and form. Five. Six senses or six sense fields. Six. Contact. Seven. Feeling.

[25:23]

Eight. Eight. Craving. Nine. Grasping. Ten. coming, eleven, birth, twelve, old age, sickness, death, lamentation, misery, grief, and happiness. Right? In the sutra we read last week, the Buddha took us up to particularly the point about craving. Craving is the pivotal point. Clinging is the cause of the suffering. But the craving precedes the clinging.

[26:26]

And preceding the Preceding the craving is the feeling. Preceding the feeling is the contact. And preceding the contact is these six sense fields or these six organs which come up together. He made no comment about how to become free of craving. He didn't say, well, you should stop craving. And maybe he did say it someplace, but in that sutra he didn't say you should stop craving. And here, too, he didn't say anything about stopping craving in terms of telling you not to. He just said if you do stop craving, that leads to the ceasing. Again, the focus of the description is on these aggregates. and on these six or twelve doors of arrival of consciousness.

[27:28]

If we can tune in the five aggregates and then tune in these twelve doors of arrival, which come in six pairs, then what happens? Then we are, first of all, we're tuning into, by turning into these six, we can tune into the contact, and therefore to the feeling. Because feelings are that which precedes what? craving. So the cause of suffering is sometimes called craving, sometimes called clinging. And actually, craving is kind of a short or abbreviation of craving and clinging.

[28:37]

So usually when they say, you know, that that the truth of suffering and the truth of cause, sometimes people say the cause is craving. But actually the cause is craving and clinging. And craving is just an abbreviation for craving and clinging. But feeling is the cause for the craving. Positive feeling is usually the cause of craving. But what is the cause of the feeling? The cause of the feeling is contact. And what is the cause of the contact? It is the meeting of these sense fields and these sense organs. And the meeting of these sense fields and these sense organs is also the place where the sense consciousnesses arise. So the organs meet there and the consciousness meets there too.

[29:42]

The consciousness meets there and the consciousness arises there. If one were able to see, for example, if one were able to see, to experience how the contact is conditioned by the sense fields and sense organs, one would be able to see and analyze that the contact is baseless, or that the bases of the contact make the contact something which you cannot even get a hold of. Either way. Anyway, the focus of the analysis, the place where he's putting his energy, where he's actually getting the most detailed and coming back to again and again in this link of causation, is on the meeting of these

[30:49]

sense fields and sense organs, and showing how the other, the aggregates, are born out of this too. If we can see the emptiness of any link, the whole thing starts to fall apart. the Buddha seems to be giving us the most material to see the causation around the link of these twelve, or these six. If you can see the selflessness of one of those links, if you can see the selflessness of the link of contact, then you can also see that feeling is based on something insubstantial. And if you can see that feeling is based on something insubstantial, the feeling is also in jeopardy. If the feeling is in jeopardy the craving is in jeopardy.

[31:57]

If the craving is in jeopardy the clinging is in jeopardy. Or if I don't say in jeopardy maybe I just say you start to see its causation. You start to see what it depends on. And also you start to see that what it depends on what they depend on. This meditation on the causation here starts to make us more and more suspicious about the inherent existence of the links leading up to clinging. Now again, going back to the Heart Sutra, we just say day after day, that form lacks inherent existence. Feelings lack inherent existence. Okay?

[32:59]

Now, the feelings we're talking about here too, the feelings lack inherent existence. The Buddha's analysis of the arising of feeling is to not only show that feeling depends on contact, but also feeling depends on these six. And contact depends on these six. So feelings depend on contact and also depend on these six or some pair of these six. So I feel I don't know where to go next.

[34:04]

I could stop. Or maybe you have some questions. Can you experience anything about what I'm talking about? Do you have any idea how you actually would experience this? Yes? What's the difference between novocaine and realization of emptiness? Is that what you mean? No, I don't think I said stop the feelings, but Buddha said something about the ceasing of the feelings. Well, anybody have an idea what the difference between realizing...

[35:15]

the emptiness of feelings from being numb to the feelings? What's the difference? Yeah? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, right. So in one case, you're actually, you have the feeling and it's still quite vivid. You actually can, you have to, in other words, in order to realize the emptiness of feeling, you have to have the feeling. It has to be quite clear. And if the feeling is pain, and you take something to kill the pain or distance yourself from the pain, this is called, actually, intoxication.

[36:23]

So, in fact, if you intoxicate yourself, you will have difficulty doing this meditation because it will obscure the actual feeling. You need to have the feeling in order to do the analysis experientially. An actual feeling actually arises from contact. So if you have an actual feeling, you can actually feel the contact. If you have a numbed feeling, you'll have trouble feeling the contact because the contact will be kind of numb too. The realization of emptiness happens in the full life of the feeling. So when you realize emptiness, it isn't that the feeling becomes numb. but rather the feeling becomes an opportunity for the freedom from suffering, which is not numbness, but is called happiness or bliss.

[37:26]

And instead of being numb, many obstructions in your life drop away. So you become much more vibrant, energetic, and sharper rather than numb. So you see, actually they may sound similar, but really they're very different. That you must have clear awareness of a feeling in order to realize its emptiness, because it's an un-numbed feeling that's empty. Numb feelings, you can't realize their emptiness because of the obstruction of the intoxication of the Novocaine. Okay? In the early passages of the sutra, it sounds almost like the realization of emptiness is an ascetic practice feeling disgust or aversion for the products of contact.

[38:31]

Yeah, it does sound like that too. It says, that's a tough one for us, isn't it? Because we're Mahayana Buddhists. What did you say? No, please, any jokes will help. Any more jokes? Anyway, there is this thing about disgust, being apt for disgust. Yeah, here it is, right there. Okay, so by fully understanding the satisfaction, the misery that is in feeling and escaping from feeling are apt for disgust at feeling, apt at the fading out or the utter ceasing of feeling. They are truly apt. What about this disgust?

[39:36]

It's a hard one, isn't it? I really have trouble with myself. I don't know what to say. Now this is a time for a joke, when you come to stuff like this. It's already serious enough. What about this disgusting stuff about an early Buddhism? What about that disgusting stuff that they bring up, being disgusted with the world? Can you really... Don't... Are any of you disgusted with the world? Off and on? Yes? Disappointment? Hey, that's good.

[40:44]

Hear that? It's kind of like, here I am, uh... depending on trying to depend on phenomena to get through the day and they keep being undependable unstable and frustrating so i get kind of disgusted with them as pals you know i can't rely on them in that sense i get disgusted i wouldn't be disgusted if they would sort of do their job the way i'd like them to so it's not a disgust sort of just out of just to be a type of person but rather you are actually kind of a sincere sincere and genuine person and here you thought you could depend on this stuff and actually it keeps falling down on the job for you and you start to get disgusted with it in the sense of this sense is pretty good. What do you think of that? It sounds like the analysis of the non-abiding self in the five skandhas because there's no

[41:45]

because there's no permanence in the products, in each of the skandhas, then they're not good enough to be the open self. That also is supposed to awaken. It's kind of like you stop eating this stuff, maybe, because you can't depend on it anymore. Maybe that kind of thing. You're willing to if it would just hang in there long enough to let your teeth destroy it. Go ahead Stuart. From here you look like you're being punished too. What I said was that that analysis of disgust or aversion because of emptiness resembles the analysis of the five standards, the use of the analysis of the five standards that we can't believe in

[43:10]

Good. I understood better that time. Norman? That would be what? Yeah. Right. Daniel? Well, actually, the way it's written here, it looks to me as though their aptness

[44:38]

is because they have this disgust. It's not that they're apt and therefore they have disgust, but more like one of the characteristics of their aptness is that they don't actually, they don't actually, maybe they don't actually pick this stuff up. And the reason why they don't pick it up is because they realize what it is. They realize how unsuccessful it is to try to pick up and depend on unstable caused phenomena. And so what they're apt for They're apt for awakening because they're lousy at picking up dharmas. And the reason why they can't pick dharmas up is because actually they're good at picking up dharmas and they've analyzed dharmas, therefore they realize they can't get a hold of dharmas. And therefore they're apt at liberation because of disgust which is born of understanding causation. But causation, not in a theoretical way only, but also in an actual experiential way.

[45:54]

Yes? What's left of them? There's nothing left, just compassion. All that's left is wisdom and compassion. Oh, and there's a fleeting, there's nothing left of them, but then a sense of self is constantly produced. So the person is taken away. There's nothing left of the person. However, in the next moment, another person is conjured up, and that person is also taken away, not by the person, but by circumstances. Right? So moment by moment, circumstances produce new persons. You don't have to worry about that part because you don't produce your person. Your person is produced by everybody else but you. And the production of you is one of the contributions to the production of these other persons.

[47:05]

So at this time, the person evaporates. But that's happening all the time anyway. It's just that at that time you're not clinging to something that's evaporating anymore. Therefore this evaporating and reappearing sense of self goes on its natural course without any interference of trying to hold onto that self. So at this time then things pass away, cease and go away just as they ordinarily would do before we started to try to interfere with that process. But that's not the end of the person because there's no annihilation. either. This person, this real, not real, but this conventionally real caused person, when it ceases, it leads to another conventionally real caused person, which ceases and so on. This stream keeps going, but there's now freedom from clinging. That's the difference. So the wisdom and compassion are all that's left in conjunction with this fleeting, momentarily conjured up,

[48:10]

an eliminated, conjured up an eliminated sense of self. Does that make sense? So you too can be this way if you can tune in to actual experience and see how this stuff... See, the point is, if you can see how... First of all, find an experience, and if you can see how it's caused, when you see it's caused, you realize... Then you can look to see, is it anything in addition to its causes? And so far, no Buddha has ever found anything in addition to the causes of a thing. They never found a thing in addition to the causes of it. All they ever found was causes. And when they found that all that they could find was causes and they couldn't find the thing, they got very, very happy. They were apt. And this is the kind of disgust they had for phenomena. They had disgust because they couldn't get a hold of it anymore.

[49:11]

The causes, if you try to look at one cause, try to find one cause and get a hold of one cause, you can't do that either. So the causes also are empty, but when you focus on a particular point, you can see the causes converging. But if you turn your scrutiny to one of the causes and try to find the self of that, you'll find that that's also caused. But you start with your own experience, like your own feeling, or your own sense of attachment to a self, or maintenance of something, your attempt to maintain something that's constantly changing and the stress around that helps you locate the clinging. And then you try to find the self. But you will find a self, but what you really find when you look for it is all the causes leading to it. But again, as soon as you turn your attention to try to find the own being of any of the causes, you'll have the same failure. But after you find the, what do you call it, the lack, after you are really convinced that you're not going to be able to find your personal self, then you're also more relaxed and happier, have more energy, and now you're better able to turn your attention on the causes of that and realize that everything's like this.

[50:36]

So the first level of realization is the seeing through this grasping of self. Once you're relieved of that grasping and see that that's the cause of suffering and that there's nothing really to get a hold of there, the next step will be to look at the causes and then you'll realize that things, the other dharmas, don't have any existence either. So first you realize the emptiness of the personal self, then you realize the emptiness of all things. And you can say all things are marked by emptiness. I actually experience that way. And the more I experience that way, the happier I get. This is my happiness. Okay? Yes? Yes? Yeah, right. I can see why you'd say that. That's not dumb. Did you hear his question? In the Sandokai, in the merging of difference and unity, it says, right in form, or right in feelings, there's, you know, right in light.

[52:00]

The light is, in the Sandokai, light means feelings, forms, conceptions, formations, and consciousness. That's what it means by light. It says right in light there's darkness. So right in form there's emptiness. If you look right at what the form is, you will see its causation and you will realize its emptiness. But it says don't confront the form as emptiness. In other words, when you start looking at the form, don't start saying, well, it's okay to say this a little bit, like say, I'm looking at this form now and I have a suspicion that this form is empty. That's okay. But don't try to look at the form and try to see, oh, it's kind of getting vague now, you know. And there's these little perforations that are appearing around the edge or sort of in the middle. Oh, it's getting more and more kind of like numb. It's kind of like slipping through my fingers. That's kind of like trying to find the emptiness in the form. It's like, what do you have this, remember that story, it's called Zen and the Art of, no, no, Zen and the Art of Archery.

[53:08]

Did you ever read that book? The archery teacher says, okay, first thing you do is you pull, first you have to learn to pull the bow back. Okay? Once you get the bow pulled back, you wait there until the bowstring is released. Do not release it yourself. Okay? And this guy does this, I don't know for how long, but for a long time he practices holding the bow, waiting for it to be released. And then he gets an idea. In other words, what you can do, what he learned to do, I think, was to like hold the bow, don't release it, but hold it like half as hard as you were holding it before. And then hold it half as hard as that. And then hold it half as hard as that. And then hold it half as hard as that. And finally, it just goes without you consciously releasing it. Isn't that what he did?

[54:10]

Something like that? And he showed his teacher, and his teacher said, get out of here. And he really kicked him out, and he had a very, I think he finally did get, after four or five years, I think the guy accepted him back. But that's an example of trying to find the emptiness inside. or see the emptiness in the form, rather than dealing with the form and just sitting there with the bow string held until it's released. So it's rather through the actual concreteness of the form that you realize emptiness. If you try to realize the emptiness according to your idea of emptiness or find emptiness around there, that's not the way to emptiness. The way of emptiness is through the form. And the vividness, the extreme, ultimate vividness of the form is the emptiness. Usually you see form, you know, it's sort of like, kind of like, okay, there's a form.

[55:13]

But when you realize really what red is, how much goes into making red, how all the entire world is making red, it's extremely in its total dynamic vitalness. That is the moment that emptiness happens. But if you flinch the slightest bit from the red and try to say, hey, I think I'm getting just about ready for emptiness now. I think I see it around there someplace. Then you turn away from form into another form called this interesting little plan you have of how to get emptiness. Okay, which is fine, but you should realize I'm not looking at a form anymore. I'm into conception. I've got a plan now. Then you should look at the vividness of your plan. and see all the causations of that plan and how that plan, if you follow through on that plan completely and see everything that composes that plan, the plan is just too much for you anymore.

[56:15]

You cannot get a hold of it anymore. Once you really confront what red is, you can't get a hold of red anymore. So again, I said this before, William Carlos Williams talks about words or events having to be like local colors. And local colors always are the convergence of many other local colors. And when you see the totality of the convergence of all local colors on a local color, it's like it goes white. And you sort of fall through the page. It perforates. But if you drill holes in it before that happens, you'll never realize the emptiness of the color. Yeah. Did Carlos say that or the archer teacher? Yeah. Yeah, right.

[57:16]

To remain at highest, without purpose, at the point of highest tension. And I thought you said, we're talking about Carlos Williams, because the same would be true of poetry. To stay without purpose, without trying to see the emptiness. Of course your basic intention, your basic intention is to realize the Buddha's teaching of the voidness of all phenomena. That's your intention. But in a given moment, you're not trying to find it. You're totally dedicated to the fact that you are dealing with a phenomena. And you are, as much as possible, completely, utterly dedicated to phenomenal existence. And you do not flinch from that in the slightest. This is called, in Soto Zen, what do we call that? Non-attachment, mindfulness, what did you say?

[58:17]

Shikantaza is my favorite. Just sitting is an example of unflinching dedication to phenomena, to your spine, to your breathing, to your butt, to your knees. Not trying to sort of use your knees to sort of look around the edge to see the emptiness, but really totally, completely, absolutely blocked by your knees, by your lunch, by the bell. These things, utterly, completely dedicated to the experience of these things, there is where the causation bears. Once you get it, then watch the causation, and if you can see that, then that's where the realization of emptiness occurs. Like that story I told the other night. Teacher says, the student says, can you get a hold of emptiness? Teacher says, why don't you try? And the student goes like this, okay? He says, there's nothing in there. This is empty like a thing called empty.

[59:20]

And the student says, well, how do you get a hold of emptiness or how would you do it? And he took the student's nose and turned it hard and the student says, ouch, you hurt me. He said, that's how to get a hold of emptiness. In the vivid intensity of the pain of your twisted nose right there, that's where the emptiness will be. And we, so, this is not an easy practice. That's why I also want to say that leading up to this analysis and leading up to the actual getting a hold of the vividness of colors, the vividness of paint in your nose, you need, you know, quite a bit of composure, quite a bit of stability to be able to handle an actual phenomenon. Yes. Yes. It seems to relate to an experience that I've had where when I have a headache, one of the things that I've learned to do is look right directly into the headache and feel it as absolutely clearly as I can, exactly where it is in all of this, and as I do this, it just disappears.

[60:30]

Is that the same thing? Same thing. tune into a headache and get the exact shape and size of it, then at the definition of the headache, right there at the edge of it, all surrounding it is all the causes of it. When you feel the causes of it, you realize this headache is nothing than the sum total of the causes and the headache disappears. Jim? Go back to what? Okay. Okay. You mentioned that disgust is a version we already know is classified as a feeling. And you have mentioned that we also call it a feeling. And perhaps it's a translation. is that, and also the last passage you read, which had to do with the Atlas version, talks about fading away and feeling quite not local, but it just takes me to look at it a little more closely there.

[61:48]

The one junction I had to sort it out, Isn't there an echo? Well, I think that there is a lot of it. So, the consciousness basically oscillates. We capture, perhaps, one way or the other. Instead of the ground, or the angle of the view, you would be past this reflection with the action. Shorty?

[63:01]

No, no, you had something before. I just wanted to know how do you apply all this to meditation? As I said just a minute ago, The scriptures that we've been reading, which go into the investigation and analysis of experience, the five aggregates analysis, the 12 ayatanas analysis, the 18 elements analysis, all these analysis of mind are in order to help us have insight into the selflessness of the person and the selflessness of phenomena.

[64:10]

But these insight practices that we're discussing are based on concentration. Concentration is based on courageous effort. And right now, many of you are making a courageous effort to sit. This courageous effort is based on patience. Namely, you don't get mad at the establishment here for setting up this schedule. And so on, you know. and you don't get impatient with yourself, you don't get impatient with your opinions of how you're doing, and so on and so forth. And the patience is based on virtue, on ethical study. And that's based on generosity. So generosity, virtue and ethical study, patience and courageous effort are the basis of concentration. Concentration is following the breath practice. And the concentration and all those other four are the basis of this investigation.

[65:12]

Without these previous things, without concentration, if you try to look and see what your feelings are, and then when you find your feeling, if you can even find it without concentration, you're pretty good. You have some if you can even find it. But to do the detailed observation of finding a feeling and seeing how the causes come together to make it, to find a concept and see how it's caused, to find emotions and see how they're caused, this requires a steady, patient, courageous contemplation. So while you're doing this, while you're watching to see what you're experiencing and to see how it happens, You also have to watch it from a calm place. So you maybe have to follow your breathing while you're doing all this. So through all this, keep following your breathing. Keep being aware of your posture. Keep feeling still and settled because the analysis is slightly exciting. Okay?

[66:13]

So you need to keep, while you're doing this, you have to keep calm through all this process. And in order to be calm, you need to support that by various other practices. So we're talking about an analysis which is the pinnacle of Buddhist practice. At least it's the pinnacle in terms of penetration. And you need all this background work. So you should keep calming yourself. So calming yourself, however, is a little bit like Nova... Calming is a little bit like Novocaine. In that sense, Novocaine's all right because you're numbing yourself to the pain of an actual experience, which would be such a shock to you if you ever had one that, you know, it's good to be sort of prepared for it. Maybe I'm going too far to say it's like numbing, but it's almost like... Anyway, if not numbing anyway, you make a strong container in which the violence of an actual happening can occur without breaking you in pieces.

[67:17]

Yes? Yes, right. And if you can't concentrate on your breathing, if you can't stay calm while you're analyzing what's happening to you, then put the analysis aside for a while and go back to the breathing until you're calm enough so that you can stay calm in the process of the analysis. Because analysis without composure is simply insanity. It's just cuckoo. Because you're basically just, you're reacting to the bouncing around you're doing rather than, you know, you can't see straight. So you need composure in order to do this. Okay, so how this applies to meditation I think I tried to say anyway.

[68:27]

In Soto Zen we have what you call a radical emphasis on phenomena, on colors, smells, tastes, tangibles, odors as we experience them, on feelings, on emotions, on conceptions, and on consciousness. These are things that happen and we what we say. We don't, as Dogen Zenji said, these are the near, okay? And we don't esteem or despise them. We don't say, good going you finally saw color that's really great congratulations good going you finally you're doing swell you you have a feeling that's too much that will disturb you just have the feeling also don't don't say this is a lousy feeling or this is a lousy color without esteeming or despising become here's the word adept again he says become adept at feeling become adept perceiving colors

[69:35]

sounds, smells. Become adept at emotions. Become adept at conceptions. Become adept at consciousness. These are things you're already doing. Become really good at what you're doing. Become good at your phenomenal existence. This is Dogen Zenji's way. This is meditation. This is just sitting. Total dedication to sitting still in the midst of your experience. And this is the doorway to the realization of peace and bliss, which is the same to say it's the doorway to the realization of the voidness of all phenomena. The realization of the voidness is the same as the realization of bliss. And the door is radical settling into phenomena. without the least flinching or hoping that you had a different one total gratitude for this phenomena that's the door to bliss that's the door to realization of emptiness that's exactly what it means

[70:59]

that the realization of emptiness is phenomenally based. When you're completely at peace with phenomena, you're prime, you're ready for the realization of emptiness. If you have the slightest reservation about your phenomenal existence, you have also a reservation about emptiness. and you're a little bit off sides. You're slightly dislocated from the place where emptiness is realized. As Dogen Zenji said, the way starts from here. The way starts from now. from here and now, from this color right now. Not this color slightly improved or slightly changed, but this color, this pain, this pleasure, this emotion. That's where emptiness is realized. That's where Buddhism starts. Buddhism starts from the phenomenal world. It goes beyond it.

[72:06]

It sets you free from it, but that's where it starts. And if you aren't willing to check into the phenomenal world with the rest of these creeps, you'll never get out. Buddhas are really willing to settle into the most basic phenomenal experience. That's what we call just sitting. And that takes courageous effort to do that. Sometimes it doesn't take such courageous effort. Like if you're really having a pleasureful moment, it doesn't take that much guts to settle into it. But even settling into pleasure people have trouble with because it's going to change. And that's going to be painful. So to settle into your circumstances, for me to settle into my circumstances, that's what we mean by just sitting. And it's not easy to do that. I mean, it requires, you know, as I say, a lot of things, generosity, patience, virtue, effort, and concentration to settle into it.

[73:08]

And once you settle into it, you're ripe for realization of what things really are like. because you have actually settled with what is happening and you're on the verge of seeing how things work. Okay? So maybe we could sit for a little while. If the people in the class want to stay and sit, you can stay and sit. And the people in the sitting, if you don't want to stay and sit, you also can go. So this next period of meditation, which will be very short, is optional. Is that okay with you? We don't want to force people to stay up too late, but it won't be very long, just a few minutes. Should we chant? Let's chant. Let's chant before some people leave. May I

[74:11]

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