The Raj of East India invited the 27th Buddhist ancestor, Prajnatara, to a feast. The Raj asked him, why don't you read scriptures? The ancestor said, this poor wayfarer doesn't dwell in the realms of body or mind when breathing in. doesn't get involved in myriad circumstances when breathing out. I always reiterate such a scripture hundreds, thousands, millions of scrolls. I've received a considerable encouragement from some of you to give more on the teaching of suchness that is embodied in this story and the other two cases that we read before.

[01:28]

However, I almost always feel whenever I bring this up, this teaching, like somebody's going to throw a rotten tomato at me, because I always feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over and over. I think, how can you stand to hear it again and again and again and again? But the encouragement I receive is, number one, that for some reason or other, I never feel like we understand it completely. And also, I always want to talk about it. And also, it's so beautiful when we see, when people tell me that they see this and hear this, and when I hear that, Although I feel like I'm repeating myself over and over, I also feel like all the ancestors always are saying the same thing too.

[02:32]

So the funny thing about the Zen lineage is that these people are willing to say the same thing over and over. Somehow that's one of the main kind of wonders of the whole thing. So I still feel worried though every time I start and I ask you again to please allow me to talk about the same thing again today. Please allow me. Again, I'm talking about the meditation on suchness or a meditation on emptiness or the meditation of the signlet and the wishless and the empty. All gazing, just sitting, okay? Again. And this story is the third story of the Book of Serenity. The pointer, the introduction is interesting too.

[03:34]

The fate before the beginning of time. A turtle heads for the fire. The one phrase specially transmitted outside the doctrine. The lip of a mortar bears flowers. Now tell me, is there any accept quotes. Are there any quotes accepting and upholding, reading and reciting, unquote, in this? In this, that this could be pointing, that this could be referring to several things. It could be referring to what the pointer just said. Okay? It could be referring to that, or it could be referring to what the pointer seems to be pointing at.

[04:42]

Before I go any further into that, I want to talk about accepting, upholding, reading, and reciting. This is a standard Buddhist formula, which you find in many scriptures. And particularly, they say, well, here's a scripture, okay? And this is a good scripture. The scripture that you're reading is a good scripture. So keep reading. As a matter of fact, it often says, those who are reading this scripture are very good people. And those who stop reading this scripture, watch out. So not only reading it, But accepting and upholding it and reading and reciting it is very good. Scripture recommends itself and other scriptures in this way. And in particular, accepting and upholding a teaching is what a teacher must do.

[05:50]

So in the Lotus Sutra, for example, one of the main criteria of being a teacher of the Dharma is that you receive and uphold or maintain it. So the first phase of the process is that you actually receive the teaching. And receive means you receive it completely. You don't criticize it during the reception process. Then after you receive it completely, then you maintain it or uphold it, because to receive it exactly as it's given is only half the story. In order to continue to take care of it or to maintain it, you have to be able to adapt it or change it according to circumstances. It wouldn't need to be maintained if it were a permanent thing.

[06:59]

So those are the two things a teacher must do with a teaching. Receive it without messing with it. Uncritically take the whole thing and then figure out what to do with it. It's like eating. You put the whole thing in your mouth and then you chew it. And when you chew it, you break it down and transform it and then make it into something useful a little later on. So the question is, when one phrase specially transmitted outside the teaching, the lip of the mortar bears flowers, is there any receiving and maintaining in this? A mortar, something you grind something in, like, you know, like grind medicine or grind sesame seed to make gamaccio with the mortar. So in its mortar, the lip of the mortar bears flowers.

[08:05]

Okay? So in this kind of practice of the special transmission outside the doctrine, is there any accepting and maintaining in that? That's his question. Yes, as Albert's question pointed to yesterday, I have been offering a teaching which is an objectless meditation, objectless concentration. And it is possible to develop concentration without having an object. There are also, the Buddha even himself gave object meditation there are object meditations, and you can develop concentration while using an object.

[09:08]

But the lineage that I'm pointing to in Nithyashin is a lineage of meditation without an object. And again, without an object does not mean there is no object. There must be an object for experience to arise. It just means that the meditator does not grasp the object. The meditator does not see the object. The meditator does not stress the object. The meditator turns away from the object and back to the causal situation where the object, the subject, and the organ produce together this phantom experience. So Buddha, that does not criticize object meditation. They are useful. Buddha gave them. However, my feeling is that the Buddha gave them, but he gave them only provisionally, tentatively.

[10:14]

So, for example, when Buddha recommended to his disciples to practice the jhanas, I remember one time when Buddha recommended them, and the disciples, he told them how to do them. And the disciples said, teacher, well, why should we do these practices? And the Buddha said, because they're very good. But what's good about them? And he said, they're really excellent. What's excellent about them? Please do them. He wanted them to do them, but he wasn't going to explain what was good about them. Because in the end, if they pushed him, he would have to finally say, these are leading up to the insight meditation, which I want you to be able to do, and these will help you do it. But they in themselves are not my own practice.

[11:18]

But he did recommend these practices, and they are useful. And if the object that you're meditating on as an object is a Buddha or a Buddhist teaching, they're even more helpful. But anyway, the traditional Zen meditation is not an object. It's a little embarrassing sometimes. Norman and I were talking to a Tibetan teacher one time and he was asking us what our objects of meditation were and for a while there we were looking around for them and we felt kind of embarrassed because we couldn't find them. And then we finally remembered, oh yeah, we don't do that. And that was fine with him. The Tibetan teaching has objectless meditation also. But their way is to have a graded course of object meditation leading up to objectless meditation. which they call, the Nyingma tradition calls it Dzogchen. Have you heard of that? Dzogchen is objectless meditation.

[12:24]

It's the same as wall-gazing. But wall-gazing, this practice of suchness is so difficult that other schools of Buddhism often have a long preparatory course, whereas we give it to you right away. People come in for beginning Vajra instruction here and we say, you know, I don't know what we say, but we might say, please concentrate on your posture and breathing. But we don't necessarily say, but not as an object. Right? The people who give Vajra instruction don't say that, right? You just leave it to them. If they make it into object, that's their problem, right? Little by little they find out that they shouldn't have made it into object. But we don't tell them not to right away because, again, that wouldn't be right either, you see. That would just confuse them because to intentionally try to make the object not into an object would be another object.

[13:26]

So we just let it go and pick up the pieces later. In other words, we throw people right into the Buddha's ocean and see if they can swim. And it's kind of a problem. And again, I'd like to say that the early Buddhist teaching, if this isn't a new thing that the Zen people invented, it's present in the Theravada teaching, that the basic purity and tranquility of the mind is objectless, and that the mind is initially disturbed by turning towards the concept of object. And so, if the mind does not have object, it is spontaneously, naturally at peace. And this is a pacification of the consciousness, the calming of the mind with no contrivance, no device, just spontaneous, natural composure.

[14:40]

which again is recommended by Bodhidharma, all his disciples down to the Sikpan sector, and then in the huge waterfall after that, they all recommend that style. But also Zen does not say, I guess somebody said, I got this little brochure from some Zen center. What is it? Self-analysis and self-observation do not always lead to an understanding and clarification of the self. It rather tends to confuse our task of living in reality. Do not forget that light belongs not to the objective conceptualized realm of our illusion, but it is the actual living of nature itself. That's just another interesting thing.

[15:42]

But at the end, I paused and I just said, those who are simply looking for a place to relax and calm the mind are also welcome. Can you wait a little bit? Suzuki Roshi said, as you know, our practice is to sit wholeheartedly with no gaining idea. However, he also said to practice without a goal is kind of unnatural and a little bit affected. It's an expectation. You're not a normal human being if you don't have a goal in practice. We do have a goal. What is our goal? Let's hear it. Save all sentient beings.

[16:43]

We do definitely have a goal. But in order to achieve that goal, we must be able to sip wholeheartedly, not half-heartedly. Because a lot of people can sip half-heartedly without a gaining idea. You know what I mean? I'll make a little effort, even if I don't get anything out of it. That's okay. But to devote my entire life to it and not get anything out of it? Well, I don't know about that. And Dogen also says, there are people who will break their bones to get something, like generals and tycoons. I mean, they really work to conquer the world. That's not such a big deal. I mean, it's fantastic that they do it, and it's nice that they are supporters of Buddhism. But what's difficult is to break your bones and to split your, get the blood out of them and give them over to the practice and not try to get something from it.

[17:50]

That's difficult. But that's what we're being asked to do, is give our lifeblood to the practice without a gaining idea. Okay? Very difficult. That's why they have these preparatory practices. After many years of preparation, you could think, well, I could do that. We're asking you to start out trying to practice that right now. That's the goal of Zazen. The goal of Zazen is to be able to wholeheartedly practice without trying to get anything. Or another way to put it is to wholeheartedly and calmly, peacefully sit in the middle of cause and effect. Just sit there in your moment-by-moment serving what the universe has given you as your body and mind right now, to sit there, calmly and peacefully. That's the goal of Taoism. But we're also asking you to do it right now. We're asking you to do the goal right now. And if you have some trouble, fine, it's difficult. But finally, if you try for many, many kalpas, you will be able finally to sit there and accept your life.

[18:56]

Completely. And that's all we want you to do. And that will make you into a person, a living being, who will be able to very effectively work for the benefit of others. You will really, that's sitting in the middle of the fire, turning the wheel for all being. That's the practical assessment. So in the position of a Buddhist teacher, people come and they tell me various things that happen and they want to know sometimes how that happens. Sometimes I have some inkling, sometimes I don't know, sometimes I'm pretty sure why something's happening to them. Or sometimes they even want to know, as I mentioned yesterday, they want to know how to repair the situation. Although I sometimes want to repair it too and want to help them repair it, my main concern is that the person study the cause and effect of the situation without so much trying to get the answer or fix it, that their primary concern is to sit in the causation of the event.

[20:15]

This is what Dogen Zenji called deep faith in causality. We wrote a chapter with Shobo Genzo on that. And we just studied the Green Gulch. And we were studying it, and I thought before we started studying it that we would be learning a lot about cause and effect. But we really didn't learn too much about cause and effect. We mostly just learned that it's a commentary on the story of Bajang's wild fox. And he actually goes through various then-teachers' comments on that case and shows how each one has a lack of understanding. But he doesn't ever tell us what the correct understanding is. All he's telling us over and over again is, please study causation. Because look at all these people who don't understand it. They're more interested in publishing their results and telling people what things mean rather than turning around and trying to figure out what's happening. OK.

[21:30]

Okay. Okay. Could you speak up? Could you speak up please? Your question is about... Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

[22:41]

I sometimes ask people before to tell me what they're going to be working on or what they're going to be focusing on. And so you're wondering how that kind of question connects with objectless meditation? Well, someone might tell me that what they're going to work on, what they're going to focus on, what they're going to concentrate on is objectless awareness. Someone could say that. All right? Anyway, that's my practice. I'm dedicated to, I'm concentrating on objectless awareness.

[24:00]

That's what I always am trying to think of. What does objectless awareness mean? I'm always concentrated, I'm trying to concentrate, I'm focusing on the issue. Like, you know, the word focus means heart in Latin. Focus is a Latin word which means the heart. So I sit at the fireplace of the house. And at the fireplace, I'm always thinking about, what does it mean not to have an object? Okay? That's an example of focus, of concentration, but it's not an object. Because where is it? It's not someplace. That's one possible response that I could have. Another one is, which I mentioned the other day, Case 21 of the Book of Serenity, it says, When you're sitting, eating, brewing tea, sewing, whatever you're doing all day long, recognize the one that's not busy. That's a concentration.

[25:03]

You're always concentrating on the one that's not busy. But the one that's not busy is not some object. You cannot see the one that's not busy out there someplace. Can you think? Does that make sense to you? However, some people come to me when I ask what they're going to do in Sun Tzu Chi, and some people come to me and tell me what they're going to do. And what they want to do is object meditation. They tell me that. And I say, fine. I feel fine about people who want to do object meditation. Definitely, it's okay. I think it's a wonderful practice. And I'm giving you a teaching. While you're doing object meditation, I'm giving you a teaching about the ancestors' way of objectless meditation. So, you're sitting there doing object meditation. You hear me teach another thing. It sinks in. And you may eventually switch from object meditation to objectless meditation. but it's fine, some people are doing object meditation some people are doing object meditation some people are doing object meditation but trying to understand how to do object meditation that's why I'm going over this again and again so you become so your language becomes more developed so you can turn object meditation into object meditation and you may not completely understand this but I don't either, we're just

[26:28]

going on with it. You have an intention. An intention. That's fine. That's an intention. That's fine. ... Don't try to understand. I didn't say that. But anyway, sitting there and seeing what comes up, that is exactly what I'm talking about. Just sitting and seeing what comes up. That is Zazen. To peacefully sit, to quietly watch what comes up. That's fine. That's objectless meditation. No problem, yet. it implies it implies no it does not imply you infer it i'm not implying it but you infer it and it's quite common for people to infer it but there's no way to to uh... talk ordinary language without keeping making that inference because no matter what happens in this world for example we could have a big production all of us could get together and all at once say to somebody you know do not

[27:51]

Think of objects and the implication that they will draw, that they think we're making, and the inference they will make is that we're talking, that they just experienced an object. You cannot stop people from doing that. People have to turn that around themselves. But you also, the mind is always focused. The mind is always concentrated and focused. And what is the center of that focus? An object. Always. So to fight that tendency of mind is ridiculous. The point is to take away the overemphasis on the object, to change the mind from being object-oriented to being object-centered, which it ordinarily is, but not stressing the object and forgetting the whole causal situation. Okay? How do you want to accomplish it? That's what we're doing right now. We're accomplishing it. Okay, let me tell you a story about this guy, Pradnyatara.

[28:54]

This is a commentary on the case. The 27th ancestor, Pradnyatara, was first called Keura as a boy. As it came to pass, the 26th ancestor, Punyamitra, which means friend of merit, was riding by the boy in a chariot together with the king of Eastern India. The king's name was, the king was known as the Resolute. The ancestor said to the boy, can you remember things of the past? The boy said, replied, I remember that eons ago I lived in the same place as you, Master.

[30:00]

You were expounding the Mahaprajnaparamita. I was upholding the most profound scripture. I had been awaiting you here to assist you in the true teaching. The ancestor said to the Raja, this is not one of the lesser holy ones. This is the bodily reflection of Maha Sthamaprapta, the one who has arrived at great power. This is Amida Buddha here, the Buddha of infinite life or infinite light. Usually when this Buddha is in a temple and they have a what I call the triad, on his, I forgot which side, but on one side is Avalokiteshvara. On the other side is Mahashtama Prapta.

[31:02]

Those are the two bodhisattvas that attend this Buddha. So the 27th ancestor was recognized by his teacher as a bodily reflection of Mahashtama Prapta. And at the court of Emperor Leong, Bodhidharma was recognized as Avalokiteshvara. So according to the commentator, only Amida Buddha has not yet appeared in the world. We have the two attendants have arrived. Pranitara and Bodhidharma. After the commentator said that, he was quiet for a long time. And then he said, Pongan talked too much. The Raj had the boy get into the chariot and took him to the palace and made offerings to him.

[32:08]

Then the boy put on a monastic robe and had his head shaved. The ancestor drew the connection with Pranya and called the boy Pranyatara, which means the jewel of wisdom. The next part of the commentary is very difficult because it sounds like the commentator is criticizing Prajnapara, but I'm not sure. I don't want to get you involved in this because it's a little complicated. We'll just skip over the polemic section, if you don't mind, and go on to the verses of eulogy. The verses of eulogy. Eulogy of what? Eulogy of the statement, this poor wayfarer does not dwell...

[33:13]

in the realm of body and mind breathing in, does not get involved in myriad circumstances breathing out. I always reiterate this scripture. Now, may I point out something that you probably already noticed. He reiterates this scripture hundreds, thousands, millions of times. Millions of times he breathes in, not getting involved in the realm of the body and mind. Breathing out, he does not get involved in the myriad circumstances. He does this practice millions of times. In other words, he does it a lot, for a long time. So the versifier, our ancestor, his name is ,, Grand Uncle.

[34:26]

He wrote this appreciatory verse of this teaching, of this response that made. A cloud rhino gazes at the moon with light engulfing radiance. A wood horse romps in spring, swift and unbridled. Under the eyebrows, a pair of cool blue eyes. How can radiant scripture reach a piercing of oxide? A clear mind produces vast eon. Heroic power smashes the double enclosure. In the subtle round mouth of a pivot turns the spiritual words.

[35:35]

Hanshan forgot the road by which he came. Siddha led him back by the hand. So the first two lines there, the cloud rhino, gathers at the moon with light engulfing radiance. A wooden horse romps in spring, swift and unbridled. These are particularly eulogizing this meditation that he told us. Okay? So... Not dwelling in the realm of body and mind, a cloud rhino gazes at the moon with light engulfing radiance. Breathing in.

[36:43]

Not involved in myriad circumstances, a wood horse romped the spring, swift and unbridled." As I said before, not being involved in body-mind, in the realm of body and mind when breathing in, does not mean that you're someplace other than your body and mind. Only through, it is only through this body and mind that one realizes session. So through this body and mind, realizing suchness means that through this body and mind, not dwelling in this body and mind.

[37:59]

Okay? What? Right. Through the body and mind, without the body and mind being an object. Right. There is expression which was referred to in the pointer, one phrase specially transmitted outside the doctrine, outside the scripture. This is a standard Zen phrase. Bodhidharma said that what he had was a special transmission outside the scripture. Dogen Zenji asked his teacher, Ru Jing, what does that mean, a special transmission outside the scripture? The teacher said, outside the scripture means it's neither outside or inside. Outside the scripture means free of the scripture, but free of the scripture, if you're free, you can be inside too. Or another way is that we're talking about here about like the Messiah, okay?

[39:11]

The Messiah comes after the regular teaching has already functioned and is no longer appropriate, but it doesn't come before the regular teaching. So you don't skip over the regular teaching and go to this teaching beyond the scriptures or outside the scriptures. The teaching outside the scriptures is realized in the midst of the scriptures once you're free of the scriptures. As a matter of fact, it's very interesting that it says here in this... I won't tell you it's very interesting. I'll just say it. It says here that... You know, the Sanskrit word anapana means breathing in and breathing out, right? Is that right? And there are six methods involved in this breathing in and breathing out, which are listed here in the book.

[40:24]

Six methods are, does anybody know what six methods are? No? Well, right here, today, in the midst of studying the teaching of lesson, you get to learn something. You have a side benefit. Okay, the six are counting. You heard that before, right? Following. Stopping. returning, contemplating, returning, and purification. These are the six aspects, or six, yeah, six methods of breath contemplation. And they come from the scriptures, and they're taught in the Abhidharma Kosha, Chapter 6. They're also taught in two works, or three, but two works by the Chinese teacher who founded the Tendai school, the Tentai school, Tentai Jiri.

[41:40]

It's a big book. I'll give you the details about these six methods in breadth. meditation in the practice of breathing in and breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out is one of the main things that Buddhists are concerned with. So I thought maybe I'd give you a little bit of background on these six methods. It says in here in this then book, the book of serenity, it says in here, counting to fix the mind on the in-breathing and out-breathing without effort or concentration. To let the body and mind be such as they are.

[42:42]

With memory alone, count from one to ten. And then they say, for fear of abhi-samkṣepa or of vikṣepa of the mind, do not go above or below ten. And what I think that means is that in order to avoid dispersion or over-concentration, like some people, what they do, I know one guy who counted, he counted his breath and he would sometimes get up to, in a period of Zazen, up to around 270. He would just keep counting. But there's a problem getting kind of like too narrow or too tight if you do that way. On the other hand, if you don't go up to 10, you can just keep going, well, one, one, and then all of them are pretty much the same and you can't really keep track, but you get kind of distracted that way. So going beyond 10, if you say 10 and then you find yourself saying 14, 15, and so on, that's a hint that you've gotten the law.

[43:49]

And if it's too short a list, you never really can get, it's harder to get concentrated. There are three faults to avoid. First, to count with omission by taking two for one. Do you understand? Or like, let's say you take two breaths and you count that as one breath. Like you breathe once and you sort of forget that one and count the next one. And there's really two, but you count it as one. That's called counting with omission. That's a fault. Another one is counting too high. Taking one for two. Okay? Counting in a confused manner is a third fault. Why are you laughing?

[44:51]

Did you hear about this or something? In taking the in-breathing for the out-breathing and vice versa. Counting that avoids these faults is correct. If in the course of exercise the mind becomes distracted, one should count anew from the point of departure until absorption is attained. That's counting. A lot of you probably have tried that at some point. I used to count my breaths in... I haven't done it so much. Sometimes I do it at the beginning of a period. Kind of like... But I used to do it. I used to mostly count my breath. And those were rough days, let me tell you. I used to threaten myself for what I would do if I wasn't successful.

[45:55]

Because I had a hard time doing it. And actually I got this system. I not only counted... one to ten, but I also counted the number of times I counted from one to ten. And I had a way of counting, keeping also counting the counting of the counting of the one to ten. And with that system, I actually sometimes was able to do it. Quite, you know, I got this, you know, I actually, excuse me for, this sounds like bragging and maybe it is, but I actually managed to count my breath one time for quite a while. Like, you know, Not just one to ten, mind you. There are times some people have spent many years never getting past two. There are such people who many years, day after day, I mean, I'm talking about monks, you know, that practice every day many periods and never get past two for years. And that's their practice, that's their main practice, okay?

[46:57]

But I, and I've had those experiences too, of, you know, one. And then some time later, you know. You know, and I count the exhales, right? One. One. it's a big world right big world geez wow and then sometime later you know oh yeah oh yeah but never did i ever go never getting to two for a long time but then i got to this place where actually i started to get tough with myself i mean i got really tough with myself i got out everything i could get out

[48:02]

If you don't do it this time, it's going to be all over. And I'm not kidding. And I was actually successful sometimes. And there was at least one period where I actually followed my breath the entire period without missing a beat. And you know what? I didn't like it. It was just really tight and yucky. It was not what I came to practice Zen for in the first place. I didn't come because of that. I came because of a bird sitting on a branch in the winter. That's what I came for. I came because of a nice white room. I came because of reality, not because of this concentration camp. So I gave it up once I was successful.

[49:04]

And I never really harassed myself and tortured myself back into that state of mind again. But I did get there. And that's not what's meant by counting. Next is following. Again, without contention, follow the progress of air which enters and leaves until it goes into the two senses. Does not colon. Does the inspired air occupy all the body or does it go only into one part of the body? The ascetic, the practitioner, follows the air breathed in the throat, heart, navel, kidneys, thigh, and thus following to the two feet. The ascetic follows the air breathed out to the distance of the hand and the cubit. According to other masters,

[50:07]

he or she follows the exploration to this circle of air which holds up the universe and to the viramba winds. This opinion is not admissible, for anapanish smriti is pakvam, something or other, in the view of things as they are. What do you think? No thought? Good. What? Maybe these two. What do you think? Want it to be these two? That's it. Don't worry about it. Fixing. To bind the memory. in a manner so that it is held at the tip of the nose or between the eyebrows or in another area down to the toes to fix the mind to see the breath held in the body like a thread of a necklace of pearls.

[51:23]

To state that it is cold or hot, unfavorable or favorable. Observing. These breaths are not only air, but they are the four primary elements. And again, Rupa is derived from these four, and the mind with its mental dharmas repose on them. In this way, the ascetic discovers through analysis the five skandhas. Next one is modifying or returning. ascetic modifies or returns the mind that has the air as its object, and he employs the mind to better and better dharmas. up to and including the Lokyatara Dharma, purifying, to enter into the Darsana Marga and into the Bhavana Marga. According to some other masters, the Vivartana is a progressive elevation of the Smriti Upastanas up to the Vajra Samadhi, Vajrapamo Samadhi.

[52:35]

Parisuddhi is Ksanjana, Anut Paradyana and Akshayakshi Samaya Drishti. There is a summarizing stanza. Quotes, one teaches that Anupamini Smriti has six aspects. Those six aspects which I just read you. So those are the six, and these ten Dai works go into great detail on them. Each of the six has ten aspects, and they go into all the stuff with them. So I've always wanted to go through this text. I've read it a few times, and it's very complicated, and I... I thought at Tassajara one time to go through it, and we started, but then people started teasing me, so I gave up.

[53:48]

But anyway, there is this kind of thing to study, very detailed, exhaustive study of the breath and the various aspects of how to get into what it is. Basically, to study it and study it and study it and study it all the time. However, all this study is done, I think, ultimately without getting... you know, bogged down in the process and making things into objects. However, it doesn't mean you stay away from the breath. Not at all. It's that in the breath, through the breath, always completely dedicating yourself to the breathing process. It's in that situation that you do not get involved in the realm of the five skandhas or in the realm of the myriad circumstances. Okay? The special transmission... outside the teaching occurs in the midst, in the neighborhood of the teaching. There is a work called the, in Japanese it's called the ko-myo-zo-zan-mai, which means

[55:07]

Kōmyō means light, radiant light. And in particular, Kōmyō means those flames, the flame of light around a Buddha. Kōmyōzō means like in Shōbōgenzō, it means a womb or a storehouse or a treasury. So, zhamai means concentration or samadhi. So, it's written by Dogen Zenji's disciple Eijo. So, it's an awareness of the womb of this light, of this brilliant light around the Buddha. And one of the basic instructions in this samadhi is trust everything. Trust your entire life. to breathing in and breathing out. And then, jump, leap into the womb of light.

[56:19]

by trusting everything to your breathing process, you can jump into this womb of light, into this circle of fire where the Buddhas are living. You've heard the expression to leap from the top of a hundred foot pole. Again, some people think, well, first you have to climb to the top of the pole, right? But the teaching of thusness is you are already at the top of the pole, now jump. To trust everything to your breathing, you already are inhaling and exhaling, right? To trust everything to your inhaling and exhaling means to trust everything to where you are right now. And then, from where you are already right now, but not just where you are already right now, but from trusting where you are already right now, jump into the womb of light.

[57:45]

Jump into the ocean of Buddha. What? Is it leaving? No. It just means right where you are, don't have an object of thought. You see, for us right now to jump into the womb of light is the same as to say, don't have object of thought. Do you understand? Do you know how to jump into the womb of light? Do you know where it is? Do you know what it looks like? Do you know what not having an object of thought is? Do you know what it means to jump off the top of a 100-foot pole? What does it mean? It doesn't mean anything. It's an instruction of suchness. It's telling you, now that you're here and you totally trust being here, okay, well, that's it. That's the same as to say, well, that's it, and just let it go at that is as difficult for us as to leap into the womb of light or to not have objects of thought.

[58:53]

Same thing. You can't do it, and yet it's an instruction to you to do it. It's a destruction to your involuntary nervous system. It's not going any place. It's not doing anything. This is what we mean by all day long, no matter what you're doing, recognize the one that's not busy. That's not going someplace. And that's not seeing something. It is referring to deportment beyond hearing and seeing. Take a walk in the realm beyond hearing and seeing. Dive into the womb of light. Never forget the one that's not busy. But that's not going to really be possible if you aren't willing to be totally giving everything you've got to your body and breath. You've got to pay the price of being in your life in order to be liberated.

[60:03]

In order to recognize the one who's not busy, you have to be consummately willing to be as busy as you are. You don't have to be any busier than you are or any less busy than you are. Right? Just, when you sweep, sweep. when there's sounds or smells or sights you really feel, you really accept, without any resistance, this is enough. This is like having this thing, it's kind of like being in an ICU. But that's nice to be in an... We really are in an intensive care unit, in all of us. We are in an intensive care unit. But if you're in it, the problem of being in an intensive care unit in a hospital is that the people, if they have breathing machines and the tubes going in, feeding them and so on, and various other things, they don't have to do their own work.

[61:20]

And then they become psychotic. So the intensive care unit we're in, in order to stay healthy, we have to do all the work. Even though we're getting intensive care, we still have to work to stay healthy, right? So have you heard about the Prajnaparamita? You know, in the morning we chant the heart of Prajnaparamita, right? Where is that anyway? You know, anybody know where the perfect wisdom is? I don't exactly know where it is, but I just would like to know, is it alive in you right now? Is it living in you right now? It is? Fantastic. How can... how could they how could they say yes three of them right in a row oh they're in line with the buddha fantastic so please everybody line up with the buddha and then when people say is is perfect wisdom living in you you can say yeah and you know what there's no sign nobody's got any sign

[62:47]

by which you can say it isn't living in everybody. There's no way you can say it's not. And there's no way you can say it is. There's no excuse for saying it is. There's no reason, no excuse, no sign, no criterion that says it's living in you. It just, you ask yourself, is it living in me? And if you say yes, you're happy. Because Prajnaparamita is really nice. You know? Did you hear about it? it really clears everything up. That's the power that smashes the double barrier. Right? So that's the intensive care units working on you, but you have to ask yourself, is the Prajnaparamita living in me now? And you have to say, yes. Okay. Okay. All right.

[64:07]

Thank you.

[64:07]

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