In the morning, at Zen Center, we have the service after sitting. Maybe we can do that here too, during this retreat anyway. And the service involves bowing nine times together. And after the bows, we chant the Apuamo Confession verse. which goes, all my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. And we do that three times. After that, we chant refuge verses, taking refuge in Buddhadharma and Sangha three times. And then we do the chanting of scriptures and dedicating a merit.

[01:05]

So, do you want to do that in morning service time? Have you been doing that at all, VR? You do it, when you do it? You do it on Sunday or every service? You've been doing on weekends here with me? I don't think so. Just you do it on Sunday, though. Okay. But you don't do the vows. Okay. I haven't figured out a lovely way to change the chant, but I just might tell you some possible information that could be added to the chant. So one might say, all my ancient twisted karma, and it says, from beginningless greed, hate and delusion. So it's saying that the karma comes from greed, hate and delusion. That's the kind of karma we're admitting.

[02:11]

And then it says, born through body, speech and mind, but one meaning of born is, although I think it says b-o-r-n, in a sense it's more like carried out through body, speech and mind. I now fully avow. But you could add in, born through body, speech and mind, basically originating in the belief in misconceptions about the nature of phenomena. That would be a more complete story of the process. Or basically originating in believing false appearances of phenomena. So, all this karma from beginningless greed, hate and delusion, and the greed, hate and delusion find its origin in believing misconceptions about the way things are, the way phenomena are.

[03:42]

I now fully avow that karma, but I'm also avowing the greed, hate and delusion, and I'm also avowing a belief in a misconception about the way things are. The karma that's already been done, I'm confessing, but the belief, excuse me, the karma which is already done I'm confessing. But the greed, hate, and delusion, I'm sort of confessing to. And I'm also confessing the belief in misconceptions about the way things are. The karma's past. It's ancient past karma from yesterday, this morning, and a long time ago. But the misconception is present. It's still here. And this misconception, which is still here, can be the basis for today's greed, hate, and delusion, or tonight's greed, hate, and delusion, and tomorrow's greed, hate, and delusion, and tomorrow's karma, tomorrow's activity, which is motivated by greed, hate, and delusion.

[05:03]

So it would be a big kind of social transformation of Zen Center to change that chant and add in this extra information. But to this retreat anyway, maybe we can become aware that that's not the whole story, that chant. It leaves out the more basic source of the kind of karma that is the basis of suffering and bondage. I'd like to look at this process with you during these five days. One of the nice things about being in a group like this is that it's in some ways easier for me to look at this process. It's not that easy to look at it sort of when you're running around acting.

[06:12]

under the influence of greed, hate, and delusion, and belief in misconceptions. That's one of the nice things about having a group, that we can agree to look at this. And then it's kind of actually enjoyable. I said, I would like to look at this with you. I actually would. But after the retreat's over, I might not want to keep looking at it. I might rather just do something based on greed rather than look at how what I'm doing is based on greed, and look at how what I'm doing is based on greed and misconception, believing misconceptions. But during this retreat, there's not so much greed and hate here, right? You're not trying to get anything out of this retreat, and you don't hate anybody here. You're still a little confused maybe, but maybe you could enjoy looking at this process too.

[07:16]

Now when I look at your faces, that reminds me of something I wanted to mention at the beginning. And it's related to understanding and becoming liberated from karma. And it is, someone said to me something like, could I have a little of your time to talk about something? And then she said quite quickly, well, I assume I can, so I'll go ahead. And I said, just a minute, I'd recommend you don't assume that it's all right with me, but that you check. So I would recommend to you, just as an early meditation instruction, that you don't assume anything about things. For example, you don't assume that I know what I'm talking about or that it's going to be a good retreat or that it's going to be a bad retreat.

[08:28]

Don't assume that it's okay if you sprinkle water on my head. Don't assume that I'm angry at you or that I think you're cute. But if I look at some people's faces I might think, oh, they look depressed, they look angry, they look happy. You ever have that impression of somebody, something like that? They look excited, they look whatever. That's how they appear. I'm not saying to disregard how they appear. What I'm suggesting is don't assume that the way they appear is the way they are. Check. It's actually fun to check. under some circumstances. For example, when you feel like it's okay. And I would suggest, with me anyway, check. Just give up. When you see something, don't assume it's true. Don't believe the way it appears.

[09:36]

It might be the way it appears, but don't assume it is. Again, that's sort of the basic The problem here is that we have a body and mind, or we have a body with a brain that creates illusions. It creates illusions, and it also, because of past activities, we are predisposed to believe these illusions as something other than delusions, and then is unfortunate. pain-inducing emotions arise, which then lead to the karma. And the karma, then one of the effects of the karma, based on the misconceptions and unwholesome emotions, that kind of karma has the effect of setting the precedent and the precondition for things appearing that way again, and for us to believe them again,

[10:46]

and for those emotions to arise again and for us again to try the same type of stuff over and it just goes round and round. So in one sense this story is like really, really, what, what is it, awesome? I don't know what, what would you, what is it, I don't want to say depressing, Scary? Horrifying? Terrifying? Huh? Engaging? Yeah, good. What? Intriguing, wow. Great. Well, anyway, I'm happy to hear that. But still, whatever impression we have, there is the proposal that this cycle, this vicious cycle of suffering, we can be liberated from it by understanding it.

[11:59]

And then understanding it means that we will understand, for example, part of what we understand is that the way we think things are a lot of the time is not really the way they are. So again, the cycle basically here, what is karmic consciousness? It is the consciousness which is the basis of karma. And the consciousness at the basis of karma is a consciousness which sees, is aware of things appearing a certain way, which they don't actually... It's a consciousness which is seeing objects that are appearing to it, that look to it, as though they existed in a way that they don't. And then there's a consciousness which allows agreement or acceptance or belief in that appearance of things

[13:07]

as the way things actually are. And then it's a consciousness which supports greed, hate and delusion. And then it's a consciousness which is there when action is taken, motivated by this misconception and the greed, hate and delusion. That's karmic consciousness. And as I just said, that kind of karmic consciousness can unfold as actions of speech, thought and body. Actually, first of all, it's an action of thought and then later ramifies into speech and bodily movement. And that has the consequence of inducing the process to go around again. Do you remember, I came here, I think somebody told me I've been coming here for eight years, and have I given a course here on karma before?

[14:26]

This time I think I'll be putting more emphasis on the origins of the karma than maybe on the descriptions of the karma. But I'll be probably talking about karma too, but I'm going to be going back to the origins more here. I think. Or like Rick said last night, I don't know what's going to happen, but that might happen. Say something about the karmic origins of the posture? I'm thinking about the karmic origins of the zazen posture. The karmic origin. Well, the way you put the question of karmic origins, I don't quite know what you mean by karmic origins of the posture. What do you mean by karmic origins of the posture? A good thing to do.

[15:32]

It seems like sitting upright is a good thing to do? It seems to you it's a good thing to do, yes. What has a karmic origin? Oh, the feeling that it's there. Yeah, right. So it seems like there's your feeling that it's good to sit has a karmic origin. That's what you think. Okay, so... So we're talking now, I mean, I think we're talking now about not so much the posture, but your feeling about the posture. Yeah, we are now, but I don't want to talk about it.

[16:36]

Oh, you don't want to talk about it. Okay. I think there's something more to it than my feeling that it's a good thing to do. And I think that, I mean, there's really much to talk about. It's a pretty good thing to do. How, what are the, yeah, there's a bit of a karmic origin to that. You see, you sit down there in a way, you're supposed to do it. He'd come for the people after he did it, and before he did it, or doing something like that. Mm-hmm. But doing that, and then fulfilling the posture with the way that he did, with the way it goes, um... I mean, I'm doing it right now, sitting here right now. I'm doing it. I didn't realize what he did. Mm-hmm. I want to be stuck with it.

[17:42]

Well, you do want to be stuck with it. I think it's a pretty good question. it's pretty difficult to actually accurately explain how something appears in the world. For example, to explain how you — what are the karmic conditions that have led to you appearing here? And what are the karmic conditions that have led to you having certain thoughts? And what are the karmic conditions that have led to you being in a certain posture? and your feelings about the posture. To actually explain how something happens is, I might as well just say right off, is... First of all, I already said, right?

[18:47]

Did I say it was rather difficult? Okay. But actually, I think I'll just say for now And I'm, you know, for now I'll say that the description, or not the description, the actual way that your zazen posture has arisen is inconceivable. So the karmic relations that give rise to your zazen posture right now and all the zazen postures that you've ever been in, each one of those, The actual way that that happens, that each one of them happened in the way this one's happening, is inconceivable. You can conceive of how your body happens and how it happens in a certain posture. You can conceive of that, and so can I. I think you can. But can you? I mean, this is an assumption. I should check it out. Can you conceive of how this body got in this posture?

[19:48]

Can I? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so you have a conception of it. I actually haven't yet dabbled in the conception of how it happened, but I could come up with one, and so could the rest of you. Maybe I should check out each one of you if you can. But no matter what your description of how he gets in this posture, how you get in your posture, that's just your description. That's not how you actually happen to be the way you are. The actual way that things come

[20:20]

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