DCA is an acronym for dependent co-arising. An expression for dependent co-arising is an expression for how things happen and how things happen. The way things, the way kind of innate, the amazing thing called something happening. And this is one of the characteristics for the people who have said all phenomenal qualities. They have a dependent and polarism character. All phenomena also have an incutational and nearly conceptual nature and they also have a thoroughly established thoroughly established

[01:28]

clearly accomplished or perfecting character. The pinnacle arising is the ground in which things arise, and it's also the ground in which the samsara arises, the broken death cycle arises, in or through the process of the pinnacle arising. And also, the perfected cessation also occurs on the basis of dependent core life.

[02:45]

Did I say occur? No, I shouldn't say occur. The realization of cessation is realized in the context of dependent core life. It doesn't really arise. It's just that it doesn't really arise. But it can be realized. And it can be realized based on pinnacle rising. So the pinnacle rising is the mediating ground for realization of nipana, realization of ultimate truth, and realization of ultimate misery, fundamental misery. I'm going to call it on it. It is ocean-dependent. I'm going to call it on it. I'm going to call it on it. I'm going to call it on. In this situation of dependent co-arising, there's nothing there that will provide, you know, if a sentient being dependent co-arises, a sentient being.

[04:49]

A sentient being is somebody who doesn't understand dependent co-arising. A sentient being is somebody who is dependent co-arising and has dependent co-arising experiences, and their experiences are, you know, of phenomena. The experience of phenomena is that what they see, what they've got. In other words, the way they see phenomena is that in an ignorant way. So they can't see any horizon. It's always being misconstrued as the word, the concept. It can help. Because of mixing and confusing the word, the concept, and the pentacle horizon, they can't see the thoroughly established, perfected quality of phenomena.

[06:00]

So that one is the birth and death. And there's nothing in this, there's nothing in here. Nothing in here. I wish they would ever get out. There's nothing, the Pentagon Riding isn't their friend. There's just confusion, there's nothing in that confusion to... to provide any access to the truth. It's just solved in you. But then there's this thing called the truth of world within life.

[07:07]

This provides an opportunity for sent to beings to access the truth. And what is worldly? What is the truth of worldly conventions? Well, it's that everything is clouded, the truth is clouded over. That we're ignorant. The truth of worldly convention is that we're ignorant. That the truth is clouded over. But also truth of worldly convention is that it's a manifestation of

[08:16]

The truth is there. If I can recognize my ignorance, And there can arise the aspiration to become free of it. But there's nothing about birth and death in itself, I mean the dependent core arising in birth and death itself, and the confusion of the imputational and the dependent core arisen, there's nothing in that in itself to provide any access. It's the truth of worldly convention that does.

[09:18]

But ladies and gentlemen, I just said that in a situation of ascension pain, being confused and ignorant and not seeing the kind of core rising without, you know, imputing conceptual overlays on it. There's nothing there. They're not going to come up with this conventional truth. It's the truth. They're not going to come up with it because they're deluded. Where does it come from? Huh? Yeah, thank you. I mean, on behalf of some other people, thank you. Isn't it to do with the abandonment of dependent co-arising as a basis of our fabrication? Isn't it to do with the abandonment of dependent co-arising as a basis for our fabrication? It seems to me that the problem we have is that dependent co-arising in itself is perfect but we in our ignorance that you're speaking of perceive it innately as a basis upon which we then fabricate so rather than relating to that process we use it as a basis for fabrication we use it as a basis for our fabrication in other words we use it as a basis for the arising of birth and death that's right, that's the problem

[10:53]

Yes. So once we're in that problem, how would we ever come up with the truth of worldly convention? Which is that we're ignorant. We're using dependent co-arising as the basis for our trips, of our conceptual trips, which we are born with, in that language, we're going to use it, on convention, on dependent co-arising, and create birth and death with it. We're going to do that. Once we've done that, how are we going to figure out everything? Dumb. Huh? Dumb, I've got to help. Yeah, where does it come from? Well, it's real. Wisdom comes slow to impermanence and lack of purity and... Can I try to do conventional wisdom? Well, where does the wisdom come to this ignorant person? Realization of impermanence, experience of impermanence. Where does it come to this person? This person is completely overlaying impermanent from... This is impermanent. They've put concepts on this. Where are they going to come up with that the conceptual thing they've just done, overlaying that thought of incrementing the thing, that that's ignorant, and therefore be able to see that this is incrementing?

[12:09]

Where's that going to come from? Martin said the dark, and something like that. Where's the dark? Well, it comes from pure awareness. What's pure awareness? Buddha. Buddha. Conventional... Conventional, the truth of worldly convention cannot, sensitive beings cannot come up with it. You can't come up with what you said just now. You cannot, sensitive beings cannot come up with it. Because they're ignorant. Worldly convention is not like, kind of like some, it's not what you have. You have, what you got is some nice wisdom, right? But the wisdom you got is not going to give you access to real wisdom. This truth of worldly convention comes from Buddha. And when we think that we're deluded, and when we think that we're ignorant, we want to become free.

[13:19]

And when we want to become free, that didn't come from us, ignorant ones. The ignorant ones have just been visited by you can say pure awareness but actually by Buddha you have just been visited by Buddha so the truth of worldly convention establishes the identity of your aspiration and Buddha coming out of perfect cessation, and re-engaging in your life. So last night when Charlie was saying that Tongan Roshi said something like, somebody who wants to accomplish will accomplish. What is it? Is that it? If you want to accomplish, you will accomplish.

[14:20]

Now it sounds like, poor little me, how am I going to do that? This relates to the other thing you said. You could not up with wanting to accomplish on your own. You can't decide, oh, I'm going to... I'm going to now decide to accomplish the Buddha way. You can't do that. You can't think that thought by yourself. You can't decide to do that by yourself. Because you're deluded. You've never... Because if you thought it, then you wouldn't be deluded. But you are deluded. And if you're not deluded... if all that was going on was that you just understood how dependent core rising works, that's all that was going around, and you weren't deluded, you wouldn't think of trying to get released. You wouldn't want to get released. You wouldn't want to attain the Buddha way if you understood the dependent core rising.

[15:21]

Which is another thing Charlie was talking about last night. But once you get there, what's the problem? What you understand in Pentecostal Rising, you would not have the aspiration to attain liberation anymore. It's because you wouldn't have any bondage. You wouldn't be in it. But when you don't understand it, when you do understand it, you don't want to attain liberation because it's not an issue. When you don't understand it, you could never think of it by yourself. So when somebody says, if someone wants to accomplish, they will accomplish, that's not because you thought of it. It's because Buddha has now taken you under her wing. Or actually, Buddha has now invaded your body. The invasion of the body snatchers. You have been inhabited. And not by your own intelligence.

[16:23]

You couldn't even think of being ignorant or wanting to transcend this misery, except Buddha has now visited you. And now that's why you will accomplish it, because you have been taken over. You are now Buddha's child when you want to do that. So you're on the path. It's not by your own power, but by Buddha's power. And you are going to get there now. So you might as well enjoy it starting right away, if you've got that feeling. Because you're not operated by your own power. You're basically saved as soon as you want to attain the way of liberation. Basically, it's all over. It's not just, you know, get with the program. What did you say? You said something like that last night, didn't you? You're basically okay now? No.

[17:25]

Anyway, so you don't decide to do this. You just... It's a dependently co-arisen appearance of a decision to practice. But it's not something you dependently co-arose, decide by yourself. Everything helped you, and in particular, something kind of interesting helped you, called Buddha helped you. Buddha, when you say, I want to, Buddha is there at that same moment. It's not that I want to attain the way, and then Buddha says, okay, I'm coming. Buddha is already there when you say you want to practice. Already happened. And what I'm kind of happy about to share with you is that this thing about the spiritual communion between the Buddhas and the sentient beings. The sentient beings are like they don't, they're ignorant and they don't know it. Buddhas communicate with them, and in that communion, in that communion, in that communion, the sentient beings give rise to something which they could never think of by themselves, namely, to attain perfect enlightenment for the welfare of all beings.

[18:42]

That's not a sentient being thought. That is a Buddha thought, and it's called Buddha's thought. It's called Buddha mind, Buddha attitude. The awakened, the spirit of awakening happens in a sentient being And they're not really sentient beings anymore then. Like I said, they've been abducted. They couldn't decide that. It wasn't a decision. It looks like a decision because, you know, they're walking around. They say, I now decide to do that. But it wasn't. It's just talking like that. It's just talk. Actually, what's happened is this wonderful thing is that Buddha and them have communed. And then out of that communion comes... this great thought, this great spirit. So Dogen Zenji, and again, so what's so kind of neat for me is that it's not just like, I've heard this before, you know, and I thought it was very interesting before, but now I feel really good because now I see that it's based on solid ground of Buddhist teaching of the two truths.

[19:48]

At this, you know, middle, at this... middle way teaching of the Madhyamaka school actually is saying that the spiritual communion is the source of the Bodhisattva thought. So I feel good, I really feel good about philosophically, because before that it sounded like a little bit, you know, new agey, you know, like in communion with Buddha, this thing. But it's not just new agey, it is It is orthodox ancient wisdom of the perfection of wisdom school of Nagarjuna and so on. That the arising of spiritual intention is to spiritual communion with Buddha. It is the ultimate reality entering into birth and death giving rise to conventional truth.

[20:54]

Conventional truth is how ultimate truth works in the world. And it's nothing other than ultimate truth in the world. So again, as I mentioned, Dogen Zenji says the thought of enlightenment The thought of enlightenment is not the essence of my mind, and it's not the essence of others' mind, nor the essence of both. It does not spontaneously arise. It doesn't. Antical arising is happening all the time. Why doesn't it pop out a few bodhicittas here? It doesn't. It doesn't just pop out there spontaneously. It has to pop out with Buddha. in this dependable arising scene and such sentient being it doesn't spontaneously arise but it accrues when there is spiritual communion between sentient being and Buddha and we neither receive it from Buddha Buddha doesn't give it to us nor do we produce it by our own power our own abilities it arises in the communion

[22:18]

Buddha cannot give it. Buddha doesn't have it to give. Buddha does not have this mind to give. It's when Buddha interacts with us that it arises. And it is simultaneous, both logically and phenomenologically. It's at the same time. And so I found those quotes in Precious Mirror Awareness. The new translation, I think, is... Wondrously embraced within the real. Drumming and singing come up together. Does that sound familiar? Is that the new translation? Wondrously embraced within the real. Drumming and singing come together. So we start drumming. And they're singing at the same time. Did you notice?

[23:21]

Geez, I got... When the drumming starts, the Buddha sings. We're embraced within the real at that time. The old translation said inquiring and response come up together. And what did it say just before that? Huh? Inquiring and response come up together? Well, somebody will find out about it. And then our translation is secretly held within the real. Rhythm and song arise together. No. Anyway, they come up together and that is... That's another one. That applies to this. I'll talk about that in a minute. The meaning is not in a word, but the response applies to studying Easter. that later.

[24:21]

The Jumira Samadhi is a wonderful collection of teachings of the two truths and also teaching of these three characteristics. It's a combination of Prabhupada Pramita thought and this Yogacara thought. You know, Magyamaka and Yogacara are interwoven throughout that text, which is characteristic of Zen, you know, not to use one line, another line, but anyway, I'll talk about that. So I wanted to say that just that... Also, Dogen says in the chapter on receiving the precepts, he says, we're actually quoting another text where he says, the merit, the actual merit of receiving the precepts occurs in the spiritual union. It isn't that you, by your own power, receive the precepts. When you receive the precepts, when you do the perceptual vows, at that time, the merit is not that you're doing that. And the merit is not that Buddha is doing it. The merit is that you and Buddha take the precepts together.

[25:25]

When you say, I vow to embrace and sustain the ceremonies and regulations of monastic practice, when you say that, Buddha has just engaged in the world. Buddha has just engaged in the world when you say that. The merit of it is because Buddha is there too. It's you two together. It's the real merit of receiving those precepts. Now, the demerit, however, of not receiving the precepts, that's something you do on your own. And you can think of doing that without Buddhist help, right? Ascension being, he can view the body of what's going on, and overlaying the wonderful, pure, pentecost arising with their own thinking. they manage to reject the precepts and violate them. Thinking that they do it by their own power and not even noticing it.

[26:31]

You can break the precepts without understanding and co-erizing. Have you noticed? But to want to practice them, you cannot do that by yourself and that is how Buddha has now... has come into the world. And that's where the merit of receiving the precepts is realized, in that communion. Okay, let's see. Before I respond to those questions, let's see. Okay, I just want to say once again that we need the truth of worldly convention, to understand that transcendence and re-emergence are the same, are the same, and understand the spiritual communion, and understand this is the basis upon which we can understand how to enter into, actually enter into understanding ultimate truth.

[27:46]

which is similar to what I said earlier in terms of we need to feel held and supported in order to do the kinds of practices which give us access to ultimate truth. In order to give access to the unarisen quality of all phenomena, in order to give access to the fact, to the reality that nothing happens, we need to feel held and supported. When you want At the moment you want to achieve liberation, you are now held. You need to understand that, though, because you can feel, if you feel unheld, when you start to do the training, you may start to shake and quiver. Like when I was watching those people get ordained recently, those priests get ordained, it was really something to see them take on these to receive these precepts, and all the Buddha's were helping him, but the poor little sentient being was kind of like, you know, just on the verge of cracking, you know?

[28:54]

How can the sentient being continue to feel that support to receive those precepts and practice? You know, like last night, we were talking about Kyogen. Is Kyogen Yangshan? No? Who is it? It's Xiangyang? Isan's Grayshan, isn't it? He's another one of Grayshan's students, right? So, he says, you know, I vow to, you know, not hope or give up hope for my personal understanding. He renounced discovery of the truth. That's appropriate. That's part of what you have to do in order to understand the truth. You have to renounce trying to get it for yourself. If you're still trying to get the truth, you can't have a mind like a wall. Because when you run into things, you're going to say, okay, now what does that mean? How am I going to get that thing to show me?

[29:58]

You have to renounce trying to get anything in order to see and hear. How are you going to do that renunciation if you don't feel held? I mean, going to lose everything on top of not feeling held? If you don't feel held, what you want to do is feel held. You want to feel held and et cetera, et cetera. So if you feel held now, you're going to have to continue to feel it in order to actually do the real work of actually letting go of personal profit. Right? Got to do that. Got to feel that. So he was able to make that renunciation and I guess he kept feeling held when he went up there in the mountains and he could do that work. So when... the bamboo hit, when the stones hit the bamboo, he was there, not trying to get anything, and he could see the pentachor rising without imputation.

[31:02]

Which is partly that he wasn't trying to be somebody who wasn't having painted experiences of bamboo. He renounced trying to understand what bamboo was and what pebbles were. He renounced that. So he had a chance to understand what a pebble is. I mean, a pebble is just a painting of a pebble. When you see a painting of a pebble, it's just that. Well, then depending on the horizon, just sitting over by itself saying, well, what about me? Well, hi! then you understand. But you have to renounce trying to get the painting of your experience to get the truth out of it. The truth is there, but if you're trying to get it, it sort of says, you can't be trusted with this. You'll sell this. Okay, um...

[32:15]

To give you good ground here. So there's two ways to go that I was thinking of. One is open up for questions now and the other is to either go more into this spiritual dimension or another possibility is to... Talk about the yoga of this meditation on these three things. And I see a bunch of hands, so I don't know, do you want to do the hands now or later? A little later? One thing I might want to say is, also in the Katsuk Nairwaranis, in the song of the Katsuk Nairwaranis, it says that the meaning, ultimate truth, is not in the word.

[34:02]

So here you have phenomena, your life. The meaning, ultimate truth of your life, reality is not in these words. It's also not really in the Pentecost rising. If you take away the words, we have the Pentecost rising, we don't have anything. So there's no, there's no, what do you call it? No stones in the bamboo. No morning stuff. Something has to happen in order or other truths to be realized by this ancient being. So things are happening. The meaning is not in the words. The meaning is not in the concept. The meaning is not in the institutional character of your experience.

[35:08]

And the meaning isn't also in the technical writing. Technical writing is the place where meaning can arise, but the technical writing itself is not a need. Meaning is, when you have these two, you have to teach it, and you have three. then the perfected, ultimate character of all phenomena is real life because you don't confuse two things which are two things. And because they're two things, they always come from the phenomena. They didn't want them to have any early distance. They needed us the substance. There was a devil's quality of their life. The meaning is not in these words, but the meaning is not in these words.

[36:12]

The meaning, the thoroughly established character of your life, is not in your rationality at fault, having a new concept. But the meaning, ultimate meaning, responds to the inquiring impulse. And another more liberal translation of that is it responds to the arrival of energy. That word energy, like in my name, the ki of Zenki, that ki means energy, it also means opportunity, it also means function. It could also be called an opportunity, or a pivotal opportunity, or a pivotal moment. The arrival of energy, energy comes to a situation. A sentient being comes to this phenomenon with some energy. What kind of energy? Well... What?

[37:14]

Inquiring. Not trying to get something, but wondering. Paying attention to what's going on. A renounced inquiry. An inquiring in the context of renunciation is applied to the phenomenon. And then... Although the meaning is not in the word, the meaning responds to that kind of energy in the phenomena, and the meaning is revealed in that context. The energy of a light, of a light energy, does not begin in the phenomena. Other translations are, the meaning does not reside in the words, but a pivotal moment brings it forth. little moment in the court. The meaning is not in these words, but it's a typical moment, a typical experience. Turning, twisting, taking another point of view on the confusion of these two.

[38:25]

America, if you come to this confusion, to this ignorance, with an open mind, not trying to give me This can shift. Vision can shift. You can see. You're interested in coming to this in the first place because Buddha has... You're interested in coming in a state of renunciation. It's because Buddha has now, and that is your body and mouth, so you can come that way. You wouldn't do that again if you think of hell. If I'm not doing hell, and I approach my experience, and now I'm here, and I'm just giving my little butt, whatever. But this isn't the mode in which revelation will occur. I don't necessarily know that, but Buddha has...

[39:34]

me in that situation. So now I'm in the right path. I have the bodhicitta. I want to attain enlightenment. I have the right attitude. This is the right attitude. I want to attain enlightenment for the sake of others. I'm not trying to get into myself anymore. I'm just a servant of the monastery. This is the attitude with which I watch. This is the energy. This is the opportunity that comes to the phenomenon. Then the turning can occur. Another translation. The mind does not reside in the words, but it accommodates to what arises. If you are walking around as what arises, your life is what arises, that's your thing. You meet phenomena that way. The mind will accommodate you. There will be this face-to-face transmission. So here again, in the precious Mira Samadhi, I see the teaching of the Samadhi Nirmachana Sutra very nicely awaited.

[40:49]

And I'm not going to, I think I decide now not to go further, but the yoga of the sutra and the yoga of upright sitting and precious Mira Samadhi upright sitting and self-propelling samadhi these two practices of upright sitting and these samadhis is the same as the practice of the sutra I'm finding so I I'll stop now more or less and just tell you beforehand that I'd like to talk to you later about the relationship between what we call the mind like a wall and so on that kind of training and these samadhis. One of the relationships I might mention now, which you hear in the bendowa, is that the self-fulfilling samadhi, and you could also say the jewel mirror samadhi, and you could also say the one practice samadhi, these samadhis are the standard for your upright sitting, for your mind like a wall.

[42:06]

Mind like a wall is the gate to these, to these samadhis, and these samadhis are the standard for your entry practice. If your entry practice is proper, you should be in these samadhis. You want to get in these samadhis, you do these to entry practices. They'll be together. And the hard part is the renunciation, mind like a wall kind of practice. So basically, once again, feeling held, Buddha has now engaged in the world through my aspiration, through this aspiration, Buddha's here, I feel held, now I can do the kind of sitting practice, which is the gate to the samadhi of the Buddhas, which is the realm of ultimate truth, both in the dependently co-arisen world,

[43:06]

the ultimate truth in the to-arisen world, and the ultimate truth in the un-arisen, never-to-arise world. Okay? Can I get a picture now? All right. That's enough for me. See you later. So I don't know. Let's go now just like hands. So there's David and Jane and Linda. David and Jane and Linda. and Robert, and Marianne, and Justin, and Adam. Help me remember those people. Any others? Huh? And Liz? No? Oh, come on, Liz. Sign up. A tentative Liz. Okay, let's go with David, shall we? between the words of conflict and colorizing, a typical number of kids from white people.

[44:26]

And I struggle with Sarah and then I actually write over the study, and I mean, there's some of those kids that will all try to inform the future, for the sake of everyone, for the second number of Christians inviting them. Okay, so that was kind of a long question to read. Right. But the last part was, what's the question to read? What long question about that? He added to the last sentence. Yeah, so something about practice. Practice enlightenment for practices in ultimate truth, okay? they're not completely the same and they're not completely different. Practice and enlightening are the same when practice is just like enlightening. When your practice is selfless, then the practice is exactly the same as enlightening.

[45:26]

Then practice is exactly the same as enlightening. And if your practice is selfish, it's not really the same as enlightening because enlightenment, there won't be any selfish practice. So they're not really the same. So maybe after another class, I've been going into some detail of the argument in the sutra, pointing out that practice and enlightenment aren't really completely the same. And they're not. If you had to be different, there would be problems. If you had to be the same, there would be problems. Ultimate reality transcends sameness and difference. Self-practice. Even the most basic practice you do, like making yourself comfortable in your seat, okay, is not different from ultimate truth. Right there in your deluded attempts to get on your cushion, in your proper and improper form of getting on the top, right there, that is not entirely separate from ultimate truth.

[46:29]

But it's also not exactly the same. It can become the same. practice is selfless. The training is in making your practice selfless. If you're practicing selfless, that's enough. When you're practicing selfless, you're done. You're done with your work until that moment. From then on, you have really fun doing your work because now it's enlightening. Okay? Does that answer the end part of the question? Good. There's nothing for you to obtain, but there is something to obtain. Right. That's right. That's right. There's nothing for you to obtain, but there is something to obtain. Ultimate reality can be realized. Ultimate reality is something. It's not a regular thing. But it's not nothing. It's like really... It's like jam-packed thinking behind meaningful life.

[47:33]

And it can be realized, and the realization is not yours, but the realization can totally take over your body, and your body and mind is just, not just are you bowing, you're a servant of the monastery. You are the servant of the monastery, and you are the servant of the mountains, and the rivers, and the entire world. You're happy, compassionate, wise, and so on. And so to a moon's eye to the present, too. Well, maybe if Jane was mixed, I don't know. I think you said earlier that if someone understood the kind of co-arison, they wouldn't have the aspiration to become enlightened. No, they wouldn't have the aspiration to become enlightened, right? They wouldn't. They would be enlightened. And they wouldn't even think of being enlightened. So then when you say understanding... independent co-arising.

[48:36]

Does that include the not confusingly imputed with that? Understanding independent co-arising means you understand independent co-arising without thinking that independent co-arising is the word independent co-arising, for example. And when you see something, you understand independent co-arising without thinking that what's happening is that word. You see the dependent core arising and the word dependent core arise. And you can see dependent core arising in the absence of, and understand dependent core arising in the absence of the word. Now you can't see dependent core arising as a phenomenon. It's a kind of, what do you call it? It's a pure, you know, it's a pure, what do you call it? non-perceptual intuition. But you understand and you're transformed. However, if you are enlightened, although you wouldn't seek to be, seek to attain liberation, when other beings, as soon as other beings say, I seek liberation, you'd be right there.

[49:51]

You'd say, hey, here I am. You called me? You didn't even know you were gonna say that before you heard them. So I was saying to Vicky last night, yesterday, that this Dogenzenji gives three kinds of, three meanings of the triple treasure, or three meanings of the Buddha treasure. The first meaning of Buddha treasure is underpassed enlightenment. The second meaning of Buddha, that's the one-body trip Buddha. The second meaning of Buddha is manifesting as a person. manifesting as a historical entity, like Shakyamuni Buddha. The third meaning is actually maintaining the working of the Buddhist practice, and that is to appear in the... Actually, that's the Dharma. Got it wrong. The third meaning of the Buddha is that beings are edified.

[50:54]

Well, like a being is walking along and suddenly a being says, I want to attain the way. That's Buddha. Buddha is that being. If they hadn't given rise to the thought of attaining the way for the welfare of all beings, if they hadn't given rise to that before, then they're transformed at that moment from somebody who hadn't thought of attaining the way for the welfare of others. to somebody who is thinking of that. And that transformation is Buddha. Is that the communion? Huh? That's the communion, yeah. It's a communion and it's a transformation. But the transformation of the sentient being into an aspirant is Buddha. That's Buddha. Okay? And Linda, you're on the list. I'm... I don't want to... but I'm interested to hear more about how imagination and intention and determination.

[52:02]

Steve brought up a question the other day. You want to talk about determination? This kind of... Imagination? Intentions. You have the sense that they are... Did you say intentions? Intentions. You're adding determination, intention, and imagination. These are phenomena, right? Yes? That arises in our minds and our hearts or whatever. Yes. They may just come up. Yes. And you mentioned that they could play an important role in having a sense of transforming conventional reality or something. I saw it the other day. Uh-huh. The question that Steve was asking related to this. Oh, I see. I would like to hear a little bit more about that. I don't know if now's the time, but... She wants to hear more about, well, the world... She wants to hear about how these phenomena of determination, intention, and imagination transform the world of dependable arising.

[53:08]

Okay? The world of dependable arising is the world of conventional truth, or conventional, conventional, worldly convention, or conventional, worldly convention. How that world... of where things seem to happen and go away, how that world is transformed by intention, determination, and imagination. And I would say, for starters, yes, the world is transformed by intention. Basically, the entire world is nothing but the result of intention. I mean, that what makes the world is our intentions, which is karma, basically. So... So you'd like to hear more about that? And I'll try, that's another, so that deserves like a whole class. Right. Okay? But the world is, like in the scholastic texts, like the Abhidharma Koja, they say, you know, where does the world come from?

[54:09]

It comes from karma. And Abhatama Sakasuki says, where does the world come from? It says it comes from the... intentions, the karma, and the aspiration of beings. That's what makes the world. So it's a basic Buddhist idea that the conventional world is made by the aspirations of sentient beings and Buddhists together. That's why in the conventional world it can happen. Let me think of practicing. The conventional world was doing totally the karma. there would be no possibility there for the arising of that aspiration. Yeah, so I'll be happy to talk about that, but I think it means that someone stays safe. I'll try to like... So I have the face-to-face transmission in relationship to neuropsychological socializing and bringing how the face in the world brings into the world and how the face in the world brings out of the world.

[55:15]

That story has one class, and their class is this one, and then another one. Next, I think, was Robert? Adam? Robert? Adam? Somebody else over there? Mary Ann? Mary Ann? Robert? The book you were talking about earlier. Is that merging? Well, like last night, Charlie said merging with suchness. And it also says merging with principle is still not enlightened. So this word merging is tricky. The pivotal moment is a moment where you can switch them, you know, from laminating and grasp strongly adhering to the imputation of the dependent core rising.

[56:26]

A pivot can occur where you no longer do that. Where the imputation is still there, because otherwise there's no phenomenon, but you don't grasp the dependent core rising as the imputation of the imputation of the dependent core rising. You see them as dependent core rising together. which they do. That's the pivotal moment where you can somehow switch when a miracle can happen and your vision can shift and you can see from another angle. Without changing, without moving a particle of dust, as we said, you're just still, you're sitting upright in this samadhi and without moving a particle of dust, you see this fantastic world of the pinnacle arising, which includes all your concepts, but concepts are no longer But also, also, not only do your concept not free, depending on the horizon, but, and therefore you see suchness, and see the ultimate character of all things, the thoroughly established quality of all experience, you see it all right at that time.

[57:38]

But that vision also doesn't freeze into that vision, and then have you have permanent, you know, ultimate reality. That also doesn't freeze, because you can still have dependent horizon. A pivotal moment is when you're there with the right attitude and you change your perspective. Or you're there and meaning responds to the way you're there. You're there selflessly. You dropped. You're trying to get anything, and it's getting to you. What do you think that's not working in sessions? You're saying it's not... I just... The word merging... To me, I realize it. I understand it. Actualize. Merging sounds like something got... Something that was there, got squished into suchness or something. But... I sound like that word merging sounds too... It was... Heretical.

[58:41]

Huh? It was... Yeah, I haven't talked about the word merging. Like the new time of the Sando Christ is harmonizing. Yeah, harmonizing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, between Buddha and spiritual life. Yeah, between Buddha and spiritual being. Right. Sometimes I find and then there's ideas about what's helpful. Yeah. Then sometimes I find that actually some other place arrives, you can go with one of the anti-Buddha. Okay, so ideas, are going on, and then there's the aspiration you're taking away, and ideas will continue to go on.

[59:50]

It's not like you can invent ideas, it's like, because in a new life, you still can produce ideas, so now you've got ideas about your new life. Okay? Now, because you're being held by Buddha now, because you've been adopted by Buddha, you can say, which you never thought of before, you can say, ideas, ideas, He has no idea if there's my new boss all these ideas. Therefore, I let them drop. I'm going to have a line like a wall. Because the boss said, make the line like a wall, and you can enter the lift, which you said you wanted to enter. So ideas were going on before. Now there's arising this wonderful attitude, and you feel all supported in everything. And now part of the job now is to announce all the ideas. Which means if an idea arises, That's it. That's it. Now, you still may be confusing the two a little bit, but you're still just kind of messages.

[60:52]

Let that idea just do the idea. In other words, don't talk about it. Don't get excited about the idea. And if you practice that more and more, the excitement of this idea drops away. Then the confusion of this idea with creating a pair is a phenomena. So these ideas, including anti-Buddha ideas and true Buddha ideas arise, you could say, In the herd, there will be just the herd. In the scene, there will be just the scene. But also, in the conventional world, there will be just the conventional world. And you let the conventional world just be the conventional world.

[61:55]

That's the ultimate point. When you let your ideas just do your ideas, just do ideas with the stuff they are, then you need to come. But if you're trying to get rid of these ideas, or get these ideas to evolve, Those are devils, you know, devils. If you fight them, they say, look, and there are days, work. Of course, you go along with them, they're successful too. No matter what you do with them, they're successful. And when you say, see my lawyer, you know, this is my lawyer over here. Talk to you. I say, now this stuff, you know, looking at me, I see. Okay. And then I think Justin. Justin passed. Liz, do you have one? Do you want to go? Liz has went. Huh? It's 12, 10, 12. That's not too bad. Okay.

[62:57]

So then Adam. Yeah. I was talking about when we have the aspiration to follow the way. Actually, I said communion. It's more intimate than an encounter. It's like, it's like, like I said, it's like, what do you call it? It's like invasion of the body smashes. Did you ever see that movie? I saw it. I saw it when I was a kid and they made a new version of it, but it was a movie where these people came in when we went to sleep. I don't know, you went someplace and they took over and they had no feelings, these guys. The pods came and went to sleep and when the pod woke up it was you. So it's kind of like that. It's very intimate. It's not encountered. It's not encountered. It's more like emergent. Buddha has this uncommitted, unarisen, empty love that's not in the world.

[64:01]

That's one way the Buddhas live. They live in the world but not the conventional world. of birth and death in the world of nirvana. But they're pure love, so as soon as a being in the conventional world, which is in the same location, calls them, they meet and you zap into that. This is their invitation. This draws them into the world. And it's an intimate thing. It's more intimate than the encounter. Then based on that intimacy, then you start practicing on how you encounter things. Because you still haven't become completely enlightened. You have now the Buddhist spirit in you. But you still see things out there as separate from yourself. You still have some confusion. And now, with the support, you can start working on this confusion and how you encounter things. And all the people you meet now, you start training. Excuse me. Go ahead. That's not... Well, my question is... Well, I guess you can answer that.

[65:04]

There's another part to it. Just how that feels like. When I was in 12-step program, I developed sort of the idea of spiritual communication, which is like the cosmic spirit speaking to my individual soul, speaking to my ego, which seems kind of similar to what. It does sound kind of similar. So I'm wondering, is it like an individual entity, like Gautama Shakyuruni comes to me, or HH? No, it is. Your transformation is the Buddha. So, also in Only a Buddha and a Buddha, it says the transformation of beings is Buddha. This is the third meaning of Buddha. First meaning is Perfect Enlightenment. Another meaning is like the Buddha, H.H. Shakyamuni, right? That's a historical event. Yeah, it is. This other Buddha is you being transformed.

[66:07]

And in the only Buddha in the Buddha, it says the transformation of beings is the Buddha. Buddha is the transformation of beings. It's not like you have you transformed and then there's a Buddha on top of that. That is a Buddha. That's a little more impersonal. It's a little bit more impersonal, yeah. It's not like there's an entity that talks about. That's right. It's that you now... It's more like this invasion of body centers. You are now like somebody who, instead of whatever, now wants to live for the welfare of others. That's the Buddha. It's you being transformed that way. Now that you're transformed, now the Buddha's in you. Now the Buddha wants to grow up. So you have to do all these practices to protect the spirit. And the practice of renunciation is going to start. And then, after practicing the enunciation, then you enter into these samadhis, which are your playground, you know, these precious mirror awarenesses, these self-fulfilling samadhis, and these samadhis of the Upatama Saka Sutra, and the samadhis of the Sammi Mir Machana Sutra.

[67:22]

You enter into all these awarenesses of all these wonderful, multifarious teachings, which are all basically one form. They're all the same. and all beings are the same and you just swing around in this realm with your Buddha motorboat pushing you all around and your state of annunciation keeps you clean. So you stabilize awareness. You stabilize awareness. You stabilize awareness as you enter and you continue to stabilize your awareness as you now enter into this crazy world of bodhisattva life. Next was... No, I think... No, I think next was... Liz, but she passed on her turn, so now you're at the bottom of the list again. Oh, I'm just kidding, Liz.

[68:31]

Go away. I'm stuck on how the community and the same thing you're doing. You're stuck on the communion of Buddha and sentient being? Oh, I like that. Okay. I like the sentient being, but I'm stuck on what Charlie said last night, and they're just referring to, well, understanding that there is no body, like there's only this God. So how does being a communion and only condition found that there is... How does... how does Buddha commune with only conditions? The way Buddha communes with only conditions is that these conditions manifest the aspiration to attain the way. That's the communion. So you got like five skandas on you? Okay, those five skandas? Okay, you got five skandas and looking for more and right in the midst of having five skandas and looking for more

[69:34]

Right in that mess of looking for more than the five skandas when all he's got is five skandas, you know? You think, where did that come from? Suddenly I'm wanting to tame the way for the welfare of others. Wow. And it's like, well, is that a feeling or a thought? You can check to see what it is. Maybe you find, oh, it's kind of a thought or kind of a feeling. It's kind of like my, I just feel this great warmth going all over the place and it's, yeah, and I say these words and that's... conditions, that's the thought of, that's Buddha, in those conditions called your momentary appearance of five skandhas, which totally account for the whole thing, including the desire for more. That's part of five skandhas, too. It's in the fourth skandha. The desire for more than the five skandhas is in the fourth skandha. Yeah. Okay, Nigel? You passed? Yeah.

[70:35]

It went... Brooks. It passed. Wow. Let's see if yours passed. Huh? You had one? I wanted to talk about my Harrison. A little bit. You did? Go ahead. Well, um... Okay, so, um... I... I feel like it's not possible to suffuse love over the entire world, above, below, around, in all directions, without entering at least the first joint. It's just not possible. Because otherwise it would be an inequality in that feeling, or in that awareness.

[71:44]

Can you talk about the Christian students? The first jhana is when you have energy and you become collected in such a way that you have your happy, your joyous, and You still have discursive thought, because the world has disappeared. And it's the first of the concentration states. And when you're sitting and trying to collect our energy towards loving-kindness and ending-ness, I feel like it's automatic to enter the joint state. I mean, Buddha, you know, he went through all the jhan states, and then he went, he did this one, and then the next one, and successively things dropped away.

[72:50]

And then after a while, the world of form drops away, and he went through all of those and dropped away everything, and dropped away thingness itself, and then came back to to the conventional will. So is this heresy? Is this actual practice? I thought you said something like I cannot suffuse the entire world with love? I can't suffuse the entire world with love anyway. Well, I know, but that's what you said. You said I can't without X and then It was as though then having X that you could. Is that what you mean? That's heresy. Yeah. To say that you can suffuse the entire world with love is heresy, right? And if you have a requirement for it, then it's just like heresy that has, fortunately, a requirement to be realized.

[73:53]

But you can't... I don't see these meditations... These meditations can be concentration practices, and you can use them to get into the jhanas, okay? But to me, the point of these meditations is to generate love, not to get into a jhana. But if somebody wants to get into a jhana, that's fine. When I first heard about these, I heard that they were concentration practices. And I thought, oh, okay, fine. But now I think they're more than concentration practices. Now I think they're practices of love. So that's not something I can do. But it's something that I can get in touch with. And these practices help me. But I don't do the love. Well, they're more, they're more, like this time, when I, when I read them, they're more like summaries of things that happen in your life. Yeah, right. Yeah, I agree. These love practices are about what's happening anyway. And so, in one sense, it's not heresy for you to say that in order to attain

[75:01]

the jhana which these meditations can lead to, you have to attain the jhana. Because if I'm going to use them as concentration practices, then I haven't fully realized the potential as concentration practices until I attain the concentration state. But if I don't see them as concentration practices, but I see them as, in fact, Buddha, then I don't do it. Then, in fact, I do them in order to realize that that's what's been happening to me all along. is that the entire world has been suffusing me and itself all along, and these practices help me accept that. And to do them as concentration practices is fine, but that's not the way I'm thinking about them, because I'm thinking about them as the ways in which I do practice of renunciation and entering into the Buddha's mind. to think about them as I do loving kindness to go into a jhana reverses the whole point of the Buddha.

[76:11]

If it reverses the ultimate point, it reverses the ultimate point. The ultimate point is that loving kindness is Buddha. Compassion, joy, and equanimity, that's what Buddha is. And to think of them as concentration practices, which I do, which are good karma, it's kind of like, yeah, it's kind of like, it's making what is Buddha beyond karma and into karma, which is still good karma, but that's not heresy. That's just, well, it would be heresy to say that that's their real meaning. And I think that's just one of the meanings of those practices. And the reason why they're in that part of the Vasudhimagga is they can be taken as concentration practices. But for me, if that's all they are, then I would skip them. It's like a pale shadow. Yeah, right. Is there a secret? Is there a secret? So it would be heresy to say that's the full extent of what they're about. Because actually they are.

[77:13]

Buddha is those loving practices, is the actuality of wishing well for myself, wishing well for others, and having others wish me well. That's the actuality of the world of nirvana. In a world where nothing happens, It's full of loving-kindness, which doesn't happen. And doesn't cease. And it's quiet from the start. Okay, and then, let's see, was anybody else? So we have some new people signing up now. Is there any old-timers? Oh, Lee. I'm interested in meaning this word, to be God. I have no idea. You have no idea what it means to be held? Well... Do you have a feeling that you want to be held? Do you have a feeling that you want to hold?

[78:14]

Well, that's part of it. It's just a feeling of wanting to be held. Of wanting to be held by the entire universe. Do you have that feeling? That's pretty much it. What I want is to be held the way I kind of want to be held. I want to be supported. I want everybody and everything in the universe to support my life. And I think that that's... In other words, I want the truth. I want to see the truth. I think that's the truth. Is that all I am is all the things holding me. I'm not one single thing in addition to all the things that are holding this life. My skin, my flesh, my bones are just part of what's holding me. I'm not anything other than an infinite number of supportive conditions. And I want to feel that. And also, I want to be that way with everything else, too, because I'm not personally supporting the rest of the universe, but I'm part of the supporting of all things. I want to feel that I support all of you, and I want to feel that all of you support me.

[79:18]

And I think that's truth, and I want to realize that truth. Okay, it's 10.30 now. Is it okay to stop? Is it okay to stop? Before she asks her question, we should have her question. Have her question? Is that okay? All right. My popular request. Isn't it possible to deepen this aspiration? Is it possible to deepen this aspiration? We already... Yeah, it's possible to deepen. I think it's in that same chapter where Dogen Zengi says, you know, it doesn't arise by my own power. Buddha doesn't give it to me. It arises... Oh, that's a very amazing way of sitting. LAUGHTER

[80:24]

So in that same chapter, I think it's that chapter, he says, the thought of enlightenment is like fish eggs and fish eggs. No, no, he says, there's three things or four things that once born are very likely not to reach a charity. One is fish eggs, another is a special fruit, and the third one is this, is this Bodhisattva heart. Once it's born, it's actually not likely to reach maturity. Not like, huh? It's an endangered species. So, it's like a little baby seed, you know, and you have to take really good care of it because it's just swept away. Just like it wasn't there, you know, dependable, risen, birth and death, out there, suddenly Buddha comes, the sentient being is born, now it has to be careful, very careful, otherwise it can be lost.

[81:33]

It's wonderful, but it's not like, it's not like instructable. It is like all things, you know, all things are fragile. It's a, it's a, it's an arisen thing, it's a dependable, arisen spirit. So, The main way to protect it, of course, is to realize emptiness. That's what you call it. The unsurpassable protection of the spirit is understanding emptiness. In the meantime, be protected by renunciation. This isn't mine. I'm not going to try to get... This is for others, you know. To wish for liberation yourself is also fragile. Sometimes it reaches maturity, but not very often. So this thought is even more wonderful because it's the sea of a Buddha. And it's also in danger unless you protect it by renunciation. It's the first thing.

[82:35]

This training of the mind like a wall. Once you've got this spirit, you've got to drop away all this stuff so none of your agendas start infecting this great thought. And then you practice all the paramitas giving Practicing the precepts carefully. Patience. Because if you get angry, it blows it away. Especially if you get angry at the wrong person. Right? It's called Hotsubodaishin. Where he talks about... He also talks about the Bodhi Mind in... which means the arising or the birth of this Bodhi mind. It starts by saying, this thing I said, this thing arises in the communion of Buddha and Seng Jin-kun, or in the communion between calling out and response.

[83:49]

It doesn't mention in there that it's simultaneous. That's the nice thing about the Precious Mirasamadhi. It talks about the dynamics of this calling and response, telling us that they're simultaneous. It's so important that they're simultaneous. The fact that they're simultaneous means that it's inconceivable. The response is inconceivable because it's at the same time. If you call and the response comes later, you can conceive of the response. But if it's at the same time, you can't conceive of it. So you go... It's not like, hello? The response is right there. You hear the response? Sometimes we say, the report of the knock. The response is right there. You can't conceive of that response. It's right there, though. You can feel it. Can't you sort of inconceivably feel it? The response is empty, too. It's nothing in addition to your call.

[84:50]

It is the transformation of your being by knocking. Okay? So you have to make a womb of love for this mind of love. You have to practice the paramitas in order to protect them. So you practice giving careful observation of the precepts. In this case, the monastic precepts and bodhisattva precepts. When you're outside of the monastery, the bodhisattva precepts and the precepts of the society you're in, you carefully watch these things. You practice patience so you don't blow up by getting angry in your painful struggle to practice. You practice enthusiasm. You practice concentration. And ultimately, you practice wisdom on ultimate truth. And that protects. Once you realize emptiness, you won't blow it. You'll never lose it. Then it will definitely reach maturity. But... Even though this... This is one more thing.

[85:54]

When this thought arises, if you don't take care of it, it won't reach maturity. But once it arises once, it will arise again. That new birth also needs to be cared for to rise to maturity. When you take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, you will reach maturity. But you may have to do it over and over if you keep blowing it and start over again. So this thought of enlightenment, although you won't necessarily reach maturity, if you don't take care of it, it'll grow and grow and then keep blowing, it'll go back to zero. And you can be born again, but you start from zero. It's like in AA also, you know? You practice for many years, after a while you're a sponsor, you start drinking, you're not a sponsor anymore, right? You have to go stop drinking again. Then you have to stop drinking for a long time to be a sponsor.

[86:57]

And I guess that does happen sometimes. Sponsors do start drinking and they get disqualified as sponsors. So they go back to being a drunk for a while. And if they get off drinking, then they're a member. Then after they're successful after a while, they can be a sponsor again. So it's not the end of the world if this thing is lost. You can start again, but it you can lose it. It isn't full maturity. It is Buddha. It is definitely Buddha in you. That is Buddha right there, no question about it, but it's not fully matured because you haven't yet understood. You want to understand, but you don't yet. But you can. When you fully understand, then you're mature. So that's why both I tell you how lucky you are, but also I encourage you to study and develop your, you know, your training.

[87:58]

But you're, you know, this isn't, I also want you to know you don't have to do this by your own power. It's not by your power that this practice is happening. And yet, although it's not your decision to practice, it's also not my decision to keep talking about the practice, you know, and to keep talking about these teachings. It's not your decision about whether to do them or not. It's not your decision about whether I talk to you or not. It's not your decision about whether you listen or not. And yet, here I am babbling away and you're listening. It's happening. It's not under our control, but it's happening. And it's happening because of Buddha. And it's happening because of sentient beings. So we got the sentient beings, we got the Buddha. So the practice is definitely happening. It is happening. It's going to work. And I have no choice but to talk about many, many difficult practices which won't be performed by your own personal power, but by Buddha power, which happens to be on the scene.

[89:00]

Okay? So anyway, I'm very happy to bring Madhyamaka together with these Zen teachings. in this context of spiritual communion. Philosophy and religion unite. Ujjata, sorry. Say, God, no. Oh, oh, oh. Say, God, no.

[90:08]

Oh, oh, oh. Say, God, no. Say, God, no. If you didn't desire for everything else, I would have been hit by the hope to save them. [...] Please excuse me. I wanted to say one more thing. And that is sometimes in the past during these sessions for various reasons for many causes and conditions sometimes people are sleepy for example sleepy

[91:10]

bent over in a state of torpor. And that's partly because of causes and conditions, right?

[91:20]

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