I want to begin by saying that we just had two ceremonies to pay our respects to the founder of the Buddha way in this during these last three thousand years and the Sangat really did a great job putting on this ceremony. The Dohans did a great job, the Ina did a great job, the Shuso and the Tanto and the attendants and the Anja. Everybody got together and did this wonderful ceremony, in case you didn't notice. So thank you to all of you for your great efforts and your attention. I was not going to say that the thought crossed my mind.

[01:01]

They worked hard. I don't know if they worked hard. I don't know if it was hard, but they were not. Maybe they could say it was hard. And it certainly worked diligently. And you know the word diligently has the root to love? The root is to love. It's become... some feeling of hard work or something, but its origins is in lovingly caring for things, loving attention to detail. So again, I had the idea to talk more about the two truths and then to talk about the yogic practices to study them. Again, I'll start by erasing this pulse.

[02:22]

and writing in the middle of everything, Pentacle Rising, and sometimes Pentacle Rising is called the truth of worldly convention. You could also say that dependent core rising is a worldly convention. Dependent core rising is everything that exists. So why do they call everything that exists the truth of conventional, of worldly conventions? Mere convention is not true.

[03:30]

What we conventionally say is true is not true. Pentecost rising is Samvritti. Samvritti. Samvritti. We said that another possible reading of the Sanskrit is samvritti with two T's. Samvritti means active clouding or obscuring or hiding. Some vritti with two t's means something's coming to be. And again, both of those meanings apply to dependent co-arising.

[04:35]

Dependent co-arising is that there seems to be something coming into being or something arising. And also, that something seems to be happening clouds the truth that nothing's happening. So the pentacle rising as coming to be or arising, and the pentacle rising as covering both, neither one of which, neither of those are true. Why do they call it the truth of the pentacle rising, or the truth of worldly convention? Well, again, another interesting word Sanskrit word helps, and the word is samvritta. For some reason or other, when you say samvritta, you'll make the long mark over the first day.

[05:45]

Samvritta, samvritti means clouding. Samvritta means that which is clouded. What is clouded? What is clouded is the truth. What is clouded is emptiness and suchness and reality. What's it clouded by? The pinnacle risings. Now, the fact that the clouding is inseparable from that which is clouded is the truth of worldly convention.

[07:03]

Because worldly convention which clouds the truth is inseparable from the truth which is clouded. So the clouded being, the clouded reality of suchness is no different from the worldly convention that does the clouding. That's the truth of worldly convention. The clouded reality of suchness is no different from the worldly convention which does the clouding. Clouded being, or clouded reality, just as it is, is suchness of reality.

[08:07]

This is the identity of clouding with reality just as it is. Okay? The identity of clouding, samvritti, with reality just as it is, samvritta, which is clouded, means that suchness and reality must be hidden in the clouding.

[09:19]

Sunrita is that which is clouded. What is clouded? Sunrita is not clouded. Worldly convention is clouding. What's it clouding? It's clouding reality. But there is no reality, clouded reality, separate from the clouding. Now, if you're ready for something really difficult, pretty difficult, I think, maybe you won't think so. Let me know. Is that enough for today, or do you want to... I just say, you know, this teaching is the basis, you know, for our practice. The way we practice... Our meditation practice is based on this truth, on these two truths, right?

[10:33]

They're both there. Emptiness and dependent core arising. They're compatible. You see, emptiness is dependent core arising. Now dependent core arising, just as clouding, is not emptiness. Dependent core arising, just as clouding, is not emptiness. It's that the clouding can't be separated from the emptiness which is clouded. So, dependent core arising is emptiness. And dependent core arising is worldly conventions. And then just to protect you from attaching to any realization and getting arrogant, emptiness is also a conventional designation. And we'll get into that later.

[11:40]

So emptiness and dependent core rising are compatible, and the first truth of worldly convention and the ultimate truth are also compatible. So you ready for the difficulty? In the worldly convention, Worldly Convention is characterized by opposition and duality, by privation and absence. And so samvritti not only has this implication of active clouding, but it indicates the relationship of opposition and mutually contrasting features. Like long and short, fat and skinny, true and false, birth and death, good and bad, and so on.

[12:59]

This is the kind of things of a worldly convention. These dualities, these oppositions cloud the non-oppositional world of suchness. the world where everything is non-oppositional. But here's the hard part. Oh, and then one other point is that when you say long and short, you mean the kind of long and shorter in sort of in one dimension. You know, one continuum. At one end is long, the other end is short. And when you have long, you don't have short. When you have short, you don't have long. And they're relative to each other. And when you have one, you don't have the other. They're in contrast, they're in opposition, but they're sort of in the same ballpark, in the same dimension.

[14:05]

Okay? That's the way it is in dependent core rising. That's the way it is in just worldly convention. That's clouds. That way of things happening clouds the reality of quiet and harmony. So to say that the clouded is not separate from the clouding, which I just said, and that there is no awakening from ignorance, cannot be understood in this pattern of opposition. If insight is merely the absence of ignorance, then it's not true insight.

[15:09]

But insight and ignorance were on a continuum, and at one end you have ignorance, and at the other end you have not ignorance, a lack of it. And that was called insight. That wouldn't be true insight. True insight is the correct understanding of ignorance. They're not relative to each other. Suchness and reality are not on a pole with non-suchness and non-reality. These kinds of relationships of opposition belong to The clouding of dependent core arising. And they are not suchness.

[16:22]

Again, the identity of clouding... The identity of the clouding with what is clouded, just as it is, means that suchness in reality must be hidden in... in that clouding. So it isn't the absence of the clouding that is the suchness. They're identical. Didn't it just contain the word? It contained, yeah. The pentacle arising contains, the pentacle arising is the ground, is the staging area for samsara, birth and death, the birth and death cycle. It also contains suchness, clouded suchness. I thought that's kind of difficult, that point.

[17:24]

Okay, so that's kind of the difficult philosophy. I'll say it again a little bit before I go into the yoga. So again, there's nothing true about dependent core arising. It's only dependent core arising which cannot be separated from the truth, ultimate truth, that's true. Dependent core arising needs basic misunderstanding and ignorance to happen. There's no dependent core arising of any phenomena without ignorance. Nothing happens without ignorance. Nothing happens without ignoring that nothing happens.

[18:46]

I'll say it again. Nothing happens without ignoring, and I'll add one word, the truth that nothing happens. Nothing happens without ignoring the ultimate truth that nothing happens. Nothing happens without ignoring the ultimate truth that from the beginning everything is quiet. Nothing happens without ignoring the truth that there's no arising and ceasing. When you ignore that, when there's ignoring of that, then things happen. But when they happen, and when they happen, they're based on ignoring, first of all. And then when they happen, then they cloud, they put a cloud over that which is ignored. So in a sense, ignorance predates the dependently co-arisen worldly convention which clouds reality.

[19:56]

There's truth and then there's ignorance and then there's the rising of things. And then once they arise, they cloud what was ignored. However, what is ignored and what is clouded is right there. Right in it. Okay? Now here's another thing. Emptiness is quiet. Emptiness doesn't talk. It's got no words. It doesn't arise. It doesn't work. It's got no activity. And yet, the perfection of emptiness is words. Emptiness doesn't have words, but the perfection of emptiness is words.

[21:11]

Because then people can hear emptiness, which is silent. How do you hear emptiness? By clouding it with words. And those words which are not the emptiness and actually hide the silence of emptiness and cloud it over. are inseparable from the emptiness. Although it's not fabricated, emptiness is not fabricated, it's not without speech. It doesn't have speech, and yet it is contained in independently coerisen speech. It is contained in a clouded world. So right in the clouded world, inseparable from it, is ultimate truth. So the Buddha appears and talks. But when the Buddha appears and talks, the appearance and the talk of the Buddha obscures the Buddha's truth.

[22:15]

And yet, the Buddha's truth is right there, being obscured. And if it weren't for the Buddha appearing, then we'd just have obscuration. But it wouldn't even be obscuration. It would be truth. that it would be what we think is true. We wouldn't think it was obscuring anything. Buddha comes and shows us that our truth is actually an obscuration. So I mean, there's enough philosophy. Okay, so again, you know, the pinnacle arising, the pinnacle arising The convention, the worldly convention, arises and talks. Okay? It arises and has, always has words in its arising. However, there is a pre-verbal ignorance, which is important.

[23:21]

And this conventionally arisen world, this conventional world of dependent co-arising covers the world of emptiness, which is quiet and doesn't arise. Okay? And these two worlds are identical. But not like in contrasting way, like two poles, but one is the understanding of the other. Emptiness is the understanding of the clouding, and the clouding covers the understanding of itself. But right there in the clouding is understanding that the clouding is clouding. And therefore liberation from clouding And then we even have clouding which tells us how to be liberated from liberation from clouding. We have words from the Buddhas so that we don't attach to the understanding of the clouding as clouding, which liberates us from the clouding.

[24:29]

So the yoga practice, again, I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Now the yoga practice is, first of all, training in suchness, training in suchness is to train yourself such. Or, you know, again, when Robert brought up the other day about merging with suchness, did you say merging with suchness? I don't like that word merging with suchness, but I wrote something today which sounds like merging with suchness. Train yourself as such. Okay? Train yourself as such. Train yourself in suchness. Train yourself into suchness. Sounds like merging, doesn't it? So, the Buddha says, train yourself such or train yourself thus.

[25:40]

And then I said, he said, in the scene there will be just a scene. Okay? But you can say it another way. Instead of saying in the scene there will be just a scene, you can say in the blank there will be just a blank. What's the blank? Such. in the clouding. But you don't see clouding. You see colors, okay? But you could say, in the scene, there's just a scene, but you can also say, in the dependently coerisen, there's just a dependently coerisen. In the worldly convention, there's just worldly convention. And when there's just worldly convention, when worldly convention is just worldly convention, that's ultimate truth. Or when things are that way for you, that's the gate to ultimate truth.

[26:45]

That's the yoga practice. You let conventionality just be conventionality. You let the scene just be the scene. The scene is a dependently coerisen conventionality. And again, I'll take away you and let it. I'll just say, in the dependent core arising, there will just be dependent core arising. In the clouding, there will just be clouding. In the clouding which arises based on basic misunderstanding and ignorance, there will just be the clouding which arises from basic misunderstanding. That is the gate to understanding what is being clouded, which is always right there, identical to the clouding. But if we mess with the clouding, then we mess with the ultimate truth.

[27:50]

If we ignore the clouding, try to make the clouding into more or less than clouding, then we lose what is identical with it. So again, this is renunciation of discovery of ultimately liberating reality in the way we deal with conventionally clouding reality. We let ourselves be ignorant and cloudy. Take away let. We are just ignorant and cloudy. And letting it be that way is the gate to see what the cloudiness is covering. Letting dependent core rising just be dependent core rising is the gate to see, to understand what dependent core rising is covering.

[28:52]

It's the eye that sees what dependent core rising covers. It's the ear that hears what the talk of the world is covered, namely silence. When you give up trying to hear silence and just let the sounds be sounds, you hear the silence of emptiness. Did you say that the gate itself was the I in the ear? I used gate one time and I the next. So the gate to understanding what is hidden comes from letting the clouding be clouding. Letting the clouding be clouding is also the I that sees what is clouded.

[29:57]

Letting the arising world just be the arising world is the I. I didn't want to keep taking away that letting. When the clouding is just the clouding, when the arising is just the arising, when it's like that, that is the I which sees the non-arising. When the herd... It's just the herd. That is the ear that hears silence of emptiness. Okay? So here's a bunch of teachings that are saying the same thing, just to see if you make sure you know this. So, Manjir Sri taught The Buddha one time asked the Buddha if he could give the Buddha a lecture and the Buddha said, fine. And he said, he said, the condition of being a sentient being is precisely what we mean by Buddha.

[31:19]

Therefore, in order to realize that Buddha, all a sentient being has to do is not move. The condition of being a sentient being is that you see dependent core rising. You see dependent core risings. Sentient beings seek dependent core risings. That's what they see. They see the conventional world. And to be like that, just to be like that, is Buddha. Because just to see the conventional world, you are seeing the emptiness which the Buddha sees. Which, for

[32:19]

For the independently co-arisen world, the emptiness is hidden in the dependent core rising. So all you got to do to see ultimate truth, all you got to do to see emptiness is don't move. So you see, this basic teaching of Zen has its ground. No matter, all these different ancestors, they had all these different styles, but they were all totally devoted to immobile sitting. Although there are lots of different things, lots of different schools and so on, all the Buddha ancestors are totally devoted to immobile sitting. Namely, letting the conventional world just be the conventional world. Relying on the truth of worldly convention, which is the identity of what is hidden and hiding.

[33:26]

Make your mind like a wall is the same thing. It's just that in the process of not moving, not moving your body, not moving the mind, you might have some trouble. You might think, I gotta move now. I gotta get excited about this. I gotta worry. I gotta think of the future. It means that when something arises, you don't talk about it. that when something arises which clouds the truth as something good or something bad, when something good happens which clouds the truth by being something good happening, when something bad happens which clouds ultimate truth by something bad happening, when something neutral happens which clouds the truth by being something neutral happening.

[34:43]

When these happenings occur and cloud the truth, We don't talk about them. What do we do? We don't move. We are like a wall. Which means we let this conventional orally event be just that. Which is exactly what a Buddha would do. They don't go around fixing the conventional world. They don't go around fixing the clouds, trying to make them talk about the clouds. They appreciate the clouds as reality containers. So, you know, I started today by appreciating the clouds as reality containers. Did you hear me? Thank you, clouds.

[35:45]

Thank you, all you Dependent Core Risings that are hiding the truth. but my only access to it. This translates into appreciating everything as it is. Every object as it is. Not talking about it. You don't go up to the great Buddha with your hands on gaso and then start making comments on her. Oh, I like your hair today. It's a nice robe you have on there. Well, of course people do, but this is not how to see what the Buddha is. You just go there and you look. Like Charlie was saying, you know, Jesus said, watch. He didn't say watch and comment. You just look at this face. You look at this body.

[36:47]

That's what you do, and you appreciate it by the greatest of all appreciation of letting it be what it is, even though what it is is just a worldly convention, a dependent core rising. Nothing special about it except that it is the truth, identical to the truth. So that's why you give it your yogic attention. You don't move. You don't talk. You enter the state of letting it be what it is. Okay? Excuse me. Can I ask you to just go back a bit? What was it you said there on clouds? You used a phrase to the idea of clouds and containers. What was the phrase you wanted? It's on tape. I don't know what I said. Appreciate the clouds as reality containers. The clouds are reality containers?

[37:49]

Is that it? Appreciate the clouds as reality containers. You sure? I sure? This is just a cloud over here. Can you appreciate it as a reality container? Or do you want a different reality container? Something has to exist to contain something. A cloud has to exist? To contain something. No, that's the point. That's the point is that clouds seem to exist. And they cover, they cloud. The clouding covers the reality that things don't happen. But these apparent things happening or things existing is the container for us includes the non-happening. So I'm not making the case that the clouds exist.

[38:51]

I'm saying the clouds themselves are saying we exist. And by saying we exist, Clouds say, we exist, and we're cute. We're really cute, don't you think so? Or we're really ugly, don't you think so? Well, if you don't think so, we're going to do something more until you do sort of notice that something's happening here. And they say, okay, something's happening. You say, well, that's wrong. You fell for it, that's wrong. However, what's not wrong is right here being hidden The fact that you fell for this story that I just told you means I just successfully hid the truth from you. Namely that nothing is happening. But finally I got you to see. So I will... And one other thing I want to say, two other things. One other thing is that these practices, basically not moving practices,

[39:56]

All right? Basically, you being you practices, which includes everything that you experience, just being what you experience and that's it. Those kinds of practices, those practices of renunciation, those simple practices of not moving, those are gates to these other, these awarenesses, these samadhis, which are the samadhis of ultimate truth. which you've heard about, which I'll be talking about. But I'm not telling you about these so you start thinking of these samadhis, but just so that if you wind up in them, you won't be scared, or if you don't wind up in them, you won't think that your practice has kicked in yet. So these samadhis are, for example, a self-fulfilling samadhi, which is described as in noon service chants. It is the one-practice samadhi.

[40:59]

It is the dual-mirch samadhi. When this practice of not moving works, when you're fully engaged in it, this is the realm which is revealed to you as being hidden by arising phenomena. And that dynamic there is what will be revealed to you. This is how you'll understand if you don't move. But we don't offer these teachings for you to start thinking that way because then you do have a clouded, you have a new kind of clouding called a clouding that sounds like these scriptures. That's not recommended as a way to go, but you can do a little bit, but don't do too much because the distractions should go back to your basic practice, which is the gate to actually seeing things that way. So I spend some time talking about what it's like in the realm of emptiness and suchness, referring to descriptions of ancients and giving modern examples.

[42:05]

But that's not so that you would start to have those kinds of clouds in your mind. Rather, understand if you don't have clouds like that, That's a sign for you to stop moving. And if you do that clause like that, well, enjoy them. But keep still. And then I thought I'd read that poem again because it's so apropos. Exiles are we. We are exiles born. Do you understand? No? One person doesn't understand. Well, that's enough for me. Exiles are we. We. You and me are exiles. How do we know? Because we're exiled from what? From the world where there's not a you and me. We're exiles from that world. Sorry, Justin. You know, sad boys, huh? Enlightenment is where we're exiled from.

[43:10]

When you're enlightened, you're back home to where there's no Justin and Rip. But when there's Justin and Reb, we're exiles. Exiles, we are exiles born. As soon as we're born, we're exiles. As soon as there's a Justin and a Reb, we're exiles. Exiles from where there's no Justin opposed to Reb. However, once again, the world of no Justin opposed to Reb is inseparable in that world where there is. The far away language of the desert. The language of the ocean. The language of the sky. Okay? The dependable arising of the ocean, the sky, and the desert. As the unfathomable worlds between the apple and the high. These are the only words we can learn to say.

[44:16]

Each morning, we devour the unknown. We're not going to just get up and have it be unknown. Okay, unknown. No. A couple seconds, maybe. If we're traveling, maybe a little longer. When you first get to Tazahara, when actors get to Tazahara, in the morning I wake up, and I wait a while before I have my breakfast. You know, where am I? What is the... And finally, I've had enough of this. Tassahara. The good old unknown has been devoured by my misunderstanding. I make the universe into Tassahara. You say, not such a bad choice. It's a very nice dependable rising you have there. Yes, thank you. I just devoured the unknown too. Each morning we devour the unknown.

[45:20]

Each day we find and take and spill or spend or lose the splendor of the sunflowers of which no one, none, knows the source. So, Anyway, when I read that, I think, oh, so nice to be a disciple of Buddha. Who wrote it? Ah, you want to devour the unknown, do you? You know, you can devour it in the morning, then you can devour it later in the morning. You can devour it at noon. Every time an unknown comes up, you know how to devour it. Get that word. Cloud that truth.

[46:21]

Tote that barge. Get a little drunk and wind up in jail. Remember. That old man river, that old man river, he just keeps rolling. He don't say nothing. Okay, now it's almost 10 o'clock, so it's time for some questions and comments. Yes, Marty? I was thanking the Silent One for appearing in the talking form.

[47:24]

Emptiness. I was thanking the emptiness which is full of love. I was thanking the Buddha that has no characteristics. I was thanking the Buddha that doesn't come and go. But that's chock full of compassion. And therefore, if we need such a Buddha, that Buddha takes a human form. I was thanking the Dharmakaya Buddha. I was thanking Bhairachana Buddha for becoming Shakyamuni Buddha. It was really nice of Bhairachana Buddha to become Shakyamuni Buddha because Shakyamuni Buddha was, I mean, pretty nice teacher, don't you think? And then he had these nice disciples who had disciples and disciples and all these great disciples, you know, down to like, you know, the crooked cucumber. And, you know, some of us are not so good, some of us are disciples.

[48:30]

But still, compared to how we would be if we hadn't heard of Shakyamuni Buddha and it's decided, it's basically really a good thing. And that's just one of the things Vairacana Buddha became. That's just one of the Buddhas that Vairacana, that Dharmakaya can become. But still, that was a great one. And then all the other Buddhas that we can thank for, we can thank for Bodhidharma, Dogen, Matsu, Wangbo, all these... I can say thank you for all those when we do ceremony for them. But I'm thanking Ultimate Truth. Yeah. And I also thank Ultimate Truth for appearing in dog form, tree form, whatever form. But particularly, I thank... Ultimate truth, when it has words, when it appears as a being who can have words, directing me back to my source, telling me that I'm in exile, and showing me the way home.

[49:31]

So that's the great thing about the Buddha. The Buddha says, okay, see this form? This is a form which is reminding you of where you want to go back to. This is somebody to remind you of where you're exiled from, the place you're yearning to return to. So I'm particularly grateful for that one. And, you know, if the bones screw up, I got to be grateful for that and appreciate that too. I do. So it's nice, though, when they don't screw up, you know, that it's a little easier maybe for me to remember, oh yeah, they're reminding me of something. What was that again? Oh yeah, Buddha, little Buddhas. But sometimes when they screw up, they remind me that little Buddhas don't look like little Buddhas. So that's nice too. But anyway... Las Capotes have been perfect, so that's the way it's been. Yeah, it's like we're in trouble now.

[50:39]

Yes? How do you think ultimate reality without devouring our memory? I just say thank you. I don't say what I'm thinking. You just said think ultimate reality. Well, he asked me, so I said that. I just say thank you, actually. But, you know, by thanking you. Thank you, Nigel. Yes? What is the origin of ignorance? What is the origin of ignorance? The second. I have to devour the unknown, okay? Just a second. The origin of ignorance is... It doesn't have an origin. It's beginningless. So, it's part of this... What? Say it again. It's part of nature, part of... [...] It's part of it.

[51:46]

You can't... It exists by itself, right? No, it doesn't exist by itself because you just said it was part of something. But it is to think that it exists by itself. That's what it is. That's its definition, is to think that it's by itself. But thinking that something is by itself is inseparable of not thinking that something is by itself, which is emptiness. But there's no source or beginning of ignorance that we can find. We can make stories about it. So we have the story of evolution, which I like that story. But that's another clouding of the reality. But I like that. That's a nice story. I like it. I want to be up on that story. So I can talk to people about that story, about where ignorance comes from. Got living beings.

[52:48]

They choose power over love. Ignorance. Rather than just wake up in the morning and just be facing the unknown, how long can you do that and still get to the Zendo? Well, we don't find out. Could I get to the zendo without devouring the unknown? Could I get to the zendo without devouring the unknown? Well, maybe try it some morning. But if you don't get there, we'll come looking for you. So maybe you can experiment with the now and then. But the point is that even if you do devour the unknown and make this into tasahara during a practice period, early in the morning, time for zazen, all these ways you devour the unknown, each step of the way... It's the same practice. And if you do the practice each step of the way, each step of the way, this devoured unknown still is inseparable from the unknown.

[53:50]

You didn't really kill it. So each step of the way, you can realize emptiness even though you've clouded it by deciding this is Tassajara and then you're you. It's still there, ready to be revealed if you practice renunciation moment by moment with what's happening. That's your job, you know. I'm getting ready to, I'm warming up, you know, to leave you. You know, I'm going to leave here in a few days. I'm going to leave this valley. So I'm warming you up. I want you to, like, get your practice clear so that if I leave and never come back, you've got your practice. So I want to clarify now if you've got your practice so that you can practice.

[54:52]

So there was... Okay, here it goes. So Samantha, Martha, Yehuda, Brooks, and Liz. Anybody else? And Gordon. And Melissa, and Jennifer, and Bruce. Okay, let's see if we can release those up to Bruce. Samantha. Is this practice of denunciation the same thing as mindfulness? Yes, it's the same thing as mindfulness in the sense of mindfulness, pure mindfulness, of mindfulness of really having things be just what they are and no chattering to yourself about them. Devouring the unknown when you're attentive to what's happening?

[56:01]

She said, are you devouring the unknown when you're attentive to what's happening? What's happening is the unknown devoured. What's happening is the unknown devoured. Sound bite of the morning. Okay? The unknown... does not happen. When it happens, it's a candidate for being known. What you're mindful of is devoured unknowns. Each moment, the unknown doesn't come in moments. It isn't delivered to you in moments. Moments are the unknown devoured into moments. Just like, what do you call it? Excuse the expression, hamburger, but I'll take that back. Polenta does not come in bites.

[57:08]

Frozen polenta does not come in bites. We make it into bites. Time doesn't come in moments. We make the unknown into moments. Then we devoured the unknown, whatever, and made it into moments. That's what we're mindful of. These little chunks of devoured unknowns. That's where mindfulness is. And in those moments of experience is the uncloudable reality. It's right there. So if you can like really develop pure mindfulness and not try to get anything while you, you know, it's not like you're mindful and it's like, okay, I'm paying attention and where's the truth? No, you just pay attention. The truth is revealed to you in that renunciate pure mindfulness. Okay? That's the practice. But then Martha, If you're in one of those samadhis, are you scared?

[58:24]

No. So if you're scared, you're not in one of those samadhis. And if you're scared, then you're not yet doing the practice of, what do you call it? Not moving. Is anxiety caused by moving? No, anxiety is caused, well, I think anxiety is caused by ignorance. But when you're completely still in the middle of your anxiety, that's Buddha. And then you see You understand ignorance. Understand ignorance. You're free of anxiety. And then you're in one of these weird samadhis. Which you might think, well, this is like... But, you know, it's okay.

[59:27]

If you're listening to those samadhis, if things are like that, don't worry. In other words, you're not going to be... Of course, you're not worried, too. You say, I probably should be worrying. No. Look, this is not to worry about. Not to worry. Holy Hood. Would it be correct to say that each time with the God, the unknowing, or at least mostly the God, the unknowing with the Indochristian? Yes, sir, be correct. The realization of the Indochristian is expected of me too. realization of the indigestion is a test? A taste. A taste. Yeah. Well, particularly if you realize indigestion and then you think, oh, I'd like to become free of this indigestion.

[60:31]

As soon as that happens, Buddha has now inhabited your body. You have just received grace to think of the possibility of freedom from this indigestion, which means freedom from devouring reality, devouring unknown. So your ultimate truth has, yeah, it's in you now when you want to be on the path of freedom from this indigestion. Brooks? I had a couple of different questions, but I was wondering what, how self-clinging related to this conversation, cognitively related self-clinging to this conversation. You've been talking, using the terms ignorance and ultimate reality, but you didn't actually use self-clinging in that description. So how does it relate? Yeah.

[61:37]

Well... After the unknown is devoured, then I appear as separate from whatever I've done to the unknown. And I immediately become concerned with this newborn exile. And I become anxious. But self-clinging will naturally arise as soon as there is a substantiated other. Well, first of all, when there's a substantiated other, there's a substantiated self. And as soon as there's a substantiated self, it turns out that the way the clouding process goes is there's immediately clinging to the subject, which is seen as separate from the object. So grasping, as soon as the separation is set up, the grasping automatically happens and the self-concern automatically arises.

[62:45]

So that's part of the clouding process, too. That puts the teeth into the clouding process. So it's not just clouded over, it hurts because we're concerned for the self. So as long as we think that reality is the danger of something. and cling to that idea of this realm of self, and you're stuck in the same place. Yes. And as soon as we feel an interest to become free of this ignorance, as soon as we notice the ignorance, okay, things are starting to turn around. As soon as we notice that we're ignorant, we have the possibility of conceiving the thought of becoming free of it. I said it, I said as soon as we notice it, we have the possibility of conceiving the idea, but I take it back.

[63:50]

Because it sounds like the eye can notice it and I can see it. But rather, as soon as we notice this suffering and we're in our body, we can notice, you know, whether we notice or not, there can arise the wish to transcend and become liberated from this suffering through awakening, through the welfare of others. That can happen to us when we notice this. Now, it turns out it does happen to us, but if we don't notice it, it doesn't count. So we have to be willing to be grounded in our ignorance in order to get helped. And as soon as we're grounded in our ignorance, really grounded, we naturally give rise to the thought, and thought naturally arises. Because Buddha is constantly knocking on the door of any sentient being that's calling that's knocking in the other direction.

[64:52]

But if we're not there calling, somehow it's like the Buddha can't come. The Buddha's like cooled out until we call. So the Buddha can't help us before we want to be helped. And we can't want to be helped before the Buddha's helping us. But the words come from Buddha, get grounded in ignorance, And the process will start. And everybody's got the ignorance, and therefore everybody's got the ultimate truth. Be grounded in ignorance, the process of wishing to be free and being helped to be free will start. Liz? Isn't that interesting?

[66:09]

She said when she first started to learn about practice, she wanted to learn about how to not move, and it seemed like there was an activity of learning how to not move. Looking at it now, it seems like being willing to be in my body, my experience, that allows for a mouth or not moving. But then I'm thinking about... Excuse me, you said being willing to be in your body and your experience allows for not moving? Yes. Well, it... it really is already not moving. Unless you say, being willing, but also heavily resisting my willingness, then that wouldn't be not moving. But if you're actually willing to be in your body right now, that's not moving. You know, I'm thinking about not talking, not commenting. Uh-huh.

[67:10]

And I feel it as something to do. But now in the family, it may be practiced with all the ceremony to just tolerate life. Yeah. All the practice is a ceremony to tolerate life. You just tolerate life and the truth will be revealed to you. Just be upright in the middle of it, and emptiness will start talking to you. In English, probably, or Spanish in some cases. Who's next? Was Bruce next? I don't know. Okay. Jennifer? How it relates to gardening? Did you have a specific... What do you mean by gardening?

[68:15]

Tell me what you mean by gardening. Are you on a gardening group? Yeah. Okay, I just told you the answer. The way it relates to gardening is that you're on a gardening group. That's how it relates. You think you're on a gardening group. Okay? That's what you think is going on, right? So you just let that be that you're on the guard of each other. Alright? Also, you just let yourself have that posture. Another one, man? You think you're in that way? Right? That's the one. And then when you get to the garden, you be the person you think you are on the crew you think you're in, doing the stuff you think you're doing, and you let that stuff be that way.

[69:18]

That's how this talk is related to the garden group. It's why I call it a It's a facing of how you make the world moment by moment. How your mind creates the world for you moment by moment. Under the world that you create called being on the garden and create moment by moment. You take care of that. That's how this relates to being on the garden. If you put these practices into practice, you would be... there would be the practice and mindfulness going on under the rubric that you set up of being on the gardening for working in the garden. There would be mindfulness practice there. That's how it relates to gardening. Does that make sense? If you want more than what I just said, that's not how it relates to gardening.

[70:24]

Did you understand the last part? Do you want more than that? Do you understand? Is that clear to everybody? So, that's hard, though, to really just be on your crew moment by moment. Various people want to have some dependent core rising to tell them how to be on their crew, rather than look... at this policy or whatever you got there and see this is my policy about how to be on the crew. The policy is not how this practice relates to being on the crew. The policy is pretty much the same as being on the crew. Practice is to look at this is the clouding, my idea of what it means to be on the gardening crew, my idea of what it is to do gardening, my idea of what we're supposed to be doing here. These are clouding reality.

[71:28]

These are manifestations of my basic misunderstanding I'm dealing with. I have my own personally given misunderstanding to deal with right now. Thank you, universe, and thanks a lot. This is really a tough one. Oh, boy, I must be very advanced to get this assignment. And between Jennifer and Bruce, was there somebody? Huh? Melissa. I feel like my doubt is so right at the beginning. Like what you just said, I can hear, and then I don't understand how it's helpful to, I'm just misunderstanding what you're saying, but see yourself as being essentially an exile. Like why is that so... Well, change it to see yourself as essentially ignorant.

[72:31]

Is that helpful? How about seeing yourself as basically ignorant? Is that helpful? Well, because that wouldn't be... That would be what you already think, right? Right? You already think you're basically not ignorant, right? That's the usual thing that people think. This is like if you do a little survey, go around and ask people, are you basically ignorant? Most people say, no, I'm not. And I have, you know, some little problems here and there, but I'm not basically ignorant. Okay? So that's the normal situation among what we call worldlings. Okay? So then you say to Riley, why don't you try on, just try on, that you're basically ignorant. And they say, well, they say, you know, well, what do you say?

[73:36]

You say, not helpful, right? So as you say, you doubt from the beginning. From the very beginning of what I said, you doubt. So that's good, you know, you're doubting. So... That's normal for a worldling. To doubt thinking in a way which is the opposite of the way that they're ordinarily thinking. So that's pretty, you know, got to be talked into that. But if you want to know how it's helpful, well, I'll tell you how it's helpful. As soon as you do that, you're starting to become enlightened. You're immediately waking up by even entertaining the possibility that you are basically ignorant. Now, if you can't go that far, you can entertain the possibility that you're somewhat ignorant, or occasionally ignorant, or that you could possibly be ignorant. You can just start with those. Say, well, I can entertain the possibility that I'm ignorant sometimes. Yeah.

[74:38]

As soon as you do that, you're starting to wake up and you feel good. You feel this burden of carrying around that you're not ignorant is somewhat set down. After a while, you can set down the whole thing that you're not ignorant. The whole not ignorant thing, just set it down and just be flat out ignorant. When you feel that way, you feel pretty good. Then you start feeling so good, so good, that you can face how unhappy you are. And then when you feel so good enough to face how unhappy you are, you can also notice, well, I think maybe the unhappiness has got something to do with Well, this anxiety and this ignorance that I somewhat am willing to admit. And then I've heard, somehow non-hearing, I mean, before I didn't hear, you know. There were birds in the trees, but I never heard them singing. Till there was you. Who? Till there was you. Till Buddha came and told you, Melissa, the ignorance is related to the anxiety. And Buddha's been saying that.

[75:38]

But you didn't hear it. Why didn't you hear it? Because Buddha wasn't there. You can't think of this because you're ignorant. But when you entertain the possibility of your ignorance, you open up to Buddha. And then Buddha starts telling you that the two are connected. you're starting to hear the Dharma. You're starting to feel more and more awake. Of course, it isn't completely cleared up yet because you're still ignorant, you're still anxious, but you're starting to understand the origins of your anxiety. You're starting to hear the Dharma. That's what's helpful. And if you keep practicing this way and now enter into these yogic practices of now, not only, first of all, not moving from the realization of your ignorance, but also not moving from any kind of dependent core rising, then the health gets very intense, gets very full scale.

[76:44]

And you not only feel somewhat lighter and more down on earth, but you start to feel some real relief and some real joy. And the joy just keeps increasing and the relief just keeps increasing from then on. But you very brilliantly admitted that you doubt from the start. That's very good of you. Perhaps some others also doubt from the start. I think when I first heard the teaching that I was ignorant, I doubted it. The first time I heard it, I thought, yeah, sure. Sure, me ignorant? Yeah, uh-huh, fine, yeah. Maybe you're ignorant. Did you ever think of that? That's called doubting from the start. Buddha comes and says, consider that you're basically ignorant, that you fundamentally don't understand.

[77:46]

Consider that. And usually they don't say that until they get your attention by doing something really sweet or really cool. And then you say, boy, that was really cool. How did you get to be that way? Do you really want to know? Yeah, you're basically ignorant. But I guess you haven't yet met the Buddha, so he hasn't been converted yet. But it's great that you can tell the truth. That's very good. Is there anybody else? Can we stop now? Or Gordon? Yes? Oh, Bruce. Sorry, Bruce. Sure. Just the precious mirror awareness. Yes? Just precious mirror awareness, yes? Could you explain it?

[78:47]

I have a different translation I just read. I just wanted to get your comment on that. Last week they said the meaning does not lie in the words, but it responds to the inquiring impulse for arrival of energy or pivotal moment. So they also said that the words... Well, not this week, too. I just got struck by that, but you said last week, you know. And we have this, you know, world we live in, creating this little world where before yesterday was last week. We have our only weeks here, Tassel. We don't let, you know. Three days ago. Yes. So this translation says... The meaning does not lie in the words that those who are right must be taught. Yeah.

[79:47]

Right means a pivotal opportunity. But who's teaching? Who's teaching? Who's teaching? The teacher. Is the teacher enlightened or is the teacher you? The teacher can be a person, a face, but it doesn't need a face. But usually it has to be some kind of dependent core arising for us to access it because we're living in a dependent core arising, right? So somehow we have to see some dependent core arising which is covering the truth. We have to look at it and somehow Relate to it in such a way that it takes its mask off and you see that it never happened. Or it takes its mask off and you see that it's us. You know, you are not it, it actually is you. First of all, you are not it, and then it actually is me. Oh my God. So when you're right, this person who's not you, we suddenly recognize is you.

[80:52]

When you are ripe, you realize your past is actually your present. So on. These kinds of, it's not that way and suddenly it is that way. These things happen to you when you're ripe. How do you get ripe? So I've been telling you, you know, you tell me back, how do you be ripe? How do you be ripe? Renounce gain. Renounce gain. That'll make you ripe. And Shakespeare is the two most important lines in Shakespeare. Well, the three most important lines in Shakespeare. One's at the beginning of Hamlet. I think it's like... What? Another one is... Who? But the same thing is... Rightness is all. and also readiness is all. So if you renounce gain, and renounce gain means you don't move.

[82:01]

Renounce gain means you don't talk about stuff, you get anything, and so on. All these practices are renouncing gain, all these practices are training and being ready and being right so that each moment, each dependent core arising could conceivably reveal to us what it's hiding. If we have the right attitude, then what's happening will reveal itself as not happening. Is elemental chatter talking about things, is that game-based? Not necessarily. Most of it is. It's game-based when it's confused. When mental chatter arises, but you don't move, then the mental chatter is just a dependent core arising that you let be a dependent core arising.

[83:03]

But when there's a dependent core arising, including some chatter, and then you don't let it just be the chatter, it's not just the chatter, it's the point of departure for more chatter, then you're not doing the practice of upright sitting. Then you're not totally devoted to immobile presence. So then it's like chatter, confused, contaminated with chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter. There's no simple, bare presence with what's happening. You're not like a wall. You're like, you know, whatever. A cocktail party. Trying to find somebody more interesting to talk to. Being concerned with what people are saying to you. Being concerned for how long you should talk to this person, being concerned for how long you should talk to that person, being concerned with what you said, rather than just paying attention to the dependent horizon. You know, immobile readiness.

[84:05]

Okay, Gordon? It seems that I was thinking that separation or loss in me since I was born, it almost seemed like I might have had that feeling and I feel like we all do. And I was wondering, is that fire too convenient or is that too convenient? I think when you feel like an exile and you feel threatened and you yearn to be free, That arises out of communion. That's not communion. That arises out of communion. In some sense, it's a step backwards. You know, when you first conceive of attaining the way, it's a little bit off because you're actually, you know, you're with your mommy and daddy finally again. They're right there. And yet you can't appreciate it, so the best you can do is come up with, may I appreciate it more fully later for the welfare of others?

[85:15]

But it's because actually you're home that you can think of going home. But since you've been so far away, you can't quite accept that you're actually home again. So we have the story in the Lotus Sutra about that, right? This guy actually gets home. His parents are right there saying, welcome home, and he faints. Actually, he is home, but he can't face it. So then his father gives him an idea of maybe he can aspire to be a manual laborer. He says, oh, I can do that. So gradually, the process starts. First, it's a very lowly thing. compared to what it will become. Some Buddhists talk about how wonderful it is when we first think of attaining unsurpassed enlightenment for the welfare of others.

[86:26]

What a spectacularly wonderful moment that is. Arising on a real communion with Buddha. It is like such a wonderful thing. I mean, it's... I have to sit down, you know, it's so wonderful. It really is wonderful. But compared to the mind which it can grow up to be, it's like a firefly compared to a galactic firestorm. But it is for a deluded person to think this thought, to have this seed of Buddha arise in their life, in their mind stream, in their heart stream. It is a really wonderful thing and it is really, really wonderful. And it happens by Buddha's communion with us. But still, it's very, very small and very, very weak compared to what it can become.

[87:29]

At this stage, this wonderful thought can be blown out by a breeze. But again, when it grows into what it can become, the strongest wind will only make it stronger. It will flare up in affliction rather than being blown away by it. That's what this kind of thought can grow up to be. So, if you can identify any difficulties and wish to become free for the welfare of others, you've got that thought. And then the question is, taking care of it, and the way to take care of it is by these yogic practices we've been talking about. And if you do them steadily, it will grow. If you slip, you can lose it.

[88:33]

Then you have to find it again by going back to recognition of basic ignorance until you feel it enough to feel Buddha communing with you again and the thought arises again and then take care of it. Round and round you go until you can steadily nurture this wonderful, wonderful thought of enlightenment. This aspiration. to attain the way for the welfare of all. I guess, basically, there are people who already think that they're basically ignorant, and that Gary was teaching to think that that was just solidifying the idea about themselves.

[89:33]

Well, I see that there's people who think they're basically ignorant, and hearing this teaching was solidifying that, I agree with you. But I want to say that they already think they're basically ignorant. It's not in this way that we're speaking up. Well, what's the difference? I think that people who think that they're just dumb. Oh, no. They can't understand things and they don't hear that something dumb. I know, but that's... They're really dumb. Yeah, so they would hear that and think they're really dumb, right? They probably would. But they seem to be already thinking that, right? Right. But I guess that's where I... It's not such a bad... How is that helpful to don't have people think that they're just dumb? Well, I didn't tell them that they were dumb. They already thought they would, right? So they're kind of like already living in life. I don't think so. What do we have here? We have here somebody who thinks she's smart or somebody who thinks she's dumb.

[90:41]

What's that? Yeah. What do you have here? I was pointing in your direction. Do we have here somebody who thinks she's snart or somebody who thinks she's dumb? Okay, so she thinks she's smart. She doesn't think she's dumb. Does she think she's ignorant?

[90:57]

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