Yesterday, I mentioned that I heard that the practice of the bodhisattva is sometimes spoken of in terms of three things.  Remember what they were?  Compassion, arousing the aspiration to attain buddhahood for the welfare of all beings, and realization.  Those three, and I also mentioned that when the thought of enlightenment arises in the world, it’s a wonderful thing, it’s very beneficial to all beings when somebody has this thought arising in their heart.  Even if there is not a practice connected, it’s wonderful.  But if practice is joined to this aspiration to attain buddhahood so that we can help all beings, the aspiration is incomparably more wonderful.
And what’s the practice of the bodhisattva, short form?  Skillful means and wisdom together are the practice.  The bodhisattva’s wisdom is realizing emptiness.  The bodhisattva’s means are to enter all kinds of compassionate activity.  The two together are emptiness which has compassion at its heart.  Part of emptiness is that nothing really happens and so bodhisattva wisdom is to understand that all things are fundamentally non-occurrences.  All arisings are fundamentally quiet and nirvanic.  Wisdom develops in three phases; first of all to listen and study and understand the teaching and to be somewhat critical about it and check all the authorities to see if it’s correct.  Next, see that it logically makes sense.  Then, finally, one has to take this understanding, this wisdom, which you understand in these first two levels and take it into the body…that’s the meditation practice.  And it has these two dimensions which are of course ultimately unified, of calm and concentration together with higher vision.
These meditation practices are taught in many ways, and I’m just bringing up some.  Yesterday I mentioned Bodhidharma’s teaching which can be understood first of all as a kind of concentration practice.  A concentration practice where you don’t do anything to get concentrated, it’s just that he says you’ll make your mind like a wall.  You already have a mind that’s like a wall.  You already have a mind that doesn’t mess around with things, that’s not talking to itself.  So he’s just saying whatever seems to appear, whenever anything seems to arise, be like a wall.  Don’t do anything, don’t seek anything, don’t expect anything.  He’s not telling you to concentrate on something, he’s talking about one-pointedness in your being, one-pointedness in your mind, of always being the same with regard to whatever arises.  The mind is quiet.  Even though lots of noise is coming up.  This is kind of an uninterrupted presence in the midst of “well, you name it – we got it.”  So I’m talking about this lofty practice of Bodhidharma of being there when it happens and being cool.  Just chilling no matter what happens…”I’m chilling but I’m awake!” So now we have all this stuff happening – so much pain, and some people are comfortable, so much sleep.  The thought crossed my mind “sleepy suburban community” – there may be some downtown neighborhoods in the zendo where people are up on cocaine and stuff and go zipping around, but I live in kind of a sleepy suburban area where the daffodils are waving.  I sometimes feel like closing my eyes, I feel like I’m going to get seasick with so much relaxation around here.   Some other people are in pain so they’re not so sleepy.  So it’s nice to be comfortable, but in order to do Bodhidharma’s practice of having a mind like a wall it doesn’t count if you’re asleep because in your mind and in your dreams you might not be like a wall.  I’m not saying you aren’t, maybe in your dreams when something comes up you say “one-pointedness of mind.”
So part of Bodhidharma’s instruction of “when something arises you don’t activate your mind in response to it” is that you don’t activate your mind by saying “hmmm, external object – real – really external!”  You don’t make that little comment.  You’re in touch with the part of mind which doesn’t have a comment on what arises.  There still seems to be some appearance of things, but part of the mind is so deep that it can’t say “I have a comment!”  There’s something arising in this life but part of the mind is the same with regard to whatever comes up.  So samatha practice is to tune into that part of the mind.  Now it very soon becomes vipasyana, insight, because not activating the mind around appearances means not calling them external, which then is insight, not imputing anything to what’s happening.  It’s very close to the union of insight and tranquility.  Once again, bodhisattva practice is wisdom and means; wisdom with patience, giving ourselves to the practice, carefully managing our behavior, being patient with our pain, being enthusiastic about the practice, and concentration.  
Now, I would like to go back to the Sutra on Unlocking the Secrets, the Samdhinirmocana Mahayana Sutra, the chapter on tranquility and insight, on samatha and vipasyana, and go through it.  The Bodhisattva Maitreya, (Maitreya means Love), asked the Bhagavan:  “Bhagavan, abiding in what and depending upon what do bodhisattvas in the great vehicle cultivate samatha and vipasyana?”  The Bhagavan replied, “Love, abiding in and depending upon unwavering resolution to expound doctrinal teachings and to become unsurpassably, perfectly enlightened [bodhisattvas cultivate samatha and vipasyana].”  Abiding in and depending upon unwavering resolution to expound the teachings for the welfare of all and to attain perfect wisdom, enlightened wisdom for the welfare of others do bodhisattvas cultivate samatha and vipasyana.  When doing these practices bodhisattvas  keep remembering, “Now what was I doing this for again?”  “Oh, yeah, it’s for a good cause.”  “What am I up here in this practice period for?  Am I just trying to be real concentrated and wise just to be cool?”  “No, no I’m doing this for a good cause, I’m doing this so I can help people, that was the reason, wasn’t it.”  “Oh, yeah, I’m suffering and so is everyone else, that’s why I’m doing this practice. Okay, I remember, oh, yeah…”
Maitreya said “the Bhagavan has taught that four things are objects of observation for samatha and vipasyana:  conceptual images, non-conceptual images, the limits of phenomena, and accomplishment of the purpose.  Bhagavan, how many of these are objects of observation of samatha?”  Remember?  One.  The non-conceptual images are the objects of samatha.  Can you think of a non-conceptual image that is an object of samatha?  Breath.  Could be.  What’s Bodhidharma’s non-conceptual image?  Mind like a wall – is that a non-conceptual image?  It is a non-conceptual image.  It comes in words, but it is not a concept.  It’s actually mind that is quiet with respect to objects.  What are the objects of vipasyana?  Only one, the conceptual images.  How many are objects of both samatha and vipasyana?  Two, the limits of phenomena and the accomplishment of purpose.  So what are the limits of phenomena?   That means all phenomena:  the phenomena of the conventional world and also all the phenomena of ultimate truth.  The phenomena of the conventional world that bodhisattvas meditate on are seen as dreams but they don’t disown them.  Of course bodhisattvas pay attention to everything, but in particular they tend to focus on the actual experiential presentation which is the five aggregates; forms, feelings, perceptions and so on.  They study these carefully.  They’re aware of the five aggregates.  They’re aware of concepts and feelings and emotions and forms.  They’re aware of what we call the sense doors, the ayatanas.  They’re aware of the realms of sensory awareness.  These are the relative phenomena which both samatha and vipasyana deal with.
The ultimate phenomena are emptiness, nirvana, peace or the fact that nirvana is peace, the four noble truths, the impermanence of samskrti dharmas, of made things, suchness, the selflessness of all phenomena.  The signless, the wishless and the empty.  These are the topics of samatha and vipasyana together.  And the other thing which samatha and vipasyana look at, meditate on, is accomplishment of the purpose.  In other words, they keep remembering what the point or the goal of the whole thing is.  They keep remembering compassion.  They keep remembering the aspiration and the point of the aspiration.  Samatha by itself is not considering these topics.  Vipasyana by itself could consider these topics but without being supported by this non-commentarial one-pointedness of mind it wouldn’t be effective, it wouldn’t be vipasyana.
Then Maitreya asked the Buddha, “Bhagavan, abiding in and depending upon these four objects of observation of samatha and vipasyana, how do Bodhisattvas seek samatha and become skilled in vipasyana?”  And then the Buddha’s response is basically “[[I’ve given a lot of teachings to bodhisattvas and]] bodhisattvas hear well, apprehend well, repeat well and analyze well with their minds and through insight, fully realize these [teachings].”   In other words, hearing whatever the teachings the Buddha is giving to the bodhisattvas, they listen and they reason and contemplate and reflect and study and discern the authority of what’s being said and analyze its reasons and logics.  This is part of their listening well, reciting well, analyzing well and developing insight in the first two levels of wisdom.  Those who are practicing samatha and vipasyana get really familiar with the Buddha’s teachings.  Then, they go into solitude, someplace like Tassajara, and they genuinely settle their minds inwardly and mentally they attend to these doctrines.  Then, with continuous inner attention they mentally attend to that mind which is mentally contemplated by any mind.  This is samatha.  Another way to say this would be that they attentively meditate on the inner stream of the meditating consciousness.  They pay attention to that mind which is contemplated by any mind.  This is a non-conceptual object.  The mind which is contemplated by any mind.  So that in this presentation of samatha, the object is non-conceptual or you could say that the object is not determined.  It’s not an object, in a sense.  First of all, it’s not an external thing because it is the mind paying attention to the mind, that aspect of the mind which all of us all of the time have available to contemplate.  The inner stream of the meditating consciousness.  Can you see it?  The inner stream?  The mind which any mind can contemplate?  The physical and mental pliancy, flexibility and ease that arise through engaging in this practice in this way and continuing in this practice is samatha.  This is how bodhisattvas seek samatha.
This practice is very difficult to do if you’re asleep.  It’s not like you can grasp this mind.  So you’re paying attention to what?  What is it?  Well, it is that whatever’s happening – the mind is like a wall.  The mind that’s like a wall is what you’re contemplating.  With this mind that’s like a wall, you enter the way.  This inner stream, this mind which any mind at any time and any place can contemplate.  There are some minds which some of us have some of the time but others of us don’t.  But there’s one mind that all of us have all of the time.  That’s the one that samatha contemplates.  It’s not a fixed object, all objects arise with it.  To be with this is one-pointedness of mind which is the most defining characteristic of all kinds of samatha.  In one sense this is an elusive mind and in another sense it’s a mind you can’t get away from.  It’s always under your nose.  That’s why the breath is sometimes used to get a feeling for it, because the breath is right there too.  Breath is a kind of metaphor for it.  It’s inner stream.  It’s kind of elusive and unavoidable.  Being with what is elusive and what is unavoidable is one-pointedness of mind.  If you’re with what can be grasped, you might grasp it.  Grasping it, the mind is two.  Being with something that you can’t grasp as self or other, the mind is one.  When you’re with something that is unavoidable, the mind is one.  If you can avoid it, it can be self and other, therefore two.
Now, having mental and physical pliancy, they abide only in that.  In other words, realizing samatha, having this mental and physical pliancy which comes with being with what is elusive and unavoidable.  So you’re being with what is happening in a one-pointed way and what’s happening is changing all the time, otherwise it couldn’t be happening.  You’re able to accept that and be present and awake for that and not lean to the right or the left, forward or backward.  How are you able to be with something that you can’t grasp, can’t use, can’t sell, can’t buy, can’t improve, can’t depreciate….how can you be with something like that?  Well, it’s a lot easier to talk about how you can’t be with something like that.  Like right now.  Maybe it’s pretty easy to talk about how you can’t be with what’s happening.  So if something is kind of elusive and kind of ungraspable and unusable it’s the topic of samatha!  That’s the kind of stuff that samatha works with!  Why did they pick those things for samatha?  Why didn’t they pick something more interesting like the breath?  Well, breath’s okay, and breath as you may have noticed, gets to be like that after awhile.  At first, you think “oh, breath, I’ve heard – enjoy your breath, that’s going to be cool.”  But after awhile breath gets to seem useless – “what’s my breath doing for me?   For awhile there it was really cool, I got calm out of my breath.”  Well, that was fine then, but now we’re passed that stage and you’re not getting anything from your breath.  Your breath is kind of elusive and you can’t get away from it.  You cannot notice that you can’t get away from it, though.  You can ignore the fact that you can’t get away from it.  You can ignore the fact that you can’t get away from that mind which any mind can contemplate anytime, anyplace.  This mind, this elusive, inescapable aspect of mind which is the object of samatha is difficult in some ways to pay attention to because you can’t get anything from it.  So, if one is not able to be really attentive and focused on this kind of mind, this non-conceptual mind, if one is not able to do that, then one is not able to practice samatha.  In other words, even if one was trying to practice samatha but one was not wanting to be with something useless, something which everybody has (so what’s special about me?), if one is not able to be with such a thing, then there are various ways not to be able to be with it.  So, can you guess some of the ways one might be unable to be with a non-conceptual object of contemplation?  Answer from group:  “Go to sleep.”  Tenshin Roshi:  That’s number one, actually.  Now, I don’t know if it’s number one because it is the most popular, but it is number one on the list of defects in the samatha practice.  It’s also called sloth.  That includes the approach to sleep, also.  (When the back is curved, the chin is on the chest, the mudra is seventeen inches apart…)  Sloth, torpor – these are ways of not being with this mind which any mind can contemplate.  These are ways of not being with this boring, old inner stream of meditation consciousness.  These are ways of not being with the mind like a wall.   These are ways of activating the mind around objects.  Now you might say  “sloth is activating the mind around objects?”  Yes – it counts.  It doesn’t seem very active but it is a way to be with the object, called activating it.  You actually have to be awake to not activate the mind.  If you go to sleep, mind does its stuff, actively, in the form of sloth.  Again, I don’t know if sloth and its ensuing sleep state is the most important, but in terms of antidotes there are six defects in samatha and there are eight antidotes and sloth gets four.  Half the antidotes are for sloth.  So maybe it is the big one.   What are the four?  One is faith.  What’s faith?  Don’t tell me… I’m a bodhisattva…I want to attain supreme enlightenment so I can help everybody…that’s it.  And I was on this thing of meditating to develop perfect wisdom and I was looking at this kind of boring thing called the inner stream of the meditating consciousness and I was getting nowhere, so now I’m sleepy and kind of slothful, but let’s see…one, two three, enlightenment…ah, yeah and one of the aspects of that is wake up and face what is it again…Ah, non-conceptual image.  This uninterrupted mind which isn’t commenting on things all the time.  Where is that?  It’s right near by, you just can’t get hold of it because it doesn’t tell you where it is either. Okay, I’m awake again…that might be enough, but maybe not.
So there’s another antidote called zeal.  So not only do you have to remember what your faith is, but you’ve got to have zeal about samatha, about being intimate with what’s right under your nose that can escape that mind.  This non-conceptual presence.  Zeal for a mind like a wall.  Zeal for not yacking about what’s happening.  This is a wonderful thing!  Got to work that one out.  If you don’t have sloth, forget it, just be there in rapt intimacy with the inner stream of the meditating consciousness.  But if you’re slothful you need to remember what you’re here for again and be zealous about it.
Other defects in the samatha practice, other ways that we manifest with this non-conceptual object, other ways that we aren’t with it:  one of them is confusion about the object of meditation or forgetting, the object of meditation drifting away.  Well, you say, I forgive myself for getting confused about it because it’s kind of a strange object so it’s easy to forget it – that mind which any mind can contemplate?  It’s easy to forget that one and be confused about that one.  Easy, because…what is it?  It is elusive, so it’s easy for it to fade away, it’s easy to be confused about it.  It’s easy to make it into some object that’s not elusive.  But when you make it into an object that’s not elusive, that’s a way of not being what it is.  It’s not a conceptual object so one of the ways to forget the object of samatha is to make it into a conceptual object.  That’s a confusion.  That’s a fading away of the non-conceptual object and replacing it with a conceptual one.  So the antidote for that is mindfulness.  “That’s a conceptual object – that’s not a non-conceptual object” – you’re talking to yourself again about this.  But let’s be patient and let’s be sympathetic with ourselves and with others, it’s hard for human beings to practice samatha unless they have unwavering resolution.
This mind, which is the mind that is always there, is that which is uninterrupted.  So it is a good basis for being stable.  But it’s hard because we’re not used to it.  So again, we know what to do with something that’s hard – take a nap!  Be drowsy.  That’s one thing to do, the other is  “oh, I can’t remember what it is!”  And the other one is get depressed because you can’t get hold of it, you can’t get away from it and you can’t even get close to it.  “It’s a mess and I’m depressed.”  The other one is “hey – I’m practicing samatha and this is cool and I’m good!”  This is another way to not be with this non-conceptual thing and switch over to the concept of “hey, I’m a successful meditator – I’m a professional.”  etc.  So you get kind of giddy at the thought that you’re being able to practice samatha  which would be great if you could.  So if you’re going to be giddy about something this is a good thing to be giddy about.  And if you’re going to be depressed about something, not being able to do it is a good thing to be depressed about.   Being able to do it, yeah, why not get giddy, why not have a party and get excited about it?  Well, that’s one way to not be with it.  The other one is be depressed about either what it’s like to be successful or what it’s like to be unsuccessful.  But actually depression and giddiness are defects.  Just set them aside and go back to this work which is a little bit boring from the point of view of gain and loss but which once again one can practice if one has unwavering resolution.  That’s where we come from in this practice.
What are the other defects?  So far we have sloth, confusion of the object, giddiness and depression.  Not enough effort and too much effort.  The antidote to giddiness and depression is awareness and the antidote to not enough effort is investigation.  The antidote to too much effort is equanimity.  So these are eight antidotes to these six defects of contemplating the non-conceptual object.  These are eight antidotes to six defects in the mind like a wall.  I know some of you can spot these defects.  I don’t know if you’re trying to practice samatha, but maybe you are because you’ve got one of the defects.  So that may be a good sign that you are actually not entertaining yourselves that much, like climbing up those yogic ladders to higher and higher yogic attainments.  But more like “this is not that interesting what’s going on here, basically, the same old stream of inner consciousness of this meditator’s mind, it’s just not that interesting, how am I going to stay awake?  Well I’m not going to stay awake – I’m asleep.”  Maybe some of you are actually practicing this mind like a wall but you have these defects.  Maybe some of you are actually paying attention to the aspect of your mind which is not all that conceptual.  In other words, which isn’t  really great and which isn’t really terrible, which isn’t really advanced and isn’t really retarded.  Maybe you are looking at what samatha looks at and you just have these defects.  It’s possible.
There is also samatha practice which doesn’t have any defects and doesn’t have any antidotes.  It’s just simply being present with no chatter about what’s happening.  At first it’s like contemplating that mind which doesn’t talk about what’s happening.  But really it is being that way of just being a mind which runs under everything and doesn’t yak about it.  It’s just this quiet stillness which is available every moment.  Some of you may already be there right now.  Others of us may have these defects.  Again, this is not just something you do, it’s not really doing anything, yet we say “cultivate samatha.”  This mind isn’t really an object, it’s not out there, it’s not external, it’s right inside all the time.  Just face it, just become intimate with it.  This is samatha.  This is tranquility.  Mind like a wall.  The pacified mind, and so on.  Is this thinking of what doesn’t think?  No.  That’s samatha and vipasyana together.  It’s more like non-thinking.  It sounds like the inner stream is the mind that is not thinking.  Yeah, but thinking of not-thinking is different than the not-thinking.  So, non-thinking is more like samatha.  Non-thinking is more like being with what isn’t thinking.  Vipasyana is thinking about that, but you can’t start thinking about it until you can just be with it.  So samatha is stabilizing yourself with not-thinking.  Because thinking is always your thinking, my thinking, am I thinking now, am I thinking then?  This is subtending thinking.  This is what’s going on in all of our minds all the time.  It’s not-thinking.  It’s life, it’s not-thinking life and non-thinking is to be with that.  Then we are ready to practice vipasyana which is supported by the non-thinking and now we’re going to think about not-thinking.  We’re going to think about emptiness, we’re going to think about things not happening.  We’re going to think about no-self.  Nothing is more exciting than thinking about nothing happening and not-self, so we’ve got to be stable to realistically study these conventional and ultimate topics that bodhisattvas need to study.

Answers question:  What I meant at that time was, if you have a mind like a wall, you enter into understanding that thoughts don’t arise.  Today, you’re right, it sounds like I’m saying mind like a wall is the way to be with the arising of thoughts.  Thoughts are arising and ceasing, mind like a wall is the samatha way of being with these arisings and ceasings.  So mind like a wall is the way to enter into seeing that there is no arising and ceasing.   That’s when it’s united with wisdom that sees nothing is happening.  But before that is what I’m emphasizing today, namely, the way of being with things arising and ceasing is mind like a wall.  So you’re right, today I’m talking about mind like a wall as the stabilized way of being in the midst of arisings and ceasings.  The non-conceptual object of meditation doesn’t arise and cease.  So mind like a wall is intimate with that more continuous, stable thing.  But you could say even that arises and ceases or there would be no way to relate to it.  Mind like a wall is the gate to vipasyana which sees that there really is no arising and ceasing.