I vow to change the truth and the knowledge that are in the physical world. This morning we chanted the Precious Mirror Samadhi, or the song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi. And that is a poem, a Chinese poem, originally. And it was written by the teacher Tozan Ryokai. And part of the story about him is that his teacher Yun Neng transmitted that Samadhi to him.

[01:13]

Then he wrote this song about the Samadhi that his teacher transmitted to him. And it starts out, The teaching of suchness has been intimately communicated or transmitted from Buddhas to ancestors. Now you have it. So at the beginning of the poem he transmits the Samadhi to you. And now you have it. You have the Samadhi now. You'll never get rich by digging a ditch, you have Samadhi now. However, even though you won't get rich, some of you will be digging ditches, or making ditches along the sides of the roads and so on. So then he says, Now that you have it, take care of it well.

[02:21]

Aside from some comments like, Well, I don't know I have it, how am I going to take care of it? Aside from that kind of stuff, Somebody, some happy student came to see me after the December Sashin here, and he told me about, towards the end of the Sashin, the way he was feeling, about the way practice was going for him. And I thought, you know, pretty good, he got a gift. The Samadhi was transmitted to him. As he was sitting there, day after day, hour after hour, doing his various stuff, anyway the Buddhas transmitted the Samadhi to him. And then he said, But now how do I take care of it?

[03:34]

How are you going to take care of this thing? How are you going to take care of such a precious way of being? But some of the characteristics of this gift that he got are indications of how to care for it, because the Samadhi is not something you receive and give. It's not something you take and hold. And the practice is no longer something that you are doing. It's something that lifts you up and carries you forward on the path. So, when he was talking about this nice gift that he got during the meditation intensive and asked me how to take care of it,

[04:36]

I thought, What a precious thing! And I thought, How do I take care of my grandson? It's also a precious thing that was given to us. And I think it's pretty much the same. You receive and give it away. So you've received the Samadhi and now you can give it away. Don't worry about whether you're going to get it back again. Because we're going to chant the thing again later. Again, you're going to say, Now you have it, so keep it well. So it's going to be given to you again and again, moment by moment. There is Samadhi now. So please take care of it the way you take care of any precious thing that's alive.

[05:43]

Pay attention to it, stay close to it. Don't try to control it. Never lose sight of it. And if you do lose sight of it, confess, I lost sight of it, and start paying attention again. I made this little diagram and this is the first version of it, more or less, of the relationship among different classes and meanings of Samadhi. I might make another version of this with more detail,

[06:49]

but I thought to not give you too much information at first. So the word Samadhi, right out of the Sanskrit dictionary, Samadhi means putting together, joining, combining with. Union, a whole, an aggregate, a set. Completion, accomplishment. Setting to rights, settlement.

[07:54]

Proof. And then it gets into meaning concentration of thoughts. Profound or abstract meditation. Intense contemplation of any particular object. And then it goes on in parenthesis to say, so as to identify contemplator with the object contemplated. This is not basic meaning, but this is starting to understand, in the dictionary even, that Samadhi is non-dual meditation,

[08:57]

where the meditator and the meditated upon become one. Supporting, upholding. Perseverance in difficulties. Attempting the impossible. The Chinese translated Samadhi in two ways. I'm embarrassed, I forgot how to write the character.

[10:06]

But anyway, one way of writing it is a transliteration, which is pronounced Sam-mai, just trying to say the word. And the other way of translating it is, the transliteration, the translation is like this. This character, which is pronounced Ding, and that character means to be settled, resolute, firm. And it's more of an etymological translation. So Samadhi means those things, in terms of it means those words, those words are a constellation, to try to translate it.

[11:06]

But the basic definition of Samadhi is one-pointedness of thought. That's the definition, rather than a translation. See the difference? Those other things I gave you were translations, except for the one that had stuff in parenthesis. The definition is one-pointedness of thought. In Sanskrit it's Chitta, which means our mind, Eta, which means one, and Gata, I'm going to put an S on the end, Chitta e Gata, which means, this is like the object, so it's the one-pointedness of the mind. It's Samadhi.

[12:08]

Yes, you used the word thought earlier, thought-mind, or are you using those interchangeably? I'll use them interchangeably. I'll use thought-mind, consciousness, awareness, cognition, pretty much synonymously. And Samadhi is also, you could say, is awareness. Now, one of the first things I want to point out is that in this chart, the center of Samadhi, which is Samadhi number one, by Samadhi number one, I mean this basic definition of Samadhi, but I also mean to refer to the, if I can, I guess the psychological teaching of Buddhism, which you find throughout the scholastic tradition.

[13:26]

I don't know, actually, off the top of my head, where Buddha said this, but anyway, the psychological teaching is that all states of mind, all cognitions, every experience, has certain qualities or factors. And they settled on the number ten, that all cognitions have ten qualities. All states of consciousness, all awarenesses have ten qualities. And we'll start just by the first quality that they all have is Samadhi. So, in one sense, that's one meaning of,

[14:27]

you know, you have Samadhi already. Every moment there's Samadhi. And before I elaborate on how it is that every moment there's Samadhi, maybe you'd be interested in hearing the other factors, or the other qualities of all cognitions, would you? So, I told some people recently what they are, let's see if they remember. What are the other nine? Don't be shy. What? Go ahead, tell me. Impermanence. Impermanence, well, that's true, they're all impermanent, but that's not exactly a mental factor. But all states of consciousness are impermanent, and all the factors, all the mental factors are also impermanent. But what are the factors, the mental factors,

[15:34]

that universally arise with or characterize all states? Mindfulness. Mindfulness, yeah. Mindfulness is wonderful. Isn't that something? Every state of consciousness has Samadhi and mindfulness. You're really well set up here. Yes, attention. Attention. Well, yes, but strictly speaking, they don't mention attention by itself, other than mindfulness. But there's aspects of attention that are always present. But mindfulness, you could also translate mindfulness as attention. Contact. Pardon? Contact. Contact, right. Contact is a characteristic of all states, and contact means that the consciousness and some kind of organ

[16:35]

that is sensitive to the object and the object, it's as though they touch each other. And that contact between them is always characteristic, it's always there, it's an important quality of a cognition. So the first one, mindfulness is Smriti, and mindfulness means both being aware of the object, of the cognition, noting it, particularly noting its sign, its defining sign, and also remembering the object. And it's called Smriti. And contact is called Sparsha. Any others? Energy.

[17:38]

Energy. No, it's not, but let's watch out, let's keep an eye out for energy. Something like energy. Perception? Well, good guess, because cognitions are sometimes perceptions. There's basically two kinds of cognitions, or two kinds of awareness. Perceptual cognitions, and conceptual cognitions. So, perception is actually the most fundamental type of cognition. It means cognition before is any conceptual mediation. Most of what we live in and are aware of, however, is conception. I like the example of... Well, like if you look out at a scene, and it's kind of blurry,

[18:46]

and you put some glasses on that have certain kinds of lenses, sometimes the scene seems to be clearer to you. We humans consider it to be clearer. In other words, rather than just see. What do you see out there? Well, I see a blur, kind of. It might be a landscape. And then you put the glasses on, you say, Oh, it is landscape, and there's trees out there, and grasses, and there's kangaroos, and mountains. And we call that clearer. Sometimes. Once we put the glasses on, it's very hard for us to see at the same time that blurry scene anymore. Do you notice that? And some of us keep our glasses on, because we don't want to lose sight of the kangaroos. Yeah. How about wisdom? Right. Wisdom is actually one of them.

[19:47]

It's usually not called Prajna. In the Abhidharma list, it's called Mati, which means intelligence. But when intelligence is developed fully, it becomes Prajna. So every state of consciousness has some intelligence, which is the faculty that can be developed to the point of being wisdom. But if you look on the Abhidharma list of mental factors, they don't actually have wisdom in its lofty term of Prajna. It's listed as Mati, and it's present in every state of consciousness. So every state of consciousness has Mati, Samadhi, Mindfulness, and some kind of wisdom and contact. Well, it is cognition. Every state of cognition, every perception has these. But I just want to say one more thing about putting glasses on, is that when we are involved in cognitions,

[20:50]

conceptual cognitions, conceptual cognitions are like putting glasses on. Because perception is much more subtle, and it's like what you call it, you know, like in printing, you put lots of heavy metals in, you get those real bright colors. Whereas if you have printing, you don't use heavy metals, the colors are kind of more muted and soft. So perceptions are kind of soft and subtle compared to conception. And we, generally speaking, find conception more powerful. So that's most of where we spend our time. Even though perceptions are going on all the time, too, the conceptions dominate, because they're much more vivid, dramatic, and sharp, and articulate, and verbal. But perceptions are a type of cognition of consciousness. So, yes? Is that perception? Well, yes, sense perceptions are the majority for most people.

[21:53]

So you have these sense perceptions, but most people are not aware of their sense perceptions. Most people, what they think their sense perceptions are, are really conceptual versions of their sense perceptions. They don't notice their sense perceptions. They're too subtle. Unless you're, of course, a Zen student. Yes? Yes? Yeah. They're more sharp and dominated, you're right. Any others you want to guess? Yes? Yeah. Yeah, more dramatic, clearer, more vivid. Conceptual. Conceptual, yeah. But let's go back now to the list. We've got four. Yes? Yes!

[22:57]

All states of consciousness have feeling, vedana. And feeling in this case means Buddhist, the way the Buddhists use the word feeling, you know, what we translate as feeling also can be translated as experience or sensation. But it means the way we, the fact that every state, in every moment of cognition, there's some evaluation done on the object. And the basic evaluations are positive, negative or kind of like can't tell. Sometimes called neutral. There's always a feeling. The feeling may not be the object of cognition, but there is a feeling going on. Sometimes the feeling can be the object of cognition and then you like are aware of the feeling. But even when you're not aware of the feeling, you do have a feeling with every moment of experience, every moment of cognition. Yes? Emptiness is a characteristic of all phenomena. But it's not actually a mental factor. All mental factors are empty. But

[24:03]

emptiness is not a mental factor. Yes? Effort. Effort. Effort is... That's what Ed said. He said energy and another translation for energy or virya is effort. But it's not one of the ten. It is, however, a mental factor. Yes? Do you need an object? You do need an object. One of these ten could be the object. That's how we find out about them. But other things could be objects too. But object is not actually a factor. What we're talking about is the cognition which is in samadhi with its object. The cognition has mental factors. These are characteristics of the cognition. So the object is assumed because there wouldn't be cognition unless there's an object which is in contact with cognition in conjunction with with the organ.

[25:06]

So there is an object but it's not a mental factor. Yes? Is reception or receptivity contained in contact? Receptivity is contained in contact. Receptivity is contained in cognition. And receptivity is contained in feeling. Feeling is kind of like the way you catch it. You know, you catch it like this or like this or like this. So the way you evaluate something is part of the reception process. So actually a lot of these mental factors are actually talking about how the mind receives and works with the object. Feeling is one of them. Contact is another one. Yes? Karmic tendency. Yeah, right, there's a karmic tendency. Yes, but it's not... It's not yet specified in Sanskrit by me.

[26:14]

Chetana is what it's called. So every state of consciousness has a karmic tendency. Every state of consciousness, if you look at it, it has a kind of like a kind of like an implied direction or an implied a bias or disposition. How it seems to be tending towards or acting. Now, it's an illusion because it doesn't really do that. It just looks like it's going to do that. It's like, you know, like in a cartoon. If you have these various like... If you take a little stick figure or a little Mickey Mouse, you know, on several sheets of paper and you spin them, it looks like Mickey's moving. But if you look at one picture where Mickey seems to be ready to jump off a cliff, he doesn't jump off a cliff. He just looks like he's going to jump off a cliff. But that's his karmic direction at that moment. So that overall tendency, the overall contour

[27:19]

of the state of consciousness is its karmic tendency. That's another one. That's right. Yes? Reaction. Reaction. What do you mean by reaction? Response. These... All these factors articulate and describe in detail the kind of response that cognition is. So, that's not a factor. That's more like, I think, more of an overall statement. So Chaitanya is like the response in a sense. Your overall response Ed? It's not... No. No. There's ten plus chitta. Yes, so there's ten factors that come up whenever chitta comes up it comes up with these at least ten factors. Every state of consciousness has at least these ten. It's like it's actually what's necessary

[28:20]

to have normal consciousness is these ten. Yes? Memory. Memory is... Yeah. Memory is... is mindfulness. So mindfulness carries both noting the object, being aware of the object, paying attention to it in that sense, but also remembering that this is the object. Yes? Bending towards it. Yes. There's a bending towards and that's called Manasikara which means that the mind seen in the whole universe of possible objects of awareness both sensory and mental or sensory and conceptual the mind depending on what it's paying attention to it's shaped by bending towards it's shaped towards what it's aware of. And then there's a closely related one to that

[29:21]

which I'll mention. Well, let's see if you can guess it. Yes? This is a form. Form. There's... In every state of experience there's five skandhas except in certain certain very high non-material states of concentration. Okay. But the form skandha is not actually a mental factor. But there always is form. Yes? What is the difference between karmic tendency and bending towards? The karmic tendency is the overall tendency of the consciousness. For example, you might... What shapes that? Pardon? What shapes that? In other words, if it's... Right. The overall form. It's shaped by previous overall forms. And... So, for example,

[30:23]

there could be... The mind could be bending towards an unwholesome object. Okay? But in this particular... Let's say in some particular case we have bending towards an unwholesome object. Let's say it's where we're starting now at our basic core. But we may find out later that there's other mental factors that are there too. Okay? So if you... If you now... After we delineate these ten, if we find out that the object that's being bent towards is an unwholesome object, then we would look to see are there any other mental factors beyond these basic ten? And we might find out that there's... Excuse the expression, a ton of wholesome mental factors that are not accompanying every state of mind but that accompany wholesome states of mind. For example, energy. Because energy is used... When they use the term energy as virya, virya is always directed in a wholesome direction. So if you have

[31:27]

certain mental factors, wholesome mental factors, a lot of them, you could even be... The mind could be directed towards an unwholesome object and the attention to the unwholesome object might have to do with some past tendency to be involved with unwholesome objects in an unwholesome way. But this time you're paying attention to an unwholesome object with lots of wholesome objects arising with that attention. So the overall state will be one where you're looking at an unwholesome object but there's tremendous compassion, enthusiasm for doing wholesome things, respect for all life, including your own. And these kinds of positive factors could be surrounding this attention to the unwholesome dharma. So the overall pattern is a karmically positive situation, even though an aspect of it is to look at something negative. Similarly, you could look at a wholesome dharma and be surrounded by unwholesome things and the whole pattern

[32:28]

of the consciousness would be unwholesome. So you could look at a wholesome thing, like protecting life, and think, well that's stupid, I'm not going to do that. That's like, you know, I'm not good enough to do a good thing. I mean, where I'm at is to do bad things. So we have an opportunity to do something good or forget it. So it's a wholesome opportunity that's being presented to the mind, but the overall state is unwholesome karma. But let's just finish the list. Okay? Yes? Vittarka and vichara? Vittarka and vichara? No. Vittarka and vichara are important mental factors associated with some mind. With most minds. Most of our minds have vittarka and vichara. Vittarka and vichara are the ingredients, are the mental factors we use basically to be involved in discursive thought. So when we're involved

[33:30]

in discursive thought, we have vittarka and vichara. But we're not always involved in discursive thought. So some states of mind do not have vittarka and vichara. So this, what I'm talking about is ten that accompany, that are there for ordinary states of mind and the loftiest states of mind and the worst states of mind. So ordinary states of mind have vittarka and vichara which is to pay attention to the object and be discursive about it. That's, most people are into that all the time. And in yogic practice, in samadhi, as we enter the samadhi, we let go of vittarka and vichara for a while. Any, yes? Bob? Intention and volition? Intention and volition. Right. That's the over, that's chetanap. Intention and volition is the overall thrust of the cognition. So every state of consciousness has intention, volition, karmic tendency, will, it has, it has an implied, you know,

[34:30]

intention. Yes? What's the opposite of that? Well, that's implied there, isn't it? So that is there, by implication, but it's not mentioned as bending away, it's called bending towards, but the one I was looking for which is related to that is adverting decision, and adverting sometimes is related to the word aversion. When the mind pays attention to something, if you look at it, it looks like it's going like this. You know? You know, it looks like among all the things it's paying attention to, it's adverting to this, or it's adverting to that. So there is a quality of consciousness that it seems to be not only shaped towards what it's looking at, but it seems to be choosing what it's looking at rather than paying attention to something else. So there is the phenomena in all states of consciousness

[35:31]

that it seems to be that a decision is being made. It's kind of an illusion, it is an illusion, period. All these are illusions, but it's, you know, it's one to study carefully that the fact that all states of consciousness are accompanied by an apparent decision being made about what's what's cognized. We can't actually decide, people can't decide what they pay attention to. The mind the mind's working determines what gets to be the object. Actually, not just the mind, but the mind and the object working determines what what the cognition is called. But it looks like the mind has this quality of deciding and then we think that the mind can decide and then we think that the self which owns the mind can decide and this is one of our great agonies this illusion. But there always is this apparent decision. Do we have them all yet? In what's it called?

[36:33]

What's the Sanskrit? Sanskrit's called Adimukti. Adi means like to turn towards and mukti, the face to turn the face towards. So it's called adverting? Adverting? Actually, it's like it's really just adverting or turning the face. But it's sometimes called adverting decision or decision. Yes? Understanding? Understanding? Well, that's kind of like you know, mati. In all sorts like cognition itself. The kind of understanding you have will be will be partly determined by these these ten plus what other what other factors are there. And for example is has mati become wisdom? So the understanding is is the whole consciousness which is determined by the object and all the mental factors. This will account for our understanding. Yes? No, it doesn't

[37:36]

accompany all states. That's the thing. Some states do not have that. Most people do most of the time. But there is actually a some states where there isn't a subtle sense you do get little breaks. It's not always there as part of the event. Yes? Spaciousness? Spaciousness is there but it's not a mental factor. Space is actually is one of the is a factor of life. It's a factor of life but it's not a mental factor. It's more if you're cognizing spaciousness if you feel spacious then spaciousness is now the object that you're aware of. Yes? A living being? Living beings are conscious? Living beings a living being is a repository for that

[38:36]

that has to be a physiologic entity that Yes, you might be right. Maybe I forgot. Maybe if we only get to nine maybe that's the ninth, tenth, point. We need two more. Yes, which I mean if we can't maybe like Ed's saying energy and Grace is saying a living being there is a dharma which is called jivita which is like the life principle of warmth but I don't remember that it's one of the ten but maybe it is. Yes, Ed? Well, I'm just confused about what you were talking about. I've got a perception that the third founder was working one of these factors and then he said no, it's not perception. Oh, yeah. There's number nine. Yeah, I'm renaming perception as conception. Yes, so that Formations? Huh? Formations? Formations the four skanda formations

[39:40]

the four skanda includes in all states of consciousness it will at least include eight of this ten because two of these ten are skandas in themselves. So, among the five skandas we're talking about mind which is one skanda feeling is in our skanda and we say perception but, you know I think it's better to say conception because if it's perception then it's just a renaming of the fifth skanda. So, I think and actually the word samya which is the word for perception we say perception for the for the third skanda samya really means conception it means to gather together so there always is samya that's the ninth one there's always concept in every state of in every state of consciousness consciousness may not be

[40:44]

mediated Birth? Well, birth is is not actually a mental factor although in every consciousness in jivita it all means birth and also means life principle so life principle is part of what's happening but it's not a mental factor so, just like there's always five skandas in our experiences form feeling conception and formations the four skandas formations and formations includes samadhi mindfulness faith energy contact there's 64 dharmas in the fourth skanda and I'm just saying that eight of that fourth skanda are with every state of mind at least and the second and third skanda

[41:45]

are with every mind at least they accompany every mind because they're mental factors they're with every mind but also with every mind is form and form of course arises with this in all states except certain yogic trances and there is a birth of each moment and there's a birth of the body in a conventional sense there's a birth of the body but each moment there's a birth of these five aggregates and then there's a ceasing of these five aggregates and a birth of these five aggregates and a ceasing of these five aggregates so the tenth one is tenth one we haven't found yet Desire? Right. Desire. And the word is chanda. But it doesn't mean desire in a negative sense, it means desire in the sense of just wanting to do something. In a sense Ed, chanda,

[42:49]

which is desire, can develop into virya. Not every state of mind has a positive, wholesome desire, but every moment of consciousness has this chanda, this desire. So those are the ten. And some of them are really good news, yes? These are all good news. So a lot of states of consciousness would have concepts? Yes, they have concepts, but they're non-conceptual, in the sense that they don't interpose concepts between the cognition and what is known. In those states, wouldn't it just be the awareness of the sense perception? If it's a sense perception, there's awareness of sense perception.

[43:53]

So in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sutra, one of the nice teachings of that sutra is that every dharma has these three characteristics. Three characteristics are the imputed, or the conceptual, the dependently co-arisen, in other words the way the thing is really happening, and the perfected, or the accomplished. Every dharma has these three characteristics. In other words, what the sutra is saying is that every dharma has a perfected or accomplished quality, and if we can perceive that perfected quality, then that's wisdom, that's liberation from suffering. If we can perceive the quality that all dharmas actually already have, and what is that perfected quality of the dharma? It is that the conceptual is not confused

[44:58]

with the dependently co-arisen. So the liberating states of consciousness are where you still have conception, but you don't confuse it with what's happening. So you perceive things as they're happening. It could be a sense event, like you could hear a pebble hit bamboo, or you could see a peach blossom open. You could see a peach blossom open, and if you could see that the concept of the peach blossom was separate, not confused with the dependently co-arisen image, then that's the perfected quality. But the ability to conceptualize is still there. Lofty states of consciousness haven't lost their ability to conceptualize.

[46:00]

They just don't confuse concept with the object. So those are with every state of consciousness. So starting with those ten, you can add in other mental factors and make this nice little consciousness into a real Celtic. Also you can add nothing to this state, you can add no dharmas to it, and it's kind of neutral. And you can add other dharmas to it and make it into a really compassionate, wholesome, enlightened consciousness.

[47:02]

Could you try to explain this briefly? Well, it's just like, if I turn my head and look at you, people might say that I made a decision to look at you. So then I'm excited to look at them. So there is that sense that whoever I look at or whatever I listen to, that there was kind of a decision to listen to that rather than that. So it doesn't really... adverting decision is kind of an elaboration, it's really adi-mukti, it's more pure, which means sort of like to face towards. But they add in the word decision sometimes in the translation because it looks like a decision when the mind recognizes this object rather than that object, because there's lots of different things you can pay attention to. And people feel that way, they feel like the mind is

[48:05]

deciding, but the mind has a factor of looking like it's deciding, and then we add into that that there's a person who runs the mind that looks and makes the decision. But it's really there's the implication that you're bending away from something else. So there's that kind of illusory sense of decision-making that happens in every moment, but it's not really like the mind is deciding. The mind is powerless actually to decide this or that, but the mind can be cultivated in such a way that it pays more and more attention to what is wholesome, what is beneficial. Q. Is that like focusing? A. Focusing? Well, focusing is more like samadhi, the way the mind is focused. Q. Isn't that dependable? There are a whole very subtle interplay of a million cues that

[49:17]

a nanosecond before, but it includes all nanoseconds prior to that one. So it's not only just complicated in the moment, as you can see from this little bit of unfolding, these ten basic ones and how they work together, but past moments and past mental factors, when they rose and they ceased, there was a consequence of that. So there's a consequence of everything that arises and ceases, and every overall pattern of consciousness has consequences. It's one of the interpretable teachings of the Buddha, is that karma has consequence, karma has fruit. So whatever shape your mind is right now, that shape has consequence. If your mind is shaped in a way towards harm, and there's approval of that harm in that

[50:19]

mind, then there'll be consequences for that shape. So the current shape you have is influenced by and dependently co-arises with all those past minds, including the nanosecond one just before and the nanosecond one now. So that's right, it's dependent co-arising that determines the shape of the mind. And people think, well then Buddhism is determinist, but it's not because of Buddhas. Buddhas are piping, teaching to us all the time in this deterministic, dependently co-arisen pulse phase. So we're getting all these Dharma teachings coming to us, and that's part of the dependent co-arising too. So you're not in control, the Buddhas aren't in control, dependent co-arising is really in control, but dependent co-arising is sensitive to Dharma practice, so that we can evolve in a positive direction if we dependently

[51:24]

co-arise in such a way that we can subject ourselves to Dharma teachings, even though we're not in control of that, still, that's our possibility of freedom from this. Otherwise our past unwholesome states of consciousness would just have consequence of misery, that's all they would have, and then they would produce more and more. But there's also past good ones which are producing good things, so it's a big mess, and so that's why we naturally have samadhi. Yeah, here. Patty? Choice, then, is being sensitive to Dharma teachings, or is there choice? Again, choice, that's why I say choice is kind of an illusion, and choice often we mean by, I have choice. So if somebody thinks they have choice, it's often skillful to

[52:29]

say, please choose good, or please choose harmlessness, or something like that, if they're involved in that, and that may be part of the dependent co-arising of them being involved in wholesome action. But it really wasn't choice, it was dependent co-arising that maybe leads to them being involved in wholesome action. But since the person does think that they can make choices, then it might be nice to deal with them in that language, okay, then make this choice. And then they think they made that choice, but they really didn't, and if they keep making these good choices, if you keep making good choices and good choices and good choices, in other words, if you continue in your deluded path of making choices, but you make better and better choices, you will eventually see you don't make choices. The results of making lots of good choices is that you become free of the illusion that

[53:30]

you make choices, and you get to see that it's actually all the Buddhas and all sentient beings in the whole universe that's helping you do the things you do, which appear as choices, and then this wonderful vision resonates back from you in a choiceless way. Now you see it, not a matter of choice. But if you're still into choices, then let's make the best choices we can. In other words, damage control. You said it's good that we have Samadhi, is that to encourage us? Well, that's what I'm saying, if we go back to Samadhi, the thing that's good about Samadhi is that we don't have to go get Samadhi, we've already got it. It is already in the nature of your mind that it is one-pointed, that it is non-dual with its object. You already have that. So what I mean by, I mean it's good that we have Samadhi because Samadhi

[54:33]

is necessary for realization of truth, and we have a mental factor that's already reflecting non-duality. Otherwise we'd probably go get it. It would be like, well, reality is non-duality, but we are dualistic. Whereas actually, reality is non-duality, and we also have a non-dual mind too. We also have dualistic mind though too, because that's the thing that non-duality allows, is it allows a dualistic mind and a non-dual mind. Non-duality allows a dualistic mind. So we've got the dualistic mind, most people know about that. Dualistic mind is, you are not me. So that Samadhi that you recited this morning, the song of that Samadhi is, you are not me, in other words, dualistic mind, but I am exactly you, non-dual mind. Non-dual mind allows I am exactly you, and it also allows you're not me. And we've got

[55:39]

that non-dual mind, we already know we have the dualistic mind, and dualistic mind is not really Samadhi. It's an illusion that arises in minds that have already the Samadhi. Samadhi is more basic. Dualistic perceptions are derivative from the Samadhi, just like all of our delusions are derivative of the dependent co-arising of all life. So the fundamental enlightenment is the way we're already being helped and helping, and part of the way that this fundamental enlightenment evolved is that it allowed this wonderful thing that we're enemies, that we're fighting against each other, that we hate each other, that we're separate, that you can live at the expense of others, and that's good. These kinds of things have

[56:44]

arisen out of a situation of one point in this thought. Are you hot, Pooh? You look like you're cooking over there. You look like a tomato. Do you want more windows? Yeah, I want your fans there. So sometimes people say one point is a thought, and what they interpret that as is you put your thought on one point, so in that sense you focus. And there is something to that, and the mind can do that, the mind can focus on something, but that's not the one point is the thought, that's like the mind's over here and the point's over there, and I'm going

[57:45]

to put the mind on the point. That's not Samadhi. And actually we're not too good at that, are we? We're not too good at putting the mind on something, unless perhaps Chanda, you know, if we have desire, then the desire runs the mind over to the thing. But if you just like to say, okay, I'm going to pay attention to that, and then Chanda changes the dial, you're done for. I'd like to pay attention to my breath, chocolate brownie. Chanda changes channels. But that doesn't disturb Samadhi, but it does determine when Chanda before was, I want to concentrate on popcorn, I want to concentrate on breath, I want to concentrate on wholesome. That's what Chanda wanted. Samadhi isn't directing attention all over the place, Samadhi is the

[58:49]

act of the non-duality of the consciousness. In other words, the non-duality of this mind and the universe. We already have that. So, it is also the case, however, that people talk about developing or cultivating Samadhi, because when we realize, when we understand one-pointedness, that's calming. So Samadhi is also calm, it's a calming influence, and that calming influence can be strengthened or developed. One more window's open? It's real hot up here, I don't know how it is. So, people hear about this, but they don't feel calm. Samadhi is also calm. I mean, it

[59:56]

isn't really calm, but when we understand Samadhi, and that's why the Chinese character means when we're settled in Samadhi, when we're convinced of Samadhi, when we're resolute about Samadhi, that's calming. So the next circle, so I introduced the word Samadhi, and now I introduce the word Dhyana. Dhyana, that stands for it in Dhyana, is Pali, and these are sometimes translated as absorption, sometimes translated as a trance, but on the chart you see the way I translated

[60:58]

it was sustained or uninterrupted Samadhi. Now Dhyana, the definition of Dhyana is basically Samadhi. Samadhi is really the nature of Dhyana. Now, all of us, all the time, have Samadhi as a factor of all of our states of consciousness, but some of our states of consciousness you might not say, well, the essential ingredient of the states of consciousness is Samadhi. Do you know what I mean? But when you're in Dhyana, you feel like, well, what would you say about that person that's in Dhyana? You say, well, Samadhi is the main thing. I mean, the one-pointedness of thought is really the main thing with that person who's in this absorption. So, in some sense, the one-pointedness of thought, the Samadhi, is the essence or the definition of the Dhyana.

[62:00]

So I said uninterrupted or sustained, and it's almost like, of course, the Samadhi is rising and ceasing along with everything else, right? The mind, the cognitions are rising and ceasing, and all the factors are rising and ceasing, and each cognition is different and each Samadhi is different. Rising, ceasing. So they're not really continuous, but when there develops a sense of Samadhi now and then Samadhi now and Samadhi now and Samadhi now and Samadhi now, as that becomes more and more sustained and consistent, calm is realized, tranquility, and the concentration is deepened. Even though in every moment of consciousness we have this concentration, our mind is concentrated, it's not distracted from its object, it's always one with its object. But we don't feel that. We feel like the mind is moving from object to object, and that makes us feel agitated and distracted.

[63:08]

But actually it's not moving from object to object, that's an illusion. So what's calming, what helps develop, the person that helps to develop this jhana is the practice of Samatha. Samatha helps develop this sense of uninterrupted appreciation of Samadhi. And Samatha means tranquil abiding or calm abiding, and the Chinese use a nice word to translate it, this word here, which is jir, and if you go to China or Japan, and I don't know about Korea, I think just China and Japan, if you get to a corner where they have a stop

[64:08]

sign, they have this Buddhist term, cars are supposed to stop and calmly abide. So it's stop, Samatha is translated as stop, and stop means stop moving among the objects. But then again, when you say stop moving among the objects, people think that they're supposed to fix onto an object, and that's right. Why? You're supposed to fix onto the object, the meditation object, of not moving among the objects. But you're not supposed to fix onto an object among the objects. See the difference? You don't fix to an object among the objects, you fix to a meditation object, which is not really one of the objects, it's the object of not moving among the objects. You won't actually see your meditation object,

[65:11]

because your meditation object is not one of the objects, except in these foreign countries where they have these meditation objects written at every corner. People don't go up to you and say, Samatha. If they did, then you could hear that, and that's just coincidence. We can't actually get our mind to focus on something so well, on some object, but this kind of object we actually can stay focused on for a long time, this object of not moving among the various objects. So, you do see different objects, but you don't move among them, and when you don't move among them, you calm down. So how do you not move among the different objects? Look at all the different people in your life, how do you not move among them? That's the path of calming down and settling into sustained appreciation of Samadhi

[66:14]

and entering, you know, not necessarily entering these full trances, but calming down like these trances. Yes, John? Well, a metaphor that seems in my mind is watching television, and you have lots of different images coming on television, but you're still focused on television. Is that... It's, yeah. Yes? You said at the beginning of the semantics, that the mind isn't actually moving among objects. Our perception is moving among objects. Our understanding, really. You don't really perceive moving among objects. Moving among objects is a conceptual thing. There's no perception of moving among objects. But we have a concept or an idea that we move among objects, and then if we go with that idea, we feel agitated. We don't understand what it means that we're not moving among objects

[67:20]

or that Samadhi is happening. So I said, how can we then practice not moving among objects when, in fact, there's lots of objects coming and going? How do we not move among them? Zazen. What? Zazen. Yes, Zazen. Zazen is how you don't move among them. Okay? Any further solicitation you'd like? Not grasping them. Not grasping them, yeah. So whatever object comes, really what you're doing is you're not really moving among the objects, your effort is to treat all objects the same, namely you don't grasp them. So this effort is not going from object to object, this effort is actually staying with treating everything the same. And in that sense, that's how this

[68:21]

gets translated into Samadhi as an abstract concentration. Abstract in the sense that you take yourself away from the object and you come inward to work on the way you deal with the object. So it isn't that you close your eyes to the objects, it's just you abstract, you withdraw from the object and turn the light around and shine it inward on the way you relate to objects. And the way you relate to objects could be a way that will calm you. Now you could also turn the light around and shine it back on the way you relate to objects and find that the way you relate to the objects is upsetting you, but if you did that then you would see that it was upsetting you and then you'd start to calm down. Because you'd see, oh, I see every object I grasp and that creates all kinds of tension and anxiety.

[69:26]

So then gradually you would probably come, if you could consistently observe it, you'd probably come to think I'm going to try non-grasping for a while. So treating each object with non-grasping, or to meet each object with non-grasping, to meet each object with non-seeking, to meet each object with complete relaxation, this is like a shamatha practice, a calming practice, where you turn your attention and shine it back on the way you meet each thing. Rather than going from thing to thing, which you're still doing, I shouldn't say you're doing, it's still happening, and we're not under control of what's given to us. We try, but this is a waste of time in terms of calming down. So the first step in developing samadhi in the second circle is to develop and concentrate on the way you treat all objects. And if you treat all objects the same, this way of treating

[70:34]

all objects the same is you're not moving from object to object. You're sitting still, you've stopped running around. You're just going to deal with everything the same. And there's an infinite number of instructions possible about how to do this. So like the fourth ancestor of Zen says, basically all these shamatha practices come from your heart. So you can dream up your own way of basically treating everything the same. Another way to treat everything the same is to say, move everything. Or no is okay too. Whatever way you do, you start to calm down. And if it's a bad instruction, but you're consistent and treat everything the same, that will be revealed to you, and you'll give it up, because you'll calm down, you'll see. So the next step in calming down is vipassana. And vipassana can be translated as seeing. So if you look at one of the books on the

[71:44]

list, it's called Stopping and Seeing. When you stop, you will see. So part of the samadhi practice is this withdrawal from the object, turning the light around, and learning a way to treat everything the same. In other words, don't use, you give up your discursive thought. You give up your running around and calculating, and you calm down. And then after you calm down, then you start to actually see. And when you see, now you look at the objects which you have been treating all the same. Now the mind can tell if there's a difference between, the mind can discriminate between the different objects, has been able to do it through this whole process. Now the samadhi practice is, while you're making these distinctions, treat all these

[72:49]

different distinctions, all these objects that you're distinguishing, treat them all the same, calm down. And then after you calm down, then look at the distinctions you're making. And then you look at the distinctions, and you find out that the distinctions don't hold up. So first of all you give up moving among the objects, then you give up the distinction that they're different. You give up moving among the different objects, and then you see that the objects are not different. Now of course they are different, you can make distinctions, but you give up the distinctions. When you give up the distinctions, they're not different. Now, when these two practices are joined, then we really enter into samadhi, we really realize samadhi, and then you actually understand that all these things, everything you're aware of, is really your mind. You understand the teaching that everything is your mind. I shouldn't say everything is your mind, but everything you are experiencing

[73:56]

is your mind. There's more than just what you're experiencing. And this then is now where the wisdom is starting to develop. And then we get ready to move into the outer rings of samadhis, which are the awarenesses that are made possible by developing the second ring of samadhi. Okay. Daniel? I have a question about the diagram. Yes. You put it so that they're concentric circles, does that mean that each outer circle, it contains that which was in the inner circle? Yes. I thought about this for a while, and I thought, yes, I think that's true, fortunately, that the outer circles contain the inner circles. Does that mean that they're also prerequisites for the outer circles? Yes, and it goes both ways. This whole system, the outer circles being the great bodhisattva

[75:00]

samadhis, are based on the individual vehicle samadhis. The individual vehicle samadhis are based on the ordinary samadhis, and the ordinary samadhis are based on the normal endowment of a human being. So normal endowment of a human being is what it takes to make certain kinds of buddhas, the kind of buddhas we have in this world system. They need regular human equipment, and they still have their human equipment when they realize these most lofty stages of understanding. The lofty stages of understanding include all the dualistic understandings, and they also include all the wholesome and unwholesome understandings, everything's contained within the big outer circle. So the Mahayana is totally inclusive, there's nothing outside of it, there's no like it. And there's some debate, you know, people say, well, there's these people who can never attain enlightenment, but the teaching evolved to say, no, no, we're including everybody, even them, even these super deluded people

[76:02]

we're going to include them. So, like I mentioned yesterday, a lot of people approach samadhi as get concentration and get rid of distraction. And if they do, they can get somewhat concentrated that way, but usually they're just upset. And even if they can, by that method of getting rid of distraction and getting concentration, even if they can get calm that way, still, once they get calm that way, to take the next step, they have to give up their calm. So the Bodhisattva, who's in these uttering samadhis, looks at the whole world of concentration and distraction, and people who are trying to get concentrated, and people who are trying to get distracted, and people who are trying to avoid distraction, and people who are distracted and upset that they can't get rid of it, all these things,

[77:05]

he sees a non-duality involved. That's the Bodhisattva samadhi. And seeing a non-duality is inconceivably calm. There's no disturbance whatsoever, and there's no attachment to the calm. So the Bodhisattva doesn't try to get concentrated, because the Bodhisattva is concentrated, always has been, and also is totally inseparable from the most distracted beings that there are, and not afraid of them, not trying to get away from these really sleazy, distracted people. We never want to concentrate ever, and we'd like to make the whole world get distracted and pay them for it. The Bodhisattvas love these people as much as the people who are meditating on non-duality, and are totally concentrated and calm. Yes? I didn't mean to interrupt you, but you were just saying to Mr. Artigan, that the next step

[78:10]

is to develop vipassana, and then when vipassana and samatha are joined, that's a deeper samadhi. So would that be the third circle? Good question. Before getting into the third circle, you can have this deeper samadhi. However, if you understand mind only, you actually have leaped to the fourth circle. So maybe I should take a step back from that realization, and just say, prior to realizing mind only, the samatha and vipassana come together so that you're not only calm because you're not running around between different objects, and you're treating everything the same, you're relaxing with everything you meet, and you're calming because of that. You're not only calm because you're giving up discursive thought, which means running

[79:12]

back and forth. You're giving that up, and you're calming because you're giving that up. For example, you give up running back and forth between past, present and future. Try that one. Very calming. So you're calm because of that. That's the samatha. Then, when the samatha has happened, and the mind is like relaxed, calm and bright, now you start to see, and you start to see that the thing that you gave up running back and forth among really aren't here and there. And that is insight and also a deeper calm. Because before you saw that, you could still be disturbed if you start to slip back into going among the objects. But you're not doing that, so you're calm. But if you stop that effort to withdraw from that involvement in running around among things, you get excited again and upset. But once you're calm and you see that you give up the distinction,

[80:13]

then you can't be upset, because there are no different objects. So now you're calmer. It's a more stable calm. It's a calm based on understanding rather than this kind of calming exercise. And samadhi applies all the way along because samadhi was there even before you started doing these practices. But this is a deeper samadhi, a deeper sense of samadhi. Now, when you start to take up and see topics of selflessness, which are right on the verge, right on the edge of starting to see that different objects are not really separate, now you're starting to open up the vision of selflessness. As you start to open up the vision of selflessness, you move into the next circle, which are the individual vehicle samadhis. And then when you open up beyond

[81:13]

selflessness, you open up selflessness to non-duality, then you move into the fourth circle. Some people have requested a little bit more study halls than might occur if you have lots of classes. If you have lots of classes, then there wouldn't be very many study halls. So part of the balance of this practice period would be how to balance sitting, sitting in the hall, the classes and the study halls. If you have lots of classes, then you wouldn't have very many study halls, but it might be possible to have. So how many people want to go to the kitchen now? Let's all go to the kitchen. I find that they can grasp, intellectually, with these intellectual verbal distinctions,

[82:14]

that they want to experiment with, and really feel their heads against that stuff. On the other hand, they can come into the kitchen and just not grasp, and just handle stuff, and play along with the deal. I think that would be a really great way to balance sitting, sitting, sitting, thinking, thinking, distinguishing all that stuff. So has that been arranged now? Yeah. You've been invited. This is like an adventure that we're on. It's like a river rafting trip that we're on. We're out on the river, we're plunging along in some rapids. We're going to have an adventure. There might be a few ordeals. If you're coming to the kitchen, you could hit some rocks. I mean, I don't know about you. You might be able to throw in some great balls and have a wonderful time and get thrown out of the boat. I mean, if you're ready for that, come join us. Are you ready?

[83:18]

No, we're going to go study. We're going to get someplace. We're going upstream. Okay, well, so this boils down to tonight, you can either go to the kitchen. After dinner, you can go to the kitchen and clean up, or make a mess, whatever. Or cook tomorrow's breakfast. Or we could go to the Zen Dojo, have two periods of Zazen, or we could have two periods of study and one period of Zazen. So what do you want to do tonight? How many people want study hall? Oh yeah, study hall or Zazen? Well, tonight, I'm just wondering, do you want to have study hall and then one period of sitting, or do you want to have two periods of sitting tonight? One period? No, those are the two choices that are on the schedule. So how many people would like study hall and one period? And how many people would like two periods? Okay, so, yes, was that a different thing?

[84:25]

Does study hall mean individual study or does it mean group? It could be, well, like I said, if you want to, you could get together and you could, just in some cases, you could recite texts together. And otherwise, we study, you know, one person on one book. But you could also have different people, get together with some people and recite some of these texts on the reading list. It was a slight majority, I thought, for the study hall and one period. So you want to try that tonight? Yeah. Is that okay? Yeah. And then tomorrow is an open day, so you can work in the kitchen all day. Where would the study hall be located? It's in the dining room and the library. And if you want to recite texts, and you can recite

[85:32]

texts in the literary center or some other place, somebody's room or something. So, yes. Instead of going to study hall? Instead of going to study hall? It's okay with me. Yeah. Is that all right? Sure. And it's also, as Ed said, it's possible to come into the kitchen. That might be a good idea. Just everybody go in the kitchen for a while.

[86:02]

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