The following is the discussion held on May 20th. Middle-length sayings Once the Buddha was in the forest with certain numbers of monks, and they came across a Brahmin who was digging an anthill. Coming to that, the Buddha stopped walking, and they all watched the Brahmin digging

[01:13]

an anthill. Then, when the Brahmin was digging on, the first thing he found was a bolt, or iron bar and he was hesitating, he didn't know what to do, and then the Buddha said, dig on, leave it alone, dig on, bring in your tool. So, the Brahmin was digging on, bringing his tool, and then he came across the second

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thing, which is a frog. Again he was hesitating, and the Buddha said, leave it alone, dig on, bring in your tool. And the Brahmin was digging on, and then he came across He came across a strainer, again he was hesitating, and the Buddha said to him, leave it alone,

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dig on, bring in your tool. So, the Brahmin carried on, digging an anthill, and then he came across a tortoise, and he hesitated, and the Buddha said to him in the same manner, and he was digging on, and then he came across a crossroad, he was hesitating, and the Buddha said to him, leave it alone, dig on, bring in your tool. He carried on, and then he came across a lump of fresh meat, and he was hesitating,

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and the Buddha said to him the same, and he was digging on, and then he came across a serpent, which is the last thing, in the process of digging an anthill. And then the Buddha said to the Brahmin, go to him, pay respect to him, but all the monks who were watching the situation, didn't understand what the Buddha meant, I don't know if you can get the meaning of the symbols.

[05:45]

And then the Buddha explained all the meanings in the story, starting from a Brahmin, so a Brahmin is a wise man, because we can see the reason to that, the Brahmin which is in the higher class, would not dig the earth, because they are considered very holy men, you can understand the holy man in India is a man who is doing nothing, and the holy man must be kept very, in the far distance, in a higher place, so that this Brahmin in the story is a wise man.

[07:01]

The act of digging is making effort, putting up energy to do the work, spiritual work particularly, because when we do the work, meditation, we dig into ourselves, dig into the body and mind, to see things as they are, and the tool is compared to the awareness and intuitive wisdom, so that we notice

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also the attitude in the story. When a Brahmin came across anything, Buddha just said, leave it alone, dig on, bringing your tool. So, when we come across anything within us, we can leave it alone, and we dig on, bringing our tool. So, the first thing in the story is bold. Bold is compared to ignorance. You can see that ignorance blocks the way of understanding, seeing the truth. We have to unlock the iron door, the iron door of ignorance. If we don't unlock

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the iron door, we cannot get in. We will be deceived by knowledge of ignorance, which can create confusion, conflict and contradiction in life. And then, talking about ignorance, ignorance in Buddhism does not mean that you don't have knowledge, or you lack information, but it means that you don't see the truth, or in a way you ignore the truth, you ignore the way to truth, so that you are ignorant. You may have a lot of knowledge, a lot of information, but when you don't see the truth, you are full of ignorance.

[10:24]

The second thing is the frog. The frog is the symbol of anger, resentment, hatred, or ill-will. We have so many words for the same thing. Maybe the frog is a bit ugly being, so that when you are angry, you look very ugly, you don't look very nice. When you are resentful, your consciousness becomes unhealthy, and your body looks ugly and distorted. And then the third thing is a strainer. A strainer is the symbol of hindrances, spiritual hindrances, spiritual obstacles.

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You can see when we have a strainer, what can go through is only water, but the other things will stay. And if we have so many things staying in the strainer, then the water cannot flow through properly. So hindrances prevent us from flowing into the stream of nirvana, so we stay in the circle of samsara. We are subject to birth, death, decay, and perform good and bad actions, going round and round in a circle.

[13:04]

And the next thing is a tortoise. A tortoise refers to attachment, attachment to the five aggregates, or five sagandhas. The body, the feeling, perception, mental formation, consciousness. It's like a tortoise. When we are attached, we cannot move on. We stay with it, and grasp it, holding on to it, being fixed with it, like a tortoise. And we move slowly because of attachment. And then after that, it is the crossroads, which is the symbol of indecisiveness.

[14:32]

You can imagine when you come across crossroads, you don't know which road will be right, so you are perplexed. You have to sit down and watch in order to see which is the right way. So after overcoming crossroads, when you have gone into the right way, and then you come across a lump of fresh meat, which is the symbol of delight. We are delighted or delightful of finding the way, coming to experience.

[15:46]

And then there is a subtle attachment to experience, to the way. Instead of taking it as a boat, or a raft for crossing over the sea of life. And then people may be attached, that's why this lump of fresh meat is found. But knowing it, understanding it, we leave it alone, so we can move on, we can go further. And when we go further, we come across a serpent. Not to be afraid of a serpent, but go to him, pay respect to him.

[16:50]

So the serpent is bodhicitta, enlightenment, enlightened man. Enlightenment is compared to a serpent which has power, and has developed all the potentialities. It's enlightenment wisdom. So then when we find the enlightenment wisdom, or enlightened consciousness, we recognize it, we accept it. Self-torture, by tormenting the body in various ways, with the belief that they will become liberated, enlightened, through the torture of the body, or torture of the self.

[18:16]

And the second extreme way is self-indulgence in sense pleasures, as an end of life. Because many people have the idea that in order to be happy, one has to have all forms of pleasures in life. And that's the end of it, nothing more. So maybe we can say that idealism is one extreme, and materialism is another extreme. The balance of the two forms the middle way, which is not idealistic and not materialistic, but realistic in regard to life and the practice of life.

[19:25]

Or another way, the middle way, is something which cannot really be said about. Like to say that everything exists is one extreme, and to say that nothing exists is another extreme. So the middle way says things come to be because of conditions. Things disappear or vanish because of the cessation of the conditions. So that is the middle way. The middle way does not say this exists or that does not exist.

[20:33]

So the middle way of life, the middle way of practice must be the way of balance. When we are in balance, we can see that we have the tendency to go along the extreme way, because we don't have balance. When we are inwardly, emotionally, psychologically, mentally, spiritually balanced, then the middle way can be practiced. So the first thing to see is to look into ourselves and see whether we are doing something in the extreme way.

[21:44]

Our practice of life is extreme or balanced. Our wisdom will tell us. But if we don't try to see our tendency to go to the extreme way of life, then we can lose balance and we cannot find the middle way. Like we talk about the balance between faith and wisdom, the balance between concentration and energy, which are essential in the practice. But the factor which will bring about the balance of the two pairs is mindfulness or mindful awareness.

[22:56]

So that we have to learn to be aware of spiritual factors. Surely we have faith. If we don't have faith, we cannot carry on, or faith in the sense of trust. We don't have trust in ourselves. We don't have trust in the enlightenment of the Buddha. We don't have trust in the way we are practicing. If we don't have trust in the way we are practicing, then we have conflict and we create obstacles, a barrier to the practice. Then there is no balance. So constant awareness of what we do and how we do it, particularly of how we do it.

[24:03]

We do it in the extreme way or we do it in the balanced way. It's very essential. Surely that when we look into the Eightfold Path, which the Buddha called the Middle Way, the Middle Path, the Middle Path is the balance between three things, three groups. The group of wisdom, the group of morality and the group of meditation. So wisdom consists of right understanding and right thinking. And morality refers to right action, right speech and right livelihood. And then meditation is composed of right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

[25:16]

So if the three groups of the path are equally practiced or balanced, then it is the Middle Way. And surely we can see that wisdom is closely connected with meditation. As the Buddha said in the Dhammapada that from meditation springs wisdom. Without meditation, wisdom vanes. So this is the close link between the two. You see, meditation is the means for achieving intuitive wisdom.

[26:21]

And the morality, morality is the product, by-product of meditation and wisdom. So when one has tranquility, serenity and clarity within, together with intuitive wisdom, then one knows what is right, what is right action, what is right speech, what is right way of living. Even we don't have any formulas, the wise man always understands. But the man cannot be wise if there is no meditation. The man can be knowledgeable, but not necessarily that the knowledgeable man is wise.

[27:34]

So that meditation is emphasized as the basis for gaining wisdom and freedom. So I think that is the meaning of Middle Way. Everyday life situations, sometimes we either add something to the truth, make something more of a situation than what it is, or we subtract from the truth and we don't let the situation show itself. How can we find the Middle Way? So that we have to look at that moment to look why. Why we try to block the way.

[28:37]

What is preventing the situation from showing itself. What is going on in the mind that it cannot allow the situation to speak for itself. So we have to look at the obstacle, something which is standing in the way. So by seeing the obstacle, it will be possible to allow the situation to come out, to come clean. Try to do that. Isn't there a danger of slipping from one extreme to the other? No. Trying to see the fact, the truth is not going to extreme, but trying to conform to the principle, idea or ideal.

[29:49]

Can lead to an extreme. But trying to see the fact, the truth of things without following any idea, cannot lead to any extreme. It's hard to reply to that. No, it's very simple. No. It's hard because we still have certain idea of how to look at the situation. If we just look at the situation to see what is the fact and how the situation came to be.

[31:00]

And what is our reaction to the situation. So if we apply awareness and inquiring mind to deal with the situation, then things will become clear. It means the situation is explaining itself. And a person is completely quiet, looking at it, seeing it for what it is. Instead of trying to produce the result or trying to make the situation come out. You see, the situation will come out through this clear seeing of it, not by trying to produce it.

[32:07]

Clear seeing of it. Baker Roshi talks to us about when we inquire, when we ask ourselves something. We ask from the position of the big mind. We always ask everything we do from the position of the big mind. So, now in our situation, now we have guests. We've opened up our practice to include people who come in from outside to spend a day or a few days with us. So if we take a clear inquiring into whatever happens, the situation, trying not to be caught by forms, whatever else comes up. Then if we're doing that, I find if I do that, then I ignore the guests. I concentrate on myself, I don't have any, I just walk past the guests.

[33:42]

It seems like now, our greatest gift is our presence. I think Professor Kanza says that's what we owe, that's what Buddhism gives out, is the presence, our own presence. But it seems like we should... Hmm. When you are receiving guests and you have problems arising in your mind, if you look at the problem or you look into your resistance, you ignore the guests. And that is a matter of concentration.

[34:46]

Surely that concentration brings about exclusion. You are concerned with yourself. But with awareness, you open yourself to what is going on in you, and you can also do things with your guests. At the same time, watching what's going on and doing the work. Not to say that, wow, I sit down and just watch what's going on in me, and I don't take care of the guests. And that's a way of concentration, but inquiring mind must be used with awareness. By awareness, you open yourself to the whole situation, so you don't go along with only one thing. At least in that case, you can do two things at the same time. Watching yourself and rendering your services to the guests.

[35:55]

It may be hard, but it is the way to go through, go through the resistance. But when you see resistance and then you stop doing the work, in that case, the resistance may play a trick. It may subside when you stop doing the work. But it will come around again when you start to do the work. So that inquiring and awareness must go on with the activity of life. And one has to persist with the work, not to give in to resistance. This is a painful way. But when we go through, then there is nothing left.

[37:09]

But when we avoid it, it will have more power. It will accumulate more strength, so that we may be knocked down. So we must avoid it. So whenever anything happens, the feelings or emotions or ideas or attitudes, during doing the work, we attend to it and carry on doing the work. Be aware of it, keep the watchful eyes on it and doing the work. As I said, inquiring mind has to be done with quietness, with silence. So we just put a question because it is not clear.

[38:21]

Put a question and let the question work itself, work out by itself. Suppose when we are doing the work and we feel a bit restless or irritated, then we say, why? What has happened? What was happening? And then we keep on watching and doing the work, so that awareness can be established at all the doors of the senses. Then our action can go on. Awareness is taking care of what is coming through the senses, what is coming up from the mind, from the unconscious. And because we have awareness, then we can see, we can perceive,

[39:26]

even we are doing the work. And doing the work with awareness like that, there is space, space in the mind, so that we can see something coming up. But with concentration it is quite possible that we ignore something else and we attend to only one thing and fix our mind on it and we stop other things. That's why we call it the way of exclusion. But awareness is the way of all-inclusiveness. All will be noticed. I have this difficulty with your teaching, I would like you to explain it to me.

[40:49]

If the practice of meditation is to purify our seeing of reality, how do we start on this path when we can't see two feet in front of us, guided by ignorance in the beginning? In the beginning you have to recognize that you are ignorant. If you understand that you are already wise, so you don't need to do anything, you don't need to meditate. But when you see that there is ignorance, there is stupidity, then you have to learn the way to overcome ignorance,

[41:56]

to overcome the stupidity. And the way is provided already. So the only thing for us to do is to walk along the way, to tread on, and see whether it can help us to overcome ignorance, to purify our knowledge and visions, to see whether we can change our consciousness, we can change our personality, attitudes, towards life, towards the work, the things in the world. So we have to put the teaching into practice and see for ourselves.

[43:01]

In fact we are fortunate because the way is provided. And those who search for the way in the beginning must have greater difficulties than all of us who just follow the way. Which is much easier. So when the Buddha went out, he didn't know which was the right way. He was trying this and trying that until he found the middle way, the right way which leads him to enlightenment. So when we see that meditation is the means for purifying the mind,

[44:15]

for gaining insight, for having liberation, so we will see if we follow the way of meditation at least for seven years, doing it every day, perhaps ten hours a day for seven years, and see if you don't get to the point which means the teaching is wrong. But you may think, oh, it's a waste of time to spend seven years meditating if you don't succeed. Yes, we waste our time, all the time. But that's meditation, it exists, we can have it, we can find it.

[45:20]

After seven years we may have another way if we don't succeed. But the Buddha guaranteed that if you do it for seven years, you will succeed. I think it was in the Satipatthana Sutra that Nel read to us. I think he said, he read something, a disciple of the Buddha must give up attachment to covetousness and greed. Why are we attached to covetousness and greed? Greed. You know, some people are very happy creating difficulties to their life,

[46:21]

to have a kind of turmoil, the unhappy situation in life. And that person will create problems to himself. So that, if not consciously, unconsciously, so in that case, the Buddha pointed out that there is attachment to greed. A person wants to have greed. But on the conscious level he does not want it. But unconsciously he wants to have greed. So there is attachment to greed. And the the way of living, we can see the way of living

[47:29]

which tends to create problems and difficulties, suffering. We can see many people have a tendency to perform the self-destructive activities without knowing it. And that is attachment to greed, supported by ignorance. So ignorance is working and then the person does not see attachment to greed. Maybe we will say that we don't understand our psychological process. So we always have the problems, or create the problems, the same problems sometimes, or many times. So we have to see that what is really operating or underlying this action,

[48:38]

this behavior. For instance, you may react to the same situation in the same way, even you know it. Intellectually you know it, that you should not react in that way. But you react in a negative way when you come across something in life. So why are you reacting in that negative way all the time? So that is attachment to negativity, which we are not conscious of. And attachment is very deep, the deepest thing really, attachment. As we see that attachment to

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