of any kind of ideas. Rising Dragon War, Falling Dragon War. I don't know what's kind of what's kind of ideas in terms of astrology. My brother's a pastor. Actually, strictly speaking, the way you look at seriously, accordingly, your eyes

[01:02]

at the reality of the present. It is very full of contents and also is complicated. Because, as mentioned before, annoyance you feel is that there is absolutely something which makes you which doesn't satisfy yourself based on the feeling of uneasiness. In other words, based on

[02:04]

the realization of nothingness, completely nothingness, or emptiness, or zero. And also, we cannot, we must remember that we cannot escape this domain of emptiness, or nothingness, uneasiness, or zero. Improbability, maybe, you may escape, maybe, you may make a choice, of possibility,

[03:06]

possibility, which is opening in front of you, at the level of your ordinal, dualistic thinking. Then, realization of nothingness or emptiness is not merely the meaning of zero. The emptiness of nothingness

[04:14]

is that you empty yourself. You empty yourself who is trying to choose of either possibility, you know, of good and bad, of enlightenment or delusion, of rising dragon or falling dragon. The

[05:21]

Daito-Suzuki explains this point in the Eastern Buddhist. So, we all

[06:48]

know that the self we ordinarily talk about is psychological or rather logical and dualistic. It is set against the not-self, it is the subject opposing an object or objects. It is full of contents and is very complicated. Therefore, when the complex is dissected and its component factors are set aside as not belonging to it, it is reduced, we think, to a nothing or an emptiness. And it is for this reason that Buddhism opposes the doctrine of un-atman, egolessness, which means that there is no psychological substratum corresponding to the word

[07:52]

self, as when we say a table, we have something substantial answering to the sound table. Ego is an empty phonetic symbol which is useful in our daily intercourse and social beings. We also refer to an ego or self using the pronoun I when we are introspective and bifurcate ourselves into subject and object. But this self-introspective bifurcating process in our attempt to orient the self is endless and we can never come to a terminating abode where the self is

[08:56]

comfortably resting. The self is after all non-existent, we may conclude, but at the same time we can never get rid of it ourself. We somehow always stumble over it which is very annoying as it interferes with our sense of freedom. The annoyance we feel consciously or unconsciously is in fact the cause of our mental uneasiness. How does or can this non-existent self, that which can never be taken

[09:58]

hold of in our rationalistic, dualistic plane of existence, interfere in various ways with our innate feeling of freedom and authenticity? Can this ego be really such a ghostly existence, an empty nothing, a zero like a shadow of the moon in the water? If it is really such a non-existent existence, how does it ever get into our consciousness or imagination? Even an eerily nothing has something substantial at the back of it. A memory always has some really real base, maybe an unknown, altogether forgotten past even beyond

[11:02]

our individual existence. The big self then is not nothing or an emptiness and something incapable of producing work. It is much alive in our innate feelings of freedom and authenticity. When it is stripped of all its trappings, moral and psychological, and when we imagine it to be a void, it is not really so, not negativistic, but there must be something absolute in it. It mustn't be a mere zero, symbolizing the negation of all dualistically conceived objects. But an absolute existence

[12:04]

which exists in its own right, relatively or dualistically, it is true. The small self is the attainable, but this attainable is not to be understood at the level of our ordinary dualistic thinking. The attainable in this case, the attainable is the self, the small self which you must feel uneasiness, untrustworthiness, undesirableness, on the level of bedrock of human life. The attainable so termed, exists in its absolute right which we must now

[13:07]

take hold of in the way hitherto unsuspected in our intractable pursuit of reality. The intractable is to be left aside for a while in spite of a certain sense of intractable disconfort one may have and we must plunge into the nothingness which is beyond the intract. A threatening opening is more in the form of an abysmal pit. The attainable is attained as such in its just-so-ness and the strange thing is that when this takes place, the intractable

[14:08]

doubts which have interfered with our bodily functions are dissolved and one feels free, independent and self-mastery. The existences at the level of intraction are restrictive and conditioning but the inner self, big self the capital S I said big self, the inner big self interferes the inner big self where zero identifies itself with infinity and infinity with zero and let us remember

[15:08]

that both zero and infinity are not negative concepts but utterly positive by being positive I mean that infinity as I said before is not to be conceived serially as something taking place in time where things succeed or precede one another endlessly in all directions. It is the idea of wholeness which can never be totalized or summed up as a whole. It is a circle whose circumference knows no boundaries it is what makes us sense or feel that the world in which we live is limited and infinite and yet which doesn't allow us to be taken as limited

[16:10]

and infinite so the question is what we should do what should we do in the domain of the world based on easiness and trustworthiness all we have to do is to stand upright showing expression of yourself in your easiness in your native nakedness without holding sway of

[17:13]

dualistic thinking in other words making a choice without making a choice possibility rising dragon or falling dragon or enlightenment or delusion unless the Dhammakaya Sutra said this point when you stand upright in the domain of yourself as you are it is called the Dhamma it is called the aspect the state of your life based on the domain of Dhamma He who asks the Dhamma

[18:22]

I'm sorry at this time Shaliputra seeing no coaches or seat in this room had this thought we will disassemble of the bodhisattvas and great disciples said the rich man remarkably annoying his thought said to Shaliputra have you come sir for the Dhamma or to look for coaches or seats Shaliputra said I have come for the Dhamma not for coaches or seats remarkably said oh Shaliputra he who seeks the Dhamma neither body nor life how much less coaches and seats he who seeks the Dhamma has no seeking for form feelings, conception, meditations

[19:26]

or consciousness. He has no seeking for the realms and spheres. He has no asking, no seeking for desire, form or the formless Shaliputra, he who seeks the Dhamma doesn't cling to Buddha seeking doesn't cling to Dhamma seeking and doesn't cling to Sangha seeking. He who seeks the Dhamma has no seeking to cease sufferings has no seeking to cut off arising and has no seeking to reach realization or cessation or cultivate the path for what reason in the Dhamma there is no discussion no amount of discussion if you say

[20:31]

I must see sufferings cutting off cut off arising, realize cessation seeking and cultivate the path then this is discussion and not seeking the Dhamma then this is very important what shall I do? question is what shall I do? and answer is what shall I do? the answer doesn't exist within the discipline of Buddhism, discipline of Christianity discipline of the idea of rising dragon or falling dragon the idea of Buddha or Sangha or Dhamma the answer is within yourself and the way

[21:33]

and understanding yourself the way as you are plainly speaking all we have to do is the effort is directed to stand upright and the environment around your daily life, that's all that's all maybe you feel unsatisfied, dissatisfied maybe, so do I but the true effort exists completely under your feet not the other shore so saying the idea of rising dragon the idea of falling dragon the idea of Buddha, idea of Dhamma

[22:36]

or Sangha maybe you feel uneasiness but you shall remember the true effort is open just in front of you in front of you right under the situation of untrustworthy feelings and easy feelings that's all at that time we practiced Zazen in the domain of Dhamma then originally text says

[23:37]

the effort is to cultivate the good Dhamma cordially with ceasing without ceasing I mentioned yesterday I translated the effort is to cultivate and practice good but this good is beyond the idea of conception of good and bad which is usually supposed that's why Buddha says this good is good Dhamma good identifies itself with Dhamma itself Dhamma identifies itself with the good which Buddha

[24:41]

tried to put strong emphasis on that's why effort, Buddha says effort is to cultivate and practice good Dhamma cordially, cordially, this point is very important cordially cordially, faithfully okay carrying on, carrying the all possibility the idea of rising dragon, falling dragon, uneasiness untrustworthiness on your back and then stand upright this is true effort

[25:41]

this is true effort proceeding without going ahead blindly, without regressing blindly blindly there is no place, there is nowhere you can escape all you have to do is just to stand upright in the domain of your life at the reality of present this is true effort

[26:20]

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