good morning

ah a central la notion of mahayana buddhism central idea of my on a buddhism is the idea of the way down
the path
and what i'd like to do today is talk about what the meaning of this is what the meaning of the way is
and how this is an appropriate metaphor for actually understanding what i practice is like
and i said mahayana because
tom
there's an older version called hinayana
where the ideas a little bit different
actually
it's less important whether there's a historical hinayana and mahayana lesser vehicle and greater vehicle more narrow way and wider way more i think that there's a hinayana of our mind and a mahayana
up our mind a more expansive and inclusive way of understanding things that we can have or was somewhat more type way that we we're that we have of understanding
so the classic just to make this distinction the classic
formula for the way
the old formula is the forefront of noble truth
suffering and it's cause and then nevada or extinction and then marga the path to extinction
but in my honor the path and the girl are one thing there isn't this distinction between while i'm gonna use these methods to get to defend and then i'll then i'll be there it's more was of
ongoing this
that's this metaphor of the way we sailed the way in the dow is been is kind of the the quantity of our practice because it's an ongoing event it's not someplace where we stop
it's not some static static idea

and this goes right to the n
to another to another ancient teaching called the twelve for a chain of conditioned car production so if you know these things mean great if you don't don't worry about okay it's not so important the important thing about the twelve for a chain is where the stopping occur
kurz where the hang up occurs through the blockage happens
and the blockage happens when we hold onto something in the in this traditional a elucidation of it it's called clinging it holding onto
so it's not feeling that's a problem we fear lots of different ways good bad and indifferent
all kinds of feelings come and go all the time
and even in some sense
even in some sense desire is not a problem wanting things
naturally arises rejecting things naturally arises
and goes away it just give it a chance
the sticking point is when we hold onto it
we hold onto what we want when we hold onto what we reject
that's where the
buddhism comes in handy as a method for letting go of that
i was reminded that category roshi who used to be a teacher here main teacher here
add these various expressions
that always seemed very peculiar to me for a long time he said zazen is like massaging the mind he will always say at that very slow way massaging a mind game
in other words were some not there was some tightness there are some construction there's some stoppage just like an like a muscular not and when you massage it you loosen he loosened that that that stopping place
the place where things get stuck
because it away it's a path it's not someplace to stop
lose them isn't someplace where it is a
he known exactly stop but you can abreast on
he rest in the middle of war
not resting right in the middle of restlessness is resting
you don't find some place called new road up were restlessness doesn't exist anymore

his other analogy used to be as
thousand is like digestion is hopes
doing something dramatically wrong
zazen is like digestion
you know the same id you take something that you'd think a solid some idea you have a bad things
and then you put it into the zazen digestion machine and it breaks apart it breaks apart just like when you take food the enzymes break it up
and then it becomes part of you
so the flavor of the way the flavor of the path is not stopping someplace non-static

in the heart sutra that we chant
that this is addressed
and
the heart sutra says with nothing to attain
the bodhisattva depends on personal power meter
and the mind is no hindrance
without any hindrance no fears exist there's a lot crammed into those few words but when i want to emphasize is this hindrance idea
depending on prajna pie meta there is no hindrance and hindrance
a hindrance actually
means

in france the world is arana
the means that this kind of a stopping place it means actually technically was called a fat covering
so they're the start coverings and are various types but i'll tell you about one type though this third coverings and the purpose of practice is to remove the covering its his desire of the covering just like digestion

and in the teaching their these various types of covering or in iran which actually means barricade partition so you get this idea that there's a barricade between you and reality
and elucidates these various times but the fundamental one is
this is a you saturday morning sanskrit lesson okay to fundamental one is called a know iran j n e y a and junya if you said it you know
in english to neha verona
which is known as the obstruction or the barricade or the the stoppage burst on it's called the
the obstruction due to carbon cognition or the cognizable
so where does this mean
it sounds very esoteric and strange and intellectual but it's actually very practical
and i think it's actually may be easier to understand if you think of it not so much as the bearer of cognition as the barrier of conception
and then tick not hand in the beginning of one of his books talks about a piece of paper
you know he says because were directing he says this piece of paper that you are looking at right now is composed of
millions and billions of elements but not the one thing that it is not composed of is a piece of paper
k so you know this is pretty common idea right that
what maybe through a four hundred years ago a tree was growing somewhere in the sun shone on the tree and that tree he know got more than the merv became paper in the paper gone and tick not hands book sir what you're looking at is
the tree from two hundred years ago
and sunlight that was on the tree
you know in seventeen sixty four on march twelfth you know had to or one that's what you're looking at you get the idea
we put a noble on that ladder logo as a conception will put a label on there called a piece of paper
and that's okay because we need to know we need to we need the conception but it's also a place where we stop it's also you know veranda it's the it's obstruction due to carbon nizing it's the obstruction due to consumption
and we like it can it
we can use it and using it as fine but if we stop there then that's it doesn't work so well i'll give you another example from mom
from western psychology

so you may have a consumption
a concept called
i am a bad person
and
i won't ask you to raise your hand if you have that contraption can help
i am an embarrassed bad person
ah so many of us have this idea this concept
we have a concept called i am a bad person but what is i am a bad person what where does this i am a bad person exist
what kind of a thing is this i am a bad person how did he get there what made it happen what need it up where did it come from
so if you listen to someone who says i am a bad person or if you listen to yourself if you
think that
in this i realize this is you know
a a kind of oversimplification but just to give you the feeling for it the sense of it

so i am a bad person is made up of that concept is a label just like piece of paper
just like piece of paper is a label a concept over virtually infinite circumstance right you'd have to really say infinite circumstance
i don't know how trees are pollinated but if the or whatever it was mine in a blueprint and a similar to appropriate time we wouldn't be looking at that that piece of paper written exist that people piece of paper is totally caused by infinite circumstances
and then we put this cover on it called piece of paper
similarly i am a bad person is caused by experience it caused by and circumstance
do you see how that is
so you know in a very oversimplified you know kind of
ah you know
well how can i say it

a you may have had or i may have had experiences when we were young or
you know if you want to be more expansive you could say on a former life or wherever
and those experiences gather up together and then we put a concept aren't as an expression of those experiences and the concept is i am a bad person but there is no such thing as i am a bad person
there's no stable static entity called i am a dead person there is only the infinite circumstances and experiences that go behind it

so but when i'm emphasizing about practice today in when i'm emphasizing about the buddhist path today is recognizing those infinite circumstances and not getting stopped and stuck and spanish sized at the concept
we use the concept but not stop there
that's not the whole picture
k the whole picture is much much wider than that much bigger than that

so dogan the in the ganges koran addresses this point
and says that
very interesting the way he says it
he's among other things he says when a dharma and does not thrill your body and mind
you think it is already sufficient
when dharma thrills your body and mind
you know that something is missing
the opposite of what you'd think he'd think up here you know of diameters your body and mind and year
big shot than teachers such and such and such and so you know or when everything is then you have someplace to rest and then you just coast after you know if you get to know rhoda he had just coast along and everything is groovy right
but actually he says that it's the opposite way
that's big bet this idea of the path the way it's not someplace to stop
he says when diamond does not through your body and mind that's when you think it's something sufficient that's when you think oh yeah right on what's going on i'm
that's what you think that they you know there's nothing more to do

when dime a your body and mind you recognize that there's some insufficiency i always
you recognize that every time you look at a piece of paper you can possibly imagine
the multitude of circumstances that are behind it
and that makes it a different piece of paper
well if you think i know that this is this is the piece of paper
now for some reason now i'm going to make a political statement here
psyop that's okay but for symbols and i believe that
part of the melees and the problems that we have in the world have to do with getting stuck on concepts
actually it's not it's not too radical a statement right
i mean the most wanted a prominent ones that i think of is the concept i am an israeli
i am a palestinian i am an arab i am a jew
this the true just like a piece of paper is true
but it's not true
and if you gotta stop there well you see what happens all kinds of things happen
some people look at a forest and they have a concept called money
they have a concept called money i am going to make a lot of money this is a concept so they cut out the trees down and they make a lot of money but they're missing some thing i think something is missing but i recognized that something is missing because we think it's already sufficient
i am a lotta money that's it that's the end of the road i'm in nirvana now i can buy anything in it

so it's very ironic kind of you know and cut it it's a row kind of it's a funny kind of a turn that things take their

when damn it does not fill your body and mind you'd think it was already sufficient when diamond fills your body and mind you know that something is missing

now why is it that we want something sufficient you know we want we we really like concepts you know we really like a lot
i isn't that we want something that's gonna stop you know stop all the trouble you know we wanna get to someplace where oh yeah this is it now i know and there isn't anything more to know and that's it

i was
preparing for my talk
at last week in this room that i am
it's kind of an office that they use and but other people can come in sometimes
at green gulch
and
i have a
i cannot tell a lie i have a a a laptop computer okay that attack
i have an apple powerbook
right lessons that's it right a power book
that's that's what it's about why they named it there right here he work is this thing now it only costs of thousand bucks you know then you can have power because then you have a power of book

so i was working on this talk on my powerbook
and i was sitting at a chair and i was leaning back in the chair and my feet were up on the
upon their
desk that i use
and which i like they're very much you know feed up
do i like it more than zazen posture
season pass you is better for you than that
hey we i was working on my powerbook with my feet up and then a friend of my work did the door
he said a you look like a commercial for apple computers in
we should call an ad agency you know
i'll take a picture of you
so we got to talking a little bit and he was saying how
you know he's become so used to a certain kind of technology that when he gets into an uncomfortable situation
he reaches for the remote
he doesn't really do it but it's like oh where's the remote control you know click
yeah i want a different channel
love this channel that i learned you know
logo of zoo here click here he reaches for the mouse ate it can click it away
so
oh yes so while we want something sufficient why we want some resting spot like that is because we're afraid that's why
that's the fundamental reason why i think
and we figure that if we have a remote or a powerbook or a mouse then we can we can do with we can then that's how we can deal with the fear that we have

ah someone has mentioning to me this frisk this expression came up our cross that bridge when i get to it in a we'll cross that bridge when we get to it
oh i was talking with this person about bridges they were saying how in europe i've never been to europe but he was saying that in europe by the old bridges is usually a little trying a little grotto where are you
i don't know
i'm so i think i know the buddhist stuff so well but it's you don't offer any sense now that related
you do something you say a hail mary as would that be an appropriate thing to say in the christian tradition and you do something before he crossed the bridge at this law shrine maybe there's a
statue of the virgin or someone there who will protect you in this fearful journey that's what it is that's why the shine as there at the bridge because your brew a we're bridging you're going over the bridge to someplace
and we we it again you know to ma or anxiety we think we know what to the other end of the bridge
we think we know what to the other end of the golden gate bridge but really we don't really know

the we do something you know to take care of ourselves war we're going through this bridging process while we're going through this transition and when are we not going through the transition please tell me
sometimes it seems more intense the transition seems more intense i'm going through changes isn't that the phrase from
when i used to be hip back in the sixties or something in a man i'm gone through changes are always going through changes are always in transition
at the end of it all well who knows if it's the and right then there's a big transition which we really don't know what said the other the other end of that bridge
hmm
so it's very understandable that we would want something some solid piece of knowledge some solid something some stable saying that we could hold onto that would help us like a power but
like a whatever

we would really like something sufficient
but in this way that in talking and in this way that i am talking today it's sufficient than that's when dharma does not fill your body and mind
when diamond fills your body and mind you actually know something is missing
there's some other way of dealing with this anxiety with this fear
that we have with us whether it's you know just you know it the fear of getting on the buster the fear of what am i going to do with my life for you know just whatever it may be
the focus and practice in this way of practice in the path of practice is not to come down to is not to land on some certitude that we can finally rest on
this way is actually
ha
two
ah
tolerate
to tyler to learn to tolerate the uncertainty
to rest on the non resting to rest on the uncertainty that really is the basis of everything
don't tell anybody

it's really beyond our conception totally
so
sounds good part two here is now here's another sanskrit phrase that
floats into my consciousness
it's a whopper and it's
you ready for this our new palette the dharma ashanti

ah for parts are no pileup the dharma shanti are no means no not not in a negative pallid his conception conceivable
diamond means things are things
shunting means patients
robert thurman and the vimalakirti when he translated the v molecule the sutra he translated it as the
intuitive tolerance
of the inconceivable realty of all things
the intuitive tolerance for the inconceivably of everything
that's more like that's the that's the role of the path
intuitive it means intuitive i take to mean you already have this capacity we already have the capacity for this kind of tolerance it's not something we need to import from a powerbook it's already in you
in me in us it needs to be cultivated
rather than that endless and fruitless seeking for the one final answer that will take care of all questions
ain't no such thing k
now there's an interesting i came upon this

from that in again in western psychology that very very interesting kind of fun
resident quality of this
services family
is from a an article on me and just an essay written by a woman's i think her name is sorenson
and she's talking about on
the relationship between mother and child she's actually talking about the maternal function of the psychotherapist and psychotherapeutic situation that the model for that is this relationship between a mother and an infant
and the links between the mother and the infant
so i'll read this
excuse me sir one of those things is a
and she refers to a a a psychologist whose name is beyond b o b i o n
one of those links is a
the link derived from the first letter of the word knowledge that is the link between a subject which tries to know and an object which can be known or the infant which can be known
now she's refined to beyond however beyond assumes that the ultimate reality of the infant is unknowable
don't you think that's true
don't you think the ultimate reality of view is unknowable
i assumes that the ultimate reality of the object is hon and therefore the knowledge link necessarily carries with it some degree of frustration and
pain
when bama throws your body and mind you know that something is missing and when you know that something is missing that necessarily carries with it some degree of frustration and pain
the question is not are you going to have that frustration and pain they had first day that's a package deal know greg and were born with that okay their frustration and pain of not being able to finally know it the question is read the we do with it how will we dare with it the we like
get up in a concept and think that we have the answer
or not
the knowledge like necessarily cares whether some degree of frustration and pain and now this is this summer oh okay with this
this emotional experience of frustration and pain can be tolerated interesting she use the same word as robert thurman a modification occurs in which the imperfect and average imperfect knowledge acquired will be used to make further discoveries
where the experience of imperfect knowledge cannot be tolerated the version of pain predominates and a negative a minus king or negative knowledge link is generated image meaning and emotion discovery and development become impossible
brand says that the noted of knowledge links substitute morality for scientific thought she adds it substitutes cliches for ideas and i read it substitutes concepts for experiences
when there is this negative when this inversion of pain
predominates
when we don't we grab ahold than we hold onto a concept
and think that it will answer answer our question in some final way

so role after bergen says that in
in the ca on a bad when with the win
when damn it does not for everybody and mind you'd think it was rarely sufficient when down the first your body and mind you know that something is missing
he goes on to talk about this this thing of the concept in the experience and says that when you say aloud and a boat into the middle of the ocean where no land is in sight and you view the four directions the ocean looks circular and does not look any other way
but the ocean is neither round north square
it's features are infinite and variety
it is like a palace it is like a jewel
it only looks circular as far as you can see at that time
as things are like this
he goes on to say that though the features of the dusty world
and the world beyond conditions though there are many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditions you see and understand only as far as your i have practice can reach
you see and understand only limited thing you look around and you'd think that the ocean is circular cause that's what you see and understand at that time that's okay that's the concept that we have
and we're always limited in that way we never get to see what's the other end of the bridge there's only some limitation
that in itself is not not problematic it's when we get stuck and think that the ocean is circular and no other way and think that that's are not rest on that knowledge attempt to make that our powerful knowledge that's where the
where we we get caught actually yeah cotton in a problematic situation because it's incomplete
because the features of of oceans and mountains are infinite

rep in the one of the schedule of events he was going to give a class on
remembering suzuki roshi some of you may have attended that class and at the end of the description i was reading the brochure and at the end of the description i can remember exactly what he said will do the symbol do this and will do this and will do this in this course than less than said was maybe so
and
he was a he was this was a suzuki where she often would say maybe so
you never know whether it was because he didn't understand what you were talking about
vegas residency which residents so good you know maybe there's no the were talking about here
sometimes he get used to give the talks here you know right read in this room or people would cut them to enable to question and answer right in the talk somebody would kick start about the ultimate nature of reality and such and such and such and such
maybe so
that may be so is the quality of the way
not leaping into you know
as certainty

in the eighth century to the eighth century chinese zen master by john
this may does my summary statement here
death
for now just don't depend on anything
existant and i'll existent or whatever
he wrestled if existed denied this to covered the traitor
the courts will be sure we get the idea either cover all of his basis
don't depend on anything existant non-existent or whatever
and
do not drive a non depending
get it
and also
do not make an understanding of or not depending or dwelling just in case you thought you might want to do that

so don't get stuck in a concept don't get stuck and not getting stuck in a concept and don't get stuck in not getting stuck in getting stuck or not stuck in a concept
this is great knowledge he said

this is great knowledge so it sounds like something's getting taken away
i read this continent so my theme song yeah years ago i enough for a long time but you know that song
a