for themselves. They awake, they wake up to this understanding and the teacher is there to witness their awakening. So Shakyamuni Buddha awakened the earth as his witness. He passed his transmission on to Mahakashapa, who's the great ascetic and our first Zen ancestor. And then Mahakashapa passed his Dharma on to Ananda, the sweet Ananda, whose name means joy. And Ananda is the one of the Buddha's disciples who had attended him for his whole life and remembered and recited all of the sutras, all of the teachings of the Buddha at the first council that was held after the Buddha's death. So then I thought I would skip ahead a few centuries to the second century and begin to talk about Nagarjuna, who is the next really big thing that's happened to the Sangha. There are many wonderful transmission stories between chapter 3 and chapter 15, and I thought you might, if you have the text, just go ahead and read those on your own, because each one of them has a special little twist, another little, you think of Enlightened Mind as kind of multifaceted crystal of some sort.

[01:12]

Well, each of those sides, each of those facets has its own particular way of understanding. So I think it would be nice if you have the time to read those other chapters, but I thought it would be important to spend more time with Nagarjuna. So I want to begin with the koan that starts this chapter. When Kapamala, who is Nagarjuna's teacher, answered the invitation of the Naga king, he received a wish-fulfilling jewel. Nagarjuna asked, this is the ultimate jewel of the world. Does it have form or is it formless? Kapalama said, you only know having form or not having form you do not know that this jewel neither has form nor is formless and you do not know yet that this jewel is not a jewel hearing this nagarjuna was profoundly enlightened how about you and that's always the same question how about you so this story has

[02:22]

narrative that goes along with it, that Kezon is now going to tell us a little more of the context of the story, how it came to happen, how they met, how Kapilama and Nagarjuna came together. So there's this rather long mythical narrative about Kapimala, Nagarjuna's teacher, and a giant snake. So having gone to the mountains to meditate in peace inside of a cave, Kapimala encounters a giant snake, which at first he simply ignores. And then this python, encircles the master. So Kapimala gives the python the Buddhist precepts. So if you ever get in a situation like that, just remember you can offer the Buddhist precepts. It seems to be a kind of a magical thing. So it turns out that the snake had once been a hermit, living alone in the forest, who became very angry when approached by a novice monk who kept repeatedly to ask for instructions. So for this reason, he was reborn as a giant snake. living in a cave for a thousand years.

[03:24]

So it's not a good idea to treat the young students badly, you know. Old teachers should be very patient and share their knowledge. So now transformed back into a human by virtue of the Buddha's precepts, the hermit thanks the master, who then asked him if there were others living in the mountains. The old man said that there was a wise teacher named Nagarjuna, Naga meaning snake. who preached to the Naga people. Nagas are half human, half serpent. And they're depicted in many different forms throughout Southeast Asia and Asia. Some of them have many heads, like there's seven headed ones. You've seen them on Thai temples. Others are like dragons with wings. Some of them live underground. Others live in the sea, under the sea. So Nagarjuna is a teacher of the Nagas. He teaches these snake beings. So at the time that he met his Zen teacher, Kapimala, Nagarjuna had already mastered a number of what are called outside paths.

[04:28]

So outside paths include shamanic magic, doing shamanism, doing magic tricks, spiritual powers. So as a result of these outside paths, Nagarjuna had supernatural powers himself at the time he met Kapimala. And as a result of this study and mastery of these other traditions, he actually is still to this day held as the primary ancestor of a number of crafts. Certain crafts, ancient crafts, Nagarjuna is considered the founder. Shamans hold Nagarjuna as to be a founder. And for some reason, silk growers hold Nagarjuna to be one of their founders. So because of his relationship with the Nagas in his early years, When Nagarjuna takes Kapimala as his teacher, the entire Naga community also does so. They all ask Kapimala if he'll give them the precepts too. So now we have all of the snake people are now disciples of the Buddha.

[05:33]

And then from four years later, from the time that Nagarjuna has accepted precepts from his teacher, the Naga king invites Kapimala and his illustrious disciple to a feast. where he presents him with a precious wish-granting jewel. And this is where the story at the beginning of the chapter comes from. This jewel is now given to Kapimala by the Naga king. So just to repeat the story, when Kapimala answered the invitation of the Naga king, he received a wish-fulfilling jewel. Nagarjuna asked his teacher, this is the ultimate jewel of the world. Does it have form or is it formless? Kapyamala says, you only know having form or not. You do not know that this jewel neither has form nor is formless. And you do not yet know that this jewel is not a jewel. Hearing this Nagarjuna was profoundly enlightened.

[06:35]

So this story and its lead koan pivots on the question of existence and non-existence. This is a classical philosophical problem, you know, in the West and in the East. In other words, anywhere where there are human beings, world-round, who imagine themselves to exist, we think we exist. That's kind of one of the major, major premises of being alive, is I think I'm here. And moreover, so that would be fine if that's all we knew. But we've also been told that we're going to cease to exist, that we're going to die, and that existence is... Just temporary. At least some have been told that. There are other religions where they say you're not going to die. You're going to live forever, you know, depending on how you behave in one location or another. So in Zen, this issue of existing or not existing is called the great matter of birth and death. You know, the great matter that drove Shakyamuni Buddha himself out of the palace and into the forest when he was a young man.

[07:39]

He did not. He was very in great despair that he. found out he was not going to remain young, that he was going to age and die. And so off he went in search of a relief of that suffering. So later in this chapter, Kezon turns to the topic of the jewel itself, about which he says, actually, even if it is a worldly jewel, a regular old jewel, when you talk about it, its true reality is not formed or formless, it's just a jewel. It's just a bull. Moreover, the jewel that is stuck in a wrestler's forehead, you know, as a prize, as a winner, or in a king's topknot, as an example of their status, high status, or the Naga king's jewel, the one that he gave to Kapimala, or the jewel inside a drunken man's robe, which is a famous story in the Lotus Sutra, these are all scriptural metaphors for inherent Buddha nature. So what Kezon's saying here is...

[08:42]

In the scriptures, these are representing this quality that we all bear, whether we know it or not. In the case of the drunken man with a jewel in his sleeve, his friend has slipped a jewel into his sleeve. He's very drunk, and his friend's worried about him, so he puts a precious jewel in his sleeve so he'll make sure he has something to live off of when he sobers up. But the man doesn't know it, so he goes... He continues to be in quite desperate straits until finally he finds out he has his jewel in his sleeve, which was there all along. So this is the metaphor for we are all of the nature of this jewel, of this Buddha nature. That's our natural inheritance as human beings. And we're like these drunken men or drunken women who don't realize that. So we just go wandering around, you know, knocking into things and feeling very poor, very impoverished. However, and then Kezon says, and yet these metaphors of the jewel of Buddha nature are not the ultimate jewel of the way.

[09:45]

So that's pretty good. That idea that we're all Buddha. That's a nice teaching. But needless to say, he, meaning Nagarjuna, could not know that this jewel is not even a jewel. Truly, we must be careful. And here he's talking to us. We must be careful. You know. So what is it that we are taking to be real? You know, if we think our Buddha nature is something real or something we have or something we can get, and we reify it, and we turn it into a thing or into a quality that we then, you know, sort of imagine in a certain way, then that's just falling into illusion. That's falling into dreams. The jewel is not a jewel. Buddha nature is not Buddha nature. These are just words, you know. What's the actual referent? such things you know where's the real jewel this is very hard to locate and Nagarjuna spent his entire career as a philosopher helping to dismantle any notions we might have about the actual jewel no it's not that it's not that a lot like the Heart Sutra which was Nagarjuna's basic expertise was on the Prajnaparamita the wisdom beyond wisdom emptiness teachings

[11:01]

So I will be talking about his masterwork later on, maybe not today, but in the next couple of weeks. There's quite a lot in there and it's wonderful stuff. It just takes a little patience to work through it. So Zen Master Xuansha says, the whole universe is a jewel. The whole universe, reality itself is the jewel. It does not come from outside. All appears from people's own minds. So now he's pointing to the mind. This is the other big point that's returned to again and again in the teachings of Zen. You know, is there something out there or isn't there something? What does it mean to say that there is something or there isn't something? If there is something, as it seems, I think we'd all probably say, yeah, it seems like there's something. Then the next question is the big Zen questions, all of them. Well, then what is it? You say there's something. What is it? You know, who is it? You know, like Empress says to, who did he say it to?

[12:05]

Bodhidharma. He said, who are you? And Bodhidharma says, don't know. Don't know. And where is it? Where is the jewel? Where are you? Where are we? You know, all of these questions, like, you know, they can sound kind of trivial or silly, but actually when you try to answer them, you realize, well, I'm not really sure. I don't know. Where are we? Don't know. Who are we? Don't know. What is it? So we'll see this also in the story of the sixth Chinese ancestor Hui Nong. So he's the sixth one after Bodhidharma who brought Zen to China. We call him Daikon Eino in Japanese. So Hui Nong, the sixth ancestor. So we'll see him in chapter 34, Transmission of Light. He says his famous story, one of his famous stories is that there are these two monks arguing about a flag. that's blowing in the wind. And one monk says, it's the wind that's moving. And the other monk says, no, no, no.

[13:06]

It's the flag that's moving. And so they argue back and forth and back. No, it's the wind. No, it's the flag. Back and forth. And then Huynong comes along. He's kind of slight build. I think it's interesting when you read about the kind of profile of Huynong. He's not a big massive kind of... guy. He's a really major teacher, but he's sort of slightly built, and he has to run away from the other monks because they're very envious that he's received Dharma transmission from the fifth ancestor. So, fifth ancestor at midnight says, you better run, because when they find out I'm giving you Dharma transmission, you're going to be in big trouble. And sure enough, they chase him down. That's another part of his story that we'll look at later. So, Huynong, who is not yet even ordained as a priest, he was just working in the back of the kitchen pounding rice for his entire time in the fifth ancestor's temple. He stops these two monks who are arguing and he says to them, may a layman interrupt your lofty discussion. And they turn to him and he says, it is not the wind or the flag that is moving.

[14:11]

Your minds are moving. So this is again pointing to the source. Where is it? Where's the jewel? Where's the world? where where am i you know and the the buddha keeps pointing us back buddha means awake it's right here in your awareness it's right where you are and it's what you're aware of the entire universe is speaking through and as you in every moment you know the your life is a creation of your mind and one of the big teachings that is very hard to hold on to it's it slips away so quickly we begin to externalize our problems You know, the nature of reality, it's all out there. And it's very hard for us to take responsibility for how we are co-creating this life by how we think and our understanding. So which makes our understanding so terribly important. How do we understand who we are, you know, where we are? So I'm going to be talking more about this issue of is something or isn't something when we look in the next few weeks at Nagarjuna's masterwork, which is called the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, Mulamajamaka Karikas, Middle Way, which probably I hope sounds familiar to you from the few times I've brought up the Buddha's first sermon.

[15:33]

And when the Buddha says in the very first sermon, avoid the extremes and follow the middle way. So the middle way is an extremely important concept. What was this middle way? Nagarjuna is fundamental wisdom of the middle way. It's called the Majamaka, middle way school. And it's one of the two major philosophical traditions that underpin the Zen school. So to be thinking about and talking about, it's this revelation of the middle way altered the buddhist tradition it was a huge like turning of the buddhist tradition toward what's now called the mahayana and it's what gives the mahayana its spiciness you know this this story of of the jewel and it's not even a jewel like what you know that's that's very indicative of both the zen school and the mahayana school there's no settling on one side or the other of is or isn't as soon as you go to is

[16:37]

isn't turns its face one side's illuminated the other side is dark so this one of the big uh you know expressions that's used again and again about pivoting you know turn turn the light around turn it around again keep turning don't get stuck on one you know don't settle for one side or the other you know keep questioning what it is that you think what it is that you believe and so on you know So this is what gives the Mahayana its spiciness and its grit. And I'm also going to be talking about this teaching about it's your mind moving. You know, this is a very important perspective of the other major tradition of underpinning the Zen school, and that is the mind only tradition. So we have the middle way, Madramaka, and we have the mind only, also known as Yogacara. So these two are not exactly the same. They have a little bit of a different twist. And when you read the mind-only teachings, you get a certain flavor, understanding of what the Buddha was teaching.

[17:41]

And then when you look at the middle way teachings, like the Heart Sutra, you know, no mind, no Buddha. In fact, there's these two verses that I learned a long, long time ago that I found very helpful over the years about these two traditions. In the mind-only teaching, when the babies are crying, you say to the babies, this very mind is Buddha. This very mind is Buddha. And the babies stop crying. And then when the babies stop crying, you say, no mind, no Buddha. So the babies are crying. This very mind is Buddha is the Yogacara teachings. And they have that quality. They're very accessible. They're gentle. There's things you can do. You know, you can work on yourself. You can get rid of your hindrances. You can practice being good and avoiding evil and so on and so forth for a while. So the beginnings of the Yogacara teachings, as you'll see, when we get to the chapter on Vasubandhu, chapter 22 of Transmission of Light.

[18:45]

is this rather gentle and compassionate. If you think of the mind only as quite compassionate, it feels that way. And then you look at these middle way teachings, the Heart Sutra, and it's like, wow, wow, wow. You know, no, no, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no mind, no Buddha. You know, so these two are a set. like salt and pepper you know they're both really important spices for zen understanding and sometimes the teacher will give you the mind only response it'll feel very supportive and very well you're buddha you know you're you've got your it's your buddha nature that that's showing and other times they'll you know chase you out of the room so uh uh these are basically ways that a teacher can try to help whatever wherever that student might be getting stuck You know, if you're getting stuck in too much emptiness, then you've got to bring them back around. And if there's too much, there is something, then you try to take it away.

[19:47]

So one way or the other, it's a prescription for whatever might be ailing or perceived to be ailing that particular person. So but before that, all of that, I wanted to finish with this chapter. So Kazon goes on to teach about this mistake that many spiritual seekers make, which is to live alone. And there are many of the students who come to Zen Center. Many of us have all really wanted to live by ourselves, you know, to have our own little cabin off in the woods. And a lot of times we get requests. We just got one recently to use Hope Cottage, which is up on the top of the mountain here above Green Gulch. And we talk about, we go, no, that's not really our practice. We practice together. We practice in community. So, you know, Kazon's kind of confirming this tradition which we've received from Kezon's line, Dogen's line. He says that there are those who find that mixing with others and studying the way and all activities is not tranquil.

[20:49]

So they want to go off to the mountains to sit quietly in meditation all day. Those who say this, he says, are practicing wrongly. Why? Because they get into aberrations. as a result of not really knowing reality as it is, and of vainly putting themselves first. So there's a kind of sealing in of whatever mistaken thinking you might have when you go off to the mountains by yourself, you know, you're pretty much going to get stuck with that, kind of dig it in even deeper, perhaps. I remember hearing a story a long time ago about some, you know, llama who was up in the mountains for 20, 30 years meditating in a cave, and then he came down to the village and and to see his teacher and this mangy dog rubbed up against his leg and the llama kicked the dog and the teacher said, you know, 30 more years. So, you know, the proof is in the pudding. Like, how are you doing with the world? How are you harmonizing with the world and with situations that come to you?

[21:50]

Just like this monk who was turned into a snake for becoming irritated with the young ones asking for teaching, for instruction. so so these are all examples there are examples even so of many great teachers did spend a lot of time off by themselves up in the mountains you know and it's okay says to that he said yes you should know that those teachers who practice the way were waiting for appropriate conditions to teach in order to mature their work on the way after having already become enlightened and having received the approval of a true teacher so some of these young some of the folks that are in this transmission of light having had some major insight into the nature of reality and of themselves did go off into the woods did live for many years in some cases decades up in the mountains but they were already teachers they were actually waiting for the student to come the one who was going to be there their disciple

[22:54]

And so this is an important distinction that Kazan's making about living alone. And then he adds that Dogen, the founder of our Zen school, proscribed living alone, as did his disciples, Zen master Ejo, saying that my disciples should not live alone. Even if you have attained the way, you should cultivate and refine it in a community. Any who go against this rule are not members of my school. So this has been received. It's interesting, sometimes I read these things and I go, oh, that's why we say, no, we don't support people going off and living alone. That's what we've received as a part of what it means to be in a tradition called Soto Zen. So again, Kezon gives this example from the beginning of the story about this elder monk who'd been living alone and got angry at this novice. and became a snake for a thousand years. And he said, we know this because the body and mind of that old monk had not been harmonized.

[23:57]

Now you can see the behavior shows, like how people behave is a pretty good indicator of what's going on inside, whether they've harmonized their thoughts, their thinking, their feelings with the physical gestures, with their bodies. And then Kezon ends the story with what he calls a humble saying. The solitary light, aware space, is always free from darkness. The solitary light, aware space, is always free from darkness. The wish-fulfilling jewel distributes its shining radiance. The wish-fulfilling jewel distributes its shining radiance. So this is like transmission of light, this openness, this freely given, this sharing, that there's nothing hidden, nothing held back. All of this is about... being open and spacious, room for things, room for things to happen, to move, to change, not to be stuck. It's kind of the opposite of stuck. So the two main themes of this story are, first of all, the nature and location of this wish-granting jewel.

[25:07]

What is this jewel that we've all been given, the jewel of life, of presence? of support from everything, really. Everything supports our life. So really studying the nature and where is it? Where is the jewel? And then the second major point in this story is not to practice alone. Now, another main point is that the teachings that were given by the Buddha to be cared for by the Nagas, according to legend. So there's this story that the Buddha gave some talks up on Vulture Peak. The first years of the Buddhist ministry, he taught people basically, you know, on the ground. He taught them, you know, in the meadows and in the villages. And he basically received whoever came. And you have that really feeling of kind of being in the human realm and that he walked where he went and so on. Simple clothing and that kind of thing.

[26:10]

And then at some point, he went way up on this mountain called Vulture Peak. And there he preached the Prajnaparamita, so the emptiness teachings. And I'm going to recommend that you might check out a book called the Heart Attack Sutra. I mentioned it before when we were looking at the Heart Sutra. So some of the monks who've been practicing in this more, you know, kind of mainstream way, when they heard these emptiness teachings, it says in the text that they had heart attacks because it was just a shock. I mean, the jewel isn't even a jewel. What is it? What is it? It's not really an answer, but there's a good question. Well, what is it? What is it that thus comes? This is the Zen question. So according to legend, these teachings, which were considered too advanced for these early disciples, were taken by the Nagas, the snake people, down under the ocean. for a long, long time, until the second century. So Nagarjuna, the sage of the Nagas, they were waiting for him.

[27:15]

So when he came to the ocean, the dragons, the snake people gave him these sutras, these texts. And that's where they came from. And that's what he became the master of these texts of the emptiness teachings. So they'd been hidden away for hundreds and hundreds of years. And it had been foretold. know in the early sutras that there would come this great sage who would rescue these teachings and bring them forward when when the time was right when people were ready for them so they're as i said they're called the prajnaparamita texts there's the heart sutra the diamond sutra the eight thousand line perfection of wisdom sutra and so this this became this fairly radical turn in the road the Mahayana, the great vehicle, in which it says that all of us are going to be delivered to Buddhahood without exception. All of you are going to be Buddhas. That's what it says in the Lotus Sutra. You're not a disciple of anybody. You are the worthy one.

[28:16]

You are destined to be liberated without exception. So this is the teaching of the great wisdom. teachings. We're all on the road, same road, same path, and it's a great vehicle. Mahayana means the great vehicle. And we will all be transported by virtue of our simple wish and our desire and our practice. Every step of practice is enlightenment. Enlightenment is the path, the path is enlightenment. So each step you take in your endeavoring to understand or to practice the way is itself fully enlightened. This is very Dogen, very Dogen. So in looking at Nagarjuna and his role in explicating the perfection of wisdom, we are placed right there in the middle way. You know, as I said, the Buddhist first sermon, avoid the extremes, follow the middle way. And now with the retrieval of the Prajnaparamita text from the Naga King, Nagarjuna's famous verse called fundamental teaching of the middle way.

[29:19]

So again and again, the middle way. So I'm going to be trying my best to make some of those teachings accessible to you in the next few weeks, knowing that actually it takes quite a, well, took me, it is taking me many, many years to feel some level of comfort with the emptiness teachings. And I find myself reviewing them again and again and again. It's like maybe, okay, maybe this time. And it's very slippery, which is by design. I mean, they are slippery. If you think you've got it, you don't. As soon as you got something, you don't. It's not even a jewel. It's not even a jewel. So this kind of freedom, not grasping, not holding on to views. And yet we can study them, we can enjoy them, we can let them pass through us and transform us, just not to hold on to them, not to become a person who knows and understands the wisdom teachings.

[30:20]

Right there, that just sounds like, oops, I think that's a very bad thing to say. And even though they're not so complicated, I mean, I think some of the examples I've found that I've read and I've found to use myself aren't that complicated. It's just that they're very difficult not to have slip away because there is something or there isn't something. Pick and you're wrong. So because they're moving, it makes it challenging that's not how we like our language to go we like it to be is it or isn't it if we say to our kids well did you or didn't you you know and they go what's not like kind of like that mom no no did you or didn't you you know we want it to be one side or the other but reality doesn't work like that so the emptiness teachings are basically teaching us to be fluid to be liquidy you know Grasping is the cause of suffering. So these are all teachings designed to use language, like use the thorn of language to take out the thorn of language.

[31:20]

That's the saying. Using the thorn to take out a thorn. So the work of taking away from you whatever you think you've gotten is a very familiar theme in many of the Zen stories about the Zen teachers and their students. Zen is not about something you're going to get, as one teacher said to me when I arrived, it's about what you're going to lose. You're not going to get it, but you're going to lose something. And so I thought I would like to do, give you a few ideas of some things you might read before I open to some questions from you all. If you would like to read more about the Middle Way, Prajna Paramita, you could actually try. the fundamental wisdom of the Middle Way. There's an excellent translation and commentary by a professor by the name of Jay Garfield, who's a professor of philosophy at Hampshire College, and he's quite a treat.

[32:23]

He also has some videos you can watch and he's very exuberant and he wears these ties with chili peppers on them and stuff. He's quite a quite a enjoyable performer. But he also is a very, very good teacher. And I found his work helping to understand the fundamental wisdom of the Middle Way to be really, really handy and useful. So that's the name of the book. And it's Jay Garfield, Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way. Oh, somebody asked him, you know. He started off as a classically trained Western philosopher. He spent his got his doctorate in Western philosophy. And so one of the he was giving some lectures to some Tibetan nuns. I think they're here in California, actually, about 20 of them ordained women. And one of them asked him, well, how did you get into Buddhism? And he said, my students brought it to me. So here he's teaching Western philosophy, and his students say, well, have you read Nagarjuna?

[33:24]

So he did, and now he's quite the teacher of Buddhist philosophy. So the other text that I mentioned before is this one called the Heart Attack Sutra by Carl Brunholz, B-R-U-N-N-H-O-L-Z-L. And that's a really good commentary on the Heart Sutra, Emptiness Teachings. good background. And then the other sutra that I think you might enjoy and that is really probably the most accessible, easily accessible of all the Mahayana sutras is the Vimalakirti Sutra, which in particular, there's a whole chapter on non-duality. So, you know, if you have taken some time to read about the Heart Sutra and the Two Truths, which I've gone over a few times and I will go over again. If you have some kind of feeling about that, there's a chapter on non-duality, which is wonderful, in the Vimalakirti Sutra. And then there's another chapter called the Goddess Chapter, which has some of the best humor in all of Buddhist literature.

[34:30]

It's actually very funny. And a friend of mine right now is translating that text and writing some commentary, which I think will come out this year. It ought to be quite great. So he sent me a little advanced copy of the Goddess Chapter, and it's just really wonderful. So the translation of the Vimalakirti Sutra that I myself like the best is done by Robert Thurman, who is unfortunately, as he says, best known for being the father of Uma Thurman. Before she was born, he was a college professor and had done a lot of Tibetan practice and training. So that's Nagarjuna. And I would really appreciate, I tried to leave a little more time today so that I could talk with you and see what you might like to bring up, questions you might have. There's a chat. There's also just please raise your hands if you'd like to bring up something. I can see hands.

[35:33]

Yeah. You talk about the... Hi, my name's Stu. You talk about the duality of there is or there is not. Is there a component of there was or there will be? Well, past or future? Yeah. Yeah, kind of similar kind of dualist proposition. The reason I ask is because there was could imply a residual being. or there will be implies an imagination. Well, you want to say a little more about that, the residual being? That makes me curious. What's the residual being? Well, a lot of times I'm an architect, and in the built world, or even in the spiritual world, talk about ghosts. you know even in the mind and in spirituality you know the past affects us so greatly yeah you know and so even in design and in architecture you know there's residual history

[37:07]

Yeah, like influences. The influences from the past. Yeah. I think in Buddhism, that would mostly fall under the category of karma, that the result of your past actions is considered, you know, that comes to fruition in the present. So whatever's happening right now, like right now, right here, is a result of all that happened before, which is no longer available. We can't get a hold of the past, but we can experience the effects of the past by how we are now. So all the things that you've done to take care of your body, all the things you've done to take care of your life results in you being able to sit there right now and appearing to be relatively healthy. So that's collectively true about all of the ways that the world does or doesn't behave and the consequences of our behavior is showing up big time. So this is our collective karma. And then each of us has our own, what I think you're calling ghosts, as the outcome of our past.

[38:15]

And one of the, I think the reason the Buddha is, you know, so highly valued is there's the kind of metaphysical thinking about all that, like where's it coming from and what is it and so on. But then there's the basic medicinal, like, well, the reason he's talking about that is because you can change the outcome by how you behave now. So rather than just continuing this karmic stream of behaviors that repeat habits that we have, particularly the ones that are bad for us or harming us or harming others, it's called samsara. You're just turning around and around and around. Same thing, same thing, same thing. We can break those habits by how we behave now because the future is going to be the result of what we do now. So we're making the ghosts for later on. So we want to make some nice ghosts. We want the ones that show up in our old age to be whispering sweet nothings in our ears rather than, why did you do that?

[39:15]

So part of sitting meditation is the reception of all your past karma. And you sit there and you go, oh my god, I don't want to think about third grade and that terrible thing I did. But there it is. So all those past karmic events will come as ghosts. They come like ghosts, as memories. And we just have to let them pour through until they're done. There's no way to get, you know, we can't just blow them out of there. They're going to spend their time being remembered. And then there's remorse. And then there's, I'm sorry. And then I don't want to do that again. So precepts are what these precepts show up here in this with the snake, you know, the snake had some remorse about how he treated those young students. Still, he had to be a snake for a thousand years. But now he got to come back. He took the precepts. I'm not going to do that again. I'm going to be kind. I'm going to be generous. So we're trying to work with the ghosts. I think that's definitely part of the job.

[40:20]

So what is the agreement with the ghosts? What is the... there's some stories there's some good stories about that the monks in the cave and all the ghosts have come in monsters and and his teacher said well just give them some tea and they'll go away so he does that he gives each one cup of tea and they go away except the one big guy he doesn't go away and so he offers him a cookie too and still he doesn't go away he just keeps coming at him you know So finally, the young monk opens the monster's mouth and puts his head inside. And then he disappears. So they want your head. Your head. They want the whole thing. That's right. That's right. That you're willing to give up your selfishness, you know, for the sake of your liberation. And it worked out fine for him because they're illusions. These ghosts are insubstantial.

[41:23]

So there is something or there isn't something. It feels like a nightmare. I woke up screaming, you know. Pretty powerful, those illusions. So we want to get disillusioned. We want to learn that they're stories and they have no power, you know. So we want to disempower the ghosts. Not ignore them. They don't like that. Listen to them and then don't give them our lives. Don't give them our power. They are the fear that comes into the light. Yeah. Fear, anger, jealousy, all those negative emotions. Greed, hate and delusion are the three poisons that drive the wheel of suffering. So awakening is considered to be free from greed, hate and delusion. That's freedom from those poisonous, toxic, pathological emotions. And it's not that easy to do that.

[42:24]

We're wired for greed, hate, and delusion. It's a great metaphor to put your head in the mouth of the ghost. I wonder how that works for architecture. That would be an interesting design. I can go into that at length. Thank you. else like to bring up a comment or a story? Let's see. You all know how to chat. I'm sure you do. It's a note from Tendo saying, can they hear you, Fu? Yes, I think they can.

[43:25]

Heather. Hi, Heather. Are you unmuted now? Oh, good. Hi, Phu. Hi, Heather. I can think of some things in the scriptures about asking the bodhisattvas to be present with us. But I was thinking the other day that I can't come up with any examples of asking for protection or an instruction to protect others. Is there anything about that in either mind only or middle way? Well, Kuan Yin is our big, you know, call out, shout out. Really, please come. There's a whole part of the Lotus Sutra about calling on Kuan Yin when you're in a forest fire or when you're in a flood or call for Kuan Yin and the, you know, the fire will be, the king will not cut off your head and all that. There's a whole list of things that you'll be protected from if you call on Kuan Yin. So that's, and then also the cobra, the snake.

[44:26]

sheltered the buddha while he was there's one story about this is wonderful i've never heard that one yeah this cobra um you know this raining or something and this big cobra comes and protects the buddha while he's sitting there so you can look that one up yeah yeah i guess i think of kuan yin the main thing that i've heard is that you know she hears you um but i'll have to read it She has a thousand arms. Yeah, that's true. That's true. There's the arm thing. Lots of them. Did you need a light bulb? Yeah, I did. I forgot about her arms. That's right. I like to think of Kuan Yin as like the Sangha, you know? I do too. A thousand arms, like we need help. Something happens there, man. There are a thousand arms come running out of the doors. Yeah. I do. Is that it takes a village thing?

[45:27]

It takes a sangha. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Lisa. There, you're unmuted. Hello. Hi, Lisa. Hi. So as Stu was talking, I was thinking about one of Dogan's teachings that I've been trying to work with. And it's the, I have it sitting here, this may show up. Oh, that's a good one. Oh, but it is, it's, you know, emptiness and then to add the idea of time, no time, you know, where does the past and karma, you know, does it even exist? I'm sitting here thinking about that. as well as some of the work in physics and seeing them come together.

[46:32]

But how do these pieces fit together in the teachings? The idea of karma and yet time or timelessness, being time. Well, that's where the two truths come in. And that's why Nagarjuna is this great second Buddha. You know, because he really emphasized the teaching of the two truths. There's the ultimate truth is time. There's no time. Show me time. Yeah. Yeah. Where are you holding it? You know, where do you got it? Show me you. Show me where we are. You know, it's like a pale blue dot. That's not very helpful. So we have this really, you know, unsteady grasp of time or being. Time being. Uji means time being. And yet we are time beings. That's what we are. We're in time fantasy of before and after, as Sue was saying.

[47:32]

So we have this dream. We're dreamers. We're dreaming. What dreamers we are, Dogen says. The one true thing, black rain on the temple roof. What's that? What's that rain? You know how the first rain sound in California, right? When those rains come, we're going to all be going like, oh my God, there she is. That sound of rain is just extraordinary when you haven't heard any for six months and there's been fires everywhere, right? So the one true thing, black rain on the temple roof. So that's Dogen saying, come to your senses. You don't have to worry about what time, what time is it? It's black rain on the temple roof time. It's that time that you're being, So he's kind of bringing all of these vectors together, you know, right here in your very body, in your very life, as your experience. And yet it's all of the causes and conditions that make it up.

[48:37]

They did, but then they went away. And they aren't now. They went away, but there's new ones being made right now. You are the creator. Yeah. You're busy weaving your next little, right? We're all spiders. We're all working on our next product. We need a thread. Otherwise, what are we going to do if we don't have another? No, we're all looking to where we can put our next thread. We're not even thinking about the thread now. We're throwing it out. Yeah, there's going to bed tonight. That's a good one. Can't wait. And then you start again. Next day, you start again with your little weaving jobs. You know, we're masterful at creating time fantasies and busy. The one who's not busy, that's a great koan. You should know there's one who's not busy. You know, it's like, really? How do I know the one who's not busy? I'm really too busy to pay attention to that. So that we stop in our tracks.

[49:38]

You know, we get stopped in our tracks by these wonderful teachings, which is what they're for. Just stop. Just stop. What is it? I don't know. Don't ask me. So the human part is confused. I don't get it. But you get it completely. You are it. You don't have to do anything to be the time being. Fully manifest. Thank you. You're welcome. Enjoy. Looks like a big chair. You got there. My internet went down. Thank you. You're welcome. I hope I said that right. Yes. Hi, Po.

[50:39]

Where are you? Oh, hi. How are you? Nice to see you again. Likewise. Thank you for the wonderful talk. You're welcome. My question... is not related to the talk, so I'm happy to take it to a different forum. But I was reading a book called Escape from Freedom by Eric Fromm. It talks about how protestantism arose after the Middle Ages, during the age of Reformation, as a result of the helplessness of the middle class to help of give voice to the feeling of the middle class which was feeling very helpless as a result of the rise of capitalism. And I became really curious about how other ideologies or philosophies arise, what social or political or economic changes need to rise up other philosophies.

[51:43]

And I'm really curious if you could talk a little bit about maybe the appeal of Buddhism in the West and what demographic or part of society that it may appeal to. And we can maybe specifically talk about the West or specifically America. Who might find Buddhism or Zen appealing and who might not? I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah, sure. I mean, we got a whole bunch of folks right here. Yeah. Where are you here? What brought you to this business? You know, uh, you too, you know, me too. Yeah. Yeah. I guess is, is what makes me really curious. Um, Trouble in River City, you know. The Buddha was a young prince at a time when kingdoms were being overrun by empire makers.

[52:46]

So the little kingdoms, his dad was like a small kingdom, a little two-story mud hut, according to my reading of his era. It wasn't a magnificent palace by any means. Only the literature turns it into a marble palace. But he lived in a two-story mud hut. That's what kings lived in, above the flood plain. So it was up on high ground. But that was an era when empires were forming and they were taking over everybody else's village and taking their food and whatever they wanted. The bullies. Always a lot of bullies. And so I think the Buddha was alive at that time. He did some very radical things by allowing different castes to join the Sangha, including women. That was really radical. They were property. So I would say each era has its social contracts that are badly made, guaranteed, the way humans do, you know, to take advantage of each other.

[53:51]

And then these spiritual teachers have been trying to provide solace for the people. You know, we know the history, somewhat of the history of how these religions that get appropriated, Holy Roman Empire. So you become like all of a sudden Christianity instead of being this oppressed minority is now the, you know, Vatican. So these things have a way of morphing. And I think Buddhism has done a bit of that too, you know, as its own little kind of Buddhist kingdoms and Buddhist empires grew through the Silk Route. I don't know what's going to happen here in California or America or in the West or whatever we're calling it. It's really global now. We don't have any geography anymore that I can tell. I mean, you guys are from all over the place, right? So it's more like ideas, empires of ideas maybe. And these are pretty kind. I mean, these ideas I think are very appealing. Children like them. Brother David, who's a Christian monk said,

[54:55]

Buddhism can be commercialized very well, unlike Christianity. You know, people buy Buddhas and put them in their yards, you know, all over Mill Valley, you got Buddhas everywhere and not so many crucifixions. So it's like we have this imagery that's good for little kids like it and grownups like it of something peaceful, something kind and generous, you know. So I think we all hunger for that kind of wish, that wish, maybe. to share and have things shared and to be kind and, you know, just get over ourselves and take care of things, which we could do if we'd stop being so crazy. You know, we could take care of things. We know how. We know how to build and then we know how to tear down. And right now we're at war and it's very painful. Where'd you go?

[56:03]

I lost you. Oh, I'm still here. You were over here. Your square moves somewhere. Oh, there you are. This is weird. You know, someone left, I guess, and then you went over here. There you are. So I don't know. I think there's so much to read and think about your top. Your question is such a good one. You know, I think about that a lot myself. Where is this going? What's the karma? Like Sue said, where's the karma of this thing we're doing? How's it going to turn out? I'd love to come back in a couple of hundred years. Is Zen Center still there? Did anything happen? Did any good come of all this effort? I have no idea. I won't know. It'll be for you and your grandchildren to check it out. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good to see you. Anyone else like to... I hope you're all okay.

[57:07]

Lots going on. Please take care of yourselves. I look forward to next week. I'll be talking some more about Nagarjuna and particularly his teaching, the Mulamajamaka Karaka. And the two truths, go over that again. So any kind of, even if you just Google it, there's got a lot of stuff up there. Do a little pre-thinking about it. Oh, may I say to my friends down there, I guess the fire didn't come over the hill. Not yet. Not yet. I'm so glad to see you. So I was like... We were in evacuation mode, not officially, but just us. We kind of anticipated a bad day when they had a high wind day. That was Friday, Saturday.

[58:14]

So we kind of moved out of the path, but it changed direction. So things are being optimistic. The fire's still going like crazy. We're back. But we're back home. I'm so glad you're safe. Yeah. Tassajara looks like it might make it too. Yeah. We just heard today. The wind is also turned. So maybe, well, I hope all of you make it, whatever that means. Whatever that means. Yeah. Okay. Well, have a nice evening. Take care. Welcome to unmute and say goodbye if you like. Thank you. Thank you. Hope to see you next week. Yeah. Maybe so. Maybe so. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Teno. Thank you. Thank you. See you next week. Good. Thank you. Thank you, Fu. Bye-bye. Goodbye. You're welcome. Fu, would you stay a minute? Sure. Bye, Fu. Hi, Teno. Well done.

[59:16]

Thank you, Fu. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. Tendo, did you ask me to stay? Yes, please. I thought that was your voice. Yes. It's okay. We're among friends. Oh, fool. I'm really sorry. It's my first time and I didn't get the slide on. It's okay. It all went fine. I was able to turn on because I'm co-host. So I can just turn on there. Right. So I couldn't find it. So I had to make you co-host. Yeah. I was looking around for the how to turn you, make your co-host, and I really sounded panic out there. I'm going, where is she? What's going to happen? But it turned out okay. You'll get another chance next week, I hope. I promise I'm going to do better.

[60:17]

I'll count on you. Thank you, Fu. Bye-bye. Thanks.

[60:23]

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