and i often say the same thing every toilet and it is a new series of the book of records so excuse me if you heard this story before of it
this is the story of how i came to be a teaching a class and the book of records and my basically my method of doing of doing it and learn to let you know with the beginning
well
i phone number of years you know remain dharma study was
either dog in or other mahayana and especially old school tax i was just study a lot of a tibetan buddhist texts it also lots of the poly carry lots of the pali canon and teachings of various contemporary
a turbine teachers in
i actually felt that that material was more useful for divest states because it actually gave you ways to practice that were like fairly clear do this do that to this that and teachings that were relatively clear especially like in the mahayana side or teachings about benefiting others and alice
kind of good stuff devotional teachings the so and then i thought were very valuable and necessary and were not provided in the zone school
and so know that but i found that i
i had problems with
the colon literature and the problem that i had was mostly that the and literature the style of a composition and commentary on the going literature was extremely
the effect that it had i found on my own mind and on the mile of students was to kind of keep you at arm's length it was always like discuss the terms of well if you realize this than you really know what's going on if not you don't know anything but we're not tell me what it is
you have to realize it for yourself so i tried that i'd actually the effect of this kind of rhetoric was abusive actually it was because then i noticed people were thinking oh you know this is really the that this is a really deep stuff and i don't understand it and then that they might or might not have thought of the teacher understands it somebody who understands it anyway i just don't have
open to but somebody does so i i felt that this was the in general and like a drag on the system and was not helpful and i couldn't really see much redeeming virtue in the literature so i basically left it alone
furthermore
i many years ago undertook a co and study in a traditional manner working with the akin roshi and and glassman at that time tetrick and glassman said say and i carried on this study for a number of years and so in that study you could actually grapple with the car
interested in the cellar and i became in a sense of student of that system and i saw the outside that system what else could do with the cohens you know so for those two reasons i felt like it was pretty useless to he do with the coins you know in any way
outside of when i went to go to shane with a cat or something like that
ah but as time went on i was sure
supposedly
zen teacher
and i'm getting credit for me as in person and here i was basically not liking the basics and literature
and after a while i thought this is probably not a good fit in the probably jews in is ruthie like at least have a tolerance or seven degree of respect for the basics and literature and so i felt that i should study the same literature and i knew
brings being what they are that i would never studied on my own the only way that i would ever studied is if i get a class at it
so i made a personal commitment to myself that i would study all one hundred cases of employment record by presenting them either in class format or dharma talk for with
when i started this i don't remember when i looked ok sixty seven or so your just sitting in on like personal study and it will look the record and i distorted knock off in one case a week and get to the app turns out that i'm enjoying it quite a bit of courses as these things go
the process of doing it has completely changed my mind and as i'm going along with it i'm developing different viewpoints and so forth and finding it actually quite fascinating and useful much more than they ever thought of a date that's out how things usually go
so now
a couple saw somewhere in the in the middle of the process i had some
ah dialogue with eight hiroshi on this says exchange of letters on this point i'm gonna burn issue and
and i always say the beginning of every class that this is not the sand what we're doing here is not the same thing as quote unquote cohen study as we know it you know that the in all these images
when i'm aware of that we do we know by in the west collins day has come to mean
responding to call and a dog san room according to a system that was created by hack coins mg in the
i think eighteenth century
that's what we all always a collins think that's what we all mean
and
it's presented love time when he reads a book so they talk about cole and they they assume that that is the that is the only get current study that is that is what call and it is there's no other way to study
ah that is a good way to study cause and probably is the best way and the most thoroughgoing way in an innocence probably it is but what we're doing is not that and it's not a substitute for that if we go through these cases of the big blue cliff record you shouldn't think that oh now i understand and know that case and therefore
why wouldn't i would be able to answer it in the ducks zone or not necessarily at all well so i want to be very clear on that point and not qualified to teach recovery system although i studied it and had you know got a couple of steps into it by no means am i qualified her kid
you're in that system and if anybody here and class becomes passionately interested in cons from was grass or rather any other reason karmic reason and wants the study cause in that way you have to go and find a qualified teacher to do that as far as i am aware know what it said center
is qualified in that system
oh so along the course of doing this i wrote a can rocio letter and i was telling him when i was doing here and he took exception to it you can then he said well you know you you really shouldn't do that
he at one point actually had given the permission to teach in a limited way the classical haku style gone
system which i decided that was not a good idea for me to do when he said the teacher and this kind of a for men and it's kind of away was by bad idea you shouldn't do it don't do it
well i reflected on this and
i was very clear to me actually and thinking about it that
literature this collins or literature i mean
there's no way that you can call it anything other than literature know and there's a lot of ways of using literature of course you know and some ways are better than others i'm sure but to say that there's only one way to read a text and if you don't read it this way you shouldn't read it at all
really doesn't make sense to me probably or to you and i figured if you thought about it for a few minutes and would make too much sense to akin russia either and i pointed this out to him i said you're an intelligent person you a literary person you're not turn to tell me that it's illegal for us to read this book
bangkok talk about know that would really be a kind of a narrow-minded bring to say women
and he sort of said yes sir
but it was an interesting exchange of letters back and forth in my sometimes i have begun this class with actually reading the exchange of letters a couple of hours you can do better at tassajara you were there i didn't think i'd been up there near i don't know i could locate the letter that this point but
anyway also i was aided in my view of this whole question by a really good book which i read very closely by stephen hi and when he says the room gaga
yeah i don't know anywhere i think i pronounce on the home who wrote a book called duggan and the call and tradition which is a very scholarly careful look who's main point is that the different approaches to studying cons historically speaking
ah much would we don't know
we don't they're not records of all the different ways that people have approach cons but clearly the haku in style or project cause is one way and the idea that it was all leading up to that somehow or that's the only way is just patently false and his argument is that in fact and zingy is a student of cons and that the show okay
as i was basically a method of colon study that all duggan's talks are a kind of in other words one way of studying collins is the yack about a call on at length an incomprehensible way as that it usually does on another way to
we talk about cons is to to work with collins is to present briefly and often in physical or pantomime fashion answers in the ducks on her as an i would so high that says yes there's this way of that when as many ways well the way that the method that were pursuing in this class is neither one of those two methods
ah
my interest as i go along more and more in in with the cause is first of all ah kind of by either
a legitimate or imaginative means
trying to create a context for the stories these are very happy stories very stylized in the way that they're written down and commenter but if you assume that these were actual people like you and i who are studying the dharma and actually grappling with issues of you know why
does it mean to be alive where does it mean study the dharma what is the truth that the buddha taught and how can we realize that if you assume that this is what they were after and this is there are people like us and they had a context what were their lives be like him how would it feel to read those stories with more of a sense of the actual people involved so a lot of what i do in the classes try to
a could have given away in a sense of character sketches or portraits or portrayals of these people in what they might have good experience that gone through that's one thing and then also many the cons do in fact bring up historical or kind of doctrinal for it's about buddhism
know some things about the teaching that are not necessarily incomprehensible are impossible to grasp there are some there are some cons that that are clearly
designed to
you know
make you loosen your hold on any idea of doctrine or teaching and just be present but there are other codes and are like that to their various in their in there a purpose and in their approach
having the other thing is that a lot of the coins there's a lot of sort of
language custom in lore
if that make the collins seen through up to our i strange that aren't all strange if the more if you know that it was you know the customs in the lore and the lingo certain things are not that i that not that serious you know they're pretty like on that's just what that is but since we don't know that stuff
the things that are not worthy of the metaphysical rise and it's confusing to metaphysical eyes you know so i try to bring that stuff i'm so basically i'm trying to bring these cases down to a level of a more useful everyday kind of level and draw some benefit from them and by know
means do i think that
but our study these cases us it's going to exhaust you know the possibilities but the city was some some scientists been brought up so i do and i just give you some background about where i'm coming from in doing this study
and i usually i read when i studied a case i read it i if i think of related material with sometimes i did i guess come up going to bring other related material to bear on the case and sometimes that helps a lot when you for example with the teacher is mentioned in the character and t
is not clear from the particular case or you can bring in other stories about that teacher to make it clear that what the character that particular teacher is that sometimes the whole case comes alive when you realize this is this kind of a person doing this kind of a thing on
so often bring it on a material but also i usually yeah for a certain amount of time and then after that i run on esteem and then
in eat during the time i'm talking were after after the timeline of stop talking than we have you can't questions and dialogue so that's usually what tacos maybe somebody you i've done to con will correct cross here before it maybe some of the tokens i think it's not too different from the way it was then
so today we have
case number sixty seven
yeah

jalapeno poppers are now
and
suggested it did you say it are you
doc sadler study evidence
exclusive year old doctor
well as part of it but the method is totally different here where we're reading and thinking about the com using art intelligence and our knowledge of buddhism or whatever you know that kind of understand
intellectually but i don't you say that in in the sense of merely intellectually because i think mine is useful and and also we can think about our practice right and econet it can help us so it's all about practice here we're not trying to work on with the doctor but about how what does this have to do with our actual practice but in it but in the dukson know when you study you're doing it usually
in the context of a kind of session where you're not reflecting on your practice you're developing single point in concentration usually on one point of the con and bring it out into the dog center in which then you have to demonstrate the unexplained or talk about but demonstrate usually buy some gesture panama
and or action and then there is a right answer within in the teacher accepts your answer and then you go onto the next call on point or the next khan and until you get the right and so you just keep going back and forth back and back back to wait until you get it
and if you get close the teacher kind of like is sympathetic and gives your hands in everything is part of the get up and then you'd be happy when you get it and then you get next cohen and the new frustrated again pissed off hundred and you can't get it and then you get it and then you go on like the in three years so this is quite a different name
so okay sixty seven or maza food expounds description
emperor wu liang requested myself of food to expound the diamond cutter scripture
masada shook the desk once ben got down off the seat and wu was astonished
master juror asked him does your majesty understand the emperor said i do not understand bastard you said the the food has expanded the scripture
most cases as you're aware unsure of look up record how
what claritin cause a pointer or no introductory statement this one doesn't
i have never been able to discover any particular reason why one case what this or that case doesn't have appointed i don't think this might just be lost or something i don't know anyway i don't know why this case doesn't have a pretty diverse to the case says he does not rest this body by the twin trees
instead and the land of leon he stirs up dust at that time if it weren't for all master your he too would have been a man hastily leaving the country
so that's
there's two authors you know of the look record one is so i know who collected one hundred of his favorite cases from different texts and wrote a poem by with comment
and then
right sixty or seventy years later another month then on will
took that material and made a prose comment on the case and on the home so this text here is a collaboration between suede all anyone know that the commentary is by one morning and the case
and the purser by sway them
so anyway
i'm sure you all noticed that this case
kind of rhymes with case one
and the book of glyph record which has several of the same protagonists only instead of vasa food expanding the diamond sutra you have bodhidharma coming in meeting emperor of the on and master your appears in both cases
so yeah
this case
really
which one is i forgot on it
buddha send the seat
dharma dharma king is thus and yeah yes right and as a number of cases like that here and there were
yeah the teaching is being expanded without words usually buy some either by the buddha as i was last week in session starting a case or two before this which also involves the buddha holding silence and i found out that every time the boot it appears with in the kit in the current literature with one except
when he teaches by silence
kind of interesting
so yeah it is it is similar to that
so anyway i got into a
fit of
can i want to cover the would call it like this is not a scholarship would be to elevated a term but basically pouring through different books that's what i'm trying to say
ah when i would look at this case because i feel as if this case is 'em
well as a tremendous their historical dimension i think that in both this case in case one where we have emperor wu of the on meeting the emperor will be on as early as his dynasty was quite early it was basically we are bodyguards time which is very very or
early in
so i think that these two cases are two great extent trying to
tell you something tell us something about
ah the formation of the the early formation of the chance school and what it was sort of a foil for what it was playing against
so i think that in a way this case
has more serve duck title and historical dimensions than usual
and you can sort of read between the lines to find out when you when you figure out who the characters are and what their background is and and so forth
as you know
in the beginning in early jan follow the lack of attire cetera
and it's early chan was quite different from
the six s estimate a big
ah
change in where the zen tradition was coming from and then that change the email was sort of like built on and developed and by the time that this text was written in the sung dynasty the the that it was very refined or the sixth ancestor made a big jump
because of that beginning like bodhi dharma and the other early john teachers as i said they emphasize the luck of the tar or which was a mine only sutra and had a very strong start a maze of metaphysical flavor to it would really had the flavor of your do meditation practice look within understand the nature of mine
and that's what then is all about
it was none emphasizing at all at all the prize department the dialectic
the six ancestor if you remember from the success that ancestor sutra we came awakened when he was a poor woodcutter walking up and down the street on hearing the diamond sutra
the diamond sutra
give a give rise to a thought that is not it has no abode that's not produced and does not dwell anywhere and he heard that line from the diamond sutra he became awaken and and then went to visit the fifth ancestor
so
one of the one of the things that this
what this doing is referring to that whole shift and change know anybody who's an ambitious and wants to study something i would recommend this there's two really good pieces in this book go into this detail traditions and chon in traditions of meditation and chinese buddhism
edited by peter gregory
and there's two articles and and most particularly bernard for has an article on the concept of one practice samadi in early john
and and bernard for his article you find
hey
hope this is not to detail but anyway you find on page one hundred and five of for this a
a dialogue between empress wu
who was about ah something like one hundred years after emperor wu
and shinshu shinshu was is the character in the sixth patriarchs six cents as to sutra who is the head monk who writes the poem and that while the the wrong paul he represents her lack of attire sutra side
when on represents the
prisoner parmi decide which is much worse are action oriented no fixed teaching oriented whereas the other side rep you know is sit and realize the nature of mud
so there's a dialogue here between empress wu and since you in which empress wu basically validates shen choose understanding of dharma
so i'm pretty convinced that that therefore the zen school
later on
in order to argue against that position
concocted the idea that this pretty clearly is not historically did neither one of these cases seem to be historically true as most as and cases are not as you know historically accurate so i think that this in the zen tradition cooked up the encounters between every rule of the and bodhidharma and here
ear masaka foe in order to
counter empress will and shinshu to say here's the real story is a real validation
coming from this site
so

i want to share a little bit of this
for his essay because
you know the the sixth ancestor
revolutionized the understanding of the meaning of meditation practice that was his main to the contribution
hitherto notation practice was viewed as sort of a means to an end
concentrate the mind achieve calmness so that insight could arise and these things were know quite distinct one from another and very kind of concrete here was concentration and look like this he was wisdom and look like that if you constantly
eight was there will arise with wisdom will liberation sort of basic buddhism
but it was the inside of the success esther to say no meditation does not give rise to wisdom and produce wisdom meditation and wisdom are identical
let's not sitting practice to get an insight that you can now name and oh there's a there's that inside i got that on that day and here's what it is but rather the activity of sitting and the insight into the nature of reality
and all activity on every moment which manifests that is what sitting actually is it's actually not that different from duggan's idea you know of
on yourself familiar with the dog against the theory of zaza sort of conflates a physical act of sitting which is like in a way a spiritual exercise you know to get some benefit from it he complaints that with enlightenment itself and highest metaphysical understanding which is present in each moment
the saying so
so so that's what the success as to kind of like started that idea and it was refined of over the year over the centuries so in in his essay bernard gives you the history of the whole notion within buddhism
i see which is it is interesting
the first mention of this idea of one practice samadi
he cites sutra called sutra on the perfection of wisdom spoken by manjushri
which is the suit to that we don't have an english i'm aware
in the sutra says manjushri asked world honored one what is one practice samadi
the buddha answered the dharma doctor has only one mark to take this da moda to as an object is called one practice of my
that's the first mention of the idea of one practice samadi in linens and according to bernard
so this this is the notion that
damo da to is the realm of reality the ultimate reality
ultimate reality is not as does not have minimal distinctions
if you see into the nature of ultimate reality that's one practice amani that is meditation that his wisdom and as reality itself

now
i also think
so let me tell you who the characters are and then the in the case you are provably on was an historical character and he ruled from five hundred and two the five hundred and forty nine
as you know bodhidharma states are very suspect nobody really knows exactly when there was a person named diamond or if there was when he lived exactly and one legend has i'm coming to china around the or five hundred and twenty
which would theoretically be during and probably on rule but other evidence suggests it came quite a bit earlier than that in the for hundreds
massa for fool
man from for ninety seven five sixty nine and so he could have been encountered wu provably on and in fact according to the commentary as you want to read he was a
an interesting lay person who sold all his possessions is like a farmer
and he sold all his possessions and his family's i guess you could sell your family in those days
and gave all of that all the proceeds to the poor
and sold himself are so saw his labor out as i worked as a day laborer in give
the as petty and the port so he was at an incredible bodies out the spirit
so he appears in this case and master your is a man and a very legendary kind of month and the badger relive from probably for twenty one to five fourteen so he also could have been during the reign of emperor will and he was a very interesting he's a very interesting guy
and you know the legendary guy who had various kinds of magical powers
and i was maybe black magic people were dying as a result of his
magical powers in
one legend about him is that one time he he was imprisoned and number of times and one time he he put on three hats want to tap the other on his head and then took them off and and three a high
officials in the government died in quick succession
in the government that was previous to improve me on when those three people died emperor will be honest and swept to power he did not come to power hurt by heredity came to power
by overthrowing the previous dynasty
so he liked math teacher and let him out of jail you know this because of or that now so so you have this situation we are the emperor and this magical power month where who has powers right
lay person was a very virtuous person but it's not a monk and that doesn't have powers just great virtue and been a big heart
and as the commentary tells you when the emperor will be unwanted the the diamond sutra explain
master your said i'm sorry i don't understand is super high school
process for can explain it for you and so he brings unless i have food with unexplained to suit your by rattling elector
the that significant right for the for the sort of feeling tone and sense of design school
cause that was in school there are many other zen stories that are like that you know that that where the magical then sort of downplays
city powers and meditation accomplishments and of course as you know emphasizes you know
have a cup of tea clean your balls that kind of thing billion as a whole fascicle and car miracles were since the greatest miracle miracle wallace to wash your face and wake up in the morning
so here you say then or this ordinary lay person with no no rank no powers
is able to explain the sutra in a way that the magical month is not so i think that's in a world where the men points encased in a way as that which you would know necessarily from the district the barebones of the case itself and also it's significant that the hex that's being expanded
is the diamond sutra and not the right entire city and the thing about the diamond sutra that so significant is the diamond sutra and i have somehow always quotes to your selected quotes from the suggest diamond sutra is important because
it's sort of the
the place in the canon where it's it says straight out there isn't any damage to be learned and taught there isn't some teaching outside of the nature of reality itself that we should be paying attention to and learning and development
what do you think somebody has to target to obtain unsurpassed complete and perfect wakefulness there's the saga to expand the dharma
it's the budi said as i understand the meaning of the buddha's teaching there is no definite dharma
call unsurpassed complete and perfect wakefulness and there is no definite dharma that the photographer can expand
why because the diamond and togheter
a and targets expounds cannot be grasped are explained at all
it is neither diamond or non dime why is this all the normal sages are distinguished by means of the unconditioned diamond
so therefore the perfect exposition of this diamond would be shape a letter you'd be wasting your breath right explaining that which does not a she's not indefinite particular bench another quotation from the sizzle
ah
what do you think somebody when the to target i was with the punk era buddha was there any dharma by which he attained unsurpassed complete and perfect wakefulness
in cebu replied that was not roll-on on and one there was not any dharma by which he attained unsurpassed as i understand the meaning of what the buddha teaches there was no dharma by which the buddha attained unsurpassed complete and perfect wakefulness when he was with the parker a buddha so it is the booty so it is sensible
one more
the the same to
the your phone deals translation the sutra

she would it do not say that it occurs to this togheter i should explain the dharma
do not think that's why because anyone who says that the south to explain the dharma slanders the buddha new to not understanding that which i teach
so that it's it was pretty explicit porn
and that there's no such dharma called inside enlightenment and there's no such a state that one would enter this is the whole burden and his long history of this idea of one practice somatic and the very beginning
that especially in the light of the price departments literature which says that all phenomena are empty and even emptiness itself as empty it cannot be defined a rarefied
so that any attempt to define point to objectify name say something exists as a condition or stay are teaching is automatically incorrect because the teaching that's true is not subject to that kind of
analysis or discussion
so therefore and this is of course one of the quintessential points of his own school and so many of these collins and dialogues turn on somebody being caught holding onto a perfectly good idea data the only mistake is holding onto it yes it's not entirely too
true but as soon as your hold onto it then you've lost that you've you've immediately turned something that's pure the something that's where the wrong india so this is you know about perfect kind of raw story to illustrate this essential and point never wanted saying
since on here you know between the lines we find several things number one
with the ordinary guy
who is able to expand the diamond not the magical powers
monk and the motto of the dharma that should be expanded is the diamond sutra or extensions perfect wisdom not the sutra about meditation even though it is so it's especially significant because they're of course is the meditation school on r buddhism
but when it comes to understanding what meditation is it doesn't that supposed to understand meditation as meditation as the work of attire sutra understands that you're supposed to understand meditation as nine limitation as life
so therefore it's the map the lack of surgery it's the diamond diamond sutra and therefore dinosaur to should be expanded by rattle and the and food items rattling lectern not speaking about by demonstrating which is why haku and current system you demonstrate your understanding the colony don't explain your demonstrated by your activity but
in and of course in our way as well although we don't have that system of hantavirus are clearly
what the dharma for us has also demonstrated that so much by are clever then we don't shout or whatever but by our actual life right this is how how we confirm and verify someone's understanding the darwin not by their wonderful ability to expand on this
net or even they're wonderful ability to shout and whoop and holler but had enough right how did they actually demonstrate in their life in their relationships and the way that they speak with the way that they comport themselves and so on and so on how did they how did they show down and nsa
think that they're showing the diamond doing any of that than they really confused we can go now i'm just doing what they're doing right
today i was actually are
a i'm you know that i have a commitment besides making them to stay the group the fact that allows and a commitment studying and other teachers kind of keep my head on straight you know and saturday i would i am a little bit gaga from as a retreat on there today with a chance amino
were i've always wanted i never met before i always wanted to study with him because i know as an arrow his disciple very very well he's a very good friend of mine and so i wanted to go i went to locate today and let me come for one day of along a retreat and so i went and they always are
i'm very nicely
treat me like a monk they pretend that i'm a mercury mean they had all these special
protocols for the monks you know in that tradition and it's very lovely and so in the goodness of their hearts even though i'm not as you know you were to in our tradition we're not exactly months
but they approved me and so they are they allowed me i went in and had breakfast with determine whether they're sort of ceremonial arms round and have lunch with them also anyway
after lunch so in the world is pure rock people had her daughter
was there because today is national take your daughter to work they did you notice i i'm nosy there
yeah is it added off it's coincidence or weapon
it's so this woman was there with her daughter and her daughter was some say supposed to go with you she worked at spirit rock right so she'd gotten tired of the work and part of that assignment for the gotta she's in sixth grade was to interview somebody at work so she interviewed was going to interview a chance of ada so she had all these questions so she asked onto and translator
are you enlightened the good question and reminds me of this you know the diamond sutra you know is there any dimer by which are john semedo could say that he was right but he critics say i now possess this printed since i this dharma so you know i'm enlightened could he say that you know what about them so i'd have to be pretty good
the
i'm pleased with
how my practice has helped my life
hasbro them
i'm pleased with how my practice is somewhere like i don't think it's a to get the answer here it's pretty good answer you these guys we could he will stick of thing in life
well because i don't know from the zen point of view i don't know whether you could even see or know how your life is as a result of your practice when people ask me that that you know has your practice done you any good i always said which would which is the truth absolutely definitely my life is
chase a lot in the time but i've been practicing and i am happy a person when much more it is but it would be it would be stretching the point to attribute that the practice that could be but i got older and lot of other things changed you know the whole world changed so how can i say that in mind
state of mind and my condition is really as a result of my practice i can't really say that but yeah that's what i'm saying yeah so so i really don't know you know i feel i have a positive feeling about my practice you know that i want to practice and i mean in there and i believe that practice is
a good thing for for my life and other people's lives that i had no problem encouraging people to practice but i can't really say that it will make an improvement or has been an improvement of my own life here
focusing on a program was a bit of a trap
instruct accuracy
exactly exactly yeah of course we're of course here
yes yes and i was very interested you know in in discussing this kind of point with their jon kabat-zinn whose entire
stitt has to do with improving people's condition right using meditation to improve people's condition while he's really as easy as in practice and his background and meditation is in when he says what you just set in other words he says the people if you meditate with the idea that you're going to improve it will be kind of productive the only way
way to have meditation help you as to get away and throw away the idea of improvement rather will help you it's kind of a paradox but psychologically is very true it's not just the a joke or a trick psychologically it's really true that the more you're looking for something to happen unless it happens are you really have to do
yeah yeah apparently one of his lines as even a hospital setting and apparently one of his lines as when people come into the stress reduction meditation course he tells around in the beginning you know stress reduction notation is very very stressful
if you come to this if you come to was thinking that you're going to relax and kick back and all your problems are going to dissolve because you're now cools out with limitation you're going to be miserable it doesn't work that way he says well you have to do is be aware and be present and mindful with your condition even though it's on present and that's the only way that you will
fine an improvement not by taking a drug that's going to make it i'll go away but by being aware recipe tells people so he's that they have actually before people can go in the course they interview people and they put all this out to them and see whether they're willing to deal with us if they're not they don't they're not allowed into the course
so they actually have a series of interviews with people before they come in the course so i understand this
so
so that's not the then then master jay
so
we talked about who you know message or the magical monk but i got mixed up when i was steadiness and
i thought that master your refer to the famous a jury
jury was they found her in china of the ten ten tie school which later became the ten to school and japanese buddhism
and i always thought that in this case as well as in case one that was referred to as nice the jury which of course is totally historically inaccurate because he lived a lot later
however so that made me look up all the stuff about message jury right and that in chinese buddhism as well as japanese buddhism
so i even though this is not jury because an historical inaccuracy i still think that they picked that nasty your to suggest some relationship in contrast between jury and in this case my santa fe
who and in case one bodhi dharma and the reason why i think that is because ah
you know the the essential thing about zen is that it can cut through that whole in zone is a kind of reformist impulse in buddhism right buddhism is very complicated and there's a lot of practices that are really good in buddhism in a lot of teachings that are really
helpful
so then the thing really proliferates and you have a whole system complicated system of teachings and practices that you can do and then pretty soon you end up kind of codifying that and and with first do this you know like the tibetan buddhism used to hundred thousand
in montrose and then you do one hundred thousand and prostrations than you do one hundred thousand and realizations and then you can start the first sedona of and so on and so on it's own and these are all great things and you know one can imagine the effect of doing one hundred thousand and mergers and hundred thousand frustrations and so on but then some
audi comes along at some points is wedding
the buddha just sat under the bodhi tree didn't move and saw through everything he didn't go through his one hundred thousand and one i'm just not you we don't need on the buddha just do that well let's go back to basics so soon as that kind of thing that kind of movement and that's why the idea of one practice samadi was so attractive to the zone school and
now
the we can't be historical contrast
on analog was oddly enough in both china and japan and china was in the fifth or sixth century and in japan it was an indulgence time six hundred years later but in both cases then develop against the backdrop of ten die buddhism which specialized in numerous number
russ practices
are good but to numerous so the same guy said together so i think both these cases i believe although nobody could not clean as hobby
nobody said this that i know the scholars i've seen say this but i really i really feel that that when they can cook this these two stories are
they purposely were immediately used git master your to to suggest jury and his teaching as a contrast and here and here you see messengers and law myself have the where he knows or body dharmas seen that sort of giving his seal of approval so many my last
a little tidbit for today in some
two
quote you the and this book starting and seeing
but master jerk a jury
i have read most of this book and
i don't necessarily recommend it i find earth
especially if you're a sense to have economists and sensibility
ah the stuff is really
not a helpful but when i thought it would be interesting for me to just give you an outline on juries idea of meditation practice
ah
he basically says there for practices for meditation practices that you have to do
one first one is called
sitting past and city
the second one is called constant walking
yeah thats cancer walking the third one is called
sitting and walking
and the fourth one is called neither sitting off
i'll just give you will give you a flavour of what how he how it goes and instead of contrast between this and bodhidharma just plopping himself down for nine years and facing the wrong
okay
so yeah we're in general we speak of for practice cost the city constant walking half walking and half sitting and neither walk in our city
the general term concentration means turning out tuning aligning and stabilizing
the great treatise says ability to keep the mine on one point without wavering is called concentration and the first mode concentration a constant sitting comes from the two suitors and transcended wisdom called manjushri speaks and a questions of luxury
physically i'm skipping here you know just to summarize physically sitting is what is permitted
walking standing and reclining i stopped
so you don't lie down you don't walk
you don't stand one may be in a community but being alone is better
a quiet room or a deserted place apart from all clamour only one seat is set up with none beside it the period period of practices ninety days when sits cross legged with a neck and back straight not moving not wavering as lodging that leaning
sitting one vase one sides will not touch a bed much less lie like a corpse or fool around
aside from meditative second ambulation show even though it's only sitting and know walking you can walk back aside from medicine and circumambulate and meals and answering the calls of nature once it's straight facing the direction of one buddha continuously without a break
that which is permitted is only city
do not do what is prohibited and you will not cheat buddha you tried to mind our full other people
as for a speech in silence
if you are thoroughly overcome by sickness and so on then you should chant the name of one buddha repeated repenting and taking refuge in that buddha
and that well if you do that you will overcome your sickness and your bad conditions
how do you work with your mind do not think at random or grab onto appearance is just focus solely on the realm of reality and dharma data from his sutra and i quoted earlier just focus on the dharma data on the a very much like when logan says you don't take the backward step and turn the mine and related eliminate the self is a similar kind
thing like just that's you know basic chicken taza idea of just sit and focus on not on objects you know what are the essence of reality itself i think it's kind of desk kind of stinks as a technique but as an understanding it's good but how would you do that is the problem i myself think
it's much better to have provisional techniques that it was you've been get consider a long time with them quite confused what does that mean just focus solely on the realm of reality what would that me with one thought on the realm of reality focusing a stop and one thought seeing
when you believe our phenomena or the teaching of buddha there is no before or after there are normal boundaries there is no no are in no speaker
synagis on at some length about
so this is what he calls one practice somebody that's only one of the practice of the second practice is called constant walking
ah
in this method
which comes from he tells you what sutra
ah
you can in concentration see the present food is of the ten directions standing right before you
just like someone with keen see stars on a clear night when you see the voters of the ten directions there are many
in terms of the body whereas permitted in this concentration exercise is constant walking
so you don't say it just walk all time when practicing this method you should avoid bad associates ignoramuses relatives and acquaintances
that covers almost everybody that your focus and nuns who were also be bad hushed raleigh now and probably ignoramuses but so maybe you should grow that practice by yourself you should always remain alone and not look for other people are seek for anything he should beg for your fluid and not accept special invitations
the period of practices ninety days during which you only walk around you need an illumined teacher who is expert in inner and outer discipline and is able to remove obstacles in the concentration you learn from and teacher look upon the teacher as upon buddha without a version or anger or nurse not seen weaknesses strengths
ah
walking should not stop throughout the three months except to sit for meals answer the calls of nature and wash so you don't sleep for three months we want
as for speech in silence as the body constantly walks without sees for ninety days the mouse constantly chance the name of a meat amitabha buddha or ninety decks and the mind constantly thinks i'm a tabula for ninety days in this practice
in china later years
well john practice it was in practice
we all the other practices kind of collapsed and is in and they did do this practice in chinese china i think master hua
ten thousand buddhas his group doesn't practice it i don't know if they do it to this extreme but very similar where you endlessly circumambulate and the practice of circumambulate is very powerful like when i was an indian i did a lot of that i would circumambulate stupid you know for many many many hours chanting om mani padme hum
and this is a major practice of tibetan buddhism sorts of they're actually pretty powerful practice i don't know i was telling you know the story ever
when i went to india that was only there wants is for the first time is december enda
through the various
mishaps i was traveling when myself and not quite sure you know where i was going or what i was doing and
so i landed in nepal and i was really jetlag hungry tired disoriented unhappy miranda ambassador and then that impressed me i was really impressed too i thought to myself wow you know it just goes to show you
yeah how weak the mind is you know you know the bodies weaken the mind is also weak because you know you you know i got a faster about three days and see how whatever mood you're in you know yet whether they were that affects remote at all so in other words the mind that conditions you know you can be big shots then
somebody you know but then all you have to do as be jet lag three days and not have enough food and a country a country where they don't speak a language and the new confused the not a good mood so i was very impressed with that and i was walking around like try to practice with my remind that was not to separate pliable bright at all
but here's the part that i want to get to is that i finally in the midst of this confusion
managed to get myself to scrape stupa at why ominous
and i started circumambulate in stupa and immediately
instantly or circumvent beginning to circumvent to emulate the stoop i became peaceful happy completely it is more problems just like that because before that i was thinking to myself basically what the hell am i doing why am i here you know what why did i come here you know when there's no nothing to do here and yeah i don't want to be here and all these kind of thing you should
but as soon as i started circumambulate in a stupor i mean really like instantly i immediately felt completely at ease and i just stroll around that stupid you know for hours and hours and the funny little sidebar to the story is that after i circumambulate it for are only a little while
i suddenly said that myself
this is not the great stupa of so i reminisce
and actually it wasn't
because i remembered in really in the guidebook that there's a stupor in a nearby the great stupa so healthy
which they don't know why they put up us are ersatz great stupid swam and at nearby the great students wherever else is up further up the hill and maybe it was because some old people can make it up the hill or something but so as i was walking on this i still have had all this great results from the fix this
roger that it certainly i i just kinda fast and to be like like enlightening experience this is not the great still remember that and i mean i immediately knew this is not it it's up there so i went up there and there was the real red slippers when i'm gonna and i did walk around that one for quite awhile and
droid it allowed them like i had that experience thought what
oh yes it was better
that's not a bedroom
so anyway i'm sympathetic to this practice of although ninety days without lying down sense but but then again in a buddhist throughout the ages have been ascetic practices that same
impossible and they but they will actually have them
ah
then there's an interesting part that i can enter in the
in the course of discussing this practice he says
you'd think a buddha the whole time
how do you think it would think as a thirty two marks of greatness from the thousand spoked wheels on the soles of feet think of the marks one after another up to the invisible crown
so you should visualize and think about then i suppose there is a girl whose very name delights the heart and at night one dreams of making love with her he says after awakening thinking of her that she has not come to you and you hadn't gone to her get the pleasures where manifest think of the buddha in this way
as with that degree of either in
ah contrast the second and third mode of concentration is half walking and half sitting
if you want to practice this
the spiritual luminaries are witnesses first seek the dream kings
india repentance is accepted so i guess you have a vision and make repentance this is a repentance practice you make repentance and then your visited by a drinking a range of practice side in a quiet place paint the ground and inside and outside the room with fragrant paste set up a round also untainted hanging pendants of five colors
burn sandalwood incense light lamps and set up a high seat set up twenty four icons are more
and set out offerings of food using your utmost attention
he should wear new clothing and footwear if you don't have no as claim omens
don't let them get mixed up as you put them on and take them off when going in it out
he did this for seven days bathing three times a day on the first day present offerings to mendicants as much or as little as wished
ask one who clearly understands the inner and outer disciplines to be the guide received the precepts and the mystic spells and tell the teacher of your false he a to the fifteenth day of the months should be used creative practices seven days at definitely should not be shortened
so that's the one off that third one the third one
in the last one is neither walking or sitting but in reality and includes walking city and all activities and this is
the idea of all after every every moment of consciousness as meditation so whatever any mentation occurs one practices concentration the great wisdom scripture cause and concentration being aware augmentations are clearly conscious of all mental processes
so in other words there's no special practice in this work you just pay attention to the mind and bring the my back to the nature of mind in all posture throughout our activities anyway that's just to give me at that become interesting history after anthropology of the kinds of practices that were being done
in china at that time in the contrast between that and then which was very radically say forget about all that know just said in an industry body gotta facing the wall for nine years is is by way of contrast to this kind of a said which was variety things that are done for this amount of time you're out and lot of time with all
these arrangements
so
think we'll see if
i think that that's not all at once said it's enough
there's the usual in loudest are the cons the style of praising by banning is used putting somebody down by were meaning you really really think they're great
and here master your as criticized in the commentary is some extent of the palm for
say
and sasa through expounded the scripture
he's saying that is going too far even rise up through didn't expound this scripture but master jury is in iran to name it and define it as such
so in the palm he does not rest this body by the two entries
that refers to my sasa full commentary tells you there was one place where you planted twin trees which i think buddha in enterprise nirvana between they say to says twin sal trees so that must be an echo of that
so he did not rest his body he did not rest myself to fool him just passed away quietly he entered the atlanta of leon and stirred up dust
just like body down today
at that time who weren't for all master your he too would have been a man hastily leaving the country
soldier pointed out to the emperor and that he was
had just done the emperor a big favor
are there was a brew would have been kicked them out or he would have masters of the animal
taxonomy
what is a strong us
big yes yeah distinction
tara
yeah
i'm just any tara
you're describing them distinct your distinctly different mary
history observed that it seems like a lack of uttara some of the of the psychology instead of pointing towards things i meet us
expanded on later and some way they seem very compatible to media and not sort of dust piping school versus yeah yeah yeah well yes that's very true
i was making it to the station sharper than a really years yeah that's very true and and in reality the so-called dust wiping school isn't really the dust yp school in that school itself and the teachings of shinshu i'm not as far away from the teaches us way known as the platform so
winter would lead you to believe
so
it seems very likely that the dispute it had the whole rationale behind us was more political and about power than it was about doctor
or if it was about doctrine there were shades rather than real really big distinction because i think that's that's true and it's true in general know the mine only school the minority school kind of assumes the president power meter
a perspective and then kind of talks about psychology and meditation experience sort of with that as an assumption and in the course of
in the course of doing that sometimes
does violate the essential insights to the part of the power meter literature and sometimes doesn't depends on cetera that teaching in the emphasis does one predict other
i think the prize apartment literature is earlier but i'm not sure
pretty sure when a positive
right what tire center is a very highly suspect syndrome
well i
when it was written by home
a lot of people don't recognize the validity of it as an accretions to it yeah yeah yeah lot of people do
i can remember
his doggie diner was dug and speak about the locker super in negative terms
that's right that's right
they say that it's not a valid suit and nine
yes yes that's where i can actually caught duggan caution my against spending too much time
yeah i vaguely remember my heroes
saying that runs in a you can it came in the class new earnest cataract surgery what's wrong cetera
actually i think it's probably very interesting news for text in it
well well
the whole basis reserve that's
ha
yeah
image
going to be green much time

that's the i would really recommend his there's an article by him in here and also an article by somebody else was nearly forgotten on juries meditation practice for this is very good can put look at
well
he read try again
to speak
was very entertaining very smart man is worth going to
he here's a new is in this is good just brand new out northern sudan and sex for something red red rose up know
we will
yeah that's interesting i'd rather read me noble
well
the topic will be most interested in
anything else here
how do you think isn't used for all i see i guess or speculation inferior
yeah that guy we're just probably about the contrast between maybe a period more complicated in various meditation practices and it said
the went back to or technique of reaction yeah do that and i've seen to sort of he used for all of a thing or is tied in with sweater a popularizing are moving away from the wealthy chords the rich people who can spend all the time i was company
in july people get up i'll take a look
neither offered for is as confusing that's the most actors you saying that that
but ah
the zen zen as popularizing or the many as a pop is compromised middle class in iowa
well there was that argument i mean that that argument
some scholars think that the idea that in other words
it's a lot more available just sit in was a lot more available than you have to have all these icons of banners and pennants and do all this kind of very elaborate stuff which most people can do so and there there are scholars whose who think that that pie
huntley was a reaction to the complexity but also that it was a very chinese kind of thing to do to simplify and and
kind of bring something down to the essence influence out of the influence of dollars in which was all about simplicity and returning to nature and that kind of thing
when you think about it does then method has a lot of has that same kind of feel as and kind of flavor
so it was
not only popularization or democratization but also a particularly sign asian of buddhism to have come to that approach
same authorization has happened in japan a few generation gap for jerk yogi yeah the same thing it
after well in japan as i understand the history the popularization was in ready in the opposite direction because don't get emphasize the pure zazen a very lofty austere can appear as as it and when when soto became popular in japan and it was because it soto
reintroduced ritual and magic and ceremonies and all this kind of thing and that was the source of its
popular rise in popularity but i i myself feel that
get this idea of one practice money
is
more like
a point of view or an attitude or alice put this way i think it's best most fruitfully viewed as a point of view or an attitude rather than taken literally and i feel that there isn't that there's nothing wrong with actually can be quite beneficial to do various practices
but if you do various practices with the idea that this is a special practice and it leads to that and you can't do this with the man in other words or see the practice mechanistically
and not see them as just different expressions of one practice if you if you see them as different expressions of one practice and i think during various kinds of practice can be quite beneficial and i do a lot of different me personally and my personal practice i do a lot of different kinds of practice when i use us i don't always practice in the same way on my cushion
i didn't wear various kinds of things but all of them i understand in the context in the light of the one practice and i often encourage people when they come to see me a dogs on to do this or do that thing depending on their conditions of their lives and and the condition of theirs as a practice because i think that to be doctrinaire about one practice can also
be kind of productive especially if the one practice i mean one practice samadi as created by the sixth ancestor and developed through dog in into the present is a very lofty tank nicholas practice the ultimate practice and way it's beyond
all technique but the problem is that you might sit on your it in not i'm going to focus because you're doing the ultimate technique and ultimately you're already enlightened me and ultimately there's no need to practice but we come to the practice because we're not yet
in tune with our ultimate nature right so maybe we need relative
that means and if we understand him in the light of the bigger picture and i think they can be useful that's my opinion and of people who know feel that way i know with its article

yeah i feel
asked to be have established yeah yeah right right gash about doing right is
well that's the downside to marry me a million things right right
he would say if your basic practice a solid he said suzuki roshi said if your basic practices solid then you can do it
retaining as trivia that's the data the downside is you run around the a million things new and all excited about the flavor of the month you know and you never know if anything but if you really solid and in basic science and practice then you know you can do things that make good use them yeah
it's been a solid patience and practice
well sometimes i said
that it takes
morales at least anyway five years to find your seat is as it to actually feel like when you sit down as as and you're not somebody who came off the street and there's no meditate you know it's like this is this is a this is my my spot
yeah this is my spot this is the body that six thousand it knows how to do it it brings me along with it
i'm not that this makes sense to you but you establish your city and you're just there like dogan says like a tiger entering the forest like a dragon in the water that feeling of this is this is where i really
no my life and that takes time and some suffering and struggle usually to develop that once you really feel like you know zazen is not an external thing that you're doing but it really is through and through your life
when you sit down for you feel that and then i think you have a solidly established doesn't practice and then you know you can do other things to understand your your your life and dime a better can be helpful
yeah because it is important to concentrate your mind
you know that that you can sit without spilling your mind all the time and been distracted is really important that you develop them and it takes effort
in

well i think we're finished for today and i'll just share one words and that i heard in that i tomatoes dharma talk to ben and i thought was very helpful to me and something that i had not exactly thought of before you were just talking about taking refuge in the saga
can he said
he said that can mean taking refuge in the people
you're practicing with as personalities he said my god he said i can imagine a worse idea
the then he's talking about himself than taking refuge in the community in amravati is community so i can imagine a worse idea such confusion and bitterness and anger is no no no no that's right
you know each person also has within them
a hard for the dharma and a spirit of goodness
so it's not the personality and the person that's the best that makes that person song of liver it's that aspect of themselves that they bring that then the heart that they bring to the saga that they may not manifest too much but it's there and back and when you say i take refuge in the saga you're taking refuge in that essential goodness of ah
all practitioners and all beings that potential goodness so therefore don't get disappointed when you find that your diamond brothers and sisters are giving you trouble and you don't like them and they're not very nice and all of the surfing that shouldn't surprise you at all
nora shake your faith in the basic goodness of those very same people better living in such a pavement but here's what do you say it was during the talk i thought i'd like to share that with for no particular meeting
so we thank you and this was this this kind of approach to the con tonight i think is uncharacteristic are all these books and other stuff but usually it because most of the cases are not i really feel like this particular case has all this dimension and really about august
it's sort of like a ringer stuck in there you know
most of the cases are much more dynamic and about practice and understanding than this one is so don't get discouraged if you were a little bored mao's stuff next week if you're bored panda you can get discouraged
the
me