This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Speak! Yunnan was sweeping the ground. Dao Wu said, too busy. Yunnan said, you should know there's one who isn't busy. Nobody here, nothing. Dawu says, oh, if so, then is there a second moon? Ultimate truth? Relative truth? Is there a second moon? Are they two moons? Yunnan holds up the broom, which I don't have, holds up the broom and says, which moon is this? Which moon is this? So this is very Zen. Which rake is this? Which broom is this? Which set of sheets are these? Which cooking utensil? Everything you touch, everything you do comes with that question.

[01:01]

What is it that thus comes? Where's the pivot? So samadhi, in order for us to understand the true nature of reality, like which moon is this, we need to be very quiet and very still for a while. That's the teaching through all time. Very still, very quiet. Like, you know, listening for the little creatures in the forest. You go into the dark forest and you hold still. You know, don't scare them. So if you want to see the contents of your mind, you have to be quiet. You have to be still. It's your mind you're reading. You're mind readers, but the mind you're reading is your own. Constantly. So that's a very hard thing for us to realize. This is my mind that's bothered by that object of observation. It's not the object. It's so easy, you know. In my defense, it's your fault. So the first teaching gives a very clear and precise instruction for how to enter into silence and stillness of the dark forest, also known as samadhi.

[02:07]

Samadhi means gathering the mind, one-pointed concentration. And the importance of samadhi, as I... Are they up here? Yeah. So number eight in the Eightfold Path is samyak samadhi, meditation. That's what the Buddha called meditation, Samyak Samadhi. Here again, sitting upright in Samadhi. So at many places in the Buddha's teaching of the Pali Canon, there are quotations by the Buddha, which I was given, I think, Jeff, you gave me the B.Q. Ajahn Chandakos article called A Honed and Heavy Axe. So imagine you need to chop down a tree... And to be successful, the axe needs to be both sharp and reasonably heavy. In the context of meditation, the weight of the axe is compared to serenity, to shamatha, samadhi, and the sharpness to insight. So you use this samadhi as your base camp, and then you hit the ice with your axe.

[03:13]

So samadhi is virtually synonymous with, I mean shamatha, excuse me, shamatha, shamatha vipassana, the two wings of the bird. These are really important terms to get kind of used to. Shamatha, quiet the mind, vipassana, insight. So first calm the mind, then discern the real. So shamatha is virtually synonymous with samadhi. For samadhi to be right, samyak samadhi, there needs to be clear mindfulness, number seven, And wholesome awareness. Wholesome awareness. Not just awareness. Wholesome awareness. Plain old awareness. Samadhi that's just plain old awareness, concentrated. It's just a nice feeling, but it's not part of the path. It's nothing to do. Like winning at Las Vegas or something may make you feel great. Who knows what makes you feel great? But that's not the path. That's just a good feeling that will pass. So we add effort, number six.

[04:19]

And the three of those together is the gateway to meditation. So those are the three that work together. And the Buddha said, for a person with Samyak Samadhi, number eight, there is no need to arouse the wish, may I see things as they truly are. It is a natural process. It is in accordance with nature that someone with Samyak Samadhi will see things as they truly are. So in B.Q. Chandu's article, he says, the perfection of samadhi is called jhana, jhana, jhana, zen. The perfection of samadhi is called jhana, meditative states of deep mental unification and peace. The Buddha taught four distinct levels of jhana and four levels of immaterial attainments. Together are referred to as the eight jhanas. I understand, maybe one of you knows, But I think, aren't the pagodas basically representing the rings or the jhanas, which culminate in the highest number nine cessation?

[05:24]

Does anyone else have that understanding? You're nodding. Nobody's nodding. Kind of, maybe. Something like that, yeah. So I think we have a little Thai Buddha in the Doxan. I think they have... These rings sometimes look like hats, and I think they're jhanic trances, jhanic states, not trances. They make this point again, I guess, not a trance. Not a trance. The Buddha said, I say, monks, that the destruction of the mind's poisons is dependent on the first, second, third, and fourth jhana. Buddha said, I say, monks, that the destruction of the mind's poisons, greed, hate, and delusion, those are the poison, is dependent on the first, second, third, and fourth jhana. Entry into the practice of shamatha samadhi is what one first does in order to prepare. There's a path of preparation that before you can meditate, there's some other things you have to do, which again, we don't talk about so much.

[06:29]

We kind of allude to getting along with other people. You know, it seems to be a good idea. But the actual... Progression of morality has a lot more detail than that, and I'm going to give you some readings about that. So there's this kind of debate. I don't know that much about it, so I'm giving you a thumbnail of the difference between wet vipassana and dry vipassana. Spirit rock is a dry vipassana approach, meaning you do not have to do the jhanas. You just skip right off to insight. The wet Vipassana, which is what Ayakama taught, means, oh, no, no, no, the Buddha said you have to do these jhanas. So there's a kind of a discussion going on among the Vipassana folks about whether wet or dry is necessary. And you can find argument either way. So there are some really clear statements, like the one I just read from the Buddha. And then there are also things like the teaching that the Buddha gave to Bahiya,

[07:29]

which is one of my very favorites, and you all probably have heard it. Has anyone not heard the teaching to Bahia? Okay, good. Short. So the Buddha, he's busy, and he keeps telling Bahia, come back later, I can't talk to you right now, and this guy just won't stop. Come on, please, please, please. So finally, after three times, he says, okay, Bahia, you should train yourself thus, in reference to the heard, just the heard, in reference to the sensed, just the sensed, to the cognized, just the cognized. That is how you should train yourself. When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, and only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, bahia, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. And when there is no you there, there is neither here, nor yonder, nor anything in between the two.

[08:35]

Just this, Bahia, is the end of suffering. So that's the short course. Just this is the end of suffering. So... Thank you. Yeah, that'd probably be good. But maybe it's okay here. Okay. So here's another familiar phrase. Top of the charts here. Steps and stages. Are we supposed to? Yeah, that's right. foul steps and stages so this whole thing is steps and stages enlightenment is the path the path is enlightenment and there are steps and stages that you need to learn and follow in order to arrive at cessation of suffering so the preparatory practices are preceded so before you can even do steps and stages up here you have to have the knowledge

[09:58]

of the desire for deliverance, the bodhicitta. Do you want to be free? Is that the most important thing to you? Is it burning you up that you're in prison? If it's not, you probably can go home, wherever that is. You don't need to be here. But if you're burning, if you really are getting sick of whatever's going on inside of your head, you might have that wish to escape, to get free. That has to be there. or else the rest of it is just going to kind of be, you know, you know yourself. You know what will happen if you don't really care enough. So this desire for deliverance is likened to a man who pulls a venomous snake out of a net, a giant snake. I mean, there's some snakes that can swallow a human. I mean, I've seen them. You know, they're amazing. There's humans in them. And this snake has three stripes. The stripes represent... the marks of cyclical existence.

[11:00]

And what are the marks of cyclical existence, the three marks? Anyone remember? What? No self? Impermanence? Suffering. So this snake has these three marks, these three signs of suffering. This is from the Vasudhi Magha, which, again, is such a fun thing to read. I just can't recommend it enough. It takes time, isn't it? So there's another analogy I found in the Vasudhi manga, which is about a bat. It's a little gentler than the snake one. And it's likened to the meditator who realizes the danger of seeking satisfaction in the realm of the five skandhas, form, feeling, perception, impulses, and consciousness. There was a bat, it seems. She had alighted on a muhukta tree with five branches, thinking, I shall find flowers or fruits here. She investigated one branch, but saw no flowers or fruits there worth taking. And as was the first, so too she tried the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth, but saw nothing.

[12:06]

And she thought, this tree is barren. There is nothing worth taking here. So she lost interest in the tree. Then she climbed up on a straight branch and poked her head through a gap in the foliage. She looked upwards and flew up into the air, alighting on another tree filled with fruit. That's the bat. So then it goes on to say, the five aggregates as objects of clinging are like the muduka tree, the maduka tree with its five branches. The meditator interpreting the five aggregates is like the bat alighting on this barren tree. Her comprehending... that the form aggregate, rupaskanda, she comprehends it, that's the first step, and she sees there's nothing there worth taking, this insight. And then the same for each branch leads her to become dispassionate toward the five aggregates through seeing their characteristics of impermanent, no self, and suffering.

[13:10]

So she sees the three marks on each of these branches. She gains knowledge and she climbs up the straight branch, the path, changes to the lineage of the Buddhas by poking her head out, looking upward. Her path of knowledge is now the one that impels her to fly into the air, and her fruition is her alighting on another tree that can nourish her. Enlightenment is the path. The path is enlightenment. Isn't that sweet? So that's what the Vasudhimaga in these old texts are like. They're these actual stories like you could tell to a child. They go, oh, I understand that. It's very obvious. So then when we apply it to our living bodies, you know, it's not so obvious, but we have these metaphors in order to help show us something. So when this path is arrived at, the straight path, with the abandoning of the signs of permanence, so once you've abandoned the sign of something being permanent, oh, that's going to be there for me, that new car, whatever, this relationship...

[14:14]

I got it now. As soon as you abandon the signs of permanence, this is called the signless. When it is arrived at with the drying up of desire and longing by abandoning perception of pleasure through means of contemplating the suffering that will come when this pleasure ends, it is then called the wishless. When formations are seen as void by abandoning perception of itself, who's going to get something out of it, of a living being, of a person, of a grabber, through means of the contemplation of the not-self, it's then called empty. It's called empty, signless, and wishless because it makes the signless, the empty, and the wishless, meaning nirvana, its object. Cool, huh? Vasudhi Maga. I thought that was Zen. Prajnaparamita. Everybody's stealing everybody's stuff here. So I want to read you.

[15:17]

Oh, here's a poem first called The Removal of the Defilements. With a dreadful thump, the thunderbolt annihilates the rock. The fire whipped by the driving wind annihilates the wood. The radiant orb of solar flame annihilates the darkness. Developed understanding, too, annihilates old habits. old defilements, netted and overgrown, the source of every woe. This blessing in this very life a person themselves may know. So this very life, you know, not many, many lifetimes. So these are all from the sutras. This poem is from a chapter in the Visuddhim, toward the end, the chapter on understanding. So the text is basically... basically broken down into three sections, just as are most of the Buddhist teachings. Morality is first, then concentration, and then wisdom.

[16:19]

So this is in the wisdom section. And it's called Description of the Benefits of Developing Right Understanding. Okay. So I want to turn to Samadhi now. Oh, first I wanted to read you... Charlie McCorney, I mentioned him to you in a work meeting that I have this, I hope geek isn't a bad word, I think it's a compliment. He is so, just so detailed in his research and I'm so grateful to him because anything I ask him, I get like two or three pages back and it's like, wow. Everything you could ever want to know. So I asked him about the definition of Nirvana and Charlie wrote back, this is a big one, exclamation. Here are a few responses. In the context of the first turning teachings, which is what I was asking about because of us here, I tend to see it as liberation from the processes of samsara.

[17:20]

There are various technical definitions and there are also subdivisions in the Abhidharma teachings where nirvana might be defined as disjunction from impure dharmas. And then there are two or three kinds of nirvana included. There's nirvana with remainder. That is the extinguishing or the non-arising of all mental afflictions, which are the underlying conditions of samsara. So greed, hate, and delusion are gone. That's one definition. No more greed, hate, and delusion. That's nirvana. Nirvana without remainder happens when a Buddha or an Arha dies. The extinguishing or the non-arising of the five skandhas, repeated existence in samsara. So you're not going to come back. unless you vowed to do so. The bodhisattva vowed. And the third one I think is really amazing. Nirvana of the relics. This is not mentioned in all traditions and arises from the notion that after the Buddha dies, his power remains in the world with his relics.

[18:22]

And according to this teaching, when the next Buddha is about to appear, all of the relics of the previous Buddha that have been scattered in this world... as well as in other realms, will break out of their reliquaries and return to the site of enlightenment, reassemble in the form of the Buddhist body amid a wondrous light and burst into flame. Totally cool. So I then turn to, I've also put this out for you all to look at, Indian Buddhist Meditation by Paul Griffiths, which is a really, really good, interesting article. And Paul says... Meditation practice, here provisionally understood as a self-conscious attempt to alter, in a systematic and thoroughgoing way, the practitioner's perceptual, cognitive, and affective experience, is intimately linked in the Indian Buddhist tradition with both ritual and magic. It's probably only a slight exaggeration to say that no Buddhist ever systematically undertook meditation practice without placing it in an appropriate ritual context and without considering the techniques employed in that context to have strictly magical efficacy, turning a human being into a god, into a Buddha.

[19:41]

Unfortunately, neither of these important elements of the Buddhist understanding of meditation can be treated here, since to consider it would require a discussion of Buddhist devotionalism, Buddhist ritual practice, and above all, Buddhist tantra. Matters beyond the scope of this article. As Charlie pointed out, and I'm going to share with you later, Zen is much closer to tantra than to a lot of other things, and Dogen, in particular, is a magic guy. Tantra has been defined as a technique for magically storming the gates of Buddhahood. Many of the practices to be discussed here can also be understood in just this way, even though the exposition given them here will not stress that aspect. Final thing he said, it should not be forgotten that the techniques described here in a detached and abstract and scholastic manner, talking about his own article, were part of a living religious practice. practice which from the earliest times included the belief that it is possible to deify oneself, and the belief that the practitioner necessarily will, as a result of the practice of meditation, attain all kinds of magical powers from clairvoyance to teleportation.

[20:59]

And indeed, they do, as it says in the Potapala Sutta. And I'm going to give you a hint of some of those powers that you're going to get once you master the jhanas. And I think you've heard about a few of them. I remember hearing them when I first came. My favorite was walking through walls. Oh, flying. That's another one I heard about. Not very high off the ground, but apparently you can levitate. And yes, you can. And I'll tell you how. If I can just find it. Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. I wanted to finish Charlie's answer. Even in early Buddhism, nirvana is tricky or ambiguous, sometimes framed as a transcendent or unconditioned rather than unconditioned, he says, Charlie. It's probably better to say unmade or unconstructed, and that could probably be even more qualified to indicate not karmically made or constructed, not made by karmic behavior, intentional action.

[22:03]

The famous list of unanswered questions includes does the Tathagata, the Buddha, exist after death or not? or both, or neither. The Buddha refused to answer these questions. Peter Harvey has an article which examines nirvana and images of luminosity, which to him ends up suggesting that nirvana is not total non-existence. While with the Mahayana, new conceptions of nirvana evolve. with new conceptions of Buddhahood, and Nagarjuna's analysis of nirvana is also very important for Zen. There is not a bit of samsara apart from nirvana, not a bit of nirvana apart from samsara. And so there you have it, and here it is. Justice is it. So, anyway, I find this all very helpful. The Potapada Sutta. So, we begin here, in the early teachings.

[23:05]

This sutra is also called States of Consciousness. You can find it. This is a library book from here. The Long Discourses of the Buddha, the Diganikaya. And the first two or three suttas in here are, they're all really interesting. This is a section on morality. So there are quite a few of them that just help to understand what was meant by morality. Some of it very common sense. Potapad is the name of a person. And this introduction, I think, is another one of these delightful kind of real-world things going on there out in the forest. Thus have I heard. Who's that talking? Ananda. Thus have I heard. So he's recounting what he's memorized of his, I think it's his cousin, isn't it? Yeah, his cousin's teaching. He's his lifelong attendant. Once the Lord was staying at Savati and Jedha's Grove in Anathapintika Park, and at that time the wanderer, Potapada, was at the debating hall near the Tenduka tree in the single-hauled park of Queen Malacca with a large crowd of about 300 of his fellow wanderers.

[24:21]

Then the Lord, rising early, took his robe and bowl and went to Savati for alms. But it occurred to him, it's too early. to go to Savati for alms, suppose I were to go to the debating hall to see the wanderer Potapatta. And so he did. There, Potapatta was sitting with his crowd of wanderers, all shouting and making a great commotion, indulging in various kinds of unedifying conversation, such as about kings, robbers, ministers, armies, dangers, wars, food, drink, clothes, beds, garlands, perfume, relatives, carriages, villages, towns and cities, countries, women, heroes, street and well gossip, talk of the departed, chatting, speculating about land and sea, talking of being and non-being. But Puttapada saw the Lord coming from a distance, and so he called to his followers, and he said, Be quiet, gentlemen. Don't make a noise, gentlemen. That ascetic, Gautama, is coming, and he likes quiet and speaks in praise of quiet.

[25:25]

If he sees that this company is quiet, he will most likely come and visit us. And at that, the wanderers all fell silent. Isn't that fun? It will not be difficult for the Lord to hear about that later. In the past few days, Lord, the discussion among the ascetics and Brahmins of various schools sitting together and meeting in the debating hall has concerned the higher extinction of consciousness. Now, what they're talking about here, according to the footnote, is not these jhanas. They're talking about actual extinction trances that were being practiced in that time by the yogis.

[26:31]

So they're trying to... unite with Brahma. So this is a really different kind of extinction that they're asking about. So that's what we were talking about, this really high-level conversation. So one of them said, one's perceptions arise and cease without cause or condition. When they arise, one is conscious. When they cease, then you're unconscious. That's how I explained it. Someone else said, oh, no, that's not how it is. Perceptions are a person's self, which comes and goes. When it comes, one is conscious. When it goes, one is unconscious, and so on. So there's all these arguments about conscious and unconscious. And then another one says, oh, no, it's the deities of great power, of great influence. They draw down consciousness into a man, and then they withdraw it. When they draw it down, he's conscious. When they withdraw it, he's unconscious. So it was in this connection that they said to the Lord, now surely the blessed Lord, who is supremely skilled about these matters, would understand the higher extinction of consciousness.

[27:34]

So what then, Lord, is the higher extinction of consciousness? Buddha says, in this matter, Potapatta, those ascetics and Brahmins who say one's perceptions arise and cease without cause or condition are totally wrong. And why is that? One's perceptions arise and cease owing to a cause and conditions. Some perceptions arise through training, and some pass away through training. What is training, the Lord said. Potapada, a tathakata arises in the world, fully enlightened, endowed with wisdom and conduct, a knower of worlds, incomparable trainer of men to be tamed, teacher of gods and humans. He, having realized by his own super knowledge, proclaims this world with its delus, maras, and brahmas. He preaches the dharma, which is lovely in the beginning, in the middle, in the end. He displays a fully perfected and purified holy life. A disciple goes forth and practices morality.

[28:36]

This is his answer to these brahmans. You don't just get to pop in and out of here. You practice. You practice. It's conscious. You're trained. So then the next part of this sutra goes on about this training. So these are preparatory. The beginning of each sutra. The first step that they're going to teach us next is that you leave home. So first you have the bodhicitta, the thought of enlightenment, the desire to become free. And then you notice something about freedom. This dharma is heard by a householder, a householder's son, or daughter, I wish it only said that, or one reborn in some family or another. Having heard this dharma, they gain faith in the Tathagata. Having gained faith, they reflect. The household life is close and dusty. Homeless life is free as air. It's not easy living a householder's life to live the fully perfected holy life, purified and polished like a conch shell.

[29:43]

Suppose I were to shave off my hair, don yellow robes, and go forth from the householder's life into homelessness. After some time, they abandon their property, small or great, leave their circle of relatives, small or great, shave off their hair and their don yellow robes and go forth into the homeless life. Having gone forth, they dwell restrained by the rules. by right behavior, and they see danger in the slightest fault, observing the commitment they have made regarding their body, their behavior, and their words, devoted to skilled and purified life, perfected in morality, with their sense doors guarded, next step, and with skillful mindfulness and clear awareness. Mindfulness and clear awareness. So these are the preliminary practices. You can't even meditate till you've done this. You know what I mean? You're just dreaming of meditating. As long as your mind is disturbed by your actions of unkindness or in generosity, whatever the ways that you get disturbed by yourself, this will bother you when you're sitting there.

[30:51]

You know, conversations. When I have conversations with someone that don't go well, my Zaza is that. And I need to clear it before the sun goes down or it will be that the next day too. And on and on and on. That's karma. It plagues us. So first step, home leading. And then here, I'm going to skip quite a bit. So then they go into a lot of elaboration and this and other of these early suttas about more detailed morality. Basically, you don't kill people. You don't steal. You don't lie. It's precepts. It's this bodhisattva precepts. You don't take what's not given. You're not abusing sexuality and so on. You don't make a livelihood. So it's the conduct, the ones of the formidable truth. They're number three, four, and five. That's morality. And the sense doors are interesting. I think it really reminded me of that mention you made, Laurie, of when you said something about no eyes to Reb.

[32:00]

Yeah. I thought, oh, this is what they're talking about here. It says, it's really hot in here. I'm going to go to sleep myself. If I'm not standing, I would be out cold. On seeing a visible object with the eye does not grasp at the major signs or characteristic because greed and sorrow, evil unskilled states would overwhelm them if they dwell on the eye faculty unguarded. So it's our eyes that are hitting an object through which greed penetrates. It's like, oh, I want that. We see it. We want it. So you have to guard the sense doors. You hear it. You go after it. You taste it. You smell it. The cooking in there is amazing. So our sense doors, when unguarded, just drive us crazy. We're just being pulled all the time by greed, hate, or confusion. So guarding the sense doors. Doors do not grasp color, odor, sound, taste, touch, or thought. You do not grasp.

[33:02]

The strongest of the senses are seeing and hearing. They pull you most. Keep eyes cast down. Why? Because your eyes are drawn. The sound of human voices is the most compelling for us. So these just help support us a bit. So how is a monk accomplished in mindfulness and clear awareness? The next two. A monk acts with clear awareness when going forth, when going back, when looking ahead or behind, when bending or stretching, when wearing their robes, carrying their bowl, eating, drinking, chewing, swallowing, evacuating, urinating, walking, standing, sitting, lying down, waking, speaking, and when silent. So just that. And in this way, a monk is accomplished in mindfulness and clear awareness. So you're always on your object of observation. You're with it. You know what you're seeing, you know what you're hearing, and you're not pulled by it.

[34:04]

Okay. And then content. Once you've mastered some of these, you can walk around fairly content, not being pulled. It's a lovely day. That's fine. It's a modest pleasure. It's just fine. Contentment is the highest, you know. How's your day going? It's okay. Perfect. Perfect. Not too high, not too low. Contented. A monk is satisfied with a robe to protect their body, with alms to satisfy their hunger, and having accepted sufficiently, they go on their way, just as a bird with wings flies hither and thither, burdened by nothing but its wings. So it is satisfied. And in this way, my lord, a monk is content. So then, equipped with morality, with restraining of senses, with contentment, The monk now finds a solitary lodging at the root of a tree or a mountain cave or in a gorge or a charnel ground or a jungle thicket or in the open air on a heap of straw.

[35:09]

And having eaten, after they return from alms, they sit down cross-legged, holding their body erect and concentrate on keeping mindful establishment before them. Zazen. So you got to get ready for Zazen. This is the preparation for sitting. Once you've prepared and you've begun to sit, you can then begin to do the next step, which is slide number two. It really is hot in here. Can it be colder in here? Is there any hope for that in the future? I think with all our bodies, it makes it really challenging. Okay, so now we're sitting, we're in zazen, and we have this opportunity to free ourselves from the five hindrances. Hindrances, you know, these are the hindrances to what?

[36:12]

What's the next step we're working toward? Absorption. What's the name of it I've been talking about? Chamatha. Samadhi. It's a hindrance to samadhi. One-pointed concentration. You cannot concentrate on the object of observation if your mind... Now, samadhi is present in every moment of awareness. But what are we doing with our samadhi? It's like your eyes. What are your eyes doing all the time? Yeah. Like a hummingbird. So our samadhi is aware of each object, but it's like the film is just flipping through here. We're not settled. So in order to settle, We need to overcome these five hindrances. Abandoning worldly desire, they dwell with a mind freed from worldly desire. You know, you want that big house in Malibu or whatever it is, you know? Abandoning those worldly desires, the mind is purified of them.

[37:14]

Abandoning ill will and hatred. How? By compassionate love for the welfare of all beings. Cultivation of love for all beings. The mind is purified of ill will, abandoning sloth and torpor. This is a hard one. You know, a lot of people sleep in zazen. It's so comfortable there, and we're so tired. Sloth and torpor, perceiving light. I've heard instruction to bring your attention up here when you're tired. Just zap it right up here. And if you're too agitated, bring it down to your abdomen. Abandon worry and flurry. That's that one. With inward calm mind, the heart is purified of worry and flurry. Abandon doubt. They dwell with doubt left behind, without uncertainty as to what things are wholesome, what things are unwholesome. So that's doubt. It's not like, oh, is Buddhism good for me? It's not that kind of doubt. That's way back there, you know, the very beginning.

[38:17]

This is the kind of doubt of not knowing what's wholesome and what's unwholesome. Just as a man who was ill, suffering, and terribly sick with no appetite, a weak body might in time recover and regain their appetite and their strength, he might think, before I was really ill, and then he would rejoice at being glad about being well. It's like when the headache's over, you know? What's better than a headache? I mean, but we hardly remember. We don't notice. I don't have a headache. I don't have a headache right now. Boy, when I have one, it's nothing I want more than it to be wrong. So that's the analogy they're using for what happens when we eventually overcome these hindrances. We're free. We're free. So as long my lord as a monk does not perceive the disappearance of the five hindrances in themselves, they feel as if they're in debt. You owe something. You're in debt. Or you're sick. Or you're in bondage or slavery. Or you're on a desert journey where there is no food or safety and there's only heat and pestilence.

[39:20]

But once you're free, it's like, that's all done. It doesn't feel that way anymore. You're freed from slavery and the perils of the desert. He knows that the hindrances are gone. And he becomes glad. And from gladness comes delight. From delight in his body, his mind is tranquil. Shamatha. So this is the route. This is the, you know, like Frodo. This is the route to peace. You will become calm once you have managed to... understand and bring these out of your experience of yourself, of your body and mind. Ah, here we go. When they know that these hindrances have left and thus detached from sensed desires, detached from unwholesome states, they enter and remain in the first jhana. There it is. That's the route to the first jhana. With abandonment of the five hindrances, gladness arises in them. From gladness, delight.

[40:23]

From delight, the mind is tranquilized, shamatha. Being thus detached from sense-desire, from unwholesome states, she or he enters and remains in the first jhana. So that's the way. The first jhana, which is with thinking and pondering, so there's... conceptualization going on in the first jhana. It's born of detachment. It's filled with delight and joy. And with this delight and joy, born of detachment, the meditator suffuses, drenches, fills, and irradiates their entire body so that no spot in your entire body is untouched by this delight and joy born of detachment. If you've ever hit one of those, you know it. And what is it about those? that the Buddha said? Huh? And what else? They don't last.

[41:23]

Yeah. But while they're there, the party's on. Okay, and again, monk, with subsiding of thinking and pondering. Okay, now we're, now, oh, can I have the next slide, please? Thank you. Oh, I wanted to say, oh, yeah, I've got to go back a step. So, samadhi, at one point in concentration, as I said, our tendency of mind is like the hummingbird or the fly or the butterfly, you know. I think higher. You can cover that. It's okay. You know, we know what happens. We hope the fly doesn't land, but there it is. That's in your ear. So, that's called. These two things, vitarka and vichara. And this is what the mind needs to do to become one-pointed. So the classic example in the sutras is of a bee buzzing around a flower. The bee now has its, it's got its eye on the flower, or whatever bee's eyes look like.

[42:33]

It sees the flower somehow, it recognizes the flower, and it's hovering. It's not stable. So that's vitarka, initial application of thought. So you've figured out what's the object. Let's say it's your breath. Okay, I'm going to just focus on my breath. Well, good luck. So we all try that, and it's like that. And then at some point, samyak samadhi. Concentration, the mind is concentrated on a wholesome object. So your attention, that attention that's been jumping around, stops jumping around. Now you have samadhi. So samadhi, one pointiness of mind on wholesome states, very important, wholesome states, not just any old thing, not just pleasure. The eighth fold of the eightfold path. Shamatha is this tranquility. These are pretty much equivalent. Shamatha is mental stability and peace cultivated through samadhi.

[43:34]

These are kind of like intensified. Shamatha is basically the the intensification comes from the samadhi practice. So now you've got more of a, like the ocean is calm. That chant we do in the morning, you know, deep ocean of, what is it? Merciful ocean. Entering the merciful ocean. Okay. And this samadhi is necessary to generate insight. Vipassana. including a direct perception of the three marks on the snake, impermanent, no-self, and suffering. That's the teaching, that's what it says. A little bit more. You mean that's an insight you can have, the three marks? Yeah, that's it. That's an insight, the three marks, which causes you to... avert from your upside-down views, which is, it's so pleasant, and it's mine, and I'm going to get it.

[44:37]

It's like the shopping model. The heart surgery says, beyond all inverted views, well, the inverted views are, oh, it's pleasant. It's not suffering. It's permanent. It's mine. There's a self. This is the shopping model. I am going to get that. It's going to make me happy forever, and that's true. That's the upside-down views. It's very simple, actually. not so exotic, just like opposite of what's true. No, actually, there's no self, there's nothing to get that will last, and that effort is causing you to suffer. Continuously go after something else. I'm going to keep shopping. One of these days, I'm going to get that thing that, when I take it out of the bag, makes me happy forever. Never, hasn't happened yet. Whether it's Whole Foods or Nordstrom's or whatever, it's like, now it's mine. How could I want it if it's mine? Number two, a monk with the subsiding of thinking, second jhana, with the subsiding of thinking and pondering, so we're getting quieter, and the gain of inner tranquility and oneness of mind, shamatha, enter and remain in the second jhana, which is without thinking and pondering, is born of concentration, it's filled with delight and joy, and with this delight and joy, born of concentration, again you suffuse the body till no spot remains.

[46:00]

It is not suffused with this sensation. Number three, again, a monk with a fading away of delight remains imperturbable, mindful, and clearly aware, and experiences in himself the joy of which the noble ones say, happy is the one who dwells with equanimity and mindfulness. So we've gone from delight to joy. This is a much higher grade, you know, high octane. And with this joy, devoid of delight, one suffuses their body entirely. So now this is number three. Number four, fourth jhana. Again, a monk having given up pleasure and pain with the disappearance of the former gladness and sadness, enters and remains in the fourth jhana, which is beyond pleasure and pain and is purified by equanimity and mindfulness. And then they suffuse their body with this mental purity and clarification so no part of the body is untouched.

[47:01]

Okay, here comes the magic. Now, once you've got all that, here's what you get to do. You direct your mind toward knowing and seeing. You know the body is of material, and it's made up of the four elements, and the consciousness is bound to it and dependent on it, and that you know that the fruit of the homeless life is more excellent and more perfect than the way you used to live. And with your mind concentrated, having gained imperturbability, apply and direct the mind to the production of a mind-made body. I thought, oh, that's what they're talking about. This is great. And out of this body, they produce another body having a form, mind-made, complete in all of its limbs and faculties. Just as if a man or woman were to draw a reed from its sheath and think, this is the reed and this is the sheath, and they're different. Or if they're to draw a sword from a scabbard and think, this is the sword, this is the scabbard, they're different.

[48:03]

Or a snake from its old skin. This is the snake, this is the skin. And now you have drawn a mind-made body from your body. They're different. The mind-made body... Pretty great, huh? That's the mind made body, you know? It's like watching Avatar. It's our imagination. The power of our imagination to fly and touch the sun and the moon is like we all got it. But this is one that's been perfected for the benefit of awakening and for the benefit of others, for the safety and care of others.

[49:05]

You also develop a divine ear in which... describes and you develop knowledge of other people's minds. You kind of can read other people, mostly through their qualities, like, oh, you look unhappy, but you have a more tuned in to people's sensitive natures. You can recall past lives. Now, what's happening now, these are all shamanic powers that the Buddha describes prior to his enlightenment. He understood past lives. He understood his own cycle of reincarnation. He understood the cycle of birth and death of all things that had gone before and karma. He knew the law of karma. Good actions lead to good results, bad action. So these are the superpowers. Karma. Really knowing it, seeing it, and so on. And then the very final superpower, the monk knows things as it really is. This is suffering. This is the origin of suffering. This is the cessation of suffering.

[50:08]

And he really knows it as it is, the Four Noble Truths. Bingo. And with this, ignorance is banished, knowledge arises in them. This is deliverance, and they know. Birth is finished. The holy life has been led. Done is what had to be done. There is nothing further here. So... This is the story from the first tradition. It's the ending of greed, hate, and delusion, and it's a penetrating knowledge, which is right view, first of the Eightfold Path, of the Four Noble Truths, which is the Four Noble Truths, circling around again. So the story that's being told here in this particular sutta, I've skipped forward because some of these descriptions are identical in different sutras. So the one I was reading, the Puttapala, refers back to the fruits of the homeless life in order to describe the jhana. So I just flipped there. And in this story, the Buddha is talking to King Ajadasatu.

[51:10]

He's telling him this story. And it's very sad because the king is very happy when he hears these teachings. And he leaves Buddha. He hears all of this. He has this wonderful feeling of relief. He's rejoicing and delighting at these words. He gets up from his seat, he bows to the Lord, and he leaves with his right side toward the Buddha. We do this at the altar, right side toward the Buddha, sign of respect. As soon as the king is gone, so the king has killed his father in order to get the throne, and his father was a good man. So as soon as the king is gone, the Lord says to the assembly, the king is done for, his fate is sealed, monks. But if the king had not deprived his father, that good man, and just king, of his life, then as he sat here, the pure and spotless dharma would have arisen in him. But it can't because of his past actions.

[52:12]

Okay. I'm going to go to San Francisco. I don't want to go. Anyway, I hope you all take care of Tassahara while we're away. I know you will. And I'm so grateful to be here with you. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[52:46]

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