Good morning everybody. So as usual, and I'll say it because maybe a lot of you have not heard me say this part before, I would really encourage you to try and sit zazen during this talk. If something is said that you find helpful, well and good. And if nothing is said that you find helpful, well at least you've spent your time sitting zazen. And This, like any other period of Zazen, is just a chain or a concatenation of events, mental and physical phenomena arising and passing away.

[01:20]

And my voice and the thoughts that are or generated by that voice they are just part of the multitude of phenomena that is arising and passing away that are arising and I will try to sit as in while I speak Sitting Zazen is primarily being present. They say that adjusting your posture by a quarter

[02:29]

or even an eighth of an inch can make quite a difference in Zazen. And they say the same in Aikido and Tai Chi. And it seems that it's also true in the world of electronics. I was very tempted not to show up today. Since it's April Fool's Day, I thought it would be a good practical joke to play on everybody. And I mentioned it to one or two people, and they were very enthusiastic.

[03:36]

And then Mark, who is a friend of mine, I mentioned it to him, and he said, please don't do that. I'm the Eno, and if the speaker doesn't show up, I have to talk. So I know how much has been on his plate recently. and took compassion on him and decided to show up. And in the period of Zazen, immediately before this talk, I thought, what if nobody else shows up? Now that would be good. That would take a lot more coordination, but possible. There's nothing like stepping into an empty room when you're expecting a crowd. The absence, the presence speaks volumes. Yes, it did happen before.

[04:46]

I was at a birthday party and we were all having dinner. I went to the bathroom, came back. Everybody was gone. And there was just this great moment of seeing the empty room just as it is. Then I had a rather devious and ingenious thought, this would be a great time to take out my new super soaker water pistol and go hunting. So the tables were turned around. And the prey became the hunter. Coming up from the Zendo this morning to the Buddha Hall for service, after Zazen for service,

[06:01]

as I got to the top of the stairs. We're in this hallway, this corridor, and there's a window in the door ahead of me, and it looks into the courtyard. And it is wonderfully pouring rain. The rain is dripping off the roofs, off the trees. bouncing on the ground, making ripples in the small pond that we have in your court night, inviting us to self and just be with it. It's actually quite a common practice in Ireland to stand at your doorway. And just look at the rain.

[07:04]

Listening to it. Watching it. Being soothed by it. The rain in the courtyard reminded me of a scene. It's one of the early scenes in a movie called Hero. A Chinese martial arts movie. The first duel or fight in this movie is between the outlaw broken sword and the arresting police officer with his sudden a posse but the fight takes place in pouring rain and there is a musician

[08:30]

playing some kind of stringed instrument I don't know the name of it but just the sense of presence that the rain brings to the scene for me makes the scene more magical and enchanting Suzuki Roshi said, or is reported to have said, when you're in conflict, you know that you're holding on to something. And that's a useful pointer to bear in mind.

[09:36]

That when we recognize That we are conflicted or in conflict. That we want to go in two directions. Usually means we're holding on to something. Our way forward is not clear. We cannot act like the rain. Straightforward. There is a story told of the night of Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment where he sat up in firm resolution not to get off his seat until he had become completely enlightened.

[10:42]

And Mara visited him with three temptations or three possible moves that would unseat him. I think the order is that the first move was to tempt him with sense, desire. And he sat through that firm and resolute, unmoved, continuing to remain in the present moment. The second one, Mara brought his armies, these are

[11:51]

mythological or deep-seated psychological events. So Mara brought his armies to threaten the sitting Siddhartha. It's possible that Siddhartha felt fear and in the first one maybe he felt desire. But he sat with Whatever emotions came up. Resolute and unmoved. Didn't get drawn in by it. Drawn in to... I'm under attack here. He remained present.

[12:57]

And the story goes that the third one was Mara, eventually after giving up with the sense desire, giving up with the threat, the fear, eventually says, who do you think you are that you can do this? That you can break the bonds of suffering. And the story goes that Siddhartha touched the earth, saying that the earth is my witness to the countless lives through which I've been practicing. I'll come back to this later. I also remembered this morning

[14:19]

A scene that took place at Green Gulch when I used to live there six or seven years ago. And partly I think I was reminded of it because of the rain, but also because Roberta Werdinger for Schussel Ceremony is today at Tassajara. Is that correct? No? Okay. I think it's today at Tassajara. And that is where a lot of former Shusos will go from here to Tassajara. And she will have an initiation. She is being shuso for the practice period.

[15:24]

Now the practice period is coming to a close. So she will have a ceremony in which all the people that were doing the practice period with her, just all the former shusos who were able to go, will ask her a question, a Dharma-related question or a practice-related question. And she will answer as openly and honestly as she can. So it's a rite of passage for her. So at Green Gulch, I was working on maintenance. I know a little bit about electricity, and she had a problem in her cabin. So I went down to her cabin and it was either a wet day or a rainy day or something like that.

[16:30]

And I was trying to trace circuits in her cabin. And at one point I stopped to think and I sat on the bed. And I noticed how still and motionless the room was. And how calm outside the cabin seemed to be. Everything was quiet and still. And something happened. A cat came in. Donovan came in through because I had left the door slightly ajar or because it had a cat flap.

[17:33]

And the cat had something in its mouth. So I thought, I wonder what's going to happen. And the cat sat down two or three feet in front of me. looked at me and saw perhaps that I wasn't moving. I just saw that I was something that he or she would not need to respond to. So then ignored me and dropped what it was that was in its mouth, which quickly ran over to a corner. The cat ran after it and caught it. Again. Then, I think it was dead, or if not, in the next few seconds it was.

[18:43]

The cat took it in its front two paws. And starting with the head, ate his mouth. as you would eat a burrito. You taste the whole thing. Feet and tail and teeth and tongue. Everything. And did not spill one drop of blood. Very neat. So the room kind of filled with this strange energy. I felt privileged to witness this awesome act of nature.

[20:11]

Suzuki Roshi said when he was dying, He said, things teach best when they are dying. It's interesting that he was dying. And he said, Things change best when they are dying. Our death is the death of the universe. And our birth is the birth of the universe.

[21:26]

Maybe it's for me. So who is calling? You know, every advertisement needs a good tune. And... I was just advertising the teachings that happened when we're dying. And then the universe decided to sing a song to celebrate. Yes, a good teaching. Isn't it wonderful that things teach best when they are dying? So if you're thinking, Gee, I'm not sure whether I should continue coming to Zen Center that teachings are really obscure, vague, hard to figure out.

[22:54]

It'll get better. It'll improve drastically when you're dying. We have that to look forward to. And maybe we'll even understand them when we are dying. somebody I'm looking for because there's a person I know who has a most remarkable cell phone tune there we were once in a meeting discussing the best strategy with which to move forward on I heard this

[23:56]

June to Mission Impossible. So moving on from the burrito. The teaching is that human life can be analyzed into five skandhas or five translation for skandhas could be aggregates or heaps or groups there is form and just basically means the physical form bones, muscles blood form

[24:58]

feeling, thought, choice, and consciousness. All aspects of human life can be broken down into these five aggregates. A few years ago, it was discovered that I had a cyst in the roof of my mouth, and it had developed quite significantly that it was actually a threat, and I had to have it removed. And so I went in to a dental surgeon to have it removed.

[25:59]

And a day or so later, my whole upper lip swelled like a balloon. Really swelled. I mean, I've had dental work before, and I don't really suffer from swelling, but this time it swelled. Huge. And I could barely speak. But I remember Jesse. asking me in the corridor, how was it? I said, well, it reminds me of one of the Buddhist sayings. Why is it called form? The answer is that because it can be deformed. This is one of the aggregates. Is Jesse here? He said he'd remember that.

[27:02]

So it's called form because it can be deformed. And these five aggregates are in continual process of change. And one of the good things about that means that we can kind of improve We can train our bodies and improve our health. We can train our feelings in meditation techniques. We can learn how to guide our feelings into what can be called divine or pleasant states of consciousness.

[28:07]

We can allow them to go down on a negative rut where life seems to be getting progressively harder and harder and we move more into a kind of hellish realm. But the good news is that we can actually pay attention to our feelings and learn how to guide them into more pleasant states. And in making choices, there is a reward or Whatever the opposite, the negative reward would be. Depending upon whether we contribute to other people's happiness or add to their suffering.

[29:17]

That is what our karmic activity is. Choices, volitions that we make. So we can train ourselves to be happy, well-adjusted citizens. Or we can just continue pumping into things, having good days and bad days. And that's okay, most of us get by with that. process of training in Buddhist meditation is called the Brahma Baharis, where we refine our consciousness, refine our sense of who and what we are, and move into blissful, secluded states of happiness.

[30:36]

states of concentration, which, if nothing else, they show us the impermanence of our feelings, thoughts, and choices. If we can change them, then they are impermanent. And this training moving into absorbed states of concentration was practiced by early Buddhists and by Buddhists of today. But in itself, it's not really the central point of Buddhist teaching. It's good in that it contributes to happiness and alleviates suffering.

[31:52]

But it's not the main point of the teaching. At least, I think it is not. told in the Heart Sutra that Avalokiteshvara, some bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, when practicing deeply the prajnaparamita, prajnaparamita is the perfection of wisdom. So practicing deeply the perfection of wisdom. For another translation I've heard is coursing deeply in the perfection of wisdom. Coursing deeply in the Dharma.

[32:59]

Clearly so. That all five skandhas, all five aggregates, They are empty of something very significant. They are empty of this notion we have of a fixed and separate self. So Avalokiteshvara, when meditating deeply, saw the emptiness of all five skandhas and thus relieved all suffering.

[34:02]

To see the emptiness of all five skandhas is to see that this self that we cling to so ardently is not to be found there. It is a mistake. We experience the world with this preconceived notion of a self. And we experience the world through Five skandhas. And we allow the five skandhas to be a vehicle for our own self clinging. Clinging to this idea, to this notion of a separate self. When we look closely at the five skandhas, when we study the five skandhas, we see that they are empty of this separate self.

[35:38]

And thus, all the suffering that results from self-clinging is relieved. And that, according to the early Buddhist texts, is the whole project of the teaching. To see clearly the emptiness of the five skandhas. To end the suffering that results from clinging to a separate self. To say that the five skandhas are empty is also to say that they are pure, in the same way that water

[36:46]

is pure. Water does not cling to the idea of it being water. That would confuse it. And our clinging to this idea of a separate self confuses us. And our confusion, the tragedy is that our confusion leads to further clinging. So we end up being like a dog chasing its tail. But even that dog has put in nature. We can train these five skandhas.

[37:53]

When we train them to experience, for example, more blissful or higher states of consciousness, we're not adding something to them. We're drawing out a potential that is already there. We are educating the five aggregates, or training them. Likewise, when we study the self, which we believe must be in the five skandhas, I am hungry. or I am angry, that self, that I, we think it is in the five skandhas.

[38:59]

So when we study the self, we see clearly, when we study it long enough, we see clearly that it is not anywhere, it is not in the five skandhas. So to study the self is to forget the self. So on this last challenge that Mara threw at Siddhartha Gautama as he sat upon his Buddha seat, who are you? Who do you think you are that you can do this? This is a challenge of what's known as conceit.

[40:10]

Can I throw at him this trap of conceit? In Buddhism, there are three conceits. Conceit is one of the fetters, and there are ten fetters. Conceit. is number eight. Fetters are that which binds us to self-clinging, binds us to this idea of a fixed, separate self. So conceit is kind of high up on the list. Number eight. The three conceits are... You know, I think I'm better than you.

[41:18]

I might actually say it. But while we're talking and while we're chatting and while we're coming into the Buddha Hall, I think I rank in the scale of existence. I'm a bit higher than you. That is the first conceit. Or I am, if we were all to be positioned in a hierarchy, I'd be a little bit ahead of you. It's an evaluation between myself and another self in which I come out on top. That's the first conceit. And the second conceit is very similar, except the only difference is you come out on top.

[42:20]

I think you're a little bit more advanced than me. Your understanding of the teaching is more sublime than mine. You rank on the scale of being, you rank a little bit more or a little bit, or a lot more than me. So in this evaluation between self and other, I put you above me. Third conceit. Third conceit is where we come out even. So Mara said, who are you?

[43:25]

He said, you think you can do this? And the commentaries that I've been told of are, you touched the earth saying, the earth is my witness. But my take on it is a little bit different than that. My take on it is that he touched the earth meaning I am this or I am not separate from this Very similar to when Dangsheng was crossing a stream. Lost in thought, he had asked his master, how shall I recognize you?

[44:38]

Or how shall I describe you to others? And his master said, just this person. So when Dangshan was crossing the stream, presumably on foot, he looked in the water and saw his reflection. I realized I am this, just this person. So these five skandhas do not belong to me. They are simply the five skandhas of the universe.

[45:49]

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