our online Sangha for the week. So we'll start with a few minutes of meditation and then I'm going to continue with talking about the Heart Sutra, maybe for another couple of weeks until we get to the bottom. So with the three bells, we'll start sitting and then a single bell to end. I think I'm muted.

[07:45]

Yep, I did. Okay. Good afternoon again. So let's start with chanting the Heart Sutra. I think hopefully you all have that, or maybe it's still in the chat box. I'm not sure, but I'll introduce it. If you'll chant along, you may notice there's some places where I am not chanting. That's because one of the ways that we teach chanting is that everyone, when you're chanting together, that there's this time you need to take a breath. And rather than all of us taking a breath at the same time and having a big blank, we basically just go on chanting without regard to sentence to take a breath, you just stop, inhale, and then resume chanting again. So what happens when you're doing it together is that there's a continuous sound. So when you all are chanting, probably I won't be breathing, so you won't hear me taking. A pause. Mahaprajna Paramita Hridayasutra.

[08:57]

Avalokiteshvara bodhisattva when deeply practicing prajna. He clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty. and thus relieve all. Chariputra form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not. From form, form itself is emptiness. Emptiness itself forms, sensations, perceptions, and consciousness are also like this. Chariputra, all dharmas are marked by emptiness. Arise nor cease. there forgiven emptiness no form no sensation no perception no formation no consciousness no ears no nose no tongue no body no mind no sight no sound no smell no taste no touch no of my no realm of sight no realm of mind consciousness there

[10:13]

Cosmo. We proclaim the Prajnaparamita mantra, the mantra that says Gathe, Paragathe, Bharasam Gathe, Bodhisattva.

[11:43]

There she is, Prajnaparamita. In the last few weeks, I've been going through the lines of the Prajnaparamita, the Heart Sutra. And I know it's challenging to kind of go through something like week by week. And then like, where were we last week? So I'm going to begin each time with a little bit of a review, just a brief review of the steps we've already passed through. So, when deeply practicing Prajnaparamita, clearly saw. So this is the relative truth. As we practice, we clearly see what's true about reality. And this takes a calm, a calm platform, a steady mind, like the image of the ocean, the calm ocean is one of the classical images for the mind when it's calm. And when the mind is calm, when my mind is calm, then that's clear seeing. You can see through... The water, let's say, the clear water all the way to the bottom is another image.

[12:50]

So we're able to see clear through the present reality, you know, the questions that we all. So the relative truth is really inquiry, and it's inquiry that we do through thinking, through our relative truth is in language, is in the form of language or thinking. And it's our access channel to ultimate truth. You know, through thinking, Dalai Lama says, you can think your way, you can analyze your way into an understanding, into a realization of the true nature of reality. So the Heart Sutra is a little combination of analyzing your way and just kind of breaking through on each stroke of the makugyo, you know, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue. So it's both a kind of sudden inquiry. into reality and it's also a well-considered and analyzed summary of reality through many centuries of Buddhist doctrine and philosophy and so on.

[13:52]

It's all right here on this one page. It's basically a library catalog of every category of Buddhist teaching through many centuries. So it seems that I was thinking about you know, the kind of like what's this have to do with me part, which I think is always where the relevance of the Dharma is really important that it actually has something to do with you and something to do with me. You know, why do I want to look into this? Why do I care? What are my concerns? So it seems to me that when I'm thinking about that, you know, the beginning of all real inquiry, Once we've passed our childhood, the veils of childhood, the veils of our adolescence, the veils of our young adulthood, all the urgency of those years, I think the real inquiry is basically about oneself, about existence. Who am I? Very simple questions like, who am I?

[14:54]

It's a simple question, but the answer is yet to be discovered. Where am I? Where am I? That's another good one. How did I get here? You know, I'm pondering that one for millennia. Where am I going? Another ponderance. And then, you know, once I kind of go through those questions, then who are you? You know, and what do you have to do with me? What's our relationship to one another? So these are all truths having to do with relativity. What is this? What's going on? You know, where am I? These are existential questions, questions about existence. So the answer to those questions are embedded in the Zen history and the response that Bodhidharma, the Indian master who came to China, brought Zen to China many centuries ago, when he was asked by the emperor of China, Emperor Wu, a very famous koan, Bodhidharma is asked by the emperor, you know, who are you facing me?

[15:58]

And Bodhidharma says, don't know. Is basically the result of a very long inquiry. I mean, Bodhidharma was a serious student of reality. And he had studied the question as it applied to himself. You know, who am I? Where am I? How did I get here? And had taken that part, had taken that on. He had a teacher. He studied a tradition. the Buddhist tradition. And his summary of that inquiry was this answer. I mean, don't know. And that was the answer. Don't know. How would you know? And that was... Hi, Fu. This is Jenny. I just wanted to let you know your sound is cutting out a little bit. What do you think I could do about that? Is there an idea? Might be. I'm not sure if it's your connection or... um yeah should i switch my um i think i should switch my wi-fi uh is it really bad i mean you can't is it just cutting out or is like it's cutting out like the whole sections of what you're saying okay let me try hang on everybody

[17:27]

Is that any better? Can you hear me at all now? Am I gone? Yeah, I can hear you. Hello? You're paused. Your screen is frozen. Is that any better? Is that coming through now? Yes. It is? Yeah, let's see how that goes. All right. Thank you. Thank you for letting me know. So I don't know what you all heard, so maybe I'll just summarize what I just said, which was a summary of what I've been saying. And please let me know if it cuts out again, Jenny, okay? Will do. OK, thanks. So what I was saying is that I think the beginning of our Dharma inquiry is really starts with the questions about ourselves. You know, who am I? What am I doing here? How did I get here? You know, these are not only the questions for philosophers and monks is certainly the questions that have been driving science for many, many centuries and certainly up until the modern times. It's utterly fascinating. what our scientists are finding. And the more deeply they look into the universe and the more deeply they look... Oh, you're cutting out again.

[18:39]

Wow, there's not much there. So these questions, this inquiry, is very motivating for humans. We really do want some answers to these questions, if possible. And so when Bodhidharma said to the emperor, don't know, that was an actual answer. That was his answer to the question, who are you? Who are you facing me? You know, the emperor knew who he was, no doubt about it. He was the emperor. That's a big ego. But for this... Let's see, who is frozen? I'm going to turn off everybody's video for the time being, see if that helps. And Fu will likely rejoin.

[19:41]

Sorry for the disruption. Let's see if Fu's back. Oh, Fu, we lost you. Am I back? Now you're back. Let's see. All right. Let's see. You cut it in and out, and then you disappeared for a minute. I know. I could feel it. You know, I was using this Zooming thing. Can you hear me? We can hear you. But, yeah, you were just cutting out a bit. There were some recommendations to maybe have to sign out and sign back in. Well, let's give it a shot. Maybe this time it'll hold me. This is the great mystery these days is Zoom. Yes. I'm stopping everyone's video for now to see if that helps. I'm stopping everyone else's video feed for now. All right. Thank you. Sorry, guys.

[21:08]

I'm sorry for this. But, you know, we're all in it together. That's the good thing. So I don't know how much you heard of that. I keep trying to tell you about Bodhidharma and how his answer to Emperor Wu about not knowing and how what a real answer that is. And when we all begin to look and probe into our own questions about existence, like who are we? Where are we? How did we get here? There's kind of a big wow. You know, there's a it's not like things disappear because we don't know. It's just there they are as vibrant as ever. You know, spring is still green and flowers are still coming up and we hear the sounds of the birds and all of that. But to answer, you know, have a response in language to what is going on here is mostly probably just, you know, kind of guesswork or imagination, certainly imagination. And in some cases, it's just delusion. You know, people are making stuff up all over the place, as we know, and it's painful.

[22:09]

I mean, if we're just amusing, that would be one thing. We'd all be having a lovely time here on the planet. But part of what we're making up isn't funny at all. It's quite serious and it's quite distressing. You know, when people are caught up in various kinds of belief systems, they can be very harmful, as we know. So it's an important question, this inquiry into who we are. and letting go of the restrictions of some belief and some kind of limited notion of ourselves. So Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, who are you? Bodhidharma says, don't know. And I think the Heart Sutra is Buddha's response to this very same inquiry. Who am I? Where am I? You know, what's going on here? What are you? Who are you to me? and how are we connected, and so on. So this Heart Sutra kind of walks us through the Buddha's answer, the Buddha's instruction about what's going on here. You know, Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion, is practicing.

[23:11]

He's calmed his mind. He's clearly looking at reality through the lens of a clear mind, of a quiet mind. You know, at that time, just... I like that moment just before going to sleep when there's a kind of settledness. You know, you've put everything as... aside for a little while hopefully hopefully you can do that and as we start to enter into a kind of a drowsiness there's some kind of peaceful abiding that happens there and if when you're sitting meditation that peaceful abiding when you're in an upright posture you can actually enjoy that quality of mind when very calm very peaceful you know like a baby that kind of you know settled quieted mind but still awake the lights are still on So when the lights of awareness are still on and you have a quiet mind, then you clearly see that all five skandhas, all the elements that make you and that make the envelope that surrounds you that we call environment or the world, all those five skandhas, all those connectors of our senses, of our thinking and so on, are empty.

[24:20]

of separate existence. Your skin, your feelings are not separate from your thinking. You're thinking from your hearing. You're hearing from your smelling. Everything is kind of arising together. So I have great delight in having something to offer you this week. I just watched this film. I'm going to watch it again. Maybe some of you have seen it already. It's called Infinite Potential, The Life and Ideas of David Bohm. I think that's how you pronounce his name, B-O-H-M. a physicist and utterly brilliant and lovely human being as you'll see if you watch this this youtube video and he was thinking about these questions he's you know from the way I related to David Bohm was like oh he's a buddha he's a buddha he he had an awakening He talks about the moment of his awakening. Maybe you could spot it yourselves. He has a realization as he's out in the woods. He realizes something very important, and that leads him to look at this scientific inquiry, excuse me, looking deeply into the nature of reality through the lens of science.

[25:32]

And at the same time, because what he sees, a lot of other scientists are saying, well, don't you dare bring that in. You know, this quantum physics is what was his field of play. Don't you bring that in here because we have this other kind of physics that's working for us very nicely. And so we don't want to hear this other stuff about this, what he called the implicit and the explicit realities. Implicit is that which we can't see, we can't experience, we have no access to. Like in Buddhism, that would be the unconscious. And in psychology, it's the unconscious. There's a whole realm of reality that is... going on like under the seabed and then there we are floating on the top of the water. We can't see what's underneath there. the formations that are bringing those little ripples or waves into being, like us, that's what we are, little waves or ripples on top of this substrata, this implied reality, as David Bohm says. And then we're the explicit reality. We're actually what happens as a result of this substrata.

[26:33]

So very Buddhist in his teachings. In fact, one of my Dharma brothers sent this around to all of us and we're all going, wow, this is great. So I hope you enjoy it too. infinite potential the life and ideas of david bohm so clearly saw david bomb i think clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty and i hope relieved all suffering it kind of looks like he may have found some contentment in his life as an older man have many trials later so this this sec this sentence the first sentence looked at all five skandhas and saw saw them as they are as not not a singularity and knew that they needed to study this mind of delusion that's separating the world into parts we need to analyze that like try to understand how are we splitting the universe how are we splitting ourselves away from the rest of reality it's very painful if it weren't painful it wouldn't be a question but it's the pain of separation the pain of loneliness

[27:39]

Now, I think I mentioned that one of the greatest epidemics right now in the planet is loneliness. People are alone by the millions in these huge cities, super cities. So this idea that we are alone and can't be alone and are alone is terribly painful for us as a species. So we study the mind that because of the pain of isolation and separation. we study the self, practice deeply, we see the five skandhas, and then we have this initiatory experience of recognizing that we really are just not a thing, we're parts, we're processes, we're impermanent, and so on, all these various realizations that the Buddha had, the main ones being impermanence, no self, and suffering, dependent co-arising. These are very important concepts that you will hear repeated again and again lecture after lecture when you come into the the zen or the buddhist camps you know all of these insights of the buddha so we study this conventional existence self the one we see the one we hear the one we smell and taste and think and touch and so on we study it closely and we see what it's made from what what of it is actually so

[29:02]

Part of what we're target area, the big target area of our practice is what we believe to be so. What do you believe to be so? You know that those are the inquiries that we want to pull up on the screen. You know, I believe the following things to be so, you know, and take a good look at those because that's where our trap is. That's how we line the walls of ourselves and what we believe to be so. think about but i don't have to believe it you know believing it is where we're starting to hold our views and start to crunch starting to become grasping is the cause of suffering the buddha said grabbing a hold right and it's not that physical grabbing a hold i mean that's just kind of temporary you know take hold of something that oh you're starting to cut out again okay All right.

[30:02]

I don't know what to do about that. No. You come back, but yeah, you just drop out. Okay. It's a good thing it's the heart sutra. Lots of parts. All right. Maybe I'll, I don't know what to do. Anyway, I'm at a different location today. That may be part of the problem. So I'll do class next week from back where I'm used to having good connection. I'm at a friend's place. So anyway, We see that suffering is real, and we're very inspired by that to try to get out of suffering. It's a great motivator. We want to get away from suffering. We want to find an escape. We want to practice. And so the relief from suffering is what the Buddha was teaching. He was teaching how to relieve suffering. Those are the four noble truths. There is suffering. There's a cause of your suffering. Cause of your suffering basically is grasping. Trying to get a hold of things, hold on to things, whether it's possessions or ideas or status or ego or your physical body or your life, you name it.

[31:07]

There are things we try to hold on to, but we really can't do that. We have to surrender. Dorothy, surrender, Dorothy. We need to surrender to what's happening. I don't mean to, like, give up and let whatever happens run over you. It's not like that. It's more like accepting what's happening first. First step is to really look at what's happening, to accept it. This is happening. This is actually happening. And then to use our quieted mind, calm the mind, and then discern what response is appropriate. What would be an appropriate response? I have to consider it, you know. I have to take some time about that. Of course, there are emergency situations where you don't want to take any time, just get out of the way. But that's not most of the day. Most of the day, I have time to consider my response, to be considerate. So this is Buddha's knowing.

[32:09]

This is coming to know that we are no longer imagining things to be real. which are in truth seen simply to be arising and passing away. Transiency, things just last for a moment. Our gestures last for a moment. You know, I'm turning my hands just for a moment and then I'll do something. I'll be talking with you for a few moments and then I'll do something different. So same with all of you. We're just basically flowing through and changing our posture and changing our activity and all day long we're in motion. You know, our minds are in motion, our bodies are in motion. So there really is simply a rising and passing away. There's no solid substance that's sticking there all the time. You know, it just stays in one place. Even closer, we see that not even that is happening. It's suffering itself. The rising and falling is also an illusion. I think I gave you the example last week of, you know, Suzuki Roshi holding a stick and turning it like that. I said, you see the circle?

[33:10]

You see the circle? Do you see the circle? Well, yeah, kind of, but there's no circle. It's just an illusion. That movement, the illusion of movement creates an illusion of all kinds of shapes and issues and stories. And we create stories about this happened and then that happened. And I know what it means. And we go on and on and on. We're storytelling throughout the day. And that that storytelling is illusory. The closer we look at the five skandhas and what's actually happening, the more we see the overlay of storytelling. It's like, huh, who are you facing me? Don't know. Don't know. I'm still looking. Bodhidharma was still looking for an answer. He hadn't stopped looking. He was all the way to China. He was looking for people to talk to, looking for people to have a conversation about. Maybe you found something. I haven't had any luck finding anything. But he wasn't hiding away. This wasn't depressing for him.

[34:11]

This was actually invigorating. That suffering is an illusion. At times it's a very sad and a very powerful illusion. And nonetheless, it's an illusion. So the next step in our practice is to find a way to escape from dreaming. You know, how do we escape from this persistence of our dream mind, of our imaginary mind? You know, it's very wonderful of our imagination. And at the same time, it's also the source of our bad dreams too. And I think it's the bad dreams we're after here. So the way you escape from the world of illusions is by making a Buddha. That's what the Buddha taught. He said, you got to make a Buddha. You have to wake up. You have to awaken to the true nature of reality. And that's the path. That's the pathway is to awakening. And it's a pathway that runs between two boundary lines.

[35:17]

On one side, there is something. There is something. On the other side, there isn't something. This dualistic way that we look at the world. and not falling into either side. The Buddhist said, I find no evidence for or against anything, but I'm looking, I'm interested, I'm curious, I'm inquiring, I want to know, I want to deepen my understanding, but so far I don't find a place to stick, I don't find a place to land, and that's important, not to land. So the Buddha is one who finds and follows a pathway that leads to the end of suffering, leads to the end of this kind of unnecessary suffering, which is the suffering of why me? You know, well, you did it to me. And that kind of the sort of suffering we make up. Various kinds of pain that we have, you know.

[36:21]

We don't know how they came to us. We don't know what's the cause necessarily. But we want to find out. We want to look at causes. But don't jump to conclusions, I think, is one of the main practices. So a Buddha, if we're going to have to make a Buddha to get out of this, then the Buddha has parts, as we do. And it has cause and has a result. So the parts of the Buddha body is made of the two truths. So I was talking about the two truths the last couple of weeks. The ultimate truth. profound appearance. Samadhi is another name for the two truths. There's a profound appearance right now before our very eyes. And when we're in samadhi, meaning we're connected with the profound appearance that's right here before our very eyes, that's the truth. We are connected with the truth. It does appear to be something. I am aware of the appearance of something. And I'm still aware of the appearance of something. And I'm going to do my best to continue to be aware of the appearance of something without rushing to name it.

[37:25]

You know, just let it abide for a bit of time. So the ultimate truth is ungraspable. It's not that it's not there. It's just it's free of your naming. It's free of your attributing things to it. You call it a cat. What is that? I call it a cat. Okay, that's all right. So wisdom realizes emptiness. So that's the wisdom side. The body of the Buddha that comes from the ultimate truth, the ungraspable truth, is called the Buddha's truth body. It's a truth body, the Dharmakaya. So that's all of us. We all are inheritors of the truth body. I really think you'll enjoy this film because that's basically what this physicist has found. this what he called plasma you know that really everything is connected all of it is coming out of the same basic unity universe is a unity you know it's not parts and everything is just emerging from this unified field of plasma it's kind of a wonderful image and then the uh the the photography of this film is quite quite special too quite wonderful so this truth body this buddha body is in union with the form body

[38:42]

the particularities so we have this substance body or the relative truth body this me this one this tiny little aspect of the universe right here and this one has the assignment of this is the form body so there's the truth body and there's the form body so each of us is so this form body has the assignment of practicing of creating for itself a skillful means, a skillful way of navigating in the world. So that's just a very particular relative way of understanding. I have a very particular challenge, as do all of you, to find my way here on what we call the coast of California, as what I think of as a female at a certain age. I'm in my 70s now. And I have this challenge, daily challenge, of finding a method or a way of practicing with this.

[39:43]

She's got a lifespan as far as I know. It's probably not terribly longer, but it's nice so far. I've appreciated it. I've enjoyed having a body, being in a form. And I also am really grateful for the truth body, that that more and more seems to be something I truly deeply hold in my heart. That there is something, this kind of plasma out of which we all come, and that we're all in it together. There's no one outside of that. You know, there is a great belonging that if we can just see it, that there it is. And it's there. You don't have to go find it somewhere. You don't have to go off to foreign lands, as they say in the sutras. Why go off to foreign lands when it's right here? There's a seat in your own home. So as Nagarjuna said, without a foundation in this conventional truth, the truth, this form body, then we can't understand the significance of the ultimate truth. It can't be taught. You need the form body, the body that is in the relative world, that understands language.

[40:51]

Right now I'm speaking English. This body, my understanding of the ultimate truth is dependent on this body. So ultimate truth depends on the form body. The truth body is dependent on the form body. This one. To learn. This is the learner. This is my learner kit. My beginner kit. Beginner's mind. Without understanding the significance of this truth body, without exploring the truth body, then we can't become liberated. So becoming a Buddha has to do with... same time, always at the same time, together. So this is Nagarjuna's very famous statement, without a foundation in the conventional truth, the relative truth, the significance of the ultimate truth cannot be taught.

[41:52]

And without the significance of the ultimate truth, then liberation cannot be achieved. So it's this little two-step. We take our life seriously, we study it seriously, and in doing so, using the advantage we have of the wisdom teachings given to us by someone that then we too can follow that same pathway since we're already on it so so that's the back to the the four noble truths there is suffering there's a cause of suffering and there is a cessation of suffering this is what i was just talking about the real The release of our grasping hand is a great relief, great relief of suffering. I think I've said to you all that I really like this definition of nirvana or cessation of suffering as utter contentment, utter contentment, breath body, calm body.

[43:05]

So we practice in this realm. the body this body we practice in the realm where there still is notions of right and wrong and good and bad and fair and unfair and just and unjust and energetic and lazy and self and others so that's our field of study is the field we know best where the things that we have always thought are true are to be questioned you know we're bringing them under the microscope of our of our attention and of the wisdom teachings And when we do that study, we'll begin to map out the conscious universe in the same way the Buddha did. So he mapped out the conscious universe. I think I showed you his map of the conscious universe. Here it is. This is the conscious universe as mapped out by the Buddha. of dependent core rising.

[44:07]

And I don't think you can probably see all these little figures, but you can look this up on Wikipedia. You can find the 12-fold chain of the wheel of birth and death. And as we study the way that this is actually a summary of the first and second noble truth, the Buddha said, the cause of your suffering is ignorance. You're ignoring non-duality, that you're already connected to all things. There is no separation. Plasma. This is the inside, both the mystics and the scientists. And you're making things up, little pots. You're creating little pots and you're making trouble. And here's this five skandhas. And here's the fortress of the self. And there's contact with another fortress. Little couple here on the grass. And feelings, an arrow in the eye. And then this is intoxication. Feelings lead to desire. This guy's having a little sake there at the tavern. And then he has another one and another one and another one. And desire feeds to greed and grasping.

[45:08]

And then here's the sexuality here, which is a becoming. Now you're really making something happen. There's a baby being born. And then there's old age, sickness and death. So this is the cycle of becoming, of birth, of suffering. And around and around we go. And that's what the Buddha saw. He was compelled. This is a habit. mind compelled to repeat this effort to find happiness by indulging and then overdoing it and then it fails because it's impermanent and then he starts up you start over again again and again so this teaching of the 12-fold chain is very very important to try to image i think the reason i like the tibetan's way of just illustrating the 12-fold chain is because there are pictures You can actually get it in your mind. Very human, familiar pictures. And then the other pictures that are of significance here are these six, this pie. It's divided into six slices. These are called the six realms.

[46:10]

Six realms. And they're basically psychological states. So if you think, just imagine for yourself what it's like to be in heaven. You know. on vacation or hanging out with your friends or your family in the backyard, whatever you're doing these days. Being in heaven, these are the gods here, and they're floating on the ocean. There's no storm going on. It's all very lovely. And they're playing the ukulele or whatever they're doing up there. And it's a very happy thing to be in heaven. It's the gods. Now, over here are the... Jealous gods. So they have boars and arrows, and they're shooting, and they're trying to hack down the tree that flowers in heaven, and they're very angry. They want to be up here. They're fighting to get into heaven. So they're aggressive, and they're energetic, and they're ambitious. So that's a state of mind. And then here's the human realm, where basically things are pretty much okay. It looks a little bit like Green Gulch.

[47:13]

Here's the farm. And people are sitting meditation over here and so on. So these are okay. I mean, they're not great. These two are not so great. This one's good enough. You can practice here. This is the realm, human realm, is where you can practice. In that state of mind, it's not that great, not that bad. It's pretty much okay. Things are okay. Down here, these three lower realms are not so okay, and they are consequences of bad choices. So... You know, this little center of the wheel here, if you make good choices, these little guys are like monks going upward. So they're making good choices. They go up to the three higher realms. These folks made bad choices. They're going down. And down the very bottom is hell. Lots of torture going on down there. Awful. Lots of folks coming into hell as a result of bad actions. Over here is the animals. And animals don't care much about the consequences of their actions, they're just doing what they do, you know, killing something, eating something, you know, making babies, whatever they do, without much concern for outcome, like what's going to happen, you know.

[48:24]

Again, these are human conscious, this is not poor animals, I don't want to say this is about animals, this is about our psyche, and how we think about the world. And then the last one is the hungry ghosts. And they are in terrible shape. They have tiny necks and big tummies. And they are always hungry. They can never get enough. So this is a very, very tragic. All of these are really tough. You know, they're all tough, actually. These are the human choices based on our different behaviors. And this is the realm of our suffering and our effort to relieve ourselves from suffering. So first and second noble truth. There is suffering. old age sickness and death up here the cause of suffering is ignorance first step in the chain ignoring blind man with a stick blind woman with a stick ignoring what non-separation that you're not separate from the universe and then as a result of ignoring your non-separation you embody into a separate self you try to connect you get big strong feelings

[49:26]

And then you try to, your greed leads you to grab a hold of stuff. And then you basically... The Buddha came up with when he was under the tree. He said, that's what's happening. It's what's happening here. There's a circle. Samsara means endless circling. I'm going around and around and around the same pattern. It's a habit. I keep doing the same thing. What would happen if I went the other way? It's a reverse wheel. The wheel's going the other way. You stop at feelings. You don't indulge. You have a feeling, just hold it. Just wait. Now, what happens if you let your feelings just wait? If you just sit with it? So we practice sitting with our feelings, which is really hard, you know, 40 minutes sitting with your feelings.

[50:30]

You don't forget those first efforts you make at sitting. It's like, it's very challenging, you know, to sit there. And then, oh, let's do another 40 minutes. Oh, my God. You know, so there was something compelling about that, though. There was something about that window opening onto the my own mind, my own processes in my own mind that were quite intriguing, I must say, and still are. I'm still quite interested. It's like, holy cow, look what's going on in here. There's a pattern. And that pattern, if I keep an eye on it, I might be able to actually turn away from bad choices and turn toward choices that turn out better, not just for me, but for other people too. So that's kind of the basic theory. So we are now at, oh, gosh, okay. So I'm going to stop right there. And we are, you know, at the place where we've already gotten to emptiness and we've negated form. And form does not differ from emptiness.

[51:34]

Emptiness does not differ from form. So this form body and the ultimate body are not different. They're not separate. And... that which is formed is itself emptiness. We're always trying to separate these things like emptiness is going to be some exotic thing over there that I can achieve or I can arrive at and I'll be free of the, you know, the burden of this body and if it's mistakes and so on. But actually we have to look at that we experience them. That's where the emptiness, those things are empty of inherent existence. Not looking out past ourselves or our own place where we are or our own friends. That's where the emptiness is alive. It's in our actual life. And it's in every moment. Every moment is empty of fixedness. It isn't fixed. And therein lies freedom. You know, nothing is really stuck unless we create these patterns and get stuck in patterns of thinking.

[52:38]

That's the stuck part. So we'll go further on with the heart suture next time. And we've gotten through that. I just did the 12-fold chain. So that's one of the negations. There is neither ignorance nor extinction of ignorance, neither old age and death, nor extinction of old age and death. So that's what I was just showing you on the wheel. And then we're going to look at the... We did the Four Noble Truths. We've already done that. So we're getting down toward... The four inverted views. And that's what I will bring up next week. These four upside down views. So far beyond all inverted views. One realizes nirvana. So the four inverted views. Which are almost down to the bottom of the sutra. Are really significant. Because it's the four upside down or inverted views. That's creating our mistaken understanding of ourselves and of reality. So they're. They're very important. I'll go through them, like I said, next week.

[53:39]

And then we're getting close to the end. And you can bring up any questions you like about the Heart Sutra, any parts that you feel you'd like, a little more information about. But then we can also talk about, well, what would you like to look at next? I think this is a pretty good, Heart Sutra is a pretty good background for the rest of Buddhist teaching. It's certainly helpful if you're going to study Dogen, if you're going to look at any of the philosophers or philosophies of Buddhism. I think the Heart Sutra is a great place to start. So how about I open for you all, if you have some questions you'd like to ask. I hope I'm still connected. If so, please feel free to put up your blue hand and ask whatever you like. If you look at your participants window, there's a raised hand button if you go to the participants panel. You can also send any comments or questions through the chat as well.

[54:45]

And you may turn on your video for when you have your question or comment, and then I might disable it afterwards just to help with FU's bandwidth. Janine, hi, where are you? Hi. Hi. What a huge gift to be able to be here with you and with Gabby and everyone. I'm seeing all these names of everyone that I haven't seen in so long. I have a question. You doing okay out there where we are? Yes. I feel markedly more okay having been here with you. I have a question about the, the six realms that you were just talking about. Um, I remember from studying that when I lived down the street from Tibet house, that there's, it's kind of like, um, in each one of those realms, there's a specific Bodhisattva and they have, they're doing something and that it's kind of like the thing that the way I remember it is it addresses the suffering of that realm.

[56:00]

And, um, The one I remember is in the God realm, there's music, I think, and it kind of is like a reminder of time, or it's one way of reading it. But I'm just thinking about right now, if we imagine, this is too blunt, but if we imagine the circumstance that we're in as a kind of realm, and is there a way that there's a solution in view or a thing that's in view that kind of... guides us through? Like, is there an action? If we saw this in a frame, is there a bodhisattva doing a specific thing in that frame? Does that make sense? I can't hear, unfortunately. Hang on, Fu. Hang on, Fu. You got posted.

[57:01]

Okay. Did that question make sense? You know what? I was totally off. The Zoom just shut down. So I don't know. You said something about the six realms had a special teacher or a special offering that was given to each one. And that's, in fact, in this drawing I have, you can see them. There's a little being in each corner with a musical instrument. There's a bodhisattva. in each of the realms, singing a song that works well. You know, if you're in hell, what kind of song do you want to hear? You know, so I think it's skillful means. And I don't know the specific routines that I'm sure the Tibetans have very specific bodhisattvas who are there and specific language. I don't know that so well, but I do know it's like hanging out with somebody who's in hell is a really good idea. You know, just be there. Send them an email, whatever, thinking of you.

[58:06]

So we have an intuition about how to be with people who are suffering. I think we do go toward each other when we're suffering. So, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. But I don't know about those fighting demons or the fighting gods. I don't particularly want to encourage them. Maybe back off. Yeah, or maybe kind of help them through. That's kind of the question of right now, right? Yeah, that is. That is. How do we help the aggressors or the ones who are really, you know, what do you do with the anger? How do you meet the anger in a way that diffuses it or it helps? Yeah, because there is so much suffering there. Totally. And the skillful means to not exhaust. to kind of skillfully use. Yeah. But I don't want, I thank you for the time for that. And I'll, I don't want to hold, there are many other questions.

[59:10]

So, but I would love to talk more about that. Good. Well, I hope you'll come back next Sunday. It's nice to see you. I will. Definitely. Yeah. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Guy. Hi, Fu. Hi, Guy. again thank you so much twice in a week that's very nice yeah i don't know if you can see me or not but um there we go so i had a question i'm not sure if you had talked about it because it cut off a little bit but you had said at least your hands it said something about one side of the ultimate truth and then the um relative truth and being in the middle and um not not to yeah to one side or the other and um I wonder how this relates to sort of having a gaining idea and is it sort of an acceptance that there is no understanding because whatever understanding we create will be with thoughts themselves and will need words in a way.

[60:17]

So I'm wondering how that relates if there is sort of a relationship but it's sort of the understanding is knowing that it's beyond our understanding in a way or mine. You got it right there. Great. Thank you. It's to understand is beyond your understanding. Like Bodhidharma said, don't know. Who are you? Don't know. He was answering. There was an honest answer. Don't know. It's not like, I don't know. He wasn't afraid. You know, he was like, don't know. How would I know? Yeah. So, I think not knowing is, another saying is not knowing is nearest, not knowing is closest to intimacy with what is, not calling it something, not figuring it out, not analyzing it to where it's, you know, like now you know, you've got to... Yeah, like trapping the butterfly, rather than just observing it, enjoying it, and yourself.

[61:22]

As a butterfly hunter, it isn't going to make trouble, you know. So we want to tread lightly. We want to be gentle if we can with each other. And knowing can be very aggressive. Knowing things can be like, whoa, you know. Yeah. Be kind to people who know things. Yeah. Yeah, nice to see you. Nice to see you too. Bill. Hey. Oh, let's see. Here we go. Here's the video. Hey. Hi. You can put your, yeah, you can do your video, I think, Bill. Do you know how to do that? Can you see? Not yet. Okay. I see your name. It should be on. This is Finn.

[62:23]

There you are. There you are. Hi. Hey. Hi. Hey. You just fool me. It's not built. How are you? Really good, yeah. I've been thinking a little bit lately about this, because there's the whole idea of the phrase of waking up with all beings, and that, like, at that moment, all beings... enlightenment that the Buddha is sitting under the tree. And I was pondering that thinking about this story that I heard recently of a scientific study of some Island where they're, they give people, gave people a crossword puzzle that was, had already been solved. So like they, they had two different settings where they gave the people on this Island, a crossword puzzle that hadn't been solved by the rest of the world yet. And then they gave them the crossword puzzle from the week before that had already been solved. And by everyone else in the world having solved it, it made people more able to solve it more rapidly.

[63:29]

So it was like drawing on this collective unconscious or something. Yeah, so I've been sort of thinking about that and it clicked together with the like waking up with all beings as kind of like, I guess I needed some scientific thing to make that be legitimate for me or something. Yeah, and I was reminded of that when you're talking about this movie, which we've been meaning to watch as well, but it's watched aside by all the other movies that have come in. Oh, you'll like it because it gives you just what you're looking for. Nice. It's really good. That's what he was doing. He was figuring out how to show that it's all together and that the uniqueness is arising from this ocean of of shared common ground, common universal ground. The universe is common ground. And all of it is emerging from this common ground as waves. There's appearance and disappearance.

[64:30]

There's appearance and disappearance. It's lovely. The whole thing is very lovely. And it gives you another, as his friends who are scientists are saying, hanging out with this guy is really a trip because all of a sudden he'd open them to some way of seeing. Like, wow, he said, look at the space between the stars. Don't just look at the stars. Matter is a very tiny part of what's happening here. What about the containment of it? What about the spaciousness? And one of the definitions of nirvana is spaciousness. It's like space. Mind like space. Yeah, I look forward to hearing about how you all liked that movie because I thought it was amazing. Yeah, I'm excited to watch. Yeah, sweet guy. You can really feel it. And the pain they put him through. It was during the McCarthy years. He got blackballed because when he was... Oh, it's so touching.

[65:31]

He became a communist for nine months because he thought he would find some communists who would talk about Hegel. Philosophers. Instead, they were just wanting to beat people up or something. So he was really frustrated, so he quit. He quit the party. He said, this isn't a party. This is like really weird. So anyway, but then he got blackballed because he had done that as this innocent, sweet guy. Anyway, people. Terrible, terrible. What are we going to do? I don't know. I'm counting on you. That's what I'm going to do. Yeah, yeah. Nice to see you all, your whole family. You too. Okay, well, anyone else want to turn your video on and come forward for a moment? Okay, I'm sorry about cutting out today.

[66:39]

That was... I'll do something. I'll try and find a better spot for... Oh, there's a hand up. Oh, there's a hand, Deborah. Okay, good. It's not letting me start my video. Let me see. Start my video. There we go. Hi, how are you doing? Good, how are you? Very nice to see you. Likewise. You know, I was reading recently... Actually, an introduction to a book about Dogon, but Aiken Roshi was talking about, I don't remember who he was quoting, but when asked what happens after you cast off body and mind, the answer was cast off, cast off, cast off, cast off. And, you know, sometimes I hear those things and they make me like, feel like, oh, but this made me feel so tired. Tired? Yes. Stay tired.

[67:39]

Like it's going on forever having to do this. Do you know? Do you understand what I'm saying? I do. That's kind of what the Heart Sutra is talking about. And we have to keep coming back to it. So that's my – I mean, I haven't usually felt that way, but I've been feeling that way lately of just the weight of it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's his life, you know. Yeah, it is just life. It's the burden of having agreed to be alive. You agreed. You took that breath. You let them take care of you for a while and then you left home and made your way. And you're still doing that. And it gets a little harder as we're getting older. All kinds of things are getting a little harder. But I'm still kind of interested. Yeah. I think it's not just the life, though. It's the taking the responsibility to practice.

[68:43]

Oh. You see, I mean, it's like, it's not so bad. You take responsibility to drop away body and mind, too. You know what I mean? To keep cutting through it. Well, you can take breaks. I mean... You know, I mean, Dogen took breaks. He was writing all the time. You think of him sitting Zazen all day long. He did a lot of writing. I keep imagining he had a cat. I like to think of Dogen as a cat. You know, I think nobody doesn't take breaks. It's really the literature doesn't take breaks because it's all written. But in there, he had lunch and he went and did a walk. He talked to people and played with his cat. I am really not willing to, you know, absorb some kind of... icon of a not taking break sort of practitioner or not enjoying the day or not, you know, having friends over for lunch. I mean, if we can't enjoy our practice, it becomes even more of a burden. It's like, oh, do I have to go to the Zendo?

[69:43]

No, you don't. Please don't. You know, Reb, who's my teacher, once said to us at Zen Center, this is the I want to do this Zen Center. And if you don't want to do it, that's fine. But you won't be able to do it if you don't want to because it will be torture. So you have to do what you want to do. You have to find what you want to do. And then that's pretty easy because I want to. Even if it's hard, but I want to do it. So I have a hunch you want to do it. Well, I would have had a long break, actually. Maybe you don't want to do it. I don't know. Yes, I do want to, and I don't want to. Well, there you go. That's the two sides of the road that Guy was asking about. Is or isn't, do or don't, want to, don't want to. That's the dualistic mind. But the Buddha mind is the one that goes right up in the middle.

[70:46]

It kind of ignores the extremes. Right. Yeah, and just steady on, steady on. Yes, thank you. Yeah, take care. Alrighty, 611. Thank you all so much. I'm sorry about the computer stuff that happened, and I will look forward to seeing you next week. I hope you'll come back, and we'll maybe finish the Heart Sutra. And if we do, why don't you think about, A, think about some questions you might have about the Heart Sutra, if you read through it, make some notes. There's some words in there. I am going to do the inverted views next week, so that part I'll cover. But if there's any other things you don't quite get, you'd like to get, I'm happy to do that, a little more detail. And then think about what you might like to look at next. There's so many possibilities. Please think of something you'd like to look at together.

[71:50]

Maybe you can offer a list of possibilities. And if you don't have one, I have a very long list to suggest, if you like. OK, so thank you all very much. Thank you, Jenny, for helping me. You're welcome. I've unmuted everyone. So you are welcome to turn your video on and say goodbye. You should be unmuted. Goodbye. Bye. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all. Hey, somebody said this car. You drive directly. Be careful. Yeah. She said something. Thank you, Fu. Thank you, Johnny. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. See you next week. Thank you, Fu. Bye. I'm liking these faces. I'm getting more familiar with all of you. Steel, Abby, Heather, Janine, Patricia, Lisa. Hi, Lisa. Hi. Deborah. All right. Next time, I'll be where there's a stronger connection.

[72:57]

We can all stay online. All right. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Take care. Stay safe. It's kind of scary out there.

[73:11]

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