Welcome back. I'm going to glance around the square a little bit here, starting to see some familiar names. Great. So let's start with a few minutes of sitting and then we start to talk about Yogacara, the mind only school and. one of its founders, Basu Bandhu. I don't know about all of you, but I'm always amazed at how much my mind can do in five minutes.

[06:03]

You know, I've been many places since I rang the bell. One of the things that came to my mind is that this is a very big week for all of us. A big sea change is going to occur, as is occurring, and regardless of what happens on Tuesday, it's going to be quite... Quite a different world that we're all in from this point on, and none of us seem to know what's next. So I feel very, very grateful to have these ancient teachings as a ground, kind of a groundless ground, that we can keep returning again and again to these wisdom teachings, which have been around for suffering beings, political upheavals for thousands of years. And I feel in good company with all of the stress of our species. worldwide. So I hope you're all well and taking care of yourselves. Your families are well.

[07:04]

We're okay here. We're still, no one's gotten the virus yet, and we're being very careful. We did start a sitting intensive today. Linda Ruth, Cutts, and myself are leading a one-month intensive with the residents here and doing an online class on Mondays. So it's very sweet that we're able to be back in the Zendo. Although all the doors and windows are open this morning, there had been a bit of a turn in the weather. So we were all sitting there kind of like a bit on the chilly side of things. And I think it's going to get a little more chilly. But anyway, we're dressing warmly and we're preparing to sit some people outside, some of us in the Zendo with all the doors open. But there we are. So we got to hit the big bell today and ring the bells. And it was very, somebody once told a story about Suzuki Roshi going back to a Heiji after having left there many, many years before.

[08:05]

And when he was a young monk there, it was no big deal. You just did the thing, you know. And then he went back as an older man and he just started to cry. You couldn't believe it when he heard the bells and heard the monks scurrying around. So there's a little bit of sentimentality that creeps in whether he wanted to or not. So this morning was quite sentimental. I think a number of us felt so moved by the soundscape. So I wanted to share with you some more thoughts about these wonderful traditions that we have in our keeping. And I thought I would start with a little recap, brief recap of the travels we've been taking so far through the transmission of light. This is Kazon's text. Dogen Zenji, third generation from Dogen Zenji. And this was his means of teaching the Dharma. So he picked these very specific teachers and stories in order to illustrate his own understanding of what it means, what Buddha's awakened insight is, how to describe it to us.

[09:11]

And then I was thinking back on that question that started this whole round many months ago, actually, quite surprisingly. One of you, I don't remember who it was, I believe it was one of the young women who was online that day, asked what the five aggregates are. She said, what are the five aggregates? Five skandhas. And I was like, oh, well, that's a good place to start. Good button to push. So from there, we started to look at the Heart Sutra. So I thought I would pull up this first line of the Heart Sutra, which is really key. So the entire teaching of the Buddhadharma. So I'm going to do a little screen share with you. If I can find my screen share button. There it is. Can you see that? Heart Sutra? Seto? Yeah, good. So Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing.

[10:14]

Prajnaparamita clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty and thus relieved all suffering. So, you know, this is a very big sentence. And in this one sentence, all of the major elements of the Buddhist teaching are present. We have Avalokiteshvara bodhisattva. You know, bodhisattva, as you probably know, is a bodhi is awakening and sattva is a being. So it's a being who's devoting their life forever. their existence to awakening others and deeply practicing. That's interesting. Prajnaparamita, wisdom beyond wisdom. So the awakening of others is considered to be the highest form of compassion. So this Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, is in fact the Bodhisattva of compassion. And his compassion is expressed through the wisdom teachings. He teaches the Prajnaparamita. And as a result of that, he helps us to see, to see what?

[11:19]

To clearly see that all five aggregates, there they are, the five skandhas, that's what started this, are empty. And thus, another big word in Zen, thus. Buddhists called the thus come one. Thus relieved all suffering. So, This is kind of our core teaching and our core understanding that we come back to again and again. As you all know, we chant this sutra almost every day in the Zendo. And it's not so usual that we study it. I mean, I think having walked through it with you, you know, it's kind of an unusual thing. We do teach the Heart Sutra classes here now and again, but not all the time, not every year. And a lot of the students... I haven't really ever heard some of the things you've heard about it, but they chant it anyway. So there's something a bit, a mantric. It's like a mantric language that literally carries the heart of the Zen tradition, a kind of essentialized heart.

[12:25]

So this clear scene is basically the clear scene of the true nature of reality, which is what we understand the Buddha saw when he looked at the star. He saw reality clearly. And he saw that reality, basically, he expressed it as being empty of any independent existence. Nothing's separate. That star's not out there. And I'm not in here. And there's no way to find any. There's no reference points. The reference points all disappeared. They're just kind of a sparkle of awareness and a delight. He was filled with joy. It was a very happy thing to have these reference points drop away. The reference points are form and feeling and perception and impulses, consciousness. And we experience them as separate. We experience the stars separate and the tree is separate and each other is separate. So, you know, he's talking to us. You guys, you know, I know where you've been because I was there myself. And now I have to tell you that clear seeing will lead you also to know that this is an illusion.

[13:30]

You are being basically mesmerized by an illusion that has trapped you. If it were just a benign illusion, that might be okay. We just dream our life away, right? Many people do. There's songs about that. Dream your life away. And that's okay. I mean, that's a choice. But if you find that unsatisfactory, if you'd actually like to wake up, then you've got to kind of dig in, you know, start digging into some of these teachings. And like, what? How do I see that? What is clear seeing? How do I see that? So this first sentence of the Heart Sutra is very dense. Clearly very dense. And there's so much to explore and to consider in just those few words. So then following that question about the aggregates that was asked, then we spent several weeks looking at the Heart Sutra and going through it kind of line by line and pulling out these different puzzle pieces. It's a puzzle. It's a collection of significant teachings that the Buddha gave in his lifetime and that were collected by his descendants.

[14:33]

And for us, it's emblematic of the conclusion that was drawn that basically is negating this negation of these tiny little elements of existence. So, you know, one of them being the idea of seeing and hearing and tasting and touching all these separate idea of the separate senses that we have are not separate at all. You know, where does your eye and your ear separate from one another? And your sound of my voice, how is that separate from the feeling of my hands moving in the air? You know, where's the separation other than in some idea I have that my senses are separate? You know, they certainly don't know that when they're running around inside my neurons. There's probably not much of a separation going on in there. So, you know, really by the time you get through the Heart Sutra with all these no, no, no's, there's not very much. that has been left out or left in for us humans to hold on to. So that's kind of the idea. It thwarts this grasping tendency we have to try to get a hold of some idea or some identity or some objects of either material objects or conscious objects or intellectual objects or prizes of whatever kind.

[15:44]

We're being induced to want to get things. Go get it. Go get it, girl. Find your way. Become something. worth talking about. Get a card that you could pass around to people, you know, something like that. So, and then at some point after studying the Heart Sutra and looking at the causes and conditions for awakening, which is this insight into emptiness, we turned toward the transmission of light, the text, which is telling the story of these ancestors who had this experience, the non-dual experience. They saw, clearly saw reality as not outside of themselves. They understood what emptiness meant. You know, it means the fullness of all things together. Everything connected is empty, of separation. You know, this is empty of separate. So that's the basic teaching. Empty means dependent core rising, all together, all together. So then we looked at, first we looked at Shakyamuni Buddha in the Transmission of Light and how he affirmed Mahakashapa's understanding

[16:50]

of the true nature of reality. And then Makasthapa went to Ananda with the same affirmation of his understanding. And then I jumped ahead several centuries to Nagarjuna, chapter 15, Transmission of Light, to take a little closer look at the teaching of emptiness itself, which is easier to say than it is to actually grasp, you know. although grasping seems like the wrong word, to understand, to really have a confidence that, oh, that makes sense. You know, somehow that makes sense. I think it's kind of designed not to make sense. But anyway, the idea that we could actually hold on to as much as there is of the teachings on emptiness, which, you know, our starring teacher is Nagarjuna, second Buddha, and his great fundamental work, the fundamental teaching of the middle way. So we looked at that. And I think probably those of you who were here will remember another screen share I'm going to do briefly here. This one is of the green diamond.

[17:52]

OK. So the green diamond shape is is was my my way of reminding myself or helping myself to remember this teaching. Of. What do we mean by emptiness? So Nagarjuna basically, here's that verse at the bottom there. We state, he speaks for us all. We state that whatever is dependently co-arisen, dependently co-arisen. So that's number two over here. Form. Whatever is dependently co-arisen is explained to be emptiness over here. Number three. That's very important to emphasize. So whatever is dependently co-arisen is explained, which is what I'm doing right now, to be emptiness. That explanation being a conventional designation using language and words, you know, the horse that I'm riding, is itself the middle way, is the way that we can understand the non-dual nature of reality.

[18:58]

Without language, so form is dependent. The form is The extraction of form from everything else is dependent on language, designation. It's dependent on other things that brought it into existence. So dependent core rising. Emptiness is dependent on dependent core rising on conventional language. The explanation I just gave is dependent on conventional designation. So this is the nondual nature of reality is exactly this formula here. These four things. or co-equivalent in saying emptiness is the middle way, is form, is conventional designation. So we went through that. That was... Okay, good. So my screen share stopped. Okay, so then we kind of looked at it. That little green diamond is a very helpful, for me, it's a very helpful mnemonic. Whenever I look at the emptiness teachings, I think, oh, yeah, the green, I don't know if it's always green, but that green diamond with these four...

[20:01]

these four terms, and it's kind of a good thing to try to hold in your awareness. So, you know, as he said, all of that basically leads us to understand this horse we're riding is really important. I mean, I think when I first began looking at the Heart Sutra or learning or hearing it when I was around Zen Center in the early years, and I just chanted it every day because everyone else did, and that's what we did. You know, I didn't have any idea what was going on. It was impactful. I felt those words were very, you know, it knew it had something to do with me, but I didn't know exactly what. But what I really appreciated when I finally was able to get some understanding of Nagarjuna was this conventional designation, the horse that I'm riding. Never occurred to me I was riding a horse of language. I never thought about language, never thought about that verbal expression has a huge role to play in my understanding, my actions in the world, how I see the world, how I talk about it, how I think about it.

[21:09]

It's language. So bringing that to the forefront is, I think, one of the great gifts that Nagarjuna did. It's like, this is all about language. The only access you have to the ultimate truth is through the conventional truth, the convention of of words, of language. So the finger pointing at the moon is the moon. This is really important, you know, not to be overlooked. So they're, you know, taking the relative seriously. I've said that to you all before, taking the relative seriously. So to think of conventional designations correctly utilized. So we can also use language obviously in horrible ways and it's happening all over. We hear it, it's like awful. things that people say to each other, you know, and then inspire other people to say horrible things and do horrible things is obviously is a two-edged sword. We know that. So correctly utilized, skillful means, skillful use of language means is the way that we understand the ultimate truth, the non-dual nature of reality.

[22:16]

It's the guiding principle by which we come to an experience of the non-dual nature of reality. So first we understand the truth. That's one reason I'm bringing up these green diamonds and all kinds of things. It's very important to have a template of understanding. As the Dalai Lama says, you begin with an understanding of the two truths. That's where beginners should begin, is by understanding intellectually the two truths, the ultimate truth, conventional truth, the relative and the ultimate. So these two truths. And then once you have an understanding of these truths, then the next step is an experience of them, that you actually confirm within your own body, your own experience of reality, that it's so. You know, for a lot of us, or a lot of you, I'm sure, I actually believe that every single person on the planet has had an experience of the non-dual nature of reality, whether it's as children or in a moment of some amazing event that just kind of blew you away, as we say, blown away.

[23:21]

I met a man who came to see me once for a practice discussion many years ago now, but he'd been electrocuted. He stuck his finger in a plug or something like that. And it changed his life completely. He was sort of, he walked in. He said, I don't know what's happened to me. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know who I am. I don't know where I am. I was just like, well, welcome. You're at the right place. But he... He didn't have enough of a structure to be able to enter the structure of doing Zen practice. But I think he would have felt right at home if he'd allowed himself to relax a little bit. You know, it's OK. It's OK that you've had this big, shocking experience where everything dropped away, you know, very disoriented. Reference points were gone. You know, so this happens. I think it happens to all of us at some point, you know, whether it's some people do it through sports. Some people do it through, you know, whatever. Very many ways. But part of the problem is a discipline that allows you to have some continuity with that experience, some return to the experience.

[24:24]

It's not just a what off and some understanding of the experience. How does that fit? Where does that belong? That's spiritual, that mystical experience. Where do they belong at Whole Foods? How do you work with those experiences when you're back, you know, you're back, as Jack Cornfield says, washing the dishes, you know. But after the special experience, you go back and you do the laundry. So this is a tough part. That's the tough part of entering into Zen training is that it's like, okay, that's nice. Now go back and finish cutting the carrots. You know, nobody gets any mileage out of their great visionary experiences. That's good. Congratulations. Now go back to the kitchen. You know, lunch is in an hour. So... Taking the conventional seriously. That's what that's about, too. It's like, just go back. Just calm down. It's okay. Nothing's wrong. Nothing got broken. It'll all be fine. Anyway, so this, again, pointing to the fact that what's really important in the phenomenal world, the world of common sense, the world of language, partly because the Buddha said, this is our only doorway into understanding.

[25:39]

reality is through the doorway of conventional reality. And unfortunately, that doorway is primarily made up of delusions. I mean, the way you're using your conventional reality is delusional. You know, you're mistaking what's going on here and you're talking about it all the time and you're describing the world and you're accusing it of various things. And it's delusional. You're wasting so much of your precious life, your glorious awareness on delusion. You know, the clouds are just like... you know, covering the moon. So we need to take it seriously. And that takes time and it takes effort. And that's also the truth. You know, you can't learn anything if you don't work at it. The piano or skiing or emptiness, you know, it all takes time and effort. You have to reapply yourself to it. Practice. That's why we call it practice. I asked that question. It was another one of those early questions I asked in a class. I kind of raised my hand at one point because one of the teachers, a young monk, was going on and on about practice.

[26:44]

And I said, practice what? What are you practicing? And he just laughed and everyone else laughed. And I thought, I'm not asking any more questions to these people. This is not a safe territory for conventional questions. Anyway. So I did suggest to you, you might acquire, or maybe it's online, Ben Conley's The Practitioner's Guide, Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara, which here it is again, Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara, Wisdom Publishing. Really good book, really wonderful resource. And this is a very important school of Buddhism. It's really, of the two, there's the middle way, that's Nagarjuna, that we looked at. Most recently. And now Yogacara. These are the two. You know, there's not a third. There's just these two schools that are significant for understanding Zen koans and teachings and literature. You know, the Chinese ancestors, Dogen.

[27:48]

It's so helpful to have these two in your back pocket. So I'm going to continue for the next several weeks discussing the teachings of Vasubandhu. He was the fifth century. So Nagarjuna was second century. So this is about 300 years later. So they've had the emptiness teachings around for quite a while and they've had a huge influence on the tradition of what's called the Mahayana or the tradition that we all are part of here. And so Vasubandhu, however, in the fifth century, there's still this very strong tradition of the Theravadan or the elders. So the Pali Canon, the old wisdom teachings, or what's now called the Theravada style of teaching, which evolved into the Mahayana. But the Theravada is still there. It didn't kind of go away. It's more like think of a tree with lots of branching, the different branches and then sub branches. So out of the root into the Buddha, sat at the base of the tree and his teaching was offered.

[28:49]

And then he died. And then the disciples were like, well, here's what I heard the Buddha say. And somebody said, no, no, I heard him say this. He said, no, but he was emphasizing this. So as a result of that very human thing, there were 18 schools very shortly after the Buddha's death that grew up around that tree. So there were 18 branches that were reaching up. So at that time, so we still have the Theravadan branch. I mean, think spirit rock. These are the inheritors of the Theravadan branch. And then we out here in Muir Beach are the inheritors of the Mahayana branch of the Buddhist teaching. So Vasubandhu, what makes him a really interesting and pivotal character is that he began his life as an ordained monk in the Theravadan tradition. And he was a very good scholar. He was a very devoted practitioner. Started very young, I think eight or nine, a lot of these

[29:50]

These people were ordained very young. And then he basically had a tremendous influence on the Theravadan understanding of practice and of the teaching. So he wrote a very famous set of verses called the Abhidharma Kosha. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. And then he converted to the Mahayana. So he also wrote this... 30 verses, which is a Mahayana text. So he's a transitional character that carries with him a devotion to both of these branches. And he was able to really help to articulate, well, what's happening here? What is this shift that's going on in the philosophical thinking or the underpinnings of the practice and understanding of what the Buddha taught? And there is a shift that's taking place. It's somewhat subtle, but it's still... I think Vasubandhu is the perfect person to help us to see how that shift has taken place. So, you know, one of the things about the Mind Only School, which is what Vasubandhu is co-founder of the Mind Only or Yogacara School, is that it was actually a corrective, conscious corrective to the middle way teaching.

[31:06]

The Nagarjuna's teaching was so strict. It was so severe about not grasping or holding on to anything, no ideation. Even Nagarjuna himself said, if you're not careful with the emptiness teachings, you're going to fall into nihilism. And that's like grabbing a poison snake badly. It will bite you. So mishandling the emptiness teachings can be very destructive of anyone's spiritual aspirations. You get way off track and you can stay off track the rest of your life. And so the tradition itself saw the need as it began. The Mahayana began to veer off into this kind of emptiness. And something like solipsism and, well, who cares? I mean, if it's empty, why bother? So there was a tendency for the ethical side of the practice to be disregarded. played with. It's all kind of playful. You play with everything, right? There's still a lot of playfulness in Zen and something I appreciate about Zen is the playfulness. But there's also an understanding of the discipline and of the regard for the teaching and the regard for the early teachings of the Pali Kana, the old wisdom teaching.

[32:16]

And that's the result of the Yogacara, which rescued the Zen tradition from becoming this kind of just goofy thing. It really would not be of much use in society. Everyone's just running around doing a thing. So last week I read you the story of Vasubandhu's encounter with his own transmission teacher, Jayata. And in the retelling of this story, Kezon has chosen the most liberative elements of this story in order to bring the spiritual message to the reader, to us. And I read you the koan at the top of the chapter. And so I thought I'd just repeat that again because it's pretty good. I think you can hear in this koan, Jayata's teaching to Vasubandhu, the sway of the middle way. You know, how you go from avoid the extremes, you know, Buddha's first sermon, avoid the extremes of nihilism, avoid the extreme of eternalism.

[33:17]

We're going to hear about that in a second. So you want to avoid the extremes of anything, too much of that or too little of that. You know, find the middle way. And the middle way, kind of like the way you sail. I have a friend who's telling me about sailing. I said, yeah, that's the metaphor I like best for how you practice. You lean too far that way, and then you can feel it. You know how to go back that way. So you're always looking. You're always seeking. What's the right balance here? What's the appropriate response in this situation, which I have never seen before? Every situation is new. Never been here before. So how do I respond from sincerity, from generosity, from kindness? What is the way? What is the way? Rather than here's the way. It's not so much an answer. It's really a question. What is the way? So Jayata says to Vasubandhu, I do not seek the way. Yet I am not confused. I do not pay obeisance to Buddha.

[34:19]

yet I do not disregard Buddha either. I do not sit for long periods, yet I am not lazy. I do not limit my meals, yet I do not eat indiscriminately either. I am not contented, yet I am not greedy. When the mind does not seek anything, this is called the way. When the mind does not seek anything, this is called the way. When Vasubandhu heard this, he discovered uncontaminated knowledge, meaning he woke up. So this is Vasubandhu's awakening, this lesson about the middle way. Because Vasubandhu was quite the perfectionist. He was known for his purity. He had really purified himself in the old wisdom tradition as a Theravadan monk. You know, he was very well behaved. Never ate afternoon. So all of these very... purity, that path of purification, he'd been on for a long time.

[35:21]

He was a grown man and he was lecturing on these teachings. And so to have this itinerant Zen teacher come in and kind of do this to him, it woke him up. He was ready. He just popped him open. So before beginning a discussion of Vasubandhu in the Mind Only School, I feel like I need to give you a little background, you know, because without the background, again, like with the Heart Sutra, it just is not, it doesn't make any sense. It's kind of like, what is that? Why are they saying that? You know, what is that about? Well, this is all call and response. The Heart Sutra is a response to the early teachings, to the Theravadan teaching. which was more reality-based, that there really are these things that are there and that you need to watch out for them and you need to pull up the pure ones and you need to avoid the impure ones and that you can actually practice like that.

[36:22]

Well, we can think like that. You can think about purity. You know, we see people in the news. who are acting like they've got purity going on. You know, it's like, whoa, that's strange. So, you know, you can think purity, but to actually be pure or to actually find a reality behind that, there's nothing there. You know, it's just like a fantasy. It's a mask. And, you know, we can feel that, you know, we can feel the mask of it. So I think it's really important to have some of the like, what... What is with this conversation? You know, a game of tennis with just watching one side of the net isn't very interesting. It's like, well, the ball just appears out of nowhere. So this response to the early teaching is a response to something very particular. And that's what I want to share with you. And I'll try to make it as simple as I can. But I spent a lot of time today trying to figure it out myself. So I don't know how this is going to turn out. But so anyway, there's a few key concepts. that I think will help us to place these various schools.

[37:24]

I'm not going to name all 18 of the schools, just two of them from the Theravadan tradition. So there's two of the original schools that were very significant, both to us as inheritors of the Mahayana, but also to Vasubandhu himself, because he had been ordained in one of these two very early schools. And then he converted first to the other one and then to the Mahayana. So these are the kind of little stepping stones in his own understanding. So I think I'm hoping that some familiarity with some of these concepts will be relevant, you know, not only to each of you and your effort to deepen and refine your own understanding, but also I think we have an obligation to try to see if we can make sense on behalf of the Buddhist tradition of what did the Buddha teach? You know, I think there's so much out there now. It's like, This is the Buddhist teaching anyway. There's a wonderful conversation going on right here in California, as a matter of fact.

[38:24]

So for me, one of the most helpful categorizations, and I think I may have touched on this before, but I don't think it'll hurt to touch on it again, are these really big categories that are called the three turnings of the wheel. Three turnings of the wheel. Did I talk about that before? I did a lot, a little. Do you mind if I do it again? It's okay. I'm watching you, Heather. It's okay. Okay. So the three turnings of the wheel, basically, it's the wheel of the Dharma. So the Buddha's first sermon was the first turning of the wheel. He turned the wheel of the Dharma. And for the Theravadan tradition, that's the only time it turned. There is just the one turning. There are not three turnings. So the three turnings of the wheel are from the point of view of the Mahayana tradition, looking back. to the tree with the Buddha sitting under it and saying, well, here's what happened first, and then this happened, and now this is happening. And this is over a great period of time.

[39:27]

So these categories, three turnings, sound chronological, like first this happened, then this happened. But actually, they're primarily apocryphal. They were made up in later centuries, looking back and saying, well, that's what happened back then, and then creating a story about that. So, you know, as with all traditions, whoever makes the best story wins. So I feel like the Mahayana did a really good job of coming up with a story about these three turnings. And so I've certainly inherited this idea that there have been three turnings. And I think it's helpful for us in the river of stories to be able to discern for ourselves whether we're on a pathway that's leading to Zen, at least so you know it, whether you want to go there or not. That's a different question. Are you on the pathway that's leading to Zen or not? So these branching streams, like I said, there were 18 to begin with, and then out of those branching streams came Nagarjuna and the Middle Way, came Basubandhu and the Mind Only, but also came the Pure Land School.

[40:40]

the flower ornament tradition, the lotus sutra school, the tantric Buddhism of Tibet, and so on. So there have been lots of branching streams. So it's helpful to know, well, which pathway am I on here? Am I going to end up in the Zen tradition? Maybe. It's possible. But that's kind of where I'm headed, is to going through the teachers and teachings that end up with Suzuki Roshi at the very tip. So when I first came... Zen Center back in, oh my God, 1979. I actually didn't even know there was any other kind of Buddhism other than Zen. I mean, that's all I knew and kind of true in San Francisco at the time, you know, certainly not true anymore. But for a long time, it was like, well, it's just Zen Center and that's Buddhism. So that's the naivete. And then when you open the lid and you start looking inside, oh, this box is full of all kinds of stuff. just like Christianity is and just like Islam and so on.

[41:42]

So every tradition has lots of branching streams, just like ours. So here's a very quick run through the three turnings. So as I said, the first turning is this wheel that the Buddha taught his first sermon that he gave to the five ascetics. That's the first turning. And the Theravadan Buddhism is very much devoted to that first turning and the teachings that come from there. So, As I said, Vasubandhu was ordained in one of these schools. So the two that I'm going to name this evening that are significant because of Vasubandhu, one of them is called the Sarvastavadhan, Sanskrit, and the other is called the Satrantakas. Okay, they don't have to remember that. But what I want to say about these two is the importance of what they held to be so. So the Sarvastavadhan, and again, these are old wisdom school. This is Theravadhan. That means, Sarvastavadhan means it all exists. It all exists.

[42:43]

There is something. So we're kind of over on the side of there isn't something. No, no, no. That's kind of more of the Zen tone. This school was like there is something. There's this really inherently existent stuff called dharmas with a little d. Not a big d. Little d dharmas. Tiny little elements of existence that exist. And not only do they exist. Think atomic theory. These little dharmas exist forever. They're eternal. They exist in the past. They exist in the future. And they exist right now. So there's this thread of these little tiny things that are always there. And the only reason we know about them is because they get active in the present. So that's their theory. It's kind of interesting. I mean, when you read the stuff that they had to do in order to create this theory, it's amazing because they pulled it off. It was like very convincing. So you have all of these little elements running through time, which are always existing.

[43:49]

And out of it comes trees and people and snakes and birds and Buddhas and all that. So that was their Sarvastavan. It exists. It exists. And it has own being. Essential nature. It has... its own nature, it has its own characteristics, that each one of these things is independent, not dependent, independent from everything else. Can you see the problem there? I mean, this is the opposite world from what we've been taught in the later teaching. So, now, Vasubandhu was ordained as a monk in this school, so he learned this material really well. He knew these elaborate theoretical formulations that they had created in order to explain how everything exists through all time. And he'd written, actually, a very amazing treatise on that called the Abhyamakosha, the teaching of this tiny little narratives about these little dharmas. Okay, so now, okay, I'm so sorry to do this to you.

[44:53]

So there's this, okay, there are three baskets of teaching, which I hope you've heard of, called the Tripitaka, the three baskets. And the three baskets are basically all of the Buddhist teaching that have been sorted literally into baskets. So in the old days, think of a monastery, think of the monks writing out the Buddhist teaching, you know, century after century on papyrus, writing it out. They roll them up into tubes and then they have baskets. That's like the library. So they have literally woven baskets to hold the tubes of writing in the first basket. go the sutras, the teachings of the Buddha, the lectures he gave. So those are written out and put in the first basket. In the second basket are written out all the rules, the vinya. So those go in the second basket. The third basket is this one that's really troubling. This is called the Abhidharma.

[45:53]

This is all about these little dharmas. It's elaborate, complex explanation of how reality works based on this thing that they created. So that's the stew that was really causing all of this uproar. It wasn't the sutras. It wasn't the vinya. It was the Abhidharma basket. So that's the trepidic. That means three baskets, literally three baskets of teaching. So we're talking about number three right now, the Abhidharma. So, all right. So, okay. So three baskets. So the Abhidharma. is really this whole framework of understanding that, as I said, Vasubanda mastered and wrote about. This other major school, so he's a Sarvastavadan. It exists. That's his thing. And then there's the second major school of the Theravadan is called the Sattrantakas.

[46:54]

And Sattrantaka means... Sutras only. We don't listen to that. We're not into that third basket. That's a bunch of stuff that we don't hold as the word of the Buddha. The only teaching of the Buddha that we listen to or count are from the sutra, the first basket of the Buddha's lectures. So they mean those who adhere to the sutras is the other major school, not the Abhidharmas. So you've got these two big teams, the Abhidharmas, third basket, and the Sattrantikas, first basket. And they do not agree. poor Vasubandhu get ordained over here, and then he converted to over here. So he said, yeah, I think this stuff is really wrong. I don't really like this all exists thing. You know, I think I like looking at the Buddha's teaching better. So then he started writing about that from that point of view. That's his first step in his conversion to the Mahayana. Okay. So the importance of this for us in the Zen world is that the stuff that was in this third basket is exactly what the Heart Sutra is refuting.

[48:00]

So it's not just like random, know this, know that, know this, know that. If you go through the Heart Sutra, as we did, you'll be seeing these categories, which are all Abhidharma third basket categories of teachings. You know, the five aggregates to start with. That's an Abhidharma teaching. There's something called the 12 Ayatanas. That's another Abhidharma. That's in the Heart Sutra. There's the Datus. That's in the Heart Sutra. So all of that is what the Heart Sutra is refuting. So that's the tennis match. You can see both players. They're hitting this stuff is, and the Heart Sutra is saying isn't. Is, isn't. Eyes, no eyes. Ears, no ears. Mind, no mind. So it's like back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So this is the dance that's going on between these philosophers, these thinkers. In the morning, they sit. In the afternoon, they're chatting about all of this stuff.

[49:03]

So you say eyes, we say no eyes. You say ears, we say no ears. You say death, we say no death. You say first turning, we say second turning. So these are the turning. So the second turning is this no. First turning, yes, there is something. Second turning, no. So that's why they call it turning. It's the opposite. First turning, second turning. So is there something or isn't there something? We're still quite hard to answer to that question. You get your nose tweaked if you answer that question. Your teacher says, is there something or isn't there something? And they grab your nose. So anyway, that's the main drill I wanted to pull out. I'm sorry. I know it's complicated. And you can actually... Look that all up yourselves. It's pretty interesting if you like that kind of thing. But I mainly wanted to let you hear about how Vasubandhu was this bridge character who brought his brilliant understanding of the Abhidharma, which was very brilliant.

[50:06]

He did a beautiful treatise. Abhidharma Kosha is amazing. And he also did the Yogacara teaching. These 30 verses are Vasubandhu's explanation of the Mahayana. And... But he doesn't abandon the early teachings. What's beautiful about the Yogacara is he brings the early teachings in. He doesn't say, you don't have to purify your mind. You don't have to be good. Yes, you do. You have to be good. You have to stop your defilements. You have to end greed, hate, and delusion. You cannot just be a creepy, rotten person. You actually have to clean up your act. This is really important. Taking the conventional seriously is the first half of his 30 verses, the first 15. And then the second 15 are the emptiness teachings. And all of that that I just told you that does away with your afflictions, those afflictions are delusions. They don't even exist. But first you deal with them.

[51:07]

Before you get to say, whoa, you know, what happened there? Where did the smoke go? So very, very important text. And that's why the Yogacara is so important, because it brings back the approach to practice that has discipline to it. It has morality to it. It has all kinds of criteria for how to live a wholesome life. It just doesn't kind of throw the baby out with the bathwater. So the Mahayana basically is understood that the overall emphasis that shifted in the Mahayana is toward this teaching of non-duality, you know, the top of the green diamond. The non-dual nature of reality is the most significant teaching that was heard through the centuries by the Mahayanas. They emphasize that. That's what they broadcast is non-dual, the non-dual nature of reality. Duality, language is dualistic. You start talking, you're in dualistic. So the less talking, the better, more clear seeing, the better presence.

[52:12]

So that's a very, very important aspect of our training, non-dual teaching and the non-dual experience. So understanding and experiencing that just as the Buddha had under the tree. So over and over again, Mahayana Sutras point out that everything that we think or believe is rooted in this dualistic thinking. that we're constantly falling into one side or the other of a dualistic trap, and that none of it is ultimately real, leaving us just basically with this web of our mind's own construction, our mind's own making, the maker, which is our conventional reality. That's what we got. That's the mind only. That's what's happening, this constructed, fabricated consciousness. And we're asked to look at that, as Dogen says, Study the self. Study the self. Study this constructed reality that's being produced by thought, by language. And then become free of it. It can't get you.

[53:13]

It can't bite you. You can be free of that. So, over and over again, I would say that the emphasis is, again and again, in the Mahayana, is not towards separation. Like the Abhidharma tendency was to separating. Separate things into parts, separate bad from good. A lot of time spent, you know, avoiding things that might be sinful or unwholesome. You know, unfortunately, like women, food afternoon, stuff like that. It's like, well, that's regrettable. I mean, that's not my favorite religious practice. It kind of leaves me out. But anyway, that idea that you could get rid of things that might be tempting you. As a practice, you know, it's like, how's that going to work out in the end? You know, so that approach of separating things had some flaws, has some problems in it. So that Mahayana is really about connecting things. Indra's net. Everything's connected. Dependent core rising. Nothing's separate. You can't get rid of those women. That's your mom.

[54:14]

That's your sister. That's your best friend. You know, what are you thinking? And you girls, you come over here too. We all get to play together. We have to. For the sake of this planet, we have to play together, be kind to one another. So, you know, basically we're coming into a compassionate regard for the connection of things to one another. Some things we don't want to be connected to, right? We want to get rid of them. And you can't. The more you try to get rid of them, the stronger they are. You notice that? So we have to find a way to let these things in, to make peace. As Jiri was saying today in his talk, harmonize our mind with the objects of our consciousness. You know, don't be afraid of what you're thinking. And so Vasubandhu's extraordinary ability to integrate his knowledge of both the Abhidharma, this old wisdom teaching, and the Mahayana is what gave birth to this Yogacara. I mean, he was a unique genius for our tradition. We are so lucky to have had this amazing thinker and scholar

[55:19]

as a progenitor. So next week, I'm going to begin with the 30 verses themselves. And I think it would be really good if you have the book or interested, probably get it online, to read the introduction. Ben Conley's introduction is a great little summary, better said than I just did. I really thought he did a great job. I wish I'd just kind of copied his material. But anyway, you can read it, and it's great. And then we can look at the 30 verses themselves. So we have a few minutes left. I'm happy to hear your questions. I hope you have some. That was more than welcome to... Where's my chat? Where's the chat? There we are. Oh, no, not chat. I want participants. Okay. Okay. Well, that rung me out. It's like, whoa.

[56:20]

Carl, were you raising your hand? No. Yeah, it's okay. That's all right. Let it go. Yeah, I just wanted to follow on the theme of Giroux's talk. It just seemed so on point and... and relevant, you know, to imagine this duality of self and other, but the other is this boat that's empty of the inherent identity, which allows one to be connected and compassionate with it. So kind of like in the diamond, I don't know, I'm hearing you say that Empty objects are empty of inherent existence. But I kind of like what you said before even more that they're empty of inherent separate existence. They do exist, but they're just not separate.

[57:24]

That's right. That seemed like clear to me. Yeah, yeah, that's right. They're not separate. Emptiness means not separate. No inherently exist in separate things. There's no such thing as a thing that isn't made from everything. Where would that be? Where would that thing be? If it wasn't part of the universe, where would it be? But we don't see it like that. That's the tricky part. We see separation. Like he said, we don't see that boat as being empty. We see it as an enemy. And it's really tricky because the mind is so often just creating these tricks for us. And it's really important for us to learn how to, you know, manage our emotions, like Jerry was talking about, to really calm down when you get hit by a boat or whatever is happening, to really try to calm down and then see if you can respond from a calm place.

[58:26]

It's so different. It's just like a different world. So, you know, I have learned over my almost 40 years, I need to calm down. As soon as the alarms are going off, the lights are flashing on the dashboard. My therapist used to say, see the lights flashing on the dashboard? That means you need to slow down. You need to stop and breathe and find your sanity, regain your sanity. There's that great story the Buddha tells about, or that's in the stories about the woman whose child, their children and their husband have all been washed away in a storm or something, and she's just... She's just frantic. She's gone mad. And he says to her, regain your sanity. Somehow his presence and his sanity enabled her to do that, to come back and to grieve. And then she joined the Sangha. So we need to regain our sanity. And we're on the brink of what feels like mass madness.

[59:31]

We're all going to go nuts. If things continue to be so strange and, you know, and split, if we're so split from our brethren, what we think of as our brethren. So this is such a hard time for us, but what a great time to practice. I mean, what else are we going to do? But calm down. Now what? What do we do? So Kate and Paul. Hi. Hi. Hi. It's Kate. Well, he's sitting next to you. That counts. What's that? Yeah. You draw a picture of all that? Did I? Those different pieces fit together. Is it possible to draw a picture? Yes. I'm going to do that. Oh, good.

[60:31]

Thank you. You're welcome. I mean, one of the things I regret about doing classes this way is usually at Green College, I have these big post-its. And then I put the post-it, put the six post-its on the wall. And then, you know, I think the visual thing is so much easier to remember over time. And for me, if I can draw it, I go like, okay, I get that. You know, different images are really like non-duality. I draw a seesaw for non-duality. Or the earth with the light, you know, with half dark, half light. Yes, I will do my best to do that. So is a drawing not quite as dual as? Well, it depends if it's drawn well. No, it's all dual. But, you know, as the Buddha said, you use a thorn to take out the thorn. So you use the thorn of language, of drawings, to remove the attachment, the misunderstanding, the mistaken beliefs.

[61:37]

So we don't have any other doorway but language. You know, we're kind of stuck with the horse that we're riding. Don't you know? Yes. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Nice to see you. Bill, Kelly. Hi, Fu. Thank you. Where are you guys? There you are. Hi. A lot of material that I've been curious about tonight. You're unmuted. Kelly or Bill? It's Bill. A little dark in there. Yeah. Hi, Bill. Hi. Yeah, that's better. That's better. Thank you for your talk tonight. You're welcome. Regarding the diamond that you drew, the place that is occupied by form, it's just a placeholder for form, emotion, sensation.

[62:42]

Yes. And the other two skandhas, I believe, right? It's the first of the five. First of the five. Right. So the first question was, what are the five aggregates that someone asked? Well, that's the first of the five. So form, feeling, perception, impulse, consciousness. So that's exactly right. So you then can put feeling in there. Feeling is emptiness. Emptiness is feeling. That which is feeling is empty and so on and so forth. Feelings are dependently co-arisen. They depend on having a body, having blood pressure, you know, having... Some stimulus. So everything's dependent for its existence on other things. And that's what makes it empty of separate existence. Empty of own being. That was the big teaching of the Sarvastavadans was own being. These things have own being.

[63:43]

Your feelings have existence over time. They exist. No, they don't. They're just effervescent appearances that arise and disappear. And if we know that, then we don't try to hold it. You can't, soap bubbles, you know, what are you gonna do with that? Just play in them. Yeah. Lisa. Lisa, good evening. It's probably really late for you. No, earlier. Where are you? Later. It's three hours later. So I'm trying to think about the idea of own being and inherent existence.

[64:44]

Does that contradict? Did they go way off track? Because does that contradict the initial Buddhist teachings? I'm trying to, you know, I can't quite get that. Yeah, me too. And I've been looking into that. That's what I spent most of my day trying to figure out. What were the Sarvastavadans doing? I mean, it doesn't sound like the Buddha's teaching. What they were doing, apparently, was trying to account for the fact that meditators would go into these deep meditative trances, like the jhana. So they go into a profound trance. Now, you can go into a jhana for a maximum of about, I think, three days is the most you can hang out there. So that's kind of fun. I mean, that's sort of one of the things they would do in the monasteries for a good time, going to a jhana for three days. But what was curious is they would come out of the jhanas and remember their names. So if there was no existence over time, if you actually cut off the past, if the past didn't exist, how could you remember your name?

[65:53]

How could you remember where you were from? How could you remember language? So they were trying to account for continuity over time. And it wasn't actually until the Yogacara system became understood and accepted, which is what we're going to look at now, that this teaching of the Alaya Vijnana, which we're going to talk about, the storehouse consciousness, which is very much like the unconscious that is understood in modern psychology, So most of what we are is unconscious. So the alaya is this unconscious bag of all of our past experiences and influences, which are why I'm speaking English right now. I didn't just start speaking English just this minute. So there's got to be an explanation for how is that carrying over from the past? So they were trying to account for things carrying over by positing these little existent things. Okay. It was pretty clever.

[66:54]

I mean, they kind of had it for a few centuries. But I think the flaw was saying, wait a minute, that own being problem, I mean, that's separate from everything else. I said, well, the trouble with dharmas was philosophically vulnerable. Okay. These guys came along like, no, I don't think so. Okay. Yeah. But it's an interesting read to look back. I'm quite intrigued myself. I'm going to spend some more time looking at the Sarvastavadans, how they were pulling that off. So what I'm getting stuck on in reading the Yogacara is not reifying the storehouse conscious. That's really hard. You know, you want that to continue. You want that to be something. I know. Well, it dissipates in enlightenment, apparently. That's what it says.

[67:56]

As long as you're like the rest of us, your story house will be carried along in the stream, like a stream. Yeah. But it's a dream. It's a dream stream. And it's a way of understanding that also has no inherent existence. So the Yogacara also, you know, takes itself apart at the end. You know, that thing we just talked about? Yeah. Like the Heart Sutra telling you in the end that even that, even emptiness is empty. Even that. Even that. Really? Yeah. And, you know, and then Vimalakirti with his thunderous silence, you know, it's like, what's the highest teaching, Vimalakirti? And he says nothing. And they go like, whoa, you know, that's great. And then you turn the page to the next chapter, and this monk is saying, listening to these guys talk, he says, I wonder what they're going to have for lunch. So right back into the conventional world, you know.

[68:59]

You can't hang out there in the, you know, philosophical ether for that long. It's kind of like the jhanas, you know. You got to go have lunch. So, yeah. This is fun stuff, though. I think little by little it starts to go like, oh, okay, okay, I'll let that one go. It's helpful. Fruitful fictions. Fruitful fiction. Increasingly likely models. Yeah, until the last little pin is pulled away. The Jenga. Well, you know what happens then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You start over. I was saying that to Rabbi. I said, yeah, the Lotus Sutra is like this wonderful illumination of the Imaginarium. So, you know, I call this the Imaginarium, just how we see the world. We're just imagining everything. I said the Lotus Sutra is this great exercise in the Imaginarium because you read it and you can see all these castles and towers and Buddhas and...

[70:08]

flowers and diamonds and you know you're like with going to the movies you know just totally your imagination is completely filled with this and then you close the book and where'd it go you know just gone he said yeah but you've gone into another imaginarium I said oh yeah that's right now I'm back in my kitchen It's just another version of my imagination, which is what the mind only teaching is about. It's just your mind. It's not that that's all there is. It's not like a, what do you call the mind philosophy, Western, I forget. But anyway, idealism. Yeah, idealism. It's not that. It's that all you'll ever know is through your mind. We don't know what's out there. All we know is what's being put through our awareness. Mind only. It's all you know, which is kind of comforting, you know, okay, and limiting. But that's what he's walking us through is exactly that.

[71:15]

Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Heather. Hi, Heather. There you are. Hi. So I think you're muted. Am I? Can you not hear me? At least I can't hear you. I can hear her. It says you're not muted. Oh, other people. There you go. There you go. Oh, how odd. OK. So my husband is a chemistry professor. And I was just thinking about when We talk about, okay, so there are atoms, right? And that's what he studies. And that's the whole of the material, you know, that we can see.

[72:18]

It comes down to these chemical reactions. But particle physics, you know, when it gets smaller, it's... quarks or quantum foam, or it depends on which book you're reading. It kind of reminds me of these two ideas. They're both absolutely true. And if you just sort of focus on the part about how everything is quantum foam, you miss like the sort of functional daily life part of it. But if you focus too much on just the chemical reactions, you have this idea that's not true, that an atom is an irreducible particle of existence that's eternal, which is not true.

[73:23]

So it's interesting. This just echoes conversations that I have with my husband Yeah. People are watching movies. That's what makes it so great. It's so prescient of modern physics. Exactly. That's what I was thinking was this idea of little dharmas with own being as kind of a scientific theory to explain a phenomenon that they could see. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's like that film, that bomb film. I need to see that. Oh, it's great. I'm sorry it ran out. I was able to pass it around at first, but now I can't. I don't know. It's somewhere out there. It's somewhere in the atomic, in the quantum field. But that's what he's talking about. He started to be very mystical. He's like, all of a sudden, he's like, you know, all these scientists are sounding more and more like mystics.

[74:28]

Like, where do you see this? You know, oh, my God, do you believe this? My husband is very firmly a chemistry professor. He hasn't flipped yet. But he's very interested in what I have to say. Yeah. Well, how about the Higgs boson? That seems pretty trippy. It is pretty trippy. But we talk about stuff like that. And he's like, I don't believe it. Well, that's one way out. I don't buy it. That's what Aiken Roshi said about reincarnation. He said, I don't buy it. So maybe this is relevant. So he does talk about how there's something in chemistry called Lewis structure, which most people are familiar with. It's the old model where there's a nucleus in the middle and then you draw rings with the valence electrons drawn on them. And that's a total fabrication, but it works really well as a model. And so he still uses it, but he also teaches this kind of emptiness. background, which is that, you know, don't get, if you get stuck in this as a real thing, you're going to miss what's actually happening.

[75:36]

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hope to think about it more. Yeah. Well, it's wonderful. We've lived long enough for these expansions. Remember George Wheelwright, who used to, well, he was the guy who owned the ranch before we came here to Green Gulch. Wheelwright Center is named after him. And He was the physics professor at Harvard. And he said one of his friends, he met Land. Land was a student, this genius. So he backed Land to do the Polaroid camera. That's how George got his ranch. Clever boys, you know. But anyway, George was saying that one of his colleagues at university in those days At some point in the 50s, he killed himself because everything he taught was not true. His entire career was based on those little atoms with the rings around him, you know, and it was just devastating.

[76:36]

That works really well for a lot of things. I mean, it's... But it didn't help this guy somehow. Yeah, yeah. You gotta let go of it. You have to remember. Gotta let go of it, yeah. Gotta let go of your theories. That it's a limited model. Yeah. Don't attach. See, that's the thing. Don't attach. Lightly held. Because it won't be long before all this stuff we think is really cool. Nah, that's old school. That's so old school. Well, thank you all very much. I hope you have a good evening. And the next few days are not bad. And that we all see each other. And either way, I hope to see you again. continue with our exploring of the ancient wisdom of the Buddhas. So be well. Take care. If you want to unmute to say goodnight, you're more than welcome to do that.

[77:39]

Thank you. Good night. Good night. Good night, everyone. Good night, Fu. Good night. Thank you, Fu. Take care. Be well. Thank you, Fu. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Good night. Good night. Good night. Hope we survive this next week. Oh, well, we know where to hide for the next 10 years. Oh, God. I know. I know. It's just scary. So that's where we hide. We hide at Zen Center for the next 10 years. Okay. That'd be good. We get that Enzo Village made up. Yeah. Hided Enzo Village. Yeah. Did you guys pick out your room? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Where are you? Do you know where you are? We're looking at the pool and the vegetable garden.

[78:42]

That's where we're going to be facing. We're going to see you out there. We're going to be looking at the pool and the vegetable garden. Yep. In the tall building, the fourth floor unit. Yeah, yeah, us too. Oh, really? We might be next door to each other. We'll be neighbors. Oh, my gosh. Wouldn't that be funny? What number do you have? Four. What's our number? 426 or 427. 426 or 427. 430. So, yeah. No. Oh, my God. We're going to have to be very careful, aren't we? Oh, yeah. This is going to be very interesting. It's going to be like summer camp, sort of. Yes. Sort of. Group dynamics. Very interesting. I know. I'm already planning for reading groups and knitting groups and, you know. No, you didn't tell me. Oh, I didn't tell you? Anyway, I think it'll be wonderful, actually.

[79:42]

Thank you. Thank you. See you soon. Yeah. Okay. Bye. Bye-bye.

[79:49]

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