It is nine o'clock. Nekad is it for the time or the weather. But not only for the time or weather, everything is actually it. We are also it, you know, but we don't say it. Instead we say, instead of it, we say he or she, me or I. But actually we mean it. So if everything is it, it is at the same time a question mark. When I say it, you won't know exactly what I mean, so you may ask, what is it? So, it doesn't have any particular object. There's no particular object that is it. But whenever we point to, we can say, this is it. So it has both a phenomenal meaning,

[01:03]

comparative meaning, and a non-comparative meaning. So even though we say you are Mary or Joe, Mary or Joe is also it. So it covers everything and has no particular shape or form. But everything I point to is it. So this is how we talk about fundamental reality. And discriminated reality. Fundamental reality. In fundamental reality, everything is simply it. In discriminated reality, everything has a name.

[02:07]

Discrimination means to divide and give a name. So discriminated reality is comparative reality after it's discriminated. And usually in our life, we think of our life in the realm of discriminated reality. And rarely do we see our life as a fundamental reality of it, which is not discriminated, or doesn't depend on discrimination. So he says when I talk about time, it may be mail time or lecture time. We don't say so. We don't say, I'm sorry, we don't know. So it may be a question mark for everyone. We all say, what time is it? Or is it time for a lecture? So it or it now is something definite at the same time a question.

[03:15]

So this is very important for us to know. Right now, it is hot. But it is not always hot. Very appropriate. This is a summertime lecture. Summertime it will be cold, we hope. So in the sense of time, there's continuous time and discontinuous time. Continuous time is called now. Anytime you want, you can say, this is now. Discontinuous time is made up. We say one o'clock, two o'clock, springtime. Phenomenal time. Phenomenal meaning discriminated time. Discriminated time is where we usually find ourselves.

[04:20]

And we don't often think so much about non-discriminated time, which is continuous time. But discriminated time is continuous time. Cut up into little pieces. So if we have one big piece of cloth, we take and cut it into many pieces. And then we fashion it into all kinds of clothing and materials to use. We take one whole piece of cloth and cut it into little pieces. This is how we live our life. By taking this piece of cloth, cutting it into little pieces and making clothing and objects and so forth. And we do this with other materials as well.

[05:24]

But we are not usually aware of the one piece of cloth. Even if we cut the one piece of cloth into a thousand tiny pieces, it's still one piece of cloth in the realm of continuous time and discontinuous time. So no matter how many little pieces we chop time into, it's still one continuous time. As a matter of fact, the only time there is, is now. We'd say past and future. But past is an idea in the present. Future is an idea that hasn't happened. We do speak about past and future as if they don't exist.

[06:28]

We think of the past as existing sometime back there. And the future is something that will happen. But future is just an idea. And of course, we think about the future and plans for the future. That's how the future happens. But there's no future that's coming to us or that we can take hold of. So these are ideas and concepts. And we live in the realm of ideas and concepts. And our ideas and concepts create our world. So we say human beings are self-creating. We're continuously self-creating. This is called the world of karma, of course. Karma is volitional action. That's all it means.

[07:30]

Karma means a volitional action. Something that you do, an action or a thought, that creates an effect. And the effect creates another action, which creates another effect and symbols. And thus, the effect is called the fruit of the action. So every action has a result. And through action and result, we create our lives down one path or another. We can always change our path and change the direction of the karmic consequence. So we have that freedom. Life is not faint or determined. We're continually making it up. Continuous time is sometimes called eternal time.

[08:33]

I like to use the word continuous because eternal has certain connotations. It's okay to use it, as long as you don't get stuck in the connotations. But the continuous time is the continuous moment of now. And it only becomes discriminated when there's activity. When there's activity, we begin to have discriminated time, which is what we call time. But the important point is to not base our life on discriminated time, but on continuous time. That's the basis. So in our Zen practice, we're always allowing ourselves to depend on the fundamental.

[09:35]

So in the last talk, Suzuki Goshi says, although we have to live in the world of delusion, we shouldn't base our life on the world of delusion, but on the realm of reality, which is continuous time, of realizing what it means to be just thus. So when we talk about time, we can see that time is continuous, and also that time is definite. Definite means discontinuous. Now let's say it is half past eight, we point out a certain time. Now time is discontinuous. But time by its nature is continuous, so the one word has two sides, continuity and discontinuity,

[10:37]

and that is the nature of reality. You know, in the Mahayana, we talk about the two truths. It's easy to get mixed up, so we talk about two truths. One is the truth of discriminated time that we live in, and the other is the truth of non-discriminated time, or basic reality, which is not changing. So Dabang Zangyat Chögyi talks about practice not as something special, but something continuous, something mixed up with everything. So I think I have to explain that a little bit. He doesn't talk about practice as special, but something continuous, something mixed up with everything. So something mixed up with everything is continuous time,

[11:39]

or emptiness. Emptiness is mixed up with form. Form is mixed up with emptiness. You can't separate them. You can't separate continuous time from discontinuous time, because they're one thing. Discontinuous time is the activity of continuous time, and continuous time is the fundamental of discontinuous time, the essence. So essence and form go together. He says, If you fall to the ground, stand up by the ground. Use the ground to help you stand up. That's wonderful. He says, If you fall on the ground, stand up by the ground.

[12:42]

But does that make sense? If you fall on the ground, you stand up by the ground in that place. Also, he says, If you fall on the ground, stand up by emptiness, by nothing. Without discussing why this is, we can't have a complete understanding of our teaching. Actually, we stand up by the ground, but he says that we shouldn't. What does that mean? If you think you can always stand up by the ground, and you don't mind falling on the ground, you'll fall on the ground quite easily. You know, how about that? Oh, it's okay if I fall on the ground. I can just stand up by the ground. If I practice with this kind of prejudice, or easier again, that's wrong practice. So this part is important. It is like enlightenment. If you are not an enlightenment, you will be somebody who eventually makes mistakes,

[13:42]

or falls on the ground, and I will help on the ground. So it's kind of like, you know, anything we do, that we say, Well, it's okay. I can always fix it. You know? It's okay if I'm out and drink. I can always go back to AA. So this is a very subtle point. Of course we have to stand up by the ground, but if we stick to the idea of the help of the ground all the time, we will lose the training of falling to the ground. In other words, even though I make a mistake, we should not make the same mistake many, many times. Think that it's okay because we know how to get up. So more of what I'm talking about now is practice. This is not what we know when we're sharing reality. Things do not happen twice in the same way. You know about the things happening twice in the same way? There was a hunter

[14:45]

who went out hunting one day, and he was standing by a stump, and a rabbit came out of the mud real fast, and ran by and ran into the stump and killed itself. And he said, this is an easy way to hunt. So the next day, he got out his rifle, stood by the stump, and nothing happened. So, the ground is not always the same. It can be a stick sometimes, or it can be a stone. It can be water. The ground is it. It learns anything, not just ground. It learns to practice all right without trying to repeat the same experience. So, this is what happens often, you know, in Zazen. Someone would say, Zazen was so easy yesterday,

[15:48]

and today it's so awful, so hard, so my legs hurt today. Or, my mind was going, and I couldn't stop it. We think in that way. So, we want to have some perfect thing called good Zazen. But there is no such thing as good Zazen or bad Zazen. Good Zazen and bad Zazen is in the realm of discrimination. Zazen is just Zazen. It's just whatever is happening on this moment is it. This is the point of Zazen. This is the essence of Zazen. Whatever it is that's happening on this moment is it. But we don't appreciate everything that's happening on this moment because we think there's something better than this. There's got to be something better than this. When you're sitting and your legs are screaming,

[16:50]

you say, there has to be something better than this. But, that's just in the realm of discrimination. So, that's what we call the realm of delusion. Although there is something called better and worse. We get stuck in better and worse. If in a discrimination on the basis of like and dislike, we can't accept what we have right now because we want something else. And as soon as you want something else, you start suffering. Buddha says, the problem we have is suffering caused by the desire for something else. So, how do we accept

[17:53]

the fundamental reality of what's happening on each moment? It's enlightened practice. We don't define enlightenment, but we talk about what are the effects of enlightenment or what is the expression of enlightenment. The expression of enlightenment is to accept things just as they are on each moment with gratitude. You can say, well, I don't feel gratitude for this. Enlightened practice is to accept your situation on each moment without discriminating between like and dislike, even though you may not like it. It doesn't mean you can't change. It simply means that you are grounded in fundamental reality.

[18:55]

It's hard to stay grounded in fundamental reality. You know, when we sit sadhana, we sit very still. And the more still we sit, the easier it is to accept whatever is present. Because we're being grounded on fundamental reality of now. Now. This is it. We have a koan, a very famous koan, What is it? That's the koan that sometimes all the koans know. But, you know, the koan, Mo, is, the answer to the koan, Mo is it. Mo is it. What is Mo? Mo is it. What is it? The answer to that is this is it. It is this.

[20:00]

Anyone wanna say it, it comes out right. So, we're always trying to repeat the same experience. So there is nothing to be annoying in our practice. But on the other hand, there's always something provided for you. Always. According to the circumstances, you will have some aid to practice our way. Even a pair of legs is an aid. But the pair you have, you practice our way. The pairing is it. It is anything, but at the same time, it is some definite experience, a particular problem. It can be drowsiness. It can be hunger. It can be hot weather. So hot weather, or cold weather, or hunger, or mosquitoes, or the pairing of legs can be an aid to your practice with which you stand up and establish your practice. So,

[21:03]

not all Buddha's teaching, but everything can be an aid to us. as I was saying yesterday, there are no obstacles. There are only opportunities in practice. This is how I can tell a mature student from an immature student. An immature student will complain. A mature student does not complain. But always accepts everything as it is. Without resentments. Without anger. Totally based on fundamental reality. Without trying to avoid something, and without hanging on to something. This is called perfect freedom. So, in all, J means things. And in all,

[22:04]

N is San'an who is practicing Zazen. San'an practicing something. That is reality. Or we could say, San'an doing something. That N is a discontinuous particular being which has form and color. Form and color is a kind of technical term in Japanese Buddhism which means phenomena. The world of phenomena. So, if that is San'an, San'an doing Zazen already includes I'm trying to find my place. San'an practicing something. That is reality. Or we could say, San'an doing something. Then N is a discontinuous particular being which has form and color in the realm of discrimination. But as Dazenji says, practice is something continuous.

[23:06]

Something mixed up with everything. So, sometimes, you know, Dogen will say, practice continues on forever. This is how you have to understand practice continues on forever. The fundamental reality of practice continues on forever. The forms are always changing. But the fundamental reality is continuous, and the forms are always arising out of the fundamental reality. And the forms are the fundamental reality. And the fundamental reality is the forms, but at the same time Forms are forms, and fundamental reality is fundamental reality. So wherever you are is it. But at the same time, everything is continuously changing. So if you stand with it as the fundamental reality, you can't get lost.

[24:10]

There's no way to get lost. If this is so, then so and doings as in are readying for everything. So I can't be separate from the world. Some action can't exist without the background of the whole world, and the same thing can't be apart from other things. So so and doing and something is the same thing. If I have the same thing, then I can say something, something, something. What is that? That is complete realization. Everything happens in this way. So if you stick to the idea of help or enlightenment, then it's all a mistake. You have separated yourself from everything. Some may say, well, he studies Soto Zen, but he denies the enlightenment experience. People used to, because Suzuki Roshi didn't emphasize practicing to create an enlightenment

[25:18]

experience, people often criticized him as he doesn't believe in enlightenment experience. But in Soto Zen, practice and enlightenment are not separate. Practice generates enlightenment, and enlightenment is practice. So instead of emphasizing an enlightenment experience, Suzuki Roshi emphasized practice. In other words, practical, to do something, to actually engage in practice, and not to chase after some idea called enlightenment. If we continuously act on our practice, throw ourselves into practice, enlightenment is there. You don't have to create some idea called enlightenment. But we don't realize the enlightenment. Even though we're practicing in the midst of enlightened practice, we don't always realize that.

[26:23]

So instead of talking about enlightenment, we usually talk more about realization. To realize what you're really doing. So, he says, this is not so. Most Soto students do not stick to anything. We have complete freedom of practice, complete freedom of expression. Our practice is the living expression of our true nature or reality. So for us, it is not possible to stick to anything. Moment after moment, we practice in a renewed, refreshed way. So, this is enlightened practice. That every moment is a brand new birth, actually, of life. We also think about birth and death as happening on each moment. Each moment is a moment of renewal.

[27:28]

And in order to have renewal, something has to get right. So, our life gives way to new life, moment by moment. So, we have various ways of thinking about birth and death. Whereas, I was born on a certain day and I lived my life and then I died. That's one way of thinking about birth and death. But birth and death are happening at each moment as well. This is how one can actually study the reality of birth and death. And we should study it all the time. You can study it in a moment and continuously. So, birth and death are not something to fear, but if we understand it, the reality of birth and death,

[28:31]

we can say that everything is just right, just as it should be. Somebody said, you know, I can't stand the fact that we die. Well, that's because you don't understand the reality of our life. It's too bad. Death just causes pain and suffering. Imagine the pain and suffering of, I'm ailing because we have to die. Okay. So, you know, what is the great matter? We should be studying the great matter. Dogen talks about the great matter. The great matter is the matter of birth and death. What is it? What is it really? You know, there's life. But life is not the opposite of death.

[29:33]

Birth is the opposite of death, because birth and death are the inspiration and expiration. Inspiration is coming to life. Expiration is letting go. That's what we call our birth, inspiring, inspired, and expired. And so, expired means dying. Inspired means coming to life. And we do that continuously, all the time. Life itself is continuous. Life is like it. Life is immobile. And it's not affected by birth and death. This is the fundamental. So, life itself is continuous, but birth and death are the changing of, like, night and day.

[30:37]

So, we don't like it, but, in our defense, you know, birth and death are not life. So, we don't really like it. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Not yet. But, unfortunately, we don't have a lot to say about it. But, if we can accept our life on each moment, just as it is, we can accept everything as it's supposed to be. So, we have to realize that nothing belongs to us. That's very fundamental. You know, we have our clothes, and we have our money, and we have our this and that. And we say, those are mine. But they're not mine. Nothing is mine. Nothing is my property. Nothing is mine. Everything is mine.

[31:46]

And it's just stuff to work with. Well, we're here to pass the time with. But we get very caught up in all this, and to take it very seriously. Very seriously. So, our practice should be independent from past practice and future practice. We cannot sacrifice our present practice for some future attainment. He's talking about enlightenment. If I'm always thinking about enlightenment, then this moment is unsatisfactory. If I'm always thinking about something better in the future, this moment becomes unsatisfactory. So, that's called wasting your life. Because you don't see the value of this moment. We totally miss the value of the present moment by wishing for something better in the future.

[32:48]

Not that something will change, and you'll enjoy something that you think is better in the future. So, this is much better. But it's, maybe, it may be better, but fundamentally, it's not any better. Fundamentally, everything is the same. But discriminatively, things are better and worse. So, we can't sacrifice our present practice for some future attainment, because all the buddhas attain enlightenment in this way, and all the buddhas in the future will attain enlightenment in this way. In this way, in other words, not in a particular way. Sometimes it may be sattva-mayi, sometimes rinzai. According to the circumstances, it may have been another school. Some may attain enlightenment when selling a flower or hearing a sound. Some may attain enlightenment when taking a hot bath or going to the restroom. That should put our attainment in various ways.

[33:51]

So, actually, there's not a sattva-mayi or a rinzai way. We have discussed practice rather abstractly, but this is what it means. Whatever it is, we should accept it. Whatever it is, we should accept it. But in all these ways, moment after moment, no matter how badly we practice our way, there's no other way to attain enlightenment. So, you know, because anything, whatever it is that seems like a problem is also an aid. So, we don't say, I wish I didn't have this problem, but how can I use this problem? Rather than, how can I be used by this problem? So, do you have any questions? Yes? You said everything is as it should be. Yeah. And you also said that we can change our actions. Mm-mm. You didn't say that? Mm-mm.

[34:52]

I said, let us not fight. So, you said... Not fight. Fight means something that's determined, and we can't change it. So, you can change actions. Absolutely. That's what Buddhism is based on. Right. So, isn't that a contradiction? Of what? If you're able to change things... Yes. If you're able to change, change. But then it's not as it should be, or is it still as it should be? It's still as it should be. Change, whatever it is, it's as it should be. In other words, we're talking about an attitude, not about a will. You have to understand that. We're not talking about, this is a will. We're talking about, this is an attitude, in which we approach our life. And if you start picking on things, then you're never letting them go. So, we have to understand that. We also have to understand that a talk,

[35:58]

in expressing this, expresses something that we should understand, rather than something that is going to offend you. So, and we have to live between the lines, or as it's said at the back of the page, which is where the law lies. So, let's not put down exceptions, and say, what about this? We have to be careful, because we can always change. Karma is not fixed. Whatever action you do, determines who you are, and what you have become. That's just, that's phenomenal. So, but we can change your karma. We can change, and it's going in a different direction. You always have more freedom, because everything's fixed. But when I asked you before, you said we're all going to the same place. We have different destinies,

[37:00]

we have different destinies, but we're going to the same place. So what... We have different destinies. Destiny means destination. Right. And destiny means, because of what you do, you go to some place that has a direction. Right. So I have a direction, and my directions are all different. You know, that's a moment of an old. But in a world of continuous time, there's no special direction. Everything is completely still. So, activity arises out of stillness. But to be best at ordinary activity, to best at ordinary activity, is to not be guarded in reality, because everything's changing. There is no... There's nothing you can even grasp in the realm of phenomena as stable. I mean, look at the world. You think it's stable,

[38:01]

and then, boom, everything changes. And then, boom, it changes again. There's no stability here. The only stable place is in fundamental reality, which is always stillness. And the stars is the same. Why not? That's where they all meet. They all meet in stillness, in the fundamental reality. But the discriminating reality is where they all sometimes meet and sometimes don't. That's all the problems. But it's all based on fundamental reality. So when we touch the fundamental reality, we have the possibility of being enlightened, whether we are or not. But we can always change our direction. Otherwise, you'd be hopeless. And who knows? It might be hopeless anyway.

[39:02]

So that's why we can, you know, peace and love and so forth are always vulnerable to each other because this is the world of duality, the world of discrimination, the world of duality. Sometimes it's love, sometimes it's peace, sometimes it's war, and it's all mixed up. But the world of peace and love are always there because that's our discriminated nature. It's the nature of duality. It's just always going on. You talk about suffering so much. What about joy? I don't talk about it so much. Well, we do. Well, I don't. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. It's more than a question, but that's enough of a question, I guess. It is. It is, yeah. If you're talking...

[40:08]

The Bible is saying there's more or less based on the Four Noble Truths. So the first Noble Truth is everyone has a problem in this world, and that problem is the problem of suffering. There's no suffering if there's no joy. It's simply talking about the problem, not talking about the other side. Of course there's joy and so forth, although in some cases the understanding is that even our joy is suffering, because without joy there's suffering, and without suffering there's joy. When you have joy, you know it's going to be gone. Well, that's right. Joy doesn't last very long. You have to catch it as it flies, as someone said. Catch the joy as it flies by. But it's possible to love a life of enjoyment, but that's on a deeper level. When you touch reality,

[41:08]

that enjoyment of touching reality is not dependent on circumstances. So the joy that we usually think about is the joy which is dependent on circumstances. So we're joyful, we're in death's charge, we're all joyful. We're suffering, and then we're joyful, and now we're suffering. And that one thing follows the next, but in the realm of fundamental reality, when you touch, it's like a deep river that runs through your life, and no matter what the circumstances, there's a dead giant that runs through everything. But I was thinking that when we talk about reality versus delusion... Not dresses, but... Well, reality and delusions that we live in, it seems that cultivating a joyous attitude helps you to embrace things emo. Absolutely. Because if you suffer all the time, I've noticed talking to people,

[42:10]

I think, oh, you're afraid to be hurt. Oh, you're afraid to be hurt. That's right. You're afraid to be hurt. And so then they want to shut out a lot of things because those things may hurt them. That's right. And there's more delusion, I think, in that. I'm asking you, than in joy. So joy comes from accepting everything as it is. You're not going to accept everything as it is even though they're never planned to stop joy. It doesn't eliminate joy. So when I talk about joy as something separate from pain, there is a... So Buddha talked about pain. So that's why you talk about pain a lot. He talked about pain. And what is called the physician, first of all, some heroes are subject to suffering. And the reason why is because of desire,

[43:14]

unfulfilled desire. Which is called delusion. Delusion in that wishing for something unattainable. Or the wish for something which is unattainable because we can't... Anyway, that... I'm not so inspired by that. Whereas the cure, the cure is to realize that there is a way out of that. And the way out of that is to follow the Dharma, which leads you away from the illusion of suffering or the delusion of... or how to get into suffering. So what is the end of suffering? That's what Buddhism is about. Not such a bad suffering, but how to get out of suffering. So when there's no suffering, there's no joy. Right? So it's like...

[44:19]

But if you say, this is joy, this is joy, that would be a misunderstanding. So it's simply how do I carry myself? And then joy is a result of something. Happiness is a result of something. Right? So we're talking about high and low, rather than trying to get joy or trying to get happiness. There's no such thing as a happiness or a joy. Joy is the result or the expression of something. So long as you don't have freedom, you have joy. But to try and manufacture it, which we do all the time, society has gone... I call it society giant manufacturers. You know, it's unmanufactured. I really like we don't enjoy the simple things as much as... We know we should, but we sometimes forget how much great pleasure there is and, you know, just having a healthy body and breathing and cool water on a hot day,

[45:20]

all those things that are such a great joy in it, and yet we focus in on, oh, it's the time... I'm not saying... Healing bands are subject to overstimulation. You know, I often feel so heartbroken that all the farmers left the farms, you know, for the city. What's your... Isn't that their song? They're gonna keep them down in the fire. So we fed each other all this stuff. And when you get fed, you know... That's right. Then you're grounded. You don't eat so much. You know, you could say a couple words. I recognized yesterday, I don't know... Actually, for myself,

[46:22]

I do know the difference for other people, but I do not know for myself what is the difference in compassion to myself and indulgence. I do not know what's the difference. Yeah. Well, compassion is for others. Indulgence is for ourselves. Well, the words pretty much, but as I understood you yesterday differently. Yeah, I said it a little differently yesterday. I hate repeating myself. Things are changing. Yes. Okay, well, then this is it. Yeah, because there's no one answer. Now, language is really tricky. What is? Language. Language, yeah. And when you say acceptance, you say something about the kind of acceptance that is the understanding of acceptance

[47:25]

that's an acceptance of resignation that expresses itself through not doing and then the acceptance that expresses itself through being grounded. Right. The acceptance that I try to imagine and think of is we're still small, but we'll try and stuff it in. That's not acceptance. Acceptance is growing bigger to expand, to include everything. That's called big mind. Big mind expands to include everything. And then it's not suffering. It's only suffering when we find our limitation and we don't have room for what's present. The secret of Zazen and our life of practice is to expand, to accept everything. Because if you don't expand, you can't really accept. So you just grow bigger to encompass everything.

[48:26]

And just with that, because I feel like a little bit not hearing something, if you could say something on in the acceptance that grows bigger and can hold everything, that part of that expression is responding, responding to what's happening. Oh, absolutely. There's action involved. It's responding, not necessarily reacting. Reaction is to be caught by something. Responding is to go to that fundamental place and open up, and then you know how to respond. Time.

[49:10]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ