Good evening. Today I was talking to someone who just turned 40 and discovered that when we were talking they discovered about four months ago that a cancer they had that they thought was in remission had metastasized in several places in their body and going through a process of surgery and radiation and then chemotherapy. And the person's also a practitioner, so we were talking about what it's like to practice with that. And I was struck by how they talked about it.

[01:03]

I was struck by the sort of nobility of that human capacity to respond to these sorts of difficulties with the wisdom and compassion that somehow brings out the best of us, you know, that nobility. And It also made me think of this poem. The way it is. There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn't change. People wonder what you're pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it's hard for others to see. While you hold on to it, You can't get lost. Tragedies happen.

[02:04]

People get hurt or die. You suffer and get old. Nothing you can do can stop times unfolding. Never let go of the threat. Something about the vow or intention to keep turning to the nobility of the human spirit to let it be the guiding light, to let it be the reference point. So in studying the Dharma, part of what we're doing is intentionally shifting from the more usual frame of references that can come up for us as we meet our light. the fears and desires that arise in the ways they tend to frame our existence.

[03:08]

When am I going to get what I want and avoid what I don't want? The Dharma presents a different perspective. And it also, it presents a way of being the person we are that resonates deeply and fully with this innate nobility. As we tap into it, as we express it, something in us is actually relieved. It's a little bit like when we fall into, interestingly, we call it a petit, you know, from the French petite, small. When we fall into small mind, when we fall into the smaller ways of relating to what we're challenged with in being alive. It casts its own description of what life is and what should be the intention with which we live it.

[04:17]

And when we do that, when we thwart our own nobility, there's a way in which we feel lesser. Whether we begin to doubt our own capacity, whether our sense of what's possible about living a human life shrinks, or whether we just become dissatisfied with how life now appears or how we appear to be. And yet, living up to or expressing this nobility is a challenge. So this period of time, this practice period as we're calling it, we're studying a process of how this nobility is brought into being, how this nobility is nurtured and strengthened and allowed to be a strong influence in our lives.

[05:31]

And the starting place is intention. Almost despite ourselves, our nobility stirs up an intention to practice. And maybe you could say the path of practice is to continually clarify the intention and learn to live it, learn to become it. in the process of the practice period, to ask ourselves and to bear witness to each other, what is your intention? And then, what is it to live your intention? How does it influence how you relate to the different parts of your life? How does it influence how you relate to the different parts of yourself?

[06:36]

And what I'd like to talk about tonight are some formulations that come out of early Buddhist tradition that in a way offer a reframing of the human experience. It's a little bit like way-seeking mind talks. Way-seeking mind talks assume that a couple of things. One, that you're actually in the way, you are practicing the way, that you've been brought to it by your life. And it assumes that your life has brought you to being a practitioner. That's the nature of it. That your life has contributed to such an event. And if you think about it, it's a little unusual way to think about a life. For the teachings of the Dharma, they offer us a reframing.

[07:46]

In the midst of the utilitarian necessities of our life. How will I make enough money to do this or that or the other functional things that get involved in our life? to ask ourselves, well, what is it to create the capacity to be aware? How do you do that? What's involved in it? And when you've created that capacity, what is it to engage in the process of becoming aware and let that be nurtured in our being? So in the early teachings, cultivating the capacity was called cultivating the five faculties.

[08:52]

And engaging them and nurturing and becoming the factors of awakening was called the seven factors of awakening. The five factors are... Trust, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. When we create an intention, it's an interesting proposition because in some ways it arises out of our nobility. But it's also influenced by some sense of discontent, some sense of wanting to respond to our own suffering, get rid of it, fix it, something.

[10:07]

When I was talking to this person today, one of the things we were talking about was not wanting to die. wanting to be cured. When you go through these treatments, you want them to be successful. You want to be cured. But if you cling to that, the world tightens. The world becomes rigid and stiff. It loses the capacity to hold the simple truth we don't know. We don't know how things are going to turn out. But there's almost like a cellular wish to live, and that can give rise to this kind of motivation or intention.

[11:08]

And then the intention of practice, this wide acceptance, this acknowledgement that everything changes, and how these forces within us, they're both there. Maybe one you could say, one's more what we're trying to cultivate, and the other one is more what arises inherently in our existence. So often our intention is a mix of the two. And not to eradicate, the intention that arises out of some sense of self-preservation, not to eradicate it. Because being alive is precious. It's a blessed opportunity.

[12:12]

It's there to be appreciated and savored. something in that appreciation and gratitude for being alive that lets something in us soften, find its ease. That interestingly inclines us towards this wider acceptance. So our intention is a mix. And our intention gives rise to engagement in the practice. Our engagement that arises from our intention is stimulated by our discipline.

[13:20]

It is stimulated by our perseverance. It's stimulated by our commitment. But there's a request of us not to become rigid in our commitment, in our persistence. Not to let that become a kind of white-knuckling determination that gets too closely linked with I have to live at all costs. which means it has to happen according to my fears, my wishes. So the first two factors, the first two faculties of commitment, trust, confidence, And the second factor of engagement, perseverance, energy.

[14:26]

They balance each other. Sort of a trust in how life is. In a way, we can say, when we become too anxious and determined in our practice, we're losing our trust, our appreciation in how life is. It's almost like we're mistrusting or we're missing the beauty of each moment in our determined effort to make it how we wish it would be. One of the things about working with severe illness is learning to trust the practice and let the outcome happen. And of course, when you have a severe illness, a life-threatening illness, it's ferocious in how it keeps returning you to that.

[15:44]

Just trust your practice and let the outcome be whatever it is. But really, we all share that condition. We're all impermanent. And we're not omniscient. We don't know how our life is going to unfold. The request is there for all of us. This question of trust and how it can influence and balance our commitment, our determination, our energy. So our intention inspires, guides, stimulates our efforts. And also, we can ask ourselves, well, how should I relate to this in a way that expresses my intention?

[16:56]

Whatever realm of life it is. How should I relate to this person in a way that expresses my intention? And in the engagement, something about practice, something about the innate nobility of our being, something about revealing the nature of what is, is activated. So the engagement of our intention, something's activated. And in the realm of practice, that becomes our teacher. That becomes a teaching of the way things are, the nature of what is. And it guides us in our effort. And sometimes the guidance is...

[17:57]

Our practice is too loose, our practice is too tight. We need to emphasize discipline or we need to emphasize loosening up a little bit. Don't be so rigid or determined. And then the next faculty is mindfulness. Mindfulness, the word sati. Sometimes the different way it appears in the sutras seems almost contradictory. Part of that is it covers a range. We can talk about being aware of what's happening. You can reflect at the end of your day and say, what were the notable events of today?

[19:07]

And then you can reflect on what exactly was experienced. And what were the responses that arose in me to those experiences? And is there any pattern to them? Do they reveal anything about the conditioned ways in which I respond? to different experiences, to different, what I perceive as different personality types, or different kinds of events. So that's one form of awareness. And then we can say, well, as we do that, that form of sati, that form of awareness, helps us to cultivate the capacity to bring that same attention and awareness into real time, to be present for events, experiences as they're happening, rather than later we revisit them, we reflect upon them, to start to be able to be present for the events as they're happening, to start to be able to be present for the feelings, the immediate sense impressions,

[20:40]

the concepts that arise in our minds. And then as we start to do that, quite literally, the capacity to be present for what's happening lays the foundation, sets the stage for the capacity to respond intentionally. If we're only aware of it 12 hours later or three days later, there's no way to be intentional within it. To be intentional within our experience requires us to be present for it. But the reflection helps to establish that capacity. And in the process of reflection, To be able to just note what was experienced.

[21:44]

Especially if you find something stays in your heart and mind as unfinished business. You keep replaying it. There's something about it isn't finished, isn't settled. Often it's helpful to reflect upon it. What happened? And how matter-of-factly can you describe it? I hope. This was the experience. This was the response to the experience. And of course, sometimes it's mysterious. We just have an imagery. Something powerful and upsetting happened, but I can't remember exactly what that person says. I just remember how I felt when they said it.

[22:47]

Taking the backwards step. Meeting the experience as it now is, in its unfinished way, and stepping back. And in the stepping back, Cultivating the ability, capacity, faculty, to just note as best we can what happened. And this, as I say, sets a foundation for doing that in real time. To just note what's happening and how it's being responded to. And to meet that with intentionality. the intentionality that the other factors, the other faculties are also promoting. The intentionality of engaging it right now. The intentionality of engaging it with awareness.

[23:59]

The intentionality of engaging it with insightfulness, wisdom. The different faculties set the stage for each other. They balance each other. They promote each other. And then as sati is more evident in the moment, the different attributes of it become more... readily experienced. Sati has no agenda. Sati is simply saying what's happening now. It's not saying what should happen now, what should not happen now.

[24:59]

It's saying what's happening now. There's a kind of an open awareness without an agenda. Very much the flavor of shikkantaza. just sitting in the Zen school. I mean, in some ways, our Zazen has at its center point just sit with open awareness. And as you commit, as you bring the intentionality that turns into commitment to that, all this unfolds. Somehow, marvelous, organic, natural way, this just processes and awareness and the capacity to be in awareness unfolds and becomes what happens. And then the sati becomes more noticeable.

[26:11]

more evident. Then samadhi, the next factor, continuous contact. You start to see that there's different forms of continuous contact. There's the form of directing attention. Sometimes it's helpful to ask, okay, what am I feeling in my body? Very helpful for stabilizing agitated emotions. Very helpful for making contact when the mind is racing. Either because of the emotional quality that's stimulating it, or just because many different ideas are coming up. Is that how it is? Is that how it is? Am I just making that up? Is that just me? Sometimes we're barraged by a whole wealth of different ideas and concepts.

[27:21]

Okay, what's happening in my body? Are my shoulders tight? Is my belly soft? Is my jaw clenched? Letting something become more immediate in a simple, sensed way. or in our meditation, you know, returning to the sensation of breathing as a way to cut through rumination, distracting thought, as a way to become grounded in the body in the moment. And then simply put, the other form of samadhi or continuous contact, open contact, just availability to experience whatever arises in that moment.

[28:28]

And then usually some blend of the two. If it's just the open awareness, the mind tends to drift. The attentiveness, the direction, directing of attention helps to establish the ability, the capacity to let the awareness open and be without an agenda. Objectless concentration. And then the... The final factor of the five is prajna or panya in Pali. In a way you could say our insights happen in layers. First of all we

[29:44]

Become aware of what our mind says is happening in the moment. No? No? I'm being annoyed by an annoying person. Maybe we start by just noticing there's an annoying person in our presence. Then we start to notice, well, I'm having the experience of annoyance. And then we start to notice, I am perceiving this person in a certain way, and that perception is contributing to the experience of annoyance. Then we start to notice, I have a pattern of perceiving certain kinds of people this way, you know?

[30:46]

And then we start to notice there's something about conditioned existence, something about the human condition that promotes patterns of response. And then we start to notice, and these patterns of response aren't permanent. They rise and fall. They come and they go. And as they do that, they create a sense of lack of harmony, a sense of suffering, dukkha. So in one way you could say it's almost like a linear progression. But then in another way, We're way too complex to just have a neat, orderly way of experiencing, a neat, orderly process of insights.

[31:58]

Sometimes we have a profound insight about the nature of existence, and then the next moment we pop right back into believing our own constructed existence in the moment. process of insight as a faculty, as a foundation for awareness is to be when the insights arise to let them register. To let it be acknowledged and to let it register and maybe in doing so let it have the same or more authority as the other statements we make about reality. This is a really annoying person.

[33:02]

We imbue it with authority. That is how the world is. That's how this person is. And so the Dharma, in studying the Dharma, in entertaining its propositions, It offers a reframing that can facilitate, can set the stage for insights. So this is a codependent arising. This is the product of what's experienced and how it's responded to. Okay. Let me look at that. Let me see that in real time. Let me discover how that is. And let something be witnessed.

[34:04]

Something about the nature of what is. Not to say, you know, reading about it is a substitute for experiencing it. Reading about it is reading about it. You can read about Australia. It's not a substitute for going to Australia. But it can reframe. It can set the stage. It can point our intention in a certain way. And then, as I said, something about letting our... insights have authority. As we start to let our insights into the nature of what is have authority, they will illuminate, they'll make more evident the other statements we make about the nature of what is.

[35:12]

They'll start to illuminate the thoughts that get interwoven into our patterns of response. And as they do that, sometimes that has a painful quality to it. These sets of responses that we have, in a way, this is our best effort at making our life manageable and free from suffering. So as we start to expose them, there's something disconcerting about that. It's like we're challenging our own coping mechanisms. And this is where the other faculties balance out that sense of...

[36:24]

distress or discomfort that arises as our insights challenge our stories about what is and who we are. To sustain our trust in the practice. To sustain our commitment and involvement in direct experiencing. To sustain the openness of mind that's just... letting everything come in. Okay, that's the thoughts that are happening now and the feelings. Okay, let it arise, let it fall away. But it is helpful to note and to remember the process of insight. has this quality of being, can have this quality of being unsettling.

[37:33]

Not to say our aha moments, often our aha moments are greatly encouraging and often very inspiring and stimulate you have some deep insight and you think, yes, I'm really getting it now. Or maybe you just genuinely have an insight that really helps you see how you get stuck and cause suffering, and it's really a helpful thing. But the other side is they are challenging our coping mechanisms, the stories we hold on to, and that is uncomfortable. And sometimes that discomfort expresses itself in that we feel, we can feel anything from a sense of failure, a sense of things are not working out well, a wish to pull back from practice, you know?

[38:56]

and to try to practice with that. To know, oh, okay, this is just what arises as you start to expose your own psychological strategies. Okay, can I just keep breathing? Can I let something soften and stay open? It's still a matter of staying with the fundamentals of practice. And maybe reminding yourself not to get caught in discouragement or aversion. So this is a helpful thing to remember, this funny way in which our own insights can create that within us. That's the five faculties.

[40:04]

Setting the stage. And of course, many of those faculties are included in the factors of awakening. The notion is, it's a little bit like the relationship between discipline and devotion. is like a directed, determined effort. And then devotion is like, through that effort, that engagement has become part of us. We've given over to it. It's like as you continue to practice, it's like mindfulness just sort of becomes what you do. Like this person in the realness, I don't think it's so much I am going to practice with this as it's just that's... What else can you do except be awake for yourself even when it's not something you wanted or something that's easy to be awake for?

[41:21]

So as we give over, faculties become potent forces in our life. They become the factors of awakening. We start to taste directly that something about this way of involving a human life has a potency. And it's not something that we can control. It's not even something we can fully define or predict. It's more something we can allow fuller and fuller involvement in. As William Stafford says,

[42:39]

There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. I don't know if we could say in Buddhism it doesn't change. Maybe it flows through all the change. People wonder what you're pursuing. Maybe you wonder what you're pursuing or not pursuing. But it's hard. to see the full scope of its workings. While you stay with it, you can't get lost. Tragedies happen. People get hurt or die. You suffer and get old. Nothing you can do can stop times unfolding. Don't ever... let go of the thread.

[43:44]

Thank you very much.

[43:48]

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