This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Collecting my robes just now to sit down, I became aware of what... how much cloth there is involved in this costume that I'm wearing. And the expression, my Sunday best. I'm wearing my Sunday best. come here today to speak with you, and I got all dressed up.

[01:03]

I'm a little embarrassed to be all dressed up, but anyway, I'm wearing kind of my best outfit for you. At the beginning of this year, I spoke here and announced that this year my talks would be, my offerings would be concentrating on delusion. So I wanted to tell some of you, perhaps, have you heard me talk before? Yeah, so I want you to know, that's what I've been working on for the first six months. Particularly on Sundays, I've been talking about delusion. Now, you may have heard... Have you heard anything about Buddhism before?

[02:14]

No? Well, Buddhism is an English word kind of like... based on the word Buddha. And the word Buddha is often translated... the awakened one or the enlightened one. Buddha is the past participle of bud. And bud, the root bud means to awaken or to be enlightened. So the Buddha, the founder of this tradition in India, we call the Buddha Shakyamuni, he was an awakened one, an enlightened one. And he taught that he wasn't the only enlightened one. The founder of the tradition said, he did say, yeah, by the way, people say, well, what's happening with you? He said, well, I'm awake.

[03:15]

I am an awakened one. And people said, well, please tell us about how that is and how one realizes such a thing. And so he started to teach. And he taught for 45 years in historical time. But he said, I'm not the only awakened one. There are other ones. There are other ones right now throughout the universe. And I had predecessors. And I studied with Buddhas in the past. I wasn't a Buddha, but I studied with Buddhas. And Buddhas predicted, one Buddha predicted that I would be a Buddha. And now that's the situation. So this is, in a sense, a tradition of enlightenment. But enlightenment is inseparable from delusion. So I'm focusing on delusion.

[04:21]

I could say I'm focusing on enlightenment, but that was last year. Or maybe next year. But anyway... Enlightenment and delusion, I propose to you, are non-dual. They're not separate. The Buddha's enlightenment, the content of the Buddha's enlightenment is the process of delusion. Buddhas greatly, deeply understand delusion. We, living beings, all of us, have plenty of delusion. but we don't necessarily profoundly understand it. We haven't studied it completely yet. We have more study to do. The Buddhas have studied it and understood delusion thoroughly. So, delusion and enlightenment are close.

[05:25]

And there's many delusions, but the fundamental delusion that's... permeates all the other ones, is the delusion that we're separate. It's the delusion that mind and what it knows, mind and its objects of awareness, that they're separate. That's our basic delusion. And the word delusion... is appropriate, but also another word which is appropriate is affliction. Our basic affliction, our basic ignorance, is that things appear to us in a mistaken way. Things appear to us in a false way. We are innately mistaken about the way things are.

[06:28]

The innately things appear to be out there on their own, separate from us. Other beings, living and non-living, appear to be out there separate from us. This is our basic delusion, our innate ignorance, our basic affliction. And again, this basic affliction is inseparable from awakening because awakening looks at that affliction and understands the whole process and understands how liberation... can happen in concert with practicing, with studying, and practicing with delusion. So this is a kind of liturgy that I'm doing because I've been starting every talk sort of with the same basic message and then expanding on it a little bit in different directions.

[07:30]

Today I'd like to talk about the harmony of the gradual process of enlightenment and the sudden process of enlightenment. Both processes of enlightenment, both the sudden and the gradual, are working with delusions. sudden process of enlightenment is to engage the current delusion in the present, wholeheartedly engage the present delusion, and perform it authentically. And verify in this performance of current delusion, verify that delusion

[08:44]

is inseparable from enlightenment. To authenticate delusion is enlightenment. To be authentically deluded is enlightenment. And, in fact, we are all actually authentically deluded. But we need to perform wholeheartedly, with no reservation, our ordinary deluded being. We must, in other words, be authentically ourselves, because we are authentically deluded beings. We're not the only deluded beings. There's ones outside this room. But we are authentically, truly deluded beings. We are truly afflicted creatures. the realization of that right now is to perform it, is to engage it and be authentically ourselves, be authentically deluded.

[09:54]

That's done right now. You don't have to do any adjustment of your delusion. Just completely be yourself. And that may be rather difficult. But... When one is completely oneself, one is awake. So that's one kind of practice. It's called a sudden practice of enlightenment. Working with delusion also. Fully engaging it and realizing Buddha's wisdom in this way. The other way is a gradual method. which is also to engage delusion, but in a gradual way. It's a way of studying the delusion and hearing teachings about the delusion and studying the teachings about delusion and applying the teachings of delusion to the delusion and listening to and conversing with teachers about the delusion

[11:13]

until we understand the delusion. And this is a long process of studying. And in the process of studying, the basis of the delusion becomes completely transformed. So what I'm on the verge of bringing up here is a teaching about the basis of delusion, about a consciousness which is the basis of all deluded states of mind. And how working with our deluded states of mind transforms the basis of all deluded states of mind. And when this basis of all deluded states of mind is completely transformed, that is the true body of Buddha. The completely transformed basis of all defiled, afflicted, deluded states of consciousness.

[12:17]

So right now, not right now, but for a good part of this year, we've been warming up to and entering into the study of an approximately 1,500-year-old text which teaches the gradual method of enlightenment. which teaches the gradual method of transforming the basis of diluted consciousness. And I'm now, today, will start to bring out that text to you. We already chanted an unsurpassed penetrating in perfect dharma is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million eons, culpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words.

[13:23]

This text is not literally the work of the historical Buddha, this book, which I hold in my hands. And it's called The Summary of Mahayana, The Summary of the Great Vehicle. This book is said to be written by or composed by the great bodhisattva, Asanga, who lived in the fourth century of the Common Era. He is supposedly the author of this book. So for me, I venerate this teaching by this bodhisattva like I would venerate the teachings of the historical Buddha. And so this is a text which is the summary of the teachings of the great vehicle, the summary of the teaching of those who are on the path of Buddhahood, who vow to realize enlightenment,

[14:35]

for the welfare of all beings. These are the bodhisattvas, the beings who are on the path to realizing Buddhahood for the welfare of all. This text is for such beings. And it's written by one of those beings, one of those bodhisattvas, Asanga. The way the Chinese translated this text is interesting, the character they used, which can mean summary, because the character means to gather or collect, but the character also means to embrace and sustain, or to be embraced and sustained. So I like that translation, that this is a way to embrace and sustain the great vehicle and to be embraced and sustained by the great vehicle. When I read this, I am embraced by the great vehicle.

[15:40]

I am sustained by the great vehicle teachings. And also, when I read it, or when you read it, I am embracing and sustaining the tradition. I receive the tradition. At the same time, I support the tradition. I'm supported by the tradition at the same time that I receive and transmit. If you listen to this, you're listening to this teaching, you are embraced by this great vehicle teaching, but also your listening to it nourishes it because the purpose of this teaching is for us to listen to. The first chapter is called The Support of the Knowable. The Support of All We Know. The ancestor of Sangha says, it is first explained that the support for the knowable is termed the container consciousness.

[17:05]

So this is a consciousness which supports all our knowing. It's a kind of knowing itself, but it supports all of our conscious knowing. It itself is what you might call the unconscious. This unconscious supports all of our conscious activity. This unconscious supports all of our deluded, afflicted states of mind. And you might say, well, no thanks. Go away, great unconscious. But anyway, it's not an option. According to this teaching, all of our states of mind are supported by this vast consciousness, which is called the storehouse consciousness. It's called the storehouse consciousness because it is the result.

[18:15]

It is a consciousness that is presently supporting our active consciousness. Our active hearing right now, our active smelling, our active seeing, our active thinking, it's supporting this current conscious activity. But it is the result. It is the result of all past karma. So, the support of our present active consciousness is the past. And the past that's supporting the present is present. This is the past which is simultaneous with the present. The past which is simultaneous with the present is unconscious and carries and transmits all of our past action. Or I should say, it transmits the results.

[19:16]

It is the result of all of our past action. And the result of all of our past action supports our present action. and everything changes, and the next moment, a new result, a new container consciousness, which contains all the past plus the last moment, is now supporting our present active consciousness. All the skillful and unskillful past actions have consequence, and these consciences were... have been received by this consciousness and are now carried and transmitted by this consciousness and support this active consciousness through which I am speaking and listening and through which you are listening. Then the Bodhisattva Sangha asks, where has the world honored one, the Buddha,

[20:25]

spoke of this consciousness. And then he asks, where did he call it the container? And then it says, in the basic verses of a scripture called the Abhidharma scripture, the Abhidharma sutra, it says, from beginningless time, this realm, is the support of all things. Only if it exists do all the destinies exist, do all the destinies of worldly existence exist. And only if it exists is there access

[21:27]

to nirvana, access to peace and freedom. So this consciousness is the basis of all defiled states, but also this consciousness is the basis of the gradual path of freedom, And this consciousness is that which gets gradually transformed. And when it's completely transformed, this completely transformed consciousness is the true body of Buddha. How does this consciousness get transformed?

[22:34]

How does this consciousness get transformed? I told you already, but now I'm going to tell you again. It gets transformed because it receives the results of our actions. So right now, I am in conscious life. I am acting. I think I'm thinking. I think I'm talking. And the way I talk has consequence. And the consequence of what I'm doing with my voice and what's happening in my mind and how my hands are moving and how I'm sitting, all the actions which I'm now expressing have consequence. And those consequences are sometimes called permeations or impressions All the things I do will make impressions. Make impressions.

[23:39]

And they make impressions on this consciousness. So I'm supported by a consciousness to have this conscious activity, and my conscious activity makes an impression on its support. So all of our conscious activity transforms the support for our conscious activity. And so the storehouse consciousness is constantly being transformed, but it gets transformed differently depending on your karma. It gets transformed one way if you do skillful things, another way if you do unskillful things, and another way if you do things which it's not clear whether they're skillful or unskillful. And in that way, it has been transformed for a very long time by past action.

[24:50]

And now it carries all the transformations are available to support, according to causes and conditions, the next moment of active consciousness. And there's another element in the process, which is that the... completely transformed consciousness of the Buddhas makes gifts. The gifts are called teachings. The true body of Buddha gives the truth, offers the truth to beings, to conscious beings. And the conscious beings, if they receive these gifts, the action of receiving the gift of the teaching of the truth... from those whose consciousness has been completely transformed, receiving that teaching transforms, has a consequence of transforming the consciousness. So the more we receive the teaching, the more impressions are made on the storehouse consciousness.

[26:04]

So the storehouse consciousness is also called the consciousness which possesses all the seeds. All the seeds for what? All the seeds for active consciousness. But this consciousness can also receive the seeds for awakening, by receiving things which are given to us by the enlightened ones. What are the things that are given to us by the enlightened ones? How about everything? How about learning to see that everything that's given is a teaching?

[27:08]

Now, if there is a teaching, I said before, if the Buddhas are teaching us and we open to the teaching of the Buddha, letting that teaching in has an impression or an effect or permeates our unconscious. The action of letting the Buddha's teaching in transforms our consciousness. And if we would let the Buddha's teaching in moment after moment after moment after moment for quite a long time, the consciousness which supports defiled states, diluted states, would be completely transformed, and all the seeds for diluted states would be eliminated, and there would be no possibility of diluted states anymore. This, of course, takes a very, very long time. Sometimes many of us or some of us have felt like we heard a teaching, like we met a teacher and the teacher gave us a teaching.

[28:41]

Or we read a scripture of the historical Buddha and we read it and we thought, oh, that's a teaching and I'm receiving it. Sometimes people read the scriptures of the Buddha and they look at them and they say, I just don't understand how this is teaching. I don't understand what he's saying. I don't understand what she's teaching. I don't get it. I don't see it as a teaching. You know, a text that everybody agrees, this is the teaching of the Buddha. I don't see it. And some people, they see something which almost nobody sees as a text teaching the Dharma, like a billboard or a stop sign. They see a stop sign and they say, oh, the Buddha's teaching. And in fact, you know, in Japan and in China, it's easier maybe to see a stop sign as a teaching of the Buddha because the Chinese character that's on the stop sign means calm down.

[29:44]

It also means stop. It means stop, but also it's the character that the Buddhists use for tranquility and concentration. So, you know, most Chinese and Japanese, not Koreans, I don't know what their signs look like, but in Japan and China they have these signs which, you know, if you're a Buddhist and you study Chinese Buddhism, you see these signs all over the place saying concentrate. Which also, at that time, you're supposed to stop your car if you're the driver. But if you're a passenger, you're meditating and then you see a reminder to meditate. But a lot of people... Japanese and Chinese people, they don't see that that's a teaching. They maybe think, how inconvenient. I'm supposed to stop now and I don't want to. I'm supposed to, you know, practice concentration and I just want to dip through this stop sign and go someplace. In other words, they don't want to see it as a teaching. Somebody says to me maybe, you know, you're really stupid.

[30:57]

Someone might say that to me and I might say, I might see that as a teaching. And I might say, thank you. Not that it's true that I'm stupid or false that I'm stupid, but just that it's a teaching. It's reminding me to practice receiving the Buddha's teaching. The Buddha's teaching, I don't know if you have a Buddha, let's say you have a Buddha, the Buddha is radiating the teaching. And the teaching, when it comes to the English word stupid, it doesn't stall and get blocked by the word stupid. It goes right into the word stupid. Or the word smart. Or the word I like, the word love. It goes right into the word. It's unhindered by it. The Buddhist teaching is unhindered. Nothing stops it. It's going everywhere. But because of our...

[31:59]

past karma, which is conveyed to us by this storehouse consciousness, there are seeds for rejecting the world of truth and saying, this is not the teaching of Buddha here. This is something to get past. This stop sign isn't an opportunity for transformation of consciousness. This stop sign is something just to sort of like, I don't know what. deal with in some other way than seeing it as a teaching. Or, I can't drive and see everything as a teaching. I need a chauffeur so that I can just ride through the world and see everything as a teaching. Because if I see everything as a teaching, I might not stop And then when it changes from red to green, I might not go.

[33:04]

I might not know what it means that it's green. I might not know what the teaching means, and that might interfere with my driving. And so, for the sake of driving, I reject green lights and red lights and yellow lights as the Dharma of the Buddha. And that transforms my consciousness. But it keeps it it keeps it being the kind of consciousness that supports defiled states. When you see a stop sign and you say, oh, that stop sign's out there, separate from me, or this car is separate from the other cars, that way of thinking creates the impression of transforming the basis of that very thought into being the basis of a future thought like that. Thinking dualistically, has the impression of transforming your consciousness into the next support for the next dualistic thought.

[34:04]

But seeing something and seeing that it's out there and then remembering the teaching that it's not out there, separate, that transforms your consciousness towards enlightenment. That changes your consciousness into a consciousness which will eventually not believe that anybody's separate from you or anything's separate from you. So there's a teaching that everything that comes is dharma. It doesn't say that A bad thing is not a bad thing. It's saying that when a bad thing comes, the Dharma is there. And when a good thing comes, the Dharma is there. And if you remember that the Dharma is there in this unfortunate situation, your mind gets transformed, your basis consciousness, your unconsciousness, your unconscious, gets transformed towards enlightenment.

[35:24]

And if you say that this good thing is just a good thing, rather than it's not just a good thing, but it's the Dharma, and this good thing is not separate from me, even though it looks that way, being honest is part of receiving the teaching too. I honestly think that you're out there separate from me, but I see you as a teaching. I see you appearing separately, but I see you teaching me. that you're not separate. I see you as the Dharma coming through you as you appear falsely. That transforms the basis for the future states of mind. So, this basis consciousness arises simultaneously, not before, it arises simultaneously with the active consciousness. So the basis consciousness is the result of past active consciousnesses and is the cause of present active consciousnesses.

[36:31]

And present active consciousnesses, in a sense, are the effect of the cause, which is the sum total of their effects. And then they, simultaneous, before going away, they transform that which... supported them to arise and then a new situation arises and this mutual influence occurs one supporting the other to arise the other transforming the one that supported it and as the active consciousness more and more lives in a world where everything you meet is the Dharma that supports future moments of active consciousness, of thinking everything you meet is Dharma.

[37:32]

And sometimes what you're meeting is, okay, I'm meeting this, this is a Dharma, and also I'm meeting that I feel uncomfortable with this thing I'm meeting. I'm meeting a painful situation. I'm meeting something, I'm meeting a body that's recoiling, that's shrinking. that's uncomfortable, that's tensing up. And that body that's tensing up, in that body that's tensing up, the Dharma is also being offered to me. But it's hard to remember that. Even though it's hard, you're hearing that possibility now. And... Also, I'm saying that when you do hear the Dharma in everything you hear, and you do see the Dharma in everything you see, and you do feel the Dharma in everything you touch, and you do smell the Dharma in everything you smell, and you do taste the Dharma in everything you taste, bitter, bitter, like sweet.

[38:45]

To not miss that moment, to receive the teachings of the Buddhists in the tasting of something sweet or something sour or something bitter, that transforms the support of future states of mind. And that supports this gradual process, supports sudden enlightenment. it supports you being able to use this taste and this touch to use this pain and this pleasure to use this as an opportunity of performing enlightenment by being this deluded person who's having this taste who she feels is out there separate from her and to totally enact that because This is a Dharma opportunity.

[39:51]

This is an opportunity to hear the teaching and be transformed towards Buddhahood. And the more this gradual process goes on, the more likely that you can immediately, now, suddenly perform this deluded mind as enlightenment. Until someday... There would be no... It would be uninterrupted. The uninterrupted performance of sudden enlightenment is possible because of the complete transformation, which is a gradual process. So I'm today talking about the harmony of the sudden style of practice, which is characteristic of Zen, and the gradual process, which is characteristic of the teachings of the great vehicle. And Zen completely agrees with these teachings, but sometimes we don't hear about the Zen school practicing these gradual methods.

[41:02]

I'm trying to harmonize them by both practicing the sudden practice and the gradual practice together. I see some people going to work in the kitchen, so that means that maybe I've talked enough. So I feel okay about my commitment to continue to talk about enlightenment, I mean delusion, I get the two confused, for the rest of this year. But now that I've started this text, which is about how this basis consciousness is totally transformed and how that's the realization of the true body of Buddha, I think I'm also going to continue this text if you support me. And that will last for more than one year because we've just done one page so far.

[42:06]

And if I do one page, and there's 150 pages, so there'll be 150 Sundays... And I don't talk every Sunday. So that would be approximately 12 years, right? 12 times 12 is 144, right? If I talked once a month about this text here, wouldn't that be something? If I talked about once a month, I talk here approximately once a month. If I talk once a month, then in 12 years we'd be on page 144. So it's more like 13 or 14 years, we'll be done with this text. But still, you might not all be completely transformed Buddhas, so we might have to go on longer. So if we're working on this, I pray that we all live for 14 more years so we can complete this wonderful, this amazing teaching of the great vehicle.

[43:11]

I really think it would be wonderful if we all became Buddhas, that if our storehouse consciousness was completely transformed into the true body of Buddha, which supports all kinds of enlightened activity. I think there's a song about this, but I can't remember what it is. Oh yeah, it's that one I sing all the time. There may be trouble ahead. There may be delusions ahead there may be suffering ahead there may be afflictions ahead there may be but while there's music and moonlight and love and romance let's face the music and dance

[44:45]

Before the fiddlers have fled, before they ask us to pay the bill of all our delusions, let's face the music and dance. So, We'll be without the moon humming a different tune. And then there may be teardrops to shed. So while there's music and moonlight and love and romance, let's face delusion and dance. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

[46:16]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[46:19]

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