Good evening. So we'll start with a few minutes of meditation, and then I will continue with Vasubandhu's 30 verses. Good evening.

[05:44]

I hope you're all well. It's been a very exciting month, hasn't it? I just feel like every Sunday there's something amazing has happened during the week. Maybe we'll have a quiet week for a little while. So I promised that I would complete the Yogacara teaching, the 30 verses. And I'm going to try to do that, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make it because there's some really interesting stuff that I was just reading through all my notes that I would like not to leave out. And I want to share it with you. I think it's good stuff. It's really interesting. So in case I don't finish, then maybe next week. So I'm just going to stop promising. I think that's probably best. But when I do return to the transmission of light, it will be to look at Bodhidharma. first Indian ancestor who went from India, sent by his teacher to China with the Yogacara teachings under his arm.

[06:47]

So you'll all be ready to go with Bodhidharma when he makes his trip, his long voyage. So just a very quick review. I think it's, I noticed myself, if I don't go back over it a little bit, I'm like, I don't really even remember what the beginning was. So the beginning was this three, transformations of consciousness. We've looked at the map quite a few times. There's the six sense consciousnesses that we're all that we're aware of. And then below in the unconscious realm, there's the large collection of influences, conditionings called the alaya. And then there's the manas, the lover, the one who believes in itself and loves itself and is basically the driver of all that we do that causes us so much pain. So in the first 1 through 16 verses of this teaching, the story was centered on helping us to become intimate with the workings of our mind, the clockwork of the mind.

[07:51]

So here's the map of the territory. We all have the territory. We're all conscious beings. That's kind of a given. Find our way onto our Zoom account. That's pretty much consciousness that does that. So we've got that. But this is more like, well, how does that work? How did I do that? How's that working? What's the method of becoming conscious, taking action, impulses and so on, feelings and that sort of thing? So the first one through 16 were about the mapping, the map of the mind. And in this next half of the 30 verses, the direction is toward seeing how the afflictions, which are a result of how the mind works, of our conditioning over many years and how we behave out of our self-love, So that's how delusion works, and that he names a lot of the afflictions that arise from the delusion of a self as a separate entity from everything else. So the next half is looking at the nature of the delusions, of the afflictions, as also being delusional, that they're not real.

[08:53]

I mean, they're a plague. It's like, you know, mind flies. They're bothersome, but they're not existent. They don't exist. They're really mental events. So that's part of the big surprise of the mind only is that really what's happening with us is of a delusional nature. And there's freedom in that. There's some disappointment because some things we would like to be real. At the same time, there's some great relief that a lot of the things which afflict us are actually just workings of the mind in confusion. So verse one says, was that everything we conceive of as a self and other is occurring in this transformation of consciousness. Verse two, that this transformation has these three aspects, which I just said, and now skipping ahead to verse 17. This transformation of consciousness is conceptualization, concepts only, mere consciousness. What is conceptualized does not exist. And thus, everything is projection only. So this is the big statement.

[09:55]

Okay. So when The manas, the lover, is dissipated, which happens when you become enlightened, when you awaken. Then self-cherishing is dissipated. And this realization of it's just concept, just stories. That all we really know are stories. All we really tell each other are stories. Inside our own heads and outside that we tell other people. Conceptualizations, which are products of our conditioning. So we are children born of delusion. And it's not our fault. It's just... how it happened, just how it came to be. There is no own fault. There's no own. So until we clearly observe and recognize this trickster mind and how it works, it's not possible to overcome our conditioning. It's just we can't because we don't even know we're conditioned. That's one of the first insights is, oh, my God, this is a result of all my old habits and how I was taught that I'm behaving this way or I have these attitudes about the world. So therefore, one of the primary... keys or methods in Buddhism for liberation is called mindfulness, mindfulness of feelings, how we're feeling, because we can kind of tell how we're feeling.

[11:05]

That's a pretty strong event. inside of ourselves, our bodies, you know, big feelings in our throats, our stomachs, our muscles contract, our faces get all funny. So whatever we're feeling seems pretty obvious. And then what we think about our feelings. So emotionalized conceptualizations, thinking, feeling, thinking, feeling. This is how we work, how we move. So rather than hiding from our feelings or denying our feelings, we're taught through mindfulness to bring our feelings into the bright light of our own awareness. So we can see for ourselves, we can bring it into the front, bring it in front. That's what I'm feeling. And that's what I'm thinking about my feelings. So this in itself is liberative. Already, you've made a study of what's going on with you, which kind of distracts you a little bit from believing what's going on with you. Let me take a look at this. Let me think about this a little bit. It's a little bit of distancing that happens, which can be very helpful in those times, particularly of high stress.

[12:07]

So these are our feelings and it's our job to take care of them. You know, we'd like to pass them on to other people. We'd like to believe that in my defense, it's your fault. I mean, that's one of the things I think oftentimes we count on is that, well, that's not my fault. However, it's simply not the case in terms of the Buddha Dharma. And yet we can't force ourselves to be rid of our anger or our fear or our lust. That would just recede our unconscious mind towards things like hostility and terrorizing ourselves and doing violence to ourselves. So we don't want to enforce those kind of habits of oppression on our own selves or anyone else. Instead, we just listen carefully to our feelings and to our thoughts. That's one reason sitting is so nice, because you can really pay attention to what's going on. in your body and in your mind. It's like, oh, wow, you know, something's happening. I'm having a lot of feelings. And these listenings is what the Bodhisattva of Compassion is well known for, Regarder of the Cries of the World, Quan Yin or Kanon, Avalokiteshvara, Regards the Cries of the World.

[13:13]

So that's our aspect. Quan Yin is part of who we are. We hear the cries, our own cry, and we respond with compassion from our own senses. painful heart our own painful feelings like oh poor me you know oh no I'm feeling really bad I feel really sad and we can be self-comforting self-soothing and there are many ways to do that you take a nice bath or take a nice walk or drink a cup of tea and so on there are there are lots of ways that work for us and probably all of you have your own to comfort yourself when you have some hard feelings or when you're sad So once we begin to accept that there is nothing whatsoever that can be known outside of our own imagination, we can begin to grow softer toward our feelings of both liking and disliking things. You know, as Dogen says in the Genjo Koan, in attachment blossoms fall, in aversion weeds spread. Well, this is life. It's what it's like. No way that it's not going to be that way.

[14:15]

And yet I have no complaints, you know, spring, fall. summer, rain, dry, you know, we will feel, we will have feelings and that's fine. That's who we are. Early Buddhism, a great deal of emphasis was placed on ending afflictions and putting an end to greed, hate and delusion through practices of mindfulness and through calm abiding. So you could become a rather, you know, calmed or chilled out being, which is nice. I mean, I think that's a nice goal. And in that practice, the emphasis was on there is suffering, but there's no one who's suffering. There's no one identifying with the suffering. Mahayana, Buddhism, places emphasis on uprooting delusions by upholding this value of the emptiness teachings, that there is no one who suffers. That's in alignment with the earlier teaching. That's true. But what's more, there's no suffering either. So both sides, the subject-object, are both emptied of any inherent existence, and therein is the freedom.

[15:20]

So we were reminded of this teaching daily as we recite the Heart Sutra. No suffering, no cause, no cessation, no path. This is a kind of love that's sort of a tough love, that requires us to really look closely at what's true and what's not true. So realizing emptiness grants us freedom from the split between the self and the other. When we realize that the other is nothing more than the contents of our own sense consciousnesses. The sound of the bell is mine. You know, the sight of the rain is mine. You know, the smell of coffee is mine. This is my mind transforming through its senses, what it senses. So that's the key to the mind only teaching is that suffering is a result of the split between the self and what we think of as the other. It's about healing that split, bringing the hand of self and other into contact, into intimacy, intimate connection between what I believe I am and what I believe is not me.

[16:29]

So a realization of the depth of our self-centered delusion is at the same time, A realization of the utter completeness of our connection to all things. So within the non-dual nature of reality itself, reality does not really come in separable parts. It's all of a whole. We call it reality. It's one word for this one thing, which is not a thing. It's the whole works. It's everything. The universe itself. universe, reality, the whole works. Those are the ways we refer to that which is beyond our conceptualizations and from which we are not separate. We are part of reality itself. There's no way out of that. There's no other place to go, no other place to be. So this realization of the non-dual nature of reality itself and that we are charter members of that is both a tremendous gift and And at the same time, there's a loss of our self-centeredness, you know, which can be kind of sad.

[17:31]

You know, I kind of miss the way I used to think about myself all the time, you know, buy myself clothes and whatever. So this dual realization results in a dynamic freedom, freedom from the delusion of a separate self and true intimacy with everything that the self used to believe was the other. There's a Zen saying that the entire universe in the 10 directions is the true self. human body, the entire universe in the 10 directions is the true human body. So verse 18, consciousness is all the seeds transforming in various ways through mutual influence, producing the many conceptualizations. Basically, what that's saying is that the unconscious storehouse, the aliyah, is running the whole conscious process. Our conditioning is what's basically running the show. And verse 19, karmic impressions, impressions that come from our actions, our intended actions, and the impressions of the grasping self, the belief in a separate self, and grasping at the belief in the other, produces further ripening as the former karmic effect is exhausted.

[18:43]

So you get into one entanglement about yourself and the things around you, and then as soon as that wears out, you get another one. So there's an entanglement. kind of endless stream of the arising of the tangle, the cutting off of that tangle, and here comes another one. We don't wait too long before we're getting involved again. We're almost constantly weaving stories and narratives and things that we need to do or not do and how we think and what we feel and who's right and who's wrong and that sort of thing. We don't take too many breaks from our conscious production of stories and storytelling. So every moment is new karma is being created and exhausted in a seemingly endless stream. Okay. So at this point with verse 20, we're at the beginning of the three natures teaching, which I talked about a bit in the couple of times. Verse 20, whatever thing is conceptualized by whatever conceptualization, that's a little redundant, is of an imaginary nature.

[19:44]

It does not exist. So whatever you're thinking doesn't exist. It's not a thing. We don't actually have things in our lives. We have processes. We have flow of thoughts, of sensations, of movement. We're always moving. The mind's moving. The body's moving. The cells are regenerating. There's no such thing as a thing, actually. Everything is within transformation, arising, abiding briefly, and then going away. So it doesn't exist. It doesn't exist the way that we think things do. They are of the imaginary nature. This is the first of the three natures. Okay. I've talked about these two fingers last week. For those of you who remember that, there's these two fingers. The first is the imaginary nature of concepts of, excuse me, of phenomena. Phenomena meaning things that you can experience with your senses. So my other pair of glasses, this is an example of a phenomena. So what I just said, my other pair of glasses is the imputational nature.

[20:49]

of this phenomenon. My other glasses. I just said that. I made that up. That's my story. It's an okay story. I do believe these are my other glasses, so it's got me, but it is of the imaginary nature. My other glasses does not exist. It's a concept, okay? Then the second quality of my other glasses is its other-dependent nature, that this phenomenon Is conceptualization arising from conditions? Okay, so this phenomena is only here because all the things that were done to create it, you know, the plastic and the glass maker and the lens maker and my ophthalmologist and that I bought them and so on. And so my dad's eyesight getting bad. So all the causes and conditions that bring this into being is actually what makes this happen. Okay. And they're not permanent. They can melt. They can get broken. I'll lose them, whatever. They're only here for kind of a temporary moment.

[21:52]

And in that temporary moment, I have given them a name. So that's the imaginary nature. And then the other dependent nature get glued together. The way we run is that we glue these together and we look at things, we look at phenomena through the lens of the imagined nature. So I look at these and I go, oh, there's my other glasses. I don't think beyond that. I don't tend to go into, oh, yeah, they're made from, you know, they're made in Japan or whatever. I don't do that so much. I could, but I don't. I just go with the code, you know, my other glasses, the imaginary nature. And I think that's what they are. I reify that concept. So this is kind of a mild version of a phenomena. It gets more sticky when we do it to other people and we do it to, you know, political movements, or you name it, there's all kinds of things that we impute our stories on and believe, right? And therein lies a lot of the problems of the world. So there's the imaginary nature, there's the other dependent nature, and the third nature, which is the liberative nature, is that the complete realized nature is that the other dependent nature, this one, how this thing came into being,

[23:09]

And is completely devoid of the imaginary nature. They are not the same thing. These are not my other glasses. Just because I said so is actually not enough to make it true. This object is free of whatever I call it. For example, if I spoke another language, my other glasses wouldn't make any sense in Japanese. Right away, you can see that this is just kind of a made-up little story that I have, because of my conditioning, learning English, have come up with this imputation on this object, and I gave it a name, and I don't realize that the name and the object are not the same thing. I know it sounds funny, but this is liberation from what really causes us most of our suffering. That belongs to me. Those are my... That's my wife.

[24:11]

That's my house. This is my country. So on and so on and so on. So we have the self claiming the objects through the imputation that my story about that is true. And I will fight you tooth and claw to make it so. So this is using simple examples to break through this tendency we have to impute our stories on everything around us. We do it all the time. We're very good at it, you know. So I think I shared with you the example of, you know, like snails make slime and humans make concepts. You know, just all the time we lay this pathway of ideas. And then we just follow it as though that's actually what's happening. So verse 20, okay. Whatever thing, whatever thing. is conceptualized by whatever conceptualization is of an imaginary nature.

[25:13]

It does not exist. So this imputational nature, just to say a little more about that, is made up of projections and beliefs. The combination, it's not just that I project on it. That's kind of okay. That's a little harmless. But I believe it. I am attached to what I said about something. I call that a cat. Or I believe in God. Or most recently, that election was stolen. I believe it. And look what comes from that, from believing in stories about reality. The feelings get so tense, and we become violent. We can become violent. We can become extremely unpleasant, as we know. So the other dependent, as I said, the... Dependent co-arising of phenomena is basically just the manifestation before our eyes. We don't really know what it is. We can't really say. The longer you look at an object, the less clear it is. Like, is that?

[26:14]

What is that actually that I'm looking at? You know, it's kind of got more of a mysticism to it than it does a like concrete, you know, label. The concrete label is kind of flat and dead. The object itself is alive and vibrant and full of vitality and color and odor and all kinds of things. It feeds us. It feeds our life when we let it be what it is and not just what we think. So the completely realized nature is beyond all dualistic views. No concepts can reach it. The completely thorough realized nature is not the imputational. It's not the other dependent. And it's not other than them. It's free of that too. It's just free. So there's a practice you can do that I just kind of alluded to, that you can take an object like your hand, which is good. It's always there. Or a tree or a leaf, whatever you like.

[27:15]

And just look at it, as I was suggesting. Just look at it. It's something that when I was first beginning to learn how to draw, it was really an invitation by my drawing teacher to look at the object. Look at it. Really look at it. Look at the shading. Look at the shadows. Look at the lines. I mean, she had us draw our hands. That was really fun. That's not easy, drawing your hand and trying to get the lines. I mean, it never really looked like a hand, but kind of. But, you know, just the detail that's right there in your very own hand, the palm of the hand, is a universe right there. So spending time really looking at objects and not just, oh, yeah, that's my hand. Raise your hand. You know, the end. So this is an invitation to really take a look at life and take a look at objects around you that maybe you've never really seen. You know, you've never really spent time with a tree. You know, 10 minutes, 20 minutes. Amazing. It's magic. And you just keep looking until you begin to notice the role that conceptualizations have in relation to the object and how useful or unuseful they are.

[28:25]

How long does it last? Tree, tree, tree. You know, after a while, it's like, I don't need to keep saying that. I just want to keep looking. I want to keep discovering what's here that I've been overlooking, you know, my whole life, perhaps. So. Let's see. Let me see. I want to jump a little bit ahead. So the imputational nature of the tree, you know, is like the finger pointing at the moon. They talk about that in Zen. So fingers represent words or terms. And the moon is this object, which is beyond words, is beyond labels. It is like amazing. When you look at the moon for any length of time, it's like, wow, you know. So the finger, the word tree, pointing at the tree is or at any object. And then the tree has these many characteristics that we know. So again, we start to get into storytelling. Oh, I know a lot about trees. I know how they photosynthesize. I can say what color they are.

[29:25]

I can tell you about the shape. I can tell you about its life cycle. And I can become a professor of trees. And people do. You don't even need a tree to be a professor of trees. So we can go on and on and on with the imputational nature of an object without even needing the object any longer. So this is the human thing. This is part of what we do. And also the tree appears as though it's a self-existent distinct thing. We've separated it from the rest of reality by focusing our attention on it as though we actually did separate it from the rest of reality. And there it is all by itself with our attention on it. And we call it a tree. So that's our trick. Conceptual conditioning of our consciousness made it all up. And many of us agree with each other about that, our conceptualizations. If I say that's a tree, most of you will agree with me. I'll point at that thing out there. If you were here, you'd say, oh, yeah, that's a tree. So we have colluded with each other.

[30:27]

This is a group fact that we have made these relative terms, these conventions out of language that we agree on. And so it's very easy for us to get support. around our concepts. We have whole gangs over here that agree on something, and another whole gang over here agrees on something, right? So it's something we can do together. We can collude in agreeing, oh, yeah, that's a tree. I know a tree when I see one. So enlightenment, you know, because all of these things really are not separate. There is no sort of separate thing out there that we can take out of reality and have it stand all alone by itself. True of me, true of the tree, true of everything. Everything is connected, deeply connected. And therefore, enlightenment too is not somewhere else. I mean, how could it be? How could awakening be somewhere outside of this present moment? There is nothing outside of this present moment.

[31:29]

And you've never been outside of this present moment. And you're not outside of this present moment. And you're not going to be outside of whatever I say is the next present moment because it will be the present moment. We are never outside of the present moment. And therefore, everything is inside with us. Enlightenment must be here. Enlightenment must be the tree. It must be the moment of realization. It must be now. It must be this being conscious of all things. Or not. That's... Included to not being aware that enlightenment is now is also doesn't bother enlightenment. It's still true. It's still reality. And you're still included no matter what you think. So thinking, think, not thinking. Dogen says, think, not thinking. How do you think not thinking? He said, non-thinking, non-thinking, the essential art of Zazen. Nothing left out, nothing left in, not coming, not going, no problem.

[32:32]

problem, doesn't matter. It's all included, all inclusive reality. This is the essential art of zazen. So with all of that, it sounds kind of heady when you get into the kind of like philosophizing or what these guys are doing and trying to study reality. They were getting pretty heady with all of that. And at the same time, it's sort of like, hey, it's just a tree. I mean, what do we have to go through all this trouble? I mean, it's just a tree. You know, a lot of people will agree with me with that. Why do we have to go off on these tangents? And the reason we can agree is because this is our relative world and we all live in it. It's the truth about our relationship to one another. We agree on certain things. We don't agree on other things. That's part of our relationship too. And this is what's called the relative truth. Relative truth, as opposed to the ultimate truth, is that we can agree. We have concepts and this is about ourselves. relationship. So, you know, our experience of the world, what is an experience that in Dogen's phrase is called Shinzo, which means ever intimate, and it plants a seed in the present for the future.

[33:46]

So our intimacy with just this is it with it's just a tree, we're just together, we're all in it together. This is absolute intimacy with the world and with each other and all things. I am all together with everything, am the world honored one, is what the Buddha said when he was born. I, all one, I alone, all one, am the world honored one. And each of us can say that in every moment. I, all one, with all of you, am the world honored one. It's about presence. It's about now and together. That's what awakening is all about. It's not about something somewhere else, you know. Some things, some future time. No future time. It has to be now. So, you know, insight into the true nature of reality doesn't mean that things don't exist exactly. It means that we can't conceive of them. We don't know them. We don't know them. We can't really know them in the way that we think we do.

[34:49]

All we know comes through this filter of our conscious conditioning. There's a really cute story about Suzuki Roshi. I may have told you, you know, he was out in his science class and they were looking for the salamander. I don't know if you've all noticed, but the salamanders are out now. You know, when it rains here at Green Gulch, this cute little newts are all over the pathway. So I always make sure I have my flashlight in the morning because they love to get on the walkway, you know, between here and the Zendo. Anyway, Suzuki Roshi's class was out looking for this special kind of salamander out in the woods near his school. And he told the story on himself of finding the salamander and yelling out to the cold class, I found it, I found it. And his teacher came over and he said to him, you know, we're looking for the salamander, Suzuki, not for you. So... This way about our really wanting, you know, really wanting to know, wanting to be the one who knows is kind of a sweet part of our human nature.

[35:52]

As we get older, it's not quite as cute as it is when we're five or six. However, you know, unfortunately, most humans are very mesmerized and driven by this imaginary nature of phenomena, by the stories. And even if we come to realize that it's just a story, we still need to stay in relationship with the relative truth, with knowing that it's a story. That's a really important thing. I'm telling stories now. Or here's what I think. Or as far as I know, which is kind of letting other people know that you're on to the fact that it's just when I'm kind of making this up right now. I'm not sure. I don't really know. But here's a story I want to share with you. So the relative truth, which is both beyond our grasp and is always right here and now, we have to relate to that. We have to relate to salamanders and sandwiches and glasses of water. Otherwise, we couldn't live.

[36:53]

So we depend on the relative storytelling to live as part of our existence. So it's not like we're going to get rid of that either. We don't have to get rid of anything. We just have to understand it. We have to come to an understanding. As in the Zen story, when a monk told Joshu, I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me. And Joshu asked, have you eaten your rice porridge? The monk replied, I have eaten. And Joshu said, well, then go wash your bowls. Simple stuff, you know. These are the monastics who are spending their lives studying the nature of the mind. And what do they talk about? Have you eaten? Yes, I have. Go wash your bowls. Right there, just simple relationship to the relative world. And not a lot of stories in there. Not a lot of, well, how'd you like the porridge? Or did you get enough to eat? None of that kind of expanding on the very basic, simple nature of our transactions with one another and with the things that we have in our lives.

[38:00]

So the problem isn't in the relative truth itself. It's not... that it's a relative truth. That's not a problem. It's that we need to take it seriously. We need to understand it. And taking it seriously means that we understand it. And to know what it is and to respect our tendency to get carried away. That to think that the impulse to buy a new car or to get a new partner or to find ourselves unworthy of love are true. It's like, think again. Really? Is that so? So knowing that things are conceptualized and conditioned by our unconscious and therefore imaginary allows us this kind of spaciousness and the possibility to relax inside the dream. And even like Mahakashapa, when the Buddha held up the flower and twirled it, you know, inside the dream, Buddha's holding up an object of visual consciousness. And Mahakashapa, what does he do? He smiles.

[39:02]

That's all. He smiles. You know, kind of get a feeling that, ah, he knows what's happening. And the other monks are going, what's he doing? Why is he doing that? What does that mean? You know, Mahagashapa just smiled, not trying to figure it out. Just a beautiful flower in the Buddha's hand, in his teacher's hand. How sweet, you know. Ben Conley says that in the 8,000 line Prajnaparamita, A monk asks a Bodhisattva to respond. Bodhisattva responds to this question by when he realizes that life is just a dream, what do you do? You know, in that realization that life is just a dream. And the answer is you live with compassion. You know, the heart of perfect wisdom. Have compassion for ourselves that we are living within a dream. You know, and there's a dream dreaming us. And we can't change that, but we can know it.

[40:05]

We can know that that's what's happening. And sometimes we can snap out of the production. Get out of production for a little while. Take a break and just look. Just listen. Just listen. It's raining right now. Just listen to the sound of the rain. What a gift. The other dependent nature is conceptualization arising from conditions. The complete realized nature is the other dependence nature always being devoid of the imaginary. So this is, again, a very important point. Yogacara says we only see concepts. We don't see dependent core rising. We can't see the arising, the conditions that brought these objects into being. I cannot see all the things that happen to make this come into being. Even if I made it myself, Even all those steps that went into creating something would no longer be visible when I hand the product to a friend. Here, this is a gift for you.

[41:05]

But all the ways that it was made will no longer be visible. So we can't see dependent core rising. We can only see these concepts about the object itself and the concepts about how it was made. I can tell you a story about that. So... That's one of the... Yogacara says we can't see that. There are other schools that say you can, but there's a disagreement. So then one wonders, what's the big event? Do you actually know awakening when it happens? Is there something that can be seen? Can you tell when you're awakened, when you wake up? Is there any signs of awakening? I think we'd all like to know that. So... One of the ideas, a really important idea that's part of the Yogacara mind only teachings is taken from a summary of the great vehicle. And this is another text. Like the 30 verses, there have been a number of texts around the mind only summary of the great vehicles is one of those texts.

[42:06]

It's challenging to read it. It's nice to have help if you're going to read through it. But one of the offerings from that text, which I found extremely helpful in my own effort to understand does something happen? When you get enlightened, is there something like getting enlightened that you'd even know that there was something that changed or was realized? So they had this teaching which has these three parts. And if you imagine a mountain, imagine a summit of the mountain, and then there's the below before you go up the mountain, and then there's after you've gone up the mountain. So that's basically the way they're describing this progression. of realization that includes awakening. They don't actually call it awakening. It has another name. So before, prior, the first term that's used is prior to non-imaginative wisdom. So the summit, the top of the mountain, is called non-imaginative wisdom. You are not dreaming.

[43:08]

You are actually having an experience of having the dreams quieted. You're just there. You're just awake. You're present. And you're not imagining. This imagination, the imaginarium has temporarily been closed down. So that's the summit. Prior to this experience of non-imaginative wisdom is just plain old wisdom. That's the bottom of the hill. And plain old wisdom is also called the bodhicitta or the thought. of enlightenment, of awakening. And this non-imaginative wisdom is being called forth from the Buddhas and ancestors saying, hey, you want to climb the mountain? You interested in finding out about awakening? Do you want to hear about non-imagination? You know, some of us are like, yeah, I'd like to hear about that. So this is the bodhicitta that's been calling to us from the Buddhist teachings, from various teachers, a lot of Buddhists running around these days, and they're all calling out to us.

[44:12]

Do you want to hear about this? Is this interesting? So our response to that is a kind of wisdom. We hear the call and we respond with some energy, with some intention. Yeah, I do want to hear about that. And I want to make a little effort to find out more about that. So this is not yet complete wisdom. It's not yet Prajnaparamita. But it will help us to realize non-imagination. So it's in the realm of cause and effect. And it's a pivot on which our effort to... to complete enlightenment, it needs to take place like a little platform. So in order to realize reality itself, we need to begin by practicing imaginatively. So this is a stage where imagination is still working. Like I can imagine myself at the top of the mountain. That might be really nice. Or imagine taking some friends with me or maybe my lunch or whatever. So we engage, first of all, through our imagination. Asanga, who is the author of this text I just mentioned, the summary of the Mahayana.

[45:17]

He's actually Vasubhanda's brother, of all things. Pretty smart family, I think. He asks this question, who enters into non-imaginative wisdom? Who is it that enters into this experience of non-imagination? And the answer is the one who received the teachings, the one who listened, the one who heard the teachings, called... The wisdom of listening, the wisdom of hearing the true and correct teaching is the cause of realization. How did you get to that realization? Because there was a cause. You listened and you heard and you responded. Cause and effect. So then there's the top of the mountain. This is the experience of non-imagination, which realizes the true suchness of both self and things. The gap is closed. Self and other gap shuts. No self, no other. Non-dual nature of reality.

[46:18]

Non-imagination. You're not imagining yourself as separate. You're not imagining the world as outside. That has ceased, temporarily shut. And there's just awareness. And it realizes, as I said, the suchness of just this moment. Just this is it. Just this is it. So non-imaginative wisdom is imageless and undifferentiated. Non-imaginative wisdom and the perfection of wisdom are synonymous. So the Buddha taught that all things are originally not imagined. So actually, things are not imagined. They're not imaginary. And because that which is imagined does not exist. What you imagine does not exist. So in light of their non-existence, there is non-imaginative wisdom. So you just see the world without telling stories, at least for a while. Take a break.

[47:20]

Take a break. Okay, so you go up. Wisdom takes you up the mountain. Non-imagination reveals the true nature of reality. But as I've often said to people, You know, when you have this experience at the top of the mountain, so to speak, of non-imagination, you know, it's kind of like standing at the top of Everest. Everything is dropping away. Like Dogen said, drop body and mind. Drop body and mind. Body and mind drop. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. So there's a complete disengagement from attaching to views or attaching to notions or to feelings. Everything's just dropping like rain, like rain on the roof. It's just dropping away. So the problem with that dropping away is, you know, I'd like to make a joke that there are no snack bars on Everest. You know, you can't live there.

[48:23]

You can't feed yourself. You can't, if the teacher asks you, have you eaten? You'll just stare at him. You can't answer questions. You can't hear questions. You're not engaged in the words or the meaning of words. You have uncoupled your awareness, which is an important thing. There's a saying, you know, you go to that side. So you know that it's there. Then you come back to this side to practice. So after you've non-imaginative wisdom, you go up to the top. Excuse me. Prior to non-imagination is the foot of the mountain. Non-imaginative wisdom is the top of the mountain. And because you can't live there out of compassion, both for yourself and for the world, because this is also the end. If you don't come down, you're done. So you come back down out of compassion. So wisdom takes us up the mountain and compassion brings us back.

[49:24]

So... The name of the back, coming back, is called wisdom that's subsequent to non-imagination. So first you have prior, then you have non-imaginative, and then you have subsequent to non-imagination. So that's the map of the progress of the process of awakening that the Yogacara school presents to us. The thing that's different about after you've been to the top of this so-called mountain is that you don't forget. It's now part of your alaya. It's part of your conditioning. And alaya then begins to dissipate. You now have this conditioning that's free of attachment. It's free of the self and other split. So basically it's eroding. It's eroding this conditioning. So where now your conditioning is of freedom and you have, it's called perfuming. Your awareness has been perfumed by knowing freedom, by knowing non-imaginative wisdom.

[50:32]

And so when you come back down, you start talking to people again, you start getting involved and go to the store and make your sandwiches, do all that stuff that you're used to doing. It's with this impression now of freedom. So there's something that's lightened up in your life, something that's no longer sticky. It's no longer like snail slime. You're no longer sticking to the surface of things. You actually become a lot freer, a lot looser in your way of relating to objects, you know, because you know that it's not true. The dream is just a dream. It's just a dream. And that's okay. who have attained mastery over images, imagination, do so because of the power of their commitment. And then it says in the sutra, they create lands at will. They create lands at will. So they can use the creative imagination to make things like temples or temple bells or zendos or grocery stores, whatever.

[51:40]

It's things that might be of help to people, hospitals. So bodhisattvas make things with their imagination that will be beneficial. They create lands at will. They become creative and intentionally so. They turn the 24 hours. Deluded people are turned by the 24 hours. Awakened people turn the 24 hours. They have agency to do things that are kind and generous and for the benefit of others. They're not doing things for the benefit of themselves. That's... being turned by the 24 hours. Give me, give me, give me. Turning the 24 hours is, can I help you? Can I get you something? Do you need something? It's kind of reversing the flow. So non-abandoning and non-abiding of samsara, the bodhisattvas, subsequent to non-imagined wisdom, they come back down, abandoned defilement, they're no longer... getting off on afflictions or being mean or being confused or being lustful or being greedy.

[52:42]

That's just not working anymore. It's kind of broken. Greed, hate, and delusion are basically not so interesting. They're not compelling. But they do. They abandon defilement, but they do not abandon beings. They don't leave. They're not abandoning transmigration, which could just simply mean through this lifetime. Some people think that means many lifetimes, No way to know. But if you understand the vow of the bodhisattva is not to leave, not to abandon beings, but to keep coming back if one can in order to be of service to others. That's how the Buddha got here. He came back lifetime after lifetime after lifetime in order to serve beings. There's a saying on a bathroom wall in Mendocino that I saw once. It said, Zen is what happens after the lecture. I thought that was really good. Zen is what happens after the lecture. So how you live your life, how you offer yourself and your understanding to others is what this practice is calling us to, is asking of us.

[53:49]

So this is the thoroughly established nature of reality. This is complete understanding, complete freedom from imputations, the complete realized nature. And it carries with it these three principles, connotations. It carries wholeness. It carries the way things actually are. And it carries the way that one can now see and understand enlightenment. So there's a non-duality. There's reality, understanding reality in the way it is. And there's understanding the nature of enlightenment. You don't have some notion of enlightenment being something you're going to get later or something that is outside of yourself. So this is the three-part connotation once you have this experience of non-imagination. The moment is a tiny aspect of the all. You know, the circle of water, which is infinite, is revealed in phenomena just as they appear. Dogen talks about a circle of water, which is all we have, right?

[54:57]

Each of you right now is in what is a metaphor of the circle of water. If you imagine yourself out in a boat in the ocean and you look around, All you see is a circle of water. Well, that's how it is for us. We are all inside a circle of visible phenomena. As far as my eye can see, not very far. It's dark out there right now. I can see around my room. I can see the screen in front of my face. So that's my circle of water right now. And because of the screen, I can see behind me a little bit, what I think is behind me. So this is the circle of water, but I know, or I would know, I could know, that it's infinite, that there are infinite worlds represented in this limitations of my scene. That's all I see, but what I know is that it's vast. This is the entire universe in a drop of water, in a circle of water. You know, that's the realization that is not just limited to what I see and know. Beyond comprehension, beyond what I can think.

[56:00]

Not thinking is much bigger than thinking. So it's being revealed. This vastness is being revealed in the phenomena that are appearing right now in this moment, in this dot, in this drop of moment, the entire universe is revealed just like this. So even though this moment, too, is only a concept, there is no moment that's separate from other things, from other moments. or from any time. So we can only see through the lens of our conceptual capacity of our consciousness. And this is the realization that we're limited. But it's not defined as a thing in itself, but only as an absence. What I know is how I define things. What I understand, the wisdom, is an absence of knowing. It's beyond knowing. That's the great knowing. What I know is small, is concepts only.

[57:04]

And what I don't know is liberation, is the greatness of reality. And that's empty. It's because it's empty of my imputations. It's free. Everything is free when I stop calling it names, when I stop telling it what it is and believing it. So enlightenment is a way of seeing. that both transcends and is not other than conceptualizations. You know, the finger pointing at the moon, the finger too is the moon. The finger also is in reality. We don't want to take our understanding and our words and our concepts as if they don't count. We got to throw those out. No, those are in two. They're jewels. They're jewels that we use. They're wonderful tools for us to live our lives. So enlightenment is a way of seeing that both transcends and is not other than conceptualization. And yet, this Basu Bandhu says, enlightenment, complete realization, is not somewhere else.

[58:11]

There is nowhere else. Just this is it. There is nowhere else. So at this point, you enter into the realm of the non-duality in which the logic... of non-duality breaks down every possible dualism just as soon as it arises, which makes for a very confusing language. Wrong view depends on dualistic thinking, depends on is and isn't, on right and wrong, yours and mine, as opposed to some non-dual logic, which doesn't depend on anything. So in order to speak about these things, a lot of times you read these teachings, you're going, I don't know what they're talking about. Well, that's a good sign. That means you're getting closer. If you can't grab a hold of anything, it's like, I don't get it. It's just slipping out of my hands. That means you're getting it. You're starting to get it, but you can't hold it. Non-duologic will not hold. It won't get you anywhere. So there's a pivot between thinking and not thinking, between right and wrong.

[59:13]

They're connected to one another. They can't be taken apart. Everything is that way. So each thing is no thing. As in the Heart Sutra, which we went through, each thing is no thing. Each thing is no thing. Is, isn't. Right, wrong. Together. Always together. Non-dual logic. Eyes are no eyes. Ears are no ears. Both itself and not itself at the same time. Me, not me. You, not you. Impermanent. Timeless. Eternal. And so on. So everything turns. So seeing each thing as both itself and not itself is the vastness of the universe. And it dismantles this rigidity of our views. Suffering is due to an attachment that has grown from those views. So without holding on to views, there's no suffering.

[60:15]

There's no suffering. There's pain. You know, your leg hurts. If you break your leg, that's going to really hurt. You get a headache. Take some aspirin. That's not what suffering is about. Suffering is the conceptual suffering that we do. I'm no good. Why me? I wanted that. I don't like them. They don't like me. That's our suffering, the suffering of wanting things to be different than they are and really feeling that, really feeling crummy because things are not the way I want. So this is how we begin to dismantle those rigid ways of hurting ourselves, of causing ourselves harm. So I think, oh, God, it's six o'clock. I can't believe it. I think I got there. I think I'm done. All right. I'm going to say done with the 30 verses. The one thing I'll do next time that will be actually... Complete the role. Just read the last of these because they're pretty much saying the same thing, what I just went through.

[61:20]

They're just kind of repeating in a way what it says in the very last of the 30 verses that without thought, without conception, this is the Bodhisattva's super mundane awareness. Without thought, without conception, the overturning of the root of the alaya and the ending of the two barriers, self and other split. That's verse 29. Verse 30. This state is the inconceivable, wholesome, unstained, constant realm, the blissful body of liberation, the Dharma body of the great sage of the Buddha. So, you know, this is just words, right? These teachings are just language. They're just compelling. I think they're compelling. It's just language. So we also don't want to mistake these teachings for something other than, well, that was sweet. That's a nice story. But what about your own experience? And how is it fitting in your own life?

[62:21]

Do these words, if you spend time with them, which you have to do, they don't really, just a run through doesn't really do it for you. And I've done a lot of run throughs and I need to run through over and over again. So going through these words is recommended. It's the prior to non-conception. But then that actual experience of non-conception is what will convince you that you were dreaming. And once you wake up from the dream, then it's okay to go back into dreaming, knowing that it's a dream. You know, that's the wisdom of the sage, the body of liberation. And that's that. So next week, I am planning, I look through the transmission of light, and I'm going to start with Bodhidharma. and his journey to China. So if you all have The Transmission of Light, you might want to, if you don't, you might want to have it.

[63:22]

It's a wonderful book. Kezon's stories of transmission through all the different Zen masters up into, through Dogen, and then up to Kezon himself. This is Tom Cleary's translation. There are others. So if you want to read up on Bodhidharma, I think I'll be... Starting to talk, I'll finish, I'll just read through the 30 verses that take about a few minutes, and then begin to talk about Bodhidharma. And what did he do when he got to China? So if there are any questions that you would like to ask, I know that was a real kind of quick, kind of a buzz, I could feel it myself. It was a lot of material, a lot of ideas. But I think the take-home is just a dream. It's just a dream. Dreaming us. Such sleepwalkers we are. Lisa, did you want to say something?

[64:26]

Anyone who would like to stay for a few more minutes and bring something up, more than happy to welcome you to do that. Lisa, you have a friend. You can't unmute. Oh, well, that's. Try now. Oh, there you go. Good. Indeed, I have. This is my son. Oh, wonderful. Hi. Does your son have a name? Oh, I'm Henning. Good morning. Nice to meet you. I'm Fu. Nice to meet you. Did you want to, Lisa, did you want to, did you want us to speak something? No, I did. I don't think, my hand shouldn't have been up. Oh, you put a chat thing in there. Did I? Oh, somebody did.

[65:29]

Sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot. That's quite right. Thank you for introducing me. I appreciate that. So, any hands? You can also just wave if you can't find it. I think these new Zoom upgrades, if you've done one, now has the hand under reactions at the bottom of your icon bar. I just found that the other day. A little smiley face with reactions, and if you push on it, you can raise your hand, or you can smile, or you can... They don't have anything really awful you can do. It's nice. You can smile or wave. Yeah, there we go. Thumbs up. Deborah, do you want to say something? Are you doing the icons? Everyone doing icons? It wouldn't work. I'm sorry.

[66:31]

I was hitting the raised hand and it wouldn't work. Oh, there you go. thinking when you were talking about this I was I remember that you talked at some point about David Baum yeah yeah his experience and I was thinking and that you were talking about the drawing and painting and stuff and I was thinking that it's almost like if somebody gets really deeply into anything they kind of see this about at least that subject I mean, I'm not a musician, but I imagine it in music that you get to the point where it's just the music, you know? There's nothing else. And I think that probably in anything, if you get totally into it, deeply into it, that there's some of that experience. Yeah, I think that's true. I've heard that said. I met a guy who was one of those free climbers, you know, kind of guy. Yeah. And I said, oh, you're one of those people who's not afraid.

[67:32]

He said, oh, no, no, I'm really afraid. I'm very careful. And that's why he does that. He doesn't get distracted for a second when climbing. There's this oneness, this self drops away. I, for a period of time, did some rock climbing. I actually learned it when I was at Tassajara from the building crew. But... I went up into Tuolumne and did some rock climbing. And I remember I was the only woman and I was smaller than everybody else. And they were all jumping up and grabbing this place. And I was so scared. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I was too short. And just finally, I got this like feeling like it doesn't matter. And I just jumped and grabbed it. You know, it was, I think that absolute concentration, I felt had the same experience and I wasn't deeply into rock climbing, just small experience. It required a complete concentration. Yeah. I think those concentration practices, especially the ones in the world that we, like art and drawing and climbing and athleticism, all of those things have that access to self-dropping off, the self-drops away.

[68:44]

The only challenge really is to, can you do it without the tool or without the instrument? I think that would be something that, how do you cultivate that on a walk? How do you cultivate that without the extreme? So, you know, that's part of what the practice is for, is to try and keep it alive, keep that sense of not self-clinging. Yeah, I think that you don't – there's a whole other step of taking that and taking it into your life beyond maybe that specific practice. Yeah. I mean, obviously there is, I guess. That's what we're about. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Well, that's why this perfuming idea that you have these experiences, which then I like the idea of perfuming. They, they infuse you with the body memory so that you can call it, you can call it back. You know, people talk about, well, I'm not practicing anymore and yada, yada. But as soon as you sit down, it's like, Oh yeah, that's right.

[69:45]

I remember. Well, I had this experience cause you know, there was a long period when I wasn't doing it. And when I came back, I've just started back to sitting and being formally with people. And I realized all that time I was practicing. I just consciously saying, oh, I'm doing it. But I had the habit. Yes. The world in that way. I think it's very strong. I think it's probably stronger than our conscious practice. Yeah. Yeah, I have come, I thought for a long time, what is it we're teaching people at Zen Center? Because, you know, there's some fantasy about it. I wish everyone would stay for 20 years, get ordained and become, you know, become part of the tribe. You know, don't go. But what I had to think about since so many people leave, really most people leave, they come for a while, is that what we really offer to the vast majority of people is finding their seat. And I see it happen. I see people who come in, they're new, they're fidgeting, they're uncomfortable.

[70:46]

And little by little over time, they find their seat and they get very still. Okay, you're done. You can go now. Whatever it was that really would have been a gift I would wish for anyone, it's finding your seat. Because from then on, you have it whenever you need it. You have that ability to settle where you are. And let things come that may be difficult or joyful. I heard that Gil Fronsdale only lets people stay three years or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's strict. He's strict and smart. He doesn't have to do this, you know, oh, my God, you know, retirement. After a while, I realized I wasn't teaching them any subject. I was teaching them how to think and how to solve problems. problems. And it didn't, you know, it wasn't really about any subject. It didn't matter what you were teaching. Great.

[71:49]

Nice to see you, Deborah. Nice to see you. Guy, hi. How's your kitty? Oh, she's doing well. She's doing well. We're actually in Colorado right now. They're going to do another test to see what... it actually is, how serious it is. But we're, you know, going with it, hoping for the best, grateful that we can do, you know, what we can. But thank you for asking so much. Thank you for the talk as well. It was really, I just felt like it connected so many pieces in a way, if that's even hard to say. My question is if you had any thoughts or any words on how to navigate in this reality that is so focused on material and especially on money. And it's something the same way where you said you can't survive at the top. You can't survive without some aspect of gaining or of income to be able to provide this and that.

[72:50]

And it feels once you realize how surrounded you are by it, I wonder how... how do you navigate that requirement, but without falling into, you know, that wanting of more or feeling like that's what will give, you know, more opportunity or whatever it is, you know, how to sort of navigate this, the reality of it in a way. Yeah. Yeah. That's hard. I mean, we, we're like squirrels. We can't get enough nuts. You know, we just keep piling them up, just get some more. stuff your cheeks so we have that tendency to accumulate and i think all of us as we're especially those of us who are getting baby boomers who have you know come into our retirement age so many people are realizing they're going to move into much smaller spaces and they've got you know truckloads of things that they need to get rid of it's very good time to get stuff if you don't have any because my whole generation is downloading all these objects and um

[73:56]

So I think, you know, part of it is try and learn some moderation when you're young before you, you know, go on endless shopping sprees. Like, you know, what are the basics? What really makes you happy? And it's, you know, it's really not material things. It's certainly you need minimal. You need enough food and a shelter and some things that decorate your nest. You know, I like to put feathers around my nest. I like it to look nice and so on. So there is a way in which we're pleased. by our own choices and things we live with and take care of, need to take care of. But beyond that, I think you're just starting to go into some kind of version of madness. I don't know if you guys like Maria Kondo, the tidy up, but it's like, oh my God, these people have piles of stuff and they can't even walk through the house. So that would be the extreme of not being moderate in your materialism. Right. It's just, I think what I was faced with directly is with what happened with like in terms of health and being able, because like you said, it's not necessarily materialistic where the things are bringing happiness, but I think it's so much, at least to me, a sense of control where having some financial ability, for example, with what happened, you know, with my kidney, you know, to

[75:17]

it's that financial ability to be able to provide the best when things come. And that's what I think is maybe where it's at is, is when things come, you know, cause I feel like I'm stuffing all these nuts or now I'm like, Oh my gosh, maybe this is the most important thing. You know, maybe money is what I do need to go after whatever it is to be able to have this, but then it's if something happens, you know? So, but I think that's sort of the challenge that sort of connected right now where, where I felt, Well, I understand in the terms of things, but in this world where even, you know, providing health or support in that way has to come from a financial thing, I think is where that conflict arises, you know. Yeah. A lot of it's fear-driven about the future. And I do think we all want some modicum of security around what's going to happen. to us as we age and as people get sick, loved ones and our kiddies and so on. I don't think that's extreme.

[76:18]

I think there's always the Buddha taught the middle way between the extremes of obsessive luxury and got to have it all and be better than everyone else. This materialistic drive, which is certainly emblematic of our society is materialism and a kind of spiritualism where you don't have anything you don't want anything you just you know so those are extremes asceticism and and uh luxury and so he said find the middle way The warm water, not the hot or the cold, but what's right, what's nice, what's comfortable, but isn't overdoing it. I mean, how much do you need? I've been to some of these big houses. I don't know how they clean them. I mean, it's just like, and how do they heat them? It's just like, holy moly. Everyone's sitting in the kitchen. Yeah, exactly. Everyone's in the kitchen because it's the only place where there's, you know, there can be together and there's these huge rooms. You have to walk a long way to get to the living room.

[77:20]

You know, it's sort of like, I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't get why that would be something. But people like it. So who am I to judge, as the Pope said? I don't want to judge that. But I think as a culture, we can talk about it and try to encourage moderation. Yeah. But spiritual extravagance. You know, if you want to go for it, go for it in your practice. Go for it in your kindness and in the ways that you are generous. Generosity is a good anecdote to greed. So part of it is attitudinal. You know, your character. What are your values? When I was in college, I made a decision. I will not work for money. I will not. I am not for sale. It was a value. And I've never changed it, but I lucked out. I found a way to live that wasn't working for money. I might have given in if I hadn't found the Zen Center.

[78:23]

So I know it's a real issue and I know people have to do it. But I'd rather do something that I loved that paid me. So that's another thing. You have your vocation. So you're lucky. So that's your joy. And if you're doing that and it's rewarding for you financially, I think that's great. Yeah, I think that's the sort of thing because I'm very similar place as you where I made the same decision in a way. But when you're hit with sort of things where... I think, is that a value that I'm holding on to in a way as well? You know what I mean? We're not taking the opportunity just because I feel like, oh, this is, you know, so it's, so yeah, I'm just grateful to be able to hear and to, you know, to incorporate and to practice. So, but, but, but yeah, yeah, a lot of things, but that's exactly it. I'm just grateful. So thank you so much. And thank you everyone as well for, for being a part in this.

[79:24]

I really, I really enjoy it. Well, travel safely. Yes, yes. Ifu, I just want to let you know, I just have to take off. I've sent you, added you as the host. Oh, okay. Well, I think I'll take off too. It's, anyone want to have a last question or? It's good enough. Should we go? Bill, did you want to say something? Just saying goodbye. If you want to unmute, you're welcome to do so. Say goodnight. from the depth of my heart because you really bring your A game to our meetings and you really are moving all of us. I also wanted to add that I heard that squirrels don't remember where they buried 95%. That is very funny. That actually is very funny. Where did I put that buried treasure?

[80:26]

Oh, dear. Was there this guy who forgot his passcode for his Bitcoin or something and lost like millions of dollars? I think he's adapted himself to the fact that he's like, oh, no. Anyway, we'll end on that. The world has to put many nuts everywhere so no matter where they look, they find them. Or their neighbors. Oh, those look like my nuts. We watch them and as winter is coming, they're just burying things like crazy all over the place. Smart. Smart little squirrels. I always thought they remembered where they were, but maybe not. Well, you all take care. These are exciting times we're living through. Oh, my goodness. Keep us awake at night as well. So many blessings. Please stay safe. And next week, we will start to think about Bodhidharma and his journey to China.

[81:31]

Good night. Bye, everyone. Thank you. Bye, everyone. Good night. Good night. Good night. Take care. Appreciate the squirrels. Stay safe. Be well. Good night, Lisa. Nice to meet you again. Nice to meet you. There's a family resemblance. It's the hair. I wondered where your chair was. I am the chair. You are the chair. The cherished. Indeed. Be well. Bye, you two. Is it raining? Is it raining? It is. You're going to get snow, aren't you? I'm hoping. Yeah. Have you gotten the vaccine? No. Did you? Did you guys get it?

[82:35]

You did? Oh, great. Good. Good. No, we're waiting. Ring County doesn't have any yet. I'm on the list, but Pfizer is supposed to let us know when they get them. Grace got hers. They had an outbreak at the Redwoods. Oh, yes, they're high priority. Yeah, about eight of their people. One of them has died. Yeah, so we're so safe here. I just feel like, I mean, knock on wood, that we've been really staying away from everybody. And so I feel like I'm fine to wait. But crazy stuff. Yes, we were surprised that the public health department's been very proactive at getting, I would say, proportionate to our population, many more doses than other counties.

[83:37]

So we were able to get into the 65 and older tier. Great. Yes, it's really... remarkable. So we're thankful for that too. But we're thankful for the inauguration last week. We haven't really discussed that. And I did want to say how wonderful your Dharma talk was this morning. Thank you. The conversation about Biden as Being, I keep seeing him as an example, setting an example, not about telling people. Yes, he is, and he has that reputation of being, did you ever see that picture of him with the little, the man, there was somebody, he was at a ceremony for someone who'd been killed, and there was one of their children was, had Down syndrome or something, or was, you know,

[84:41]

And Biden was saying, well, thank you. I'm sorry for your loss. And the kid just grabbed a hold of him. Yeah. And Biden just stayed with him. And I just thought, that is a very good man. Yes. He's unusual. He's unusually very good man. Yes. Yes. And I'm hopeful that... As a very good man, he sets an example. It's not about trying to force people to be good. It's about setting the example of how to be good and people copying, you know, realizing, oh, I'd like to be like that. Yeah, I think that's exactly how I feel. And I was crying so much. I was telling Emola, when John F. Kennedy was shot, that was the end of it for me, pretty much as an American. And then after Martin Luther King, definitely. I'm not an American. I'm not doing this thing. I'm not going to pledge the allegiance. I haven't for 50 some odd years. During that thing, during that celebration and afterwards, you know, when all that stuff was on TV, the fireworks.

[85:48]

Did you see all that? And the singer. I was just crying. I was sobbing. And I had my hand on my heart. I'm like, Lincoln. I was feeling all of these. incredibly tender patriotic feelings that I had as a child and that were killed off by reality, you know, and I know reality is still there. I get that, but I was so inspired and I thought like you do, this is about modeling a different, a different style or character or something. It's possible. It's not impossible. You know, I do feel there's, it's almost like the Tang dynasty. Maybe we're on the cusp of an, era for a while of being good you know it wouldn't that be nice that would be very nice it was very nice we're hopeful that we're transitioning to an era of good yeah yeah that's right and yeah stable era of truth and kindness and beauty.

[86:50]

And someone said the trouble, one of the troubles the Republicans have, I don't know what it means to be Republicans, but anyway, the people who are haters, one of the things they hate is that the Democrats have the culture. They have the artists and the excitement and everybody's like, you know, John Legend's playing his piano and they're on Gaga. Take care of everybody. That's the big problem. That's why they hate the Democrats is because they want to take care of everybody. That's right. That's right. And we do. And we can't, but we'll try. And maybe take care of them, too. And maybe they will decide maybe this is an okay thing. I know. We're going to be next to you, even if... You don't want us to. That's what Biden said. He says, I'm going to be president for every one of you, even those who didn't support me. The Bodhisattva never despised. Yes, that was. That's right. Thank you. I'm so appreciative. Your summary of these teachings is so.

[87:53]

concise and excellent, I can kind of hear it. When I hear all of the words, I get overwhelmed by the complexity of the stories and examples and whatever, and I can't get to the gist of it. You are remarkable. And being able to say what's really there in a very concise way that we can do. Well, that's the only way I can understand it. I have to break it down into parts that I could teach in junior high. We're the junior high students. You have this remarkable gift of being able to distill it down to just the point. Good. I'm so glad. It makes a big difference for me to listen to you. Great. Thank you so much, Paul. It really encourages me. So I'll do some more. Oh, yeah. Please keep doing this. I will. You keep coming and I'll keep talking. Okay. Let's do this forever. Oh, please.

[88:54]

And we're going to be neighbors. I can't even believe it. It's so great. We're going to have nothing to say by then. I know it all be said. We'll just sit quietly for a few minutes. Go for a walk. Yes. Say hello to Karina. Maybe we should do a Zoom. chat one of these days. Yeah, let's do that soon. It's nice to have a little short one just right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's great. You guys look good. You look good. You too. Thank you. See you soon. Bye. Bye. Bye.

[89:29]

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