Happy to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Chakravarta's voice. Good morning. Well, here we are, just like we never left. And I guess I have six or seven or eight chances to meet with you and discuss and maybe work on the practices of the Mindfulness Sutra. So today what I want to do is, usually I feel like it's important to introduce a text in many contexts.

[01:10]

So today I'll try to say lots of different things about the Mindfulness Sutra to kind of give you a sense of where it comes from and the different texts and how the teachings of mindfulness fit into other Buddhist teachings, etc., etc. So I'm liable to kind of like wander around a little bit, excuse me, in advance, and then probably there'll be time for discussion. And in future meetings, my plan is, although I haven't got this worked out entirely, my plan is to give ourselves time to do some practices in the class meetings, some mindfulness practices. So what I'm doing today is kind of like orienting us and setting us up for that. So I've taught the Mindfulness Sutra a number of times, actually, and it's one of my favorite texts and something that I go back to over and over again. And it seems to me really foundational and basic and totally important for any Buddhist practice.

[02:12]

And all Buddhist practice, it seems to me, relates to the Mindfulness Sutra in some way. So I'm always thinking about it in different ways and seeing more dimensions to it and so on. And this time it had a very strange... when I contemplated the whole, you know, like what is mindfulness, you know? What is it really? And what are the dimensions of it? And what is it really about? When I thought about that this time, it took me a little far afield. So if you would bear with me for a minute, I'd like to take you a little afield as well for a minute. Just to kind of give you an idea of how broad and inclusive I think mindfulness is. So the sutra is, in a way, fairly technical, you know? You do this, you do that, and you do it in this way and that way. And it's really about a kind of meticulous paying attention to the body and to the elements of mind.

[03:12]

And we're certainly going to get into all that because that's very important. But before we get into the detail of it and the specifics of it, I wanted to talk for a minute globally about mindfulness. So I was reading a biography of Henry David Thoreau because I had nothing else to do and this biography happened to be there. And when I was young, I used to read Thoreau all the time. Those of you from America may be very familiar with Thoreau, but maybe those of you who are from elsewhere don't know about him. But he was an American, a real American original, you know, who wrote about, who was very independently minded, and wrote a lot about nature and also wrote about individual responsibility. And in fact, some of his work on the responsibility of a person to resist political action on the part of a government, that was not right.

[04:21]

That responsibility to do that in a non-violent way was actually what Tolstoy read and Gandhi read, which led to their work in non-violent political action. So anyway, one of the chapters in this biography about Thoreau was where Thoreau goes and meets Walt Whitman. And Walt Whitman is another fantastic American original, almost the opposite of Thoreau in many ways, because Thoreau was very puritanical and sort of like focusing in on something very small. He said something like, I have traveled extensively in Concord, which was his hometown. And he did leave there a few times, but basically he was uninterested in anything other than what was going on in his hometown. And that meant not so much the people, but the plants and the animals and the sky and the water. Whereas Whitman was the opposite. Whitman was like completely expansive, just embracing everything and loving everything and incorporating everything into himself,

[05:29]

spilling himself out all over all people and things. And so they were quite temperamentally quite the opposite. But when they met, even though they could barely communicate with one another, they recognized the similarity of their project. Each one of them really, I think, having a similar way of being American and having similar concerns as Americans. And so the great thing about America, what everybody loves about America, is that it's all about freedom. America is the land of the free. Everybody's free in America. And everybody all over the world thinks that's just the greatest thing. And that means that Americans are free to get a lot of stuff. They're free to satisfy all their needs and wants, internally and externally, whatever they may be. They're free to use 10, 20 times the resources that anybody else in the world uses,

[06:37]

without worrying about tradition or restrictions or any kind of thing like that. Americans can do all that. They're free. So that's one sort of aspect of the freedom in America. And the other aspect of it is that Americans are free to go beyond tradition and doctrine. This is a brand new country, right? Especially these guys were living 100 years ago, when the newness of the country was much more apparent. And so Americans are also free to not be bound by doctrine and tradition and a sort of ancient, ancient power structure, but to explore completely who they are. So I think that this second sense of freedom was something that Thoreau and Whitman both stood for. And they both saw the perniciousness of the first sense of American freedom. So they were both, on the one hand, celebrating who they were and what their milieu was,

[07:41]

and on the other hand, both of them were radically in protest against it. And I think that these same currents also operate now. So Thoreau was a very simple, monkish kind of guy, as I said, who traveled extensively and conquered, and Whitman was all over the place. And I thought, just to sort of launch us off into a study of the Mindfulness Sutra, because I think that many of the things that Thoreau and Whitman said in their writings are exactly about mindfulness, this spirit of, let's look and see what is really going on, which is what mindfulness is all about. Let's look and see, forgetting about prejudice, forgetting about doctrine, forgetting about what we're supposed to see, what it's supposed to look like, and forgetting about all sorts of distortions, let's have the courage to really look and see what is actually happening. So I want to just begin our month-long discussion of this text by setting you off with some quotes from Thoreau and Whitman,

[08:42]

just to give you a sense of, at least one person's, my sense of the range of what mindfulness is really all about. And this is a quotation from Thoreau that I often have misquoted when I talk about mindfulness. And in this biography I actually quoted it, so I'll read you the whole thing. It's a part, it's a section from Walden. And I'm sure you all know about this, but for those who don't, Thoreau went and lived in a little hut on Walden Pond with the purpose of basically being mindful in a radical way. And this is his manifesto, what he wants to do at Walden. To live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life. Living is so dear. Nor did I wish to practice resignation unless it was quite necessary.

[09:46]

And this is the part I always quote. I wanted to drive life into a corner, to reduce it to its lowest terms. And, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it? Or, if it were sublime, to know it by experience, to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities. If we are alive, well, let's go about our business. Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it. But while I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.

[10:49]

I would drink deeper. Fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. So, to me, that's really what mindfulness is all about. To see what's there, come what may. Whatever it is, to have the courage to see it without any preconceptions, to go deep. Now, Whitman brings out another dimension to this. Whitman brings out more the Mahayana dimension of this. Because, when you look deep, what you see is, very often, eventually, what you see is connection. In our own confusion, in our own heart, we first go through dismay and confusion about what we see there, and then notice that what's going on with us, however messed up it is, is pretty much the way it is for everybody.

[11:51]

And so, through our awareness of our own experience, we come into contact with everyone. This is a part from Whitman's great work that he wrote over and over and over again throughout his whole life. It's a book of poems called Leaves of Grass. And maybe, again, most of you know this, but he had some kind of turning experience. Probably, people think, when he was lying around in the grass, observing a leaf of grass, a grass spear, he had a powerful experience of the connection of all things. And there's a famous book called Cosmic Consciousness. You know about this? A guy named Richard Maurice Buck, who listed various figures throughout history who had achieved cosmic consciousness, and he listed people like Moses and Jesus and Walt Whitman. So, this is from the preface to Leaves of Grass. This is what you shall do.

[12:52]

Love the earth and sun and the animals. Despise riches. Give alms to everyone that asks. Stand up for the stupid and crazy. Devote your income and labor to others. Hate tyrants. Argue not concerning God. Have patience and indulgence toward the people. Take off your hat to nothing, known or unknown, or to any man or number of men. Go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families. Read these leaves, the book, in the open air every season of every year of your life. Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book. Dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem. And have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes

[13:55]

and in every motion and joint of your body. And then, I'll just read you, I can't resist reading you a few sections from Leaves of Grass, which is, not Leaves of Grass, from Song of Myself, which is the sort of most powerful poem of Leaves of Grass. It runs to some 70 or 80 pages, this poem. It's the most amazing thing you could ever read. There's nothing left out. He writes about every single thing that there could be. Really, he does, in Leaves of Grass. With the most sustained burst of enthusiasm, probably ever, in literature, in any country that I've ever heard of. So, this is one, I'll read a little excerpt from a couple of... So, it's a bunch of poems. This is number 31. I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars,

[14:55]

and the pismire is equally perfect. The pismire, I think, is a little ant, right? The pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren, and the tree toad is a chef d'oeuvre of the highest, and the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven. And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to score in all machinery, and the cow crunching with depressed head surpasses any statue, and a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels. And I could come every afternoon of my life to look at the farmer's girl boiling her iron tea kettle and baking a shortcake. I find I incorporate nice, rock, coal, long-threaded moss, fruits, grains, esculent roots, and am stuccoed with quadrupeds and birds all over.

[16:02]

That's great, huh? And I am stuccoed with quadrupeds and birds all over, and have distanced what is behind me for good reasons, and call anything close again when I desire it. And number 32 was one of my favorite passages about animals. He says, I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things. Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one is responsible or industrious over the whole earth.

[17:06]

That's one part. And then another part where he, after a number of poems, this comes at the end of a number of poems, it's actually almost the same as Thich Nhat Hanh's famous poem, Call Me By My True Names, where he has a number of poems where he identifies with all sorts of people and creatures all over. And all of a sudden he freaks out in poem number 37. He says, Oh Christ, this is mastering me. This is driving me crazy. In at the conquered doors they crowd, I am possessed. I embody all presences, outlawed or suffering. See myself in prison, shaped like another man, and feel the dull, unintermittent pain. For me, the keepers of convicts shudder their carbines and keep watch. Excuse me, shoulder their carbines and keep watch. It is I let out in the morning and barred at night. Not a mutineer walks handcuffed to jail, but I am handcuffed to him and walk by his side.

[18:08]

I am less the jolly one there and more the silent one with sweat on my twitching lips. Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too and am tried and sentenced. Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp, but I also lie at the last gasp. My face is ash-colored, my sinews gnarled. Away from me, people retreat. Askers embody themselves in me and I am embodied in them. I project my hat, sit shame-faced and beg. But this sense of identity, through the practice of mindfulness and inclusion of everything, this sense of identity with all things, inclusion of all things, is a dimension of mindfulness that's really, really important. It's not going to be discussed directly in the Mindfulness Sutra, but when you consider the implications of mindfulness and when you actually practice mindfulness, this is where you get.

[19:09]

What is the name of that poem? The name of that particular poem is Song of Myself in Leaves of Grass. I often used to bring it to my high school classes because I didn't want to know about it. Kids would like it a lot. This is a kind of impressionistic sense of the dimensions of mindfulness and the dimensions of awareness. I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. The word aware says in the OED informed, cognizant, conscious, sensible. To know. The function of consciousness is to know. To shine the light of consciousness on something and illuminate it so that it is known is to be aware. I looked up the word mindful.

[20:12]

It says here two different senses of it. One means taking thought or care of. That's interesting. Taking thought or care of. Heedful of. Keeping remembrance of. And the second one, minded. Inclined to do something. Mindfulness and awareness essentially is awakened consciousness itself. The light of consciousness being turned on and something being known or being cognized. And then from there goes down the road of caring for something. Concern for something. Remembrance in the sense of not letting go of it. Coming back to it over and over again. And from there to intention and purpose. Having a sense of dedication and a sense of doing something positive with what one is aware of. So that in the sense of simple consciousness and knowing, remembrance, returning to,

[21:18]

and intention and purpose. All of this is involved in the idea of mindfulness. Now, just, let's see. I'll also want to direct you to different texts. Just say a word about what texts we're going to use and where they come from and all that. As you know, the Buddha taught for a long time, about 50 years, in a particular language. And teachings weren't written down. After he died, there was a council of elders came together to recall

[22:20]

and recollect his teachings. A second council happened 100 years later, and a third council happened about 150 years after that. And it wasn't until these later councils that teachings were actually written down. In the Buddha's life, when he was asked, a lot of religious traditions have a sacred language so that texts are preserved in the sacred language. And the original text is preserved. But the Buddha said that he didn't want that. He preferred that people simply speak in the language of whoever they were talking to. It's interesting, right? He said, I don't want to have a sacred, precise language. I think that the language should be available. So therefore, whatever dialect anybody speaks, that's how you teach them. The result of this is that there are several Buddha's canons in several languages, none of which are in the original language of Buddha.

[23:21]

Because Buddha was not Pali speaker. It's a later language. So when they talk about the Mindfulness Sutra, usually we say the Mindfulness Sutra exists in two versions. It's number 10 in the Majjhima Nikaya, the middle length sayings, and it's number 22 in the Digha Nikaya, the lengthy sayings. So those are those two versions in Pali, which are usually considered to be the two versions of the Mindfulness Sutra. But actually, in other languages, in other versions of the canon, there are other versions of the Mindfulness Sutra. Here are some of the books that I'm using now. Thich Nhat Hanh's really excellent book, Transformation and Healing, has a discussion of the different recensions of the Mindfulness Sutra. It has a translation of the version from the Majjhima Nikaya, I think. But it also has versions of Chinese translations of the Mindfulness Sutra,

[24:25]

Chinese translations from Sanskrit originals from a whole other recension of the canon. So some of these versions are fairly different from the ones in the Pali canon. We're not going to really particularly use those, but you know about them. It's kind of interesting to see the differences. The title of this book is called Transformation and Healing. Is it under another title as well? Transformation and Healing, anyway. It's a Parallax Press book, and it's a wonderful book. I really would recommend that you have it, because he discusses the Sutra at length and gives you many practical instructions and so on. This is The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyanaponika Thera. It's sort of a classical, modern interpretation and commentary of the Mindfulness Sutra. Nyanaponika Thera is a really great Western, actually, bhikkhu. So he's very well aware of Western problems and issues

[25:26]

and brings them up in discussing the Sutra. This is a good book to have, and I'm using this one. This is a pretty new one that I'm just reading now for the first time. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness by Usalananda, who's a local Theravada monk. And it's very, very traditional and very thorough. So I'm enjoying it a lot. Yes? Usalananda, U, like U-tanth. S-I-L-A-N-A-N-D-A Usalananda. The version, as you know, there's a translation of it. This is the full Majjhima Nikaya translated by Bhikkhu Nyanamoli. And it's in here, of course. There are other previous translations of the Majjhima Nikaya. There's also a new and really good translation of the Digha Nikaya by Morris Walsh. And it's in there. The difference between the Majjhima Nikaya version

[26:28]

and the Digha Nikaya version, they're exactly the same, word for word, except the Digha Nikaya, at the end, kind of like, if you look at the Mindfulness Sutra as an ideal, anyway, progression, step by step, it ends with, in the Digha Nikaya version, a lengthy analysis of the Four Noble Truths, which is the ultimate thing that one sees through the development of mindfulness. So one starts with mindfulness of breathing in and breathing out, and ultimately comes to full awareness for oneself, you know, experientially, of the Four Noble Truths. So, it's kind of a beautiful thing that that's the case, because Rev is teaching the Four Noble Truths, so in this way, we'll be sort of along in the same track. And so probably, we'll mostly, we'll probably use the Majjhima Nikaya version, and Rev in his discussions will be basically

[27:31]

simultaneously preparing the ground for our appreciation and vision of the Four Noble Truths. Otherwise, the two versions are exactly the same, the Majjhima Nikaya doesn't include that section about the Four Noble Truths in that detail. So, that's just a little bit about the text. So, the title of the text is Satipatthana Sutta in Pali. The word sati, which is translated usually as mindfulness or awareness, the Sanskrit cognate, smrti, originally had the meaning of memory or remembrance. So, as I said earlier, also in English, there's this sense of quality of remembrance or memory involved with awareness, because if you're really aware of something, you don't forget it. If you're aware of it and then it's gone the next instant, then you can say, well, gee, I wasn't very aware. So, awareness involves a degree of staying with an object, which is like remembering,

[28:35]

to stay with it, not forgetting about the object. So, it's not memory in the sense of reverie, thinking about what happened a long time ago. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Awareness is about being present now with what's arising now and not going into a daydream. But there's a quality of memory in the sense of remembering to stay aware, remembering not to go into a daydream, remembering to come back over and over again to the present moment. We know this very well from our experience with Zazen that we have to remind ourselves often not to space out, not to think about what's going to happen after the Zazen period is over and so on, and remember over and over again to be here, [...] be with the breath, be with the posture, come back, come back, come back, come back. That takes a certain degree of memory and remembrance. So, that's the word sati, or awareness. And the implication, awareness is one of the,

[29:37]

or mindfulness is one of the members of the Eightfold Path. In the Eightfold Path, the word sama, or correct, or right, appears before each of the members of the Eightfold Path. So, right mindfulness or correct mindfulness. So, this is, I think, implied whenever the word mindfulness is brought up, because some people will often say, well now, geez, you can really be mindful when you're robbing a bank. In fact, you really have to be mindful when you're robbing a bank, otherwise you'll get caught. I saw a great TV show about a pair of bank robbers the other night, really interesting, but I won't go into that. I had to turn it off, I didn't see the ending, but the thing about it was that they were these really nice people, happily married, and were concerned for each other, and they were a little short on money, and so they were robbing banks. And they were having discussions throughout the program on whether they were loving to one another, and whether they were moral, you know. No, really. And the idea was,

[30:40]

well, you know, we're not doing anything worse than all these corporate robbers who steal things, and people rape the planet, and we were just robbing a few banks, you know, what's the big deal? Oh yes, oh yes. And of course, accidents happened, and so on. But I was really interested to see what happened at the end, but my sons were in charge of the television. Anyway, but the point is that you think, well, awareness, you could use it for any purpose, like why not be aware of robbing banks, and doing this and that. But awareness always implies right awareness, which means awareness that has, as part of it, intention and purpose toward what's wholesome, and toward the path. So it's not just some technical thing about how we're going to be super aware and notice everything. I mean, we certainly want to notice things, but it's bigger and more subtle than that. Mindfulness is

[31:42]

right mindfulness, okay, toward, in the direction of liberation, freedom from suffering, letting go. And awareness that seems to be technically acute, but is not pointed in that direction, ultimately is unworkable. And that's why I'm sorry I didn't see the end of the program, because, of course, who knows whether the author of the TV program was enlightened or not. But if they were Buddhists, they would probably show that there are problems with this kind of awareness of robbing banks and so on. But we'll never know, I guess. Anybody see that program? I saw part of it. You didn't see the end? I didn't see the end. Wasn't it interesting, though? Weren't you surprised that there was this really nice guy bank robbers? Yeah, I was surprised that they couldn't sustain such coherent conversations and loving conversations with each other while they were, like, practicing tardy practice with some automatic rifles. I never saw a show like that, and I was surprised by it.

[32:46]

So what happens when there's this awareness that the intention is not for the former? What is the outcome of that? Probably problems. Like in the case of the bank robbers, for example, one of the things that happened was he killed somebody. Right? Because his intention, this particular bank robber's intention, although he really was, he considered himself to be a very nice person and so on, and he really didn't think he was doing anything wrong, still he was robbing banks, and he was doing what he had to do to rob banks, and he was very aware, but there was a slip-up, and he ended up shooting somebody. So that's a bad consequence right there. Shooting somebody is not a good idea for the person who got shot, and then probably he himself, in the end of the program, I'm guessing, suffered consequences from that. Are you saying that awareness comes like fire? It's neutral, but it's used in one way or another

[33:48]

to be detrimental? Yes, except what I'm saying is that in the context of this sutra, it's the awareness as a positive factor, not as a neutral factor that's being pointed to. In fact, awareness in the context of the sutra can't be separated from what's wholesome. The sutra would say, if it's not really pointed toward what's wholesome, in fact, it's not effective awareness, because awareness really isn't neutral, it really must be. If it's really awareness, that's what will happen, the positive will happen. So the sutra makes that definition of awareness, says that awareness is that way. Do you understand? Is that clear? Okay, yes, Lee? In some cases it seems you can tell what's wholesome, it seems fairly clear, but in other cases it might not be so clear. What if Mipham is going to shoot you? She might as well shoot you, Lee. You're right next to her.

[34:48]

Okay. To stop her from shooting me, she shot Mipham. It was the only way she could do it. So how do you tell what's wholesome? There are cases like that. Yes, of course. Life is not simple. So, I would say myself that the answer to that question is first of all, one makes a study of it. So it's always hard to tell, I mean, not always, but often hard to tell what's wholesome, but the person who is concerned about what's wholesome and has made a study of it and works at it is more likely to know than someone who doesn't. However, even so, one might not know. So then one just trusts one's experience and does the best one can, right? And you could be wrong. The other thing is I tend to get confused as to what's wholesome for me. No, we're all working on it, right?

[35:50]

I mean, if we could say we could get one of those nice pads that you put up on an easel and write down the five rules for how to live perfectly, no problem, then we wouldn't have to waste a whole month sitting here talking about all this. We could just get it down and write it down on our hands so we wouldn't forget and that would be it. But it isn't that simple. You're right, we don't always know. So that's why we study Buddhadharma, right? And we sit with ourselves and often we discover, maybe you've had this experience, many of you, I know I have, that you're sitting, minding your own business, following your breath, and it comes to you with some vividness that a behavior that you did a long time ago or that you do all the time isn't wholesome. And you didn't know that. And now you know. And you weren't trying to figure that out, you were just sitting there trying to follow your breath. So awareness is like that. That happens. And if we're open to it, we learn about what's wholesome, what's not wholesome, and what works for us

[36:52]

and what leads to positive consequences and what doesn't. And then also, the whole thing is, I think, the memory is jogged or the experience is helped to be created by the fact that we're studying the teachings. And various things are said and heard and discussed and so on. So, for example, since we recite every full moon, a disciple of Buddha doesn't steal, for example. And since we take those precepts and repeat them, I think that for one of us to decide that we're going to become a bank robber would be difficult. More difficult than if we didn't do that. Because it would be hard to start robbing banks and say, well, what about this thing that I was saying? That I'm going to say tomorrow night, a disciple of Buddha doesn't steal. You know what I mean? So the teachings and the practices of reinforcing

[37:52]

the teachings and the practices which are reinforcements of the teachings sort of help to prepare the ground for that. But still we have a problem. We don't know. When Mipham picks up that gun, I mean, who knows? It's intention. Right intention helps. Yeah, sure. Like we have a rule, for example. People don't know this because we don't really ever need to mention it. But, you know, we have a rule against having guns in Dharma classes or at our temples. If you are a person who owns several weapons and you come here, you're actually not supposed to bring your weapons with you. You're supposed to leave them somewhere else, put them in storage or something, on ice. Because we have a rule against it. We don't have that problem. I didn't hear it. Maybe they did before I came in. Franklin Pumpkin.

[38:56]

Franklin Pumpkin Sunscreen. The car's been there for a while. It's got a little sunscreen on the inside. Low battery. Nobody here, huh? Yeah, actually it's mine. Oh. Speaking of my phones, right? My son returned to his home in Providence, Rhode Island and forgot his keys to his apartment. And I can hardly walk across the room without forgetting what I was going to get. Why I was walking across the room was a little bit of a problem. But I take heart in the fact that

[39:57]

Suzuki Roshi used to lose his glasses all the time. So, that's all to say that mindfulness isn't necessarily remembering your glasses all the time. Although, it would be good if you did remember them. Where was I? Oh yeah, so the word, that's sati, the word patana. Satipatana Sutta is the full title. Patana. This is kind of interesting, you know. Usually the sutra is translated as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness or the Foundations of Mindfulness Sutra. But the word patana comes from upatana in Pali to place near. To put something near. So, keeping mindfulness nearby. Placing near, staying near to mindfulness. Or you could even say being intimate with mindfulness. The sutra on being intimate with mindfulness would probably be a fair translation of the title.

[40:58]

But it's nice how it works out, how they get the idea of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. Because the idea is to keep something near or to place something nearby. And it turns out that in Pali, just as in English, you have the same word, the word place. It can be a noun or a verb. To place something or a place. So, a place. So it can be to be placed near to mindfulness or to place yourself near to mindfulness, to be intimate with mindfulness, or it could be the place of mindfulness. So, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness are like the four places in which mindfulness occurs. So that's where they get the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. And that's a nice translation to me because it emphasizes the places of mindfulness or the Foundations of Mindfulness emphasize the very concrete

[42:03]

and practical nature of mindfulness practice. And this is something that I really appreciate about this sutra is that particularly in the lengthy discussion of the practice of mindfulness of the body which is so important and so basic to Buddhism and Buddhist practice and awareness. Be aware of the body, in the body, of the breath, in the breath, and so on. It is so concrete. It is so specific. It is so much placed and a place. That's very helpful because I think, as Lee's question a minute ago indicated these matters of spiritual practice and inner life and so on can get very slippery and very hard to figure out. Where are we? What are we supposed to do? And how are we doing this? So the practice of mindfulness, I think, is very beneficial in that it really gives us some places of something very concrete and very specific to deal with even though through the

[43:03]

practice of picking something up very specific, we open up, as Whitman does to everything, and we leave the specific behind, or rather we see the specific is the universal. Nevertheless, it's very helpful to have the specific there to work on. That's what I think makes Buddhist practice to me so very effective because in a way, at least from the standpoint of the mindfulness sutra it's not vague. It's not fuzzy. It's very much breathing in, I breathe in. Breathing out, I breathe out. We know what that is, and we know whether we know it or whether we don't know it. So that's the sutra title. So I want to tell you some of the lists of Buddhist teachings in which the practice of mindfulness occurs as one member of the list. So a minute ago, I mentioned the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path

[44:09]

is the fourth of the Four Noble Truths. There is a way to end suffering. There's a path. And what is the path? The path is right view, right intention. So this is the wisdom. It takes wisdom to have a correct view, and then based on that view to have an intention to act on it. And then how do we act? Well then we have right conduct, right speech, and right livelihood. So the way that we conduct ourselves with our body, the way that we conduct ourselves with our speech and with our mind, is right conduct and right speech. And right livelihood means not earning our living, not having activity that harms others. So those three have to do with conduct or virtue. So wisdom, virtue. And then the last three have to do with concentration practice. Effort, mindfulness, and concentration. So these eight members of the Eightfold Path break down into

[45:12]

these groups. Wisdom, conduct or morality or virtue, and concentration practice. And these are like three legs of a tripod. Without concentration, our virtue is shaky, our conduct is shaky, and our wisdom is probably not accurate. But without wisdom, concentration becomes like just a mental exercise, or a psychophysical exercise, and so on. These three depend on each other. You can't really do concentration practice without some practice of virtue or morality. Bank robbers really can't sit in zazen too long without realizing how terrified they are and how problematic their lives are. If they realize that,

[46:12]

then they keep sitting. If they can't realize that, then they won't sit down at all. So anyway, these three relate to each other and mindfulness is in that list as part of concentration practice. Then there's another list which is called the seven wings of enlightenment, or the seven factors of enlightenment. Mindfulness starts us rolling toward enlightenment. Mindfulness, investigation of dharmas or investigation of reality, energy, these are the three active ones, and then the four quieter ones are rapture, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. Anyway, just to say that mindfulness appears in that list as well. And then the five faculties or the five powers are mindfulness, faith or confidence, energy, concentration, and wisdom. And in this case, mindfulness is considered to be, as it is

[47:15]

actually in the seven factors of enlightenment, that faculty that helps us to balance, because in our practice we're always balancing, right? We're always balancing the strong focus of meditation practice, which can make us kind of lazy, with the active side. Equanimity is one side, and energy is another side. Faith is one side, but wisdom is the other side. So we have to balance those two. What is it that enables us to balance all sides? Mindfulness. We're aware. Oh, you know, I'm getting hysterical here with my faith, and I'm blind. So mindfulness tells me that I need to work on the wisdom side. My energy is all out of control. Mindfulness tells me I need to slow down. I need to go a little bit slower with what I'm doing. So one is always using mindfulness as a way of checking oneself and working with one's practice. So mindfulness has that particular quality, kind of a leavening, in that sense.

[48:16]

So, mindfulness is taught as a practice. I mean, of course, there's always mindfulness, right? There's always some degree of mindfulness. Wherever there's consciousness, wherever we are aware of something, we're not asleep, literally asleep or unconscious, because we got knocked out or something. Then there's mindfulness. There's some mindfulness. So why does mindfulness need to be taught? Why doesn't mindfulness need to be developed in a special way when, in fact, there's a degree of mindfulness present whenever the mind is conscious? And the idea here is that there's two problems with our usual quality of our usual mindfulness. Number one, it's not subtle enough. There is a degree of awareness, but it's not that great, and there's all kinds of thoughts going through our minds and distractions, and we don't know where we are, and so on and so forth. So we need to make our mindfulness more subtle and more acute, and we need to develop it so that we're more mindful, and we can see broader and we can see deeper, because we don't see broad and deep left to our own devices,

[49:21]

generally. So that's one problem. But the other problem is probably worse, and that is that our quality of awareness usually is completely distorted by our self-centeredness. I mean, none of us are, in the conventional sense of the word self-centered. I know that there's nobody in this room who's self-centered. We're all kind people, and we share our cookies and all that, you know. So we're not self-centered like selfish children, you know, screaming and yelling. But on a more subtle level, I think we also all would probably agree that we're all self-centered in the sense that we see things through the lens of ourselves. I always like to quote the famous line from Catch-22. Whoever it is, one of the characters in Catch-22. Everything that happens is either a feather in his cap or a black eye. It's one or the other.

[50:23]

That's the way he sees everything. He just only knows, is that a feather in my cap or a black eye? And that's kind of a joke. But we're like that too. Does this reflect well on me? Like, oh, there's the sunset. Does this reflect well on me? Or is this not? And I mean, that's kind of an exaggeration, but it's pretty true. We see things that way, right? Rather than seeing what's going on, we're wondering, you know, is this good for me or not? Does this really work for me? That's our current way. Does this work? Does it work for me? That sunset does not work for me. The way that you are just doesn't work for me. It just doesn't work for me. So this is a big habit. One of the shocking things about practicing Buddha Dharma is the recognition of how big a habit this is and how thoroughly rooted in us and in everyone else this habit is. It's disappointing, shocking. It's enough to freak you out. I mean, it's better that you see it gradually

[51:24]

than that you see it all at once, because it can be very unsettling to recognize the extent of our self-clinging and self-centeredness and the extent to which the whole world is confused by it. So this, of course, will make our vision and our awareness distorted. And so one of the big jobs of mindfulness practice is to help us to see our self-centeredness more clearly and to see through it. So, I always like to say that mindfulness, as I understand it, is not the same thing as self-consciousness. Because it's easy to think that mindfulness is self-consciousness. Before, I was aware of myself and all my stuff, and now I'm even more aware. I'm so interested in every little thing about myself. How am I doing? Am I doing good

[52:25]

with my mindfulness practice or not? But I think that mindfulness is not about what I'm thinking and what I'm feeling. What I'm thinking and what I'm feeling, it's about basic experience that arises in the mind and in the body. So, in other words, mindfulness is looking a little bit more deeply than, How am I feeling? How am I doing? But what is there? Just period. What is there? So, it's almost like a little scientific, in a sense. So, what kind of feeling is there? What kind of perception is there? What experience is actually there? What's really going on? Just like Thoreau. I want to drive life into a corner and really see it. And if it stinks, it stinks. And if it's sublime, it's sublime, whatever it is. So, not to be distorted by, How am I doing? And if how am I doing is what my experience is, let me notice. Now the experience is worrying about how I'm doing. But slipping below the habitual sense of

[53:28]

our constant self-centeredness. So, it's not about standing over and against our experience, looking at it and analyzing it. I think an excessive interest in mindfulness can lead to this kind of, what I would consider to be a mistaken notion. That we're going to analyze ourselves and look at ourselves and that mindfulness is a kind of form of self-observation. Rather, I think it's shining a light of consciousness simply on what arises. Not on self, but on whatever arises. Bringing up alertness or attention as a kind of a light, like a flashlight. Shine a light on that. So, it's just such and such is present. Not, I'm watching such and such be there, but just such and such is present. So, if we're really being meticulously mindful and focused with our mindfulness, then if our mindfulness were perfect, there wouldn't be any room for self to

[54:30]

spin its wheels. Yeah. Is there a way to determine whether I really know what is there, what is going on? Welling up a feeling? Not necessarily tears, or it could be that more connection with the feeling rather than just the head. Yeah, when we practice mindfulness, we're aware more of what's really going on, so a lot of times our head is masking what's going on inside. But we can also be aware of thought as well. The Mindfulness Sutra, as we'll see in a moment, advises us to really work on the mindfulness of the body in the beginning, because it's easy to get mixed up with our feelings and mixed up with our mind, but coming back to the body over and over again

[55:32]

really gives a firm basis. So, very often this is the result of mindfulness, is coming more into focus with what we are feeling that we weren't aware of before. It just arises. We're not looking for it or trying to think how do I feel? We're just being present. And in our being present, more and more acutely, we discover some things that we didn't see. It's surprising. It's interesting, isn't it? It makes life very interesting. So anyway, do you understand what I'm saying? It's in a way a subtle point, because this thing about how am I doing is so much involved in all of our thinking and feeling that it's hard to see that there's another way to be aware, or that we can be aware of that. But mindfulness is different in that way. It's more radical, not observing, but just being almost, merging with almost.

[56:34]

Let's see. So let's look at the opening of the sutra, finally. I'll read this version. I've been reading different versions. The different translations, when you really get into them, shades of difference can be quite important. In a way, we have to acknowledge that in some dimensions, my study of the sutra, anyway, is limited by the fact that I can't really, with any knowledge, go back to the original languages. That would be interesting and would give a dimension that is not available to me. On the other hand, as I said, the Buddha was clear

[57:41]

that the teachings exist in a number of different languages, and all these different takes in different languages are valid. So there's not one way to understand it. But there would be a little more richness if we had the language. But at least we have different English translations. So this translation, by Nyanamoli, begins like this. Thus have I heard. On one occasion, the Blessed One was living in the Kuru country at a town of the Kurus named Kamasadama, which other versions of the sutra say it's a market town. There he addressed the Bhikkhus thus. Bhikkhus! Venerable sir, they replied. And if this were a Zen sutra, that would be the end of the sutra. There are several Zen stories that are just like that. Because the whole thing is right there, right? That's it.

[58:44]

The Buddha could address the Bhikkhus and they could say, yes, they were aware, they stepped forward in the present moment. What else do you need? And that is all you need, actually. If we were going to study the sutra in the classical Zen style, we would really eliminate the rest of the text and spend the next three or four weeks working on that, which would be just fine, actually. So, if you want, you could just go that far and ignore the rest, and the whole time while I'm talking about the mindfulness sutra, you could just say, Venerable Bhikkhus, yes. Anyway, a couple of interesting things here. You see how long it's going to take to get through the mindfulness sutra. But I usually yak a lot the first class and after that, not as much. So, don't despair. A couple of things

[59:45]

I want to say about this first part is, of course, first of all, it's interesting that the Buddha was living near the market town. The Buddha didn't run away from market towns and towns where people lived. In fact, he had to be around there usually because how was he going to eat if there was nobody to feed him, right? And his disciples. So, there were times when the Buddha went off on retreats and stuff, but mostly they were around towns, teaching people who were in the towns. But I found a great thing out here. I want to share this with you that I never heard of before. Maybe you've heard of it, but Usalananda comments on this part of the sutra, and he has a whole comment about Ananda. Because, you know, thus have I heard is Ananda talking, right? Ananda always begins the sutra, thus have I heard. Because Ananda, the sort of mythology of Buddhist sutras is that Ananda heard everything that the Buddha said and remembered it all word for word. And so every sutra speaker is actually Ananda telling us what the Buddha said.

[60:46]

But here in his commentary Usalananda repeats apparently a Theravada tradition about Ananda, which I want to share with you because I thought it was kind of interesting. Sort of anthropologically and spiritually interesting. It says here that for 20 years, Buddha taught for about 45-50 years. For the first 20 years, he didn't have an attendant, a permanent attendant. Different people would be his attendant. Somebody else would come, and so on. And then, after 20 years, his attendant was Ananda. Always. For the rest of his life. So how did Ananda get to be his attendant? Buddha said that he needed a personal attendant. And many of his disciples came forward and suggested Ananda. But Ananda said, if the Buddha wants me to be his attendant, he should ask me himself. And I won't agree unless the Buddha

[61:50]

asks me. And then the Buddha did ask him, and Ananda agreed. Ananda said, I'll be your attendant if – and this is the interesting part – if you will satisfy my conditions to be your attendant. And he had eight conditions. And the first four are called the four rejections, and the other four are called the four acquisitions. So just for the fun of it, because it's interesting, I'll tell you, I'll read you what it says. Here's the four rejections. First, the Buddha must not give him any robes for being his attendant. Second, he should not be given the good food that was received by the Buddha for being his attendant, because the Buddha sometimes would get special food people would offer. And he said he didn't want to eat any of that food. Third, he should not be asked to stay in the Buddha's hut, which apparently was fragrant, because the Buddha smelled good or something.

[62:51]

Nor should he have his own separate hut for himself. He should just fend as the other monks and nuns did. That was his third thing. And the last one was that if anyone invited the Buddha to go and have a meal in their house, Ananda should not be included in the invitation, should not go. So those are his four rejections. And his four acquisitions were, first, that if Ananda accepts an invitation, the Buddha has to go. So Ananda would be in control of all the Buddha's invitations, or at least a certain degree of number of them. Second, if anybody came from far away to see the Buddha, Ananda should be allowed to bring that person to the Buddha right away, whether the Buddha wanted it or not. Third, he should be permitted to place in front of the Buddha any problem that he had, that he knew about

[63:55]

in his own practice or in anybody's practice, he should be allowed to go and put that problem before the Buddha any time. And the last one is that no, that's the same one. If he had doubts or anybody else had doubts, he could bring them to the Buddha. And the last one is that the Buddha would repeat to Ananda any discourse that he delivered when Ananda was not around. So if the Buddha gave a Dharma talk to someone and Ananda was like going to the bathroom or something, the Buddha would have to say it again so that Ananda could hear it. And those were his four acquisitions. And the Buddha agreed to this. And then Ananda became his permanent attendant. So keep that in mind. I thought that was the end. Did you ever hear that before? Yeah, I never heard that before myself. That was nice. Okay, then the sutra goes on. Bhikkhus, this is the direct path for the purification of

[64:57]

beings. Other translations say this is the only path. Thich Nhat Hanh, I think, diplomatically says this is a wonderful path. But I think the word is ekayana, which does probably mean the one path. Yes. Well, there's various interpretations of what one is. It leads to oneness. In that sense, it's the path of the one. Or another interpretation is that you walk alone on this path. So it's a path of one. Or the only path. Or the direct path. But in any case,

[66:02]

I actually like the often say it as the only path. Not in the sense that everybody has to be a Buddhist or everybody has to practice mindfulness, but that mindfulness really is inclusive of the whole of the spiritual path, whatever shape it takes. That's how I feel. Anyway, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of nirvana, namely the four foundations of mindfulness. So this path is, however you want to look at it, direct. Anyway, a very important path. A very important path, very direct, very concrete, for letting go of sorrow and lamentation and suffering, pain and grief, letting go of all that, and conversely,

[67:07]

the other side of that, the same thing seen from the other side, is for attaining the true way, for realizing nirvana. This path of the four foundations of mindfulness is the path toward that. And what are the four? Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as the body, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating feelings as feelings, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind as mind, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind objects as mind objects, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness

[68:08]

and grief for the world. In the beginning of the sutra, the four foundations of mindfulness are just stated with this little formula that follows them. And the four foundations then are mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of general mental states, here called mindfulness of the mind, and mindfulness of objects of mind, which for now we can just say means objects of mindfulness of, at a greater depth and a greater detail, what arises in the mind. And we're going to discuss these four foundations and exactly what they mean at length as we go along. And each one later on in the sutra is covered separately, so at that time we'll probably go into each one more fully. But just let me say a few more words and then I see some hands. And I'm aware that I'm going on a long time, but so what. It'll be different next time. Because I want to just discuss this.

[69:11]

I'm going to leave for the moment the definition of these four foundations. We'll definitely get to that. But I just want to discuss this formula a little bit. Ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. Ardent means like it means in English. It means passionate, enthusiastically, energetically, with warmth. Actually the word means like the warmth of fire. With that kind of sense of really paying attention with that kind of spirit, diligently. Meaning like that. Fully aware and mindful. Having put aside covetousness and grief for the world. This is an interesting point. Very interesting to me because of something that I've been thinking about in my practice all through the fall. What does it mean here? Having put aside covetousness and grief for the world. Now this means covetousness and it's hard to say that word, covetousness. Basically it means

[70:13]

just being mindful without grabbing and without pushing away. Because grabbing and pushing away right away occludes mindfulness. When we're grabbing and pushing away we can't look. We don't have a chance to look. So without grabbing and pushing away, just looking. That's what it means. Now, Usalananda has a different translation. He indicates that by virtue of being mindful ardently and fully mindful we will then put aside holding on and pushing away. But I don't really believe that translation because all the other translations say having put aside, holding on and pushing away. Of course we all know that we haven't put aside holding on and pushing away. But I think this formula indicates to us that what we really have to do is be mindful without holding on and pushing away. In other words, we really have to try as much as we can to be mindful

[71:17]

without judging, without desiring, without pushing away. To really just allow ourselves to be with what's there. Even though we know that it is a struggle and that many times what arises as the object of our mindfulness is our very judgment and our very holding on and our very pushing away. Still to me this formula makes the point that we really have to work with that. And that's a crucial thing to work with because unless we work with being aware of our holding on and pushing away and not affirming it and not pushing that further and grabbing a hold of it and shaking it we can't really be mindful. So that's a really important point. But here's the thing that really is interesting to me in light of what I've been studying and thinking about all fall because in the fall during the practice period here I was thinking about we had been chanting a special echo changed the service and been chanting a special echo and including heightening our consciousness and awareness of the practice of women practitioners because it's something that we hadn't included

[72:21]

and hadn't been as aware of. And so that made me realize all the things that we are not aware of in the world around us and that made me realize all the things in ourselves also that we are not aware of and don't let go of and that made me think about the practice of forgiveness. I don't know if that's clear to you how that all worked out but I was really thinking a lot about the practice of forgiveness and when I wrote the fundraising letter this year it was all about forgiveness. And then, to my astonishment when I was reading in Usala Anna's book, and as I said this is a book I hadn't studied before in the back he has a little section of meditation instruction from Mahasi Sayadaw who was one of his teachers. And Mahasi Sayadaw says the practice of mindfulness, you have to first start with the practice of forgiveness and then you have to practice loving-kindness out of the forgiveness

[73:22]

and then you can practice awareness. So it's interesting how this is connected because if we have in our hearts something we're not including something we haven't forgiven in ourselves or in others if we don't have, in other words forgiveness and loving-kindness about our very own holding on and pushing away if we get mad at ourselves for our lack of mindfulness and our judgments and our this's and our that's and we can't really accept that and have a degree of loving-kindness about it then our mindfulness will be an exercise in self-consciousness and our mindfulness then can easily become just another way for us to spin the wheels of our attachment even deeper. So I think this is something we'll talk about more and maybe actually practice in some of our morning sessions but just the whole idea that forgiveness and metta or loving-kindness practice are not some other thing

[74:25]

that are irrelevant to the practice of awareness in fact we have to constantly work on that in order to practice awareness because otherwise our awareness will not be having put aside covetousness and grief for this world we will be enmeshed in covetousness and grief if we haven't practiced forgiveness and loving-kindness toward ourselves and therefore toward others in our lives because these things go hand in hand so all of this are issues that we will go into a lot more as we go along so I'll stop there and there's only a little time It was more ardent that other readings of this sutra really caught my attention because I've been noticing in reading sutras more this passionate sense that Buddha often communicates that I've missed before there's a belief that Buddhism

[75:27]

is very cool very cool, almost cold don't express but there are places like this where he tells someone that he needs to practice as if his hair were on fire and he tells Ananda one time that the whole of spiritual practice, all the way is spiritual friendship and because of passionate approach practice is something that I try to understand and take out of the usual worldly approach to passion and somehow incorporate that into the coolness of Zazen and the coolness of the way that we do things in the Zen community that word ardent meant a lot to me very definitely

[76:29]

and I guess the difference between the passion and the warmth and the humanness and the love that is, I believe, also characteristic of the Buddhist path the difference between that and love and so on that can be destructive is just this holding on and pushing away our awareness takes us below that level so there may be in our hearts holding on and pushing away but if we're really practicing awareness we are aware of that holding on and pushing away and we're not going for it whereas in worldly, so called worldly or conventional senses of passion and love, it's all about holding on we can't imagine any other way other than holding on and pushing away love and hate are completely together and in the path, instead of love and hate, there's equanimity which is warm and concern and loving kindness

[77:31]

metta itself is kind of a general feeling of positive feeling and warm feeling toward creatures not this one, I like, this one I hate but this is the feeling I'm cultivating, even though I have to admit that I like this one, I hate that one, but I'm not going to emphasize that I'm going to work with that and be aware of that and understand real clearly that if I go around trashing this person and breaking the precepts to speak about them and constantly following after this person wherever she goes, wherever he goes, 24 hours a day that this is going to be not too good I have to practice equanimity and metta exactly it's a friendly path and the scope of the friendliness is huge not only we're friendly to the people that's exactly why I brought up Whitman

[78:34]

it's not only that we're friendly to people we like and don't like but we're friendly to everybody and even the people we don't know and even the ones that aren't people all of a sudden we notice like Whitman notices the ant notices tiny creatures, all creatures so there's a huge field for our warmth and definitely the mindfulness sutra is about getting us off this thing of only seeing ourselves and what seems to benefit us and seeing things in that wide way then warmth for everything comes up and insofar as we're holding on bitterness toward ourself or people in our lives we're going to be prevented from seeing that's why and I think one of the points I want to make about the sutra over and over as we go along

[79:35]

although the sutra says it's A, B, C, D, E it's not really A, B, C, D, E it's very individualized how we practice and for some individuals at some time it may be that we should only practice forgiveness that's what we need to work on right now and that's what we should work on as the best, most skillful way for this person at this particular time to practice mindfulness other comments or questions? you mentioned or Buddha mentioned putting aside covetousness and I was just wondering what's the difference between putting aside and pushing away how do we practice putting aside either grasping or pushing away good question maybe grasping or pushing away

[80:36]

maybe we need to accept that that's a really good question, very important we have to be able to tell the difference between putting aside or not being bamboozled by grasping or pushing away we have to be able to tell the difference between that and repressing, denying that it's there at all definitely we have to see the difference and the difference, maybe one way of indicating it is it's the difference between picking up these beads I know that I have them in my hand I know they're here I'm putting them down and I know I put them down and I know that they're there I'm not holding them now the sensation of the beads in my hands, the weight of them and the feeling of the bone is not there the difference between that and they're out of sight, I'm not dealing with them

[81:39]

they don't exist, they're not mine, they're not here like that sometimes I think of mindfulness as radical honesty mindfulness has nothing to do with how we're supposed to be just like Thoreau says if it stinks, it stinks, let's be with it if it's death, let's feel the coldness of our extremity if we're involved in tremendous passion and hatred and anger, let's not pretend that we're good boys and girls and we should get rid of that let's know that that's there but let's do this, if possible it's still there, these beads are still there so let me not pick them up and start hitting people with them maybe I can't do it maybe the best I can do is know that I'm holding these beads then I know I'm holding the beads but at least I don't have to hit people with them maybe I can't even start hitting people with them let me be aware that I'm hitting people with them and then by virtue of that awareness I'll be able to just hold them

[82:42]

and then I'm not hitting people with them anymore, I'm just holding them and then by virtue of my being aware that I'm just holding them after a while I'll be able to put them down and then maybe I'll even be able to put them down and pick them up when I need them for benefit of others put them down and then pick them up when I need them for the benefit of others so the sutra is telling us that the practice of awareness as the sutra teaches it if we stay with it with confidence and ardently we will be able to, starting from wherever we actually are not from where we're supposed to be or where we think we're supposed to be or someone tells us where we're supposed to be but starting from where we actually are awareness will enable us to take that step by step walk until we get to where Rev is going to take us through the journey of really seeing the four truths and the path so that's the confidence that we need to have so yeah, when we're involved and you know, sometimes I'm like this

[83:45]

maybe you're like this too sometimes there are some of us who need to take the beads like this and go like this for a while because otherwise we'll never be convinced that it doesn't work so if that's what you have to do then that's what you have to do eventually you will know for sure for yourself that it is not a workable way to live and then you'll stop kidding yourself and for the next thing you'll hold the beads so little by little like that but yes, dishonesty, kidding yourself I'm supposed to be good and this and that I don't think that's the practice of mindfulness denial is not mindfulness, denial is the opposite of mindfulness so that's hard if passion is present if I'm obsessed with somebody positive or negative well, it's really there

[84:46]

it's true and I go from there so those steps, neither one is good or bad in and of itself which steps? you're sitting there kidding yourself you might at some point get the awareness that's not a good thing to do but in the meantime how do you deal with other people saying that's a bad thing I don't see, that seems to often happen well then, a lot of times what happens when somebody you're hitting yourself with the beads somebody comes up to you and says that's a bad thing don't do that, and then right away likelihood is that you then have aversion toward that person you really don't like them for telling you that maybe all the more so since you know they're right on some level, all the more so so then you have to be aware of your aversion to that person and certainly as practitioners

[85:49]

I think we're making the effort, right when we see somebody hitting themselves over the head like that our effort, I think we know ourselves well enough to know that when we go up to that person and stick our finger in their face and tell them that they're being bad for doing that they should stop, that this is not going to help usually, so we don't do that we try to have a different approach accepting that they're doing this and wishing them the best and being there for them in whatever way we can but maybe not moralizing and so on but if someone moralizes like that to us and aversion comes up, we notice that, and we deal with it so I think to get us all to the Zen to one time we had better stop right here thank you very much for your attention and I think next time we meet we'll do some practices I think and we'll focus more on the details of the sutra and some experiential stuff thank you

[86:50]

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