This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good afternoon. So as announced, we will talk about the Pratitya Samuppadha. you should not be scared is the 12-fold chain of co-dependent arising. That's one of them. We will see what is the meaning of this title. It's one of the most important teachings of the Buddha and according And it's very important for our practice.

[01:02]

Normally this is not stressed enough on books, that's why I wanted to offer this class, because normally it's very hard to understand how this teaching on the 12 links is very hard to understand how it is connected with the practice of zazen and with the practice of awareness and with the practice of mindfulness. But actually it's a very important teaching. And it goes back directly to the original teaching of Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, the historic Buddha. And according to the legend, Buddha had a glimpse of this teaching during his four meetings. If you are familiar with the story of Siddhartha, the prince, You will know that his father shattered him from suffering, so he kept him inside the palace.

[02:10]

But at a certain point, the young Siddhartha wanted to see the world, and so the father, always in order to protect him from suffering, organized a parade where only young beautiful people were on the street. So that the young Siddhartha getting out of the palace, where he was also surrounded by beautiful people, would get out of the palace and see just only young, beautiful people. But an old man was able to sneak into the parade and so the young Siddhartha saw this old man and was kind of surprised because it was the first time for him to see an old man. Can you imagine the surprise? And then According to some book, he had four different meetings, four different parades organized for him. According to other sources, he just got out from the palace once and during that escapade he had four meetings.

[03:19]

That are an old man, a sick man, a dead man, a body, a corpse and a monk. And from these four meetings he had an insight, and he decided that he wanted to find a solution to suffering and death. And somehow the fourth meeting, the one with the monk, represented the solution. What is the solution to old age, sickness and death? Well, follow the Dharma, become a monk. No, no. Well, in Mahayana, no. not necessarily become a monk, but still follow the Dharma. So, the first idea of this 12-fold chain of causation started from there, because the last link of this chain is that

[04:23]

So his question was, why that? Well, because there is old age and sickness. Why old age and sickness? Because there is birth. And why birth? Because there is existence. And why there is existence? And so he went backward in order to find the origin of our problems. So that's how, according to the legend, came up with the idea of this 12-fold chain that we will soon see and study. According to other sources, he developed the idea of this teaching as a way to explain deeper the teaching on the skandhas, the aggregates. Do you remember the skandhas?

[05:32]

Form. Feelings. Perception. Formations. Samskara, yes. Consciousness. Very good. Vitunana. Very good. So he developed the teaching on the 12-fold chain in order to explain deeper the teaching on the five skandhas And in order to explain the teaching on anatman, or the absence of a permanent self, so basically is a development of the second noble fruit. So the first noble fruit is... Life is suffering. Second noble fruit... There's a cause. Yes, and the cause is... craving, thirst, literally. And then the third is the good news.

[06:37]

It's possible to get rid of suffering. And the fourth is the path, how we do that. So the Pratitya Samutpada is a teaching that explains better the five scandals and put together all these teachings based on the Four Noble Truths. We will see better, you will understand it better at the end of the... when we will have listed all these links. Okay, so... Let's take a look at the meaning of this teaching. So the first part is Pratitya, that is Sanskrit, all Indian language.

[07:53]

So, Pratitya. Pratitya in Sanskrit means dependent on, based on. And the second part is... Samut pada in Sanskrit means origination by dependence of one thing on another, or also co-arising, or also co-creating. So we have an origination by dependence, dependent on one thing on another. And this is quite often translated as a codependent origination or interdependent origination.

[09:02]

It's interesting, samutpada is a compound, but samutpada quite often is used in Sanskrit to express the taking off of the birth. Hamsa, the swan, the mythical swan, would arise and take off Samut pada. So I like very much the English expression co-arising. Sam is together, Sangha. Do you know what a Sangha is? Yes, you are. You are a Sangha. And Sangha, the part Sam, is together, going together. Sangha. So Samit means it expresses, going together, so is co-arising, co-origination.

[10:04]

So that's the meaning of the title. So is the teaching on the co-origination by dependence, or the co-arising, co-creating, dependent on, based on. So everything is co-created, everything is interdependent, everything is dependent on something else. And the title already expresses a lot of things. Sometimes Praditya Sanctpada is translated as Conditioned Genesis, or Chain of Causations, although It doesn't work so much. We will see later why. Okay, so let's study all these links together and see how they are important for us. So, the first one here in Sanskrit is A-V-I-A.

[11:11]

That normally is translated as ignorance. Okay. Literally, it means blindness. So, again, it's a compound. The first letter is an A. Sanskrit is an Indo-European language, the origin of the Indo-European languages. And the A at the beginning means negation. It's a negative alpha in Greek. Alpha is at the beginning of a word, negates what comes after. Atheist. That means node, alpha, God. Okay? So, avidya, vid. That's a word that you have in English. Video comes from Sanskrit. Vidya is literally, it means, vidya is to see.

[12:16]

To see reality as it is. To see things as really are. Or Suzuki Roshi would say things as it is. This is vidya. That's vidya. Knowledge. That's why in India the sages were called the seers. You know that? Because they see reality as it is. Vidya. The word video, that you have in English, comes from Sanskrit. That is connected to see, to watch television. Video recorder. So, A-B-I-A is blindness. So we don't see. That's translated as ignorance, but literally it means blindness. We are blind to reality as it is.

[13:17]

And that's the first link, and it's the origin of all our problems. All my ancient twisted karma? Go on. Delusion is, sometimes it's illusion or ignorance, that is the basic poison. The one that you just quoted are the three poisons. The basic poison from where the two other and all the rest of the Klesha stem out is ignorance, blindness, illusion, delusion. We are deluded, we are blind. That's the origin of all our problems. Second, you know it? So, samskara is quite often translated as mental formation, that's how you put it into the five scandals, we find it in the five scandals.

[14:36]

And it's translated also as volitional actions, but actually that means karmic formations, but even more literally it means karmic engraving. So, samskara expresses in English, in Sanskrit, the idea of engraving, you know, the sutras originally were written on palm leaves, and they would engrave the letters and then put a powder, black powder, on the leaves, so that the powder would stay inside engraving. So, samskara is this engraving. It's an incision, you say that? Okay. So, they're like tattoos that are instantly inscribed. Where? That's a good question. But anyway. So, samskara are... Sometimes it's translated as angraphy.

[15:43]

You know this word? It's like an incision, it's like an engraving. So it's a karmic formation. It's a good translation. But please keep in mind what is the original meaning. Then we have the Jnana. So Vijnana is translated as consciousness quite often. But literally Vijnana is will. The will to exist. Maybe you are familiar with the German philosopher Schopenhauer. who was very much influenced by Buddhism, and he used to speak, to talk about voluntas and noluntas.

[16:51]

Will and noluntas, I don't know how you translate it into English. You don't have to. It's the opposite of will. So, vichyana, yes, is consciousness, but in this context it means the will to be, the desire to be. In fact, right after, we have Nama Rupa, that is a body-mind set. But in the Apidharma, and in the Buddhist psychology, it is said that in order to have a sentient being with a body-mind set, it's not enough to have a father and a mother. There is a third element, that is Vijnana, that is the desire to be. So there is something else that is pushing to have or manifest a body-mind set.

[17:53]

So, nama-rubat means form. Nama, the English word name, comes from here. Nama, it means name in Sanskrit. But it also means mind and... Rupa, it means form, literally, but it's body, in this case, Nama Rupa, mind and body. But again, another word that you know, avidya samskara, vichinana, Nama Rupa. At the origin, there is ignorance. Since there is ignorance, karmic formations arise. They are also called predispositions, or the effect of past deeds and experience as conditioning a new state. So, because there is ignorance, we have karmic formation. Because there are karmic formations, there is a consciousness, or a will to be, and since there is a will to be, because there is a will to be, a body-mind set, appear.

[19:10]

Is it number four or is that part of the... Yes, it's number four. Then we have... Sarayata. From this carrot, it means six senses. Since we have a body-mind set, we have six senses. Why six? That doesn't mean that we have the sixth sense and we perceive ghosts like in a movie, but it means that in Buddhist psychology, the mind is lowered at the level of sense. So we have hearing, touching and so on, the five senses, plus the mind and the object of mind are so the the nose smell and the mind yeah yes yes and then no of objects of mind so the eyes we have the capacity to see and then there is an object colors that are

[20:42]

the object of the eyes, or the capacity to see, the ability to see. We have a nose, and then we can smell. We have a mind that is another sense, and we can perceive ideas. That's why in polioism we talk about six senses, not five, but six, because the mind is another organ that is able to feel. So, since we have a body, we have six senses. Now, what happened? Since we have six senses, there is the contact. Actually, contact with the object. I have the ability to touch. and I am doing contact with an object.

[21:44]

So there is the sparsha contact. Okay, now I have a friend here that I would like to introduce you. And he's my friend, Shakyamuni Buddha. And Shakyamuni Buddha is represented in very specific ways. He's always holding specific mudras. And one of the most famous mudras of Buddha is that one where he touches the earth, calling the earth to witness his enlightenment. This mudra, you know what a mudra is? It's a position of a hand that calls for a certain energy or state of mind. This mudra in Sanskrit is Bhumi Sparsha Mudra. Bhumi is earth, Sparsha, now you know what it is. contact. The mudra of the contact with the earth.

[22:48]

Bhumi is partial mudra. So, here there is the contact between the senses and the object. Okay? Now, oh, your vapor is over. That's the purpose. Okay. Partia and Now, after sparsha, what will arise? After a contact will arise? Feel it, sensation. Vedana. Don't say Vedana, please. Vedana. Sensation. Feel it. We have six sense organs. that they enter in contact with their objects. And a feeling arises.

[23:50]

Okay? Because there is a feeling, we are entering the dangerous zone. So, pay attention. There's not. Thirst. So there is a sensation and thirst arises. What is the second novel fruit again? Creeping. But if you look at the Sanskrit, you will see that the word used by Buddha in the second novel fruit is trijna. Thirst. Nirvana, third novel fruit. Literally means plenching. Of what? Thirst. India is a tropical country, very hot, very humid. So, the idea of quenching, you can imagine how appealing it is.

[24:57]

And you can imagine what it means in a tropical country, thirst. And we are not talking of India today, we are talking of 2,500 years ago. so it's not that you go and shop and buy a bottle of water, okay? So, there is no thirst. There is a sensation, contact, a sensation arises, and we develop thirst. And the next step is Upadana. Upadana is... Literally, upadana means appropriation. I go and I get it. My senses enter in contact with their object. A sensation arises. I develop thirst, craving, and you know what?

[26:00]

I go get it. Upadana. The other phase of that's craving, that's Clinging. That's attachment. I like very much the English word clinging because it's the sound that we make like a door walking. Cling! So I like it very much. That's upadana. That's upadana. And I got it and I don't let it go. Buddha, to describe a banana, uses the example of how the hunters in India used to get monkeys. And the system was very easy and still used in Asia.

[27:01]

So they put a banana in a cage. The monkey sees the banana. put its hands through the bars, cut the banana, and then the hand doesn't get out. The solution would be very, very easy. Let the banana go. And then the hand gets out. But you know what? The monkey will not leave the banana. And so the hunters arrive and find the monkey holding firmly And they are still using that system. That's how it happens. The monkey will not release the banana. And Buddha said that's our mind. We get hold of something and we don't let go. But that's the origin of suffering. Reality is constantly changing. But we cling to things, people, events. We don't let go.

[28:02]

And since we don't let go, and since reality is impermanent. suffering arises. That's the danger zone. And repulsion is the other side of the coin. So I really don't like it, I really don't want it. So according to the teaching of the Buddha, suffering arises when we are far away from what we like, craving, and very close to what we don't like. That's repulsion. Repulsion is the other side, the other face of the coin, but repulsion and attachment are the same thing, basically. And they give rise to the suffering. Second noble fruit. First noble fruit, life is suffering. It's not exact... I don't want to get into that. Anyway, it's not... Dukkha is not suffering, it's uneasiness.

[29:05]

In Sanskrit, Dukkha expresses the going on a chart where the wheel doesn't work properly on the... What do you call it? The axe. So while going, you go... So it's not smooth. You are uneasy. That's the origin of Dukkha. We are never at peace. There's always something wrong. We are never at peace. Okay? So! Upadana and then Bhava. Bhava is a new existence. We are putting, sowing the seeds of a new existence. We are perpetrating our existence. We are throwing hooks far away and then try to go in that direction. That's Bhava, a new existence. And the consequence is jati, that is, bird.

[30:11]

So, a new person. But it's not only a new person, we will see. And then, jara-ma-ra-na. They go together, jara-ma-ra-na. birth, old age, death. Marana is that. You know that word. I will introduce you another good friend. That's the will of life according to the Tibetan teaching and The ugly guy that is getting hold of this wheel is Mara. You know the story of the Buddha?

[31:15]

Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree and Mara is the bad guy, is the one who tempts the Buddha and is the lord of samsara. conditional existence. So, in the Buddhist iconographies represented with fans holding the will of existence. It's Mara. But Mara in Sanskrit means, now you know, death. So, Mara is the Lord of death. That's the meaning of the name. Oh, you know another word. You know a lot of Sanskrit words. Have you ever heard of Amrita? I'm sure that... Please don't say Amrita. The right emphasis is Amrita.

[32:18]

Amrita is... Yes, but now you know what it is an alpha at the beginning of a word. So is Amrita. Mruh is the verbal root, Sanskrit verbal root for mara. Mruh, mara. When the client it becomes mara. Amruh is... Immortality. Known death. Death. Death-wise is called ambrosia or the nectar of immortality. Literally is the nectar of known death. Amrita. So mara or marana is death. both old age and sickness. So, do you remember from where we started? Buddha, meaning for the first time, a dead man, a corpse. Why so? How is it possible?

[33:20]

He didn't know anything about death. And so he started to think, why that? Well, because there is old age and sickness. Why? because there is birth. No one escapes this law. If you are alive, sooner or later you will get sick, and sooner or later you will die. If you are lucky, you will become old. But anyway, wherever he is alive, he will get old, sick, and eventually he will die. There is no escape. Why that? Because there is existence. Why there is existence? Because there is attachment. Why there is attachment? Because there is thirst. Why there is thirst? Because we have feelings. Why we have feelings? Because there is the contact. Of what? Of our ability to feel with whatever we perceive as external.

[34:22]

Why so? Because we have a body mindset. Why do we have a body mindset? Because there is the will to be. Why there is the will to be? Because we have karmic push. Why do we have a karmic push? Because we are ignorant. So at the origin of old age sickness, death, attachment, there is ignorance. Is it clear? So why meditation? Why meditation is important? I told you that here... Oh, let me say something else. The Pratitya Samutpada can be broken down into three main pieces of time. Past, present, and future. That's the past. An idiocyms kind of a genoma. Because in the past there is ignorance, karmic pushes, and a consciousness. That's the past.

[35:23]

In the present, here and now, there is a body-mind with the ability to feel that enters in contact with something, A sensation arises. We develop thirst and then there is attachment. That's the present. And here, future. So here we have the future. Future consequences. New existence, birth, old age, sickness and death. So past, present and future. But that happens not only my past life, my present life and my future life can be written through it. But it also, according to modern Buddhist psychology, that happens now. Now. That is what is happening now. How? Okay. We have a body. We cannot do anything about that. We have feelings. Well, we have the ability to feel. That's unavoidable.

[36:24]

Unavoidable. We cannot avoid to enter in contact. with whatever we perceive as external. There's nothing we can do. Then, a feeling arises. So the Buddha is making like a zoom on whatever happens in our mind in the process of perception 2,500 years ago, way before Freud. He said, okay, we have a mind. What happens in our mind? We have to encounter with the external object and a sensation arises. Then we color the sensation. The sensation as the feeling, as feeling, is just the feeling. But we color it according to our personal preferences. I like it, I don't like it. I like it, I want it. I don't like it, I don't want it. But normally we perceive right away the sensation, the feeling, as a positive.

[37:30]

or as a negative feeling, we are not able to realize that these are two different moments. One thing is the perception, another thing is the coloring of the perception, and another thing is to develop attachment or repulsion. The sensation as the feeling is just the feeling. We color it. Our mind colors the feeling according to the personal preference. But the feeling is just the feeling. A sound is just the sound. Now, if I start saying bad words in Italian, why you don't get mad at me? Except Lisa. Why? Because you don't. So you just hear a sound. Why? And if I do it in English?

[38:30]

Why do you get mad at me? Because you understand, but... We don't like it. You don't like it, but it's just the sound. What you perceive, what your ears perceive is just the sound, a feeling that you color according to your condition. Okay, okay, I am conditioned. You said that word. You know what? I get mad. But what you are perceiving is just a wave of sound. You... Your mind is telling you, oh, that's a bad word, I really don't like it. But in itself, it's just the sound. A smell, oh, that's a very bad smell. No, it's just a smell. You don't like it, but, you know, food. I remember the first practice period I had here, and I'm thinking, oh, this is, this is, it was porridge. And, no, you call it oatmeal.

[39:31]

We don't have it. And I was eating it, and I was thinking, oh, that's soft cardboard with glue. And all the rest of the sangha was saying, oh, that's still so good. Oh, can we have more? I was thinking, what's going on? How can we, like, do you like oatmeal? Yes? It makes me sick. Also, it's just a Perception. Oatmeal is just oatmeal. We like it or dislike it according to our personal preferences. But the sensation, the feeling, is just a feeling. And the same thing with everything. So if we like it, we develop a thirst, an attachment, and then we want it. If we don't like it, if the coloration is negative, then we develop repulsion. But the feeling is just a feeling. Why mindfulness? Why awareness?

[40:32]

Why will it insist so much on the practice of awareness? Because the Zadzan can be called is not only awareness, but mainly is a practice of awareness. Why? Here is the explanation. This is called the... Sometimes it's called the chain of causes and effects. According to other scholars, that's wrong, because between every single ring of the chain, the relationship is not a relationship of cause and effect. Why? Because a relationship of cause and effect, you cannot break it. While this chain can be broken. So let me quote directly Lord Buddha. Speaking, teaching about Pratitya Samukpadat, Buddha said, when this is, that is.

[41:34]

This arising, that arises. When this is not, that is not. This ceasing, that ceases. Those are the bad news, the good news. So, Buddha doesn't speak of causing fact. He says, being this, that is. There is ignorance, well, Samskara arises. There is Samskara, well, Pigeonara arises. But it doesn't say cause and effect. Why? Because you cannot break the chain of cause and effect. If I burn this paper, I will not have paper back. I will have only ashes. Okay? Of course, I can stop the burning. That's another cause that will create another effect. The part that burns is burned. I cannot have it. So I cannot break it. I can stop it somehow.

[42:35]

So the relation is being this, that is. That's a good news, because that means that we can break the chain. We are not slaves forever. How? With meditation. Why? Because with the practice of awareness, we observe our mind, we have a feeling, we cannot do anything about that, we have a body mindset, Nothing can be done about that. We have the ability to feel. Nothing can be done about that. We enter in contact with external objects. Nothing can be done about that. We have a feeling. Nothing can be done about that. But then, to cover the feeling, well, that's an option. Feeling is just the feeling. And to develop thirst, that's another option. But it's not a necessary thing. consequence of adding a feeling. So, with the practice of awareness, I open ears, eyes, nose, mouth, I open my mind, and I'm sitting there, Shikantaza, and I feel everything.

[43:46]

And I see, I perceive, I have a sensation, and I recognize it. Normally what happens is that I like it, I want it. I don't like it, I don't want it. But the passage is not necessary. So the practice of awareness is like a peg that breaks the chain here in the strongest and weakest point between Vedana and Trijana. So the practice of awareness breaks the chain because we are trained to see our feelings And then, normally, we are enslaved. We are enslaved by our feelings. We feel something and we go for it. Now, in the 70s, I'm now currently teaching at the Faculty of Psychology for neuroscience courses, and my colleagues always tease me because I always quote the studies that have been done in the 70s.

[44:54]

I'm still stuck in the 70s. I buy vinyls, I'm still listening to the Beatles. So I always, at the university I put the tests that has been done here in the States in the 70s. And there is a very famous book that is Altered State of Consciousness by Tartt, where what they've done was to project in a dark room two lights in a very short sequence, two different groups, one of meditators, and for meditators I mean people that have been meditating for 25 years, and a group of non-meditators. So the report of the non-meditators was that the light was one, while the report of the meditators was that the light were two. in a very fast sequence, but two.

[45:56]

Why is it important? Because Vedana, Vishnu and Vadana are three movements, but our mind perceives them as one. Are you able to discern between the feeling and the colouring of the feeling? Normally no. Normally what we feel is, we like it, we consider it a positive feeling or a negative feeling right away. That's not what happens. There is a feeling, a coloring of the feeling, and then we go for it. But we are talking about three different moments. So, as the meditators in the test were able to see that the lights were too white, because they were trained to be aware or to be Present in the present moment. Ten points to Gryffindor. Okay? To be here, if we train our mind to be here and now, here and now, here and now, why do we insist so much in Zenon in here and now?

[47:06]

Because we create room for freedom. We are enslaved by our feelings. But if we create room for freedom, we can see the feeling arising, and then we can freely decide what to do. Yes, we can go and get it, no problem, but we are deciding with our free will to do whatever we like with what we are feeling. Normally we are enslaved. We are forced by an obscure force and we don't like it, don't want it. But we are enslaved like that. With the practice of awareness, we are able to create room and then see the feeling and decide freely what to do with that feeling. It's not that you don't have to develop guilt because you develop upademe.

[48:08]

It's just a matter of awareness. What do you want to do with that feeling? It's just the feeling. The fact that you consider it a good feeling or a bad feeling is not reality. We are deluded. Reality is as it is. Porridge is just porridge. You like it? I don't. But that's how we're deluded mind. Abhidya. Ignorance. Okay? So, if you break with the practice of mindfulness the chain that can be also considered a circle because Jaramayana goes back to avidya, and we start again. That is happening not only past, present, and future life, but past, present, future, now. We are constantly recreating and rebuilding our life in this way. But if we break the chain, that is a chain, so it's a circle, we can reverse the spin.

[49:15]

And there is another Pratikya Sampada that is called Uttara Pratitya Samutpada, Samutpada superior, Uttara, that comes after, and I will talk about that next year, because the same is in class. And the last link of the Uttara Pratitya Samutpada is Nirvana. So if you break the chain, you reverse the spin of the wheel of existence, that's the wheel of existence, At the center, there are three poisons, represented by a pig, a rooster, and a snake. And they are running after each other. And this carousel makes the wheel of existence to turn. Those are the realms of existence. And outside we have the Pratitya Sampada. This is like a monopoly in Tibet. Can't play with that. Actually, so you...

[50:18]

throw this, and then you move, oh, I fall into hell. Like in Monopoly, you go to prison. It's the same thing. This is used as Monopoly in Tibet. And that's the will of existence. And, oh, who is out of the will of existence? Buddha. Buddha is out of it. And Mara is getting hold of us. And on the outside, Here we have the engine that makes the wheel turning, and one is ignorant. And here we have an explanation, a pictographic explanation of Praditya Samutpada. So for blindness, avidya, we have a blind man that is guided, that is walking toward a cliff. Who is that man?

[51:21]

Okay, so we are blind, going for the Apis. And Samskara, there is an author, a person that is working on the wheel for the... Okay, so we are molding our life. Samskara. Vijnana, that's nice. A monkey getting hold of a fruit. Does it remember you something? Okay, and then Vijnana. Man on a boat on a river with strong currents. We are drawn by our currents. And then we have a bird of a person. And then the six senses are represented by a... A house with windows. So our senses are like windows. And then they enter in contact.

[52:32]

A man and a woman making love. That's contact. And then a sensation arrives. And the image for sensation is quite strong. A man with an arrow in his eye. Do you feel it? And then thirst at a woman selling water. And... See? Talking about blindness, right? And more. And then... Okay. Sensation. Thirst. Ooh, padana. A man taking fruit from a tree. And then birth is a woman giving birth. to a new person, and then a sick man and a dying man. Does it speak to you? Yes. Okay, so, but it's possible to reverse the movement thanks to the practice of mindfulness.

[53:38]

Do you see how it's connected with the five skandhas? Yes? So Rupa, form, Vedana, sensation, feeling, then we have Samjana, perception, that are here, basically, Samskara, karmic formations, and Vijnana, consciousness. So the twelve links are a deepening of this teaching, but it also pulls together the Four Noble Truths. There is suffering. Why there is suffering? Because of ignorance and because of attachment, thirst. How do we get out from that? Well, with the practice of awareness that not only that, the Eightfold Path can be broken down into three main elements. Shilala, Samadhi and Prajna. Shilala, morality, ethics, precepts.

[54:44]

Prajna, wisdom. So the counteraction, flaviyya, ignorance, is wisdom. And shila, morality, reaction, wisdom, and samadhi, meditation. So with this teaching, the Buddha was able to explain how the Four Noble Truths interact. And there is more and more, I can go on forever, but there is something else that I want to mention, that is... Nagarjuna. You know Nagarjuna? Philosopher and teacher and monk and master that is at the base of the Mahayana.

[55:44]

Nagarjuna is called... Buddha sets in motion the wheel of Dharma. Nagarjuna is the second Buddha that spins the wheel of Dharma for the second time. It's the second turning of the wheel with Nagarjuna, because it's the beginning of Mahayana, and Zen is one of the school of Mahayana. And Nagarjuna... all... The philosophical system of Nagarjuna is based on that. And he said that Pratitya Samutpada is Shunyata. Shunyata in Sanskrit means emptiness. Where can I write it? Shunyata. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The Heart Sutras summarized the teaching of Nagarjuna. Shunyata is emptiness. And so Nagarjuna said that the Pratitya Saumtpada expresses ease, emptiness.

[56:56]

Let me quote directly. We pronounce his name every day. Nagyaharajuna dai osho anabote dai. Nagyaharajuna is the way in which Japanese pronounce the Sanskrit name Nagarjuna. Please don't say Nagarjuna. The right emphasis is Nagarjuna. So let me call directly Master Nagarjuna. I should find it. That which arises dependently we explain as emptiness. That emptiness is dependent designation. Just it is the middle path, because there is no phenomenon that is not a dependent arising. There is no phenomenon that is not empty. That's the basic teaching of Nagarjuna, from where he developed his teaching.

[57:57]

The teaching of Nagarjuna is called, he created a school, the middle way school, Madhyamaka, and just it is the middle path. So, according to the teaching of Nagarjuna, everything is interdependent, everything is co-arising. That's from where the teaching of interdependence, interconnectedness, interbeing, would say, comes from here. How so? The teaching of anatman. According to the Buddha, the characteristics of reality are permanence, suffering, and non-self. Dukkha, anisha, or anitya, and anatta, or anatman, non-self. Non-self is a way of describing the impermanence of a self. It's always a teaching on impermanence. Everything is impermanent, including the self, and we call that anatman, or non-self, but it's still impermanence.

[59:06]

So, nothing is has a self in nature. In Sanskrit, it is... Svabhava. Now, bhava, existence... Svabhava, in Italian, the word sua, it comes from here. It means self nature, self existence. According to the Abhidharma, if you break down reality, you will find the dharmas, the element creating reality. And you cannot break down reality anymore.

[60:08]

That is the meaning of atom. Now you know. Atomos. Alpha, something that you cannot divide anymore. The atom is the basic element of reality. Now we got to the quark, but it's the same idea. According to Buddhist psychology, these basic elements are the dharmas, plural. We have to stop. We do really start. Okay. Thank you very much. Finish what you want to say in the next couple minutes. Oh yes, the Abhidharma in one minute. Okay. According to the Abhidharma scholars of Theravada, the ancient school, dharmas, the element creating reality, are the ultimate element. And you cannot break down break down them anymore.

[61:09]

According to the teaching of Nagarjuna, the dharmas are other-dependent. So the dharmas are not Svabhava, they don't have a self-existence, but they depend on something else. That is, they are interconnected, that is, they are co-created and co-dependent. Empty. Dharmas are empty. Empty of a separate self. There is no a separate self because everything is co-created. Everything is codependent. Everything is co-created. Everything is co-generated.

[62:10]

How? Does it work? So? Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[62:45]

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