Today, at lunchtime, I don't know why we need such a chorus of throat clearings, particularly from the east side of the hall. This side of the hall was fairly quiet, the west side, but the east side was cacophony. Throat clearings, and one person cleared his throat, and several cleared their throat. Maybe you don't hear it. Then somebody would blow their nose and that would be an excuse for several more people to clear their throats. And their stomach would growl. It would produce tickles in people's throats, even over here. I was surprised at how much it was localized here. I mean, I was proud of this site. didn't give in to the temptation. Maybe you have to clear your throat so audibly. It shouldn't be necessary. Maybe it's the third act was too slow in coming. You're moaning like a sick person.

[01:27]

I think I have to explain a little further what I have been talking about, yogic perception, or direct perception, non-conceptual perception. I can remember how excited I was when Suzuki began talking about the four trances, or four jhanas, and I realized he was speaking of them from his own experience. As I may have said to you in the early days of Zen Center, he gave very detailed analysis of the jhanas and paramitas and nirmanakaya, sanghavakaya, dharmakaya bodies and so forth. I still have my notes, I get these things in a blackboard with lines attaching all of the bodies and the bodies attached to various states and so forth.

[03:06]

looked to me like this ladder. But it was nice to know that the first rung was near. But then Sukhirsri would say, it's not ladder, no ladder. He thought of it as a ladder himself. Ron Eyre he's the man you know most of you know did the BBC Time Life series Long Search and he sent me a letter recently and

[04:27]

a chapter of a book which he mentions us so he wanted me to read it and he mentions in the chapter that when he and I were taking a walk The first time we talked, he says that coming back he found himself telling me that the big change in his life came when he realized what practice was. His life changed direction was when he stopped sleeping. on his side and began sleeping on his, in another position. Changed the position in which he was sleeping. And I, he says, and I remember I did probably say something like, that's why you can't, why you can't film us or film Zen practice.

[05:56]

How can I have the camera... I didn't say it, but I can have the camera filming somebody when they're sleeping, deciding to change their posture. But practice does exist in this kind of realm and the ability to notice things. Now, I don't know. tell you what I mean, but the ability to notice things, to have your body and mind open up so that you notice things.

[06:59]

I can say that what we mean by bodhisattva, enlightenment being, bodhisattva is another kind of noticing. And last night I called it radical privacy, radical privacy, or you can say radical singularity. This would be another way to express it. The activity of conjunction. Now, there's four main approaches to Buddhism. Insight, which is in Japan, the Tendai school, China, Tiantai, the philosophical, the more philosophical school, and the wishing gem. schools, and tantric or enactment schools, and meditative, Zen schools. Actually, all

[08:22]

Schools must draw on each other, or all schools include each other, but there's a different emphasis. When you see that there's no substantial reality, then you see that enactment is necessary. And Zen emphasizes enactment a little differently than tantric schools. But our ceremonies are drawn, particularly Soto school ceremonies, are drawn directly One reason I don't talk, we don't talk usually about something like a yogic perception is because it has an exclusive feeling. Some people don't perceive that, but some of us who practice together

[10:05]

I want so you can feel left out. So we don't want to talk about Buddhism so somebody feels left out. I don't want to anyway. And also it becomes a kind of self-power number, a superman number, which is tiresome. And most of the koans have this kind of superman number going. which is, I find, a little offensive, but it's characteristic, actually, of Chinese and Japanese literature. And the koans are, after all, a form of Chinese literature. If you read Indian stories, they are much more relaxed with more details, like the story of Sona and the excess of zeal. You know, tells about how he's going out, he wants to do such and such, thinks about such and such, takes his shoes off and walks in the stone, his feet get bloody, and his friend says, come on, you shouldn't do that. It's a much more human feeling. Buddha comes along and says, see, you know, strolls in the grove and says, see, you overdid it a little bit.

[11:35]

Too little zeal is not so good. Excessive zeal is not so good. Just take it easy and come join and sit with us again. Chinese and Japanese stories aren't that way, some of them. Flash fire is a little bit calmer ones. Flash fire. And perhaps the some of the strength of the faith schools is a rejection of what looks like self-power or yogic insight. But to give yourself up to Avalokiteshvara or to Kannon, Amida Buddha, or Kanzeo, to surrender in that way, nearly the same as to no-mind, no-Buddha, to surrender in that way. Both are how to act non-conception. Do you know the story? Hung Van Dojo, or Yang Yen, who's the

[13:10]

teacher of Tozan. It's, you know, Seigen, Sixth Patriarch, Seigen Gyoshi, then Sekito Kisan, then Yakusan Iken, Yaoshan, then Ungan, or Yanyan. So there's two brothers Nyanyan asked, why does Avalokiteshvara have so many hands and eyes? He's portrayed with 1,000 arms and 11 heads. In fact, there's a temple in Japan which has, I believe, 1,000 of them. Maybe 1,000? Is that how many? I forget. Anyway, a friend of mine called it the Buddha's on the bleachers temple. Because you go in this long room, and it's just this very long room, and you see these bleachers have to go all the time. It's the same temple where they shoot the arrow. Do you know the story? On the walkway, like here.

[14:44]

They have a contest every week, and there's many places where the arrow is stuck in the roof, where you have to shoot the arrow very, very long, because it's all these buddhas, you know. The temple's very long, and you have to draw your bow and shoot the arrow, and not hit the roof. So it's quite difficult to do it every year. To me, most of the arrows end up in the rafters, but I guess it can be done. Anyway, so, Nyan-Nyan asks, why does Avalokiteshvara have so many hands and eyes? Because not only does he have eleven heads and eyes. And, Dao says, it's like searching for your pillow at night. That's quite good, isn't it? Looking for your pillow at night.

[15:50]

And Yan Yan says, what do you say? His whole body is covered with hands and eyes. And the other one says, well that's 80% of it, what do you say? his body through and through are hands and eyes. Another similar story is a monk comes to Matsu, the great master monk, and says, Show me directly the meaning of the Patriot coming from the West. Show me directly the meaning of the Patriot coming from the West. Ma says, I'm very tired today. You go ask so-and-so. So he goes and asks some. Show me the direct meaning.

[17:24]

Meaning. Patriarch coming from the West. This is, you know, like a dog with a rope. We should practice that way. What is the meaning that goes to the Sangha? The Sangha says, why didn't you ask Master Ma? He says, well, he told me to come ask you, he said. So the Sangha says, Geez, I've got a terrible headache. Why don't you ask Hai. Hai says, Now, maybe that's what happened. Maybe I forget exactly the story. Maybe he just... the first son sends him to Ai, and Ai's the one who says, he's tired. I don't remember exactly. Anyway, he goes back to Matsu. He says, well, he said he had a headache and sent me, and Matsu says, Sang's head is white and Ma's head is...

[18:49]

His head is black. This is considered one of the great examples of Matsya's pre-eminence as a Zen teacher, that he could take a situation, it says, he could judge the oncoming winds, or he could anticipate the oncoming winds. And some people say this kind of story is... All three of them knew what the monk's question was and just passed it back and forth. But that misses the point, too, of the story, because the story is much more, you know, doing it on your feet, playing it by ear. But what's amazing is that Matsu, in the situation of this,

[19:50]

could in effect answer the monk's question by saying he's tired today, and sending him to somebody, and what happened there and what happened there, and then when he comes back, bringing it together by saying, son's head is white tonight. His head is black. It's the same as the donkey sees the well, and the well sees the donkey. So this ether, or continuum we are looking for, that I've been talking about, it's... Why look for... Sang and Hai's head being white and black means why look for it in anything other than the phenomenal world itself is the continuum. You don't need a continuum within the continuum. So, also, you know, like the farmer, what is it, the farmer, the iron cow does such and such, or the cow in so-and-so's pasture, Mr. Brown's pasture eats grass, and the cow is Mr. Smith's pasture or Welch's fabric or something. It emphasizes this continuum, that this phenomenal world itself is the continuum.

[21:19]

So I think it's necessary to understand this point, to again understand in all of the sutras how they talk about the omniscience of the Buddha and how Dharmakirti and many commentators talk about the necessity of omniscience. And omniscience again means the activity of... You know, all of this... I'm trying to find language, of course, because I'm trying to use words in ways in which you... are a little bit unusual. So, like radical privacy. It turns out that radical privacy is pretty much exactly what I mean. Radical means root, like in mathematics, radicals, radials, radish, ramify. It means root and branches.

[22:41]

So the root source of privacy, the root of privacy is the same as para and paramita, meaning around or all at once or surrounding. And it also means forward. It's private because you're isolated by being ahead, ahead of reality, or ahead of reality. So Mahayana Buddhism, compassion in Mahayana Buddhism, it's not some emotional empathy. It's much more dynamic than that. It says, in fact, if you understand this story of the hands and eyes of the Bodhisattva, it's some emotional compassion, something you've missed the point. We're talking about maybe calm passion and calm insight and calm activity and calm. So, Mahayana Buddhism is not concerned with

[24:09]

You know, the view of the Buddhist is not... You know, as I say sometimes, you are Buddhism. You're creating Buddhism, but also you're creating phenomenal world. Phenomenal world. If there's no substantial reality, then you can't see reality as something you're a kind of referee in. I think we have a tendency to see religion or being good, doing good, or something like that, as your kind of referee, and you adjust the parts. But there's no parts. The parts are in the midst of being created all the time. So you are not the referee, but you're the fighters, both fighters and the ropes and the referee and the audience and everything all at once. So this is omniscience, because of the all-at-once-ness of it, but how to act in this all at once. Now, omniscience doesn't mean You know everything in the sense that you know things that don't pertain to you. But it means that you know how to act through how what pertains to you happens, how it works. You know how what pertains to you works. You know how to act on it, act through it.

[25:36]

So the sixth patriarch can say – he's not read the sutra – somebody says, what is this sutra? Oh, I don't know that sutra, please read the passage to me. He reads the passage. Oh, then he explains it. But whatever happens you understand it, because you understand it through this yogic perception. Anyway, an understanding of this is important in Zen, otherwise you don't get the emphasis of all the koans, because compassion is identical with this yogic insight. That hands, eyes, seeing, body... Compassion, again, isn't sort of being nice to people. You can say that compassion is to empathize with people, or something like that. to have some feeling for people, but it means more to feel exactly as the other person does. So you become the thief. If you meet Avalokiteshvara meets the thief, Avalokiteshvara becomes the thief. So it means to think, act in accord with situation, to, again, a radical degree,

[27:06]

And that's not just emotive. Emotive is this insight. And I say radical privacy again, because the bodhisattva acts in a world that's totally inside. There's no outside. He's always acting in the world of intimacy. of whether you sleep on your right side or left side. It's something that can't be recorded. Mahakasyapa's smile is totally private. It's private also because you yourself can't know it because it's not graspable or conceptual, so it's private. Even if 50 people or 1,000 people share this conjunction, none of them know it, so it's private. Not public, not repeatable. Upaya means... Upaya is the activity of a non-repeatable world. So privacy is also like the prow of a ship, or to see as if you saw something. As I've said, tried to explain something like this in the past, as if instead of seeing a person in front of you, by the time you see something, it's already passed.

[28:36]

The time you've conceptualized it, it's over. So to see it in the midst of its happening, it's like you're not seeing... you're seeing energy, an energy body, we can say. And if you think conceptually, you're too late. You're in the past immediately. And now, I said, narrow now, this idea. One reason I... Like in yesterday's talk, I'm concerned about how I express myself, because I don't want what I say to slip into some kind of cliché, like the here and now. That's why the story. The subtlety. What is Buddha? It is you. What is the subtlety? That's a very good student to ask. What is the subtlety? And he says, the wind brings the sound of the stream to my pillow. The moon brings the mountain to my bedside.

[29:57]

This is, again, the activity trying to point out this... The phenomenal world is the continuum, and so the brocade of flowers. What is the dharmakaya? The brocade of flowers, the blue burning streak of shadows. That the continuum is the phenomenal world, just the ordinary world. You have a cup of tea. But the activity of it is conjunction, or non-conceptual, or non-action, or non-conceptual action. And this is the only way you can really... Anyway, this is the best way I can explain it. It sounds, if I talk about it, it sounds something unusual, maybe to some of you. But it's actually how we act. It's actually how we exist anyway. Usually we're just a little bit, because we're involved in and past, present and future, and grasping, we are just a moment late all the time. But this world is right there, but not in this idea of narrow now. The now isn't a kind of train station where you watch the future come by and go past.

[31:25]

We can say it includes past, present and future, but actually it's timeless. It's like noontime, you can't measure it. It's this fishing line, this charge. When Fuangsha says, I am not going to refine you or encourage you anymore, I am waiting for you, he means to build up this charge, charge of the phenomenal world. So, as I think I talked about, form is emptiness, emptiness is form, means the charge of the phenomenal world and to discharge the phenomenal world. I mean, that's the best way I think I can explain it. Form isn't just something dead, it represents some charge which you participate in, you participate in creating, you enact. So, because you enact it, you are... We can say ahead, ahead but simultaneous, and that makes it totally private. You see? It's not public. It's not repeatable. It's not photographable. It's not something you can tell your parents about.

[32:57]

write home about this person. Mom, I discovered direct cognition. It's not something you can even acknowledge to yourself. If someone came to me, I've experienced direct cognition, I'd think, oh, I really want to drive him out. But if you don't see the point of this, none of it makes real sense if you really look at Buddhism carefully, like the dharma. The sutras, when you shake them, they're full of these things, omniscience and stuff, and you go, what the hell is that all about? Partly you have to grant a little bit of Jesus talk to Buddhism too. But you know what I mean, religion gets a little bit excessive. But basically, the sutras are very careful texts, scientific texts.

[34:10]

should have such a sense only when he's commenting on it. Ah, this... Come on. I don't remember. I think the one about Bodhisattva and the eyes, the Avalokiteshvara, but it could have been either one. It could also be Samyan hides black and white hair. He comments, neither humans nor gods know, only I know. By only I know, if you see some sutra isolated, or only incomparable knowledge, or only Buddha knows. It means this radical privacy. not publicly. So our practice is isolated from singular, again singularity, radical singularity which reaches everywhere. So part of practice is of course to, again, just begin to trust yourself enough to little by little let yourself

[36:22]

know the taste of water, not try to move within the spaces, in and outside the spaces of people, without trying to worry, what did that smile mean? Just something happens. You know, in the Eighth Boon, there's a wonderful expression of this, it says, The person who has achieved the eighth boon is characterized as one who, sitting under a tree, does not pluck its leaves. That's not sitting there fiddling with a leaf. It means unshakable, immovable, or omniscient, because you cannot act on, be conjunction if you, the privacy, singularity, conjunction if you are distracted physically or mentally, or if you are fearful. A Buddha is one who has conquered fear. And there's almost an

[37:54]

in literature, if you've conquered fear, you're a believer. And this unshakable quality means you've conquered fear. And fear is a kind of belief in God, it's a kind of belief in something that can threaten you, something outside yourself. There's an outside and inside. When there's an outside and inside, it's tantamount to a belief in God. Buddhism doesn't say that it is not God, but it is just not interested in a centralized bureaucracy. Buddhism is the ultimate in decentralization. So Buddhism does not deny God, it just isn't interested.

[38:54]

gods can do what they want, can visit themselves. But it's decentralised. I think, again, John Ashford's expression, all things are mention of themselves. To not pluck the leaves of the tree is a wonderful expression of generosity. To give each thing its own space, its own mention. I've always liked that. A simplistic poem about sitting quietly doing nothing. Grass, spring comes, grass grows by itself. That's too easy, but I love it.

[39:58]

Moon brings the mountain to my bedside. That's easy. That's easy to see it as some passivity. Is that clear enough? I put myself in hot water, and my eyebrows grow really long. They say, you talk about losing too much, your eyebrows are very long. I check them in the mirror every morning. Once I pulled a bunch out of my eye. I can't fool people. I tried to comb them over my bald spot. Okay.

[41:12]

Okay. So when you move in this world of radical privacy, intimacy with all things, you are called a Bodhisattva.

[42:21]

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