Is there anybody dead when you talk to me? And they're dead. We do, Angus. Do you want to go? Oh, we'll go to Angus. There's no one else. It would be easier than it would be true. Okay, thank you. Anyone else didn't get a copy of this handout? First week had something missing, last week had nothing missing. This week has both missing and nothing.

[01:07]

What down book is that from? What's that one called? It was in practice. Where's the back of that? And then there's another one where it is the complete book, which was called, some note, everyday thing. And it's out of print. It's in the library. It just has a photograph with each verse. Did you start a new pilot when you started this? So after my brave words about this would all be on the internet, it's not. It's coming very soon. Well, I think they said that two weeks ago.

[02:19]

Vince is not on the case. If it's not on the internet, next week, glower at him. So at the end of last week, we were talking about, or I was talking about, you know, you create your understanding, and then that understanding directs your practice, and then that practice actualizes the Dharma, and it gives rise to realization that goes beyond your ideas. And I suggested that you all do that in the past week. So I wonder if you have any comments, thunderous insights, realizations of the last week? Now, what were you concluding from the first part?

[03:43]

The fact that you weren't here. Correct. So could you rephrase the whole class? No, just rephrase it. No, not even the whole class took down what you just said. proposition that you have to be able to consider throughout the week. Well, towards the end of the class, I said, well, just sum up for yourself what you've concluded from this week's class. I kept checking the internet. My fault entirely. I made false claims. I didn't realize, apparently our website isn't capable of the audio. It will be soon. It will be soon. You take your assessment, your understanding of the class, think about how that directs your practice, and then...

[04:54]

bring that into engagement and see how that is. So last week, the first sentence is, when all dharmas are Buddha dharmas. So we can think of it from the relative, which is to put it, to locate it in the specificity of your own life. Okay, where are you in your practice? What are the issues that are coming up? And then I offered a turning phrase, which was, what does practice ask of you? Which turns the sensibility of it from bringing forth your own agendas and concerns and perspectives and trying to take in what practice asks of you. So we could say this, you know, the first wind of all dharmas or Buddha dharmas is a request to practice.

[05:55]

an understanding and a request to go beyond living like your own agenda. And then the second sentence is going beyond. No Dharma, no realization, no birth and death. Dropping off. And then I offered the example of the jhana as a way of dropping off the particularity of our own experience as it arises in relationship to phenomena. And then the third sentence can be seen as a combination of them both. It's this tangible request to practice and this going beyond any idea of self or practice and how those two form a symbiotic relationship. And then the fourth sentence simply says Yeah, even grand and wonderful as all that is, still, despite our yearning, flowers fade, and despite our aversion, weeds grow.

[07:07]

So that was the whole class, so you got it. So, any comments, observations? I definitely find it challenging not to over-intellectualize this endeavor. What I appreciate is that you keep saying, well, okay, now take what we talked about and try and actualize it, I guess. I think especially last week I've kind of been stuck and it's all kind of up here trying to figure this out. I don't know. I think I'm falling back into habits of being in a class and kind of seeing it and intellectual exercise and probing it, which is interesting and great, but I feel like it's important to go beyond that.

[08:24]

having a little trouble kind of bridging those two worlds. Just a comment. Sometimes in the midst of our intellectual wrestling, to remember that being in your body, being present for Bharat, is part of the foundation of our practice. Good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end. You know, we can say realization is not dependent upon understanding. Having a class is about having an understanding that facilitates our relationship to the practice of actualizing the Dharma that gives birth to realization. So that's the hope.

[09:28]

It's not necessary, but is there a way to engage it that's useful? Any other comments? Okay, you sure now? It would be helpful if you write your emails into the list that we can send out the password that will be needed to access the files from the website if they really go up there so there's a list in the back if you have that lit okay that could be passed to ryan okay as a starting point this evening i'd like to start with um You know that final phrase, the final sentence?

[10:30]

That flowers grow despite our attachment. Well, in another part of his work, Dogen wrote a saying, and he said, our flowers fade. Flowers fade because of our attachment. And we grow because of our aversion. It's not what he said in the Genji of Cohen, but in another part of his writing, that's what he wrote. And I don't know if in that part of his writing, he was quoting a Chinese saying directly or whether he was, it was an original saying, but either way, I thought that would be an interesting phrase for us to look at. It's pretty easy to understand. Well, even though you don't want things to change, You want them to stay, they still go away. And even though you don't want things to happen, they still happen.

[11:32]

Well, that one's pretty easy to understand. You know, we've all experienced that. But what about the other one? That there's a causal relationship between our yearning and what happened, and between our aversion and what happened. The translation that's with... When I read that, I just read it as because. Yeah. Well, I would say in a consensus of about a half dozen translations that I've been referring to, it's more despite. Why don't you sit a little close, why don't you bring your chair up to here?

[12:32]

You can sit up there. You didn't hear the last part that Lucy said or you didn't hear the whole thing? What it said was that the consensus translation is that flowers fade despite our attachment, weeds bloom despite our aversion. But in another place, Dogen says, because of our attachment and because of our aversion, flowers fade and weeds bloom. So what?

[13:38]

So when we were talking about this last week, I kept thinking about what you said earlier in the class, when you mentioned that we re-signed the other dictum for use of no-cell impermanence in the grounded beings, and you can grab a thing really well and say the grounded being, when it clicks to a brain is operating, it will get to life. You know, you said that before we got to the sentence, but I feel like what you said in the sentence are basically saying the same thing. When the thing is up, then you can suffer, let go, and you flex over. Yeah. And then to me, it's just obvious in my light. Could you make the link a little clearer, how that relates to this? So to me, I feel like what do you think is this? Well, both things are kind of suffering, flower blossoms. you know, fall and we all like blossoms and we go away. You know, it's not, no, it's suffering, basically.

[14:39]

I feel like that's what he said. Weed spread, we don't, there's no one really likes weeds in that garden. So, when we're clinging to something, it goes away, but we don't want something to be here, it spreads. I feel like that's what he is. To me, it's obvious in my life when I'm clinging to something or when I'm really wanting something, which is it further away, It may be something that other people have freely, but when I'm claiming, it goes away. Or if I don't like something, but a particular characteristic in a person that I do like, I find myself very intimate with that characteristic. I may perceive it as if it's not really intimate to going with things. But I keep joking saying that. He's just pointing that out to us, what we like. If you like it, it will go away, or it will be clean to it, or it will have suffering, but it will be clean to it. Okay.

[15:40]

How's that sign? Do you want to say something? I was going to ask you to give an example of a because statement. I'm having a hard time translating it into a metaphor I understand. So can you give an example? of how that would look. The flowers stayed because of our attachment. How would that look? I guess that's what we're trying to come up with anyway. And that's, I mean, that's what I'm doing. It's just really kind of trying to search my brain to see what that would... An example of that in your life? Right. Or the other way. Weeds coming Because of my attachment. Because of your aversion. Because of my aversion. Trying to push something away and it becomes more so. Trying to hold on to it and it becomes less so.

[16:47]

Well, I have an example of attachment. So there's a beautiful dessert and Friday night dinner. And you immediately see it and you think, I'm gonna have seconds. And I'm gonna have seconds, but I'll have to rush through firsts, because otherwise, any other greedy people will eat it all. And then you find out it has nothing. So you, you visibly gobble a dime thinking, I gotta hurry up, I gotta hurry up, or I won't get second. And of course, you never tasted it. Because you were too anxious and preoccupied. The thought that I had is that maybe the event's going to happen anyway, and the inversion and the attachment are the meaning that I assign to the events.

[18:00]

So they're more than meaning, right? They're my response. I like them and I don't like them. And I act on my liking and disliking. They generate something within me. Yeah. And like and dislike are... I come up with these judgments. And the event's going to happen anyway. So one of the things that is becoming more clear to me is this flow of events that's going to happen regardless of my assigning meaning to it, my scheme of things, or regardless of my emotional response to it. Yeah. But this statement is more intuitive than that because Phenomena are going to rise and fall away.

[19:04]

Each momentary existence is going to come into being and going to go out of being. But given my human condition, this is not simply a neutral experience for me. It could be. Well, not only could, but there are moments of neutrality. There are moments in which it's neutral, but there are also moments in which it's not neutral. It gives rise to associated thoughts. It gives rise to emotion. It gives rise to like and dislike. So in a way, Dogen is saying, okay, here's the basic principle of practice. But even so, When you get into your life and you watch it, this is what happens.

[20:07]

This isn't going to turn your life into some neutral dormistry. For me, it is changing the way I perceive these events. So take the example of the flower, literally. I had a flower and a little vase my desk of my robe and it did fade and the petals fell off and now instead of looking at it and saying uh oh a dead flower i i'm more a little more perceptive and appreciate the process of it changing rather than the fact that it's dead what about me what about It doesn't mean people suffer for great faith, you know, for no friends. Can we really tell Earth, though, that we actually appreciate that?

[21:16]

And even more interestingly, is that what a good Buddhist does? Is that what a good Zen student does? Well, I was actually going to ask that. If a neutral life really works, who would want that? I don't know that I want that. I think that being mindful of what's happening, I don't necessarily want to eliminate the joy of my life or even the sadness of my life. I just want to know that it's there when it's happening. Well, we're going to get into this some more in a couple of sentences. But the point I wanted to make, which David was touching on, was that life is an interactive event. How we bring forth our own passion, attraction, and aversion is part of what happens.

[22:22]

There is a cause of relationship. It's not, if I like it, then that's this dull cause, but it participates in the experience that's created. Isn't it also saying, because of our gravity, so, because we don't want something, that something keeps appearing. Is that what this sentence is saying? Well, the common translation, the consensus translation and understanding of it is, the Dogen is simply saying, okay, here's the principle of practice laid out in these three sentences. You know, whether you want to understand them all as sequential relative truth, whether you want to understand each one of them

[23:24]

as fully expressed in relative and absolute. Either way, they lay out the principle of the practice in anything. And yet, even though here is this wonderful Dharma case, case for Dharma practice, still, things happen in life that disappoint us because we don't want them to happen and because we do want them to happen. And, you know, it's like he's saying, the human condition doesn't fall away. You don't go and live in the pure land. But the second, what you brought up now was not despite of, but because of. Yes. And I'm just saying, let's say because I don't want to smoke, it seems that cigarettes are everywhere. Exactly. And so you're...

[24:25]

The thing was, I'd never smoked in my life. I never see cigarettes. This Chinese person wasn't off the mark, whoever he was quoting. Yes? Yes. Well, I had with this yesterday that I saw in the city a woman that was birthed by her husband. And for me that was . But also that something that that thing that's And after that, I was totally at the defense if someone will help hurt me.

[25:37]

And it was very emotional for me. Until I realized that even though it's so painful, I can say it's painful, but it's still realize that is only healing? You know, there's different dharmas that arise. that there is suffering. And when we relate to that as trying to preserve a separate self, then the inevitability and the universality of suffering causes us great distress.

[26:43]

Now, when we relate to the very same suffering and see this is intrinsic in the world and that trying to stay separate from it is futile and letting it open our hearts and bring forth compassion for that person that's suffering for this person that's suffering but the very same suffering can be related to in a way that supports our human love. Or to put it in another way, when we try to stay separate from it, it causes us great distress. When we acknowledge it and mean it and become part of it and relate to it with compassion, in that way, it

[27:48]

It offers us a way to sustain and support our lives. So could you say that the fourth line is basically saying that our self-centeredness creates what forms we see, like all forms are in relation to our perspective from I got one perspective. Like the aversion creates the weeds, but they're just active plants that, we can call them weed, we can call them a fertilizer. From the absolute perspective, we can say it's just a matter of nomenclature. It's just a plant. I'd call it a weed, given I don't mind aversion. But, you know, it's crown we think, well, But wait a minute, genocide in the Sudan is not just nomenclature.

[28:56]

It's genocide. But how it's related to, like in that instance, can be an active ingredient in how the experience is experienced. how that event comes into being in which we're a participant. So is how it's related to you, is that an active ingredient or is that the only ingredient? Because... But each moment it's a nexus of a whole causal network. It's never the only ingredient. It's an inconceivable network of ingredients. However, depending upon how If I caught up, you can come into a room of 30 people and there's somebody in that room you just detest. Or you're thinking, oh no, he's here, oh my God, this is awful.

[29:59]

Everybody else is invisible, all you see is... Because you hate him so much. I love him so much. And he's still the only person that exists. But from the side of the, it just seems to be like how we relate to it is that, yes, there are inconceivable causes and conditions, but what you're saying is there are all these things that influence how we relate to it. Yes. And then so that's exactly what Dovin moved into in the next part. because then he talks about carrying the self forward or not carrying the self forward. So, in the translation and the handout, it carries itself forward and realizes the 10,000 dharmas is delusion.

[31:13]

When the 10,000 dharmas advance and realize itself, is enlightened. That the 10,000 dramas come forward and realize itself is enlightened. So can you see that? You come into the room and you activate your attachment or aversion, and then that defines the situation. Or not. That's within our human capacity. And that applies to every situation, you know, and maybe it's happening in a very strong and obvious, what you subjectively feel as utterly unavoidable, or it's just some subtle undertone that you're oblivious to.

[32:13]

You get that point? To carry the self forward and realize the 10,000 darkness. So naturally from my self-centeredness, the thing that really matters is me. And the thing that really matters is my version of reality. The people who really matter in this room Well, actually, the people I like and the people I hate both matter, but for very different reasons. And then, of course, the people I neither like a whole lot or hate a whole lot don't matter that much. They're just in this gray ghost world. But that's me activating me.

[33:15]

That's me activating my world, my likes, my dislikes. And then I just take the Dharma and the practice, and I just attribute that to it too. And then, you know, I'm of a mind of thinking that Zazen is a very wonderful practice. And chanting the name of Buddha so you don't get born in the Pure Land isn't such a great practice. So in my Buddhism, you know, this is up here and this is down there, you know? You know, and then you get told by that and then, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, you know, someone called me up at the interview and said, something to the effect that all Buddhists meditate. And I thought, no, they don't. It's ridiculous.

[34:16]

You meditate and I meditate. That doesn't mean all Buddhist meditations. That means you meditate and I meditate. You get the flavor of how when the subjective, when the self discernment and the self agendas are fully active, they perfume everything. And then you read and... You read some Dharma, and then your mind hooks on the piece that you approve of. Or you make your own translation. Dogen says whatever the heck Dogen says, and you say, oh, he means this. I know it. What a clever guy he is.

[35:18]

And then it's me practicing my Zen, perpetuating the world according to me. So does it mean that since we cannot really end all the suffering, like what he said, the power and the weak part? So we will always have those emotions. So he's offering a solution of carrying yourself forward, meaning you Make the separation. You see this situation immediately and recognize what you're doing and not be fooled by your own emotion and just say, well, yes, I don't like this person or I like this person, but so it is. So I should just be at ease with this situation and to watch it, but not to be ruled by those emotions. Not in the first sentence.

[36:21]

Further down the paragraph, he's bringing in a more nuanced perspective. I think it's fair enough to say in the first sentence, you know, he's simply saying, if you do it this way, that's delusion. If you do it this way, that's enlightenment. They're not nuanced. Here he's kind of, he's just, the first three sentences are nuanced. They can be read two or three or four different ways. These two sentences, they're just simple statements. If you think practice is all about you, you've got it wrong. Right. But the practice is about sharpening your eyes to be able to see things, right? Yeah. And be able to see, and also to make this constant separation of self. Because if you don't, then you're involved in this delusion. More complicated than that.

[37:23]

But that's the point he's making here in the first sentence. And then as it was done. Because you can't separate from something. There. Is that? Any other comments on that? More than, well, In addition to, if you think practice is all about yourself, you're confused. Isn't he saying, if you think the world is all about yourself? Yeah. And isn't he also saying that that's inevitable? Because you're not. No, the first sentence. The first sentence is that sort of thing. Hey, listen, if this is what you think it's all about, you've got to reply. I mean, I sort of, the continuation of it, that the 10,000, eternity leads that there's an option here.

[38:24]

You can lead with the self, or you can let the 10,000 dharmas lead. I mean, there is a choice here. That there is this option of not leading with the self. Yeah. Right. I mean, the first sentence sets up the second one. Yeah. And then further down, he's, you know... Sometimes understanding is easy and practice is difficult, you know? Stop smoking. Well, that's easy to understand. Doing it, that's not easy. That's difficult.

[39:24]

Sometimes that's how our practice is, you know. Good to see you, Raymond. Lord, no, in my ear. Yes, I'm hearing very clearly, Catherine. Thank you. How do you let the very things come forward? Isn't that just a terrific question? Then what happens? How is it actualized? Okay, how is it actualized then? How do you make yourself active in Prague?

[40:30]

Keep still and completely relaxed. Hannah, have you ever tried to do smoking? I've done it many times. Nothing to it. Nothing all the good stuff. Well, the point being, you're keeping... Go ahead. Keep me still and... and being relaxed in... I don't know how it was for you, but when I quit, try to quit smoking, or when I quit smoking, in my mind, the last thing that is possible is to keep still and relax.

[41:31]

Relax is not an option. Can I interject in this analogy? Because I quit before, too. The easiest time of it was when smoking just left me. That's a really different experience than the times when I tried to quit. What is it for smoking to leave? It's just not the habitual reaction. reach for the cigarette when the phone rings or to reach for the cigarette when x y you know the habitual pattern was that that's what changed there was a shift and smoking left as a result of the shift what was the cause of the shift probably therapy and zazen i don't know

[42:41]

I just relate that to the myriad things arising. I think that, you know, again with the ship thing, it seems to me that there is some sort of volition or intention there. Okay, well let's see, does anybody else have a recipe for the 10,000 things? Well, Duncan just told us that in aversion we've spread. So it's like, don't think about a pink elephant in there. You're thinking about a pink elephant. So this goes back to Anna's talking about being relaxed. When I'm trying not to do something, don't bring myself forth. Don't bring myself forth. It's all about me. But if I can improve, what? Relax. Then that's... going to give the 10,000 things a chance to manifest.

[43:41]

Relax. It doesn't go from line four to line five by accident. But it sounds a little bit like you're saying a necessary ingredient is relaxation. I think that's what I'm saying. Because I'm always hearing a strong argument against the attaining mind. um well what what came up for me um it's um more like a trust in the flow and a trust in the flow of things okay anything else uh for me it came out about the recipe that the buddha gave about so like things for what they like those being disenchanted with all these ideas that we have about them and sort of like seeing things, components kind of, yeah.

[44:46]

So using Vipassana to see the true nature of how things are and through that, letting that dissipate the attraction and aversion that arises out of habit? Right. Okay. Any others? Isn't part of the Zen a recipe to throw oneself as immediately and incrementally as one can with what's arriving? Is this the way 10,000 things come forth? Say that part again, Captain. To throw... What is it you throw? But I think what you were saying was, if I could paraphrase for you.

[46:02]

Total engagement of body and mind. Coming down the line. Yeah, coming down the line. So here's what I would say. I would say this very question. It's like a pivotal question in practice. And to think there's an easy answer, to think there's a formula, it's just like, oh yeah, that's it. Maybe sometimes there is, for an immediate situation, okay, stop smoking. But then, even that, how exactly do you stop smoking? Go to the library and get some books on stopping smoking. There's a hundred ways to stop smoking.

[47:04]

Do they work? Well, I don't know. They have some efficacy. Which one should you do and when and how? Yeah. So there's a phrase, you know, shamatha. You know, because it's really a word that's... out of Buddhist practice, it has a multi, it has different aspects of meaning in English. And one of those aspects of meaning is . So it's like, what is it to not, what is it to see driving forward the self? You know, what is that? So, and this was a phrase more so in early Buddhism. Now, Dogen, in his teachings, you know, if you look at Dogen's body of teachings, he had a rise away seeking mind.

[48:13]

How do you practice? And he's not saying, and then, how do you live answer or have a clever answer? You know, he's saying like, that question consumes you, that question flattens you against the wall, that question like rises up in front of you in every darn situation you're in. That question you've never done answering. You know, that one's always gonna like put you right on the spot. And he also saying, you know, a rising way, singing minds the whole deal. You know, not like saying, oh, and you can't answer it. Well, guess what? You're never gonna get out of kindergarten. You know, he's saying like, that's it. And then he offers two basic notions. Drop off everything and fully engage. Not sequentially. Sometimes sequentially and sometimes one way.

[49:15]

So what do you do when you quit smoking? Maybe you take off jazz dancing. Every time you want a cigarette, Or maybe you sit very still and say, where is this craving experienced in my body? And where exactly is it located? And what's the state of mind that comes with it, you know? And do that. What's the best thing? I'm doing something in order to enable this other occurrence where something is being done. So in these first two sentences, he is... Could that make sense?

[50:26]

Oh, completely. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Is that what he's saying? Well, what I was going to say, in the first two sentences, he's offering us some guidance. He's saying, if you define practice as, I'm doing my practice, that's not it. That's always going to work in the limitation of me and mine. if all existence is allowed to come forth and display its working, and within that, I see the arising of clinging and identification with self and habits, physically, emotionally, psychologically. When all that is starting to be seen for it is, then a rising life-seeking mind

[51:27]

takes on a different demeanor. It's not just me and mine and my wife. Are you going to say something? I had another grim answer. Well, let's hear it. So, cause and effect. Cause and effect. So when you really see the harm in something, that's when I can stop. I find that kind of difficult, but when you have to go to work every day and you rely on certain things to run a certain way to get through the day and then not be irritated, I think that works out that way. you know, like, you know, and they have to, you know, stuff like that.

[52:33]

But what about it? Well, it's not that very difficult to be engaged. You know, just lots of little things that I find that you rely on to get through the day and... What is it to get through the day? To get out of the work and to do it, you know? Yeah, but be it a little bit more existential. What is it to get through the day? I don't know, even if it's just putting in some hard work, and you ask things to be out there. You know, it's challenging if you... think that you can do that for a day and read the whole trip. What's the alternative? What would you suggest?

[53:46]

illusions all the way. It actually happened to me today. The Muni was stuck in the tunnel. There was a little opening and I got out on the platform and was late and had to run back to the street and try to get a cab. I felt I was fully engaged in being righteously, you know, annoyed and rushed. That was my engagement with the situation. Maybe is that a way of being engaged, or is that just reaction? What do you say? What? What do you say? Can you see the universality of way-seeking mind? It's like, wherever we end up, it still applies, you know? What is it to practice with, you know, Muni being stuck in the tunnel and not being able to find a cab and having an important appointment at work?

[54:56]

And having to watch all of it go by, whether it's in a landscape or out of landscape. Yeah. So you breathe deeply and say, relax on the big screen of things, you know, even... universes come into being and go out of it. In a hundred million kalpas, this is not going to matter. You say that, or are you like... Just be annoyed. I mean... I didn't have a problem with it. Right. I mean, that's my point. I just, I don't see a problem with being annoyed. And when people act stupidly around me and I go to school with 19-year-olds and, you know, a lot of them don't behave in ways that I feel... Yeah, that's... Not socially appropriate. I think. Not how you feel. Well, you know, I don't think it's nice to, like, throw, you know, stuff on the ground.

[56:00]

Maybe that it's socially appropriate for a 19-year-old. Just like maybe it's appropriate to, you know, be rushed when you read. Well, let's take this sentence. So here we have... What's wrong with just being frustrated? Well, let's take this sentence. So here we have this wonderful notion, you know, of Genjo Khaan. Everything is a khaan that's going to burst forth the Udambara flowering, perfume the universe of Chidharma. And then Dogen says, that The 10,000 dharmas advance and realize the self is enlightening. How do the 10,000 dharmas advance when it's 8.35 and uni's not working and you can't get a cab and you've got to be on Montgomery Street at 9 o'clock? That's the Buddha. That is the Buddha. We know that. We passed the koan.

[57:02]

We're ready for last six minutes. Those are the ten times of darkness. What is it to let them advance? You wrote the answer right here. You go to the sound or does it come to you? I thought it was a great thing to write. That phrase comes from either case one or case two in the Moonlight Con. It's a basic awareness. Are you reaching out and grasping something?

[58:05]

Or openly staying here and now and letting it happen here? Does the thought of yesterday happen here and now? Or that somehow you go into yesterday and lose connection to here. In the midst of the frustration of not having a cab or a loonie, you just stay present and be what is. Or you disembody yourself and go into a frenzy or whatever, rage, self-pity, frustration, despair. Because it's like, in a way, this is a con. What is it for the 10,000 things to advance and enlighten itself? Like it turns against your con, it activates which is mine. Okay.

[59:09]

Have we worked that one over enough? Yeah? Okay. And then... It's Buddhists who enlighten delusion. Okay. And it's creatures. Let's use the word sentient beings. Okay, creatures. It's Buddhists who enlighten delusion and it's sentient beings who are rooted in enlightenment. Consensus translation is a little bit more like this. Buddhas are enlightened about delusion, and sentient beings are deluded about enlightenment. A little bit of a shift, but you can get it not so far. So what do you make of that? Buddhas are enlightened about delusion, sentient beings are deluded about enlightenment. So if you're Buddha, you just realize there's delusion, and you see it,

[60:17]

And that's it. And if you're not Buddha, if you are sentient beings, you are wrapped in this thought about thinking about enlightenment, and you're separated from the things that are the things. Okay. Any other comments? Thank you. I was very keen to know this about enlightenment, but I only started to... Any other comments? So in early Buddhism, when it describes Nirvana, it describes it by saying what it's not.

[61:19]

What do we study? We study the convigent nature of existence. We study getting angry, getting sad, getting happy, getting disappointed. We study the human experience. because that's what we are. We are the human experience. We are not other than that. And so that is the grind of our awareness, and that is the grind of our awakening. Whether you want to think of it as peeling off layers, where you get angry and you become aware of being angry. You peel off the anger and underneath it you see the hurt. peel off the heart, and underneath it, we see the suffering, the miscommunication, you know, that each one of us does have our own experience, and in a way, we always think, well, that's how I see it, surely that's how you see it.

[62:27]

Well, guess what? That's not how it works. We all see it the way we see it. But we are disappointed that everybody else doesn't get my way. And then, you know, we wake up to the general condition. So the Buddha is waking up to the human condition. They see the Dharma and they see the Four Noble Truths activated, displayed in the human condition. That's something more than being psychologically savvy. I mean, the way we were just speaking about it sounded like we're just really psychologically savvy. That's a good point. Well, I was using that, but in my own sense, I was using that as an illustration. Okay. You know, I took it wrong. What I thought I did was take it from the particular to the shared experience.

[63:37]

And maybe you could say that I was just an illustration of being psychologically savvy. But I was offering it as one way in which you start from where you are and stay present with it, and it unpacks the conditioned nature of experience. And out of it you see the Four Noble Truths. Out of it you see the efficacy of the Paramitas, the Brahma Viharas. the great precepts. They come for it. Do you think that, um, that, um, thinking the nature of the human condition who is conditioned by culture, do you think that, um,

[64:39]

That's a great question. You know, Bo Laza was here last night, and someone asked him about, you know, ethnicity or race, you know, and saying, you know, you're a white guy and you're going into prisons where 80% of the people are, you know, people of color. And he was adamant that it was irrelevant, you know, that the Dharma was the Dharma. and he spoke about the Dorma and the fact that he was white and they looked colored was irrelevant.

[65:49]

In a way, I relate your question to that. We're all born and we all die. It doesn't matter what race or ethnicity or cultural or educational experience you have. Chakyamuni Buddha and The teachings of early Buddhism were put together in, you know, Northern India under a social system that is radically different from ours. They still apply. Suffering is caused by selfish clinging. You can work with that and be liberated from it. Still applies. I would say the fundamentals are universal. The application is the Genji Kahn of the moment. You know, it's the skillful being, it's meeting this particular situation.

[66:57]

It's taking into account the cultural and all the other influences of it. And I think those that go together, that seem like the absolute and relative truth go together. I just want to remind you of research of how very different cultures or very different levels of your graphic react to, like, basic neural expressions of the face. It's actually very clear. Yeah, you know, that people read the same expression, whatever they are, and I think, so it's maybe more, what you define as a human condition, you know? Well, that's a good point.

[68:00]

There's a scientist, a neurologist over, I don't know if he's a neurologist, over in Berkeley. And he has traveled the world, correlating facial expressions with emotions. And he's discovered that throughout the world, from, you know, sophisticated people living in big cities to primitive tribes, they have the same facial expressions and emotions. Well, I have, you know, I've traveled, and I have the experience, do you see that with babies? They all react the same? If I may offer, I think anthropologically there are just an enumerated number in which that universal applies in terms of the phenotypical expression of emotion and to follow from what you were saying, the application or when it would be appropriate to play such emotion would not be

[69:03]

universally presumed. Yes. Right. What was that word again? Phenotypical? Yeah, that's the anthropological term that roughly means the expression of a biological or genetic propensity towards something. Thanks. But I'll look it up and get back to you. You heard me convinced already. I'd be totally happy to take you as the authority. Well, I am an anthropologist. The Buddhists are enlightened about delusions. The Buddhists see They see the human condition being the human condition.

[70:05]

And rather than being caught up in, am I going to get what I want, or am I not going to get what I want? They see it be what it is. They see the suchness of it, they see the dark of it. And they still get annoyed. Well, that's a very interesting question. It's because we are, after all, following the bodhisattal path. that we have a different agenda. It is sentient beings who are deluded about enlightenment, so somehow this magic jewel, this transformative magic jewel called enlightenment, is gonna sort of like this world, and I'm finally gonna get what I want.

[71:21]

And the sooner the better. because I'm tired of not getting what I want. There's nothing over there to attain. Oh, yeah. That great magic jewel that transforms everything. And we're going to like it. Oh, well. That's all that I think. Stop changing. Oh, well, we've got to change the way it wasn't to change. It's going to get there, you know. Further. There are those who attain enlightenment, above enlightenment, or beyond enlightenment. That's how I did translation. And there are those who are deluded within delusion. What do you make of that? Isn't enlightenment already beyond?

[72:26]

So it's beyond beyond? Let me offer you a different translation then. Furthermore, there are those who attain realization beyond realization and those who are deluded within delusion. To be alive after the first realization? Well, we can, you know, we can look at all these, and I think about different translations. Further, there are those who continue realizing beyond realization, and those who are in delusion, throughout delusion. and in a way, a self-perpetuating process.

[73:34]

It's like, when you meet this moment completely, maybe that's a bad choice of language, when this moment is met completely, it enables the capacity to meet the moment completely. When you activate, your desire and aversion, it enables your capacity to activate your desire and aversion. You know, you come into Zen century and you think, why is this place full of so many weird people? I hate this. I hate places like this that are filled with weird people. Why be normal? You know, there's a way we, we come from our own agenda, we employ, we craft a reality, and then we, our own reality, you know, like, you come into the center, it's filled with weird people, and then you're upset, you know?

[74:56]

Isn't there anywhere I can go with people that are just normal? What kind of a world is this? You're coming to Zen center and it is what it is and you walk out the door and it just is what it is too. It's something about There's a way in which habit, when activated, reinforces habit. Going beyond enables going beyond. Sort. But think about it, because realization is not a conditioned state.

[76:02]

So that's why it's sort of, you know. You might be there, you've missed Muni, you can't get a taxi, your high heel's just broken, you dropped your purse, and you still have to be on Montgomery Street in 15 minutes. And the intensity of it brings you totally present and into the moment, and there you are. And then the next morning you think, okay, I'll miss Muni, drop my purse, leave my high heel. It doesn't work. You know, you can't hear scared. Could you see these two lines in terms of karma? I mean, the first is the expression of the karmic and the wheel, and the second is getting off the wheel. You mean the trick of the engine? Yeah, maybe the other way around. Yeah, continuing to get off the wheel. Right. But we need to realize that awakening is formless, and that what we're learning is a process that doesn't have a fixed particularity.

[77:22]

It's like when you do a period of Zazen, and there it is, despite yourself, you're present, you're focused, And you feel the energy of it. And then you do kin-hin, and then you're like, I want to get back in the groove. I want to get my mojo working just the way I did. And it's that very way of trying to hold it and own it. You just sit there the whole 40 minutes and can't do it. You know, there's a beginning, there's a release from the payment of jobs and the beginning of disability again. I mean, it's part of it. Well, you're sitting there and you're fully present and the bell rings. You're fully present for the bell ringing. You stand up, you're fully present for standing. You're fully present for walking. That's continuing, you know, that's Buddha continuing Buddha. You know, our impulse is we take hold of the experience and we own it.

[78:29]

And then we decide, I want more of that. I still don't understand why that is a condition or how it... because realization is... Because in every moment... Well, every moment is giving up Separation, every moment is giving up an agenda as to how the moment should be. That's what allows it to be unconditioned. That's what allows it for the ten thousand garments to come forth and awaken itself. The Buddhists continue that practice, but deluded beings continue pursuing their own agenda. They experience their own world, and then they say, OK, well, since the world according to me is correct, I will behave accordingly.

[79:39]

And guess what? That reinforces it and continues it. I have a question about conditioning. I'm not sure of any understanding. Is monastic practice a form of conditioning or how It's a form of conviction, hopefully, that enables going beyond conviction. The idea is that it's a skillful structuring of our life that's not based on, you know, in our normal karmic life, we base a life on our likes and dislikes. You know? You like a certain kind of coffee, well, guess what you have in your cupboard?

[80:40]

You have the coffee already, you know? And so you wake up and you have the coffee like, huh? You go to the monastery, you wake up, there's no coffee. Or there's the kind of coffee in the Tanzu body. Yeah, but I mean, When the bell rings, that it becomes something more than a Pavlovian response to the bell ringing. Everyone knows what I mean. Thank you. Not only that, they're well trained. What's the difference, that's all. Well, here's a theory, as I was about to say. The theory is that in a monitor, you can create a structured environment that's not based on the likes and dislikes of the self.

[81:52]

You give yourself over to that structure, to that schedule. And in doing so, the habit energy that's usually used to reinforce my likes and my dislikes is dissipated. And instead, I just do whatever the heck is supposed to happen next. The bell goes and I go here or I go there, and then I just do whatever is supposed to happen. Well, the reason being, and I hope this applies to others, if I bring it up, because this is about applying to daily life. And for me personally, I've been away from seshin monastic practice for a long time. So trying to be in this world, the world, as a place to practice.

[82:53]

bells ring, sirens go off, in an unstructured but yet predictable way, more or less. Do you want to say something relevant to that? Go ahead, you say something. I think outside monastic life, you also have form. It's just in the monastery, it's more accentuated because there's bell. But outside the monastery, you still, like every day, you're supposed to do certain things. And you don't even realize you're doing that now because form is emptiness. Once you get into that habitual structure, you don't even realize that there. But for each one of us, we have different structure. But in monastery, it's just more eccentric because it's more dramatic, seems to me. Because everyone has the same structure. No. in the monastery. No, no. It's just a little bit different in the Zen though.

[83:56]

No, it's completely different, radically different. In the monastery, the structure in the monastery, according to Dogon, is the expression of awakened life. Wow. That's what I mean to go to the monastery. You just give over to it completely. Do you think it's possible to create that outside of the monastery? That's a good question. I know what I'm getting at. Yeah, that's kind of... So one response is, every moment completely itself, every moment the 10,000 dharmas come forth. So you get out of bed, the same double copy you make every other morning, you're completely present for it, and it's an awakening experience. Then you put on the same jacket you always put on, but you're totally present for putting them on, and then to avoid an experiment.

[85:01]

Then you catch the number seven bus. Then you pass a number seven bus that you always catch, but you're totally present for the bus stop, and you're totally present for giving your money and saying hi to the bus driver. And I was just going to say that if you— I find that if I start my day with closet, it's much easier to do it that way than it is if I don't start my day with closet. As soon as I roll out of bed, if I hit the cushion instead of hitting a cup of coffee and don't distract myself with the rest of my day, it's much easier to stay present with the rest of my day. It's such, it feels like such a challenge because obviously, like, Sangha. Being in a monetary. Yeah. Yeah. But what I'm saying is, obviously, we practice with other people because it helps. It's supportive of what we're talking about.

[86:05]

But without that, there you are on your own, and it, I find that there's only particular things I do that get me in that kind of mode. I'd say like exercise sometimes feels like that, as well as art making. Like if I'm making a drawing or painting, I feel like it's similar. Do you use Zazen at all? I do, but I have a baby and the Zazen has kind of gone out the window. But so I don't know, so I wonder if those, again, like I say, if I'm making a painting, is that really akin to someone being in a monastery? I am very focused. I am kind of... Well, listen, so let's demystify being in a monastery. So you go to the monastery, and then you search around for some way to find your little nest and get things your way.

[87:14]

You know? That momentum is still there. That habit energy is still inside of you. And maybe you can't go to the movies every Saturday night the way you wanted to, but you still can sit down in a corner and fantasize on your break. Or whatever the heck it is, your impulse to reinforce the world according to me. Like wherever you go, there you are. Well, wherever you go, you bring your own neurosis. And you bring your own habit energy? Well, that's what I was saying. But the notion of a monastery is that it enables something. But can you condition the unconditioned? Of course you can. But as Anna was quoting Aiken Roshi, can you make yourself accident-prone?

[88:20]

Can you bring yourself closer in? Well, that's a more interesting question. I'm never familiar with that concept of accident. Well, Aiken Roshi said, you can't manufacture enlightenment, it's like an accident. But you can be accident, you can make yourself accident-prone. So that's the quote. I don't know how you're going to practice that this week. Got to figure it out? Yeah. The question is, how do we make ourselves actively grow this week? Is that it? Well, it was something that they kept annoying. Okay, well, let's do this. What's your question? What's the phrase, what's the turning phrase or question that you got out of it?

[89:23]

I was just thinking about it in the monastery, how the phrase on just follow the schedule. It's like, don't really think about it, just follow the schedule. So that being in my regular life, I could just think about it, just follow the schedule. It's like whatever happens, I need whatever happens. Gosh. Okay. In your life, it's all about you, the schedule that you've set up, and it's, you say, it's not necessary, it's not your schedule, or it's a schedule that's been created by many people. And you can make your little nest, definitely, but it's, for me, The Land of the Green Vulture was that the huge part of it was giving up my little ways of having to do things. It's like orioke, you know, in orioke, it's just like, just as it comes. You know, let me say, just whatever comes in orioke, just take it as it comes. It's like that living in the monastery, I feel. You can't manipulate it. Okay, so now, what do you say?

[90:25]

The life you've got now, what do you say? What's the turning phrase for the next week? For me? Yeah, for you. Well, I think it might be the same one as the last week, which is about being wholehearted about Whatever it is that comes up or that frustrates me with it, it's good, that's all my life, and just be wholehearted. Okay. That's my thing. See, I'm going to use your line about not manipulating. Yeah. Not manipulating? Whatever's coming. Don't manipulate it. Okay. Anyone else? I think we should experiment with what I'm doing here yet. Well, you can have that one. Everybody can have their own. I'll do that. OK. OK, that's over. I'll take $40,000. Well, $30,000.

[91:39]

David's got our realization covered this one. I think mine would be to maintain equanimity in the midst of time. Equanimity in the midst of time. Okay. Any others? To notice how I carry the cell phone. Okay. Something about the forms of everyday life. The forms of everyday life. Any others? You know, when I was just flashing on, it's a little bit like, you know, in a tent revivalist meeting, you come down to the front and you testify.

[92:43]

Yeah, but if people start falling into the spirit, I'm really good. whole life depends upon something. The universe. And it's turned by what we bring to it and how we engage it and how it engages us. How amazing. How utterly amazing opportunity. And it's so easy to squander it. You know, it's still easy just to kind of walk around rumbling and hoping things will be different next week. Which, of course, they will, but probably not in the way you really wanted them to.

[93:49]

I think that teaching, you know, is not meant to intimidate it. You know, I think we can say that with a smile on our face. This is a very interesting thing to do. It's very weird, but it's also very interesting. So, please, enjoy the dharma. Oops.

[94:31]

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