I mentioned to those of you who were here last week that I was going to Los Angeles to see my daughter. And so that we did. I drove down with my partner on Wednesday all the way to Los Angeles. on Highway 5, for those of you who know Highway 5, and then back again yesterday. We got back in the evening. So just now, while we were sitting here quietly, I noticed I was about to go to sleep. I thought, oh, I guess I might be tired. So that's just what happens. I had a great trip. It was very nice to be there, and I'm very happy about how my girl is doing. So I'm now turning toward the mind only teachings and very happy to be with all of you again.

[01:06]

So I am kind of experimenting with how to make our time together available and engaging for you all. So I certainly appreciate any help and suggestions you have. Jerry was very kind to send me some material around teaching, which he does for a profession, and I'm excited to start looking at that material and thinking about it. So one of the things I'll be doing is stopping every now and then and asking you to bring forward any thoughts or questions you have about the chunk of material that I've talked about in that period of time. So I really appreciate any learning of your own that you do before we get together, like we are looking at these chapters of Ben Connolly's book in order. So I, you know, chapter one through, I think it goes through 30 for the each one for each of the verses, Vasubhanta's verses. So any of that you can look at ahead of time would be great.

[02:11]

And if there are any notes you could make or any questions you have, that would really be great too, and helping kind of move us forward together so that we're kind of stay in the same boat, which I think would be nice for all of us. So, this evening we're going to be entering into verses and chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the 30 verses on consciousness only. So again, this is the Yogacara school, or the consciousness only, mind only school, which is one of the two major influences on Zen. The other being the Prajnaparamita, or the middle ways school, which is really emphasizing the teachings of emptiness and non-duality, dependent core rising, and conventional designations and so on. So we talked about that when we looked at Nagarjuna and the Heart Sutra and all of these many times that we've looked at the Prajnaparamita. So this is a really, a kind of a different take on practice and on what's expected.

[03:12]

You know, what kind of the goal, although there's no goal, The goal is that you're already there. You know, we're already complete and we're just a little confused. So the goal maybe is to get unconfused about the nature of ourselves and of the world. So, Yogacara is a very helpful, has been considered a very helpful way of walking us through the process of how it is we get confused, how it is we become greedy and harmful and so on. So we're really studying what are called the afflictions. So these first half of the 30 verses is about our afflictions. And one of the points that Ben makes is that, you know, some translations of afflictions from the Sanskrit are called kleshas in Sanskrit, are that they're defilements or impurities. And he said, well, the problem with impurity is that you think there's something pure that you're heading for, that you could purify something, as opposed to an affliction, which is like an illness that we all have. So we're all afflicted with these ways of thinking that are causing harm to ourselves and to each other.

[04:16]

So treating them like disease, you know, the Buddha was called the great physician. And so his teachings are considered medicine so there's these two main types of medicine that that our tradition continues to carry along and to offer you know to the living generation that's us uh so these these two for zen are the mind only teachings and the emptiness teachings so right now we're looking more at the mind and how the mind works to create afflictions you know So, in verses 5, 6, and 7 of the 30 verses, Vasubandha is discussing the second aspect of the transformation of consciousness, namely, manas. So, manas, if you remember from our diagram, is the lover. It's the seventh consciousness. Also, it's below, it's down there with the alaya, the story house consciousness. So, there's... aliyah and there's manas they're all below the level of conscious awareness so we're not aware of them they're just going along doing their thing aliyah is carrying our conditioning all of our life everything we've done and thought and learned and everything we know how to do is being carried unconsciously until we need it and then we kind of stimulate that unconscious quality and there all of a sudden is me

[05:40]

endeavoring to speak Spanish and there's sometimes some Spanish words in my effort to to store some Spanish in my alaya every now and then when I make an effort up it comes you know it's kind of a miracle same thing with anything else that we know how to do it's all being stored we've taught ourselves we've learned we've educated ourselves for some good things and some not so good things there's good habits and bad habits all mixed up in there but we can't access them and we can't access manas either the lubber So we're studying something that the Yogacara school created as a way of explaining. These are the theoretical models to help us explain what we intuitively sense must be so. You know, this manas is my sense of a self. You know, I kind of got it that I've got that. I feel like that is one of the things that I can sort of confirm. Yeah, I do think I'm here, and I think that... That one that's here is me and that I have property and I have possessions and that I have opinions and so on.

[06:42]

So that definitely applies to me. So I'm interested. What is this teaching in which the manas or the sense of self can actually disappear? What would that be like to be such a person without a sense of self? At least not being captured by a sense of self. manas the consciousness of self so if we look back at the beginning two verses i kind of like to repeat where we've been so we can kind of stay together on that so the first two verses of the 30 verses the first one is establishes the ground rules for mind only verse number one says everything conceived conceived right away we're talking about a conception everything conceived as self And others, W, so self and others, occurs in the transformation of consciousness. Okay, kind of precept number one. Number two, verse number two, this transformation has three aspects.

[07:45]

The ripening of karma, that's the alaya, the consciousness of a self, that's samanas, and the imagery of sense objects, which we'll be looking at next week. So these are the three aspects that are involved in the transformation of consciousness by which we perceive a self and we perceive the world. So this is how we do the trick. So last week we looked at the first aspect of this transformation of consciousness, the alaya, the storehouse, which in this verse is referred to, second verse is referred to as the ripening of karma. That's where the karma Karma means actions, intentional actions. So our intentional actions, which come from the past, from our habits, our choices, our relationships, our training, our culture, all of those influences on our lives, our ancestors, and so on and so forth. And how come I live in California? Well, there's a story for that, you know, long story of how that came to happen, you know.

[08:50]

So all of that is this is referred to as the ripening of karma. And that's what's being stored in, for me, in my aliyah. And it's all those little seeds, those influences from my past are ripening. They're cooking away, just like the metaphor of seeds and plants. You know, they're down there, they're swelling up, and then they can be activated at certain times, depending on what I'm doing and what kind of behavior I'm doing right now. How am I behaving right now? And so if I'm angry, then I'm going to get some angry seeds sprouting up and some ideas about some nasty things I can say. If I'm lustful, I can think of some kind of attractive things to say and so on. And if I'm confused, that'll show because those are the seeds that are going to ripen and sprout into my awareness, you know, depending on my emotional, the current emotional state that I've, I've fallen into.

[09:50]

So last week as i said we looked at this ripening of karma the alaya the storehouse and then now we're going to look at the second aspect of the transformation of consciousness which is called the manas the consciousness of the self okay so verse number five dependent on the storehouse consciousness on the unconscious bag of stuff this where the seeds are all stored the alaya and taking the alaya as its object, manas, the consciousness of a self, arises which consists of thinking. So manas arises from the storehouse of all these potentialities, all these different ways we can view the world comes through manas as thought. So, you know, they're not thoughts yet, they're just potentialities. But then when Manas gets involved with the Alaya, Manas creates this world of thought, the world of thinking.

[10:59]

So Manas is the self-maker. is self-maker. It sees the alaya as the self. It has this feeling of all this stuff that I have, conditioning, my talents, my language skills, all the things that I think I am, I love. I'm in love with myself. That's basically where this is coming from. That is just so much admiration or can also be self-deprecation, but those are both forms of self-love. They're both obsessive about this idea of I, I am, I am this, and so on. So the alaya, the manas sees the alaya as the self, as the beloved, and all else is other. So manas is both central to our sense of being separate and also alienation. And at the same time, it's fundamental and useful. It has a useful aspect

[12:02]

for our healthy human consciousness, human first. So it's not just a bad thing, You know, love yourself. There's a wholesomeness there. Children need to have that kind of self-love. They want to start them off with a little bit of narcissism so that they can actually grow into and balance that out with a greater sense of responsibility to others, a greater love for others, and so on. But you don't want to just discourage them right off the bat. Like, well, you don't really count. You're not important. You don't even have a self. You know, that would not be good parenting. So we do want to work with a healthy development of this sense of who we are, you know, human first, as my therapist used to say. So verse number five, verse number six, it, manas, the lover, is always associated with four afflictions, self-view, self-delusion, self-pride, and self-love. So these are four afflictions, and is obstructed

[13:04]

by these afflictions means it can't really just function in a clean way it has these this problem of being separate of seeing itself as separate so it's obstructed by those afflictions however it's karmically neutral it's not it's not bad or good it's neutral that can go either way depending on how we do the work of developing ourselves our life our understanding our wisdom our compassion and so on so that's verse number six uh In verse number seven, along with these four afflictions, from where it is born, the manas, from where the manas is born, which is the alaya, it has these five universal factors that we talked about last week. They're not gonna get into this again this time, but later on, further on in the verses, we're getting more of a discussion of these universal factors, which are very important for our understanding the process by which we create the world. So those factors again, listed in verse number seven, are sense contact, for example, hearing, hear the bell, my attention goes to the sound, there's a sensation, I like that sound, I have a perception, I assign a concept to that, oh, that's the bell, that's a concept, and then a volition to act on that.

[14:29]

I think I'll go find out where that bell is ringing and why. So I go toward the bell. So that's a common pattern of behavior that we all do all the time. So that's why it's here. It's our common ground. This is a common kind of human way of acting and behaving. So the universal factors. So it, manas, again I'm in verse seven still. It, the manas, is not found in enlightenment, It's not found in the meditation of cessation, and it's not found on the supramundane path, which is the bodhisattva path. So the path of living for the benefit of others is clearly transforming self-love into love of others, love of the world, love of caring for others. So you're basically turning that light of self-concern onto the world. So manas dissipates at that time. As far as the meditation of cessation is concerned, For those of you who have done quite a bit of meditation, particularly if you've done some sishins or long sittings or whatever, there are these possibilities of finding yourself in a particular kind of dhyanic trance in which there is no thought.

[15:45]

There's a cessation of self, of separation. There's a feeling of unity or oneness or kind of a... It's kind of nice. I think some people describe it as bliss, you know, whatever. But then the problem is, once you have that kind of meditation experience, people want to live there. They'd like to move in, so they'd really like to live there. I don't want to come back here where my room is a mess and I've got to go find something to eat and all that. So there is a kind of seduction. to the meditation of cessation. But it is not the resolution of any problems that we might have as the Buddha himself discovered, he mastered these meditations, these jhanic trances, which can get you very high and very separate from thought and from problems, you know, kind of clears you for a while. But as he said, nothing lasts, impermanence is the law of the universe. So when those meditation trances end, then you're back.

[16:48]

with your messy room and you're having to find something to eat and so on. So human first. So even those at these various times, the manas is not activated except for in the case of awakening and in the case of the bodhisattva path, you will need to deal with this for life. You'll have to keep coming back to dealing with the sense of yourself. So manas has has two kinds. There's two kinds of thinking. Again, manas is thinking, the thinker. The first kind is just thinking, you know, it's kind of neutral. And this is, if you remember from our diagram, there are these six sensory consciousnesses above the line, so below the line are manas and la laya, and above the line in our conscious realm are these six types of consciousness. There's the five senses, The ear, eyes, nose, tongue, body. Ear, eyes, nose, tongue, body.

[17:50]

And then there's thinking, or consciousness of words. Consciousness of thinking. That's number six. So thinking, this sixth sense consciousness, is picking up on the manasist kind of thinking, and it's just neutral. It's just kind of the chain of thoughts that are being made by me, each one of them leading to the next one. Some of them... random, apparently very random, most of the time fairly random. Sometimes there's actually sentences and paragraphs and maybe we're working on something so that we have a real chain of thoughts that connect to one another. But it's pretty benign. There's not anything kind of troublesome going on there in that first kind of thinking. It's the second kind of thinking, the defiled thinking, that manas produces. which is yoked to these four passions that were listed in verse 6, or the kleshas, the afflictions, self-view, self-delusion, self-pride, and self-love. And to many more afflictions, which we'll be seeing further on in the 30 verses, there's quite a list of the afflictions that all of us are subject to as a result,

[18:59]

of this deep affection we have for ourself and our position in the world and our self-importance and how much we need to do to protect that, that we are, or we believe ourselves to be. Even though we don't really know what we are, we still gonna protect it with our lives, you know? It's a big energy that we all have. So in brief, self-view is the extreme view that there is a separate self, that's self-view. that I am a self. Self-delusion is being confused about what the self is. I mean, if you really think about it for a while and keep asking yourselves questions, what is myself? You know, you can go through the first few things, your name, where you grew up, where you went to school, you know, how much money you got in the bank. You can go through all that stuff. And then when you get done with that, who's myself? You know, just keep asking. And what is it? What is myself? You know, you won't run out of questions because there isn't one. So you're going to just find out by that way. That's a method of discovery that is just a word.

[20:01]

It's just a projection on an assortment, a vastly complex assortment of activities going on right now that I think are me. I think that's me. So that's self-delusion. Self-pride is placing undue importance on oneself in relation to other things. You know, we see ourselves as very important. I noticed that particularly in a room full of other people. I think like, hmm, you know, here I am and there's all those other people and I'm a little uncomfortable. Myself is not so comfortable when there's a lot of other people around and kind of not quite sure what myself is supposed to do or how it's supposed to look or, you know, what it's supposed to say and so on. So there's this kind of good way of finding yourself. One of the good ways of finding yourself I remember hearing was to be falsely accused. You know, somebody said, You know, you took my book. No, I didn't. Well, that no, I didn't is yourself. That's a very good way of pinpointing what the self is, the one who didn't do it.

[21:06]

You know, that's you. So self-pride and then self-love is the last of the four afflictions. Self-love is clinging to the self's interests in a way that causes suffering, attachment. You know, that's why we care. This is why any of this is even of interest to us, because it causes us suffering, undue suffering, unnecessary suffering. So language, thinking, conventional designations, which are the products of our self-making manas, the thinker, become more and more creative as we get older, hopefully as we know, and then we forget that our creations are not more than that. They're creations. They're little things that we've done, little drawings, little ideas, little, you know, sentences and so on. Very clever. We're very clever. Very clever. And we really admire our creations quite a lot. And we forget that our creations actually open to the great mystery.

[22:06]

And that the great mystery cannot be known. It's not a product of our creation. You know, it's what we are. And but it can't be known through the limitations of our conscious awareness. So the unproduced, words like unproduced, unconditioned, perfect freedom of vastness itself, of reality itself, of just this is it. Try to get a hold of that. Try to get a hold of just this is it. You just find yourself with an empty hand. So manas is basically the clouds that are blocking the moon. You know the image of the moon as awakening, as a full awareness. And then there's these clouds of thinking, of beliefs about what you think to be so, that are blocking your view of what's actually there. So, for example, there really isn't any attachment. I mean, just try to imagine attaching yourself to anything.

[23:07]

I mean, to your car, to your home, to your partner, to your possessions. I mean, attaching to them would be a little ludicrous. I mean, you could maybe carry a certain amount of stuff around with you, including in your car and in your home. But basically, you walk around fairly... unencumbered, except for maybe whatever you happen to be wearing that day. But we really aren't attached. We can't attach to thinking because they won't stay. They just keep moving along. So when we think of ourselves as being attached to certain things, if you look at that more deeply again, you begin to see, well, it's not really even true. In fact, one of our friends here we were just talking with yesterday, as it turns out, actually, we're counting. I have six different friends. that I know rather well, whose homes have burned down in California fires. And completely, they lost everything. You know, one was in San Diego, or Santa Barbara, another one here in Santa Rosa. So there have been these tremendous losses of these people's homes.

[24:08]

And this woman I was just talking to, who lives here, she said, you know, it was kind of a relief. She said, really? She said, really? I mean, there were just a few things that I really cared about, like my grandmother's photograph. And one other thing that she mentioned, some precious thing from her family. But the rest of it, she said, I don't even think about it. I don't even think about those things. And I've heard that from every single person who's lost everything they had. And as long as their family was safe and the dog was safe and, you know, that they were okay, then it was like the stuff really wasn't as important as I think we live through it. We kind of live as though it's really important. make sure you lock the door and all that kind of thinking. But basically, it's kind of interesting to know how little that matters, those ideas of attachment, you know, when things are taken from us. So manas, the sense of self, is intimately connected to our tendency to be dissatisfied and to suffer.

[25:10]

You know, things like, well, why me? You know, where's mine? And how come you got more than I got? You know, stuff like that. that we've been thinking since we were very little. In other words, we want things to be different than they are. I want them to be more in line with my sense of what I deserve, and so on. So this is kind of suffering that we all know very well. So the Buddha's activity is not switching over to... you know, not being busy or not being anxious or not being frightened. I mean, that's kind of, we fantasize, maybe that could happen. I mean, just get rid of anxiety and get rid of our fear, get rid of our busyness and so on and everything would be fine. But that's not the teaching. The teaching is to not abide in or to see that you can't abide in and to not be caught up in anything that the conscious awareness is throwing our way. So the aliyah throws all this stuff up into our conscious awareness. You know, the thinking mind produces all these ideas. I need that.

[26:11]

I have to have that in order to be happy. You know, I need that. And I hear, being with my daughter, who's a bit younger than me, hearing her talk about the things that she really could do or would need to have. And I'm kind of looking at her like, wow, you know, you really believe that. And if you only had that, if you only could do that, if you could, you know, and I'm being the rotten mother that I am going, no, honey, maybe you need to think about what you could really do, you know, what kind of, what kind of, you know, realistic things that frustrates her. And she gets mad at me for good reason. So I try to withhold that sort of parental advice and just let her roll, you know, as we all have and we all do. So it's not about... getting rid of those feelings we have. It's around not getting caught by them. You know, not being caught by anything that's thrown into our minds. It's just mind. Mind only. That's the comfort. Mind only. When the babies are crying, you say, this very mind is Buddha. It's just Buddha. You know, saying, you really need a Lexus.

[27:13]

You really need a, you know, dye your hair green or whatever. You really need to do that. That's just your mind. That's something that's just been thrown into your mind. And that way, by recognizing it's your mind, it might loosen the idea that you have a grip on that or you have to do it, the compulsion to do it. So, you know, to see that phenomena for what they really are, mind only, is the Yogacara approach to liberation. So that's what they're up to. They want us to see to really see and experience the workings of our mind in order to loosen the grip that our imagination has on our lives. And first of all, we have to see that grip. We have to see how much these compulsions are controlling our actions. How much those five universal factors are controlling the outcome of our preferences and so on. Say, oh, I just saw myself doing that. How interesting. I think what I found for myself is things become more interesting, they become less compulsions.

[28:15]

You know, it's just like, well, that's interesting. I really do want ice cream right now, you know. And sometimes I avoid going to the fridge and sometimes I don't. But either way, I do notice, oh, that's just my mind. That's just my mind that's sending me over to the kitchen. So Dogen says that karmic consciousness, karmic consciousness is words and phrases. which can be used to liberate karmic consciousness. So karmic consciousness is words and phrases which can be used to liberate karmic consciousness. So that's what the Buddha's teaching is. It's words and phrases which are offered to us to help us eliminate and liberate our attachment to our karmic consciousness. It's kind of like using a thorn to take out a thorn. Using language to take out the language, the trap of language. So at this point, I'd like to ask for any questions or comments that you all might have. And Karina, are you here?

[29:16]

I'll be right back. Karina, questions from the... Oh. Okay, she's here. So, hi, Dean. Yes. Hi, Fu. Thank you. So I've been trying to figure out how to bring that pause back before someone does, says something, someone says something, something. I open my eyes and my ears and boom, I'm off to the races and trying to figure out the pause. But when I read this, and I think it was in the fifth verse, all phenomena, ideas, And this is how I think I read this. This is how I interpreted it, possibly. All phenomena, ideas, opinions, views, perceptions are simply fleeting things which happen.

[30:17]

As humans, it happens. And what dawned on me after that, as soon as I heard that, the next part of the sentence for me was, and not likely things which have a need. And so that those things just are things that happen. And what I or what I do, maybe we all do, is we make them something that we need to do something with. And so what I've been trying to do is instead of They don't have any value. They're just this fleeting things as to to not give them a position, to not give them a place. So is that also sort of what this is telling us is that it's just like everything else and we don't need to have a need around it.

[31:33]

Yeah, and if you can pull that off your half, you're more than halfway there. You know, I mean, the problem is you said it's like, you didn't say it, but I'm gonna say it. It's so fast. I mean, Korean, I've been trying to work this program with each other is great to have somebody close by that you can notice your need to respond, come up real fast, like, excuse me, did you just say, so it's really nice to have a working relationship with the people in your life that are willing to notice with you. Oh, whoa, do you see what I just, you know, I almost bit there's there's a teaching from Pema Chodron that that Karina has been saying to me often, I really appreciate Pema's group was practicing with don't bite the shempa. So shempa and Tibetan apparently is the hook. Yeah, and it's baited. It's got a big juicy worm on it. Don't bite the shempa. And for me, it's an ice cream bar. Don't bite the shempa.

[32:36]

It's really there, and the temptation is so strong. But the good news is that the hook, as they say in Zen, is barbless. It has no barbs. It's a straight hook. So if you grab a hold of the hook, if you bite the shempa, all you have to do is open your mouth. Let it go. There's no real, there's nothing really there. It's just this thing you just did, you know? So there's always freedom. There's always the freedom to, oh, oh, look what I just did. You know, there's delight in catching yourself. At some point, anyway, there's delight in catching yourself, doing that same thing, that habit. And especially when you don't do it, when you don't bite. It's like, whoa, you know? I think I'm kind of catching, I'm kind of getting how to do this. I'm starting to begin to catch on to how to practice with this. That's why I like this particular Yogacara.

[33:40]

It's like, oh. Yeah, it's really, yeah, it's, I'm really fascinated because it's, it's, it's, all about what thinking, what we do with thinking, what I do with thinking, and how creative I am with it. And thinking about that, using these thoughts, which are, you know, that's where Manus comes from or creates it, using those to actually see what's happening. And that's what when I, it dawned on me, Oh, all these things. They're just things. They're just like the little dandelion things that you can just blow. They don't have a definitive purpose or a need until I go for it. So it's a very different way than what I've thought about those thoughts before.

[34:47]

Now you want to add, make sure you add the bodhisattva vow to that formula because if It is just stuff happening, but it's delusional. I mean, it's the part of people we feel sad about are caught up in delusion, as are we. So the compassion for the delusional activities going on among our human friends and our family members and all that, the manas dissipates as we turn our attention to the delusion that's arising in the people we love. and the people in this world. And our compassion for that is like, oh my goodness, those are afflictions. They're suffering afflictions, warfare is an affliction and hatred is an affliction and so on and so forth. So then we bring our intention as bodhisattvas to addressing that and mainly by offering teaching. Have you heard about the Yogacara? Do you have a few hours to spend? A few years?

[35:48]

Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Hello, Jerry. Hi, Hua. I like that. That's good. I have a very dear friend whose name is Hua. Anyway. Put it together, you get Hua. Quick comment and a question. What Dean was just saying... remind me that this morning in meditation, something unique happened, which I found very useful. I noticed a thought, and then I said to myself, what gave rise to that thought? And I remembered that I was thinking about something that tangentially, so I thought, addressed that thought or created that thought or whatever. It's like a train with all these connections.

[36:49]

When I identified the so-called precursor, now I did it all drop away, but it didn't come back. And that to me was startling. And so then later on in meditation, I did the same thing. And again, it was the same result. So now I'm experimenting to see if... I discovered something. I don't know what, but I thought I would share that for whatever value it might have. Well, what will be left of you when this process is finished? Nothing. I'm all gone. Yeah, right. Here's the question for clarity. You said that in verse 5, Manus is the self-maker. What I'm wondering is... Do the perceptions, the sounds, taste, all of those sensations, are those the vehicles by which Manus operates?

[38:01]

Yes. So those five consciousnesses, six consciousnesses that we're going to look at next week. So those senses plus the perception of words, perception of language, of thought. So that's the sixth. So the sixth sense consciousness perceives what manas is throwing up. So manas is producing the language and the thought and the attitude or the opinion or whatever. And then the sixth consciousness is catching it so that you're aware of it. So then you weren't aware of the precursor to your thought until you applied some attention to that. You summoned it from your unconscious. You kind of waited and then up it came, right? So then you have this amazing kind of relationship with like this, the chain of thought, which in this case, dissipated. So that's a really interesting experience for you to have, you know, and then you had it again. You know, there's something about your mind, and how to work with maybe especially, it's not so much when you have a happy thought about the summer of, you know, 83 or whatever.

[39:10]

It's this, it's the challenging thoughts we have about other people, about ourself, about something we forgot to do, it's the ones that are actually experienced as affliction or suffering. You know, that's what we're really wanting to see how that mechanism overturns, greed, hate and delusion. So let me repeat what I think I just got clear on. We're talking about the realm of the unconscious. Yes. Yes. We're talking about five consciousnesses that are stimulated one of them is stimulated by something yes you hear a sound as you suggest that then and we're not conscious of it but then it becomes translated into a thought through thinking through manas so manas you has an association from your past you when you were a baby you never heard the bell so you and you don't have any language so you wouldn't you might go like that

[40:12]

know you might twitch but you don't do the sequence of the five universal factors because you don't have the equipment so as you mature and you're given the equipment of language you were taught the names of things that's all stored in your unconscious so when you hear this sound you you know the monist retrieves from the library of congress down there this memory you have of bells or cats or whatever it is, all of that stuff that many thousands of things you have images, like AI is trying to learn all the human images. We have millions and millions of images of things that we then associate to the sound or to the vision. You know, it's not always right. In fact, it's most of me make it all up. You know, you call it a cat. So that that koan about the Monk points to a furry ball in the corner and says to the teacher, I call that a cat. What do you call it? And the teacher says, you call it a cat. So we've learned that.

[41:15]

That's not a cat. We don't know what that is. It's beyond comprehension, as are we. But we've come up with this way of foreshortening our life into these word bites. So we live on the train of thought. So we're trying to blow that up a little bit and say, that's okay, that's a useful thing, but you ought to realize that it's just a useful thing and that there's a lot more going on here than just what you think, including how interesting how you came to think that. So we're diving in. We're going down into the aliyah by means of the, conscious awarenesses these six sensory consciousnesses give us access through manas to the bag of stored imagery we have and so that's what we're doing in these this first portion of the vasubandhu's training is helping us to do that work that you just did in your meditation you can do it again

[42:30]

Yeah, thank you. Let's see. I think, who did I see? I thought I saw Carmina and Marianne. Now I'm seeing Chris. I'm happy with either. Karina, do you know what's... There's Chris. Hi, Chris. Hello, Chris. Thanks for taking my question. Good to see you. Good to see everyone. Likewise. So I had an interesting experience today. Someone said something that brought me back to some really negative stories in the past. And so I started to really take that to heart. And it was very, it was almost like I came into this pattern of rejecting them, almost depersonalization of really negative stories of disrespect in a way that perhaps it shouldn't be taken. And it meant a lot that, you know, when you when you said earlier that that sometimes it's about just catching where we're being caught up in these stories.

[43:41]

And and that perhaps that person is just going through is experiencing an affliction. And so it seems to me that this process of of. not being caught is really about awareness. It's about developing the capacity within myself to be aware throughout the day, not just in meditation, but when those patterns, when those habitual ways of thinking that are triggered with people that are in my life, when that's triggered, how can I be more aware of that? And so it seems to be that it's at least at the beginning, it's not a process of doing anything about that, of being trying to adopt a certain Bodhisattva mindset of trying to fix something or fix someone or do anything.

[44:50]

It's about just building that capacity of awareness. Is that correct? Is that correct? appropriate yeah i think it is and i think alongside of your i mean you're you're a well-trained human being you know you're you have already been acculturated you know you're socialized so you're not going to be rude you're going to slap somebody because they bothered you you know you're going to already have You'd be polite within bounds. I mean, if they didn't drive you into a rage, but they just kind of, ooh, I didn't like what they said. You know, you're in the realm of, it's not going to go too bad right now. So I can watch my mind and what it just did, as you're describing. So I think that's the work we're doing now, is to beginning to see how these things are generated in the first place. How did I come to that feeling? And the wedge, the edge of the wedge is feelings. So you know when something's happening. I know when something's happening or about to happen, or I'm about to have a strong feeling about something because, because that initial feeling is starting is I can feel, I can feel it.

[45:56]

We call them feelings. I can feel it. I can feel something's happening here. And if it's negative, you know, that's, that's one particular caution. If it's positive, that's another kind of caution. Watch out for that too. So, you know, it's the feeling is what, what enters into what's going to happen now. So that's one way. It's like the shempa. You can say, okay, I'm keeping my eye on how I feel and how those feelings then lead me to some associations and some opinions and some stories. Because feeling comes before the conceptual, what builds up as concept. I kind of don't like it, and now I know why. So it's more of a vague. So you start with what's kind of vague, and then you notice how it becomes more specific. And then, and self-making. I don't like that. I don't like, I feel disrespected. You know, whatever it is, you can see manas at work, right?

[46:57]

Either negative or positive feelings. Your self is now up. And it's kind of more clear. And it usually happens with other people around, right? It's more common when there's another warm body that's gotten into your path. So it's a great opportunity having people around to study, to study the mind, to study the self that's being produced, and to gain a little more relaxation with what you're going to do next. What am I going to do about that? I had a lot of opportunities to work on that while I was driving up Highway 5. Do I run them off the road for tailgating me for the last three miles? It's what I want to do. But what am I going to do? How am I going to manage my feelings so that I can drive safely? And how can I keep from getting enraged about feeling insulted by how these other people are driving?

[47:58]

So there's just all these opportunities that are given to us to keep an eye on those five universal factors before we take action. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Good to see you, Chris. Okay. Carmina or Marianne? Who is there? Marianne. Oh, hi, Marianne. Nice to see you. Thank you. In thinking about Manas and thinking about thinking, I was... If... Indeed, as we're being aware of our thought patterns and the train of thought and the judgments that are coming along with them, I'm wondering as we talk about manas as a self-maker, if we can, instead of seeing myself over and against everything that is happening to me, if I can learn to see myself as connected, that manas is actually doing a good thing for me,

[49:06]

It's actually weaving something for me rather than curing my affliction. It's actually creating something with me. So instead of seeing myself as disconnected, I see myself as connected. So the feeling comes up. But then I love your idea of road rage. I think that that's absolutely true. I mean, I think we could practice this just driving every time. The guy in front of me just cut me off, right? The gal in front of me just cut me off. Do I see this person that's disconnected from me? Or do I see myself as I'm just one of these people and they're just one of these people driving on this wonderful road called Highway 24 and thanks to the universe for having a Highway 24 and thanks to the universe for having a Caldecott tunnel and thank you. that just all of a sudden makes a different me doesn't a different pattern of thinking totally and so then the judgment's gone it isn't you're bad i'm right and we don't have an armageddon anymore right you know yeah exactly exactly now the tricky part is like i mentioned norman fisher and the head-on collision he had with a young woman on highway one so there are accidents

[50:24]

And there's also that opportunity, you know, I backed into someone not too long ago with my van and I was backing up, smashed into this woman's nice Mercedes and she jumped out of the car. She was furious, you know, rightfully so. And I'm going, you have every right to be angry. I am so sorry. I was just like, I am so sorry. What can I do? I'll do anything. You know, let me call, let me say, you know, little by little. she just calmed down she oh yeah i know i do that myself and blah blah blah you know pretty soon we're exchanging information and blah blah blah but i could have made a real enemy there by being defensive but you shouldn't have backed out without seeing me or you didn't know you know i could have done all kinds of numbers right there but i basically feel like wanting to bring harmless response to the world, wanting me somehow to find, as Norman did, by this young woman who was so horrified of what she did, he just gave her a big hug. Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Are you all right? And she said, are you all right? You know, we don't want to hurt each other, I think.

[51:25]

I mean, most of us don't, anyway. I don't think we want to hurt each other. the fact that we enter into that relationship, as you're talking about it with my heart open to the safety of myself and others is kind of like what I wish for the world, you know, I mean, that's the big bodhisattva vow is don't hurt anybody. It's not hurt anybody, you know. And it's frustrating because we know that that's not all the whole story. Right. And what I what I just shared with you. And what I see emerging as we look at the storehouse, the unconscious, and the way things manifest itself in the conscious world, comes from the thinking of a very well-known sociologist by the name of Johann Galton. He is the father of peace theory, conflict and peace theory. He just died last summer, a year ago, at the age of 93. He is an amazing man.

[52:27]

And he calls this, and this is coming right out of Manas, I believe. And he was a Buddhist also. He calls this DMS syndrome. DMS syndrome. Immediately when we enter into a situation, we see ourselves as disconnected to the object in front of us or to the other, disconnected. And then he calls it, you know, this kind of dichotomization, DMS. he says, is Manichaeism. And he goes back to the ancient myths of Manichaeism. There's good and there's bad. Period. And you want to stay on the side of good. So I'm good. Whatever happened outside of me is bad. He calls that Manichaeism. And then he says DMA syndrome. Sorry. And then the A is Armageddon. Now we're ready to do that. So first is the... You know, the disconnectedness or the, you know, and then the second one is the Manichaeism.

[53:31]

I judge it. And then the last one is Armageddon. I'm going to take battle. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's exactly it. Exactly. And he and of course, he's he was at the he's been at the peace table for so many different conflicts around the world. And he says it starts with the thinking. It starts with the thinking. and the attitudes and the assumptions that we make as we enter into the reality. Watch your mind, he says. Watch your mind. Yes, that's great. How do you spell his last name? G-A-L-T-U-N-G. Galtung. Galtung, yeah. That's amazing. That's great. Yeah, my country, right or wrong. Right, exactly. Right. I mean, there's such a thing at, you know, belligerent countries, belligerent attitudes. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay.

[54:32]

Maybe a little more, a little more verbiage from Vasubanju. Okay. I'm going to finish a few more thoughts and then we can come back together. So there is a need for us, as we've just been hearing, to follow the middle way between there is something, bad or something good or someone who is busy or not busy or there isn't something bad or good or someone who isn't busy. So the mental way doesn't eliminate either side of there is something or there isn't. It just holds them in balance. It's just right. It's kind of righting. Like I like looking at the Eightfold Path as not right view and right intention, but writing your views and writing your intention. It's like guidelines or guideposts. And I often use the image of a sailboat. It's like you can't sail a sailboat with the mast straight up in the air and the sail straight up in the air. That won't work. You have to be able to go with the wind. So when you're learning how to view,

[55:34]

right view or intention it's going to be like that you know you're going to go that way and then you're going to go back that way and so on and so forth and still you have some intention to go toward some outcome that would be positive for you and others right so the Buddha I think of the northern star he's looking at the star and that helps him to write his views about what is true and what is not true and so on so in the Noble Eightfold Path Noble Truth Number Four, the Eightfold Path, so Noble Truth Number Four, the Eightfold Path, actually is including cessation, this idea of a meditation that lets go or no longer has a troublesome sense of a self that does take place in these deep states of concentration. But it also includes, all of the Eightfold Path includes being and seeing the self that you're working towards. you know, the disillusion of that, the waking up from the magic trick of there being an actual self there that you need to protect.

[56:38]

So at the same time, we want to study that imaginal self. We want to learn as much as we can about it, as all of you are talking. You know, this is exactly what you're doing. You're learning all you can, or maybe not all, but much of what you can about yourself and how it works. So this imaginary self that's appearing right now through this kind of thoughtful analysis of our ethical behavior. So precepts are kind of like those white lines on either side of the highway that help you to stay in the center. You don't want to end up over on the far right or the far left. You want to be able to navigate down the center of the road. So this is how precepts and ethical behavior work. If I say, you know, preceptive not killing, well, what about, you know, then I eat vegetables. Those were living. Yeah, well, that's okay. So now you've got to come back to, all right, that's over here. What about cattle? What about sheep? What about eating those? Well, that's over here. So how do you navigate that?

[57:38]

this precept of not killing or not lying or not stealing or not sexualizing. There's not a single way that you can do that without just being rigid and probably not doing it anyway. So you basically want to be alive and moving and thinking and learning from your efforts to relate to ethical guidelines, for example. So the Buddha gave this thoughtful analysis of each of us. that he named, you know, your right view, how you see the world, right view, right intention, what's your intention? What are you doing here? What do you want to be doing here? How do you speak? How do you conduct yourself? What's your livelihood? How do you make your living? What kind of effort are you making along all of these fronts? And then mindfulness, being aware of what you're doing, knowing where your hands are, knowing what you're saying, and so on. And meditation, you know, to really spend some time with the mind. when it's got a little bit of room to run like letting the dog off the leash you know you go into the zendo and it's like let the dog off the leash and get a good view of how this puppy app behaves you know when it's not being constrained by whatever else you're doing throughout the day so in that way this imagine self can be a very useful tool in creating a healthy sense of who we are

[58:58]

leading up to the time when we no longer need to rid ourselves of our self because it simply lets go. It lets us go. It doesn't need us anymore. We don't need it. It's just like it's unnecessary, like a hangnail. It just kind of falls off. Having first been transformed into a more kindly and learned companion of this self that we've now trained, it's like a really kind of a well-behaved self, and now you don't have to do anything with it. It'll fall away. It's already, you've already got the outcome of your training. You've become that. You've become the outcome of your efforts. So for this reason, the first half of the 30 verses is taking care with our work of transforming the self and the second half with the realization of no self that allows for blessed rest or utter contentment, as it's called, of nirvana. Of nirvana. Freedom from greed, hate and delusion. So... At this point in our Yogacara study, the study of our own mind, it's not time yet to let go of the self-maker, of the magician.

[60:05]

In fact, it may be a very long time before that possibility even appears. You know, it's time, while there is time, to study how the mind-made self is being made and not simply be caught up in the magic of its own creations. So that's what this work is about. As it says in the Lotus Sutra, first we empty, the kleshas, the afflictions, the defilements, that's our first job, that's what we're doing now, these first 15 verses, the greed, hate, and delusion, the unconscious processes that we have not been tending to, all those weeds that are growing in our alaya, you know, we're going to attend to those. We're going to start to prune those old weeds and clean up the yard and that kind of stuff, you know. And so there's greed, hate, and delusion. There's also pride and skeptical doubt and wrong views. So once we've kind of done some housekeeping, emptying the kleshas, then we fill ourselves with the paramitas, with the training of the bodhisattva, with generosity, with ethics, with patience, with effort, concentration, and wisdom.

[61:11]

So that's our training program. So first you empty and then you fill. So and then to end from where it, manas, is born comes sense contact, attention, sensation, perception, volition, universal factors. It, manas, is not found in enlightenment, in the meditation of cessation, or in the bodhisattva path, the super mundane path. So, oh no, I just have one more thing I was gonna share. So given that manas is born from infinite causes and conditions that have been given to me, and that our sense of being the self, that's where it comes from, in chapter seven, Ben tells us not to make that self into an enemy. You know, this self that we spent our whole lifetime creating is not an enemy, but rather to appreciate the multitude of influences that have gone into making each of us in this very unique way. Each of us is very unique and appreciate that.

[62:14]

And then to be kind to this imaginary being as we endeavor to break the spell that it has over our lives. So there's some years ago, I was talking with my therapist about a very painful issue that was going on in my own life that I was suffering at the time. And my therapist said to me, he reminded me of this scene from The Wizard of Oz, which probably all of you have seen, where Dorothy has just, her house has just landed on the Wicked Witch. And she's now in Munchkin land. Technicolor is, you know, everything's in color. We've left Kansas, and now we're in Oz, and it's all rather wonderful, except that there are some witches running around. So the angry, wicked witch says, I'm going to get you. You've had it, girl. Your house landed on my sister. And then suddenly there comes this pink bubble lands, and then inside the pink bubble is Glenda the Good, Glenda the Good Witch. And as my therapist said, so what does she say? to the bad witch. She says, be gone, you have no power here.

[63:16]

Be gone, you have no power here. So that was his way of helping me to have a way, a little motto that I could use about my own consciousness, about my own arisings of negative energies. You know, be gone, I say to Manas, be gone with your offering of anger and hatred and revenge. You have no power here. So that's part of the magic of our human species. We know a lot, but it's just applying it. How do we apply all these? So what replaces manas in an awakened being is called the wisdom of equality, in which the self is no longer at the center of everything, trying to control everything, but rather, as Ben says in the end of Chapter 6, the mind sees everything as having equal value. And most importantly, as worthy of compassion, as worthy of our vow to live for the benefit of all beings. So we have some more time, if you like, if anything else you'd like to bring up about the Wizard of Oz or anything else that's inspired you.

[64:28]

Yes. Hi. Could you repeat what you said about karmic consciousness, about it being words and phrases. Yeah, let me find that. Karina, can you give me gallery view for sex so I can see everybody? Thank you. Karmic, what did I say? I said You started out with karmic consciousness are words and phrases. Oh, this was Dogen's. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Dogen said, karmic consciousness is words and phrases which can be used to liberate karmic consciousness. Thank you. You're welcome.

[65:32]

You're welcome. I'm just going to say hello to everybody, which is something I like doing. Hello, Tim. Hello, Steve and Lisa. Jifu. Jerry. Chris. Helene. Kathy. Jacqueline. Millicent. Dean. Amer. Adrian. Hello, Adrian. Shozan. Carmina and Marianne. Kakuan. Ko-san. Paul and Kate. Meredith. Senko. Tom, Carol Lee, a new name for me, welcome Carol Lee, Adrian Benner, and Michael Ferrer. Welcome everyone. So any other things that you'd like to bring up in our evening? You all good? Chris? I'll ask one other question.

[66:33]

So Glenda the Good Witch really is an interesting story. I know it was the same advice that was given to me when dealing with other entities and problematic entities in the past. And it seems to me that when looking at that, it's less about intrusion. It's less about other spirits, and it's more about the reaction that we have to that, the reaction to intrusion, the reaction to fear, to what it invokes within you of trying to defend yourself psychically. That is... Is that what that is referring to in the sense of, be gone, you have no power over me?

[67:37]

The recognizing what arises within, I guess I'm still trying to understand that a little bit when it comes to... Yeah, I think it is your own reactivity to the object that you're perceiving as frightening. or attractive, or giving you anxiety. You really are talking to yourself. My therapist also said, because I get really nervous when I have to give a talk, it's gotten better. It used to be six months ahead, now it's like two weeks ahead instead of the six months. But the idea of this anxiety, and he said, well, he had a client who was a dancer, And that every time the curtain was about to go up, she'd be over to the side and just her foot like thumper, the rabbit going, she was going like that with her foot. And then as soon as the curtain went up, she'd jump out on the stage.

[68:40]

So he said, there's different ways of working with your anxiety because really you're excited. Something's going to happen. Now, if it's a fearful something and there's a wisdom about don't go there, it's a good time to run or call for help. I mean, that's a different order of thing. But if we're talking about these psychic events that are nightmares and daydreams and so on, I think this is a very good way to remind yourself that you're safe. That this image doesn't have power over you. That's what Buddha said to Mara, the evil one. I know who you are. He's trying to scare him, to get him to get up off the seat of awakening. And the Buddha says, but you can't scare me because I know who you are. You are myself. And with that, Mara vanishes. It's just an apparition. It's just an illusion that is being created, you know, that that's part of our safety mechanism, but it's also part of our burden, what keeps us trapped.

[69:41]

Thank you very much. You're welcome. Hello, Tim. Hi, Phu. I was just going to say a lot of it comes from talking with you and everyone here. My current homework is to... My wife will tell you I'm not very successful at it, but... You have a good friend, don't you? Yeah. Talk less and listen more. And maybe then I'll actually hear what people are saying instead of something I made up. What do you think? I'm going to listen more. Okay, dear people. So good to see you all and please have a wonderful week and take good care of yourselves and read the next chapter.

[70:48]

We're going to start looking at the six sense consciousnesses. It's very hard to say, practice saying that. That'd be a good exercise for the week. Six sense consciousnesses. If you would like to unmute, you're welcome to do that and say good night. Just the one chapter, Fu? Yeah, we're just gonna go, yeah. Well, let me see. Is that true? You can always read ahead. But I think I'll probably just get through the, I think it's chapter eight. It's called the all. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, chapter eight. That is the second transformation we just talked about, manas. The third transformation, is the perception of the six senses, which are beneficial, harmful, or neither. So that's the next chapter, chapter eight. Good night, everyone.

[71:51]

Good night, everyone. Thank you. Good night, everyone. Thank you, Fu. Bye.

[72:02]

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