This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. This is a circle with various types of mindfulness, or you could say various meditations. Like this is called... Mindfulness of posture. Could also be meditation on posture. Mindfulness of breathing. Meditation on breathing. Mindfulness of Mu or other Zen stories. Or meditation on Zen stories. Mindfulness of mantra. Mindfulness of Dharma. Meditation on those things.

[01:01]

I'm suggesting that, I think I suggested, that these are practices which can be performed in self-consciousness, in the consciousness where there's a self. In other words, it can be performed by a subject. Does that make sense? These are like, all these are like what you might call practices of a person. A person does them or personal practices. Okay? And then I mentioned some other activities that are going on in consciousness like planning, envisioning, building projects, thinking about administrative problems at the monastery or at home. thinking about your children or your spouse, thinking about immigration problems.

[02:03]

These things, you know, probably it's hard for Krista not to be thinking about immigration problems in the Zendo lately. I don't know. Anyway, like travel plans, you know. These things come up in sitting in the meditation hall, right? And these are personal activities, right? That occur. in, we can call it, egocentric consciousness. Now, at the beginning of this practice, I actually did face-to-face transmission with you around some other practices. Do you remember some of those other practices? I didn't write them down here. Some of the other personal practices I told you about? Yes. Yeah. That's another one.

[03:09]

Thank you. No. That's not a personal practice. I transmitted personal practices. I'll give you a hint. I transmitted face-to-face personal practice. Personal trainings. What trainings did I talk to you about? Confession and repentance. That's another personal practice. That's already up there. What? Yeah, that's a personal practice. Train yourself thus. Remember that one? It's been a long time, I know. The Buddha... Face-to-face transmitted to Bahia. First of all, in his face-to-face transmission with Bahia, he said, this is not a good time, sir.

[04:13]

That was the first transmission. That was the first meditation. And Bahia responded to, well, yeah, I understand, but we might not be around this afternoon, so... And then it went back and forth like that three times, and then the Buddha gave you, train yourself thus. Remember the training? In the scene, there will be just the scene. This is a face-to-face transmission from the Buddha. This is the Buddha's practice, right? This is the Buddha. The Buddha is meeting this person and gives him this personal practice. This thing, Buddha, meaning this person, giving this person this practice, that is self-fulfilling samadhi. That's not a personal practice. That's face-to-face transmission of a personal practice, which is a wonderful personal practice.

[05:16]

Train yourself thus. Train yourself thus. Within your own... egocentric consciousness train yourself in the scene there will be just a scene in the herd there will be just a herd this is a wonderful training which he transmitted to him and he practiced and by the time Buddha finished giving him the instruction he basically was had accomplished it so he was very fast at receiving a personal practice and practicing it And the Buddha said, if you do this practice and you do it wholeheartedly, that would be the end of suffering. So, that was the end of suffering for that individual. And then I told you about Bodhidharma having a face-to-face meeting with the second ancestor, Hueca.

[06:17]

He said, outwardly, no activation of mind around objects. Inwardly, basically the same. For your inner mental states and your inner experiences, don't get activated around it. In other words, be still. Outwardly the same. With a mind like a wall, thus you enter the way. This is a transmission of that teaching. And then Huayca worked on it. In the story it says, Bodhidharma gave that teaching and then Hweika says, the student has no more involvements. In other words, Bodhidharma said, don't get involved with things outwardly or inwardly. And then Hweika says after getting that instruction, the student has no more involvements. That's the way the story is often listed.

[07:17]

But sometimes they mention there's seven years between finishing the instruction. And the next line, the student has no further involvements. And Bodhidharma says, well, is that nihilism? And Huayca said, nope. And Bodhidharma said, prove it. And Huayca says, I'm always clearly aware, but no words reach it. Now, this clear awareness is not consciousness. It's an awareness. But no words reach this awareness. Words reach consciousness all the time. It's the land of words. Words are the medium of exchange. Anyway, he got that instruction. He developed a mind like a wall.

[08:19]

A mind like a wall is not consciousness. It's like Bodhidharma. It's Bodhidharma mind. Which isn't better than consciousness. It is understanding consciousness. Anyway, that's another personal practice transmitted from an ancestor to an ancestor face-to-face. Okay? Those are personal practices. And we have personal practices all over the place, right? Now, there's this other... which is called self-fulfilling samadhi. So, Bodhidharma Dogen says, all Buddhas have a wonderful means for transmitting Bodhidharma. And the criterion of it is self-fulfilling samadhi.

[09:24]

Self-fulfilling samadhi is the relationship between your personal practice, which might be following your breath, being mindful of your posture, being still, being clearly aware, and so on. All these wonderful personal practices. And being still, the doors of Dharma open to you. And the doors to some other stuff, too, which may be difficult. And if you're still with the other stuff, then the other stuff will turn into Dharma doors. This is like wonderful personal practice. Okay? Self-fulfilling Samadhi is the relationship between your wonderful personal practices, which might have actually opened unto realization of Dharma, It's the relationship of your personal practice to all other personal practices of all beings, even beings who think they're not doing a personal practice and don't want to.

[10:37]

So the thing that makes our personal practice Buddhist practice is the way our personal practice is the same as everybody else's personal practice and everybody else's personal practice is the same as our practice. That's the criterion of Buddha's practice. So in the beginning of Bendawa he doesn't talk about all the different personal practices. He talks about the criterion of whatever you're doing that makes it Buddhist practice and that is that Your personal practice, which is sometimes really good and even could be the end of suffering for you, that personal practice and personal success includes everybody and is included by everybody. That's Buddhist practice. Buddhist practice is not personal practice.

[11:47]

It's not the practice of a person. It's the practice of all beings. And in the fascicle on Zazen called Only a Buddha and a Buddha, Dogen says that Dharma is not realized by a person. It's realized by Buddhas together with Buddhas. But that doesn't mean that persons aren't there. Persons are there too. And the way the persons practice is including everybody else's practice. is Buddhist practice. And Buddha's practice realizes the Dharma. But our personal practice is totally included there. And we have a personal practice to take care of. And the Buddhas are transmitting personal practices to us. And some of the practices are not in the usual Zen textbooks, like the practice of planning certain things.

[12:55]

are not unusual Buddhist meditation books, but they may be in the next few years included. Steve Jobs was studying with Coben Chino, and I think he told Coben that he was enlightened, and Coben said, prove it, and he brought him the Apple computer. And when Steve Jobs goes to Japan, Soto Zen people are very happy to see him. They say, we got deep jobs in our school. And this poem which we've been looking at about the pivotal activity of all Buddhas, the pivotal activity of all Buddhas is described here in a way that's kind of like focusing on, I would say, personal practice.

[14:30]

Because it starts talking about Thank you and thinking is a personal practice. It's a personal activity. So this this this. Yeah so this. by Dogen is in a chapter of the Shobo Genzo called Zazen Shin Shobo Genzo Zazen Shin this poem is at the end of that essay the beginning of the essay is a story about these people in our lineage

[15:36]

in our Buddha-Dharma lineage. The person, it's a story about Yaushan, one E. Yaushan, one E. I think he's the 36th ancestor in the lineage. I just want to briefly mention something, and that is about stories. A year or two ago, I said to my daughter, I have some stories to tell to your son, which might be good to tell him, because if I tell him now, of course, all the stories I tell him now, he'll remember. And later he might want to have some stories about his family that I know.

[16:43]

And I said, would you ask him if he wants to hear? And she did, and he did want to hear it, so I told him some stories. I had already told him some stories, but I said I had some more. And then a little while later my daughter sent me a transmission of an article where this guy says in the article, At my house we have dinner and the kids come to the table or they came to the table and they're not particularly interested in eating and they're certainly not interested in talking to their parents. They have their mobile devices which they are interested in and then someone asks them to put their mobile devices down at the dinner table and have some conversation and the kids get really upset and pretty soon there's nobody at the table anymore. And then the guy says, what holds families together?

[17:49]

Families have a hard time. Part of the reason for having dinner together is to hold the family together. But anyway, the guy says, we can't even have dinner together. What holds the family together? And he says, I remember what he said. He said something like, good stories, not just stories. Like stories of abuse don't generally hold families together very well. But stories of really, really brilliant kids and really, really kind parents and grandparents and really weird grandparents and all that kind of stuff, those stories, this guy said, hold families together. And I thought, yeah, that's the Zen school. We have our problems here, but we have some really good stories to hold us together. So here's... We have some stories about Yaoshan, one E. So Yaoshan was meditating.

[18:56]

So again, a lot of our stories are about people meditating and then people coming up to him saying, what are you doing? So Yaoshan is... So Yashan is sitting in meditation and his teacher, his teacher's name is Shur To, Sekito Gisen. Sekito Gisen Dayosho comes up to Yaku-san Igen Dayosho and says, what are you doing sitting there? And Yashan says, I'm not doing anything at all. And the teacher says, Well, then, are you idly sitting? And the student, Yao Shan, says, if I was idly sitting, I would be doing something. You say you're not doing anything at all.

[20:03]

Well, what is this not doing anything at all? And Yao Shan said, even the 10,000 sages don't know. And then Sher Toh was moved to utter a poem. We've been traveling along together, side by side, according to circumstances. in peace and harmony but even the 10,000 sages don't know what we're doing how much people who are hasty and impatient

[21:03]

Sitting upright is a personal practice. What are you doing? I'm not, you know, I'm not doing the self-fulfilling samadhi. I am sitting, but what's happening here is not something I'm doing. I'm not doing anything at all. And even the 10,000 sages don't know this practice. self-fulfilling samadhi like it says again in the end of that excerpt on the self-fulfilling samadhi it says even if all the buddhas in ten directions and three times try with their buddha's wisdom try to measure the merit of one person's zazen they would not be able to fully comprehend it they probably could they might be able to fully comprehend the merit of bahiya doing the practice and becoming free of suffering.

[22:14]

But the way bahiya's practice, which realized the freedom from suffering, the way it's the same practice as all beings, that is immeasurable, inconceivable, unthinkable. And that's what yaoshan was doing. And they told his teacher about it. His teacher was very happy that what he was doing was that he wasn't doing anything at all. And later when Yao Shan was sitting on another occasion, maybe when he was in the teacher's position, a monk came up to him and said, when you're sitting in this immovable earth, what kind of thinking is going on? And Yashon said, thinking, not thinking. Thinking, not thinking.

[23:25]

The monk asked about what kind of thinking is going on, so he told him, the kind of thinking that's going on here is thinking, not thinking. So Yashon has a consciousness, and there's thinking going on in consciousness. When thinking is just basically in consciousness, whatever pattern there is there, whether it's distinguishable, whether it's coherent or incoherent, whatever the pattern of your conscious activity, that by definition is chaitana, which can be translated as volition, thinking, and so on. And it's the definition of karma. So I don't know if I remember what I said. You go up to the Buddha and you say, what kind of karma are you? What kind of karma is going on there in your sitting?

[24:26]

Buddha says, karma, not karma. the kind of karma we have here we got karma but the karma we have here is karma not karma and then the monk says well how do you think not thinking and yeah Sean says non-thinking or beyond thinking So the monk's asking about Yashan's personal practice, and so Yashan tells him, I got this personal practice in which thinking is not thinking. In other words, I have a personal practice. It's not personal practice. That's the kind of personal practice I have. I have thinking leaping beyond thinking. Now, how do you have thinking leaping beyond thinking? Well, it's beyond thinking. It's a way of being with thinking so that thinking leaps beyond thinking.

[25:31]

And the monk didn't come up to him and say, what kind of not thinking do you have? Didn't say that. In the translation it says, it is present with not thinking. And I'm looking at my newest wound, paper cut. the monk did not come up and say what kind of not thinking is going on he said what kind of thinking didn't say what kind of not karma he said what kind of karma so the poet chose to to say not thinking instead of thinking he could have said it is present with thinking at and not thinking but really it's present with thinking not thinking thinking not thinking it's present with thinking is Not thinking. That's the presence of what? Of the pivotal activity. So it's like a personal practice that somehow is not a personal practice.

[26:42]

And the practice principle here is that it is recommended that if you have a personal practice you do it wholeheartedly and if you do your personal practice wholeheartedly you realize your personal practice is not your personal practice so by fully exerting your personhood you realize your personhood is not your personhood by fully exerting the self you forget the self and this pivotal activity includes everybody but we have to take care of our personal practice which is really huge responsibility but we if we do it wholeheartedly our personal practice becomes not our personal practice and not my personal practice includes everything the rocks are not my personal practice

[27:52]

You are not my personal practice. Caring for you is my personal practice. But if I care for you wholeheartedly, then my caring for you is not caring for you. And not caring for you, it doesn't sound so good, but caring for you sounds pretty good, but not caring for you is the whole universe. I mean, my not caring for you is everything. because my not caring for you is not my caring for me I mean for you okay so that's that's kind of an introduction to this this poem which starts out by saying it and I would say the pivotal activity of all Buddhas the self-fulfilling samadhi practice of all beings which is the practice of all Buddhas it's present with your thinking or my thinking or thinking because thinking is in the realm of you know my it's in the realm of where meet where I am thinking is not really going on in my I'll just say it is going on there in a sense that it's included but

[29:24]

mainly we're focusing on the thinking that occurs in consciousness. And then to be wholehearted about it, like if you think that you're breathing and you think that you're following your breathing, when you do that practice of following your breathing wholeheartedly, then following your breathing is not following your breathing. And how do you do that? By non-thinking. So non-thinking is how you thinking so wholeheartedly that your thinking is not thinking. If I may say, you know, you know, Ten told the story about where he was really into playing an instrument and drinking tea and he was so into playing the instrument that

[30:26]

that he got this message don't play the instrument or not playing the instrument just popped up there because he was so into playing the instrument he got not playing the instrument and now if he's really into totally not into not playing the instrument now he maybe gets the message play the instrument and so on the drama goes on Okay, now it's time to stop, I guess. Yes? Yeah, so, um, thinking about, like, the experience of realizing thinking, not thinking, or, like, I've had moments in practice where I feel like the thinking continues unabated, even, like, a self-conscious awareness of, like, wow, now I'm having a some kind of interesting experience yeah that's thinking but yeah but there's some sort of awareness that like yeah like I'm not driving the thoughts like the thoughts that manifest well but don't say that though because when you say that you're back into thinking well that's what like upon reflection you know what I mean like upon reflection in other words thinking about it then you have this comment to make but before you get into thinking telling us more thinking about about the thinking and

[31:56]

when you're really wholeheartedly thinking, you do kind of like know that that thinking is surrounded by not thinking. But the usual way you, the way you know that thinking is surrounded by not thinking is, it's very, very quiet. It's very, very implicit. But you do know, right before later upon reflection, before bringing this moment of knowing not thinking into thinking, you do know not thinking. Not thinking is there all the time. It's not like you've got thinking and then when you really wholeheartedly think then. No, then you used to wake up to the not thinking which is always present. Not thinking is always in the background of thinking. There's no thinking without not thinking in the background.

[33:00]

When you fully do the thinking, you do know the not thinking. But it's implicit. Later, you may say something about it, but then you're bringing that implicit into the explicit. That's what I'm saying. I don't know if I would go so far as to say non-conceptual, but I would certainly go, like I said, and use the word facet, quiet, implicit. You know implicitly. But the implicit is right next to the explicit. And explicit is like very noisy and strong and coherent. So this kind of incoherent background is... kind of like that. But you understand it.

[34:01]

You have actually understand it in this other way. It's another way of knowing. And you can bring that other way of knowing into consciousness and have that be explicit and talk about it. And at that moment, in the background, is this not having that kind of a discussion. But then this conversation between these two types of knowing can be developed. I think that's where it gets muddled. It's like the latter type of knowing becomes somewhat distrustful. The quiet knowing gets lost in the noise. The quiet knowing is the quiet knowing will continue to be quiet. you can also start being quieter in your explicit in your noisy knowing noisy knowing can get quieter this may be the right moment to say it heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter therefore ye soft pipes play on not to the sensual ear but more endeared

[35:27]

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. But in the realm of explicit awareness, we have to be quiet in order to recite that poem and listen to it and be encouraged to listen to silence, which is there. seems to have a certain consciousness about it. That's not this word. You can be conscious of implicit things. Yes. You can

[36:31]

when you're looking at the young woman you can kind of remember a little bit the old lady but not as vividly as if you give up the young girl and flip over to the old lady but you can kind of remember I wouldn't be able to see this young girl if it weren't for the old lady you can still have that but one side one side is The other side is dark. Can you hear her over there? A little louder, please. Yes. Buddha's activity which is the same as Zazen.

[37:33]

Same as Buddha's Zazen. Buddha's Zazen or non-thinking happens in both conscious mind and non-conscious mind or this pivot activity happens slash fold of conscious mind and non-conscious mind. Would you say it again? Buddha's activity. Buddha's activity which is same as Buddha's Zazen or non-thinking happens in both conscious mind and non-conscious mind or... Let's stop there before we go to the or. So is Buddha's activity non-thinking? I think right now I say non-thinking which is beyond thinking is a way that we realize That thinking is not thinking. And happens both in the conscious mind and the non-conscious mind.

[38:37]

Beyond thinking happens in both. Beyond thinking happens in both, yeah. And also not thinking happens in both. And also thinking happens in both. Sometimes it seems like this beyond thinking seems like a communication between thinking and not thinking. It's not happening. It's not true. So we have thinking and not thinking. And they're both there all the time. If we have one, you have the other. But most people are familiar just with thinking. because the not thinking is so quiet they don't know about it and they but they maybe hear a little bit about it but they're not too interested don't spend much time on it there's a way of relating to thinking which could which is not really thinking which is for example being compassionate with the thinking is beyond the thinking you can think about the compassion but actually being compassionate towards the thinking is beyond the thinking

[39:57]

And if you, by being compassionate with your thinking, your thinking becomes wholeheartedly thinking. By being compassionate with your thinking, you can fully exert the thinking that's going on. And when the thinking is fully exerted, it is realized that the thinking is not thinking. That relationship is beyond thinking. We can think about it. Thinking does not make it happen. It makes thinking happen. And not thinking doesn't make it happen. It makes not thinking happen. And not thinking makes thinking happen. But the way we actually live our life such that we realize our life is actually not our life, which fulfills our life, which is self-fulfilling, the way we do that is by being attentive and wholehearted and compassionate. But that is not...

[40:59]

It's self-thinking. You are saying that we kind of intuitively knowing what I'm knowing about life is not the life. It's the way to go. You could say intuitive. You know, I've been using the word quiet and tacit and implicit. But you could almost say intuitive. You can almost intuit the background of what is rationally known. But actually I cannot know what life is. Just knowing what I think of life is not life. When you say you cannot know, do you mean you cannot consciously know? You can consciously know what life is, but that's just the little circle of what life is in the middle of the endless dark forest of what life is but you can know this limited way which is really nice to see it sometimes it's really beautiful what life looks like in consciousness but as you know sometimes what it looks like is not so beautiful but no matter how life appears in consciousness it's a very narrow version of it it's a reduced version of it however

[42:27]

Beyond the reduction is this inconceivable realm of life which is actually totally supporting this little area. And this little area actually includes it all. This area of consciousness is the area of appearances. But life isn't an appearance. It's just in consciousness it's an appearance. Most of the time it's not into being an appearance. But it's there. So you want to know, what about non-thinking? Non-thinking is how we enter into the realization that the thinking version of life is actually not the thinking version of life. It's not switched to another version. It's not the narrow version. The narrow version is actually not the narrow version. It really isn't. Because it's nothing but all the things that make it.

[43:33]

And everything that makes it is not it. So really the narrow version is not the narrow version. But we have, this is the hard part, we have to be the narrow vision wholeheartedly. Otherwise we'll be trapped in the narrow vision. Because we're prone to the narrow vision. And the forest is proning us to the narrow vision. The forest isn't, huh? The forest is telling us it's not. No, the forest is telling us, here's a neurovision for you. The forest makes... Who is telling the Buddha that it's not the real life? Buddha. Buddha is in the forest too. Buddha is in the forest sending messages into the clearing saying this is a reduced version of life. But Buddha is also saying, you are prone, or you have dispositions, to thinking this is all of it. And the forest is sending messages saying, actually, this narrow version is really where it's at.

[44:39]

And the forest keeps sending new narrow versions into the forest, sends new appearances into the consciousness, which are really nice and simple, no doubt about it. However, in consciousness, the other messages can come in, like... You know, you could ask some questions about this. That's from Buddha. And non-thinking is, again, is non-thinking beyond thinking? Yes. Is it beyond not thinking? Yes. Is it a way of being with both of them so that you realize their pivotal relationship and the emptiness of both of them? Yes. Is it also in a pivotal relationship with its surround? Yes. Is it also empty of an inherent existence yes but we have a way to take care of consciousness to be wholehearted about it and whatever our problems are if we fully exert them we'll realize our problems are not our problems and then we and we also realize

[45:47]

by this pivotal relationship that the reason that our problems are not our problems is because our problems include everything that's not our problem, in other words, all beings. So this practice opens on to actually realizing the samadhi which is not just our personal practice, not just our personal karma. Yes? I said something about beyond thinking. Yes. The way it seems to manifest is centered here. So when we talk about wholeheartedness and beyond thinking, It's like the center of being is here and everything is included.

[46:55]

I just was curious if you had any comment about it and how can, I really think, It really seems to be important to me that people, that others can find an avenue to this front gate. It seems like the front gate. I don't know if it is for everybody or not, but it seems like it is. And what is the front gate that you think? I mean, it's not a gig, but it's a way of talking about it. This part of your body? Well, I mean, it's hard to call it that part of my body, but... I mean, we can call it that part of our body, but it's... It might just be... It might just be... The center of everything.

[48:09]

So... Are you saying something like the center of everything might be the avenue, might be the gate? Yeah. Yeah. So maybe you could say that beyond thinking is the center of everything. Or the center of everything is this non-thinking. Well, you already are there. You're already at the center of everything. So non-thinking might be another word for the fact that you're already at the center of everything and everybody else is too. And from the center of everything, I'm going to deal with, for example, thinking. And so if I'm practicing trying to be at the center of everything,

[49:18]

then from the center of everything I'm going to give the same gift to everything I meet. Is this a personal practice or not? What I'm saying right now is a personal practice because I'm talking about it. And as a personal practice, I can cultivate being the center of everything as a personal practice. But that would mean that everything I meet for me, that everything I meet is the center of everything, like thinking. And if I can be in my seat at the center of everything, which means I include everything, then I'm going to let thinking include everything, so then I'm going to let thinking be not thinking. I'm going to allow that. It already is the case, because thinking is the center of everything, it includes everything that isn't thinking, because it's at the center. So if I can be at the center, then I can let thinking be at the center, and that's the kind of thinking I will have.

[50:27]

I will have thinking which is the center of the universe, which is not thinking. So if I can be empty, then thinking can be empty, and not thinking can be empty. And that's my personal practice, is to allow myself to be the center of the universe. which means to allow myself to include Donald Trump. He's not limited to me or confined in me, but I include him, and also I'm included in him. If I can allow that, I don't have to make it, but it's hard to allow it. And then if I don't allow it, then I have various obsessions. and compulsions because I don't allow this person to be included in me or vice versa. So you could say that that's a nice gate, the gate of being at the center of everything, which means that the center is empty and means it includes everything and include in everything because empty things don't take up any space so everything can be here and vice versa, I can be everywhere.

[51:45]

And that mindfulness is a personal practice which somehow gets transmitted to us. That practice. But also being the center is transmitted to us also. People, everybody supports us to be in the center. Even if they don't want to, they do. So we can do a personal practice called mindfulness of that. Okay, thank you. And there's many other hands and feet. Yes. This question of compassion, I've heard you offer maybe a couple times what sounds like a Tibetan practice to me, to bring in an enemy, maybe a common enemy in this space of Donald Trump and try to find space for that. But that doesn't seem like the practice of compassion

[52:50]

in the stories of our ancestors. Practice of compassion for Bodhidharma, to me, seems like him cutting off his eyelids to allow transmission with that wall. Is this true? You thought that his cutting off his eyelashes was not very compassionate? No, I thought it was incredibly compassionate. But a very different practice than bringing in an enemy to our consciousness and trying to create space for them. I thought you just said he cut his eyelashes off, his eyebrows off, so that he could have this nice relationship with the wall. Is that what you said? But was the wall his enemy? Well, it could have been. I mean, a lot of people think walls are their enemy. A lot of people don't want to do walls. I guess I'm trying to find, and I've been searching for a while, of what is the compassion practice in this tradition?

[53:58]

Bodhidharma is supposed to be Avalokiteshvara, but he doesn't look like the ordinary paintings of Avalokiteshvara, does he? So he makes you kind of wonder, rather than, you know, I'm not criticizing those pictures. I'm not, really. But, like, they look, and most people think that looks like one compassionate creature there. Dude, or what's the opposite, what goes with dude, the other gender? Dudette. Dudette, yeah. That dude, that dudette looks totally compassionate. That's, like, easy to see compassion in that. So now we have the Zen-style compassion. Hmm. Hmm. And you go, I don't see compassion. Is that compassion? The emperor didn't see it. Who is this? Don't know. And I'll see you later. This is compassion.

[55:08]

Like, what do you think of that? Is this your idea of compassion? And most people like you would say, no, he didn't even shave. Those statues of Appalachian Dishra don't have this stubble, you know. It's like, you think you know what compassion is? Well, how about this guy? This is like... This is like a look at Teshvara's new form. And you're not the only one that goes, what? Compassion? Like, I don't know if you heard me tell the story of this Zen master named Mumanyamada, who was like, he was, he came to Satsahara one time, in Green Gulch a couple of times. Anyway, he became the abbot of Myoshinji. And it was like, here's the Zen master of Japan, at least Rinzai.

[56:12]

And then I went back to visit him later after he got a little older. And I went to see him. And they got him in his robes and put him on his chair. And he was just sitting there like drooling. And I looked and I said, what is a Zen master? Like before he could do this fancy calligraphy and have all these great disciples, which he still had, but now he was like, was the Zen master gone? So that drooling creature made me really wonder, well, what is a Zen master? Is it gone when you take the brain away? Does Zen master need a brain to be, you know, does Bodhidharma need a smile, a shave, eyelids replaced. So I think if you're wondering, if that bodhidharma makes you wonder what compassion is in Zen, I would think that's exactly what he's trying to do.

[57:21]

He's trying to get you to wonder what is compassion. And he's been successful. But he hasn't yet made you wonder what compassion is in the Tibetan tradition. But if he was really successful you would also wonder what's compassion in the Tibetan system? Where's the compassion in Marpa telling Melarepa to tear down those towers one after another? Where's the compassion in that? I heard a story about a Tibetan student who was walking along with his teacher, and they walked by a cesspool, and the teacher says, get in the cesspool. And he got in the cesspool, and the teacher said, and there was a piece of a turd on the surface, he said, eat it. And the student ate it. And then somebody said, well, how was that?

[58:26]

He said, I became very happy. It probably didn't taste good. he became very happy to be able to eat that turd. Now that sounds like compassion, right? What if there was no happiness at the end? What if no enlightenment, no enjoyment, you just ate a piece of shit? Well, then the next phase of that story would have been whatever it was. I feel like there's hundreds of those, they just don't get written down because they... I would say hundreds is kind of like A low estimate. Bodhisattvas, their first practice is generosity. If you go to Zen temples, a lot of Zen temples you go in and you try to get in, they won't let you in. They don't say, oh, welcome. Zen centers are a little different now. We have people in the office, you know, not at Tassara.

[59:30]

People come to Tassara, we say... We say, oh, welcome, please come back in May. Right? These beautiful people coming here, oh, welcome, come back in May. But some of them monsters, they go, get out. We're in training here, get out. Bodhidharma's kind of that way to Quaker. Get out of here. Don't bother me. Insincere people are not welcome here. Go away. This is Avalokiteshvara. But not the exactly sweet Avalokiteshvara. This is Bodhidharma. But there were other places where people were sweet. They had their life too. But the Zen school has really good stories. So it took over China because it had really good stories.

[60:34]

And the other school didn't have such good stories. It became dominant because it had such good stories that people really like were devoted to the family. But again, Bodhidharma is a radical version of compassion that cuts through our expectations of how it might look. So we all share that with you. And in Japan, they have these Daruman dolls, which are really quite cute. I don't know who is next. Does anybody know? Okay. You got an advocate over there. So when we are seeing and somehow that's stuck into our stories of our like planning or some like narrow mind or vision, can this still be a gate to go to the thinking?

[61:53]

Yes. Dharma gates are boundless. There's nothing that cannot be a Dharma gate. directly you don't have to like fix up the planning a little bit whatever is going on in your mind is a Dharma door but how do you get the Dharma door to open you say open sesame you know open sesame open sesame open sesame and the door says are you trying to get me to open I'm not going to open if you're trying to get something out of this. I'll learn how to ask without trying to get something. What's my advice? Yeah, it's the hard part.

[62:58]

To be generous with the door that's not open. Yuki pointed out that that character for face, also means mask. So if you meet this planning, it's a mask. It's a mask. It's a face. And if you have a really generous conversation with this face, the face will take off the mask and you'll see the Dharma in that face. But if you're trying to get something from the door, if you're trying to get the door to open, it's not going to open. That's disrespectful. I'm a door. Let me be a door. Okay, you can be a door. I mean, really. And that door says, would you like me to open? He says, yes, please. The Dharma doors are not going to open if we're in a state of greed. But greed can open if you're not greedy with the greed. Greed can be a Dharma door, too, if you can totally let that greed be greed.

[64:01]

Let that greed be the center of the universe. But you've got to be the center of the universe with the greed. If you're the center of the universe, you're not trying to get anything. You're just allowing greed. You accept greed. You accept the pain of greed totally. Then the greed is a Dharma door. It always was. But because you completely accept the pain of it, the door opens. Do you want to go ahead of anybody? No. Okay. Cole? I wanted to go back to the analogy of the consciousness and the forest. Yeah. I've heard in Minneapolis you say that the body and the sense organs are in the forest. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah, your body's not in your consciousness. Your consciousness is not your body, but you have pictures of your body in your consciousness.

[65:03]

which some of us are concerned about. So I want to ask, are sensations, perceptions, and formations the things that come out of the forest into consciousness? Are they the messengers? Yeah, they come out of the forest, and in the forest they're not really appearances, but in... in consciousness there's appearances of sensations and appearances of bodies and appearances of colors and all these appearances but a color in consciousness is not actually the color there's not actually a color out there in the physical world the physicality which is supporting this appearance in your consciousness is surrounding the consciousness and it's what we call the results of group karma, the physical data.

[66:07]

We share that, we make that together. But the sense organs are more related to individual karma. So our sense organs are not shared, but the sense data we share. We make the sense data together. The sense organs are more related to a particular consciousness. sense data and the sense organs are at least in part the forest. They're a big part of the forest, yeah. There's also mental operations going on in the forest which are not sense data. I would say they are sense data being operated on. They are the body organs being operated on at another level. sort of at the level we call imaging or imagination. So there's imagination going on in the forest and it's related and imaginations are related to the body and the environment.

[67:16]

So in the forest there's images of the environment of the world and the images of it are also shared and unshared and they feed into give consciousness its content. And the way the content of the consciousness, which is the content appearing as a body, the environment, and mental data, the way that's related to, transforms the forest. Vis-a-vis this consciousness, where the personal practice is going on. And we're also in the consciousness where teachings about interpersonal all-inclusive practices are also in the consciousness consciousness becomes more and more service of the personal practice in relationship to all practice and that eventually for this individual consciousness completely transforms the relationship with the forest so there's no more forest for that consciousness and there's no more consciousness there's just wisdom

[68:28]

And that wisdom then illuminates all the other beings. So it keeps working, but its forest base has been transformed into wisdom, according to certain Buddhist traditions. And maybe now modern science will agree with that. Was it somebody over there before? Yes, Sam? What are a few actions one could take throughout the day to train in full-heartedness? What kind of actions? Small little actions throughout a day to train in full-heartedness. Well, mindfulness and posture. Every posture is Well, first of all, even if you're not moving, that can be the action of being mindful that you're sitting still.

[69:34]

Mindfulness of sitting down. Mindfulness of standing up. Mindfulness of walking. Mindfulness of bowing. Mindfulness of opening and closing eating bowls. These are practices that develop... What do you want to develop? Yeah. These are... practices to develop wholeheartedness. These are opportunities. These are opportunities to be wholehearted with. And the ones I just mentioned, all of us are involved in, so I've just started with something we all can work on now. We all have these opportunities. We could be wholehearted. We could be more and more wholehearted about these things which we're already doing. We don't have to do anything different than those things which we're already doing. and I can add some other things to the list that you're already doing, and you don't have to do anything other than those to be a Buddha. If a Buddha was you, a Buddha would work on those things.

[70:37]

Just because that's what you're doing. Buddha wouldn't say, well, let's go do something else so I can be a Buddha. Buddha would say, okay, sitting in the chair in this room, let's do that wholeheartedly. Let's be just like Sam, but completely. You're welcome. Thanks for being completely like you. Emil? You passed? Passed that phase of your life? Yes? the Heart Sutra we hear that form is not different from emptiness and emptiness is not different from form and form itself is emptiness and emptiness itself is form. But it doesn't say that emptiness and form fit it with one another or that it's like a... It doesn't say it, no. But it does say it. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.

[71:41]

I see a pivot there, don't you? I guess I was wondering what that is. I've been wondering about why the Heart Sutra speaks in that way. It says that it is... Because it sounds like, it sounds, if you were to hear that, you might think there's no distinction. It does not differ from. But I hear what you were saying, is that there is in some way a distinction, but it's not totally distinct. It's always involved and always included in the other thing. There is distinction in things that are the same. Right. Yeah, that's what the arts are true. You could understand. It's saying there's a distinction between them and they're the same. There's a distinction between conventional things like forms and feelings and emotions. There's a distinction between them and their lack of inherent existence. There's a distinction, but they're the same. That's what it's saying. You can hear it just saying there is no distinction, right?

[72:45]

I mean, that's the way I hear them. You can hear that too, but then I'm saying there is a distinction. Hmm? Because distinction, I think distinction is another one of those things that is empty. So there's a distinction, but its distinctions kind of come into the form, feeling, perception. Maybe there can be a perception of a distinction. Maybe there can be a mental formation about distinction. So maybe it's saying we're not getting rid of the distinction between phenomena and their ultimate reality. There's a distinction there. We're sort of saying the more you let the form be a form, the more you realize it's not the form.

[73:52]

So, and not the form isn't the total message about emptiness. That's part of it. But another part of it is that emptiness is also that emptiness is the form. So emptiness isn't just not the form. It also is the form. It's more ambiguous than just not the form. And there's a distinction between this ambiguity and the non-ambiguity of color. It's like, it's not ambiguously blue, it's unambiguously blue, but it's actually also not blue, which makes the blue kind of ambiguous, which makes the blue emptiness. Is that enough for today?

[74:53]

Yes. By the way, earlier we were doing analysis. I don't know if you noticed. I have noticed. I had no gaining mind. Clearly observed. Sorry. So in the Fukanzazengi, you know what? It talks about thinking, not thinking, and all these kind of things. And then it says you should practice suchness without delay. If you want to. If you want to. And I want to. Yeah. So in other words, practice suchness with this. How does one practice suchness? With that. That question is a dharmador. Oh, hesitation. Turning away and touch. If you hesitated. you are lost. So don't hesitate. Work with that. You just blinked. And I smiled. Pearl flower?

[76:05]

Yeah. Yeah, just don't hesitate. This is the Dharma door. The teaching of the World Honored One is thus, is such. If you want to practice suchness, practice with this. Don't do it later. Do it with this. Do it with what I'm doing with this. Do it with that. This is what we're doing. With this. It's thus. See, now you have it, so take care of it. All right. Thank you very much. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

[77:12]

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