Once again, I suggest that great compassion is the excellent condition for Buddhahood. And Buddhahood is the protection and liberation of beings who are suffering in karmic consciousness, wherein there is birth and death, and all kinds of other afflictions. The cycle of birth and death is a summary of inexhaustible afflictions.

[01:11]

If you want to open the door, you're welcome to. This lady right behind you, she wants more air circulation, and I said if you want to open the door for more circulation, you're welcome to do so. So please do that if you'd like. You can prop the door open with a chair if you want. Yeah, I hope that helps the air situation. Okay, and I was just talking to someone and the thought arose that it's like I'm hypnotizing, I think I'm hypnotizing myself into Buddhahood, and I'm hypnotizing myself into protecting and

[02:32]

liberating all beings, and you're hypnotizing me into it too. So this morning I thought I would talk about the prison of karmic consciousness where we suffer, and also talk about other realms of awareness. By the way, Kurt has offered some books, he's giving those books away, if you'd like, anybody would like those books, he's giving them away. I'm talking and thinking myself into intimacy.

[03:40]

Intimacy, and I'm talking myself into experimenting with compassion for the sake of realizing intimacy. Or in other words, I'm observing and experimenting with compassion as a way to realize Buddhahood. So, if I propose three minds, one is what I would call consciousness, or consciousness, and I use consciousness as a synonym for self-consciousness, karmic consciousness, egocentric consciousness.

[04:47]

That's one kind of awareness that I seem to be experiencing, or certainly imagining, but also it seems like that to me, like there's an awareness of all of you, and a world, and all the afflictions of the world, and I'm there. I'm there, or there's an I there, and there's a me there. There's a you there, and that world is where there's birth and death, and all kinds of kindness and cruelty, where there's a subject and an object. And that kind of awareness is, as far as I can tell, it's present almost all the time,

[06:00]

but not always, not all the time. There's breaks in the consciousness, for example, when you have general anesthetic, it's temporarily suppressed. When you're asleep and you have no dreams, it's temporarily suppressed. When you're asleep and you're dreaming, dreaming is a form of self-consciousness, there's a me in the dreams too. Anyway, it's sort of like suffering center, or suffering central, it's the center of the suffering. It's also called the headquarters, or command center. It's part of, on this planet, it's part of human evolution, is that we have these karmic consciousnesses. They're very powerful, very powerful.

[07:03]

They can imagine all kinds of things, and create all kinds of technologies, and it has great power, and it has all kinds of suffering. And somehow, also, there's the idea that some people have awakened to the nature of this karmic consciousness. Yeah, some people, but not even some people, some beings have awakened in the midst of this karmic consciousness. They have awakened to the delusions of karmic consciousness, and this great awakening, or this deep understanding of this realm of delusion is Buddha, or is Buddhas.

[08:13]

They have awakened to the nature of this confined prison of suffering, and experience, in this awakening also, the way to protect beings and liberate beings. So, the Buddha is intimately related to this confined, limited realm of suffering. And then there's another mind, which is what I just said. We, human beings, have access, almost all of us, to karmic consciousness. And we also not have access, but we are also intimately related with understanding the

[09:15]

illusion of a karmic consciousness. But because of karmic consciousness, we don't realize it. We actually are not the least bit separate from Buddha, we're not the least bit separate from understanding the illusion of our karmic consciousness. But there's no karmic consciousness in the understanding of karmic consciousness. The understanding of karmic consciousness is completely free of karmic consciousness, and in order to be completely free of something, you cannot be the slightest distance from it. So, understanding karmic consciousness is intimate with karmic consciousness, and it also is understanding the intimacy of karmic consciousness. We have that mind, we have that Buddha mind, we're born with it.

[10:16]

And we also have this karmic consciousness. But because of karmic consciousness, karmic consciousness cannot see the Buddha mind even but the Buddha mind has sent word to karmic consciousness. So in karmic consciousness we have these words about Buddha mind. And their light that has been transformed into words in this realm of karmic consciousness, the medium of exchange is language. So what is beyond language has been transformed into language for our benefit. For our protection, for our liberation. And so part of what is being said is that we have this Buddha mind,

[11:19]

that's a message from the Buddha mind that we have it, however we have problems understanding that. And we're gathered in communities to contemplate these teachings in a way to realize this Buddha mind. Which we fully possess, and is never separate from us. But we have trouble fully embracing it and realizing it and accepting it. And then there's a third mind, which I would offer is called, which I would call unconscious awareness. It's an awareness, and it's in some sense, just neurologically speaking, it's a much, the neurological equipment for this unconscious awareness is much greater

[12:24]

than the neurological support for the consciousness. So both of them are based and live together with a body. So we have a body, and it has all kinds of physical equipment, and this physical equipment has given rise to an awareness, a very wonderful awareness that goes with this body. And that awareness has given rise to another awareness called consciousness, called karmic consciousness. And along with these two minds, the very extensive, much more extensive cognitive activity of the unconscious, which is more closely related to the body

[13:26]

than, or more directly intimate with the body than the consciousness, and the consciousness live together with, and how they actually live together is wisdom. So we have these three. And the Buddha awareness has sent us teachings about how to deal with the prison system in such a way as to transform the support of the prison system, which is the unconscious. So the unconscious is the support of the conscious. There was a time, I suppose, it seems, long ago, when there was unconscious cognitive activity, but not yet karmic consciousness. Karmic consciousness is a newer type of awareness than the other one,

[14:34]

than the unconscious. But now we have those two, and somehow the awakening to the nature of those two, the unconscious and the conscious, the awakening to that relationship and those minds, is now sending us teachings about how to be with our imprisoning karmic consciousness in a way to understand it and protect beings who are living in that mind and liberate them. And what happens in the karmic consciousness in this moment right now, for example, what's happening in this karmic consciousness is this image of that somebody's here, and some of us call that somebody me, and others of you call that somebody's him or Rab or whatever,

[15:39]

in that karmic consciousness where we're together and also where we're separate, there's this activity going on of listening and thinking, of speaking and thinking, that activity is going on in this awareness right now. Gestures are being made, eyes are closing and opening and blinking, people are moving and touching their feet, that stuff's going on in this karmic consciousness. And what's going on in each karmic consciousness is transforming the unconscious process. What this thinking is doing, which is also sometimes called my thinking, but anyway, the thinking here that's sponsoring this speaking is transforming the unconscious process,

[16:40]

and the unconscious process is supporting this conscious process, they're constantly co-evolving. And by using this karmic consciousness according to certain teachings and practices, transforms the unconscious in a certain way, and not listening to the teachings and not practicing them also transforms the unconscious, which supports consciousnesses which are less likely to be contemplating the teachings and doing the practices. So compassion, one of the causes of compassion is past compassion. Practicing compassion in karmic consciousness is sponsored by past compassion, and it transforms the unconscious to sponsor future compassion.

[17:46]

So the compassion we practice now, it has the cause of compassion and has the effect of compassion. And there's five types of effects of compassion which I'll maybe bring up later. But one of them is more compassion, just like this. So this, and recently I've been trying to bring up this issue of scientific research or scientific study of life, of consciousness. So Socrates said, an unexamined life is not where it's at. He was like, an examined life is really the life that I, Socrates, am interested in.

[18:47]

So again, unexamined compassion is not going to mature. We need to be examining compassion. We need to be observing it. If we're going to have the compassion become great compassion of the Buddhas, we need to experiment with it. And right now, experimenting with compassion is going on, and experimenting with compassion in karmic consciousness is going on in this room. And I, where this I is, there's not, it's not clear how many of the I's in this room are doing the observation of karmic consciousness. But in this consciousness, there is the wish

[19:50]

that everybody is, all the karmic consciousnesses in the room, and there's about 50 of them, that all the karmic consciousness are being observed. And here, right here, in this karmic consciousness, there is confidence that everybody in this room is able to do this observation. That everybody here can actually participate in the observation of their, of a particular karmic consciousness, which might be called their own karmic consciousness. That you can see an awareness where you seem to be, and where you, and where you seem to be different and separate from other beings. And so again, this is self-consciousness, and also called self-centered, and part of the

[21:00]

affliction of consciousness is that it seems to be centered on the self. It's not, but it seems like that, and that apparent centering on the self is there's good reasons for it in the evolution of our awareness, but that sense that the self is at the center is one of the afflictions of that type, of that karmic consciousness. It's not really at the center, but there's an idea that it is, and that's suffering, if believed. And so another name for this consciousness, for this, another name for this awareness is karmic consciousness, and karma is a Sanskrit word, and it means, it's translated, I should say,

[22:02]

as action. So this is also action consciousness. Our prison, the prison of suffering is action consciousness. I mean, so an action consciousness is enclosed, it's an enclosed awareness. It's a prison. And the overall pattern of this enclosed awareness, the Buddha called, in Sanskrit, chaitanya. And chaitanya is the definition of the action. So the actions are body, body gestures,

[23:08]

speech, and actually, chaitanya. It's body, speech, and the mental, the overall mental pattern, or landscape, or watershed, or direction of the prism of the karmic consciousness. And the Buddha said these overall patterns of this enclosed realm of suffering has three types, wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate. In other words, heading towards benefit in the process of liberation, heading away from the process of liberation, and kind of unclear.

[24:14]

So the overall pattern of this enclosed mind, which we have moment by moment, except, like I said, in these special states of dreamless sleep, certain yogic trances, general anesthetic, and so on, there are times when this realm is turned off. We still have a body, we still have the unconscious process, but the conscious process is turned off, and there's no karma during that period of time. We go into those states where there's no karmic consciousness with our whole karmic pattern, and that pattern is held in the unconscious, and when we come out of that break and consciousness is resumed, it's resumed

[25:22]

with all the karma that we went in with, but nothing, no karma, new karma was created during the period when our karmic consciousness was turned off. And again, this is something you can observe, you can observe when you're conscious, when your conscious goes away, and when it comes back, and you can observe that you don't know anything about when it's gone, and you can do experiments to find out how no karma occurred during that time, and people have been doing that for thousands of years. So again, if the unconscious awareness dissipates, we have what's called death, but we can be alive without consciousness for quite a long time, but we can't talk or understand, hear, or, you know, we can't talk or understand language

[26:28]

when our unconscious is turned off. Or, you know, turned off. Should I close the screen here? Can you see me now? Hello. Can you see me differently now? Okay, so, studying, studying chaitanya, and the Chinese character that was chosen to translate chaitanya is this character.

[27:35]

This character is used to translate chaitanya. What's chaitanya? Chaitanya is the overall pattern of consciousness, and this character also means thinking. So each moment of consciousness, of karmic consciousness, has karma, has action, and the definition of the action is thinking. Action has a pattern, and the pattern can be called thinking, and every moment has thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. And the patterns of thinking are wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral. For example, you can be thinking about doing something unkind, and that's generally, but that's generally,

[28:44]

when, if that's sort of the overall pattern, is you're thinking of doing something unkind, we generally say that's probably going to be harmful and not beneficial. To wish all beings are happy and protected from suffering and liberated, having an overall pattern of consciousness that sort of seems to be heading in that direction, probably it's going to be beneficial. It takes a while to actually see if it's really going to be, and when you're awakened to the illusion of the whole process, you can see this is actually going to be beneficial, and this is actually not. In the meantime, it looks like probably, I think maybe this is a wholesome thought. I'm thinking about being careful and respectful of life. I'm thinking about being patient with suffering.

[29:48]

I'm thinking about being generous and gracious to all life. These kinds of patterns of thought, I'm sort of experimenting and observing them. Maybe they're beneficial, and I'm talking to people about, and I'm consulting with the tradition that maybe they're beneficial. I'm not sure, because beneficial has to do with their future effect and how they transform beings, and I can't actually see that so well yet, but I'm experimenting with that. I'm experimenting with wishing people well to see if it's beneficial. I've heard that generally it is. But this is thinking. This is thinking. And by studying this thinking,

[30:49]

we have a chance to become intimate with it, and becoming intimate with the thinking, we will discover the Buddha mind, which is the intimacy. But it's not easy to be intimate with all these afflictions that are in this karmic consciousness. And there can be wholesome states of karmic consciousness that are chock-full of affliction. You don't, we don't have to get rid of all the affliction in order to have a wholesome state of consciousness. Now, when there's unwholesome consciousness, there usually is affliction there, but the way of working with the affliction is probably not being compassionate, not being careful, not being respectful of all the,

[31:58]

of all the suffering, of all the suffering, which is all the suffering beings. It's probably not wholesome. So both in wholesome and unwholesome, we have afflictions. And then neutral states also, like for example, this kind of thinking. That wall seems to be kind of off-white. It's cold. Those are, those examples, those are two examples of thinking. They aren't, and there's affliction with them. For example, I might be afraid, too. I might be feeling afraid and say, the wall's white. But that particular pattern of thinking doesn't seem to me to be particularly unwholesome or wholesome. I don't quite see that it's like going to be beneficial that I'm aware of being afraid.

[33:00]

Well, actually, being aware of being afraid, it's kind of wholesome. So that's kind of, maybe it's wholesome. But just observing the color of the wall, not necessarily wholesome or unwholesome. And we have those kinds of states quite a bit. We have wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral, most of us. Some of you just have probably neutral and wholesome. But some of us have all three. And again, from the early teaching, the Buddha is saying, please observe the karmic consciousness and observe, does it appear to be wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral? This is the beginning, an early, simple way of looking at what's going on in the prison. Is it wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral? I mean, in these institutions we have in this modern world, this current world, these huge

[34:02]

prisons, some of the consciousnesses in those prisons are wholesome. There's some wholesome consciousness in that prison. There's some neutral, and there's, of course, many unwholesome. There's some compassion in those prisons, towards the karmic consciousnesses in those prisons. There's some compassion, there's some observation going on of karmic consciousness in those prisons. And there's kindness and compassion. There's these six perfections being practiced in those prisons, in some of those consciousnesses. So in this nice retreat center, the same, that there's some wholesome consciousness going on here, and maybe some of the other types.

[35:04]

Again, in this consciousness, there's the imagination that the consciousnesses in this room are wholesome. A lot of them are wholesome. However, some of these consciousnesses might want to bring up some stuff and get some feedback on how wholesome those consciousnesses are. So people come and say, how about this one? Is this a wholesome one? Or this seems to be an unwholesome one. What do you think? Now, to make the situation a little bit more complicated, if you're ready for a slight complication, karmic consciousness is afflicted consciousness. It's suffering. And some of the afflictions tend to be associated with unwholesomeness, like greed, hate, and delusion. But if you have a consciousness and there's hatred in it, that doesn't guarantee that

[36:14]

it's unwholesome. Because all the consciousnesses, all these enclosed consciousnesses have afflictions in them. Just being enclosed is an affliction. And again, I'll get into some other afflictions, but greed and hatred are pretty strong afflictions. But it's possible that a consciousness could have hatred in it, but it could have so much compassion in the same place, in the same consciousness, that the overall karmic consciousness is wholesome, is beneficial. Because the way this terrible affliction of hatred is being dealt with in that consciousness is so loving, and so compassionate, and so kind, and so careful, and so many good other factors are surrounding this terrible hatred, that the overall consciousness is beneficial. In other words, the karma is good karma.

[37:16]

And there's three kinds of karma, but they're all having to do with being confined. But among the good karma, there's two kinds of good karma. One good kind of good karma is that it's kind of perpetuating good karma. Another kind of good karma is that it's perpetuating, not perpetuating, but it's facilitating study and liberation from all types of karma. Of liberating the whole consciousness. In other words, of understanding it and realizing Buddhahood by understanding this consciousness. This consciousness doesn't reach the Buddhahood, but the Buddhahood understands the consciousness. Okay, so, let's see, yeah, we have quite a bit of time until brunch,

[38:20]

which is quite popular at these retreats. I have this plan, which might be wholesome, which is to leave the retreats, let you go early so you can get your, make sure you get plenty of brunch. And if it gets closer and I haven't, if I don't look like I'm going to conclude it, please remind me that I'm going to let you go to lunch, brunch. Oh, and one other thing I wanted to mention to you is that one of our no, one of our Mount Madana dear members, our Sangha members, is named Fred. And he, he's in France. And he, yeah, he speaks French, and sometimes he's happy, and sometimes he's suffering.

[39:28]

He has one or more strokes, so he's in a wheelchair now. And anyway, he's our dear, dear friend, and we really appreciate him and all his practice with us together. And so now that we're back together, this is the first time we've been back together since he went to France, right? He went to France during, when we weren't having meetings there, I thought it would be nice for us to, you know, have a meeting with him online. So maybe tomorrow at 11 o'clock, maybe, that'd be good, maybe possible, maybe tomorrow those who, at the beginning of our session, at 11 tomorrow, we could just, all of us, say hi to Fred. Hi, Fred. I think you, I think it would really be wonderful for him to see us, because he, right now he can't, he, well, he can't travel and be with us.

[40:32]

But anyway, I think we want to, we want to do that at 11 tomorrow, for Fred. Okay, so I can give you, I can give you more, what's it called, introduction to your own consciousness, and tell you some stuff in there that you may or may not have noticed, but which, when I tell you about it, you will be able, I think, to observe them. These are things which you probably have noticed before, but I'll give you a little bit more language for them, which I think might help you be kind to them, and also help you notice how painful they are. But I also could maybe stop now for a while and bring that, bring that material up later, because I've given you so much. So maybe this is the first couple layers of introduction into karma consciousness, and some discussion about how to observe it and experiment with it.

[41:37]

So I'll save those more details for later, is that all right? Yes, would you tell me your name again? Peter. Could you comment a bit more on the relationship between karmic consciousness and the subconscious? Yeah. It must be a relationship where it gets stored from the... Yeah, right, so that's part of the theory, is that, is that at some, at some point, there was a body, there were bodies, organic beings, and they had, and they had cognitive function, but there was no, there wasn't the type of awareness of like, I'm here and you're over there. That, some of the breakthroughs that occurred with consciousness were not there. And, but at some point, this unconscious cognitive process

[42:42]

gave rise to this self-consciousness, and there's various theories about what point, it wasn't 70,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago, but maybe around 70,000 years ago, there was this breakthrough where this, this karmic consciousness arose, but maybe it was before that, we don't know. And the, from that time on, this new consciousness, this newcomer to life, started to affect the, its, its base, its foundation, which is the unconscious cognitive processes which gave birth to it. From then on, it, it, it co-evolved, it evolved from originally, but then once it started to live, it started to change the unconscious. And ever since then, it's been changing the unconsciousness,

[43:49]

or the, yeah, the unconscious cognitive, cognitive processes, and they have been supporting it. So all the karma that's happened for whatever number of years, or eons, has transformed the unconscious, so we have new unconscious, we have an unconscious that's never been there before, never was seen before, which is, which evolved from the conscious. And a lot, and a lot of stuff in the consciousness is terrible, terrible, terrible ideas and practices. Cruelty, which had never been imagined before, were conjured up in consciousness. These conscious beings, these self-conscious beings, thought of unkindnesses, like the caste system, which other animals never even thought of. They didn't, they had, they don't have the capacity

[44:52]

to do certain forms of cruelty. Just, they wouldn't, they would if they could, and we, and those who can do it, do it. So we have these new things, and then they transform the unconscious, which sponsors more horror shows, and that's going on. But somehow, all the suffering somehow gave rise to compassion at some point, and the compassion started to turn the process around to such an extent that some awakening occurred, and as the awakening starts to occur, it then transforms the base too, in ways that had never happened before either. They weren't necessary, but anyway, the terrible, the terrible aspects of the unconscious, of the consciousness, also gave rise to such sufferings that facilitated the birth of compassion,

[45:54]

which then started to wake the whole process up. But the consciousness is, every moment of consciousness simultaneously transforms its base, and then the next moment a conscious arises from the base, arises from it and transforms it. So every moment of consciousness is really important for study and transformation, and again, I'm going to expand the study of consciousness, but also the unconscious isn't just individual, the unconscious is also interpersonal. So that's the way that our work in our consciousness transforms the base, which includes other beings, and includes the mind which supports other beings. So it isn't just for ourselves that we do this work, because when we do this work,

[46:57]

it transforms a mind which we share with others. So they're constantly, constantly evolving, these two together, and studying their evolution is necessary in order to realize the wisdom mind which is present with both of them all the time. And even if you took away consciousness, the wisdom mind is still there, because the wisdom mind is also aware of all the other consciousnesses. Does that relate to your question? Does the wisdom mind reside in the unconscious, the conscious, the current consciousness? Yeah, like it's not separate from either, and resides in neither. That's another bumper sticker. Does a baseball game reside in the players, in the snack stand, in the field, in the audience, in the structures, in the rules? The baseball game is not in any one of the players,

[48:04]

it's not in any one of the participants. All these different karmic consciousnesses, it's not in them, but it's not the least bit separate from them, because if you take away any one of them, you change the baseball game. The baseball game is kind of like something you can't see. You can see the people running around, and you know the rules. You can't actually see the baseball game. You can't actually see how these two are working together, but the way they're working together is the wisdom mind, and the way the people are working together is the baseball game. But the baseball game is actually invisible, but it's still, even though it's invisible, some people really are enjoying it. The wisdom mind is there to be enjoyed, but it's invisible. The compassion mind is there to be enjoyed, but it's invisible. You can see the suffering, and

[49:05]

you can see the responses, but the way they're actually working together is always so, and we're training to discover that. And watching a baseball game, you discover the baseball game. And you also, if you watch a baseball game, you also discover the wisdom consciousness. It's right there, but you have to study how it appears in consciousness in order to open to the wisdom mind. And the consciousness is constantly evolving with the unconscious, and the wisdom mind isn't residing in either, and not separate from either. It is the way they're working together. But the way, you know, the way we're having a conversation isn't resolving, isn't residing in you or me. It's something we're doing together, which isn't either one of us, but in fact includes both of us. So our conversations and our interactions here

[50:09]

include us all, and are not residing in any of us. Like that's wisdom. Wisdom includes all of us. It doesn't abide anywhere. And also there's no place, and not abiding in some places is another form of abiding, which is not that either. But by studying abiding, we discover the non-abiding. And by studying the thinking, we discover what thinking really is. And we'll talk about that more later, about what thinking really is. Okay? For now? Yes, Kurt? I really wanted to just say that I appreciate the conversation about intimacy in the cosmic consciousness, and kind of being with that intimacy, a little like what you were talking about, excuse me, with your leg and the pain, how to abide with that. So anyway, I just appreciate

[51:12]

that comment. I've been reading your other book, The Third Turning, and you talk about something called store consciousness. Yeah, store consciousness is what I've been talking about as unconscious cognitive activity. And are those things that kind of we pick up during our lifetime and kind of store, you know, into our unconscious, and then our actions or thinking can be based on is in that store consciousness? Yes. Yes. So our thinking, our thinking mind is based on the storehouse mind. And the storehouse mind is constantly evolving, and so is our thinking mind.

[52:12]

And our thinking mind transforms the unconscious process, which also then transforms other unconscious processes of other beings, that other consciousnesses are based on. So that's, again, why this work is really hard. And sometimes we just want to give up, it's so painful. And also, even if we don't do the work, we want to give up. I don't want to do the work, and I just don't want to live anymore. And that's a karmic consciousness thinking, that's a thinking. I want to give up, that's a form of thought. You know, and depending on what else is going on, that could be wholesome, you could have that thought, I just don't want to, I can't stand the pain, I want to get out of here. That thought could be attended with lots of compassion, and it could be a wholesome thought. But not in itself, it sounds, what's it called, questionable.

[53:16]

And generally speaking, the path to wisdom is to see all consciousnesses as questionable, even the wholesome ones. Questioning is part of compassion, it's part of, and questioning compassion is part of compassion evolving positively. Any other questions? Yes, Linda, Paul, Homa, was that three? And June. All right, Linda. When you talk about wholesome and unwholesome states of consciousness, it tends to give me a preference for wholesome. And I, what I've been finding so liberating in your, what you've been teaching about compassion, is that whatever arises, especially if we haven't had a tendency to not like it or hate it,

[54:24]

whatever arises, there's an instantaneous musical compassion, it's not A and B. It's not a, yeah, a compassion. It's not like some compassion from the wholesome side coming over to help out. No, right. Yeah, thank you. I felt a little lost when you said wholesome and unwholesome, because I felt it creating a kind of A and B for me. And also C, the indeterminate. There's wholesome, unwholesome, and can't tell which. Yeah, I just didn't want to lose that sense of instantaneous compassion. No, yeah, right. I don't want to lose it either. All right, and I present this wholesome and unwholesome

[55:25]

as an experiment to your compassion to see if you can not lose it when I present it. Yeah, right. How to stay on the compassion ball even when I go wholesome, unwholesome. Compassion doesn't prefer wholesome over unwholesome. Compassion loves both of them equally, totally equally. It doesn't prefer and embraces both of them. And then, and what's the next test? What's the next experiment? No end, right? We're trying to learn how whatever gets tossed up into the consciousness to stay, to have constant compassion for it. But some stuff, and even Buddhist teachings like wholesome and unwholesome, they go, Hey, I like the wholesome, that wholesome sounds really good.

[56:29]

It's beneficial. I'm going to, okay, compassion for that, for that preference. Compassion doesn't have preference, but it embraces preferences. If you've got a preference for wholesome over unwholesome, it embraces that preference. And then we say, well, actually now, wholesome is beneficial and unwholesome is harmful. But the center of gravity of this practice isn't preferring, it's just observing. This is unwholesome, this is wholesome. We're going to study both. We can learn from, we can learn from both. And it's the Buddha, the awakened one who understands this consciousness has studied unwholesome states. And when the understanding is really deep, you can actually say, Actually, this is, I can see how this is going to be beneficial or not.

[57:29]

For now, we're exploring, we're experimenting. I think this is beneficial. And I see a preference, and I think it's beneficial to be kind to the preference. I'm happy, I'm happy that I can be kind. I yearn for being able to be kind to all beings, including the unwholesome. Let's see, next, Paul. It's a background. Both my parents died last year. And with each of them that died, they had gone through a lot of dimension. And so I, my belief is that they had no cognition by the end. In my father's case, it was for a couple of years. And when you spoke this morning about consciousness and cognition, it struck in me. I know I had compassion for them as people, I think, because they were my parents.

[58:35]

But I didn't, I feel now that I didn't actually connect in with their consciousness or their unconsciousness. I had a story that they had no consciousness because they had no cognition. Can you? Yeah, so dementia means de-mind, right? You don't have a mind. I think it's referring to karmic consciousness. And when our body changes in certain ways, our unconscious process changes in certain ways. And it's possible that our unconscious cognitive processes do not support consciousness. For example, in brain damage, in deep states of yogic concentration, in general anesthetic. In those states, the body and its cognitive processes do not support consciousness.

[59:40]

So we have dementia. Now, the dementia of a yogic state, it only lasts for a maximum of like a week. And then things come right back. But other kinds of dementia that are more physically based, on some deterioration or disease, those dementias can go on for a long time. However, the cognitive processes, they're fully working to a certain point. And as you know, sometimes the so-called Alzheimer's, the unconscious processes change in such a way as to not support normal consciousness, but also they change in a way that they can't actually uphold organic processes either. So people die of the cognitive processes not supporting the breathing and so on.

[60:41]

So at a certain point, the unconscious cognitive processes will actually not, will change in such a way that the person dies of changes in the consciousness, in the unconscious. So when people are demented, we're basically dealing with their body and their unconscious processes. However, our conscious activity is in relationship to their unconscious, just as it was when they had consciousness. So my conscious activity is related to yours, and especially it's related to yours in the way that it transforms my unconscious. When my conscious transforms my unconscious, it transforms yours. If you don't have consciousness anymore, my conscious transforms my unconscious and transforms your unconscious. So your transformative relationship with a loved one who does not have consciousness goes on,

[61:49]

not as usual, but still it goes on at the unconscious level. That's the theory. So my compassion that I had was really for their unconscious? Well, it wasn't necessarily for it, it just said actually your compassion and your consciousness transforms your unconscious and your body, and your body and your unconscious are intimately related to theirs. Our consciousnesses are too, but they're not in the same way, not as intimately. We're more related unconsciously to other beings than consciously. Consciously we have these boundaries, but unconsciously we don't have these boundaries. Those boundaries are mental constructions. So, yeah, so bringing a compassionate person to visit somebody who has no mind anymore,

[62:51]

it's like business as usual for them. They're just, their compassion is just, it's just working with them intimately, and they're happy to, their unconscious is happy to meet the other unconscious, not really other. The part of our unconscious is the same, and part of it is individual. So part of it's related to my body, and so part of it's related to your body, but part of it is communal. So part of the unconscious is shared, and part of it isn't. And the shared part is where we transform others by our cognitive, by our unconscious, and we transform our unconscious with our conscious practice, which then supports us to do more conscious practice, which we're happy to do, and we don't know how we're so lucky to be able to do it, but we are. Yeah, but our consciousness has trouble

[63:58]

with people who used to have consciousness. We have a lot of grieving to do in order to be with a new person, but we can still, we still can do this thing together with them, like we do with babies. For a while there, babies don't have much consciousness either, but they have a body, and they have unconscious processes, and it's a miracle. Okay, let's see who is next after Paul. June? June. Thank you. Paul really touched on what I'm wondering, and that is so much new brain research is evolving, and I wonder, for instance, in the study of addiction,

[65:01]

they show in the images of how the part of the brain, if you're addicted, and you don't have much light show up in the pictures, in this frontal part, meditating monks have this big band of light, white, that shows up, and so they're saying, they've done research, and they now declare addiction a disease, because it can show where in the brain is the cause of the addiction, and they can also show what not is cured, but helps it, which is, you know, this part of the brain has to be given a chance to inform the victim. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go into that detail, but I'm wondering,

[66:04]

it's, what do you have to say about that, in terms of, you did address answering Paul, to some extent, just as 60 Minutes even had a show on heroes, and what they found was the amygdala, again, some portion of it, but in people who just spontaneously risked their lives, you know, jump into a burning car, and when they asked them afterwards, well, what did you think, and they all said, oh, look, I didn't think, it's just an impulse, and they say, you know, the brain, they've done research, the brains in those kind of people who do those kinds of acts is bigger than most. Well, how does all that fit in like the, our DNA?

[67:16]

It's just, I don't know enough about this to ask a decent question. But, I'd like your input. Okay, I'll try. So, one, I'll pick a part of it first, okay, so part of it is that she used the example of people who do these heroic acts of altruism to help other people, and they asked them, what were you thinking at that time? And they said, I didn't think. I didn't think, oh, I'm going to do this thing. And so, part of what we're looking at is the possibility that that, of course, they didn't know that they were getting into the burning car, they knew that,

[68:22]

but they didn't like think, oh, I'm going to get into the burning car, but they didn't notice that they were in the burning car and that they were trying to help the person. Where did that come from? And I would say it came from the body, which is in relationship to the the being who's in danger, the body, and the unconscious processes implemented the karma of going into the car. And you could also say, we don't usually call this heroic, but when you speak English, where did that come from? You don't consciously think, I'm going to speak English. You cannot consciously actually orchestrate English speaking. It's in your body. It just comes out, and it comes out because you have, for quite a while, you have attempted to

[69:27]

speak English. And when you first attempt to speak English, you don't have the unconscious cognitive support for it, so it's what it's like for a baby, right? But they're trying, in consciousness, they're trying to speak English. And when they try, it transforms their unconscious, and then their transformed consciousness sponsors further attempts, and further attempts transform the unconscious more, and pretty soon they start, it sounds like English, and then more, and then they get feedback in their consciousness, and it transforms. In this way, beings get, through how they use their consciousness, their body gets transformed into being able to, for example, do something, like speak English, play the piano, and jump into a burning car to help somebody. It just comes out of there. What's going on in our consciousness is not made by the consciousness. It arises from the unconscious. And the good

[70:30]

things that arise from unconsciousness come from, the good activities come from training the consciousness, which transforms the unconscious. So these addictions are based on past actions. And past actions can transform the way your brain is working. Then, once you've got an addiction, which is appearing in your consciousness, but which is based on your body and your unconscious, you can transform the unconscious support for the addiction by the way you relate to the way it appears in consciousness. So if you bring compassion and observation and experimentation to the addiction as it appears in consciousness, that changes your unconscious, which changes your

[71:32]

brain, which changes your body. So the idea is that this unconscious process is body-based, and we say it shares the risk and the good fortune of the body. But the unconscious process, which is so body-based, and neurologically it's here and there, that unconscious process can be transformed by consciousness, by conscious activity, by meditating. Or in addiction, by don't take drugs. Stop and let the part of the brain not get fit anymore. It could be don't take drugs, but it also could be compassion towards the impulse

[72:33]

to take drugs. And it could be that don't take drugs is a compassionate comment. But it also could be that it's not compassionate, and if we uncompassionately say don't take drugs to the addiction, it may actually nourish the addiction. Whereas if we say, yeah, let's take some drugs, let's take some drugs, it might actually start to relieve the addiction, if it's done out of love and kindness and open-mindedness and generosity and patience with the addiction. But if it's don't take drugs is coming from impatience and unkindness, it just makes more addiction. It transforms the body in a way that makes us want to find some way, like we did before, to deal with the suffering, rather than deal with the suffering by more compassion.

[73:34]

What pops in my mind is one time my wonderful wife was on vacation from her family, so the father and the daughter were together, when the daughter was the little girl, they were taking a bath, and the little girl said, let's go in the kitchen and get the dishes from the kitchen and put them in mommy's bed and break them. Where did that come from? Anyway, so, and I said, okay, okay, let's do it, and she said, no. And I think that I feel good about that, that I didn't say, no, we can't break dishes and put them in mommy's bed. I didn't say that. So then she would, and then she would, I don't know what that would have done to her. I said, let's do it, and then she discovered, I don't want to break dishes in mommy's bed.

[74:37]

Mommy's the best. I don't want to do that. But temporarily, she kind of wanted to get rid of mommy. And I said, okay, let's get rid of mommy. And no, I don't want to get rid of mommy. So compassion helps people wake up. Compassion helps the addiction to wake up and say, this is suffering, and compassion helped me see it, and compassion is going to help me become free rather than, but sometimes the way to do it is just don't do it. Sometimes that's really compassionate, but that's not enough. That's not enough. We have to not prefer freedom from bondage. Compassion doesn't prefer freedom from addiction to addiction. It finds the way to be free of it, not by getting rid of it. The Buddha found the middle way, not by getting rid of addiction to sense pleasure, not by getting rid of addiction to sense negation. He found the middle way by

[75:40]

compassion. And sometimes compassion could be, don't take drugs. That could be really compassionate. It's a code for, let's be compassionate to the, rather than doing this drug thing, why don't we do something even better for this pain? I got this better thing. It's, you know, drugs are good, but this is even better. Just like worldly pleasure is really good, but we got something better here. It doesn't have all those drawbacks, and it's more reliable, but harder to find, more painful. It's not avoiding the pain, it's embracing it. And that, when we embrace rather than avoid, or embrace rather than manipulate, that transforms us in a different way than there's other ways. So I think, I think I would say, some people would say that this neurological research of the 20th century and 21st century is supporting a lot of Buddhist teachings.

[76:44]

But another way to say it is, a lot of this research is interesting to the Buddhist practitioners. It's interesting. It gives us, it helps us inquire. It supports our study. Not so much we already knew that, but, oh, that's interesting. Like Karen was telling me about Dalai Lama likes to talk to scientists, you know, and they give Dalai Lama, they give Dalai Lama, you know, they talk to Dalai Lama and they give him little talks about neurology and neuroscience, and then Dalai Lama listens to them and talks to them. So they're having jokes on with Dalai Lama, you know, and they're also educating the Dalai Lama, but the Dalai Lama is like compassion, right? To these people who are, he's transmitting compassion to the scientists. So what we want to do is, is have the scientific research surrounded by compassion

[77:45]

that will enhance the research, and the research will enhance the compassion. Elizabeth? Thank you. Thank you. Homa, did you have your hand raised? Yes, Homa? I'm trying to see how to bring my question together. So I constantly observe myself

[78:51]

into this problem of lack in attention, which therefore I hear you, is lack in great compassion. That is the lack, the lack that I constantly face. And I've also observed every time I was, for some reason, I had enough attention to be what, to be with what is, it actually frees up my attention. And then I have more attention, and then I can give more attention to karmic consciousness, which I realize my, I realize the freedom is, the freedom is actually being full attentive to karmic consciousness, which I deviate and I forget about, and I think, is there something else? Not this, something else. Good, good to see, yeah.

[79:53]

So I don't know what, oh, here's the question. The question is, how can I, or I would like not to go to something else, everything that else is, no else. How can, how can, how can there be no else? I hear the question, and I also want to mention that you also you told us that in this, in this karmic consciousness there is some, there are impulses, impulses or interest in something else. In karmic consciousness there's, there's, there's our interest in something other than karmic consciousness, and that, those interests, or those impulses to something other than karmic consciousness do make it more difficult to observe karmic consciousness.

[81:00]

So you've got karmic consciousness and these voices in karmic consciousness, let's not, we have better things to do than look at karmic consciousness, you know, this is a, yeah, this is a mess, let's go look someplace else, shall we? That's part of what's going on there, is like, let's not study here. That's, that's, that's part of our, that's part of our trouble is, it's really hard to study in a place where people are saying, let's not study, or, or, you know, this is stupid, you have better things to do. And then, and then you ask this latter question, so we want it, we want it, in both cases, compassion doesn't want to have a karmic consciousness that doesn't have even the thought of something else. It doesn't have, you know, if there isn't a thought of something else, karmic consciousness, I mean, compassion would say, oh, okay, here we got a simple person

[82:03]

who doesn't even know about anything other than taking care of this, how sweet, we will, we'll take care of this person who doesn't even think of something else. And now here's a person who's really good at thinking of everything but what's going on here, and we, we're going to love this person too. This person is more, more creative, and really intelligent people are more difficult for them to, to be compassionate with this, their extremely imaginative life of how, of all the things other than what's going on. So that's more challenging. But both of them are deserving compassion. And one question, what's the difference between let's not study versus observe? So to me, when it resonates with me is let's observe. Let's observe, let's not, let's observe, quotes let's not study.

[83:08]

So it's, it's the observation is study. Yeah, this, this study has two parts. It's to observe and, and to experiment, to observe and question, to observe and explore. That's, that's the study. The study has two parts. It has a just simple, just observe, and then ask questions, explore, explore, doubt, disagree, you know, play with it. These are all experiments we can do with this karmic consciousness. There's two dimensions of, of the scientific study. Just observe, that's fundamental. Just clearly observe. And then, oh, oh, what's that? Oh, what if, what if we do this? And then learn how to do, what do we do this

[84:11]

without, just, just as a gift, rather than trying to get something in particular. And notice if you do try to get something in particular, how that doesn't penetrate as deeply as just, let's just try this. One more, sorry, one more question. So when you purely observe, my mind somehow is in the pure observation. You're really not getting anything from the study, but the, the study is, is the effect of your pure observation to have the understanding. So does it, is it possible that the observation is not pure, that sometimes you try to get something? That's right. If, if there's observation, the observation wouldn't be good if it got infected by trying to get something. But there could be observation and, and observing also the agenda that the observation is going to get something. So that that's noticed, oh yeah,

[85:12]

right, rather than having, letting the observation be co-opted by trying to get some, you know, realization. The observation can coexist and does coexist with trying to get something out of, out of common consciousness. So there's a lot of gaining ideas going on in common consciousness. Clearly observe them. Oh, and then you do get something, get, you get some, but the, and you, and you get it by the way you relate to what comes up. I, one time, was at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and we have a founder's hall there for the founder and the, the plaster on the outside of the wall was drying up and falling off

[86:15]

and it was probably because the, the recipe for the, or the formula for the plaster was for Japan, the mixture of what they put, and so it, in the dry, in the dry air and heat of Tassajara, that particular formula didn't work very well, so it was cracking and falling off. And so they wanted, and I, and there were some people were talking about how to repair it. How many people have heard this story? One? That's not bad. Can we tell it again? Or do you want to tell it? No. So they had these, so one person came to me and said, let's take the plaster off, put up sheetrock, no, no, yeah, put up sheetrock and then spray stucco on it. And I said, oh, okay. And then somebody else came up and said, you know, there's, there's, we can

[87:20]

add some, some other ingredients into the mud that will help it withstand the, the dry air. And I thought, oh, that sounds better. And when I first thought of it, I thought, oh, okay, that sounds better. That's all there was to it. But little by little, the one that sounded better, also, I, my Dharma brother was the one who put the, the plaster on the first place. I said, I thought he would probably like the second way better, rather than put stucco, sheetrock on this Asian construction, put sheetrock on and stucco. He probably wouldn't like that, I would guess. So, what I thought was like, okay, and then this, maybe this is better, this, maybe this is better, got better and better. And I got, I started to get kind of stuck on it. And then somebody asked me about how to do it. And I, from this place of like,

[88:22]

I didn't observe what was going on with my mind, as I, at this, at this, the second way become really the best way. It shifted from, this is good, and this is better, it really got heavily the best way. And when I expressed my, my preference, I noticed that the person seemed shocked. You know, like, you don't necessarily notice that you build up static electricity, and you touch somebody and they get shocked. So, I was getting charged on this. And when I talked to him, you know, I could see he got shocked. And then I realized, oh, I'm getting too worked up about this. I think I probably shouldn't, I think I should probably shouldn't be in this conversation anymore, because I'm too worked up. So, I didn't say anything more about it. And then I went to sit in the meditation hall, and I sat, and I noticed that my mind was very turbulent.

[89:23]

And I was kind of embarrassed how turbulent it was, because I'm supposed to be the teacher, you know. But my mind was just really like, it was like really, really agitated. I think it was because I was getting so worked up about this way of repairing the building, you know. It just really disturbed my consciousness. And like I said, it was uncomfortable and embarrassing that my mind was so agitated. But I had this opportunity to sit there and discover it, right? Oh, wow, what a, tempestuous situation. So, we need these times when we can look and say, wow, my mind is really wild and disturbed. So, that's good, right? If I didn't have a chance to do that, I would have been walking around with that

[90:33]

agitated mind and just have to stay away from everybody, because my mind is not for public consumption. But it wasn't public consumption, it was for meditation. So, I sat there and observed, and then this sweet voice came up in me and said, clearly observe. Where did that come from? It came from my body and my unconscious, that because I had been studying and meditating, this message came up just at the right time. And then, the ocean just went calm. But I had to sit there and look at that mess due to my own attachment, and then, you know, face it and be embarrassed about it, and then the instruction comes, clearly observe, and when it came, that's what happened. It just...

[91:37]

And the charge went away, and I never said anything more about the situation, and they did what I wanted, but not because I said anything, but because it recovered from my shocking behavior. Yeah, you have to embrace it, let it be, and then it goes calm, sometimes dramatically, like that, in a moment. Yes, Vivian. Vivian? It's interesting to me that the current consciousness is in the mind only, because when I think about karma, it's not only in the mind. So, it's a new training. Well, it starts in the pattern of consciousness. So, there's three types of consciousness. One's called mental, and that's the source.

[92:46]

Of karma. That's the source karma. It's karma, but it's like the source. Then it ramifies into postures and vocalizations. So, those are also karma, but they're like expressions of the mental pattern. They're expressions of karmic consciousness. Because I think about ancestors, ancestor names. That's like, that's more connected to our unconscious, that our ancestors, all the good and bad things they've done, is part of what's in the background of our body, and that's sponsoring our consciousness. So, you know, we can say things like, let's break the dishes and put them in mommy's bed. Where'd that come from? Well, it came from our ancestors, you know. Yeah, right, right, and that's the ancestor of that statement,

[93:58]

being mad at mommy for going away. That's an ancestor. Ancestors are our past selves, and our relatives. It's all of our, it's all that we've done, all that we've thought, and all that other people have thought. Yeah, this is psychological, right? This is a psychological prison. When you tell it, it will be a karmic expression of the psychology that's speaking. Pardon? Yeah, you will tell it. You speak to the people in the back, and you can also hear. In the summer, I fell off of a high bed. My bed was very, I can speak loud.

[95:06]

My bed was very high, and I fell on my face. Off the bed? Because I'm not used to sleeping in that bed. Yeah. And the next day, I had to do a very important talk at Grand Rounds at UCSF, and it was a big deal because they wanted to hear about cultural humility, and I was planning to be provocative, to not only talk about racism, homophobia, all the things we're talking, but to talk about the stigma of unvaccinated, and to really, really have a conversation that, can you bring compassion to that? Because trying to figure out how to do this on Zoom the night before, but I've done this talk so many times about different things, about cultural humility. So I went to sleep. I fell on my face. My sister took me to get stitches on my lip,

[96:13]

and my nose was broken, and I couldn't figure out how to write the email to say I have to cancel my talk. Grand Rounds, such a big deal. And then my sister said in Spanish, ¿Qué importa? Who cares? Just write the email. You can't talk. I mean, we still didn't know if my teeth were broken or my jaw. So when I wrote the email about why, I heard just like what you heard about the stucco? What was it again? Clearly observe. Clearly observe. I heard I fell on my face. Just something so simple. Clearly observe, I fell on my face. Not a big deal. But for me, it changed everything. Better to fall on your face physically than to fall on your face

[97:18]

with the entire medical community. Talking about cultural humility and the unvaccinated and vaccinated stigma and all this energy, that maybe I was not at the level to deal with in Zoom. And I felt so good, even though I looked like, and I had pain, and I had pain. Yes, very similar story. But is that psychological? So that's the thing. Well, I think the psychological was there. And then you could say this wisdom came up. But the wisdom of, I fell on my face, that wisdom came up out of your whole body. But it came up out of being compassionate to your body and observing it, observing all that was going on with you. And that is illuminating the psychological situation

[98:27]

by saying, I fell on my face, clearly observed, don't take drugs. It comes out, it's wisdom being expressed in language. But it's wisdom that comes from being kind to the psychological situation. The wisdom is there, but if we aren't kind to the psychological situation, the wisdom, which isn't really psychological, it's the truth, it's the revelation that psychological is diluted. But we have to be compassionate to diluted psychological in order for the wisdom to come into our body and mind and say, I fell on my face. Or, you know, I shouldn't be talking to people about how to fix this building. Sometimes, you know, you could talk to somebody in person, but you can't talk to them on Zoom. You know, that's part of my problem with Zoom, is that if I'm really saying something intimate,

[99:35]

I have to see the people's faces, and if there's too many people, I can't, and I don't know them. You know, they can turn off their screen, you know, and go away. But if I'm with somebody, they can't really turn off their face. So, some things I can't do on Zoom, and my body knows that, so I say, I fell on my face. Or, I'm not suitable to talk about this right now, but maybe I could do it in person. Thank you for ... very parallel, very parallel. So, yes, and yes? Could you hear okay, Elizabeth? Oh, I'm so grateful, thank you. Otherwise, it's a murmur. Yeah, yeah, let us know. They're speaking to the teacher. Yeah, please, please let us know if you're having trouble hearing. We can, we will adjust, okay?

[100:42]

I wonder if they have an extra mic? This is it, this is the mic. You don't need it, okay? Did you want to say something? Yeah. You're kind of my age-ish, I don't know if this will relate to other people, but when we were little, when the thermometer that you took your temperature with broke, the mercury, there's a little ball of mercury, and then we used to play with that. So, I know it's illegal now, and you'll die if you touch it, but in those days, there'd be this little ball, and as soon as you touched it, it would go somewhere else. And then you touch it, and it would go somewhere else, and it was fascinating. My experience here this morning is like that. I can't get the damn mercury of the conversation,

[101:47]

and I feel, um, not quite ashamed, but stupid. Yeah, yeah. I feel like, are you kidding? At this point, these basic things, you still don't get, so confessing that feeling, and it had to do with what you spoke to Linda about, about if compassion is accepting, if we're meant to accept everything, welcome, be ethical with it, be patient, okay. Then I don't understand what our vows are for. I don't understand that wholesome behavior isn't better than unwholesome. I don't see how that, it's like, what, there's a missing piece for me in understanding that. I don't get it. You don't understand what about wholesome and unwholesome? I don't understand how wholesome is better than unwholesome, if your vow is to save all beings.

[102:52]

Oh, I see. Can I say it again? I don't understand how wholesome is not better than unwholesome, if your vow is to save all sentient beings. So, one story is that my vow to save all sentient beings is to free people, sentient beings, from preferring wholesome over unwholesome, and if, and, but still we could say wholesome is better than unwholesome, or we could say benefit is better than harm. We could say that. That statement could be made, but that statement isn't freedom from suffering. Freedom from suffering is being compassionate towards that statement, like wholesome is better than unwholesome. Compassion that frees beings, our agenda is to free beings. It's not to prove that wholesome

[104:01]

is better than unwholesome. It's to deal with the thought wholesome is better than unwholesome. It's to deal with that thought, and so we put that thought out there, not so much the thought that wholesome is better than unwholesome, but anyway, we could even say benefit is better than harm. That's a thought to deal with. People can get caught on that thought and they can become, like me, they can become charged about benefit is better than harm. Compassion goes there to help that person who thinks benefit's better than harm, to help that person not be caught by that thought, benefit's better than harm. You really don't think benefit is better than harm? You don't think that? Right now, for your benefit, I do not think that. I'm like, right now I'm looking at you and I'm hearing that you're saying to me,

[105:05]

you're asking me that question, and I actually don't think that right now. I'm not always thinking anything. I'm not always thinking that. I don't believe that wholesome is better than unwholesome. I don't actually believe that. But I still bring up the teaching is that this karma is beneficial and this karma is harmful. I bring that up so people can look at their minds and see, this mind is probably going to be harmful. This mind is probably going to be beneficial. I say, let's look at the minds and notice, this is probably going to be harmful. It's probably not what you want, and this is probably what you do want. I'm more like looking at it rather than saying, it really is true that this is this way and that's that way. I'm more like observe rather than believe these stories. But I put these stories in to help people find out if they have some

[106:11]

addiction to one or the other, because that's where the problem is. But if we don't bring up something where someone could say wholesome and unwholesome and therefore benefit and harm, but I don't have to believe wholesome and unwholesome are not ultimately true. But I want to look at that, and then you tell me that you have a problem with what I just brought up. And I say, yeah, and that's what we're here to help us with. It's the problem we have with good and evil. Not to say that good is good and evil is evil, but you can say that good is good and evil is evil, and then you can say it again, good, good, and so on. You can say all that, but I'd rather bring it up, let's bring it up and look at it and see if anybody is attached to anything in this field of good and evil, of benefit and harm. Is there any attachment there? Is there pain and pleasure? Is there any sticking points? So let's bring all this up. But I'm not bringing up to say, I really think this is true and that's not true, or this is

[107:13]

better than that. What I'm saying is, I think the problem is that we have attachment and misunderstandings here. And if we can illuminate those, we will discover wisdom. But in order to illuminate them, we have to be kind to them. Kind to what? Kind to unwholesome and wholesome. And kind to wholesome better than unwholesome. Benefit is better than harm. If there's benefit, I want to be compassionate. If there's harm, I want to be compassionate. Is there harm? Seems like it. We could add on, and by the way, that harm's not as good as the benefit. You can add that in there too. There's that too. You name it, we've got it. But do we have compassion for it all? That's the thing we're having trouble with. But, you know, I might have a thought, a thought might arise in my mind like,

[108:19]

wholesome is better than unwholesome. And why is wholesome better than unwholesome? Because wholesome helps us understand that wholesome and unwholesome are not separate. So that's more of a reason why wholesome is better. But if I would believe that, it's not doing its job. Its job is to free me from thinking it's better than unwholesome. And unwholesome usually doesn't lead to us understanding that unwholesome is not better than wholesome, or worse, you know. So we do, Buddha did say, practice wholesome, give up unwholesome, and study your mind. Buddha did say that. We hear. But he didn't really say that wholesome is better than unwholesome. He just said, do the wholesome, that will help you realize how to not do the unwholesome. And in that process, you will have to be compassionate. And by being compassionate

[109:21]

with the situation of wholesome and unwholesome, you can become free of both. Because even wholesome karma is still in the bondage system. And also, when I used to play with the mercury, we used to put the mercury on coins, that would make them shinier. Then the mercury wouldn't be a bead anymore. It would just make a dull coin shiny. Did you ever try that? Yeah. So let's use the mercury to make the dull coin shiny. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Yeah, maybe we could, maybe we could, that's sort of a big topic. And the topic is distinguishing

[110:31]

between intention and vow. Okay. So it's getting close to you know what. And I said I'd let you go. Okay. So for just now, every moment of consciousness has intention. And the intention is three types. Wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral. Every consciousness has an intention, which is the pattern. And it's beneficial, unbeneficial, or I'm not sure. Vow is like intention, but vow is a commitment. You can have intentions without a commitment, without a vow. It could be, but you can also make a vow without preference. It is possible.

[111:32]

There's a lot of possibilities here. It is possible to vow to become Buddha without a preference to be Buddha. It's possible to vow to something that you cannot have a preference about, I shouldn't say, that you don't have a preference about. And that's part of the reason for vows, is that things you maybe don't prefer, you think you need a vow in order to realize them. It's possible to want something without preferring it. Usually we want things and we overlay the want with the preference. That makes life, that's an affliction. Putting preference onto our wishes is generally afflictive. In some cases, you will be more successful at realizing what you want if it's free of preference.

[112:36]

Want the Buddha way? Want to be Buddha? Yes. Well, then don't prefer to be Buddha and you'll be more successful. Yes, I think actually your preferences, in some sense your preferences, you're all set, you know, because you prefer. Whereas there are some things which you don't really prefer, but they're so important and you want them so much, but you don't prefer them, so then you actually have to make a vow. Because all the other things you prefer, the prefer is like your habits. Now you want to do something that's not your habit, called being a Buddha, and you don't prefer it. So you make a vow, because you need the vow to help you do something you don't prefer. So this is like pre-brunch hors d'oeuvres, okay?

[113:47]

So we can resume this in our next discussion. The subtle difference between intention and vow, and how preference actually is not banished. We do not have preference, because Buddhahood doesn't banish preference, but it does point out that it makes Buddhahood more difficult to realize. Realizing Buddhahood is not so difficult if you don't have preferences, but you do need vows. The Buddhahood arises from vows, not preferences, but it deals with the preferences. And we vow to be compassionate to preferences, but the preferences are operating karmic consciousness. They're not operating Buddha. Buddha is free of preference and full of compassion for preferences. Free of preference and compassionate preference, not operated by preference. Buddha doesn't prefer to be Buddha. Buddha just is Buddha, which is a good thing,

[114:55]

but not better than sentient beings. Buddha does not think she's better than sentient beings. She does not prefer to be sentient beings, but she does prefer to have brunch. Thank you.

[115:08]

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