Good afternoon. I hope you can hear. Okay. So, this study, which I'd never done before as a study, was a little complicated to put together because I wanted to have as much input from the authors to make it interesting. So, I've tried to include various opinions. Not opinions, but opinions are not valid in Buddhism, as many views as I could reasonably use. So, I'm going to quote from

[01:01]

Ajahn Buddhadasa, who was the most prominent Thai Buddhist in, I would say, Suzuki Roshi's time. You're about the same age as Suzuki Roshi at that time. A lot of the American Vipassana teachers studied with him when they went to Thailand. So, he's a very independent thinker, and he talks about nirvana a lot. So, he equates nirvana with emptiness, or what's translated as void. I don't like void so much,

[02:24]

but I like emptiness better. A lot of people don't like emptiness because it sounds like there's nothing there. But void also sounds even more like there's nothing there. So, I'm going to use his, maybe I'll say void, but when I say void, you can think emptiness if you want. So, he says, please keep trying to grasp the meaning of this word voidness, or shunyata, as we consider it from every angle. First, consider the fact that the Buddha declared that every word that he, the Tathagata, spoke referred to the subject of shunyata. He spoke of no other matter, either directly or indirectly. Any talk unconnected with the subject of voidness is not the speech of the Tathagata, but of disciples of later times who like to speak at great lengths to show how clever they were and articulate they were.

[03:41]

As for the Tathagata's words, they are short, spare, and straight to the point. Shunyata, the essence of his teaching is being void of dukkha, that means defilement or suffering, and the defilements, kleshas, which are the causes of dukkha. Dukkha is the suffering, so to speak, or dissatisfaction or something. One can, if one wants, describe shunyata in many ways, being void of self or void of having anything as self or as belonging to self. The word voidness has a whole host of applications. Although the characteristic of voidness remains constant, its expressions are innumerable. That being so, we aim to examine voidness only as absence of dukkha, and the defilements that cause dukkha, and as the absence of the feeling that there is a self, or that there are things which are the possessions of a self.

[05:00]

This is voidness as it relates to our practice of dhamma. If we ask which of the Buddha's statements concerning this matter can be taken as authoritative, we will find that in many places the Buddha taught us to know how to look at the world as being void. For example, there is the phrase shunyato lokam avakarasu moggaraja sada sato. Essentially this means, you should look on the world as being void. When you are always mindful of the shunyata of the world, death will not find you. The meaning also can be taken as, when anyone sees the world as being void, they will be above the powers of dukkha, the chief of which is death. This is how we come about to understand that basically samsara is the realm of birth and death, and shunyata is the realm of no birth and death.

[06:27]

These words of the Buddha, in joining us to see the world as being void, show that shunyata is the highest thing, emptiness. Anyone who wants to be without problems concerning dukkha and death should look on all things as they truly are, as being void of I, or self. I and mine. This is the biggest problem, and so this is what he is always talking about. I and mine is the problem. Two more quotes show the benefits of voidness. Nibbana is the supreme voidness. Nibbana is the supreme happiness. You must understand that nibbana, the remainderless quenching of dukkha, has the same meaning as supreme voidness. Thus we should understand that it is possible to know and realize a voidness that is not supreme, a voidness that is in some way imperfect, incomplete, or not fully correct, that it is not yet supreme voidness.

[07:50]

For us to realize supreme voidness, we must penetrate with mindfulness and wisdom so impeccably clear that there is not the slightest feeling of self or belonging to self. To say that the supreme voidness is nibbana, or is identical to nibbana, means that shunyata is the final quenching of all things that are blazing in flames, changing in streams and whirlpools. Thus the supreme voidness and the supreme quenching are one and the same. As for saying that nibbana is the supreme happiness, this is an expression in the language of relative truth, a sort of enticing propaganda in the language of ordinary people.

[08:51]

So it is necessary to say that nibbana is happiness. And what's more, nibbana is happiness. Truly speaking, nibbana is better than happiness. It is beyond happiness. Truly speaking, because it is void, we shouldn't speak of it as either happiness or suffering, because it lies beyond both the suffering and the happiness commonly known by us. Yet when we speak like this, people don't understand. So we must say instead, in the conventional language of the worldly, that it is ultimate happiness. This being so, when using the word happiness, we must be careful to use it properly.

[10:09]

It is not the happiness that people generally can see or aspire to. It is a different sort of happiness, a completely new meaning of happiness. The state of void is every single thing that concocts, proliferates, flows, spins, and changes. This is truly lovely, truly refreshing, and truly desirable. For if there is still flux and change, constant swaying and rocking, how can there be happiness? The feeling of sensual pleasure that arises from contact with the various sense objects are illusory. They are not ultimate happiness. Common happiness is not the supreme happiness of nibbana, which is voidness.

[11:11]

So in hearing the phrase, nibbana is the supreme happiness, don't jump to the conclusion that nibbana is exactly what you've been looking for all along. And start dreaming about it without taking into consideration that it is pre-voidness. Voidness. Which reminds me of Suzuki Roshi saying, be careful what you want. Be careful if you're thinking that you want enlightenment, because once you have enlightenment, you may not like it. You probably will like it, but what you won't like is giving everything up. That's the problem.

[12:12]

It's a trade-off. Right? The Buddha is saying, you can have enlightenment, but you have to give me everything you've got in exchange. So this is one way of understanding, according to Buddhadasa. But I think he's correct, and I've always talked about joy. People talk about joy, that joy is a kind of substratum. True joy doesn't come or go. True joy is not subject to change. It's something that's always with us. But it's covered.

[13:18]

It's like a subterranean stream. That is what buoys us, keeps us afloat, so to speak. Keeps us buoyed up or supported. It's very hard to be supported without joy, which is happiness. But it's a different happiness. It's not the happiness that comes with… It's not a relative joy. It's something that's always there, but we don't always access it, even though it's always there. Some people say that nirvana is a dharma.

[14:22]

A dharma is a thing. There are specific dharmas and general dharmas. Whatever is an existent, so-called independent entity is a dharma. And in the Heart Sutra, it says all dharmas are empty in their own being. And the mark of all dharmas is emptiness. And emptiness is nirvana, according to some way of thinking. Some people feel that nirvana is acquired. It's not intrinsic. And, like Suzuki Roshi says, within our suffering is nirvana.

[15:37]

There are three marks of the dharma. There is no abiding self. You know these three marks. Maybe you don't. Everything is subject to change. Those are two. And the third one is called suffering. That's one way of understanding. The other way of understanding is selfless, everything changes, and nirvana. So nirvana takes the place of suffering. And then, if you want to put the two together, you say suffering within samsara. Excuse me.

[16:38]

Nirvana within samsara. So this is our bigger understanding, is that that's how you say nirvana is samsara. Nirvana is right within suffering, and suffering is right within nirvana. You can't separate them. In a comparative way, you say suffering and nirvana. But in a non-dual way, suffering is nirvana. Nirvana is suffering. That's our understanding. And that understanding is what we experience. Nirvana is not something you experience as ordinary happiness. It's above happiness and unhappiness.

[17:40]

Beyond happiness and unhappiness. Otherwise, it would not be nirvana. Nirvana is kind of purity. And purity is non-dual. Everything else is impure, basically. Except that, in a non-dual way, everything is pure. Do you have any question about that? I can't hear you. I always tell people that with the loss of pain, it becomes pain. When you know something is wrong, you have to move away from it. You have to reach for it. Because then you can't go back and not feel the pain. You know, I'm not sure I understand you exactly.

[18:45]

But the way to get beyond pain is to be one with it. Yes. The problem we have is we try to escape. As soon as you try to escape, yes, you're caught. The only way to escape is to be it. To be one with your difficulty. To be one with the pain. That's what we learn. Otherwise, you're always splitting off. And the pain will always win. The difficulty will always win because it's much stronger than you are. The only way you can escape is to not escape. The only way to escape is to be one with it. And when you're one with it, there's no opposite.

[19:49]

Opposites are painful. Opposites are suffering. That's called the duality of the world. That's why samsara is called the real suffering. Because it's splitting off into two pieces. When there's only one piece, that's nirvana. When there's only one piece, that's emptiness. Yes. So, it's one piece that includes two pieces. It's not escaping from two pieces. It's the oneness of the duality. Um, Jake. I think that's Jake. How are enlightenment and nirvana the same? Enlightenment is the realization. But, you know, to explain enlightenment is difficult.

[20:57]

Because, well, nirvana is expressed as non-duality. And when it's expressed as non-duality, it reveals light. So, enlightenment is an expression of nirvana as light. Not the light bulb, but you know what I mean. Hi. That's how you...

[22:16]

Well, suffering, when you don't like it, that you have suffering. Think about that. This is what we learned in Satsang. As soon as you don't like it, you have suffering. As soon as you want to escape, you have suffering. Because you can't go anywhere. And you have to endure, rather than let the energy support you. The energy attacks you. It's subjective. It is subjective. There are different kinds of suffering. And it's a big, wide, huge thing. Whatever we say, the opposite is also there.

[23:35]

Right? So we have to understand, when we talk this way, you can always make an argument, a counter-argument, which I don't want to do. I don't want to argue. But if you think about it, you can see that it's so. Think about what causes your suffering, our suffering. It's not liking, not wanting. Wanting. The stereotype is being in a situation that you don't like, being with people that you don't like, and so on and so forth. It's liking and not liking. Wanting and not wanting. It's just the realm of duality. Wanting and not wanting.

[24:47]

This is our life. It's all based on wanting and not wanting, liking and not liking. Pain and pleasure. When you have pleasure, if pleasure is our happiness, if happiness is our goal, unhappiness follows. The opposite always follows. That's why nirvana is not the happiness of happiness. It's the opposite of unhappiness. Joy is not the joy, which is the opposite of suffering. We're being told all the time, the problem is the problem of duality.

[25:50]

Basically. And how to get beyond duality is to let go of the self that's always picking and choosing, so to speak, in a fundamental way. It's okay, we pick and we choose, but whatever we choose, we have to know that the opposite comes up together with it. It may not manifest right away, but it always comes up together with it. Everything we choose. It's got to be. It's just logic. It's not a mysterious thing. Whatever we choose, the opposite comes up with it, but it doesn't necessarily manifest at the same time. That's mixed up with our karma. We have to choose how to proceed in the world.

[26:56]

That's why the teachers are always admonishing us, be careful what you choose, because the opposite will come. You'll suffer in some way. So chasing happiness, chasing, you know, the constitution, whatever it's called, the pursuit of happiness, and the pursuit of happiness. If you pursue happiness, unhappiness will come up at the same time, even though it may not manifest right away. So how do you stay in the middle way? But the middle way is boring. We think it's boring,

[28:00]

but it's not boring. It's not boring. People say, well, zazen is boring, and that's why it's hard. Well, I don't find zazen boring. Maybe that's because my mind is always thinking of something interesting. You can't stop your mind from having all these thoughts come up. It's just the rushing stream that is constantly, but you step back, step back from that, and it's entertaining. So it's very hard to stay in that place of non-duality. Very hard in that sense. But if you start to

[29:04]

push your thoughts away, they just become stronger. Resistance makes whatever it is that you resist stronger, because every force has an equal opposite force against it. So you can't fight. When we start to practice we're toughened out. But the opposite always wins. The opposition always wins. So at some point you just let go and open up and become one with the sensations. And then you're free. You have freedom. That's the secret of zazen is to become one with the sensations so that there's no opposition

[30:06]

and there's no suffering. It may take a long time and you may break your bones, kill yourself, say, well, I'm too old now. Now I realize that I'm too old or too damaged. But you can damage yourself in zazen by not giving in. That's the biggest part of the problem. Resistance. Okay, John. Speaking about avoiding suffering in this context here, it seems that we're talking about we have a fresh choice now to choose it. I wonder if you could address the repetitive choosing of suffering in order to maintain identity. What I encounter in the world, what I see in myself, is like, okay, all of my X and Y family

[31:07]

or whatever, what's this way, this is who I am. I suffer with that, but then that's who I am. But then after what? I suffer because of how, for example, my family wasn't with me or whatever. And that's my identity. My question is to build an identity around the suffering. It's so free a choice as we can say, oh, do I want to choose to accept? Yeah, I mean, how do we admire that stuff? I kind of get what you're saying. I don't quite get what you're saying. I kind of get what you're saying. Pain and suffering are not the same. Pain is pain and suffering is suffering. Pain is simply a sensation. But when we don't want it, then we have suffering. So,

[32:09]

how do you reconcile, you know, you had problems with the family, I had problems with the family, right? So, there was suffering for a long time, but then at some point I just gave up, forgave, so to speak. I had a dream one time because my family, you know, we never touched each other, you know, there was so much that didn't happen, you know, that was alienating, right? But I had this dream and then the dream, it was the dream of bright light and forgiveness. It was an amazing dream. And then I just gave up all that stuff, you know, they weren't oppressing me, I was oppressing myself, right?

[33:12]

So, we get caught and think that something from the outside is causing us to have suffering. Things from the outside so to speak do cause problems for us, but the way we respond to those makes a big difference in whether or not we can bring up compassion or bring up suffering. It's how we respond to the world that creates our suffering or our compassion. So, and when we let go of resentments, let go of anger and so forth, which is hard to let go of, but there's a catalyst that can, there has to be some kind of catalyst that turns that on,

[34:14]

that turns resentments and anger into love and forgiveness. And that's nirvana. That's the expression of nirvana because you're letting go of the oppositions and bringing the world together. That's why the important thing is how you bring the world together. We're talking about Ross's picture and what kind of picture do you have? Do you have a picture of everything oppressing you or can you turn that around so that you can transform your world into a world of compassion? It's the same energy, exactly. We use the energy this way or we use it that way, but it's the same.

[35:16]

I used to talk about I invented this machine. It's a steam, like a hot water heater, but it's full of steam, like a steam engine. And coming out of it are these tubes with valves. You open the valve or close it and each valve has an outlet because the steam builds up, right? And so this steam is called compassion, this steam is called this pipe is called anger, this pipe is called resentment, and so forth. So we turn on and off these various pipes when the steam builds up in us and we need an outlet. So anger is a real easy outlet because it gives us this feeling of power. It gives us

[36:23]

a feeling of power. Compassion gives us a feeling of power, but it's a different kind of power. And then there are these tubes that come out that are rusted closed and some that are rusted open so that we don't have any control over them. Yeah, you don't have any control over them. So, you know, we're always melting off or we're always spitting out anger or whatever, right? So we have to put a little oil on these valves so that we can control them. So, yeah, we need a product called emotional valve oil. Anyway. Eval, yeah.

[37:24]

You said that if we pursue pleasure then we can expect pain from all of them. You said that whenever we choose to pursue one. It comes up at the same time. Yeah. But it doesn't necessarily manifest at the same time. Okay, so what comes up at the same time? Is its opposite. Yes, but when we wholeheartedly pursue the way, what is the opposite? Yeah, the way has no opposite because the way is about non-duality. When we pursue the way we're not pursuing anything. It's just a matter of speech. Because it means pursue is okay because it refers to desire. Right? When we pursue something desire is the driver. So you're driving along and

[38:26]

something is interesting over here so you go over there and you take it up. But then when you drive and you're driving and you see the Buddha path, when you drive to the Buddha path, you put your desire into the path. But it's not a dualistic desire to get something. It's actually a cliff. And you go over the cliff. At least you get to that place. And the cliff, when you have a desire for something, the ego is involved. When you have a desire for the Dharma, the ego is not

[39:26]

involved. So it's a kind of, I don't like to say suicide, then people will feel terrible, but the path is ego reduction. Whereas the path for things and stuff is ego expansion. That's the difference. So what comes up with ego expansion is its opposite. Because a thing can't exist without its opposite. So what comes up in the Buddha path is non-duality. Pursuing, not pursuing, but not falling into duality. Not being dominated by duality. In other words, the truth is of no I, no position. An I,

[40:28]

me, and mine are minimized. We talk about me, I, me, and mine. It's okay to talk about I, me, and mine as long as we don't believe in them. There's a convenient way, you know, we have to, naming is another problem here. Four twenty, how much time do we have left, do you think? Four twenty. I'm just getting started. Four twenty. But I will stop. Just a little bit here.

[41:29]

Tick that on. I'm not going to go into it, but just a little bit. So, there are three, yeah, there are three doors of liberation. Three doors of liberation. One is the door of emptiness, and the other is the door of signlessness, and the other is the door of goallessness. So, signlessness, which was the one that I wanted to, it seems that you brought up, I think that's what you brought up, is

[42:29]

naming things, representations. So, when we name something, we step back from its true thusness, because it becomes a representation. So, I say, you know, that's a mat, but it's not a mat. I call it a mat, because I say, well, that's a mat, so it needs a name for me to, I could just say that, [...] and that wouldn't mean much, so I have to say that's a mat, but I don't believe in it. It's just a word. I can call it a pshooky de kooky. Oh, yeah, I know what a pshooky is. That's what that is. So it's just a name, and it obscures, to a certain extent, its reality. So, the teaching of

[43:29]

this, the second door is signlessness. If you see a flower only as a flower and don't see the sunshine and the clouds and the earth and the time and the space in it, you are caught up in the sign of the flower. You don't see the complete flower. But when you have touched the nature of interbeing of the flower, you truly see the flower. If you see a person and don't also see his society, education, ancestors, culture, and environment, you have not really seen that person. Instead, you have been taken in by the sign of that person, the outward appearance of a separate self. When you see that person deeply, you touch the whole cosmos, and you will not be fooled by appearances. So this is called signless. It's also an expression of nirvana. The teaching of nonattainment

[44:31]

is developed from the teaching of goallessness, which is the third one, pranahita. The teaching of the three doors of liberation is common to all Buddhist schools. The first door is emptiness. Everything is empty. Of what? Empty of a separate self. A flower is full of everything in the cosmos, sunshine, clouds, air, and space. It is empty of only one thing, a separate existence. That is the meaning of emptiness. We can use this as the key to unlock the door of reality, which is an expression of nirvana. The third door is goallessness. We already are what we want to become. We don't have to become someone else. All we have to do is be ourselves fully and authentically. That fully and authentically is important. Sometimes we say we wish somebody

[45:33]

wouldn't be that self. We don't have to run after anything. We already contain the whole cosmos. We simply return to ourselves through mindfulness and touch and the peace and joy that are already present within us and all around us. I have arrived. I am already home. There is nothing to do. This is the third key for unlocking reality. Goallessness, non-attainment, is the wonderful practice of nirvana. The three doors of liberation. Goallessness is like what do I do now? If I don't have a goal, what should I do? But if you have a selfless goal, you'll always know what to do. What keeps us from knowing what to do is our false

[46:34]

sense of self, which is created by following vain paths that vain means it doesn't come to anything. So the Buddha, the Dharma path, is like a maze. Our life is like a maze. And so there are all these doors that look like they're going someplace, all these paths, but they don't go anywhere. They end somewhere. So to find the path that goes all the way through, that's called the Dharma, the Dharma path. It's the path that goes all the way through. And like all the other paths, it's not straight. But if you follow it, realizing that there's

[47:35]

a foundation and it nurtures you, and you see the problems with all the other paths, then you have faith in the Dharma. Because you see, I don't know where this path ends, but I know that it begins and ends with each step. So we don't look forward to where it's going to end. The end is the beginning of each step. If we know that the end is the beginning of each step, and each step is the beginning of each step, just one step at a time. But we have, understand, we understand, we have some teaching that helps us. Fortunately, we have some teaching that

[48:35]

helps us. And then as we discover the teaching more and more, even though we don't understand it, the more we work with it, the more the understanding reveals itself. The understanding reveals itself when we work with it. When we wholeheartedly work with it, it reveals itself. And the joy that comes up is the joy of that revelation. Yes? As you describe your family dynamic, sounds like the sign of whitesmen, family whitesmen. And you have this dream that expressed through showed the signlessness. Well, yes, it was

[49:35]

like seeing deeply into reality of, I don't know about signlessness, you just set up signs and just call it something, just call it mother and emptiness. Maybe emptiness would be a better term, the liberation of emptiness because the restrictions and boundaries were all gone. So, I guess if you see the signs as restrictions, yeah, that was all gone. Yes, it was boundless, just the pure light.

[50:29]

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