As you know, the essence of our practice is to return to your essence of mind. When those two monks were discussing whether the flag was moving or the wind was moving, and the sixth patriarch said, neither the flag is moving nor the wind is moving, but mind is moving, he was pointing out that we always in Buddhism talk about the mind, not about some object or subject. As the sixth patriarch and Rinzai and many teachers have said, when the mind arises all

[01:14]

things are produced, when the mind is extinguished, all things are extinguished. This doesn't mean to keep your mind, try to keep your mind pure or try to make it empty The sixth patriarch recommended that we practice the samadhi of one form and the samadhi of oneness. The samadhi of oneness, the samadhi of one form being that in everything you encounter during the day or at night or in any situation, you don't become attached to any form. And the samadhi of oneness is that in any situation you always have pure, direct mind.

[02:34]

And this is how we practice Zen. But it may not be so easy for you to practice in this very direct way, which is called the way of sudden enlightenment, because most of you don't even see your own mind or have the ability to stay with your activity, let alone stay with pure, direct mind. So it may be useful to discuss what is this mind that arises, where does it come from, how does it exist, what makes it so troublesome. Anyway we can very simply say that when it arises it's immediately conditioned either

[04:01]

by some wholesome effect or some unwholesome effect, or it's neutral, it's just simple sense impressions, not conditioned. And if you can see the way your mind works, you'll find that even the most simple sense impressions are almost immediately conditioned as you have thoughts about the impressions. As soon as a thought arises about some sense impression, immediately a tangle of feelings relating it to past or future, and some emotion about it or its possibilities comes about. And we are unable to stop it. So we have some practice which allows us to see our mind and our life.

[05:12]

Your mind has some habit and your body has some habit even more so. Your body persists, maybe more so than the mind even, so you have to find some way to practice with your mind and body. Ritual, you know, we use ritual in our practice, we eat with some ritual, and ritual in the widest sense means all your practice, and should have three aspects to it. One is we do one thing at a time, and the other is we don't force anything, and three is we do things with others. Even if you're by yourself completely, you do things with consciousness of others.

[06:21]

In this spirit, you know, we practice in everything we do. So, maybe some of you have heard the terms, you know, of a stream-enterer and a once-returner and a never-returner, and a our-heart, or holy being. And the distinctions between these three, the first three particularly, are rather, it's hard to say in English, you know, because the wording is almost the same if you try

[07:35]

to explain them, but if you practice, if you find yourself practicing Buddhism for a long time, these distinctions will represent, actually, the first few years, the second few years, the third few years. Wholesome and unwholesome are, actually, in one sense, you know, we can't say something's wholesome or unwholesome, but when suffering

[08:38]

or mental confusion or pain is associated with self-conflict or with hatred or greed or aversion or delusion, then we can say it's unwholesome. A stream-enterer is one who's begun to have a directed sense of consciousness or a directed consciousness. Many of us have some insight into Buddhism or into reality, but we don't have a directed consciousness. And some of us can be free at times from the three fetters or the ten fetters, ten impediments.

[09:47]

But unless the freedom is part of a directed consciousness, of a way-seeking mind, as implied in, you know, enterer and once-returner and never-returner, it's almost useless, maybe worse than not practicing Buddhism. Some people have turned themselves around, so their direction has changed, but they are not free from anger and hatred or aversion and desire and delusion.

[10:49]

And so, these things are actually magnified, become much more troublesome for you and others. And some people are rather free from the various impediments, but haven't changed their direction at all. That's ordinary morality. So we say in Buddhism, after, you know, something arises, your mind arises, whether you can see it is wholesome or unwholesome or neutral, and whether you have some control or volition

[11:58]

over your consciousness or its moves without your either awareness or your ability to participate. And then we name, traditionally, ten fetters, which include the three fetters of greed, hate, and delusion. And hate actually includes both anger and hate. Maybe aversion is a better translation. Anyway, the first one is the belief in a permanent personality, some, I have some nature, I have some talents. My nature is such-and-such, so this will happen to me.

[12:59]

You know, a way-seeking mind means to see through the changeability, through everything changing. So we should see beyond, you know, the particular constituents of our personality. Anyway, actually, most of us have some belief in a permanent personality or a particular nature that we possess, and we use it usually as an excuse, that's my nature, to do such-and-such. Even so, you know, it shouldn't be a belief. It may be your nature in some circumstance, because of your habit, you know, your particular

[14:11]

body and mind, which you've inherited, actually, mostly through your own acts of consciousness. That you have some particular nature, but in our practice we should always have some antidote to that. A belief in self, you know, is very difficult to get rid of. And even when you see through it, you know, you'll find yourself, some idea of self arises.

[15:12]

So the idea of self comes back in again at the end of this list of ten impediments. And the second one is corrosive doubt. Maybe the opposite of a belief in personality or a particular nature is you doubt everything. And this is different from the doubt which you already need, always need. I don't know, I can't find any satisfactory way of expressing this larger doubt, maybe metaphysical doubt isn't right either. A doubt which is the same as the acknowledgment of the temporariness of everything.

[16:16]

That kind of doubt which made Suzuki Yoshi preface everything at some time or other with so-called Buddhism, so-called person, so-called, that so-called building. Maybe, maybe that's Manjushri back then. But there's another kind of doubt which corrodes your ability to act on everything. And it's really based on some desire for purity or an absolute or perfection. Being unsatisfied with, so unsure you can't be satisfied with temporary situations, temporary accomplishments, that you destroy everything.

[17:25]

You make some small progress and immediately you attack it as not real progress or something like that. The third is dependence on doing or clinging to rituals or observances. This also many of you get caught in. You go from one kind of doing to the next, thinking you find yourself in the doing. If suddenly there's some gap, you know, when you have nothing to do, you're completely at your wits end. It's very, very good for Madison Avenue though, because it's at that point when all the little

[18:31]

cards and the buses and billboards become useful, because you can fill your mind with reading billboards, magazine articles, etc. Anyway, we always want to occupy and preoccupy ourself. So you get caught by filling space, like you jump nervously from one stone to the next across the stream, you think, rather than entering the stream, teetering on one kind of doing and then teetering on the next kind of doing, hoping that the doing is a path, but that's not the path of Buddhism. Anyway, the fourth and fifth are greed and aversion, desire and hatred and anger.

[19:43]

And these five are what the stream-enterer and the once-returner and the never-returner copes with. The stream-enterer is one who's got a sense of what's happening, and he's seen the tail of the bull, and he's got some idea of how to get hold of his life and practice, put some order into his daily activity, so he can begin to actually work with the arising

[20:50]

of his mind and body. And the once-returner has seen through greed, hate and delusion. And they seldom arise, you know. He's enough on top of, around and under situations that he participates in the arising of situations, and so seldom is he caught, unawares, by what happens, so that he reacts with anger

[21:50]

or hatred or desire. Do you understand what I mean? But occasionally a once-returner finds himself caught by greed, hate or delusion. But it's not so serious, and he's able to actually, in some fertile way, express these situations, these feelings. A never-returner is someone who, wholesome and unwholesome and neutral roots of his

[22:53]

state of mind are united in one kind of joyful, steady flame. With this kind of mind you can practice the samadhi of one form or the samadhi of oneness. Your mind is not so disturbed. The sixth ones are antidotes to the problems that arise from creating, from accomplishing some freedom from the first five.

[23:58]

They are being caught by or wanting a world of pure form, carefully, you know, practicing so that there's little disturbance. And the next one, of course, since this is Buddhism, is being caught by the world or wanting the world of no form, of returning always to emptiness, recognizing that form is emptiness and emptiness is form, but staying away from form is form, emptiness, emptiness. And then the next one is pride, and the next restlessness, and the last is ignorance or

[25:21]

delusion. Ignorance is another way of saying still some belief in self, still not seeing things as they actually are, as if you accomplish some freedom from these fetters, some sense again of pride arises. You know, it's ... the safest way to exist in this world is to have a sense of who everyone else is, some kind of pigeonhole or astrological hole for each person. You don't want to be, as I said yesterday, helpless in front of every situation, not

[26:29]

knowing what it is. So even if you get some ability to be free from the arisings of your mind and body that conform as a self, you may get that kind of freedom, but everyone joins together to give you, to defeat you, to give you a sense of self. Everyone wants you to have a sense of self, because then they can know who you are and what to expect from you, and they will compliment you or criticize you. So it's very difficult not to have some feeling of pride or self-assurance, particularly if

[27:36]

you're successful. And if you have that feeling, still you'll have restlessness, because you haven't calmed everything. And restlessness is one of the most difficult, you know, whenever Buddhism makes lists of difficulties, restlessness is always right near the end of them, number 117, number 9, or whatever. Because when you ... whatever situation you're in, there's a constant tendency for your mind to arise and want to make something, even if, as I said, once you've given up past and future thinking, your mind will try to make something of present events or happenings

[28:38]

or noises, and your body will stir itself. If it can stir itself, if your mind and body exist quite naturally without an idea of self, free from these fetters, then there's ... we don't ... there's no problem of restlessness. Then subject and object, activity are, the path itself. So, although our Zen practice, you know, is always to return to your essence, to your

[29:43]

sense of mind, not this form or that form. And in this Zen practice, it doesn't make any difference whether you are angry or confused or whatever, what idea of self, if in an instant of thought you can cut off attachment. This means, you know, sudden enlightenment, you know, various kinds of stepladder practice are not necessary. So, our Zen practice is to, each moment, return to our essence of mind, without leaving ... actually

[30:52]

the fuel of our deluded self. And if you want to be free from your deluded self, you have to take away the fuel. So, as you try to practice the samadhi of one's own mind, one's own consciousness, one's own form in the samadhi of oneness, returning always to your essence of mind, you'll find that more and more you can see clearly how your mind arises, how your body arises, and

[31:52]

how it's conditioned by these ten fetters. Do you have any questions about this problem that's before you? What's the difference between restlessness and desire? What do you mean? Desire is a kind of restlessness, maybe. Well, desire is a kind of restlessness of mind, but it's a condition of restlessness. So, it seems there is some difference in the phenomena. It seems like you're speaking of a different phenomena called restlessness, which is different

[32:54]

from the phenomena called desire. Isn't there a difference between anger and desire? Well, restlessness, if you feel restless, sometimes it turns into anger, sometimes it turns into desire. Restlessness comes first. And the idea of self and restlessness are very close. Yeah. What do you do when you find yourself jumping into the stream? Fall in the stream. It won't hurt. Maybe a little. No, in this sense, you know, when I'm speaking, I didn't say, we direct.

[34:17]

I said the consciousness is directed. I didn't mean by someone, the stream exists. If you, I suppose, you know, at the, you know, on the stupa that was made for Suzuki Roshi's gravesite that stood behind the stone, one, each side is one of four gates to Buddhism. One side, one side is the initial desire to practice or the first awakening of enlightened,

[35:25]

enlightenment mind. And I think when you begin to practice, you know, you have, you have to have this choice, conscious choice, which you reinforce to practice Buddhism, to develop way seeking mind, to choose enlightenment over distraction. I can.

[36:28]

Chotto. I think. We, we who practice have the experience that sometimes we have the illusion we have a choice not to practice, but we do have a choice to practice. If you choose not to practice, you will find yourself soon in trouble. But if you also just expect to be carried along before your practice is very deep or developed,

[37:34]

then that's some dragging of your feet, shuffling along some excuse, which means you don't want to too quickly give up the fine strands of pride or delusion, self. If you're serious about practicing and if you're convinced of the ultimate nature of this universe, which is found within you, then you lose no time to put everything into that service. If you have some choice, you choose whatever you can do, you bring to that practice. Without being too strict and strange looking to everyone else, you may have to act in various ways.

[38:41]

So you don't aren't too strict with others by being strict with yourself. But inside, you should be completely strict with yourself. No room for wiggling this way or that way. If you find yourself involuntarily wiggling this way and that way, then you can be amused by it and watch it. Yeah. But as long as you have some choice, you choose to practice. We can say at first, you know, it's rather, you know, like a laser beam, which just takes all of the molecules, which are usually going in various directions, and gets them all going the same direction. Nothing's changed, but everything's going the same direction.

[39:42]

It becomes quite powerful. So your mind in practice, by simplifying and ordering our daily life and watching how our mind arises, we turn our mind and body and consciousness and energy into a kind of laser beam. That penetrates everything. But eventually you see that actually this entire thing which we can observe, that we call various names, universe or cosmos or great being, is actually one harmonious, directed, flowing, nothing we can name at all. And you participate in it, because you are it.

[40:43]

Your problem is always that you define yourself too small, or you define your small self too big. What do you think? Silence.

[41:55]

Silence. Anyway, your particular interest is fuel. And maybe you can ask the question in another way, sometime again. Silence. Why do you want to relieve the pain? Silence.

[43:08]

Of course your body hurts. You know, Buddha himself died from eating spoiled pork, and he suffered. His body suffered. And Suzuki Roshi, when he died, his body suffered. We can get free of mental suffering, which is worse than body suffering. But we can't, as long as we have a body, get free of body suffering. So it's only a matter of how important the hurting is to you. It won't stop hurting. If you let it flood you, it'll be worse. If it's just some sensation in your knee, way down there, over there, in there, it's not so important. But if you want to, please move your legs. It's okay.

[44:18]

But if you move them, move them with some confidence. Don't move them feeling guilty, I moved. Yeah. Feel the what pain? Oh. What did you say? It doesn't take long to warm up the body pain? Is that what you said? That's a wonderful expression. Someone wrote me a letter yesterday. He said, over every Zendo door, there should be Dante's words.

[45:25]

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. And it should say underneath that, prepare to warm up the body pain. It's interesting how much body pain it takes to distract our mind. But, you know, mostly in the Zendo, the pain of Sashin isn't doing much physical damage. And it's some signal, you know, if it is physical damage, it's some signal, you should take some action, pull your hand out of the fire. But if it's not a signal that there's some physical damage

[46:30]

and you know that with some confidence, it's just not a signal. I don't know what to say. After you've practiced a while, it's just not very important, the pain. It eventually goes away, almost goes away. It's still there, but the importance of it to you is so different, you know. And that's a wonderful experience because from then on, the importance of many things in your life is different. Things you gave great importance to are entirely different importance and you can begin to see over certain mountains that penned you in before. So we should have some difficulty. If you think you can practice some serious practice like Buddhism without difficulty, you know you're completely mistaken. There are various religions which emphasize good feelings and joyful situations primarily

[47:46]

and we can practice one of those if you want. But Buddhism emphasizes suffering as the root of everything and freedom from suffering. And a way to be free from suffering. But suffering, we must know suffering. Every one of you will have some great suffering in your life. And as you know, various of you will die from accidents or diseases which will cause you much suffering. And you'll have relationships with people who are in much suffering. And if you don't at least have familiarity with the suffering of a sasheen, how can you expect to cope with everything that will arise in your life?

[48:51]

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