I've heard that the teaching of all Buddhas is to avoid all wrong action and to practice all all good and purify the mind. And purify the mind how? Partly by avoiding misconduct and being devoted to practicing right conduct.

[01:04]

Once the mind is clear, one may be able to see what some other people have supposedly seen and that is that there's like, in a way, like the way the world appears to be and the way the world is actually functioning. The way that the world appears to be is that there's wrong action and right action. There's good and bad activity. And there's birth and death. And there's self and other.

[02:23]

and there is an action has consequence. This is the way the world seems to be. And if in the world where there appears to be good and bad action, self and other, birth and death, and suffering, if in that world one is able to be devoted to giving up wrong action and being devoted. The mind becomes clear and the mind opens to another way that the world is simultaneously functioning in which there is just good. There's no good opposed to good. There's just good. and where there's no birth and death, no coming and going, and no self separate from others, and where there's no suffering, where things are peaceful.

[03:41]

However, the lifeblood of those who realize the realm where there's no birth and death and where there is only good, those who realize this, their lifeblood is also the world or the world of appearances of birth and death and right and wrong. They participate in the world appearances by participating in the world of good and avoiding evil and having a mind which sees that birth and death can never be found and good even and they realize a good which can never be found and they constantly realize a good which can never be found by

[04:51]

giving up on wholesomeness, which seems to be found, and practicing good, which seems to be found. So in the realm where we think we can find things, let go of the evil you find, don't get involved in it, and practice the good you think you can find. This process opens the mind to the world of peace, birth and death. Many of you have heard the poem by the Sufi teacher, Rumi, which is something like, Beyond wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. There's a field beyond wrongdoing and right doing. I'll meet you there. The Buddha's teach

[05:58]

I think the same thing, that there is a field beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing and there you will meet all the Buddhas. But you will hear these Buddhas teaching those who still live in the realm of wrongdoing and rightdoing. And the teaching of the Buddhas in the realm of skillful and unskillful behavior is give up the unskillful and practice the skillful. Thus purify your mind so you can enter the realm beyond good and bad. Birth and death, self and other. And so a basic way to practice the Buddha way is this way that Buddhists teach.

[07:06]

Again, avoiding evil, practicing all good, and purify the mind. Another way to put it is that to study the Buddha way, to learn the Buddha way, is to learn about the self. To learn about the self which is separate from the other. To learn the Buddha way is to learn about karma, is to learn about action and its consequences. To learn the Buddha way is to learn how our actions are driven by past actions and how our actions express intention for future actions.

[08:15]

And it's to learn how this causal process is an enclosure, a world in which one may feel trapped in birth and death. To learn the Buddha way is to learn how this causal process, to learn about it, to learn about it, to study it, to study how action has consequence. is closely related to giving up those actions which have negative harmful consequences, to study action in terms of is there a negative consequence, to study action in terms of is there a positive consequence.

[09:22]

Might there be? and to sometimes see this seems to be unskillful and watch to see how that works. This seems to be skillful, watch how that works. And watch how the intention, not I don't necessarily know, but the intention to practice good is generally in the direction of practicing good. However, there still is some self-enclosure in the realm of trying to practice good and avoid evil. The process of trying to practice good and avoid evil keeps us in the world where there is good and evil opposed to each other and birth and death. Doing good also contributes

[10:24]

to keeping the world of right action and wrong action rolling and keeping the mind which is seeing good opposed to evil in that world view. However, in the realm of where you're doing good and perpetuating the world of good and evil, there is also the getting ready to open to the realm beyond good and evil. If we do not give up wrong action and practice right action, the proposal from the ancestors is that we stay entrapped. Although both types of karma, good and evil, and also indeterminate, keep the process of karmic enclosure going.

[11:25]

The wholesome karma studies, learns about the process. The unwholesome karma does not learn about the process at all. The essential, in some ways, unwholesome type of action is action which is not respecting consequence. If we do something even something that doesn't seem wicked like open a door and simultaneously we think or we view opening doors as not and the consequence of opening the door doesn't really matter or even to think that opening doors doesn't really have any consequence, so I'm just going to open it.

[12:29]

That attitude towards door opening in some sense is worse than doing something that you know is harmful but which you think this is harmful and it has consequence, there will be some consequence. because then somehow you're studying even while you're doing something unskillful. You're learning about unskillfulness. You think it's important when you do something unskillful because you know it has consequences. You believe you're studying as though it has consequences. You're giving attention to even unskillful action. So by studying and learning our actions and their consequence, by studying causation in general and specifically about our own actions, unlearn our action patterns.

[13:45]

By studying our action patterns or by studying action patterns in the Buddha way we mean unlearning them or we say forgetting them. Once again to study the Buddha way is to study causation especially the causation of action and consequence. To learn the way is to learn about action and consequence. The Buddhas study action and consequence. And the way they study action and consequence is that they study it thoroughly. And in the thorough study of action and consequence they forget about action and consequence.

[14:49]

In the thorough study of avoiding evil and practicing good and watching the consequence of actions which avoid evil and watching the consequence of actions which practice good, their minds become clear and they forget. They forget about the world of good and bad action. They unlearn it. They don't know how to do good and bad anymore. And then all there is is good in the field of the Buddhas beyond good and bad. We open to this field beyond good and bad not just practicing good but studying the causation involved in good and seeing how that even in practicing good there's habits there's momentum from past there's difficulties because of past actions there's ease in doing unwholesome things because of past actions studying all this leads to a thorough

[16:14]

unlearning of all this, unlearning of suffering, unlearning of suffering, unlearning of karmic causation, through the thorough study of all of those things. But not just study of them, because we won't be able to study unless we're also devoted sort of in an imbalanced way towards practicing good. We have to be kind of partial in our practice towards practicing good because practicing good requires attention and devotion, whereas practicing evil does not require it. Therefore, practicing unwholesome activity doesn't clarify the mind. Practicing wholesome leads to clarifying the mind.

[17:17]

When the mind is clarified, you unlearn the pattern, and you open to awakening. Once again, to study the way of Buddha, to study the way of awakening, is to study Causation. To study Karmic Causation really means to forget Karmic Causation. Only those who study Karmic Causation thoroughly can really forget it. It's not the same as forgetting it. A lot of people can ignore it without studying it much at all. but to really forget it or unlearn it, to unlearn your ancient habits comes through studying thoroughly the manifestation of ancient habits.

[18:21]

To forget ancient patterns of cause, of karmic cause and effect comes through studying them as they are manifesting, are maturing right now. Unlearning karmic causation through study of karmic causation means to be awakened by everything. Awakened by everything is for your body and mind to be liberated and for the body and minds of others to be liberated. To study the Buddha way is to study karmic causation.

[19:25]

To study karmic causation is to forget karmic causation. To forget karmic causation is to be enlightened by all events. To be enlightened by all events is the dropping off of the body and mind of self and others. To study the Buddha way, to learn the Buddha way, excuse me, is to learn about karmic causation. To learn about karmic causation is to unlearn karmic causation. To unlearn karmic causation is to be awakened by all things. And in being awakened by all things, our body drops off. and the body and minds of others drops off. Now how do we, so how do we, that's pretty clear probably, right?

[20:45]

Sort of. So then how, so that's, so if you want to study the Buddha way, What do you study? Well, you study the self. Any self available? In a sense, the self is a pattern of behaviors. Many of us can identify of our own body and to some extent we're aware of the karmic behavior patterns of other bodies. So study the behavior patterns and the pattern behavior is one way to find a self. Or finding a self

[21:47]

is one way to find the habit in your behaviors. So the habit part of your behavior is what we mean by self. That the behavior seems to be kind of like permanent or continuous or separate from other behavior patterns. So study if you can see any patterns. Now practicing good and avoiding evil draws our attention to our behavior, our behavior and others' behavior. And you can look at this at the level of intention Like right now, do I feel some intention for me to continue to talk?

[23:02]

Is there some habit there? Is there a habit to look at my watch? Yeah, there is. I habitually look at my watch when I give talks here. Sometimes a little too late for some people. Again, simply put, As I speak to you, as I look at you, am I intending good? And what do I think is practicing good? Do I think it's good to speak to you carefully and respectfully?

[24:13]

Do I think it's good to speak to you calmly? and attentively. Actually, I do. I think so. I may be wrong. And then throughout the day Every thought I have, is it a thought to be respectful and attentive? Is there an intention to be respectful and attentive to what's appearing before me and what's appearing as me? I don't necessarily know what practicing good is, but is there a devotion to that?

[25:28]

And is it alive this moment and this moment? And does any unwholesome intention or impulse or . . . and to observe unwholesome intentions, unskillful intentions when they arise. Actually, I think it is good. I may be wrong, but I'm devoted to what I think is good. Because my experience has been that it takes attention to be devoted to what I think is good, because I have to keep checking what I think is good. what I think is good and also whether I'm up for that. And again, I think it's good to even be attentive to unwholesome impulses when they arise.

[26:29]

I think so. So I guess I think it's good to pay attention to all my impulses, all my intentions. All my intentions have consequence. Intentions are the definition of karma, and they have consequence, which is they tend to drive more intentions, which have more consequences, which have more intentions, and they tend to reproduce themselves and create an enclosed world, and that enclosed world which they create is the world of birth and death. It's the world of good and bad. I try to watch the impulses to do good and the impulses to do bad. And by watching these impulses, I'm studying the world, creating

[27:35]

I'm studying the process of a closed world where good and bad, wholesome and unwholesome, struggle with each other in a perpetual reproducing cycle of birth and death. And I watch also when experiences some habitual reaction to them. And again, not necessarily try to stop, like when pain arises, not necessarily try to stop the shrinking away from it or the trying to avoid it, but notice it. Because noticing it is studying karmic causation. Because the avoiding of the pain, the impulse to avoid the pain, is determined to some extent, importantly, observably, responses like that.

[28:42]

So I can actually see the unfolding of the karma around my pain and my pleasure. The pleasure I experience also, do I wish for more of it, to hold on to it, to prolong it? is the manifesting of the conditioning process. And the feelings that I feel at every moment, these feelings, some of which I'm conscious of, some of which I'm not, these feelings are the maturing of the same process and opportunities situated. So I can see the maturing of the process and I can see new opportunities to crank the karmic wheel again. I don't advise myself or you to interfere with it, but to observe it. Being devoted to good and avoiding evil doesn't really interfere with the process.

[29:45]

It eliminates the whole process without interfering with it. It eliminates it by the mind becoming clear and opening to the field where there is no karmic causation. But holding back in my devotion to careful attention to all action hinders the opening of the mind, the purifying the mind, to see the realm beyond the training world, the world of training, where there's self and others, good and evil, suffering, and so on. So there is a proposal that it may not be possible to realize liberation from the process of suffering without studying

[31:29]

the process of cause and effect part of which is the process of suffering another part of it is the process consequence that it may not be possible or someone might even say it is not possible practice the Buddha way and liberate self and other from this process of suffering without attention to karmic causation or causation of intention and consequence, intention and consequence, intention and consequence. Without studying that process it may not be possible to attain liberation from that process and the suffering which is involved in it. And the other thing is that some people if you study the process and see the causation that would also show you because you're caught in a mechanical process of cause and effect.

[32:33]

So that even your good intentions, of course, have good consequences. But the good consequences lock you into more good intentions, which cause more good consequences, which locks you into more good intentions. And that's right, that does happen. lock you into a world, a pretty nice world, relatively speaking, of good intentions and good consequences. It's pretty good because it's setting up the possibility of freedom from that bondage. And even good intentions, which have good consequences, like peace, which have good consequences, The main good consequences of doing good, the main good consequence is the consequence of being free from this process.

[33:34]

Right there it looked like that surprised some people, although I said it before. Was that a little catch there at that point for some people or just one person? So I'm going round and round because I'm in samsara talking to you in samsara which means samsara means going round and round. So as we go round and round between birth and death all day long this is samsara teaching is to avoid evil practice good And by attention to this, the mind is predicted to clear up and open up where there's only good. There's no good opposed to evil.

[34:46]

But I have lots of opportunities to see good and evil. Unfortunately, usually when there's evil it's harder to see because that's part of what's evil is not looking at what's happening. we had this opportunity to study karmic causation and completely unlearn it and enter the realm of freedom, which allows us to plunge right into, back into, the realm of birth and death, and play there, play in the realm of doing good and doing good and doing good but not by habit but by being drawn to those beings which we are being liberated with and to help them appreciate this process of liberation by inviting

[35:59]

You're willing to study cause and effect very carefully, very respectfully, and showing them that it's really, it's really good to practice it. And almost, you know, whatever way you can do it, you know, like fun, if that would encourage them to do it. Or you can even make it look like something which you don't want them to do. You want to do it all by yourself and you won't let them do it. in the world of birth and death, you know, even good. So we go on with awareness and courage and freedom to use imperfect means to deal with the imperfect situation. So today I've

[37:01]

I've offered some imperfect means to deal with this imperfect situation. Even practicing good is not a perfect means but it's a good means. Of course evil is quite an imperfect means but trying to give up evil is an imperfect means which is recommended to deal with an imperfect situation called evil. And then once again the proposal is if we do this and if we enter into this way of living of using these imperfect practices in this imperfect world the mind will become purified and will forget the whole world unlearn the whole world and open to of dharma of no birth and death no right and wrong and there we will meet the poets the enlightened poets all the buddhas and great sufi masters and jewish masters and christian masters and atheist and communist masters and capitalist masters will meet all the masters and mistresses of the universe who are playing in the field beyond good and bad

[38:30]

is a completely thorough study of the difficult world, the painful world, of birth and death, the painful world of karmic causation. They have unstintingly studied their own action and the actions of others to the end and realized liberation and liberation. back into the world of birth and death and send us this message and invite us to come and play with them. But it's a hard job. However, it's available. What is it? Nice work if you can get it. And you can get it if you try. It's nice work, but it's hard work. It's partly hard because you've got to be right on the case.

[39:36]

You can't be generally in the area of intention. You've got to get right down to the intention of the moment. What intention is there? What is wanting to be expressed right now? I grope. I struggle. not to have an intention, but to attune to it, to discover it, to be close to it, to learn [...] it. So it isn't really that I... So there's one instruction would be, it isn't that we value karmic causation or demean it. that we learn it.

[40:41]

We study it. We become intimate. We become adept at karmic causation. And becoming adept at it, we open to the realm of reality. And we're only working in cooperation with everyone. And there's no birth and death. But it isn't that we esteem that world or demean it. Because esteeming and demeaning are part of karmic causation. It's rather that we become adept at it. We learn it. And the way we learn the realm beyond birth and death, the way we learn the field beyond good and bad, is by learning the field of good and bad. And in particular, learning good and bad by giving. Practicing the good. Very simple. But of course, again, difficult to do it in the moment, in the moment, in the moment.

[41:50]

Not just a general policy, which is good. That's part of it. Okay, I have a general policy of practicing good. Great. Right now in the present, I'm glad to hear that. And if I feel that way, I'm happy for myself and everybody around me. Now let's check it out. Is the policy being applied? And in order for the policy to be enacted, somebody has to be watching. It's enacted in the present action. Not checking the watch. It is what might be called relatively early. I feel an impulse to sing a song.

[42:52]

I don't know if it's... I'm looking to see now is it good or not. I hope it's good. It might be good. Well, you can tell me later. I welcome your feedback. You can tell me if it's good, and you can tell me if it's bad, and you can tell me if you're not sure. But also, you can even tell me if it was beyond good and bad. This may launch us into the realm beyond good and bad. Of course, some of you know this song because I sang it quite a few times. You're welcome to join in. When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbing along, along, there'll be no more sobbing when she starts throbbing.

[43:59]

Sweet song, wake up, wake up you sleepy head. Get up, get up, get out of bed. Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red. Live, love, laugh and be happy. Though I've been blue now. Walking through fields of flowers. Rain may glisten, but still I listen for hours and hours. I'm just a kid again, doing what I did again, singing a song. When Robin comes bop-bop-bopping along, bop-bop-bopping along. Yeah. The last part is Louis Armstrong. Yeah. Is there anything you'd like to discuss or any questions that you'd like to bring up?

[45:19]

Yes, Lynn? Would you say something about Looking inside, looking at your mind or looking to the precepts or book as a way or any other way of determining what is skillful and what is unskillful. She asked to say something about maybe how to pay attention in order to, did you say determine what is skillful? You're paying attention. Yeah. Are you using some kind of guidelines to decide what is skillful and what is unskillful? Are you looking to see what would happen? You could use guidelines, like you can see, for example, there's the Bodhisattva precepts. You could use them as guidelines, or you could use them as meditation. objects so like if like right now I'm talking to you and the first bodhisattva precept is taking refuge in Buddha okay so I could first precept and consider now when I'm talking to Lin am I am I talking to Lin

[46:49]

as a opportunity to take refuge in Buddha right now. So I'm just sort of like opening to that way of talking to you. Would I like to take refuge in Buddha? I ask myself. And I hear, yes, I would. If I'm talking to Lynn or looking at Lynn, do I want to take refuge in Buddha? Do I want to take refuge in Buddha? The answer in my heart is yes. So in a sense, in talking to you or whatever I'm doing, I can just consider that first bodhisattva precept all the time. I mean, I say I can, I could, I might be able to. So in that way I'm meditating on taking refuge in Buddha while I'm talking to people. And while I'm taking refuge in Buddha, I sometimes talk to people and sometimes I listen to people.

[47:56]

So in that way I could try to practice attention to taking refuge in Buddha all day long. And in that way practice the first great Bodhisattva precept, which is going to Buddha, returning to Buddha. return to Buddha. I want to go home to Buddha in everything I do, all day long. Of course I do as a disciple of Buddha. I want to return to the source of our tradition. And so on through all the other precepts. I thought, okay, I'm taking refuge in Buddha. Now it comes time to, I don't know what, Maybe something like, now it comes time to have dinner and people are serving alcohol. So, if I'm taking revision Buddha, would I accept this offering of alcohol? If I was taking revision Buddha, would I practice the precept?

[48:58]

You know, using liquids and solids to intoxicate myself. How would I practice that? could drinking this beer or one sip of beer be in accord with taking refuge in Buddha? I would look at that. I would consider that. And if, you know, that drinking some beer was compatible with taking refuge in Buddha, then I would have kind of a, what am I going to do about that? How do I, you know, maybe I say, well, maybe I won't drink the beer then. Or maybe I drink the beer and say, well, I don't feel so good about that afterwards. Or I might say, well, I think actually maybe it would be good to drink the beer. Maybe Buddha would be okay with that. We'll see. Anyway, you watch how it works. So all these precepts are very helpful to focus on while you're breathing, while you're walking, while you're talking, while you're cooking. You can say as guidelines or as just look at them, you know, consider them along with all your activity.

[50:09]

they will help you practice good. Not exactly determine that it's good, but help you try to practice good. I don't think we can determine that it's good by our own mind, but our mind can wish to practice good. This is possible. When I asked you the question, That's the Buddhist, and if you follow the precepts are, as you said, the first three are large, and then the others shall get more specific. The first three precepts are large? That's all we need in order to practice good and to avoid evil. If you really took refuge in Buddha, that would take care of those precepts. But if you also receive those precepts, that means, in some sense, if you formally receive all those precepts, that means you have received all those precepts.

[51:17]

and you're taking refuge in Buddha, you also let people know you're practicing these other precepts. So if they're looking at you, they can ask you, are you practicing these ten precepts? And you say, I'm committed to practice them. And then they can say, well, how is what you're doing not killing? How is what you're doing not stealing? How is what you're doing not intoxicating yourself? Precepts give you and others ways of interacting and checking to make sure you really are taking refuge in Buddha. If you really are, totally immersing yourself in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, these precepts will be cared for. But they help, they fill out the picture and are helpful. And I think if you take refuge in Buddha, you would also say, okay, I'll also practice these precepts, no problem. And I'll always tell people that I'm committed to them so they can check me out and see how my taking refuge in Buddha is going. So you're looking to get help from others as well.

[52:22]

Yeah, I think, because when you take refuge in Buddha, you take refuge in Sangha. And taking refuge in Sangha means you say to the community, I'm with you guys, you know, I'm here to help you and I invite you to help me. We're doing this together. If you have any questions about what I'm doing, I want you to give me feedback. Because, again, I may think I'm taking refuge in Buddha, but I need help to really pull that off. That's why Sangha is part of taking refuge in Buddha. Really it's all about taking refuge in Buddha, but Sangha is in there. So one, one triple-triple, but Buddha naturally has a Dharma and a Sangha. So we, that expands the picture. And then also Sanghas have precepts sometimes, and we do in the Sangha. Fine. I want these precepts as part of my study of karmic cause and effect.

[53:29]

These precepts are helpful, I find, and a lot of people do. So, there they are. If you want to receive them... I had a question regarding about karmic history. Yes. And taking inventory of that in our actions. Yes. If one does that on a regular basis, you become pretty aware of what your karmic history is. How does that change? How does your karmic history change? Or... Is it just a constant event on a moment-to-moment basis? I'll take an inventory of that. I mean, how do you change from, say, a karmic history that might have self-pity to not having self-pity? Well, I think the observing, for example, observing, maybe self-pity arises to observe that, and then also, in observing it, somehow be...

[54:39]

To the suggestion that there's a history to this, it seems to me that I felt like this before. So not only do you see that you have self-pity, but you see you had it before, and then you also get to see, well, this isn't just self-pity, this is like a habitual self-pity. So to feel, sometimes it's not habitual. Not everything we feel is habitual. Sometimes it's the maturing of something that was habitual. Sometimes it is habitual. So then, again, the more light and awareness you bring to habits, the more they're doomed. What? Hopefully it's constant awareness of your intention. That's a good point, that some behaviors were useful but they're not useful anymore but they've been established and now it's like time to change them but they don't want to be changed and they're in charge they got the force of habit and part of what karma is doing is trying to keep the thing going just like genes

[55:59]

So there's patterns in the causal process which are stuck, which are habitual, and aren't serving the health of the process. By studying them, by being aware of them, by learning about them, the habitual side can be dropped. So awakened people can still do good things, but they don't do it out of habit. They do it because it's good now. It's not because it was good last year. And they've watched the pattern of doing things now. They've seen the habitual nature of even good karma. And the more you see the habitual nature of good karma, the more you move into having good that's not the opposite of bad, that's not in the realm of habit, but that's in the realm of the good for all right now. And then tomorrow, it won't have the consequence that tomorrow you'll think that this was a good thing again to do.

[57:07]

So that's the idea, is learning the karmic habit. You'll unlearn the karmic habit. But it takes a lot. As you learn the karmic habit, you also learn often the conditions that support it. So just learning the karmic habit and saying, oh, this is a habit and it causes a lot of problem and I'd like to change it. That may not be sufficient. That's why we have practice centers where the whole situation gets changed. And then sometimes these patterns can be opened up because we're in a whole different social arrangement than the one in which the habit grew up. and then these new possibilities of action which isn't habitual are released. We start acting in beings rather than out of our habits and that's the realm beyond our habits. But we get there by studying our habits for a long time very carefully with the support of other people who hopefully are also studying

[58:17]

their karma, their intention, and so on. So I see Yuki, and then, who has her hand back there? That lady in the red, and you? Yes, Yuki? I have a question about, when you talk about, I've learned this stuff, I've learned how to get a causal reaction, what does it mean that I've learned to forget about it? What I thought about myself was, to talk about that, so forget that I've learned it means So you learn certain habits, okay? Like when we're children, we have a relationship with our mother or father. in the relationship, how to modulate the intensity of our experience by looking at them and looking away. We develop habits of how to soothe our nervous system so we can go to sleep and walk across the grass and so on. We do this back and forth until we have a certain style

[59:19]

through the interaction we learn how to modulate our affective experience, our feelings. And we develop these habits, these styles, and they become fixed. And that's sort of the way we relate to things. And people can see, you know, that's kind of the way Yuki does it this way. That's the way Rebbe is, he does it that way. And these things kind of get maintained. As we study them, We unlearn them in the sense that we no longer do things the way we've done them for a long time. New ways of relating to people in our experience start to be opened. So we unlearn our habits. In other words, we become more and more free of our habits. Our mind becomes purified of our habits. by being in a situation where we can see our habits. Just being in a situation where things are different and we're trying to get over our habits, we get over our habits in a habitual way.

[60:22]

That's why in AA they say, you can't change this all by yourself. It's not by your power that you're going to change your habits because you'll use your habits on your habits and then they'll just keep basically keeping themselves going. But studying it with the help of the studying, studying the self with others who are studying the self, you gradually see new possibilities that you don't have, you know, even while you're still being like you used to be, you're kind of seeing, you know, it's possible to be another way. And I'd like to be another way. Part of another way is actually I'm going to be patient about being another way. I'm not going to get excited about being another way. But I would like to be another way. I'd like to be able to be free of the way I always am. I'd like to be like a man, sometimes, or a woman, or a falcon, or a storm, or a song. I'd like to like but I know in order to open to them I have to recognize I'm kind of in a rut.

[61:25]

You know the word rut? Yuki? It's kind of like being in a ditch, or it's being stuck in a certain way. on a certain path and you can't move off of it because of the force of habit. Recognizing that, things start opening up. The mind becomes purified. And so in my habits, some of my habits are good, some of my habits are not. So by studying which are which and gradually applying the intention to give up the bad ones and practice the good ones, it isn't that I just practice good. And then I see, actually I'm in a rut. I'm in a pattern, a habit of good too now. As I study the habit of good, I become free of the habit of good and then I join the practice of good, which is not a habit. Buddhists aren't habitually good, they're freely good. They want to be good and that's enough. They are. Because their habits of what is good and what is bad have been illuminated and opened up and aren't boxing them in anymore.

[62:30]

And when we open, when we look at our boxes, our traps, our good traps even, as we look at the good traps, our mind becomes a trap. And the good is not a trap anymore. It's a door. So like this poet, you know, this Sufi poet I mentioned earlier, so his, one of his poems is this one of beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing, there's a field. I'll meet but another poem of his is the breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you don't go back to sleep you have to say what you really want don't go back to sleep the threshold is the place at the door the threshold where the two worlds meet the world of birth and death and the world of the Buddha Dharma, the threshold where they meet, people are going back and forth on that threshold.

[63:34]

We stand between the Dharma world and the world of birth and death. That's where we live. So we're all going back and forth at this threshold. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. But if we don't study the birth and death, we won't see the door. then the door will be like a box, a prison. More and more we can walk through the door and we can walk back in, back and forth. We can live on the threshold and be free at that place. And the breeze at dawn could be understood as at the beginning of every action. At the beginning, at the morning, at the dawn of every action, be awake. And you will see some way to open up. And also remember what you really want. You have to say, do you really want? I really want to practice the Buddha Dharma. I really want to practice Buddha's practice.

[64:36]

I really want to practice doing and then don't go back to sleep. Now all, you know, many of you have good intentions, but then sometimes we fall asleep. So I have to stay awake to what we really want. But it's also good to say what you want and then try to stay awake. It's really important to say what you really want. Is that okay? Yes. Yes. Well, I find it very useful to study stories. We have a lot of Zen stories, right? In a way, what the Zen stories are often about is they're about people who have stories who are letting their stories flow and change.

[65:55]

So even if you have some old stories that aren't applicable anymore, and now you have a new story which seems more applicable, more useful, that's fine. The important thing is not to believe in a story, but remember that a story is a story. A story isn't any more than a story. and basically let the story go. The way you let the story go is not by just throwing out the window, but by studying the story. Study the story until you understand the story. When you understand the story, you'll let go of it. But also, as part of studying stories, invite other people into your story studying. So other people can say, you know, you have this story and you seem to be kind of stuck on it. That's their story. And you can say, are you stuck on that story? And they say, well, actually, no. I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Do you think you're not stuck?

[66:56]

And then you might say, no, I think you're right. I think I am stuck. And then they say, well, you know, can I help you get unstuck? And you say, you know, maybe you invite, yeah, help me let go of my story. Not that my story isn't bad. Stories are useful, but mainly they're useful to test to see if you can let go of them. So yes, stories, we do have stories. We have various stories and our stories may be quite similar. Like we may have the story that we're in this room together right now on Sunday, you know, and this is Green Gulch Farm and so on. We have that story. And we have different versions. But the important thing is that we study the story. Because the characters for cause and effect or karmic cause and effect. The Chinese character for that, for conditions, that character means also history or story. So really we have karmic stories, history, karmic conditions.

[68:02]

So studying stories is another way, I know I can't bring up everything, on Sunday morning talks, but that's another approach to this is study Zen stories, study Buddhist stories, but also study your stories. And study those stories until the stories open up. And also study the stories and see if you don't want your stories to be open. See if you don't want people to mess with your stories. Then your stories turn into a habit. Just one second, she's next. Not the habit maturing, but the emotion maturing. Oh, what I said was that in every moment of experience, although we may not be conscious of it, we have a feeling. We experience in terms of positive, negative, and neutral sensation.

[69:03]

Like right now I'm looking at you and I can see the blue of your sweater and I could have a pain arise while I see the color. Or I could see your face and I could feel the pleasure. In every moment we have this kind of way of experiencing feeling. And around feeling we often have a lot of conditioning around feeling. of avoiding certain feelings, certain painful feelings, and trying to hold on. So feelings are a place of conditioning, but also feelings are one of the ways that our past karma is maturing in each moment. Because of past action, we evaluate certain situations, even colors, as painful. We evaluate other ones as pleasurable. We evaluate other ones as kind of neither. And that evaluation is due to past conditioning. So we can actually watch our past conditioning before us by watching our feelings. So watching feelings is part of tuning in to karmic causation.

[70:07]

Then we can see when feelings arise, what kind of intentions arise with them, because intentions are connected to feelings through past conditioning. So that's a good place to locate the current intention. Feeling is a way past intention is maturing. And another way that past intention is maturing is in terms of present intentions. So past intentions mature in a passive way in terms of feelings and an active way in terms of new intentions. So this is a way to tune into the moment by moment. And every moment there's a feeling to turn into and every moment there's an intention around in the situation. So we actually can tune into the process. But you've got to be right there and know what you're looking for. That make sense? Not easy, but there it is. Yes, Daigakun? Yes, you've been speaking about intention, and I think it would be fair to say that most people intend to get rid of bad things.

[71:12]

Yeah. We perceive as bad. Yeah. We intend to maintain or keep a hold of what is good. Yes. So in terms of evil or bad, we can think on a macro level of war, poverty, discrimination. And on a micro level, you know, things that arise in our life that we think are bad. But I've always been taught that if we really wanted to get rid of everything evil, we would get rid of everything good. In other words, that these things exist simultaneously. It's not possible just to get rid of one. Right. So I'm just curious how you understand. Well, I would say getting rid of, in order to get rid of evil, in order to let go of evil, we have to let go of good. I agree. And I would say that when I let go of good and evil, that's really what's good. But it's not the good that's... the old good that's opposite of evil.

[72:13]

It's the good which is freedom from the mind which is discriminating between good and evil. I agree. In addition to saying, I agree, we have to... in order to give up evil, you have to give up good. The way to give up evil is not... well, the way to give up evil is... impossible. Pay attention to it. If you pay attention to evil, evil doesn't thrive under mindfulness. And the good is to pay attention to good in such a way that you actually can let go of the good. So like, you know, in Genghis Khan, I would say, you know, it says, flowers fall in our attachment. So if you're doing good and you hold on to the good, the good falls. But if you are doing good and you let go of the good, it blooms. But not because you're trying to make it bloom, but because you're attending to it and letting go of it.

[73:17]

If you hold on to evil, it blooms. If you let go of the evil, the evil dies. So letting go of good, evil blooms. Letting go of evil, evil dies. So the way to get rid of good, the actual good which transcends it, is to let go of good, which you want to do, and to let go of evil, which you want to let go of. If you hold on to evil, of course it thrives. If you fight evil, it thrives. If you fight evil, it'll thrive. If you hold, of course it'll thrive. Good, that's not good either. But if you hold on to good, that will hurt the good. But if you practice good and let go of practicing good, that's how you let go of good, and good will thrive. And let go of evil, and evil will not thrive. That's how I would try to practice letting go of evil and letting go of good.

[74:25]

I want to let go of evil and good. I think letting go of both of them is really good. Do you agree? I would agree with that, but I find a little bit of question there about the actual means of how that's going to happen. Yeah, day by day, moment by moment question of how, how do you like really try to do something carefully and skillfully and at the same time let go. Yeah, exactly. That intention could also get him the weight. That intention, exactly. And what are the standards you're going to use to determine whether that's good or bad? Right. And then if you use standards, how can you use those standards, you know, like have a story about what's good and bad? How can you have that story without then using the story to like... You know, we have to like... So this is a real balancing act. Yeah, and how is it going to actually help?

[75:33]

Yeah, and like you teach calligraphy, how do you like do the calligraphy in the most beautiful way without holding on to doing the calligraphy in the most beautiful way? How do you do your, you know, put your whole best heart into the calligraphy without holding on to the brush or what's happening? This is like, this is art, right? This is the art. How does the artist whack that marble, you know, and giving up the whole project at the same time? A million times! And we see how they do it. We see some have been successful. And it's so wonderful. But of course, there's a million mistakes in the masterpiece too. I think, I don't know, maybe, I don't know who is next over. I see three hands, four hands, five hands.

[76:35]

Anyway, whichever one you want to go first. I didn't say that. I didn't say you should always be talking to yourself about what you want. I just said you have to say what you really want. Sometimes you just say it once and that will do for quite a while. You don't determine what you really want. You together with everybody else creates what you really want. But you can discover, and other people can find out too, what you really want. So somebody asks you, like I could ask you, what do you really want? And you could say, you could answer. But you didn't make that happen all by yourself. I asked you. That contributed to you saying, sometimes somebody says, what do you really want? And suddenly, boom, there it is. You didn't make it come. They didn't make it come, but it arose between you and the person looking at that.

[77:40]

But sometimes also someone says to you, what do you really want? And you go, I don't know. And then that's the beginning of the inquiry. But once they plant that seed, or you plant that seed, that thing lives in you. And then sometimes the answer comes, and it's great, because that's really... If you want to practice the Buddha way, if you want to practice the precepts, if you want to practice kindness, if you want to practice generosity, I really want to practice generosity. I see it now. This is what I want to do. And that may be really clear for a long time that you keep wanting to practice that. Then the question is, how do you practice that moment by moment? But it's not sometimes people ask that question and they don't get an answer. Or there's an answer, but they didn't hear it. It was too quick. So I have to keep asking. My experience is some people answer right away, and the answer works for them for quite a long time.

[78:42]

Other people, it takes months to find it. But you don't determine what you want. It's in your heart. And you don't make your own heart, but you've got one. So check it out. Ask it what it is, and it'll tell you someday. Then you can start taking care of that. Yes? It strikes me that I was trying to formulate what is my question. In a sense, what you said about purpose is the same as a question. The question I had is in some sense, and it just sort of comes out of it. I suppose I'm wondering... the good, you say, to let go of good, does that mean letting go of being proud of doing good? That would definitely be part of it. That really helps. Would you say it's doing good, it's being good? I'll try to get my fingers around... You could say also, you could say, I also want to be good.

[79:49]

I want to be good. When I was a kid, I told this story. When I was a kid, I was enjoying being as bad as I could be. And when I got a lot of social praise, actually, for being really bad, it was the time of Elvis Presley and James Dean. Being a bad boy was considered really sexy. So I thought, okay, I'll give it a try. I met a man who was big, strong, courageous guy. And he told me that when he was my age, he tried being bad too. And when he told me his story, I thought, yeah, you were bad. You were bad. Yeah, you got it done. And then he said, from authority, you know, it's easy to be bad.

[80:52]

And when he said that, I knew he was right. It takes a little guts, but it's not that difficult to be bad. Bad things to do and easy to do them, actually. He said, you know what's tough, what's really hard, is to be good. Why? Why is it harder to be good? Because it takes much more attention. It takes a lot more attention. You can be bad without being mindful. You can just sit there and think of bad stuff all day. It comes off very naturally. And then to do them, and if you think of a bad thing and you don't do it properly, it doesn't make it that much worse usually. Like if I try to insult you and I do a sloppy job of it, it's like, it still counts. Sometimes it's even better than what I intended. Sometimes some other unconscious stuff gets contributed that I didn't even know about because I was so sloppy.

[81:59]

Whereas if you're trying to do good and you see all this unconscious stuff coming up to try to get in there on the good, because you're paying attention, you have a chance to say, you know, I was about to give you a compliment, but I noticed an insult coming along with it. So I was going to drop the insult and just give you the compliment. But you have to pay attention and notice that. Otherwise, Like, you know, you dress really nicely, you make us all feel terrible. You know? Or I really like your haircut, that really makes me feel ugly. You know, or I like your haircut, and yeah, you do that just to make me feel better, you rat. So you're trying to give a person a compliment, but because you're not paying attention, other habits come out. And to actually be able to do something skillfully and cope with the tremendous amount of other stuff that's going on takes a lot of attention. And often what is good is also not necessarily what you had in mind a few seconds ago.

[83:05]

So sometimes just because we're on a momentum to do something else, somebody offers us a chance to do something good and just because of our momentum we have totally wanted to do it and thought it would be good and thought it would be fun because we were in this rut. We get taken away by the force of the habit. So it's hard to like, even when you see a good that you want to do, it's sometimes hard to do it because you're kind of like happen to be going in a different direction. And you can't like drop that sometimes. But again, watching these patterns tends to make you like, next time that person asks me, I'm going to, next time people ask me, I'm going to try to see if I can stop for a second. That's why it's nice to slow down. That helps you also tune into this. So I say, the bathroom, and if somebody asks me a question, and I think it would be good to answer it, I want to be ready to do that.

[84:08]

So I'm going to the bathroom, and that's my intention, and I have this habit to go, and now somebody asks me a question, but I just sort of have to go to the bathroom, actually. So, Could you wait a second? I'll be right back. Rather than just, oh no, I can't talk to you right now. The habit or the force can make it hard to do something which you really want to do. Whereas doing good, usually, if you feel a momentum towards doing good, in that case, that's hard too, to not hold on to that. Because if you're heading towards doing something good and you're in a rut about it, that destroys the good. So how do you have the intention to be good, like we were talking about before, but not be stuck on how to do it? So it really can happen. Not necessarily what you thought, but the real good rather than the good you were holding on to.

[85:09]

So you see how difficult doing good is? Doing good is like... But doing bad... It's always available. Just millions of opportunities. Just don't pay attention and be a bum. You'll be successful. Yes? So, related to that, the question is how to be fully engaged, how to be authentic, how to live your life and be observing in life. How to be authentic, did you say? And be attentive? Well, I think in some ways people who are not attentive are in a sense authentically not attentive. However, they don't usually know it because they're not paying attention. So I think that when we talk about being authentic, because we can be authentically a confused, distracted, miserable, frightened, selfish person. Some people are kind of pretty authentically, genuinely that.

[86:12]

But most people that way are not aware of it. They're not like, in a balanced, calm way, looking at just mentioned. If they do watch that, they start to appreciate the authenticity of their habitual, miserable life. And in realizing that authenticity, they develop clarity. And in clarity, they open to the freedom from that habit. is what's happening. We are authentically who we are no matter what. The question is how to wake up to that. We have to pay attention and again if we're inattentive it's a big change to start changing from being inattentive and speeding around to being present and attentive. But that is the beginning of the study of the learning the learning of our authentic karmic habits. And that sets up the possibility of authentically being someone who has awakened to these habits and been released from them.

[87:17]

How do you not become an observer? How to find the balance between fully participating and kind of being observing in such a way that you become dissociated? Yeah, so that question... So you seem to be trying to balance two things, are you? So what are the two things you're trying to balance? Living your life and watching what you're doing. So that's a balancing act for you, right? Yeah. Well, start with meditation and then have the, what do you call it, the intention or the aspiration that it could be extended when you're talking.

[88:38]

That's part of the reason why we don't just, in our practice, we don't just do sit still. We also do other activities which are specifically set up to extend the balance that you're looking for into various types of movements and physical postures, verbal expressions, to see if we can extend that balancing training into all realms. I don't know. I think he should be next, I think. No, excuse me, I think he was next. He looked like he was next. Let's say you pass the goodness and the badness, and your intention is to say, for example, cross the street. Somebody perceives your crossing the street as being good or bad. Yes. How do you deal with that? And they approach you and say, you know, you're doing something Do you understand the question?

[89:46]

I think so, yeah. How do you deal with someone coming at you and saying you're wrong or a liberal or a person crossing the street? Well, do you know how to deal with it? What do you do in that situation? I guess, I don't know what I do do. I might do something really stupid. But what I intend to do, when somebody talks to me like that, the first thing I intend to do is to listen to them. That's the first thing I do, to listen. You are a terrible person, or you're stupid, you seem to be about to do a bad thing, or you're doing a bad thing. The first thing I do is I listen to that. That's number one. I think. And then try to I guess that, and I think that's good to listen to people who are stupid. I think it's respectful to listen to people. In fact, it's respectful to yourself too because you are hearing them. So why don't you get with the program?

[90:48]

You are stupid. I'm hearing that. Now, what is the person trying to tell me? Who would possibly be trying to tell me by telling me that I'm stupid? I wonder. You could ask them, what are you driving at? Or you could say, is there something you suggest me doing instead? Do you have some suggestion? Or is there something you need from me? These are possible ways of dealing with it. Or you might just say, I hear you, man. I hear you. And then go from there. I hear you. What's happening with you? I think those would be some good things to do in response to somebody calling me stupid or telling me I'm bad.

[91:55]

Yeah. Yeah, so... you might say, do you feel like I'm challenging your belief in what I'm doing? You might say that. And you might be right. And they might say, I think you are. You're kind of disrespecting my belief or, you know, what I think is good by what you're doing. And then you... Yes? So you've got two different beliefs coming at each other and give up... That sounds good. Giving up your belief doesn't mean you still don't have it, just you're not holding it tightly. Of course, you could say, well, that's your belief, Reb, that you think giving up your belief is good. And I would say, yeah, I do.

[93:08]

That's right. Do you want me to hold on to my beliefs more tightly? I can easily do that. But in this case where somebody disagrees with me, I think it helps for me to give up my belief, maybe, to make friends with him. Then maybe we can have a conversation. But if I can't have a conversation with him and one or both of us are holding, well, if either one of us are holding on to our beliefs, it's hard for us to have a conversation. Now, if we can start a conversation, then I think we can start to let go of our beliefs. We still have our beliefs. You know the word dogma? One of the ways to translate the word dogma is belief or opinion. So this person has his beliefs or opinions. I have mine. Dogmatism is when you're positive, overly positive about your belief. Dogmatism is when there's no conversation with people who don't agree with you. And really there's no conversation where people do agree with you.

[94:12]

It's like, we agree, right? Yeah, that's pretty much it. But if we have a view, and we meet someone who has a different one, and if we can start conversing, then we prevent the danger of dogmatism. And religious dogmatism, as you know, is a tremendous source of violence in the world today, where people have religious opinions and they won't converse with people who have different both sides or one side anyway is dogmatic. The other side may not be dogmatic but they may be more flexible about their opinions but they may not have the skill to somehow encourage the other side to enter into a conversation. So we need to develop enough skill so that not only will we be willing to like let go of our own opinion for the sake of a conversation so that we can have difference of opinions, but no war.

[95:15]

We are going to have difference of opinion. We will not have violence about it if we can converse with those who have different opinions. But not that we're going to switch to their view necessarily, but that we'll be sympathetic to where they're at and try to understand where they're at and see where they're at, but not necessarily have the same opinion. That's what I hope for. That's what I would like to work for. It's getting close to lunchtime. Anything else? Yes? I have some questions about karma and how good teachings are about it. Does my karma start at birth, or did it start before birth? And that karma, is it just my individual actions, or my ... like me being like an American taxpayer, I have lots of karma that comes with that. Well, the Buddha says that birth, the realm of birth and death, depends on past action. So the animation of a living body, the coming of life into a body and the arising of a consciousness depends on past karma.

[96:29]

And past karma depends on past ignorance. And past ignorance depends on past death, old age, sickness and birth and so on. That's the story. That's the story. Is that karma drives birth, old age, sickness and death drives ignorance, karma, consciousness, old age. That cycle is the cycle of Buddha described. But he also said that by studying this cycle the process can be reversed and the whole mass that this cycle describes can be alleviated by studying this cycle. And today I'm emphasizing studying the karmic formations part of it because that leads to clinging and birth and death. That separation between us and suffering and the setup between birth and death makes life into birth and death. karmic causation is that process.

[97:34]

You could also say other things in the process are consciousness. So dualistic consciousness also drives this process. Greed or cravings in the process, craving drives the process. We could also look at each one of these elements in the process. I was emphasizing the karmic causation part because greed may not always be available. Greed is not in every moment. Craving is not in every moment, maybe. But intention almost always is. That's why it's particularly a good place to become aware of your intention. And is it wholesome intention, unwholesome intention, or neutral? Learn how to tell what kind it is. Or learn how to look for which kind it is. Even if you can't determine which kind it is, you can look and question. But then the point is you're there aware of karmic causation. The Buddha highly recommends the Zen ancestors focusing on cause and effect.

[98:43]

Do not expect to achieve freedom if you don't pay attention to cause and effect. But you can expect, if you want to, to be very unhappy if you don't pay attention to cause and effect. That will pretty much guarantee unhappiness. You can see that with people who do things and they're not watching their intention, they haven't been tuned in to cause and effect, and then they do things that they're very sorry about for a really long time. because they weren't watching fully what their mind and body were doing. And then something happened, and they just went right with the habit, and boom, something really bad happens. So we have to sort of be on the job. Don't go on the job when things get really tough. Go on the job right away when terrible things happen, like people call us stupid in the street. we don't fly into the habitual response to that which is sometimes violence.

[99:49]

You know, in the street these people kill each other just because they're being disrespected. Not because they're being threatened. They disrespect somebody and they kill them because they're not meditating in the street. Well, yeah, of course they're not. But maybe we could start meditating on the street. And maybe we could make it look really cool. A tough, strong guy comes up to us and says, you know, it's easy to be bad and aggressive. Try being good. You can't do that. Thank you very much. I'm going to do a baby blessing now.

[100:37]

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