And it says, when the Bodhisattva hears that there is no self, no truth, no bodhisattva, no Buddha, no enlightenment, no reality. And when knowing, feeling, seeing all this, the bodhisattva feels in no way anxious. is no way fearful, no way distressed. Then the bodhisattva is coursing in well-gone wisdom.

[01:02]

And then there is bodhisattvas, buddhas, the truth, reality, etc. So, Perhaps Ivan's reaction of some fear or terror is the basic reaction to this sutra. Because if you really understand this, it takes everything away. And if you don't feel a little scared, you're not understanding this sutra. But when you can finally really see it and then not feel anxious, it says, then the Bodhisattva is coursing in wisdom that's gone beyond. And actually that's what it says here, when practicing deeply, it's best translated as coursing in the wisdom that's gone beyond.

[02:17]

Coursing is like, I don't know, the German word for it, sailing like a ship courses through the ocean. So this Avalokiteshvara bodhisattva is swimming deeply in wisdom that's gone beyond because the bodhisattva is no longer anxious that everything's been taken away. And with those eyes you see the world a certain way. Now, could you bring up what you've brought up? Some of you have brought up some interesting things I'd like to... . Yeah, please, just roughly.

[03:40]

I feel quite stupid when I hear all this about Zen Buddhism because it's just not tangible or I can't get a hold of it and it just floats through the air. Mm-hmm. This part here in the middle where it says, with nothing to attain, also sometimes with nothing to grasp, nothing to get hold of. Yes. And it's reinforced where it says the reality, these things don't appear and they don't disappear. You can't get hold of it as appearing and you can't get hold of it as disappearing. You can't say it's pure and you can't say it's tainted. You can't say it increases and you can't say it decreases.

[04:57]

So it means not so much that this is reality. It means, first of all, can you have a mind that doesn't grasp? So what you've noticed is quite accurate. In other words, you said to me that this stuff scares you a little, or your friend studies Buddhism, but it bothers you because you're a person who likes to seize hold of things. And to perceive, the word perceive literally means, in its roots, to seize hold of. So the word, there's no perception, it means this can't be seized hold of. So your perception is accurate, but the conclusion to give up or to be afraid is not accurate. So your perception that this can't be gotten hold of is right.

[06:19]

So the conclusion that's more realistic, I think, Okay, so if reality can't be gotten hold of, how do I live in a world which reality can't be gotten hold of? And then you feel a little scared. Apprehensive. Apprehensive also means to get hold of, to apprehend, to take hold of with your hand. You know, you kind of get a feeling for it and then you relax and get a feeling for it and relax and pretty soon it's not so scary. Hmm, it feels... Yeah, some other question?

[07:39]

Somebody else had something at lunch, brought it up. You did, I guess. No? Who was sitting? Yeah, was it? No? Yeah, I think you did, didn't you? Somebody at lunch brought up, was it you? Anyway, okay, go ahead. Dharāṇic memory, yeah. Now, I introduced quite a few things last night and this morning and I like it for you to tell me you didn't get it. Because if you got everything I told you last night and you have no questions, you're a way lot better than, smarter than I am. Yeah, because it's taken me 30 years to be able to give that lecture last night. So... So I'd like to know what you don't know, because it makes me feel better.

[08:54]

Jeez. So does everybody get Doronic memory down pat, or should I say something about it? All right. Okay. Basically, Dharani memory is the memory of states of mind rather than the contents of events. And it's basically a tantric idea. And this sutra, when it says down here... Therefore know the wisdom that's gone beyond wisdom is the great transcendent mantra.

[09:55]

It could be, we could say, is the great transcendent Dharani. Is the great bright Dharani. Is the utmost Dharani. Is the supreme Dharani. It means that this can only be understood with the Dharani state of mind. And if you produce the Dharani state of mind by studying this or chanting it, that Dharani state of mind isn't in the realm of suffering, it's in the realm of joy. And this is true, not false. And because it's true and not false, it's the main medicine. It's the big medicine. So proclaim. Tell other people about it. Hey, have you heard about the big medicine?

[10:55]

Tell people about the medicine that says, gone, gone, gone beyond, completely, wow, gone, whoo, bodhisattva. Yeah, okay. Okay. So Dharani memory is, or Dharani's, or this idea is that... By the way, sometimes she gets tired translating. It's harder work to translate than for me to lecture. She has to concentrate on what I'm saying. She can't think about what I'm saying or if she thinks about it, she can't translate it. So after the lecture she says, what did you say? Sometimes she says, some of that was so interesting I couldn't translate it.

[12:30]

Because I wanted to follow what you were saying in my feelings. And then she has to, without thinking, she has to maintain a sense of the reality in both German and English simultaneously. So if somebody else would like to try translating occasionally, give her a break, it's fine. Anytime anybody would like to try it out and feel it out, it's a good way to practice. You can just volunteer. Okay, so... Everybody stares into space or looks at their feet.

[13:45]

Okay, so, for instance, I think an example in your own experience is that if you remember something that happened to you, say, when you were a child or at some point in your life, it's very vivid. And a kind of example I might use is like as a kid the first time you crossed a street by yourself. Or something that happened to you as a kid where you first did something and you were kind of whoa I did that. And you may remember the kind of space and feeling and time of day and atmosphere of the time you did it. It's like a little bubble of light in your memory. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, those are dharanic memories.

[15:03]

You don't remember the content so much as you remember the state of mind. And those memories, if you remember those clear, bubble, light, luminous memories, they all have a similar kind of space that goes with them, even though the contents are different. So what does that mean? It means in that state of mind that's characteristic of those kinds of memory, important things have happened to you. Or spiritual things have happened to you. Okay, so if that's a territory or state of mind of spiritual events in your life, then when those memories come back, study the state of mind of those memories. In that sense, you're going back into your dream time or back into your memory and learning from your memory certain states of mind.

[16:26]

You don't have to study this in the sutras or books. You can study it in your own experience. Then you can reproduce that state of mind now in the present. And you open yourself up to spiritual experience. Now, that, as I've said before, represents the jewel in the Buddha's hand. Or this little thing in Avalokiteshvara's hands. If this represents, as I talked about in Rastenberg, the physicality of this dharanic memory or state of mind, which is located here, both in the body and outside of the body, while more intentionality and will is located here, just below your navel.

[17:56]

So that's why yesterday when I said, imagine this tree with its roots here and its branches here, I located it here. Because that's also where you fall in love. And that pain you feel when you fall in love and that kind of ache you feel and when something happens to your child or your friend that's disturbing, the sobs come out of here. Because this is the territory of Dharani consciousness. And knowing that, you can use it. In other words, if you become more alive in this area, you open yourself up to this kind of experience. And that's also the heart-mind teachings here.

[19:05]

Now this is the body-mind mandala. Now it's called a mandala or a mantra. Am I going too fast? Because if you begin to enter this territory which you can first of all draw on, primarily draw on from your own experience and own memory, you can see that causal memories and suffering memories are karmic memory and are stored differently in your life. And the memory of states of mind is not karma, but dharmic. Okay. Okay. So to activate and study states of mind is to open your body to spiritual experience and spiritual reality.

[20:22]

And the point I'm making is you already have this spiritual reality, you already have a taste and knowledge of it, but you don't access it. Or you may access it, but you access it by intuition or something like that. Buddhism would say, you are spiritual beings. You already are Buddhist. You have spiritual capacity. Awaken that spiritual capacity. Not so much of doing or behaving a certain way or studying certain things.

[21:23]

But look into your own experience about what's been most satisfying to you. What's moved you the most deeply? And what states of mind have gone with those times when you've been moved most deeply? And if you can remember the taste and feeling of those states in mind, like I said last night, an inner kind of toothache, a spiritual toothache, that's mixed with a kind of ache and joy at the same time. And if you can identify that feeling and bring it into your breath and into this treasure box the Schatzkessel if you can reproduce that feeling Without content though.

[22:48]

So your body begins to be permeated with it. You create a very fertile territory for your experience. And this is part of what I mean by inhabiting your own physical existence. Did that sound like it across? Was that too much or was it okay? Was it okay? All right. Now, one nice thing about this, it's like when perception is not all coming through the little vehicle of self, Last night Bill Thompson told me his daughter calls relationships relation boats. We have relation boats and we have relationship straws.

[23:51]

And also relationship straws, right? Anyway, so these self-boats or self-vehicles, when you're not trying to translate all your experience through self, which creates tremendous tension, because self is always threatened then by this stuff that you're trying to translate. If you imagine this bodhi mandala or buddha mind mandala, that input can come from various points. You can get it through the self. You can get it through feelings.

[25:01]

It can enter through any of the five skandhas. You can get it through a sensation. And you'll begin to see that if you have certain thoughts, a sensation appears here, another thought, a sensation appears here. And you can begin to see the physical dimension of thoughts. The more you're beginning to receive thoughts, feelings from many points in the Bodhi mandala or the Buddha mind mandala, it's like you have lobbies and waiting areas, resting areas. It's like flying into a foreign country and going through immigration and customs. You're queued up here.

[26:05]

Your luggage is over there. There's a lot of space. And so the information can come in and some of the information is coming in as luggage and is waiting over here. And you have to go through this other gate first, etc. So you begin to have information coming into you in a less threatening way because some of it's sitting in the lobby and some of it's over here if you're not worried about losing your luggage. Does that image make sense at all? So even though going through customs is usually a little bit anxious making, I mean it's just there's more space to let things happen to you. So this is fun because I like it when you communicate back and forth with me. And I especially like the bookmark.

[27:07]

That's good. But here they say that in the Japanese fairy tale trying to teach this kind of reality I'm talking about analyzing a particular fairy tale the first and last scenes of the story are identical. Namely, nothing has happened. And so they have questions like in the fairy tale, what is the nothingness? And then the answer is a plum tree, a bush warbler.

[28:08]

And it's very much like the story goes, what has happened? Nothing. What is this nothing? A plum tree, a bush warbler. This is very much, as this guy points out, like Zen stories. Why did Bodhidharma come to China? And what Bodhidharma taught was this sutra, nothingness, emptiness. And he says, the cypress tree in the garden and Bernhard sitting under it. It's about time for us to stop, but Anybody else has... Somebody at lunch brought something up I want. Yes. There's a question really of the habit of meditation. The what?

[29:31]

The habit of meditation. Oh, the habit of meditation. I was saying that I work long hours. I travel a lot in my job. And meditation, it's... Irregular. It's sometimes very difficult. And she felt that maybe she shouldn't ask the question because the rest of you all have it worked out. You want to say it? Well, you can say it all in German. Okay. I think the main thing is to start thinking the way I'm trying to express.

[30:31]

And you can begin to get a sense of that by doing zazen. And if you begin to think that way, it makes it easier to do zazen. It's like the sutra says, because he practices wisdom that's gone beyond wisdom, And depends on wisdom which had gone beyond wisdom. Then he knows wisdom that's gone beyond wisdom. You know, you get in a circle. Mm-hmm. But if you begin to think more the way I'm trying to show you or express, like this Japanese fairy tale, you can have your experiences start with nothing happening, end with nothing happening.

[31:40]

And it's a simple physical practice, too. So right now I think I'll get up. But right this moment nothing's happened. And I'm taking a little vacation and nothing happened. And I feel quite at ease in my chest. In fact I feel a little kind of blissful toothache. It's really quite nice, actually. Why should I get up? But I think I'll get up anyway. Should I get up? I come up to standing.

[32:43]

So I've done something. I've stood up. Now I can stop and take a little vacation again. Nothing needs to happen. I'm just, I disappear for a moment. And then I think I'll step off here and I step off, I step off into my own seeing. I step off into my own perceptions. So the step, my step off this cushion has a particular beginning and end which I sense. It's like counting 1, 0, 2, 0, 3, 0, not 1, 2, 3, 4. So it's zero, stand up. Zero. Now, step. Zero. Or one, or two, or whatever. Now it's standing, zero. Then I look at you, oh, it's one. Then zero. So when I go one, I go one.

[34:08]

What's your name? Christopher. Christopher. So when I go one, I look at you, one. And then I invite you, Christopher, zero. So I can have a moment of zero with Christopher. Really? So I can have a moment of one with you and a moment of zero with you. Do you see that there's a kind of permanent vacation going on? You know, and it's true whatever I do. Now I've walked over here. Now I've stopped. When I stop, I stop. Do you understand? Can you stop? That's the Four Noble Truths. There's suffering, there's a cause of suffering, and there's stop. How do you stop? That's the path. That's casting off body and mind. That's Enten.

[35:10]

That's Zazen. So you don't have to sit Zazen, except Zazen helps you find that Harkupe. So it's sort of like one stop. You know, I'm doing this, I'm walking around, you don't notice anything different. But for me, I always feel stopped. Sometimes I get caught up, but if I notice I'm caught up, I can stop. And you find it best in your physical territory. You can't just find it mentally. Should you translate any of this? It's pretty clear, right? You can't just find it mentally, and if you're going to find it mentally, you have to begin physically. So when I'm asking you to walk across with the foot from the hinge of the door, I'm saying step, stop.

[36:15]

The room. Look, stop. And you can see it in people who practice a lot. I mean, there's a distinctness to what they do, which is called dharma practice. Dharma means to do things in units. I'm going to walk up there and walk up here. That's one unit. That's another unit. And in each one I stop. Then I sit down. And then I stop. Then I fold a leg. Then I stop. Then I fold a leg. And I stop. Then I put my knee down and I stop.

[37:19]

And if you watch Japanese theater, now you can translate, if you watch Japanese theater, one of the main influences in Buddhism is no theater particularly is full of these stops. It's very touching sometimes to watch. An actor will do something very, I mean, you know, you may represent the actor's former lover who is present in a tree. So the actor looks at the tree and sees that his former lover is present. The presence of his former lover is in the tree. And this brings back all the impossibility of what's happened in his life up to now. And the audience understands all that. And the audience feels the reaction in the person when he looks at the tree, former lover.

[38:37]

In Japanese and Buddhism, spirituality is horizontal, so it's out there in the trees. And so everyone feels how I, as the actor, feel looking at you. So then the actor turns and walks across some place and stops, filled with it, but stops. And the whole room stops. And at that moment you hear from the audience often little screams come out of people because they feel the stop and then they I mean the audience just can't stop themselves because they can feel that stop. So now's a good time to stop.

[39:46]

But do you hear the bells? The bells are stopped. Can you stop the bells? So I see you tomorrow at 9.30? Is that a good time?

[40:24]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_71.82