Although our past nirvāṇa karma has greatly accumulated in being the cause and condition of obstacles in practicing the way, may all Buddhas and ancestors who have attained the Buddha way be compassionate to us and free us from karmic effects, allowing us to practice the way without hindrance? May all Buddhas and ancestors who have attained the Buddha way be compassionate and free us

[01:14]

from karmic effects. One of the ways they might be compassionate and free us from karmic effects is by encouraging us to pay attention to karma and karmic effects, which is what those who have attained the way have paid attention to. So, it's a tradition of some people attaining the way, some people wanting to attain the way, but feeling that there's some karmic

[02:18]

obstruction to obtaining the way, requesting those who have attained the way to help us free ourselves from these karmic obstructions so that we can join the way, practice the way without hindrance, and then help others who may have hindrance to practicing the way also become free of karmic hindrance and enter the way, and so on. There's a story in the tradition about a Chinese Zen monk, a Zen master named Baizhang Waihai. In Japanese we say Hyakujo Eikai is the way of pronouncing it. Hyakujo or Baizhang. One way the story is told is in the historical

[03:32]

present, that's the way the Heihei Koso, the high priest of Heihei, tells the story. When Master Eikai, when Master Waihai of Baizhang gives his informal preaching, generally present there is an old man. He always listens to the Dharma along with the assembly of monks. And when the people in the assembly retire, the old man also retires. Then suddenly one day he does not retire. The master eventually asks him, what person is this standing before me?

[05:00]

The old man answers, I am not a person. The old man answers, I am not a person. I think it's better to say, I am not a human. In the past age of Kasyapa Buddha, I used to preside on this mountain. Once a student asked me, do even the people in the state of great practice fall into cause and effect or not? I answered, they do not fall into cause and effect. Since then, I have fallen into the body of a wild fox for 500 lives. Now I beg you, Master, to say a few words

[06:11]

of transformation. Say a few turning words. I long to be rid of the body of a wild fox. He then asks the master, do even people in the state of great practice fall into cause and effect or not? The master says, do not be unclear about cause and effect. The old man, under these words, realizes great realization. He does prostration and says,

[07:31]

I am already rid of the body of a wild fox and would like to remain on this mountain, behind this temple. Dare I ask the master to perform for me the rites of a deceased monk? The master orders the supervising monk to strike the han and tell the associates of the assembly, after the meal we shall see off a deceased monk.

[08:37]

All the monks discuss this saying, the whole Sangha is well and there is no sick person in the nirvana hall. What is the reason for this announcement? After the meal, the master is simply seen leading the monks to the foot of a rock on the mountain behind the temple and picking out a dead fox with his staff. They are then cremated according to the formal method used for monks. In the evening, the master preaches in the hall and discusses the preceding episode. Wang Bo then asks, the man in the past answered mistakenly with words of transformation and

[09:42]

fell into the body of a fox for 500 lives. If he had gone on without making a mistake, what would have become of him? The master said, step up here, I will tell you. Wang Bo finally steps up and gives the master a slap. The master claps his hands and laughs and says, you have just expressed the foreigner's beard is red, but it is also a fact that a red beard is a foreigner. This story is also found in the Book of Serenity, it's about case 8, it's also found in the

[11:07]

Mumonkan, the gateless barrier, the second case, and it's also discussed in other places by the high priest of Ehe. Simply looked at, the student, the monk is asking the head monk if a person of great practice falls into cause and effect, and he says, no, he doesn't fall into it. Then, partly as a result of that, not just as a result of that, but partly as a result

[12:14]

of those turning words that the monk gives to the other monk, he's turned into what's called a wild fox for 500 lifetimes, and then he comes and asks for some more turning words to turn again into something else. And he asks the same question, and this time the answer is, I think in this case he says, the way this is written is, do not be unclear about cause and effect. It sometimes is translated as, do not be unclear about cause and effect. Is not unclear about cause and effect, or is not blind to cause and effect. A person of great practice is not blind to cause and effect.

[13:19]

A person who has not attained, who is not in the state of the great practice, who is in a state of lesser practice, who has not fully realized the great practice, that person is somewhat unclear about cause and effect. A person who is really not open to the practice at all is also somewhat unclear about cause and effect, sometimes to the extent that people are so unclear about it, they don't even think it's worth looking at. They just think it's not important, they don't pay any attention to cause and effect. They don't pay any attention

[14:44]

to conditions and consequences. They don't think it's important. They don't see the relationship between intention and the consequences. And also, as I pointed out in the class last Monday night, the Buddha did not teach that all experience is due to past intention. Not all experience is due to past karma, to the maturation of past action. But it is due in part to the maturation of past karma. And past karma is something which we can watch, we can see,

[15:45]

because it is a cognitive process. You don't have to go to medical school to study intention. It's with you all day long. And intention also is very closely related to past intention, of course. So, if we say, may those who have attained the Buddha way free us from karmic effects, then if we mean that, then let's receive the teachings about how to be free of karmic effects. And some of the teachings are, let's look at karmic effects, let's look at karmic cause and effect. The Zen master A.H. Dogen has a nice commentary here on this story.

[16:53]

Let's see, here, another text is called Karma in the Three Times, and there he also talks about karma in the three times, and various interpretations by various masters. And he discusses it. So there's another place where we can hear this ancestor talk about it. So, the master of the tradition called Bajang, he didn't say that people of great practice

[18:18]

didn't say whether they fall into cause and effect or not. He didn't say they didn't fall into cause and effect, and he didn't say they did. So one possibility is if you didn't say, maybe they don't fall into cause and effect or not. Maybe we don't fall into cause and effect or not fall into cause and effect. Maybe that's not really how it goes. Maybe we don't fall into cause and effect because maybe we're nothing but cause and effect. So we can't fall into cause and effect, but also we can't not fall into cause and effect because we are nothing but cause and effect. Maybe it's as simple as that. However, if we don't appreciate what we are, then it may seem like we fall

[19:25]

into cause and effect and are very uncomfortable. Or it may seem that we don't fall into cause and effect, and then other people are very uncomfortable, and then they lock us up. So then we feel uncomfortable. But not because we think we've fallen into cause and effect, but because we think we're in prison, or a psychiatric locked word. I'm in prison, but I don't fall into cause and effect, I'm just in prison. Because these other turkeys think that I have fallen into cause and effect, and that they have too, and they just don't like me saying that I don't, and are just taking revenge on me. Which is, in a sense, true. The people who think they have fallen into cause and effect will put those who think they haven't in prison. That usually is what will happen. Or in some other kind of treatment

[20:27]

program. But the Masters do not really, as far as I can see, take a position on this. Well, they take a position between those extremes of you do and you don't, and the position between them would be not just to take that position, but see that position and be that position. Be the position of cause and effect, and be it very clearly, and then there will be no karmic obstructions to the Buddha way. Did you want to say something, Reverend Ninan? Well, I was wondering about the motivation of the original question, and I'm asking,

[21:34]

as a person of attainment, falling into cause and effect or not. Uh-huh. You're wondering? Yeah. It must have looked like something to somebody, but I'm not sure. What does it look like to fall into cause and effect? What does it look like? It looks like the way the world looks. The world looks like we're falling into cause and effect. All the time? Yeah, that's the way it looks. That's the way it appears. Or it appears that we're not

[22:39]

falling into cause and effect. It looks those two ways. Those are two appearances. Like, sometimes people lie, or are unkind, and then it looks like they're happy. So it looked like that. It didn't have much of an effect. So the way it looks is that you do fall into it or you don't. And when somebody does something good, and then something good doesn't happen and something good follows, then it looks like the person's fallen into cause and effect. Kind of happily, but anyway, that looks like cause and effect. They give the teacher an apple and the teacher gives them an A. Looks like the person's fallen into cause and effect. Or they give the teacher an apple and the teacher, you know, punches them in the nose. Looks like they've fallen into cause and effect. Or, you don't see any relationship. Then you think they don't fall into cause and effect. That's how it looks. So people

[23:44]

ask questions. And also they have the idea that falling into cause and effect is sometimes really painful. So they think, well, maybe if you practiced, you wouldn't fall into that painful situation anymore. So then maybe that's what freedom would be. That freedom from cause and effect would be that you don't fall into it. Maybe that's what freedom would be. So that's one place the question could have come from. What does it mean to be freed from karmic effect and to practice the way without hindrance? What does that mean? Maybe you might think, well, maybe that means you don't fall into cause and effect. That's one story you could tell about that. The question is coming from karmic consciousness? Yeah, it seems like that.

[24:53]

Karmic consciousness is regular consciousness of people. It's a consciousness that's, at least in part, a consequence of past karma. And it's a consciousness which is driven by past intentions, it's manifesting present intentions, and it expresses intentions. So it's karmically driven, karmically manifesting, and expressing karma. That's the usual kind of consciousness. And this develops hindrances to the Buddha way, this practice, because it tends to create a kind of closure around the person, a kind of entrapment.

[25:57]

So the simple rendition of becoming free of karmic effects would be to become free of our habitual imagination about what's going on. May I share my story with you? I feel like this last week for me, I was just talking to someone, and I finally ended a 30-year relationship that I had that was full of karmic effects. And it just finished this last three days ago. It's clean.

[27:03]

Did you say it's clean? That's how it feels. It feels that karmic effects that were there for almost a lifetime for me, something just got cleansed. And I'm not saying that there won't be other karmic effects. Yes. It just seems like this process is somewhat completed. Yeah, it feels like exactly what you're saying about. It's like it all happened, and then it just, that's it. But it came through my ancestors, and his ancestors, and his ancestors, and then it just dissipated. It came up, and then it just...

[28:13]

And it came up for 30 years, it came up. Yeah, and the last three and a half years were hell. But the freedom of being free of paying attention to what you just said, paying attention to what's happening, and seeing that, and seeing the roles that we all play with each other, and making new intentions, letting go of the old ones, is... I mean, I'm just experiencing it firsthand. It's so freeing. It's wonderful. Thank you for sharing your story of paying attention and freedom.

[29:17]

Thank you. May we continue to pay attention to intention, which is our access to the process of obstruction. Or the process by which obstruction is a consequence. I'm just curious about, you said not all of our experience is from freedom.

[30:21]

You mentioned karma, and you were saying something else was also there. Where was that something else? There's this text, it's called... well, it's a collection. It's a collection of scriptures, and one of the short scriptures is... A monk basically asked the Buddha, he said, some people say that all experience is due to past action. All experience is the maturation of past action, past karmic activity. In other words, past intention, past cognitive processes. And what does the Buddha say about that?

[31:22]

And the Buddha said that it is the case that certain experiences are due to, for example, bile. And the Buddha said, you could know this for yourself, that this is so. And also, in the world, it's also the case that people say some experiences are due to bile. And then he goes on to say, also, certain experiences arise in dependence on phlegm. And some experiences arise in dependence on wind. And some arise in dependence on imbalance between these previous three. And some arise from changes in the season.

[32:24]

And some arise from attack. And some arise from blank. And some arise from the maturation of karmic activity, the maturation of cognitive intention. There's eight, and I forgot the seventh. I forgot one of the seventh. I think it was about the seventh. Attack? I said attack. And he says, if someone says that all action, all experiences, are due to past karma, that's not what the world says.

[33:26]

And also, that would not be something that someone directly experiences. So somebody who says that would be, in a sense, wrong if they say that, because they don't really have a basis for saying that. You know, just the opinion without actual direct experience of it is not enough. If you have direct experience of it and the people in the world didn't agree with you, then you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. But he says, nobody has a direct experience that all experience is due to past karma. So that's what Buddha says. He doesn't say it very often, but he says at least that one scripture. So we have that one statement. Usually he's emphasizing that it's very good to pay attention to karma and consequence, because if you pay attention to that,

[34:28]

it opens the door to the realization of other kinds of causation. I'll talk about this more tomorrow at Green Gulch. But basically, you can see, you can actually witness karmic causation in your own cognitive processes. Now, our bondage and misery is not just due to karmic causation. It's due to causation, but not only karmic causation. It's also due to phlegm, change in season, and so on. However, you can't see that. Because part of karmic causation is that your vision is enclosed in your cognitive sphere.

[35:30]

We have a cognitive closure on what's going on. We see the world as mind, because our relationship with the world manifests as mind. And in that mind, we see the world. But the world is not as it appears in the mind. That's just one way it is. Plus, our intention in this realm is not the causal processes throughout the cosmos, although they all contribute to this. The enclosure, even the enclosure, is not just karmic. And also the liberation is not just karmic. But the turning point seems to be in the cognitive karmic realm. The turning point does not seem to be in the phlegm realm. Even though it's totally part of the causation process,

[36:38]

the phlegm realm doesn't enclose us and open us the same way the cognitive does. You study it like this. The main way to study it is to study feelings. Because feelings are not just due to past action, but they are, according to the tradition, the maturation of past action. So, what is it like? Your past action matures as feeling, even though it's not just past actions that are making the feelings. So, your past actions will mature in this ballpark,

[37:44]

even though there are other factors influencing the maturation. You can see your past actions mature in this arena called feelings, without saying that your past action is totally determining the feelings. Still, you can see the maturation of it. Let me go on. Then, you can watch how you respond to those feelings, and the way you respond to those feelings. And if you can't see how you respond to the feelings, you can see what your intentions are vis-à-vis the feelings. And your intentions are different from the feelings, but they are also conditioned by the past actions which matured as the feelings. And now the past actions are also conditioned for the appearance of new intentions in relationship to the feelings. In that way, you can observe intention.

[38:47]

You can observe karma. Feelings are like emotions? No, positive, negative, and neutral. They are evaluative. They are the way you experience your sensations. So, they are the experience of sensation in terms of painful, pleasurable, and neither. That's what I mean by feelings in this case. It's the way you experience your sensations, and that is the maturing of past action, among other things. Does this involve any discursive activity? Does it involve? No, you don't have to. I mean, if you're involved in discursive activity, then there would be discursive activity, but it's possible to see a feeling in such a way

[39:53]

that you actually are not being discursive with it, and you calm down with it. Not being discursive with it isn't very conditioning. It doesn't have much conditioning effect on it at that time. So, in a sense, the not being discursive with a feeling is a little bit like not doing what was done in the past. It's somewhat different. And so that not being discursive with feelings actually promotes tranquility. However, even if you're not tranquil or if you are tranquil, in either case you could notice that there isn't a leaving the feeling just to be the feeling, that there's some messing around with it going on. You could notice that. Now, noticing that doesn't have to be very discursive,

[40:55]

but it could get a little discursive. But anyway, you could notice that there's some meddling with the sensation. And if you can notice the meddling with the sensation, you're noticing the conditioning pattern, the basic conditioning pattern of the cognitions. If you can't notice that, you might notice that there's some intention that arises with the feelings. That's pretty much the same as the conditioning pattern in the form of an intention. And it's a little easier to see sometimes the intention. In other words, when a positive sensation arises, it may be easier to notice that you're going towards, you want to do something about it, than it is to notice that you're kind of like conditioning it with some preference or some aversion. But they're pretty much the same thing. One, you're seeing it in terms of preferring or not preferring, and the other, you notice it in terms of some kind of wish,

[41:58]

or intention, or vow, or will around it. And this will doesn't come from nowhere. It depends on past wills, past volitions, past intentions. These are synonyms. Will, volition, intention. And these are the definition of karma. These are words. Cetana in Sanskrit. And cetana is pretty much the same thing as the way we condition everything, but in particular, since feelings are particularly the maturation of past karma, that's a good place to look. And as you know, feelings are a whole skanda. And one of the reasons why it's a whole aggregate, or a whole skanda, is because they're so pivotal in karmic formation. So you get a whole skanda for this one phenomena, because it's so important to watch, to focus on,

[43:01]

as a key thread in the conditioning process, in the process of developing obstructions to the Buddha way. So, once you see your intention, or your meddling with it, is that... Once you see it? When you see it once, you mean? No, so you see it in one particular moment. You see it in one particular moment, yes. Then that's it, just the seeing it, I'm guessing, just the seeing it. That's it for starters. And I'll do it again. Tune in, just continuously be mindful of that. Every moment has a feeling, so just always be mindful of that. Now, of course, can you move on and be aware of other skandas? Yes, you could. But in terms of this particular meditation, maybe you should stay with feelings for a long time,

[44:04]

until you really see the karmic conditioning pattern. You can't always see feeling, though, because it's not the only thing that's happening. You don't just go around having feelings. You have to have other feelings, you have to have other experiences to get up and down those stairs. But you can have quite a few feelings going up and down a set of stairs, because there turns out to be quite a bit of moments from the bottom of the stairs to the top of the stairs, unless you go very fast. So there will be some feelings probably going up and down a set of stairs, but a lot of other experiences too. So you can't just focus on... I shouldn't say you can't, but we're not recommending you only focus on feelings, because then you'd be skipping over a lot of other stuff in your life. But you do get a lot of chance to be aware of your feelings. Often they're strong enough so that they do come up and you do notice. But some people, although they're having feelings,

[45:08]

they don't even notice them. If you ask them, are you having a positive, negative or neutral sensation, they can't answer the question. Not because they're not having them, but because they haven't learned how to spot them. So, when you're having a feeling, hey, you don't have to go out of your way to have it. When you're conscious of pain, it's no skin off your nose to be conscious of having pain. And while you're there, you might also practice a little meditation on karma, just in case you have any obstruction to the Buddha way. You might as well check out that thing, because there's where the obstruction occurs. That's where the obstruction production is exposed around that thread of feeling. There's a lot of other stuff to do, but don't miss those chances, because that's the place to tune into the process of karmic hindrance

[46:11]

and find the pivotal experience there. Yes, Glenn? Could you speak up? Well, for example, the sound of an airplane.

[46:28]

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