Somebody came to see me in this place this morning and said, it's such a comfort to be here. And I thought, yeah, that's what this place is for. This place is a place to come and feel comfort and joy. And I feel comfort and joy being here with you now And this place is here for you to feel comfort and joy. Here and throughout your life. I hope I don't embarrass you, Peter, by saying I'm happy to see you. I feel especially happy to see Peter, because Peter lives on the street. It's so great to have somebody who lives right down the street coming up. Like this is his neighborhood temple.

[01:05]

Yeah, it's very nice to see you. And Patty, first time here, welcome. Cynthia, have you been here before? Welcome, Cynthia. And what's your name again? Sarah. Welcome, Sarah. First time? Huh? Yeah, could you move over that way a little bit so I can see you? A little bit more? Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else here for the first time? Oh, your name again? Karina. Karina. Welcome, Karina. Thank you. Anybody else, first time? Your first time, what's your name again? My first time is Jack Patrick. Jack Patrick. My nickname as a child. Jack Patrick, great. He's trying on new stuff. Hey, Jack... Patrick. Well, it's...

[02:06]

many, many things I would like to talk to you about. One of them is that this is a calligraph of the mantra for Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. We have a room upstairs which is kind of like a room dedicated to the great bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, which is also called Guanyin or Kanon, the bodhisattva who observes all living beings with compassion, who looks at them with compassion and listens to them with compassion, assembling an ocean of blessing by this meditation on the welfare of all beings. So there's several artistic renditions of Avalokiteshvara in that room.

[03:23]

And this is a mantra, Om Mani Padme Om, to invoke the presence of great compassion. And up in that room, there's some copies of the mantra, if you want to help yourself. There's some up there. You can take the mantra with you, this calligraphed version of it. Anybody want this one? Pass this to Lori, please. There's some more up in the room. And if they run out, we can make some more. A while ago, maybe last fall, I was talking to some priests who live at Green Gulch Farm over the hill. and talking about what we might study in the coming time.

[04:23]

And I think the idea came up to study the liturgy of the temple, to study the teachings which we recite on a regular basis. So we started by studying what's called the heart of great perfect wisdom. So I've been sharing with you those teachings on perfect wisdom for a while, and the Heart Sutra. So in most Zen temples in Japan and China, one of the main teachings that they recite on a regular basis is the Heart Sutra.

[05:26]

In China, of course, they recite a Chinese translation of the Heart Sutra. In Japan, they speak the Chinese translation in Japanese way of saying it. They chant it in Korea and they chant it in Tibet and they chant it in Vietnam and so on, this chant. And by coincidence, sort of, the main figure in this chant who's giving the teaching of perfect wisdom in the Heart Sutra is Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva of great compassion is the one who is intoning this teaching of perfect wisdom. The great compassion of Bodhisattva teaches perfect wisdom. It's not that we ever finish the Heart Sutra, because we don't finish the Heart Sutra.

[06:45]

We recite it over and over and over. For the history of the Zen school, we've been reciting this scripture, and we'll probably continue to recite it. But there's other scriptures we recite, too. So we're still studying the Heart Sutra, okay? We're still studying Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, teaching and practicing perfect wisdom. How does Avalokiteshvara practice perfect wisdom? By compassionately observing all living beings. By compassionately listening to all living beings. In that compassionate listening and looking, she practices perfect wisdom. We wish to continue that practice ourselves. We wish to look at all beings with eyes of compassion, and listen to all beings with eyes of compassion, to bring comfort and joy to all beings.

[07:55]

We wish to be friends to all beings. Last year the topic was friendship, the Bodhisattva's friendship. We wish to be friends like Avalokiteshvara, and in this way practice perfect wisdom, which liberates the body, which is the fruit of many lives. So again, in most Zen temples, when they do service, they chant the Heart Sutra in the morning. But another scripture which is chanted particularly within the Soto school of Zen in Japan, I don't know to what extent it was chanted in China. Another scripture which is chanted is called the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi. So again, I can't really ever forget to practice

[09:00]

Avalokiteshvara's perfect wisdom, but Avalokiteshvara's perfect wisdom is now turning to a new scripture called the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi. Are you ready for the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi? Here it comes. is the song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi. As I mentioned recently over the hill, in most Japanese Soto Zen monasteries, when they chant this scripture, they just call it the Precious Mirror Samadhi, the Precious Mirror Concentration. They don't say the song, but they sing that title.

[10:07]

But at Zen Center, we say song, and it's recommended by some ancestors that we say song, that we realize that we need to sing this. We need to sing this teaching. We need to use our mouth. Don't just look at it. Looking at it's great. Reading it's fine. Wonderful. I've got a copy right here. can read it. See it? There's the backside. But it's good to call it the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi. Precious Mirror is another name for Perfect Wisdom. Perfect Wisdom is a Precious Mirror. But it's not just that perfect wisdom is a precious mirror. Precious mirror samadhi is perfect wisdom. Perfect wisdom isn't just perfect wisdom, it is a mind that's concentrated in perfect wisdom.

[11:17]

So it's not just the precious mirror, which is pretty great, it's being mindful of that and focused on that and undistracted about that. but not in a tight way, to be focused in an open and relaxed way on perfect wisdom. To have open, relaxed, flexible, undistracted mindfulness of the precious mirror. And then, okay? Then sing the song about it. With your mouth, which means with your throat, and your chest, your whole body, using your mouth to sing the song of Precious Mirror Samadhi. And then when we do with our mouth, with my mouth, then my hands also start getting involved, and my feet, and your hands and your feet, and the Precious Mirror Samadhi becomes your body.

[12:29]

I often, I've told this story over and over, but not all of you were there when I told it, even though I told it more than once. Some of you are not always there when I'm talking. So some of you have not heard this story before. It's a story of when I first saw Suzuki Roshi's feet. Like, Vlada, have you ever heard that story? I'm not sure. Yeah. Well, this is a story about the first time I saw Suzuki Roshi's feet. I was sitting in a Zen meditation hall, looking at the floor. And he walked by, and I saw his feet. And I thought, those feet can teach me Zen. Now maybe I could guess, maybe because he had been singing this song, A Precious Mirror of Samadhi, over and over, that his feet became able to teach me this wisdom.

[13:57]

And when I saw the feet, I said, okay, I can study with those feet. And then somebody recently brought me, actually somebody this morning came to tell me that, what do you say about feet? I think he said something about, he also said, this is a different person, but he also said, this place is like the feet of my practice. Is that how you put it? How did you put it? Oh, I felt grounded. Yeah, he felt grounded here, like his feet, this place was his feet. And I reached behind me and pulled this piece of paper which somebody gave me recently, which I set behind me where I sit. I pulled it out and I showed it to them. Because it says, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the good news of peace.

[15:04]

Is that proper English, of them? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the good news of peace and bring good tidings of good things. How beautiful are the feet. Yeah. And Suzuki Roshi was like that. He had beautiful feet because he preached the good news of peace. and his feet were beautiful. I don't know if the feet get beautiful and then you start preaching. In a way, your feet might not be too beautiful now, but if you sing the song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi, you'll get a Zen pedigree. A Vipassana teacher spoke about what he called a Vipassana facelift.

[16:24]

He said, people go to Vipassana retreats and afterwards they're much better looking. So we call it a Vipassana facelift. And my wife heard that. She said, why don't you have any good phrases like that? So now I have Zen pedicure. Your feet will become beautiful if you sing the songs of the precious mirror Samadhi. It's also okay to go get a pedicure while you're at it. It'd be a nice thing to do for yourself. It might bring you some comfort and joy. I've never had one, I mostly do the Zen style. So here we go. Here's the song. The teaching of suchness has been intimately conveyed, intimately entrusted by Buddhas and ancestors.

[17:44]

or Buddha ancestors. What do they do? What's their job? They intimately convey the teaching of suchness. That's the first part of the song. The Buddhas and ancestors intimately transmit and entrust the teaching of suchness. And then here it comes. you have it. There's more to the song, but I'll stop there. The first part of the song is to say what Buddhas do. They entrust intimately the teaching of suchness.

[18:46]

And then they say, the person who wrote this was a Buddha ancestor. And he says, Buddha ancestors intimately transmit this precious mirror of wisdom, samadhi. And then he says, now you have it. And he says that to us from the Tang Dynasty, he said that. And we say that now. More than a thousand years later, we say that. And his teacher said to him, before he wrote this song, the author of this song, the poet who wrote this, his teacher said to him, Now your body is the precious mirror samadhi. His teacher transmitted the samadhi to him, his teacher transmitted the precious mirror to him, and then his teacher said, now you have it.

[20:02]

Your body is this precious mirror samadhi. So, very simple teaching, which is also, I don't know what, it's like inconceivably bright, ungraspable, and you can't get away from it. The teacher says, the ancient teacher says, this is what Buddhas transmit, and you have it. So what Buddhas do is they transmit, but part of the way they transmit is they say, the transmission has occurred. This is what we transmit, and now it's been transmitted.

[21:11]

You've got it now. I mean, you have attained it. You have touched it. You have touched it. and it has touched you. So there's a declaration of what the teaching is, what the practice of Buddha's is, is to transmit the perfect wisdom mirror, and also to affirm that the transmission has occurred. The way that's transmitted, the wisdom that's transmitted, one-to-one, that's transmitted to each person by each enlightened teacher, that transmission of the way, of the wisdom, is affirmation.

[22:39]

is confirmation, is prediction. You will, you will realize this wisdom. Now you have it. And this is transmitted, you know, the thought might occur to my mind like, They're not kidding, but I actually won't say they're not kidding. Because there could be a sense of humor about this. Like, those feet can teach me Zen. And those feet are saying to me, now you have it. I want to celebrate this, now you have it, I want to celebrate this confirmation and I wish to do so.

[24:17]

I wish everything I do to be, I wish everything I say to be celebration of this affirmation. And along with this comes mentioning the next line of the song, which is, protect and care for it well. Now you have this teaching. I affirm that you have this teaching. Take care of it really well. And then the song goes on to tell you how to take care of it. And I think I'll make a commitment to continue to talk to you about this song until we finish the song.

[25:33]

We can also recite this song later today. But I'll go through this song with you for the next year? It'll take a year, at least. Because we just got this far today. I'm not intending to go any further today. I just want to emphasize, this is the teaching, and there is the teaching. By the way, The teaching of satchanas is one translation, another one to translate. The word for teaching is in Sanskrit, dharma. The dharma of satchanas. But dharma also means truth. So as the teaching is the truth, the truth is the teaching. So the truth of satchanas is what Buddhas intimately transmit, the business of Buddhas

[26:38]

is to transmit the truth of suchness or true suchness. That's their job. They are doing that. It is going on and it's now happening for you. So what Buddhists do is they transmit this truth and they affirm. They transmit and affirm. And the way they transmit is an affirmation. The way they transmit this teaching is affirmation. And now that you have it, and you do have it, and you always did have it, but you didn't have affirmation, you hadn't heard about the affirmation, now you've heard This is the business, and now you have it.

[27:42]

So I'd like not really to go beyond the affirmation. I don't really want to even get into how you're going to take care of it yet. I just tell you, emphasize, [...] you are affirmed. And that the affirmation that you have this teaching that you are this teaching is the way Buddhists teach it. They teach it by affirmation. I wanted to tell you a little bit about what's been happening inwardly for me during that silent time.

[29:17]

Did you see some silence there? I was contemplating whether to bring up something. I wasn't sure if I should bring it up because it's a lot to bring up. And then I thought of something else I wanted to bring up. So I have two major things I want to bring up. One is the teachings of the Buddha. The other is the teachings of the Buddha. But they're different, they have different forms. So I'm just going to tell you the two forms that are coming up in my mind, and then we can see which one we choose first. The first is the form of the Buddhas actually talking about this confirmation, this affirmation, this prediction.

[30:22]

So I just told you about this affirmation, right? But I received stories about this affirmation from the tradition. So that's the stories of affirmation. That's one area. The other is the story of the 12 different links in the chain of causation. They sometimes say chain, as in being chained to a cyclic process of suffering. But you can also say links. Anyway, this is a picture and around the outside of this circle here are pictures about the twelve links of causation as taught by the Buddha.

[31:28]

So these are two teachings of suchness that just happen to be coming up today here. I just want you to know that I have this situation. And I think maybe, now that you know, maybe you can accept that I go into Not exactly one or the other, but that I go into one, but not forgetting the other. Because I'm holding on to this one with my hands while I talk about affirmation. So I heard, is that okay? I'm holding a picture of the 12 links of causation in my hands, holding this piece of copper, I think.

[32:36]

And I'm going to talk about prediction now. I heard that Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, said that there was a past life, and there was somebody there who met a Buddha, and the Buddha's name was Dipankara Buddha. And Dipankara I think means lamp of light or light of the lamp, Buddha. And there was a student with that Buddha and that Buddha said to that student, you will Or rather, your practice will lead to a Buddha someday.

[33:46]

And your name will be Shakyamuni Buddha. And you will live, you know, in the Saha world on the planet Earth or something. That ancient Buddha affirmed that student who would become Shakyamuni Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha tells that story about his past causes and conditions. Then later, after Shakyamuni, some of the people who wanted to be his disciple, they thought, If Shakyamuni Buddha was predicted, then maybe prediction is a necessary part of becoming a Buddha. And so, people started to say that among the community of practitioners.

[35:00]

We have to get affirmation somehow. from a Buddha, with a Buddha, by a Buddha. Now, today you already have affirmation. Where's the Buddha? Let me tell you, I don't know where the Buddha is. But I told you about that affirmation, and I told you about the person who made this affirmation, that he received affirmation, And by the way, his teacher received affirmation, so people are doing a lot of affirmation in the Zen tradition. Part of the Zen tradition is what we're talking about here. It's affirmation one-to-one. And it's happened. And it's happening. And the Buddha said, it happened for me. And I am going to do it with you. After the Buddha died, then people said, well, how are we going to get affirmation?

[36:09]

The Buddha's gone. Well, you'd have to get affirmation from a Buddha. Fortunately or unfortunately, nobody knows who Buddha is, so I'm telling you, it's happened. You are affirmed. In this vast human thing called the Buddhadharma practice, which occurred over many centuries with millions and millions, who knows how many millions of people practicing. Different opinions arose. Some people thought, not everybody is going to get affirmation. Not everybody is going to go the path of becoming a Buddha, receiving affirmation and becoming a Buddha. Some people will, and of course it's an amazing thing when somebody becomes a Buddha, but not everybody will.

[37:11]

There's an opinion among some students of the Buddhist teaching is that not everybody receives prediction and becomes Buddha. Another view is, well, everybody should. It would be good if everybody became Buddha. And another opinion is, it would be good if everybody did, and everybody will. These are different opinions I thought I might tell you about. And then I want to say also, I do want to say, that there's a scripture called the Lotus Sutra. the lotus of the wondrous truth, the lotus flower of the inconceivably wonderful truth, which is, again, the word truth is teaching, teaching truth.

[38:22]

It's the flower, the lotus flower of the inconceivably wondrous truth, which is the same truth that matters is a truth which is a teaching, and a teaching which matters is a teaching that is truth. Truth and teaching are the same thing in Buddhadharma. It's a truth that brings comfort and joy to living beings. Here's the lotus flower, the magnificent lotus flower of the true Dharma, the true teaching, the true truth. In that scripture it says, now you have it. That scripture says everybody's gonna become Buddha. Not everybody agrees today, but nonetheless, it's not just that it would be good if you all became

[39:30]

perfectly enlightened and infinitely compassionate and skillful. You will. You are going to be. We are all on the same path of realizing Buddha. That's the Lotus Sutra. And the Lotus Sutra is a scripture which the author of the chant we did at the beginning, Ehe Koso, Ehe Koso is the founder of this tradition. This temple is a temple which is set up to bring comfort and joy to living beings. This temple is in a tradition.

[40:32]

This temple was given to a tradition. It's a tradition, and the temple was given to the tradition to bring comfort and joy. The tradition is a particular tradition, and this particular tradition goes through Ehei Koso, the founder of this tradition of this temple in Japan. Ehei Koso, Ehei Dogen. and so on, Ehe, Dogen, Daioh, various names for this Bodhisattva, who was the first ancestor of this tradition in Japan. And for him, the teaching of the Lotus Sutra is the precious mere Samadhi, is perfect wisdom. And this perfect wisdom says, you will become Buddha. Everybody, whether they like it or not, are on the path not to become a Buddhist, although that's allowed.

[41:36]

You can become a Buddhist, it's not going to kill you. But if it is going to kill you, forget it. Buddhas are not necessarily Buddhists, although they can do that if it would be helpful. Want me to be a Buddhist? Okay, fine. Nobody knows who Buddhas are. Buddhas don't even know who Buddhas are. Let me tell you, I don't know what Buddha is. And I'm fine with that, because this song says you don't have to know what Buddha is to be a Buddha. In other words, this song ends by saying, practice secretly working within like a fool. You can be a fool and be a Buddha. Buddhas are those who realize Buddhahood without knowing what it is. Anyway, back to the story of the Lotus Sutra and Ehe Dogen. This tradition has an ancestor, which you don't have to agree with her, who says, you're on the same path as everybody.

[42:44]

We're all on the same path. This is an affirmation. The way we teach is to tell you, you are on the same path with everybody. And that's the way Buddhas are. Buddhas are on the same path as everybody. Does that make sense? Buddhas are on the same path with everybody. There's nobody that Buddha doesn't practice with. That's an affirmation of Buddha by somebody who's sitting in this place. I affirm the Buddhas. Buddhas allow me to affirm them. They say, go ahead, affirm me. I'll affirm you Buddha, you are like fantastically wonderful, you are practicing in the same way as everybody. And everybody's practicing the same way as you. This is an expression of affirmation which I offer. And the Buddhas of the Lotus Sutra say everybody will become Buddha, everybody is on the path to becoming Buddha beyond anybody's idea of Buddha.

[43:50]

So now I have this teaching and I think to myself, when I talk to people, is my expression to them an affirmation? Not that I like them or don't like them, but is what I'm saying, do I feel like what I'm saying, do I want what I'm saying to affirm that they are going to be Buddha and that the teaching of suchness has been transmitted to them right now. I'm watching that. I'm trying to stay on that practice of affirmation. I'm trying to be mindful of, now you have it. And somebody's saying that to me, too. Now you have the teaching of suchness which nobody knows what it is. And nobody can get a hold of it.

[45:03]

And it relieves all suffering and distress. It brings comfort and ease and joy. And nobody, even all the Buddhists, don't fully know what it is. And nobody can get a hold of it. And nobody can own it. And nobody can get away from it. Now this seems like a appropriate moment for me to switch back to this other thing I wanted to bring up. The other thing I wanted to bring up is that somebody said to me something like, I don't know, she said something like, I feel dissatisfied. How does the Rolling Stones song go?

[46:11]

Can't get no satisfaction. Huh? I can't get no satisfaction. Can't get no satisfaction? Is that how it goes? Yeah. Anyway, it's similar to, I'm feeling dissatisfied, somebody said. But then she went on. Which I'm very happy that she did. I mean, that was pretty good right there, by the way. But then she went on, And she said something like, and when I feel dissatisfied, I feel like I gotta do something. And then I feel like I have to create something. And I thought, hmm, that sounds familiar. And then she said, why do I feel dissatisfied? And I said, well, I actually have a simple answer to that, which is just a story. It's not really the reason, it's just a story.

[47:13]

The reason why we feel dissatisfied is because of ignorance. When you got ignorance, you got dissatisfaction. They go together like a horse and carriage. And I said, interestingly enough, from the story you told about your dissatisfaction and its consequences. He said, dissatisfaction, feeling like you gotta do something, gotta get something and do something, and then creation. Ignorance is ignorance of how creation actually is. When you ignore ignorance, which is you can't do because you're totally part of it, when we ignore ignorance, to make a long story short, or a fairly long story short, when we ignore ignorance, we feel dissatisfied.

[48:27]

When we ignore creation, when we ignore the causal process of life, life is a causal process, When we ignore that, we wind up trying to create things. But of course, we wind up like, I'm gonna create something which will take care of my dissatisfaction. And that comes from after dissatisfaction, thirst, craving, clinging, and then make something that will fix this, will fix thirst, fix the clinging, the stress, all the stress around there. Make something. Let something come into existence. And that's followed by, in this Buddhist story, birth. So Buddha tells a story.

[49:41]

Ignorance, and Buddha said it, Buddha didn't always teach 12 links. Sometimes Buddha taught four, sometimes seven, sometimes eight, sometimes 10, sometimes 12. Today I'm gonna teach, I think, four. Ignorance, dissatisfaction, craving, clinging, making something. The teaching of suchness is the teaching of the actual way that your life is. The Buddhist teaching of suchness is to say, your life right now is the teaching. Look at it.

[50:47]

Receive it. You have it. You have it. What you have is it. And what you have isn't it. Okay, now there's an opportunity here to ignore this. If you ignore it, don't worry, that's not the end of the story. You're going to have dissatisfaction. If you ignore this thing that's been given to you, that's been affirmed in you, if you ignore it, then you get to have the story that Buddha said would happen to you if you ignore this. If you ignore the teaching of your life, which you cannot regress because your life is inconceivable and infinite, and has no beginning or end, and is the same practice as everybody, if you ignore that life, you get a reward, and the reward is dissatisfaction to start off.

[51:59]

And then it gets worse from there. You can expand this four to add, instead of ignorance, then you can go jump to feeling. And feelings could be called pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. But if you have feelings and you ignore the teaching, then you're dissatisfied with your feelings. You can have positive feelings, but if you ignore the teaching, you're not satisfied with positive feelings because you're afraid You're thinking about, even though they're positive, you're not enjoying them because you're thinking of how long they're going to last. If you have negative feelings, if you ignore the teachings, of course, then they're really negative. And if you have neutral sensations and you ignore the teaching, they also are dissatisfaction.

[53:04]

And then, because of the dissatisfaction, we are hungry, we crave, and then we try to get a hold of something, and we try to make something. So this teaching is actually pointing us right back to the ignorance. It doesn't say there's no ignorance, it just says the teaching which is transmitted is the teaching of the suchness of ignorance. The suchness of ignorance is to be ignoring. And if you pay attention to ignoring, you're not ignoring anymore. And if you do that, you are now taking care of the teaching of suchness. The teaching of suchness is, when you're ignorant, you're ignorant. When you're ignoring the inconceivable process of your life together with all beings, when you're ignoring it, The teaching that the Buddhas transmit to you is, that's what you're doing, that's who you are at that time.

[54:10]

This teaching is, you have this so you get to be you, who is perhaps feeling dissatisfaction, and et cetera. Dissatisfaction can pop up with the craving, the clinging, and the trying to make something become. Those four links. But you're not exiled from the teaching at that time. The teaching's right there. You've got these problems, you've got dissatisfaction. If I got dissatisfaction, I got dissatisfaction. And you can sing the song of dissatisfaction and realize you're also singing the song of the precious mirror. Because of your affirmation, because you have this teaching, it's the teaching of you truly being you, of you wholeheartedly being you. You are anyway, but this teaching is saying, I affirm, you are affirmed in this.

[55:21]

And it's a big job to take care of this affirmation, but please do, which means please take care of being you. And that also, by the way, affirms all the Buddhas in the past and helps them be themselves. Affirms all the ancestors, it affirms them. They affirm you to be yourself, which in whatever way is appearing to you. If there's appearances, that's your job. If there's no appearances, that's your job. So we can go right to the beginning of addressing ignorance Teaching of suchness addresses the root cause of the dissatisfaction, and if there's any dissatisfaction, then you address the dissatisfaction, face the dissatisfaction the way we need to face creation. Because dissatisfaction is something that's been created.

[56:26]

By facing anything that's been created, you stop ignoring creation. and you're starting to pay attention to creation, with the teaching to pay attention to creation, and with the teaching that you have this teaching to pay attention to creation. You have a teaching which is telling you, you can give up now, ignoring your life. Your life is that you've received this teaching to face your life, to be yourself. And then the song goes on to give you more instruction about how to be yourself, about how to face your dissatisfaction, which is, if you've got dissatisfaction, then facing your dissatisfaction is a way to face your creation.

[57:28]

Facing your dissatisfaction is an antidote to ignoring your life. But now the thought occurs to me that not ignoring my life means facing dissatisfaction. Well, not ignoring doesn't sound that much fun. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun to be facing my dissatisfaction. But when the dissatisfaction is faced fully, there will be no more ignorance. of the process which is manifesting now as dissatisfaction. So I'll hang this up, this chart, and this chart is arranged in such a way that, yeah, actually it's arranged pretty nicely.

[58:33]

Ignorance, karmic formation, consciousness, name and form... That's not the way. That's wrong. Where is it? It's not quite oriented in the usual way. Ignorance comes from rational consciousness, and it forms extreme consciousness. Contact. Yeah. Okay, I think I got it. This particular diagram has ignorance at the bottom. It usually has ignorance at the top of the circle. So this is called the Wheel of Life and Death, actually, the Wheel of Samsara. And here's the twelve links around the outside.

[59:35]

And inside are the six realms, the six destinies that you get to visit. And then here are greed, hate and delusion. Here are... What are those guys? Oh, oh! Who are those guys? Oh, I guess, these are people who are getting in trouble. And then in the center is greed, hate and delusion, symbolized by A rooster, not a chicken, a rooster, looks like a deer, but I think it's a pig and a snake. No, it looks like a deer because the rooster's feet are on top of the pig's head, so the rooster's feet look like antlers. So here's a diagram of the world of suffering, and if you understand it, It goes in the other direction. Oh, look who came! Wow! I mean, I saw Jeff, which is nice, but now I see Jeff's little huge baby.

[60:41]

Yes. What's the huge baby's name? Piedra. Piedra? Yes. Is that like Little Stone? Yes, Little Stone. Hey, Little Stone! Wow! What a beauty! Sorry. Get it out. Yeah. That was a major interruption. The Dharma wheel stopped. These are pictures, these are images for our mind, for our conscious mind, which has images in it. Have you noticed that your conscious mind is full of images and words? So this is a picture for people who have conscious minds. It's a picture of the process of life and death. It's a conceivable, imaginable version of the process of creation.

[61:43]

The process of creation, however, is not imaginable. It's inconceivable. This is a conceivable version of it to help us open to the inconceivable. So again, the fundamental problem is down at the bottom here. We ignore the inconceivable reality of our life together. We ignore the inconceivable process of dependent co-arising, which is our life together. And by ignoring it, we get into this process. But by receiving the teaching of suchness, We stop ignoring. We gradually and suddenly stop ignoring, and then the process goes in the other direction. So the body becomes liberated. I apologize for talking so much. And I have some more pictures, larger ones too, I'll put those up too, of this conceivable version of the process of creation, to free us from all of our conceivable versions of the process of creation.

[63:06]

So I've been going on a long time, but I feel like I still should ask you if there's anything you'd like to say before we break for lunch. Would you clarify, please, the difference between song and chant? Song and chant? Yeah, or sutra. I didn't quite get why is this a song and all the other ones aren't? How are we supposed to relate to it differently? I think that you can chant songs. I think, for me, I like the word song. And again, as I said, some of our ancestors recommend using the word song, which is song rather than just chant. There's Chinese characters for chant too, but they chose the word song. And I would say, it's a song because it is joyful. It should be done joyfully, and bring great comfort and ease and all that good stuff.

[64:11]

It isn't just a chant. And one of my friends said to me, about, yeah, it's been a while now, maybe 30 years, 20 years ago, she said, why don't we sing? And I said, we do. And she said, what do you mean? I said, kanji zaibou, tatei, teni, kuni, ahara, mitai, kimi, shou, gen, go, un. She said, no, I mean with a melody. So I started to sing. When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbing along, Long, there'll be no more sobbing when she starts throbbing her whole sweet song. Wake up, wake up, you sleepyhead. Get up, get up, get out of bed. Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red. Live, love, laugh and be happy.

[65:11]

That's a song. The Dharma All suchness has been intimately entrusted by the Buddhas and the ancestors. Now you have it, so keep it well. So I think the song we sing, not just chanting, we're full of joy. And sometimes when the people are chanting that, they may forget that. and say, this is really not very joyful, this chanting. Well, then we're not singing, maybe. Maybe we don't realize we've got yes. Welcome, Ellen. Thank you. When this circle cycle leads to creation, you sound like that's bad. No, it's not bad, it just continues the dissatisfaction.

[66:27]

Leading to creation means leading to your idea of creation, which you were hoping would bring you freedom from dissatisfaction, but it won't. Not unless, at the moment of this conceivable creation, you apply the teaching of suchness. If at the moment of creation you do the practice, then you stop ignoring, and then this creation is no longer adhered to, and you're open to the real creation, which you cannot see. What they usually call the creation phase on here is becoming. Craving, clinging, becoming. But that looks like you made something. And the picture here is, let's see, what does the picture look like? Contact, feeling, craving.

[67:32]

Yeah, it's like a picture here. It looks like they're making pots. Like some people do pottery in hopes that it will free them from their dissatisfaction. And if you are doing the pottery and not facing the inconceivable process, then the pots will not free you. But if you apply the teaching to any phase in this process, there's liberation. The story that I was quoting, I don't know if you heard it, but the woman said, I feel dissatisfaction and then I I try to make something and then I create something and it doesn't touch the dissatisfaction. The thing that touches the dissatisfaction is to stop ignoring the inconceivable. And the inconceivable is, the teaching of suchness is the teaching of the inconceivable truth, which is being given to you right now.

[68:37]

If you can face that, however it appears, for example, even if it appears a dissatisfaction, This is a good opportunity for the teaching of suchness. If you wholeheartedly experience that person who is dissatisfied, you will actually realize creation beyond your images of it. The creation which we're talking about here is the imaginary version of creation. So we usually have an imaginary version of it. But that's not bad, that's just something else to apply the teaching to... And again, when the imaginary version of creation appears, it doesn't have to come from ignorance. But we're talking about an imaginary that follows from craving and clinging. Okay? So, today we have time coming up now when you can eat some food.

[69:40]

And after that, We're gonna have opportunity to take care of the temple, if you'd like. You're welcome to take care of the temple for a little while. If you don't want to, you can come and hang out with me, and I'll teach you how to become free of dissatisfaction.

[70:00]

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