I've been talking about illumination or light for the past couple of days and yesterday I talked about Within darkness there's light and within light there's darkness. Darkness is non-duality and light is the dual aspect

[01:00]

And in the Sandokai, Sekito Kisen says, light and darkness are like the foot behind and the foot before, or the foot before and the foot behind in walking. When we sit Zazen, you can say that Zazen is a non-dualistic practice, a practice of non-duality.

[02:08]

And when we shine light on our worldly activity, that's the dualistic world. But within oneness, there's duality, and within duality, there's oneness. So Zazen is the oneness of duality, where everything is equal. All things are equal. If you don't find all things equal, then Zazen becomes suffering, great suffering. But when everything becomes equal,

[03:19]

Zazen becomes nirvana. Same activity, we just experience it differently. And in our daily life, our daily life is the duality of oneness. If we only experience the dualistic part of our life, it becomes the realm of suffering. But if we also experience the oneness of that duality, then it becomes nirvana. So, suffering and nirvana, or oneness and duality, go hand in hand with each other and are two sides of the great dharmakaya or light.

[04:33]

It's a matter of letting go of ego. In Buddhist psychology, as you know, the model of consciousness is built on the perception of eight levels of consciousness. The first five levels of consciousness are through the doors of perception. And the doors of perception are the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and touch. These are the five gates. And then there's the gate of thinking.

[05:42]

which is called discriminating consciousness. So, the eye sees and there's consciousness of seeing. When the eye perceives an object, there's consciousness of seeing. And when the nose smells an object, there's consciousness of smelling. And when the ear hears a sound, there's consciousness of hearing. So, there's a doorway, or an organ, and there's an object, and there's consciousness, and all three arise together. We say, I saw something with my eye, but actually, the eye is a doorway, and we see something with the mind.

[06:50]

With the discriminating consciousness says, oh, this is the floor. The eye sees the floor. But because discriminating consciousness is subjective, we don't think that it's just a thought. we have a direct perception that we're seeing something. So we say, my eye saw that. But actually, we create a picture in our mind of the floor. So this discriminating consciousness, the sixth consciousness, is creating images and sorting out one thing from another. That's discrimination. Discrimination means to separate one thing from another.

[07:56]

So the job of this sixth consciousness, mano vijnana, is to separate out one thing from another and to discriminate one thing from another. When we hear We don't say, I saw something, although sometimes we do. Or we say, I see it that way, but actually we think it that way, right? We use these metaphors. Oh, I see. When we recognize something, we say, oh, I see. But actually, it's something that we thought. Anyway, strictly speaking, Mano vijnana or the discriminating consciousness Selects and sorts out the process of thinking and Perception And based on our perceptions the mind

[09:10]

creates pathways and builds models and gives us a picture of our world. So these are the first six consciousnesses. And the seventh consciousness is called Manas, which is what we consider sense of self or ego consciousness. Seventh consciousness is the one which, given all the data, builds a sense of individuality. It's our sense of individuality and separateness. consciousness of being separate and individual and complete in ourself.

[10:20]

It takes all of the information and builds itself out of this information. And the eighth consciousness is called the alaya vijnana, and this is called the storehouse consciousness. which stores all the memories and all of the experience that we've had and is a storehouse for experience and for the seeds of karma. In other words, whatever action, whatever volitional action is done by us, this action puts a seed into the storehouse consciousness. And when conditions are ripe, when these seeds are watered and given sunlight of the mind, they sprout and create habit patterns.

[11:33]

So there's an action which creates a seed, which creates another action, which creates another seed. and endlessly. This action and sprouting is characterized by our habit energy and creates our patterns of behavior. And This alaya vijnana The seventh consciousness takes alaya vijnana also for its own

[12:42]

mistakes it for itself, for an ego, relies very heavily because the seventh consciousness is actually the conveyor of information. Its function, true function, is a conveyor of information from the discriminating consciousness to the storehouse consciousness and carries messages back and forth. So It's like, you could see it like an office, run like an office, where the first five consciousnesses are the information coming in. The sixth one is discriminating them, the information, kind of putting everything into order. The Seventh Consciousness is taking all this information to the boss, who is the Alaya Vijnana sitting in the back office, and then takes messages from the Alaya Vijnana back to the discriminating consciousness.

[13:55]

So the Seventh Consciousness is constantly going back and forth with information and messages. And because it has so much information, it begins to think of itself as the boss. It's a kind of imposter and begins to use the information to build its own sense of reality. And this is what we call our ego, ego consciousness. which takes all this information and knowledge and builds a sense of I am out of it, where an I am doesn't really exist. It has a function, and when it's doing its work, things run very well, the office runs very well.

[15:05]

It's like sitting up its own desk and putting its feet on the desk and smoking a big cigar. And creating a personality. But when it's running smoothly, And just doing its work, the rest of the office is very happy, and also works well, and works well with the rest of the world, because everything's in place. And it knows the ālaya-vijñāna, behind the ālaya-vijñāna is another consciousness, which is very close. and that's called the Great Ocean Consciousness, which is Buddha nature.

[16:16]

It's not different or separate, but it's like when we talk about the ocean and the waves, the ocean is the Amora Consciousness or Great Ocean of Buddha nature, which has no special shape or form. but the waves are its expression. And each one of these consciousnesses, when they're properly doing their work, are called wisdoms. when ego, but it all depends on ego. It all depends on this seventh consciousness. When the seventh consciousness finds its rightful work, then all the rest of the consciousnesses turn into wisdom.

[17:28]

So it really depended on this one activity of this one seventh consciousness. And when ego finds its rightful place, and the other consciousnesses, and when it turns, it's called Kensho. Because it becomes, instead of being called seventh consciousness, it's called great equality wisdom. Kensho is to be able to see everything completely equally. It's when Lungtan blew out the light, Darshan saw everything completely equally in the dark.

[18:44]

Everything was dark. complete utter darkness. He had a great Kensho experience where he saw everything equally. To get the equality of everything without distinction. This is utter darkness, sometimes called the black lacquer bucket of which the bottom has fallen out. That's an old Zen metaphor. The black lacquer bucket without a bottom. So in the seventh consciousness, turning is just a metaphor. Nothing turns, nothing. There's no real transformation, but

[19:50]

When the seventh consciousness turns, it becomes, it's called the great equality wisdom. And the sixth consciousness, at that point, becomes the subtle observing wisdom. It doesn't lose... sixth consciousness doesn't lose its ability to discriminate. But this discrimination is called subtle observing. It means that the sixth consciousness sees everything discreetly. A chair is a chair. Yes is yes. No is no. It sees everything in its individual aspect, separate from everything else.

[20:58]

But what has changed, what has turned, is that this observing wisdom is based on non-discrimination. The discrimination is a no-discrimination. It's a pure discrimination, not discrimination of partiality. So these two consciousnesses complement each other. The seventh consciousness sees everything equally, without discrimination.

[22:03]

And the sixth consciousness sees everything in its individuality. But the sixth wisdom is based on the seventh wisdom, and the seventh wisdom is based on the sixth. So this is like saying, within darkness there is light, and within light there is darkness. Or within discrimination, there's non-discrimination, and within non-discrimination, there's discrimination. It's like saying, or it's like if we don't have this understanding, and we talk about this non-discrimination, and we try to see everything

[23:22]

equally, in a non-discriminating way, when you walk out into the street after Sachine, your mind will be in a non-discriminating mode. And when a car comes down the street, you'll say, oh, isn't that interesting? But a discriminating mind will say, but I think I'll stay on the curb until it goes by. This is how we discriminate on the basis of non-discrimination. We understand that there's no difference between anything, between all things, and at the same time, when a car comes down the street, you better get out of the way. So in the realm of discrimination, of non-discrimination, based on non-discrimination, even though there's no difference between anything, it's immoral to start a war.

[24:42]

If you commit a crime, you should be punished. Some things we should eat and some things we shouldn't eat. If you do unwholesome acts, then you have unwholesome karma and you have unwholesome results. So there's a world of good and bad and a world of right and wrong. And we reap the fruits of our actions. But there are two sides. When

[25:47]

The seventh consciousness becomes the equality wisdom, and the sixth consciousness becomes the subtle observing wisdom. The alaya-vijnana becomes the great round mirror wisdom, and reflects the great ocean of the ninth consciousness. it becomes purified. And all the five consciousnesses of our senses, pre-consciousness, these are actually pre-consciousness, seeing just sees, hearing just hears, tasting just tastes, everything as it is, without partiality. And this is how light, luminosity, is expressed through consciousness.

[27:18]

And this is why we sit tzazen, is to just allow this luminosity to be expressed through consciousness, to sit in reality. And the main thing Or the thing that gets in our way is ego, our seventh consciousness, which makes distinctions based on preference and a built-up personality. Our sense of ourself, which is difficult to give up. difficult to handle. If we continue to practice in a sincere way, really making strong effort, little by little our ego will be

[28:56]

worn down and turned around. In the meal sutra, we say something like, we express the desire for the natural order of mind. Natural order of mind and to be free from self-clinging. Natural order of mind is when the seventh consciousness turns around and allows all the aspects of consciousness to function correctly in a natural order, which is free from self-clinging, free from false sense of ego.

[30:14]

And this false sense of ego is the basis of our suffering. We may have circumstances in our life which cause us a lot of suffering, which we have no control over. But strictly speaking, the way we bring suffering on ourselves is through this ego. Hopefully, through practice, we can turn that around.

[31:34]

But I don't guarantee it. I don't guarantee that that will happen. But it's possible. Possible. You may practice for 50 years and never turn it around. But it's possible. I think it depends a lot on our effort and our intention. I remember the first time that I sat Sashin and somewhere in the middle of Sashin we had a cookie and a cup of tea and it was so wonderful without any expectation of anything happening, no desire particularly, but there's this kind of wonderful thing, simple, singular,

[33:27]

thing appearing, this cookie and this little cup of tea, it seemed to epitomize the whole thing. It was so wonderful that it was there, and it was just an event, but somehow, and then it was over. But it was really refreshing. Very refreshing. It was a real mind refresher. The other day I was talking with somebody about this event, about eating. It was Tom, I was talking with Tom about And it came up like, well, I ate my fig, or my treat, and now I'm enjoying it.

[34:42]

And I thought, well, where is the enjoyment? Where does the enjoyment begin, and where does the enjoyment end? How much do we have to do with this event anyway? Something appears and then I have some volition or desire to do something with it, eat it. So I pick it up and I chew it. And when that is finished, that's as much as I had to do with it. just this little bit of action that I call my involvement. I pick it up and I put it in my mouth and I chew it and it tastes good and then there's some residual part of that that goes into the tummy and

[35:53]

then I can say, well, now I'm enjoying it, but it's all over. When I think about all the events that went into creating this cookie and this tea, the weather, the ground, and the growth of the plants, and the harvesting, and the processing, and all of the human effort to bring it, the packaging, and the delivery, and the exchange of money, and Going from one, the store, to the house, to the stove, to making it into, with other elements, combining to make it into what we call cookie.

[37:17]

Combining it with ideas and thoughts. And then putting it in pots and pans, and bringing it with intention to this spot, so that I can go... And then, after that, some other process is going on in my body, which I have nothing to do with. After that, after it's gone to about here, I'm finished with it. somehow this body is still working with it. But just this little space of time is my so-called my involvement. But is that my involvement? Where does my involvement really begin and end?

[38:19]

I remember Suzuki Roshi talking about this a lot. I said, we arrange everything on our plate. Vegetables are over here, and fruit is over here, and grain is here, rice is there, and we eat each thing individually. But as we eat, it all becomes one mass. It all mixes up together and changes and transforms. And this is the dark side, where you can't separate, you don't separate things. But out here in the light, it's all separate and different. And, oh, this is grain, this is potatoes, this is fruit, this is vegetables, But just for a moment, things seem to be what they are, what we call them, just appearing and disappearing, transforming.

[39:58]

Nothing is the same, and yet everything is different. Nothing is different, yet everything is the same. Mysterious. It's very mysterious. But what's wonderful is, without any thought, just to be able to appreciate this tea and this cookie. Why it's so wonderful? Because there's no thinking about it. It just is. If I think myself and this cookie are one, that's just a thought.

[41:14]

Just an idea. But without thinking. Just to do this thing. Cookie and I and T are just one. Not two. And yet, Cookie is Cookie, T is T, I am me. But if we try to think about it too much, or try to grasp it, or use the model as reality, we have big trouble.

[42:25]

So, just sit zazen. And when we sit zazen, just let go of everything. Don't get caught by the pain in your legs. Don't get angry. Don't get resentful. Don't set up a resistance. Just let ego say, oh, this is what this is. Just carry the message. Just let the ego carry the message. Don't let it tell you what to do. It's not the boss. Then, if ego is not the boss, who is the boss?

[43:33]

This is a big koan. Who is the boss? This afternoon we have Shosan, so please think of a good question, but don't ask me that one.

[44:08]

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