There are several people here who are here for the first time, you're welcome here, and and you are arriving in the midst of an ongoing cycle of teaching, an ongoing cycle of teaching about how to study and understand delusion, and by understanding, realize freedom in the

[01:31]

midst of delusion, to have great understanding of delusion is Buddhas, so there's been an ongoing study of delusion, and offering and receiving teachings about delusion, and what it looks like, and how it functions, how it arises, how it ceases, how it arises, and there is a particular teaching about this process of the arising of delusion, and how to understand it and be able to be free in the midst of it, which is called the great vehicle, which is a teaching not only to understand delusion, but to do so not just for the sake of one's personal liberation, one's personal understanding and liberation in the midst of delusion, but to do this primarily to help other living beings who are living in

[02:40]

the midst of delusion, a willingness to live in delusion with other beings to help them become free of suffering. So this is the ongoing process, but I did use the word cycle, and part of it being a cycle is that I am glad to go back to the basics over and over. Also, partly because even some people who have been involved in the process for a long time have forgot most of what I mentioned earlier, so going back to the beginning is oftentimes news to them. Even though they've been there many times, it's like, oh, that's

[03:42]

wonderful. And also, even though I keep going back to the beginning, and also going back to the beginning is something I've been taught to do, still, even at the beginning, not to mention in the middle and at the advanced stages, even the old timers sometimes don't know what I'm talking about. They tell me that. But sometimes they tell me, you know, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm very happy to be here with you. I'm sometimes very happy to hear you talk, even though I don't know what you're talking about. Somehow I feel encouraged, but sometimes I might get discouraged because I think, well, shouldn't I be understanding better than I do? And then if they tell me that, I say, no, you should not be understanding better than you do. You should be understanding just the way you do.

[04:43]

And if you can really accept that, you will understand better than you do. So it's possible, you know, that you've understood somewhat what I just said so far. But as I go on, things may get more and more difficult to understand as I go deeper and deeper and deeper into the nature of the mind. One of the basic teachings in the tradition is that because living beings, you know, non-Buddhas, have certain misconceptions about the nature of phenomena. In other words, because they don't understand the reality of their experience,

[05:53]

they crave, they have cravings, because of their misunderstanding of their experience. And based on those cravings, which arise from their misunderstanding or misconceptions about experience, they cling. And because they cling, they are stressed. They suffer. And in their suffering, they try to do something about it, supported by misunderstanding, craving and clinging. So what they do firmly establishes this suffering and keeps it running very nicely, pretty much indefinitely. This is a basic teaching, which I don't mind remembering every few seconds.

[07:01]

Having this human mind, I can easily remember things quite frequently, and I can also forget. But it doesn't take too long to remember. Misconception, craving, clinging, suffering. Early Buddhism, the Buddha taught that the way phenomena are, is that they are all compounded phenomena anyway, are impermanent, they're subject to change, they are unsatisfactory, and they don't have a self, they don't have an independent existence. And he taught that because, or again, sentient beings, because of their misconception, often have the view

[08:09]

that phenomena potentially are pleasureful, like, Granddaddy, this is really going to be fun! And that they're pure, are beautiful, and that you can get good stuff from them, and that they have a self, and that they're permanent. You don't have to teach this to children, they're born with these upside down views, living beings are born with these upside down views. So the Buddha teaches a kind of contradiction to that, Buddha teaches that things are impermanent, not self, and not going to give you pleasure in themselves. And by meditating on, if you can hear these teachings, and let them sink in, and be able

[09:12]

to see that that's the way things are, then you will stop craving them. And when you stop craving them, you'll stop clinging to them, and then you will, or one will, be free of suffering due to the clinging. This is the early teaching, and the later teachings of the Buddha's disciples, they came up with a more radical teaching, and this radical teaching is part of this great vehicle. And the radical teaching is saying, actually, even when you're practicing these three, meditating on these three characteristics of phenomena, impermanence, ill, and not self, still you need to radically understand that even then, everything you're experiencing is just simply an idea. So that one idea is

[10:17]

a basic teaching of the great vehicle, it's a basic teaching, it's like a single idea, a single teaching, to remind us that whatever we're experiencing is just an idea. And the beings who practice the great vehicle of compassion and caring for all beings, the beings who are devoted to the welfare and happiness and freedom of all beings, these beings are called bodhisattvas. Well, actually, they're not only just devoted to the welfare of all beings, but they're devoted to realize understanding, profound understanding of delusion, so that they can help all beings. These are called bodhisattvas, and these bodhisattvas need to understand that all phenomena are

[11:26]

just conceptual constructions, just cognitive constructions, that's all they are. And they need to understand that, that is that dharma of the great vehicle. And they need to understand it because as long as our consciousness doesn't terminate in mere concept, so long will we be inclined to two kinds of clinging, the clinging to the self of persons and the clinging to the self of phenomena. As long as our consciousness is not situated in this reality of conscious construction only, the residuals of duality, the residuals of dual clinging will not come to an end.

[12:28]

And so we'll keep clinging until we understand this, is what basically is being said. So we do need to understand this, which means we also need to understand impermanence, and this is a radical not-self, and then we also need to understand that phenomena are not going to give us happiness. Husbands and wives, ice cream and health, babies and good weather are not going to give us happiness. These things do not have the ability to give us happiness. What gives us happiness is to be kind to all things with no clinging, to be compassionate to everything we experience with no clinging, to be wish the welfare of all beings with no craving and clinging to their welfare.

[13:31]

And in order to do that, in order to be devoted to the welfare of beings with no clinging, we need to understand that we live in a world that is mind-constructed. If we don't understand that, we will continue to not always cling, but the tendency to cling will still be there, will not come to an end until we're really completely situated in this teaching. And this teaching is counterintuitive because of our misconceptions. We misconceive that the people we're looking at and the experiences we're having are separate from us, or our experiences are separate from the mind which experiences them. It looks like that. We have a mind which is a trickster, which makes pictures of people and

[14:34]

then it says those people are not you and they're separate from you. And there's wonderful stories about why we got in this tricky situation, but anyway, if we're really kind to the situation, if we really can immerse ourselves in the process of the situation, we can stop clinging and if we can stop clinging, we can be free of it. But if we cling, we're not really in the situation. So that's the teaching and I think maybe I'll stop on that for a little while and go back to it later. Another way of talking about this, which I mentioned in a class at Green Gulch, is that the way to

[15:50]

understand the teaching is to be kind to all of our experience, to practice compassion towards all of our experience, to practice compassion towards our misunderstandings, to practice compassion towards our addictions. And our compassion practice, before we understand this teaching, and our aspiration to practice compassion towards all beings, prior to understanding this great vehicle teaching, is impure. So there's some clinging involved in our practice of compassion before we're enlightened.

[16:59]

After we're enlightened, in other words, after we understand delusion, we continue these practices of compassion, but then they are purified. There's no clinging involved anymore. So as we use the practice of compassion to immerse ourselves in the flow of events, there's some clinging if we don't yet understand this teaching of conscious construction only. Once we understand the teaching of conscious construction only, we continue the practices of compassion in the flow of events, but there's no clinging. So the practice is unhindered and pure. When we first start doing these practices, we have some resistance to this teaching. Basically, the resistance to this teaching is that we see things differently from the teaching.

[18:08]

I was talking about being an artist the other night, and somebody said one of the problems with being an artist is that it's often associated with the word genius. And I would say, well, the Bodhisattva artist is a genius at being an ordinary person. They really know how to be an ordinary person who is having ordinary experiences and clinging to them. Ordinary people cling to their experiences. And clinging includes holding on and trying to get rid of. So ordinary addicted people cling to their addictions and try to get rid of their addictions. But that's not the way that addictions will be released. Addictions will be released by practicing compassion with them until we understand them.

[19:34]

And when we understand them, they will be released, but they'll still be there to be loved with no clinging. Loved and liberated with no clinging. So the Bodhisattva needs to learn to give up grasping. She needs to learn how to give up grasping. She needs to understand the great dharma of the great vehicle, which is her vehicle. And she does this by listening to the great vehicle, dharma of conscious construction only. She listens to that a lot. She has a great deal of what's called permeation of hearing.

[20:35]

And she listens to that teaching of conscious construction only, and she practices the six Bodhisattva practices while she's listening. And while she's doing the practices of the six Bodhisattva practices, she listens to the teaching. Both the teaching of how to do the practices and also the teaching of the nature of the practices she's doing. So the six Bodhisattva practices are giving, generosity, ethics. They have an order. Ethics or justice, patience, enthusiasm or courageous effort and concentration or being tranquil and relaxed and open.

[21:45]

And the practices which make us realize open, relaxed, tranquility. And then wisdom, which understands the nature of the practices and the nature of all phenomena. So the great vehicle teaching is giving us instruction on how to do these practices, but the main point is the nature of all the practices, which is that they're just conscious constructions too. For us, for non-Buddhas, all the practices that we experience are just ideas. And understanding that is the wisdom practice. And the wisdom practice is also just an idea for us. And when we can actually, while we're doing all these compassion practices, simultaneously remember the teaching while we're doing them,

[23:11]

then we can not cling to our ideas of the practices. So somehow the message of these practices has been sent to us. We've heard it in English or Chinese or Japanese or French, but it wasn't sent in Chinese, Japanese or French. It was sent from a place that cares about us. It's sent from a place of understanding of this teaching. And it was sent in such a way that we could turn it into ideas. And we did. Just like other things that were sent to us, we turned into ideas. We turn everything into ideas. We turn the sun into ideas. We turn the day into ideas. We turn our friends into ideas. Our mind constructs things in response to everything that we're given. And at some point in the process, we were given something, we were given the Dharma, and we constructed a linguistic rendition of it.

[24:38]

For example, we constructed the word generosity. Or we constructed the idea ethics and justice. And we constructed the idea, I would like to practice these. And we constructed the idea, Buddhas encourage us to do this. And we constructed the idea, all Buddhas practice these six perfections, these six disciplines. We constructed those ideas so that we could start trying to practice these things. And we have tried to practice them. And we are somewhat successful in practicing them. But also, our approach to them is through our ideas of them, because that's the only way we know how to operate. Just like we say, you know, you can't get to the Zen Center without some idea of a Zen Center. So then we say, Zen Center. So people can come to Zen Center. Because they don't know how to go to a Zen Center that's not called a Zen Center.

[25:47]

And people don't know how to start practicing giving, even though it's been shown to them, until they're allowed to make an idea of giving. And then they can grasp the idea and try to do their idea. But there's some grasping in the practice of giving, and the practice of giving is helping us get ready to not grasp. But we start by grasping our idea of giving and the practice of giving. And the more we do it, the more we practice giving, the more we notice that there's some grasping in the giving. And the more we notice there's grasping in the giving, we can be generous towards that grasping and get ready to actually understand that what we're doing is just an idea. And then actually not attach to that. And then practice giving with no grasping. That's what giving basically is. It's not grasping. It's not grasping at our prosperity. It's not grasping at pleasure.

[27:05]

But our approach to that actuality of not grasping is through the idea of giving and the idea of not grasping. And we're being told that if we do this practice over and over, we can realize it. Like somebody said to me, we need to practice good in order to realize that good cannot be found. And when you practice good and realize that good can't be found, then you can practice good with no hindrance. And also, you can't find giving, you can't find justice, you can't find patience, you can't find enthusiasm, you can't find concentration, and you can't find wisdom. But you have to do those practices in a way you think you can find before you can realize they can't be found. So, another basic principle which I say is that giving and not grasping is not grasping.

[28:46]

And what I've been saying lately is that by immersion in the process of delusion, there is freedom from delusion. And as a general principle, immersion in x is liberation from x. Immersion in suffering is liberation from suffering. Immersion in suffering helps you understand the dependent co-arising of suffering, which is attachment. And immersion in attachment helps you realize the dependent co-arising of attachment, which is craving. And immersion in craving helps you understand the dependent co-arising of craving, which is misconception.

[29:53]

And immersion in misconception helps you understand the dependent co-arising of misconception. So all these things you can realize transcendence of by immersion in them. And immersion comes through being compassionate with all this, with everything. So I'm thinking maybe of pausing now a little bit before going deeper into some subtleties concerning conscious construction only to see if you have any questions about how to practice with and be immersed in your experience. Yes? I have a question and also a comment that I would like to offer. Thank you.

[30:55]

I really appreciate the way that you gave an overview of this teaching that some of us have been practicing with this year. And when I heard the part in your explanation where you spoke of until we understand the idea's only nature of phenomena that we are not free actually, that is not liberation. And so in my mind, my idea of that is that that teaching sounds like a view. And recently I've heard another perspective. For you it is. And when I'm saying it to you, for me it is. But the teaching is not a view. It's just that when we hear these teachings, we make a view out of them. But the teaching isn't a view. The Dharma is not a view. The Dharma is not a conscious construction.

[31:56]

The fact that things are conscious construction only is not a conscious construction. Well, what I was going to say is that I'm happy to hear that. And I suspected that that's what you might say. Because... But for me it's a conscious construction and for you it's a conscious construction only. Only. And for the teacher, was it a conscious construction? Well, for this teacher. Because this teacher is an ordinary person. Well, based on something I heard recently... Hopefully being a genius at being ordinary. But I'm not saying I've got the total ordinariness yet. I aspire to it. I'm working up to it. Have you noticed? My point is that it sounds like incomplete liberation if it's a view or a conscious construction for the teacher, for you, and certainly for me in the manner in which I'm hearing this.

[33:06]

In a way you're right. So one thing is, until you understand conscious construction, you're not liberated from consciousness. Until you're totally immersed in the teaching of conscious construction with no clinging, you haven't really understood the teaching yet. So you're not liberated. But in some ways equally important, or maybe more important than that, is that the practices you're doing which support liberation and understanding, or understanding and liberation, which you're doing for the welfare of others, these practices are somewhat, well, they're kind of a struggle. The practice of compassion is somewhat of a struggle before you understand. And in the struggle sometimes it seems like we forget to do the practices. Like when someone suddenly slaps you in the face, you might forget for just a moment, you might forget to say thank you.

[34:12]

Or you might for a moment get distracted from being just towards what seemed to be an injustice. And for a moment you might flinch from patience with that insult and that attack. And getting distracted like that is due to not understanding what just happened. And that not understanding and being distracted is related to not being liberated. After understanding, then the Bodhisattva never forgets. She always remembers the practices no matter what happens. The practice is not a struggle anymore. And it's uninterrupted. So she's not only liberated, but the practice is liberated once she understands. And before she understands, and she's still an ordinary person after she understands, it just is no hindrance and stress in being an ordinary person.

[35:16]

Ordinary people can do these practices uninterruptedly. And it's rare that they can because ordinary people have a hard time completely accepting their ordinariness, which is that, for example, at the center of it is that we're fantasizing beings. So yes, before you understand, you're not liberated, plus your practice of compassion and wisdom is somewhat a struggle, somewhat hindered, and you have to really work hard to have really great energy and courage. But you can. You can actually work up a great energy and courage even prior to enlightenment. May I ask a follow-up question? Yes. My follow-up question is, why does the teacher recommend that we practice the six perfections in addition to the four measurables?

[36:21]

In addition to? The four measurables are included in the six. The six perfections include all practices, including the four immeasurables. They're not in addition. It seemed like it was parsed out of the list. The four were parsed out from the six? That's what it seemed like. The four are included in generosity. The four are included in justice. The four are included in patience. The four are included in courage, courageous effort. The four are included in concentration. And the four are included in wisdom. And the four immeasurables are loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, right? Those four are in the six.

[37:24]

Equanimity is sort of literally tranquility and openness and relaxation. Compassion is literally the first five perfections. Loving kindness is literally generosity. And sympathetic joy is also literally generosity and literally justice. So that even when you see injustice, you relate to it in a just way. Which means that you're kind to the injustice. That you can see something good in all situations. You can rejoice in the merits of being's practice. You can see that. That's also included in wisdom. Sympathetic joy is in wisdom. Wisdom has sympathetic joy all the time.

[38:27]

Which is one of the nice points about wisdom. Is that you can see everybody's excellent qualities. You can see that she's really a very good girl. Even though she's late for dinner. You know that story? Suzuki told this story about one of the notable Zen teachers in Soto Zen. That he actually saw when he was a little boy. And later he realized he had seen him. And this teacher was named Oka Sotan. And when he was a young monk at the monastery. He was sent to either the pickle store or the tofu store. There's two versions of this story. So he's sent to the store and on the way to the store.

[39:32]

This is like in the late 19th century. And on the way to the store he sees one of these beautiful woodblock prints. You know those 19th century Japanese woodblock prints. Well they used them for making pictures of Mount Fuji. But they also did it for advertising circuses. And the skill level was pervasive. So he walked by and saw this beautiful advertisement for a circus. He was a young monk. But he was attracted to the picture of the circus. And he started to look at the picture of the circus. We don't know how long he looked at it. But anyway while he was looking at the picture of the circus. He heard the temple bell ringing announcing evening service. Which happened before dinner. And he was supposed to get dinner. So he woke up out of his enjoyment. And ran to the store. And ran in. And said to the proprietor.

[40:35]

Give me the tofu. No no he didn't say that. He said give it to me. Give it to me. And the proprietor says why? He said the tofu. So he gives him the tofu. And he runs out of the store and starts running back to the temple. And he realizes he's forgotten his hat. So he runs back to the store and says to the proprietor. Give it to me. And the proprietor says what? He says my hat. He says it's on your back. So then he runs back to the temple. And he's late for getting the food to the monks for dinner. And after the circus he told that story he said. He was a very good boy. He was a very good boy. And he was also a naughty boy. He was a very good naughty boy. And became a great Zen master.

[41:36]

So. That's part of the six perfections that you see this. And that's part of sympathetic joy. That you can see the Zen master. Running around. With his hat on his back. But it's not a bad thing. It's hard sometimes when people are being ordinary. To be compassionate enough to see. Yes. You reminded us about purity. The idea of purity being one of the inverted views. And then you talked about pure practice after realization. So how do you reconcile those two? This word purity also means beautiful. So it refers to that when you look at I don't know what. A beautiful new car. And you think that that beautiful new car or that beautiful new person or that beautiful new.

[42:41]

When you think that that thing will give you pleasure. That's what's meant there. Purity in this case means that you don't believe that anymore. You don't believe that things are going to give you happiness. You also don't believe that things are going to give you unhappiness. You understand that thinking that things will give you happiness and unhappiness. That gives you unhappiness. Thinking that things will give you happiness and unhappiness. And being concerned for that. Just thinking that and also being concerned to get them. That's what's meant by the belief in purity. So how is the beauty aspect of purity that you're talking about different from pleasure? As an inverted view. Trying to distinguish those views. I had a different idea of the purity thing for a long time.

[43:47]

That's what it means to me. I think that the pleasure thing is... I can't see right now what the difference between thinking that the thing will give you happiness and being concerned with thinking that this thing will give you pleasure. Somehow I can't see the difference right now. Any other responses? I was wondering when you were talking about the emerging. The emerging keeps happening over and over. Is it based on our lack of total understanding? So when the understanding is totally open and whole.

[44:56]

Then there is no more emerging. It just... No, then when the understanding is correct. In a given situation when the understanding is authentic and correct. Then there is complete immersion and complete transcendence. In the moment. In the moment. Yeah, in the moment. On that occasion. And then the Bodhisattva, the enlightening being, wishes to keep doing this until everybody learns this. But for the moment, when there is... There can be enough immersion to lead to understanding and then when there is understanding, then there will be total immersion with no struggle. But the ordinary situation keeps going on and the Bodhisattva in the ordinary situation keeps immersing herself in the process

[46:02]

with understanding of what's going on here. We're continuing to immerse ourselves in the process where the process looks like an image. Looks like an image. And where we actually can understand that the image is not external. It's an image, but it's not external. And without the image we wouldn't be able to demonstrate to other beings who don't understand this how they can be with their images, which they think are external, in a way where they could immerse themselves in their situation where they think images, what they're looking at, is external, for them to immerse themselves in there through compassion and realize that the images that they're aware of are not external. So we just keep working on this. This story isn't done yet. And we continue to be ordinary for the sake of ordinary beings.

[47:08]

And if there's any other ordinary beings who understand that they're ordinary, then they're kind of like our peers. So we're working together until everybody's our peer. But there's no end to the immersion until everybody's enlightened and everybody's in the immersion for the sake of all other beings. Then the job would be done. I don't see anything separate from me. If you don't see anything separate from yourself, I think either you're completely enlightened or you just don't see that you see that way. No, I don't. All I'm here for is there's a switch.

[48:13]

I keep playing over and over and over, and this switch needs to be turned off. And that's where, when it doesn't get turned off, this whole process keeps happening over and over and over. So it's about the switch, turning off the switch. Yeah. And it seems to me that you could be free of the switch being turned on, you could be free of that if you could immerse yourself in the switch being turned on. But I feel you're hesitating to immerse yourself in the switch being turned on because you want the switch to be turned off. Which is a common condition. So I'm trying to encourage you to accept the switch not being turned off, and you'll be free of the switch not being turned off, and you'll be fine. And you'll be able to do all the practices which I'm sure you would like to do,

[49:19]

which you might think you'd be able to do if the switch was turned off, but you wouldn't be able to do them if the switch was turned off because you wouldn't be an ordinary person anymore. So you wouldn't be able to relate to the other people you want to help. However, you would be liberated if you could get the switch turned off somehow. Well, I see that because of the switch being on, I keep thinking, oh, these people need to be removed. Yes, that's right, because of the switch being turned on, that does happen. But again, if you can be kind to that situation, you can be free of that situation. And then you can be kind to other people and show them how to be free because they're in that situation. So the Bodhisattva is staying in the situation you're describing in order to totally engage it and thereby be free of it

[50:22]

and show other people how to totally engage it and be free of it. And even if you want just personal liberation and you don't want to stay after you're free, even personal liberation, you still have to immerse yourself in the process. It's just that after you're free, you might say, well, I'm just going to turn it off and keep it turned off. In which case I won't necessarily be able to relate to the other people who still have it on. But I don't care. I'm just out of here, finally. I'm like free. Bye-bye. No more thought constructions, which means no more world. Just pure light. Yeah, right. And I think that's fine that you do. And that's just a conscious construction. That pure light. Yes?

[51:24]

I may be going too far with this. It's possible. What I'm understanding is that we're sort of trapped in our subjectivity. Forever trapped in it. It's not so much that we're trapped. We're not just trapped in our subjectivity. We're also trapped in our objectivity. Well, there is no such thing. There's no such thing as... It's all a subjective... My experience is completely subjective. Maybe that's where I'm going too far. Well, your subjective version is that the object of things are separate from your subject. That's your subjective version. Yeah, because there's a... It's not just... You're not really stuck in your subjective. You're stuck in your conscious constructions. And your conscious constructions aren't actually just subjective. They're constructions. They're objects. They're not subjects. So you're not actually stuck in your subjective.

[52:28]

You're stuck in your conscious construction, which is both subject and object. So you're stuck in your subject and your object, because your subject constructs objects. You're stuck in conscious construction. But that's not just subjective. And you're stuck there means that's where you live. That's an ordinary place where a non-Buddha lives. And those who have immersed themselves in this with compassion have transformed the basis of this construction and this transformed basis of the construction project is the pure body of Buddha, which is sending messages to those of us who are ordinary beings. And it's telling us how to get free of it, but it's also telling us how to be bodhisattvas and become Buddhas by helping everybody else be free of it. Within this enclosure, within this cognitive enclosure,

[53:30]

which is not just subjective, it's also objective. And not only that, but the object looks like it's external to the subject, but it's not. So it's not just subjective or objective, it's both subjective and objective, just there's no external object in this world. And it looks like there is. Yeah, and then I have this great craving to connect with the essence of what that external object is. Yeah, and you have the craving to connect with a lot of other stuff, too. You have craving to connect with essences, and also non-essences, and deepnesses, and superficialness. You have craving to connect with everything because everything looks like it's connectable. And since it's connectable, if you're not connectable, it's got a problem because you haven't done the connecting that has to be done. So it's craving. It's not really an option. You crave it, and therefore you cling, and therefore you suffer. So that's the situation. That's the situation?

[54:33]

So now let's completely embrace it. And the way to completely embrace it is to be thoroughly compassionate. Thoroughly compassionate. And being thoroughly compassionate is something we need to learn. And so there's teachings about how to be thoroughly compassionate, which we can learn and practice. But it's... Thoroughness is really something... We aren't born being thoroughly compassionate. Some people think little babies are thoroughly compassionate, and I like to meet those because my grandson is not. There's nobody more adorable on the planet, but this guy is like... He is amazingly selfish. But still, he can do... Still, he can... In his conscious construction, he can do great acts of generosity. It's amazing. It's so beautiful. But boy, is he selfish. And boy, is he scared.

[55:33]

And the Buddhas love him. And they love all of us. And they're sending us Dharma all the time. And we're receiving it and turning it into conscious constructions. And we're... And we're applying it to the conscious constructions. And as we do, we're practicing the great vehicle teachings. And as we do it more and more, the basis of this conscious construction gets transformed so that we can better and better understand it, and therefore better and better practice compassion, and therefore better and better understand it, and better and better practice compassion, and transform the basis of it all more, and create the true body of Buddha. So that the emanation of the Dharma will continue to go to beings who will turn it into conscious construction and practice it, and be inspired to practice it,

[56:38]

and practice it, and practice it, and practice it. And then... So, is the antidote... Is the antidote then for being afraid that there is no bold compassion, generosity, is that... The six practices... The first three are not antidotes to that fear. They are... They benefit that fear. They benefit and nurture and encourage beings who are afraid. The last two are the antidote. Concentration and wisdom are the antidote to that fear. But before you can antidote it, you have to already be kind. Or basically, before you liberate something, or set something free, you have to be kind to it. Because if you are not kind to this unliberated situation,

[57:42]

the unliberated situation is not open to being free. It says, you know, freedom may not be a good idea, I'm just going to hold on to this misery. Pardon? Yes, it's terrifying. So if you give enough love to the terror, the terror relaxes. And then the terror opens up to concentration, and in concentration mind and object become one. And that, in the moment, that antidotes the basis of the terror. Because there's no terror when mind and body are one. However, that antidote at the moment is temporary. It's a temporary antidote. That being relaxed and open at one point are temporary. And we also have to contemplate the teaching, which is a permanent antidote. So the last two perfections are the antidotes. The first four are,

[58:44]

well, the fourth one supports the antidotes and supports the benefactors. The first three are benefactors to living beings who live with unconscious construction. The first three start the process of immersion in conscious construction. The fourth one inspires the continuation of the immersion and sets up the inspiration and aspiration to practice concentration and wisdom together. Once concentration and wisdom are realized, then the six perfections go on, but now unhinderedly, effortlessly. May I ask another irrelevant question? How can you practice wisdom before you're wise? How can you practice wisdom before what? Before you're wise. Before you're what? How can you practice wisdom before you're wise?

[59:47]

Oh, you practice it by listening to the teaching, you're concentrated, and you practice by listening to the teaching, and listening to the teaching, and asking questions about the teachings, and listening to the teachings, and listening to the teachings, and then you start to analyze the teachings and ask questions about the teachings. This is a wisdom practice. You have not yet achieved wisdom, but you're doing wisdom practice. So you can practice wisdom before you're wise. So actually, all the teachings you're listening to, even teachings about the early practices or the compassion practices, when you're learning these teachings, is wisdom practice. Learning is wisdom practice. And then you continue to learn, after you learn how to be compassionate, and you learn how to immerse yourself in what's happening,

[60:50]

then you apply the teachings to the nature of what you're experiencing. When you first start practicing giving, you're not emphasizing, well, what is the nature of the giving? And what is the nature of the gift? And what is the nature of the receiver? You're just practicing giving without necessarily probing the nature of the process. As you get immersed in the process of giving, and become concentrated, then you can actually probe, and analyze, and study, and apply teachings to look at, to see, is the process of giving, is the process of justice, is the process of patience, is the process of concentration, do they have the character that the teaching says they have? Are they conscious construction only? As you probe the teachings about the nature of phenomena, you're really getting to the essence of the wisdom teachings, and as you probe, you're doing wisdom practice even before you understand. But also, just to receive any of the teachings is actually somewhat a wisdom practice, because you're trying to understand them.

[61:53]

Well, is this giving? Is that giving? No, that's not giving. This is over here. You've got to drop this part to make it giving, and so on. That's actually something to do with wisdom. So you can practice wisdom before you're wise. You can practice studying the teachings before you understand them, and wisdom is functioning there. Asking questions before you're wise is still the working of wisdom. So the question you just asked is living wisdom, even though you may not yet understand these profound teachings. And, yes, myōryū. I love you. So, the historical Buddha realized the full body of Buddha. No, the full body of Buddha, the true body of Buddha, realized the historical Buddha.

[62:54]

The historical Buddha is an emanation of the true body of Buddha, and the historical Buddha told us that. But the historical Buddha is a, what do you call it, he's a, yeah, he's a, the historical Buddha is called a transformation body, or a magical body of the true body. Because we live in the realm of magic, so the Buddha does a magical show, because we see magic, Buddha presents a magical version of Buddha for us to see, because we like magic shows. We don't like shows where nothing's happening. And the Dharma, the true body of Buddha is not happening. It's not in the realm of happening and not happening, which we find kind of like either inconceivable and or not very interesting. Yeah.

[64:10]

Right. Right. No. Those teachings are, you could say, the teachings that have been handed down, you might say are conscious constructions, but actually behind all those teachings is the actual teaching, which is not... Right. It, the actual Dharma, has gone beyond conscious construction. It has realized what we call Buddha's wisdom, which is freedom from conscious construction. But Buddha cares about people who are living in conscious construction, so Buddha sends Dharma messages back to us and we convert them back into conscious constructions.

[65:15]

And in particular, human beings convert them into linguistic conscious constructions. Dogs and cats don't make them into words the way we do, but they make them into conscious constructions too. They also imagine the Dharma that's coming to them as some, you know, in the form of something that's out there separate from themselves. But they can also get instruction in compassion. You can teach dogs and cats and other animals compassion, but they don't linguistically deal with it. But they also convert it into their own image system. But they have different types of images than we do. So the teachings of themselves are not enlightened, any being, it is the practice of the teachings that enlightens beings. Right, that's right. So the teachings are both about the nature of phenomena and also the teachings are about

[66:18]

how you can practice so that you can understand the nature of phenomena. And to some extent, how you can practice so that you're willing to listen to discussions about the nature of phenomena, because I think a lot of people find the instruction on compassion more accessible than conscious construction only. You have to really be compassionate to find conscious construction only extremely interesting. But, you know, in order to benefit beings fully, you have to actually have a keen interest in these teachings and the way you get a keen interest is by practicing compassion with everything, including the teaching. Yes? When you talk about Buddha and Buddha sending sending things Sending emanations to us Yes?

[67:18]

It makes me think that Buddha is outside of myself. It isn't that it makes you think that you already knew how to do that before Buddha sent you a message. It creates the It doesn't create No, Buddha does not do that. You do that. Your mind does that. My mind does it. Yeah, your mind says it's outside myself. When you hear that somebody has transcended inside and outside, you think that's outside. But it's not outside. Buddha is neither inside nor outside. some people, actually, when they hear this, they make Buddha inside. It might be better to make it outside than inside. I don't know. But some people's minds say that when they hear this teaching that means Buddha is inside, they think. And also, my mind is making

[68:20]

Buddha into an object. Your mind is making Buddha into an object, but you know how to do that with the historical Buddha too. Your mind makes Most of our minds make the historical Buddha into an object also. So, you don't need to hear about the true body of Buddha to make Buddha an object. Actually, you don't need to hear anything about Buddhism to make me an object. So, since you know how to make me an object and Buddha an object and Buddha is an object, when you hear about the true body of Buddha you can make that into an object too. But the Buddha is not making us be deluded. The Buddha has realized transcendence of delusion and in that transcendent state very much wants and wishes that we would open to the wisdom which Buddha has realized or which Buddha is the realization

[69:23]

of wisdom. Buddha cannot go in and turn off the switch and just sort of make us stop making things external. Buddha can't do that. So, Buddha doesn't try to turn off the switch because Buddha can't do it, but what Buddha does is try to attract us to practices by which we can immerse ourselves in our making things external and immerse ourselves in a compassionate way so that we can receive teachings that tip us off to the fact that what we're doing is delusion and gently remind us to remind ourselves to remember the teachings about how to be kind and remember the teachings about the nature of what we're being kind to. We've been kind to ourselves, our experiences, other beings, we've been kind to the practices and the story is that if we would do that

[70:24]

this contributes to creating this Buddha again. Not an external Buddha, not an internal Buddha, but an understanding. Buddha is an understanding. The great vehicle is an understanding. And this understanding which is not something that happens or doesn't happen. It's not inside or outside. It's completely free of any kind of elaboration our mind would make. This Buddha is compassion and wisdom all the time. Fortunately. Any other comments this morning? Well, I particularly wonder if the new people would care to say

[71:25]

any comment to make. Would you tell me your name again? Helen. Helen, do you have any comment on this morning? No, I don't. Jay? Yes? My teacher attributes to you a concept of relaxing in this. Can you just relax in this? As a paraphrase. Listening to you this morning I kept hearing the idea of deeply appreciating that the switch is on is can I relax with that? Can I truly relax with that? And by doing that I can see that it's on and get free of it. Thank you. You're welcome. And in order to

[72:27]

deeply relax with that situation which is that situation is rather uncomfortable sometimes or rather uncomfortable all the time whenever the switch is on we have to be very kind to the situation in that generosity and justice and patience and aspiration to relax then set up the possibility of being relaxed and open with it which begins the antidote process. I've always had trouble applying the concept of compassion and kindness to that idea but hearing it as can I truly relax with it works for me. I can sit in the pain or I can try to sit in the pain but I don't get that as kindness or compassion. I get it as I think it's semantics. It is semantics, yes but you're going you're sort of attracted

[73:28]

to the final step and I'm just mentioning that in order to relax some people need to do some warm-up exercises. Sometimes they try to relax and they can't but maybe you've done your warm-up exercises and now you've heard relaxation and that's going to finish off your practice. Yeah, right. Right. Yeah, I agree. I agree and I'm just saying some people when they try to do that they can't do it because they haven't or they didn't turn off the gas on the stove. They weren't careful because they're not sure whether they turned it off or not because they weren't careful when they left the house. So then they have to go like either go back to the house and check and then the next time they leave the house and come to meditation they say I have to be careful now

[74:29]

because if I don't make sure that everything's okay in the house when I get to sit I'm going to have trouble relaxing or some other people before they go to meditate they go to the toilet so that they don't have to worry about whether they need to go to the toilet while they're sitting so then they can relax. So that's part of that's part of the warm up to relax. So you may be ready to relax. Great. I'm just mentioning that some people who may not be able to relax with this situation if they would practice giving and ethics and patience first that then they're okay now I've done those okay now I would dare to relax in kind of a difficult situation. And you may you may be ready now because you've done your homework of the first three to do the fourth the fifth. Thank you. Would you tell me your name again way in the back? Cherie. Yes. Do you have any comments on your first

[75:29]

experience here? Yes, this is my second time. Oh, second time. Yes. Welcome back. Thank you. You know I have a list of thanks for all the teachings and I have been also attending similar seminars regarding wisdom that I did in Arizona and as soon as I get the feeling of it or I try to understand it I think it runs away from me. And you're you can't see but she's making a gesture of putting her hand out and trying to close her hand and then opening her hand again. And so yeah so I think that's as I was saying earlier as you enter the process which sets up wisdom if you cling to something in the process you're not immersed and if you're not immersed wisdom is being postponed. Wisdom in order to be wise

[76:31]

with what's happening we have to really be open and relaxed with it. So in the process of our moment by moment experience if we're immersed and not grasping we're ready for wisdom. If we try to get wisdom or get anything but maybe especially try to get wisdom we lose it. If you try to get compassion you don't really lose it. You just defile it. But you can still try to practice giving even though you're kind of like grasping giving. But at wisdom level a little bit of grasping really kind of like it eludes you. It's very subtle. It's very subtle and elusive and it's sort of saying I'm here for you if you don't grasp me. If you're here good now you're ready for me. I'm here with you. Can you be with me

[77:31]

without grasping? Can you relax and not grasp? Well thank you very much for your attention and compassion and relaxation and openness and wisdom. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I

[78:33]

vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. And now we can have what's called lunch practice.

[79:02]

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