Maybe this is recording and maybe it's not. We just recited, I vow from this life on through all countless lives to hear the true Dharma. We recited that. This is attributed to the the lofty ancestor Ehe Dogen. He supposedly wrote that about 800 years ago. I vow from this life on throughout countless lives to hear the true Dharma. So now it's New Year's, And how do you feel about that vow?

[01:20]

Do you have that vow? Do you wish to vow to hear the true Dharma from this life on throughout countless lives? Well, the ancient ancestor Dogen had that vow. You're welcome to join that vow. And then he said, and we said, upon hearing it, no doubt will arise in us, nor will lack in faith. I think the simple thing is, a simpler statement would be, upon hearing it, there will be no lack of faith. I don't know what Dogen Zenji meant when he said, no doubt will arise in us.

[02:20]

Because doubt is honored in Zen tradition. What kind of doubt? Well, I think doubt that we have fully realized Buddhahood. That doubt is honored. But doubt in the teaching That's honored too. But I think maybe what Dogen meant, that there would be no doubt in the teaching. Even if we honor it, when you hear the two dharmas, then there's no doubt about the teaching. But there still may be some doubt about whether your practice is realizing it or something along those lines. So when we hear the true Dharma, we no longer doubt the true Dharma. And then upon meeting it, we will renounce worldly affairs.

[03:22]

When you meet the true Dharma, you naturally, you could say spontaneously, renounce worldly affairs. Spontaneously doesn't mean without any cause, it means there's no additional cause necessary. When all the causes and conditions that come together in the meeting with the true Dharma, then in that situation we spontaneously renounce worldly affairs. There's no additional conditions, just the meeting will be the renouncing of the worldly affairs. And worldly affairs are innumerable, but basically they're being distracted from the Dharma, and being distracted from the practice of the Dharma.

[04:35]

The things that are turning away from or messing around with reality, those are worldly affairs. Bodhisattvas can shop for tofu without being distracted from the Tradharma. and renouncing worldly affairs, giving up, renouncing distraction from the practice, we will maintain the Buddhadharma.

[05:55]

We'll take care of it. We hear it, we meet it, we take care of it, and taking care of it, the whole earth and all living beings together will attain the Buddha way. I vow to join that program. Do you? And then Dogen Zenji says, although our past evil karma has greatly accumulated, Indeed, being the cause and condition of obstacles to practicing the way, being the cause of distractions from practicing the way, may all Buddhas and ancestors, may all the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas be compassionate to us and free us from distraction.

[07:11]

If something arises, if something comes, here's an opportunity to meet the true Dharma and maintain it. If we feel like we're in our meeting with whatever's coming, we're not meeting the true Dharma. If we feel like we're distracted, if we feel we lack faith that what's happening right now is the occasion for maintaining the true Dharma,

[09:08]

then we reveal and disclose that we don't feel that this current situation is meeting the true Dharma and maintaining the true Dharma. And if we feel sorrow about that, we reveal that sorrow, that we feel we're distracted. But there's a vow which says, I vow to realize the practice which doesn't get distracted, which doesn't find any distractions, which uses every opportunity, everything that comes, including looking over there to see what's going on.

[10:21]

Using every opportunity, using every occasion as an opportunity. This is the art of the Buddha way. To vow, to meet the Dharma, to maintain the Dharma, and realize the Buddha way, together with the great earth and all living beings. That's the vow. The practice is to use every opportunity for that meeting, maintaining, and realizing. But, it says although, but, we may get distracted.

[11:45]

from that which we vow to practice. And then we have a practice for when we get distracted from the practice which we vow. We have a practice for dealing with when we're distracted from our aspiration. When we notice that we're distracted from our aspiration, we remember our aspiration, and we say, I feel that there was distraction, and now I used the distraction as an opportunity, so now the practice is alive again. I didn't use something as an opportunity, therefore I seem to have been distracted.

[12:50]

But now I notice I was distracted, I will use this appearance of distraction the way I really wished I had used whatever that was that I thought was not an opportunity for meeting the true Dharma. And I use it by owning it and seeing if I feel any sorrow. And if I don't feel any sorrow, I'll just keep noticing until I do. Maybe I won't feel any sorrow for a while, but when I do, oh, there it is. Okay, now I feel sorry. In this way, the root of transgressing, the root of distraction from hearing, meeting, and maintaining the Buddhadharma, the root of that distraction will melt away. So those in the past who have made this vow with great confidence and tried to practice it, also practiced confession and repentance because even those great ancestors, those great Bodhisattva predecessors of us today, who had these great vows, they got distracted and they practiced confession and repentance.

[14:24]

in the presence of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Whenever they got distracted, well, not maybe whenever, but when they got distracted, they sometimes, and again and again and again, practiced this way. This is the pure and simple color of true practice. The true mind of faith, the true body of faith. not just the confession and repentance, but the context of the confession and repentance together with the confession. The context is, I vow to hear, meet, maintain, and realize the Buddhadharma. And in that context, some obstruction, some distraction, some hindrance may appear, and then we practice with that.

[15:27]

All that together is actually simple practice. And the simple practice is vowing to meet the extreme and inexhaustible complexity of what comes. And part of the complexity of what comes is the Buddhadharma. all the wonderful details of how to practice with whatever comes. How to practice the art of hearing, meeting, maintaining and realizing the true Dharma. The last year we've spent considerable effort in various locations together reciting and meditating and discussing the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi.

[16:36]

And this year I would like to continue to study the Samadhi of the ancestors, the Samadhi of the Buddhas, the Buddha's Samadhi. So that would be to continue to contemplate the precious mere samadhi of the Buddhas, and the self-receiving and employing samadhi of the Buddhas. To look at the teachings about those samadhis, and also to look at the teachings about samadhi in the universal encouragements for Zazen. in the ceremony of the universal encouragements for the practice of Zazen. Fukan Zazen-gi in Japanese.

[17:44]

So I'm sorry in a way, I'm sorry, but in another way, I'm okay that not all of you will be at Green Gulch for the next three weeks. But during that time, on your behalf, we'll be studying what I just told you about. And the benefits, the merit and virtue of this study will be shared with you even though you may not know it, it will be dedicated to your welfare. It will be in the world you're living in. A lot of Zen students in the West are quite interested in samadhi, which is the root word of what is often translated as concentration, or actually also sometimes translated as meditation.

[19:17]

But I think concentration is better. Samadhi means a state of cognition, a state of mind that is calm, undistracted, stable, settled, open, alert, and calmly joyful. That's sort of, in some sense, what the word Samadhi means. The definition of Samadhi is mental one-pointedness.

[20:19]

The definition of it is sort of a state that realizes that knower and known are one point, that mind and object are one point. And also, I don't know if I said, but samadhi also is a softness and flexibility of mind and body. That's another kind of criterion of samadhi, is a flexible body and mind. soft, flexible, workable mind.

[21:42]

And again, as I said, a lot of Western Zen students would be happy, happily accept the opportunity to realize such a mind. And many in the history, in the last 50 years or so, in Western Zen practice, some people came to Zen centers to practice Samadhi, and they were more or less successful. In recent times, some of us have been pointing out that if you wish to practice Samadhi, or train in samadhi, or cultivate samadhi and realize samadhi, that successful practice of that is based on other practices of generosity, ethics, patience, and diligence.

[22:57]

Success in training and realizing samadhi depends on these other cognitive endeavors. And cognitive means physical and mental. But I'm going to attempt to focus attention on the training which realizes Samadhi. And not talk about too much these first four.

[24:04]

One of the first four, generosity, ethical discipline, patience, and diligence. Diligence, enthusiasm for practicing, for example, all four that I just mentioned, plus enthusiasm for practicing, training the attention in a way that realizes samadhi. In one Mahayana scripture, there's a chapter which could be called Yoga Practices or Centering Practices.

[25:19]

And in that, they discuss insight and tranquility. Tranquility in this case, the word that they use is shamatha, which means tranquility, serenity, and it also means, sometimes translated as calm abiding. Shamatha is virtually a synonym for samadhi. The definition of shamatha in some sense is also mental one-pointedness. It also means stability and openness and flexibility. And then the other term that's introduced is insight.

[26:32]

And the chapter is about Bodhisattva's practicing of tranquility, samadhi, shamatha, and insight. Practicing both of them and discusses the differences between them. And one of the first differences, not differences exactly, The difference between them is, one of them has an object, one of them is looking at something, which is called, in various ways, an object which is not associated with an image. And one of them is associated or meditates on an object which is associated with an image. The object of Samatha, the object of Samadhi, to develop Samadhi, to train and realize Samadhi, the object is actually looking at something that's not associated with an image.

[27:56]

And sometimes they even say a non-conceptual image, which is an oxymoron. It's a non-conceptual concept. So you're looking at an idea that's not associated with an idea. That's the object which when attended to, which when mentally attended to, paying attention to that object, realizes samadhi. And the vipassana, or the insight, its object is an object that's associated with or accompanied by images.

[29:04]

So the insight is contemplating a conceptual object, and the tranquility, or samadhis, contemplating a non-conceptual object. It's looking at What's it looking at? And what it says in that chapter is it says that the object of the tranquility of the Samadhi cultivation is an uninterrupted mind. So the mental attention is turned towards a mind.

[30:07]

So what's the object of meditation? A mind. What's the object of meditation? Something that's not associated with an object. What kind of mind, by the way? an uninterrupted mind. Minds which are objects are interrupted. Or minds which are associated with objects, those are interrupted. When the object changes, the mind is interrupted. And then you have a different mind associated with a different. This essential teaching about what develops samadhi is to train the attention, is to mentally attend to a mind which is uninterrupted, or the mind which is always there, which is always available for contemplation, which is another way of saying,

[31:28]

to attend to something that is without an image. This mind does not have an image. The uninterrupted mind does not have an image. Minds with images are interrupted. And those minds are contemplated by insight. For example, I'm talking to you now And all these words and teachings are minds associated with these words, with these images. And these words are teachings about how to practice samadhi, which you're hearing about and which you can use to develop samadhi. Once you enter samadhi, by giving up paying attention to these words, once you have entered samadhi, then you can listen to these teachings again in samadhi, and then it is insight.

[32:43]

If any of you are listening to me now, and your mind is not in samadhi, then the way you're hearing what I'm saying is not insight. Even if you understand what I'm saying correctly. But if you're in Samadhi, then when you listen to these teachings, then it is possible that you're not just hearing them, but you're hearing the true Dharma. So for the past year, actually, I've been talking to you a lot about the teachings about the Precious Mirror. The Precious Mirror is the Buddha's wisdom, the Buddha wisdom mind. The Precious Mirror is the Buddha mind seal.

[33:50]

We've been talking about that. Now I'm talking about the Samadhi in which this Precious Mirror is living. It may seem rather elusive to practice a mental attention to something which is not associated with or accompanied by an image. Most of our mental attention is going towards things that are accompanied by images. our mental attention is quite used to attending to images. How could we attend to no image?

[34:56]

That's maybe kind of delusive. Some examples of how this might work is people often follow their breathing, or pay attention to their posture, or count their breathing. And while giving attention to your posture, [...] the training in samadhi might happen. In other words, while attending to the image of your posture, you might actually be able to see and contemplate something that's not associated with the image of your posture.

[36:04]

an image popped in my mind of this situation of attending to an object that's not associated with an image. It's a story at the beginning of a series of novels written by a person named Carlos Castaneda. I think the first novel was called The Yaki Way of Knowledge. And he meets, this person meets a Native American shaman who teaches him, the first teaching is find your place. And I forgot if you gave him any further instruction besides find your place. Does anybody know?

[37:14]

Was there any further instruction besides find your place? He continued to laugh when he would do his antics and try to find it in his mind. So anyway, the student named Carlos is looking for his place, and then the next morning, the teacher, Don Juan, says, did you find your place? And he said, no, I didn't, or I don't know. And Don Juan said, well, where did you fall asleep? He said, over there behind that rock. He said, that's your place. He found his place, where he was. He made a big effort and then he finally found his place. But finding that place was not associated with the image of finding the place.

[38:18]

But he found the place anyway. Training in Samadhi is like looking for that place which you will find, because it's where you are. It's the mind of where you are, all the time. It's the uninterrupted mind. And when you're... I don't know what, wandering about in the rocks, in the cactus, in the Sonoran desert, or when you're like following your breathing, wandering around inhales and exhales, or pay attention to your posture, you may find your place, where you already were, but you maybe have to

[39:24]

wander around your breathing to find it. But when he was looking for his place, he was looking for his place. He wasn't like not looking for his place. He was not trying to make money. He was not trying to become famous. He was looking for his place. And he was using images to try to find his place. But he was still trying, he was looking for his place. And then he found his place, but the place he found was not associated with images. So many people use their breathing to find their place. They're not just trying to follow their breathing, they're trying to find their place. They're following their breathing to find the place where they are, where they are settled.

[40:30]

We are settled someplace in every moment. We are undistracted. And the place we are that's undistracted and settled is not associated with any image. And finding it is to pay attention to not associate it with any image, or pay attention to the mind which is uninterrupted. The mind which is uninterrupted is where you uninterruptedly are. And then if you vow to train in this way, this is a vow which is appropriate to hearing the true Dharma, because you hear the true Dharma in samadhi.

[41:35]

And you are in samadhi when you are attending to the uninterrupted mind, or you have, I should say, you enter samadhi by attending to the uninterrupted mind. Once you have entered samadhi, once you're in samadhi, then you can actually pay attention to interrupted minds, to minds or images or objects which are associated with images. Then you can listen to the teaching in samadhi. So you enter samadhi by letting go of thinking about images, and you think about no images. You let go of interrupted minds, like

[42:45]

Saturday morning is now over. Saturday afternoon has started. It is now, according to some clocks, approximately 12.20. Other clocks, in other places, it's 1.20, or other possibilities are innumerable. All these things are interrupted minds. These are examples of interrupted minds. Karina's face looks this way, Laurie's face looks this way, Abhi's face looks this way. These are interrupted minds. Training in Samadhi is to let go of those interrupted minds, which means let go of wandering, from this mind, to this mind, to this mind, to this mind, which means giving up thinking, it's giving up discursive thought.

[43:54]

And also giving up trying to suppress the interrupted minds. There's interrupted minds, but there's just interrupted mind. Or, I don't know, anyway, an uninterrupted mind. It isn't quite, I wouldn't quite say the interrupted mind. To say the interrupts it a little bit. Do you understand? To say the associates the mind with the. An is slightly less associated. Or you can take away an, too, to say mental attention to uninterrupted mind. Mental attention to the mind which is contemplated by all minds. We're actually always contemplating the uninterrupted mind, which is colored by many images,

[45:10]

which lives together with the mind that is interrupted. These are not separate. But to develop samadhi, we give up going from one mind to another. From this mind, which is interrupted by a beginning and an end, and is followed by another one. But I could say, you know, find your place, and then you could look for it, and when you give up looking for it, you know, when you collapse in looking for it, you will have found your place.

[46:21]

But you could also, even before you start looking for it, you could find it right before you even start. I could say, find your place, and you could say, I don't know. You could say, no, I won't. And then I might say, well, you found your place. And I'll do that again. Find your place. and pay attention to that, find your place. No. Want to develop Samadhi? Find your place. No. I'm not going to fall for that instruction. I'm not even going to say that I'm not going to fall for it. I'm not even going to say no. So this brings us to our commonly used word, stillness.

[47:33]

Stillness is a word for uninterrupted mind. Uninterrupted mind is not going anyplace and not coming. either. It's not increasing and it's not decreasing. It's not interrupted by increases and decreases. Attending to that develops samadhi. Attending to that and developing samadhi and realizing Samadhi, then when you hear the teaching, no increase and no decrease, you understand it. Samadhi is stillness, in stillness is Samadhi.

[48:49]

And samadhi is stillness, and stillness is samadhi. How many of you have heard this story about that Ehe Koso came to the 20th century and was on a TV show, a kind of a talk show, and the talk show moderator, do you call those people moderators or hosts, talk show host, said to him, what do you teach? He said, well, I teach stillness. I teach, yeah, stillness. And the host said, is that it?

[50:04]

And he said, mm-hmm. And then the talk show host had done some research and said, well, I heard that in Zen you study koans, Zen stories, and what do you think of that practice? And Ehe Dogen said, well, that's a good practice. And the host said, well, I thought you said, you just teach stillness. You just teach samadhi. He said, yeah, but some people won't practice stillness unless you give them a koan. If you give them a koan, then they say, okay.

[51:08]

And then they practice the koan, and while they're practicing the koan, they realize stillness. And the same applies to any kind of... you can use anything as a way to contemplate the uninterrupted mind. Because that's what it is, it's using everything to develop samadhi. That's how to develop samadhi, is to use everything to develop samadhi. That's how to realize stillness, to use everything as an opportunity to be still.

[52:09]

But if you don't want to use everything, then we can give you something that's not everything. Like a koan, or your posture, or your breathing. You can use those things, which are good ways to realize using everything. And this kind of samadhi practice, this way of developing samadhi can be used by, it has been used by disciples of Buddha for the last on and off. On and off means disciples of Buddha, so sometimes on and off. Sometimes they're practicing samadhi and sometimes they get distracted, but anyway,

[53:19]

For 2,500 years people have been practicing Samadhi in the Buddhist tradition. And in other traditions too, people practice Samadhi. In the Hindu tradition, in the Sufi tradition, in the Islam tradition, in the Jewish tradition, in the Christian tradition, people also have been practicing Samadhi. in the carpentry tradition, in the ballet tradition, in the mathematical tradition, in the painting tradition, in the opera tradition, and so on. There are many traditions that practice Samadhi, where people cultivate attention to the uninterrupted mind, in the Native American shaman tradition, So Samadhi is not necessarily associated with any image.

[54:27]

Matter of fact, the way you enter it is by paying attention to what is not associated with any image, which all living beings have, an uninterrupted mind. It's stillness, it's mental attention to stillness, which all living beings have this stillness. Not all living beings have mental attention to the stillness. All living beings have their place, but not all living beings are mentally attending to the place right where they are. To enter Samadhi we have to cultivate continuous mental attention to the uninterrupted mind, to the mind which all sentient beings always have. And by the way, what is that mind? Well, I don't know what it is, and nobody else does either, because it's not associated with anything, with any images.

[55:41]

If you had met the true Dharma, you would be able to renounce worldly affairs and cultivate Samadhi. Because worldly affairs means wanting to do something other than cultivating Samadhi when you're cultivating Samadhi. But if you meet the true Dharma and you want to cultivate Samadhi, it's spontaneous. The one catch there, though, is it's hard to meet the true Dharma when you're not in Samadhi. The people who have heard the true Dharma were in Samadhi. And they might have gotten into Samadhi through carpentry, ballet, or Zen training.

[56:52]

Once you're in Samadhi, then when you hear the teaching, you hear it. Or then when you're listening to the teaching, you hear it. Once you hear it, then the Samadhi practice will be spontaneous. Because you will give up distractions from Samadhi when you're practicing Samadhi. And then when you're in Samadhi, you'll hear the Dharma again. And then again, Any distraction from practicing samadhi when you want to practice samadhi will drop away. Again, most people who are trying to develop samadhi would like a little bit of something to practice samadhi with, and as Dogen Zenji said on TV, that's fine. But they may need something in order to not use anything. When you come to it, you actually can't use anything to attend to the mind which doesn't use anything.

[58:00]

The minds that use something, all sentient beings have those types of minds too, but we all have this mind which doesn't use anything, which is uninterrupted. If you use something that interrupts using something else. And again, that's part of the deal. But that's not what we pay attention to when we're developing Samadhi. That's what we pay attention to when we develop insight. So there is a place for paying attention to minds that use things. to pay attention to the minds that think about this, and not that, and not that, and this. Those are interrupted minds. We will pay attention to those. I'm talking about Samadhi today. Because this is the practice which I'm going to try to encourage you in. The practice of attending to the uninterrupted mind, attending to something that is not accompanied by any image.

[59:10]

So, until I... after we end today, I kind of would encourage you to join this practice of developing samadhi, this kind of continuous, developing a continuous mental attention, which will come to fruit as this state of samadhi. So I'm going to be rooting for that in Green Gulch for three weeks, starting in a couple of days. And please, take care of that wherever you are. And you can practice samadhi wherever you are. All day long, just remember samadhi. And what's samadhi? It's a state of concentration. And how do you develop it?

[60:23]

by remembering, developing it. And how do you develop again? You pay attention to an uninterrupted mind, to the mind which you're always contemplating. So now there's a mind which I see these faces, And now I don't see them anymore. That mind is interrupted. Now I see these faces. Now I don't see these or these. I see those faces. These are interrupted minds. Okay? I'm not trying to stop those. I'm not trying to stop these. I'm not trying to stop those. These are pretty nice minds. Okay? They're fine. The koans. What am I trying to do?

[61:32]

If I'm developing samadhi, I'm trying to remember samadhi. I'm trying to remember what isn't interrupted as I look at all these different faces, which means What isn't interrupted all the while amidst all these interrupted minds? Interrupted mind. Interrupted mind. This mind is going to be interrupted. Bye-bye. Now have a new mind that hasn't yet interrupted, but now it's interrupted. All the minds which can be interrupted All the minds that start, their start will be interrupted by an end. All the ends will be interrupted by a start. I'm not trying to stop that. I'm just trying to remember stillness.

[62:34]

I'm trying to remember Samadhi. No matter, in the midst of all interrupted minds, there is an uninterrupted mind. It's always available. So now we have the possibility of attending to it once in a while, more often, and finally continuously. And then we enter Samadhi. Once we enter Samadhi, we can give that practice up and practice wisdom. When you said the uninterrupted mind is not accompanied by any images, in a way, is it also accompanied by?

[63:49]

In the sense that it's not about stopping the interrupted images at the same time as? You mean, is the uninterrupted mind accompanied by the minds which are accompanied by images? Yes. So the uninterrupted mind lives together with the interrupted minds. All sentient beings have the same uninterrupted mind, but we have different interrupted minds. And part of our interrupted minds are instructions about how to deal with our interrupted minds. So interruption actually happens when we see it as interruption. That's right. A beginning happens when we see it as a beginning.

[64:54]

An end happens when we see it as an end. Our meeting gets interrupted when we think it got interrupted. But if I'm talking to you and somebody comes in and says, this meeting is being interrupted, I might actually not understand what they're talking about, because I'm paying attention to the uninterrupted mind. I hear that there's interrupted minds all around, and some people say, this meaning is not yet interrupted. That's also the kind of things that happens in interrupted minds, is such proclamations of interruption and non-interruption. But then we do see it that way, then those minds do see things that way. And we practice compassion with all those minds, and we practice compassion with the mind that's uninterrupted. The poor mind that's not getting enough attention, generally speaking. The mind which the Buddhas are saying, hey, there's a mind here to pay attention to.

[65:59]

It's not overused. And in every interrupted mind, or interruptible mind, there's a good possibility of suffering. And remembering the uninterrupted mind is part of the art of making every moment of suffering a door to the precious mirror samadhi. These interrupted minds, it's possible in the ocean of interrupted minds that there is a tension

[67:03]

to the uninterrupted mind. And attention to the uninterrupted mind in the midst of all the interrupted minds, which have not been eliminated, because trying to eliminate interrupted minds is another interrupted mind project. One of the types of interrupted minds is the mind which wishes to suppress all interruptions. Or to suppress some interruptions and not others, etc. This is interrupted mind world. But Samadhi is not trying to suppress interrupted mind, it's attending to uninterrupted mind. It's not trying to suppress the minds which are associated or accompanied by images. It's trying to attend to the mind which is not accompanied by an image.

[68:09]

To be able to continuously attend to that mind develops samadhi. And in samadhi, there can be the vision that the interrupted minds, each one, is a door to the uninterrupted. And in the suffering that occurs in interrupted minds, all those sufferings are opportunities for the Buddha way. you heard the teaching, but to realize that, we need Samadhi. To realize the art of all suffering being doors to the Buddha way. And the suffering occurs in these interrupted minds. So after we develop Samadhi, we will go back and not look at all the interrupted minds where suffering is living.

[69:12]

And we'll talk about the teachings which you've already heard about how to deal with suffering. But today I'm saying that a necessary part of dealing with suffering in a way that shows it's a door or an opportunity to realize what we really want, the Buddha way. Samadhi is part of the deal, and so now I'm emphasizing samadhi. which means looking at a mind which is not associated with any of these teachings. Which are fine. And now they're being used to help you look at a mind that's not associated with any of the images of the teachings. But we'll come back to them. Is association the same as not being attached? Is that what association means?

[70:17]

Well, I think even, definitely, definitely yes. But there could be association even when there's not attachment. There could be association? Attachment is a really heavy-duty association. But there could be just an association without there being an attachment. And in that case, that's pretty nice. here is a beginning and there is an end. And there wasn't a big attachment to the beginning or the end of that mind. That mind which is looking at you interrupted a mind which is looking at you. And then a mind which looks at you interrupts a mind which looks at you. Those associations weren't that painful. But still, to be flitting about all these interrupted minds, it would be good when you're flitting to be in samadhi.

[71:27]

And you're not going to get in samadhi just by flitting, which we normally do. And then it's also hard to apply teachings to all these flits, because We're not concentrated. So this is how to get concentrated. If there's attachment to the beginning and end of a moment, if there's attachment to an association like friend or enemy, then that's, generally speaking, all the harder to pay attention to the mind which isn't interrupted. If there's a heavy attachment, then we sort of have to say, well, maybe don't practice Samadhi right now. Maybe go back and be generous and ethical and patient with the stress of being strongly attached to the associations that are the images which are associated to this person.

[72:34]

If it's really heavy-duty attachment to the association, in the interrupted minds, then you may not be ready to practice Samadhi. But I'm saying maybe you are ready to practice Samadhi because this is 2016. And it's the season for Samadhi, Buddha's Samadhi. Samadhi in general, and then we'll make the Samadhi more specific later. Now it's just Samadhi. And if you just cannot, you find your mind just zapped onto a mind, an interrupted mind that's strongly associated, attached to some image, then maybe it's going to be too much for you to look away from that over to uninterrupted mind. I can't stand you. I got to go back to an interrupted mind because it's just calling me so strongly.

[73:40]

Well then we have to practice generosity, ethics, patience, and diligence more. Maybe you're ready for samadhi practice. Maybe you are. Maybe you can start today with your friends. Because we're all maybe going to do that and help each other. And even if you're not ready, maybe you can help to get people who are. I'm not ready to give up my interrupted mind, which is just fixated on itself, but it's okay with me if you pay attention to the uninterrupted mind while you're looking at me. In this strange, strange way that you're looking at me now. It's okay, so go ahead, practice Samadhi while you're looking at me. I don't care. I'm going to test you, but still, if you successfully don't fall for my attempts to distract you from Samadhi, it's okay with me.

[74:46]

So I could say, look at me, without being distracted. from a mind that's uninterrupted. I vow to hear the true Dharma, and a key element in hearing true Dharma is to Protect and maintain samadhi. Generosity, ethics, patience and diligence. Is that enough for now? May our intention equally extend to every being and place.

[76:21]

With the true merit of Buddha's birth, beings are numberless. To save them, delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[76:59]

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