Atmost means supreme, actually almost means the same thing. Atmost means very very far out. So this is a kind of place in the sutra where one can be rather creative and play with it. Supreme is usually translated as unequal, great unequal mantra, meaning that it has no peer is one meaning.

[01:15]

It has no sides. It only has one side, which includes everything. And so there's nothing outside of this one side to compare it with. So it's incomparable. But what I want to talk about today is bright, really bright, which can also be thought of as luminous or radiant. They're a little different, but I like luminous and I like bright.

[02:25]

Radiant, but I'm going to talk about bright. Bright is like a mirror. A mirror which reflects everything and has no image of its own to put forward. a clear pool of water. And in Buddhadharma, sometimes we talk about the four wisdoms, the great, round, mirror wisdom, the equality wisdom,

[03:26]

The wisdom of differences. This is a subtle observation wisdom, which sees all differences, and the perfecting of action wisdom. And these four wisdoms are really one wisdom expressed in four ways. And they're often related to the eight consciousnesses. We talked about the eight levels of consciousness. The first six consciousnesses are the sense consciousnesses in the mind. Eye, ear, nose, tongue, touch, and thinking.

[04:42]

Mind consciousness. And the seventh consciousness is, the sixth consciousness is mono-vijnana. And the seventh consciousness is one's consciousness. And the eighth consciousness is a wild visionary. And then sometimes we can talk about a ninth consciousness, which is very closely related to the eighth consciousness, and is its pure side. So we're very familiar with the first six consciousnesses. This is where we live our life, in the surface. We're aware of the first five senses.

[05:44]

These are the doors of perception. And the sixth consciousness, which is discriminating consciousness. in discriminating consciousness differentiates one thing from another. And says, oh, this is hearing, this is seeing, this is touching. And seventh consciousness is what is known as the ego consciousness. which takes all the data from the six consciousnesses, and from the alaya-vijnana, which is, alaya-vijnana is the storehouse consciousness, which stores all memories and actions, pictures, seeds of behavior from our karma, and is the basis out of which our life flows.

[06:56]

and seventh consciousness is in between. And actually sometimes called a conveyor between the alaya vijnana and the first six consciousnesses. And the conveyor, because it's always there in the center, thinks that it's the center of, thinks it is the center of ourself. And it's the information center. I just got this flash when I was... But I don't want to talk about this. I was thinking of a certain person who was at the center of the information. And he said, the person that's at the center of information gets all this information and actually becomes the most important factor in a conference.

[08:14]

And that person who's at the center of information has to be very careful that they don't see themselves as anything more than the center of information. Because when you're at the center of information, where all this information is coming into you and going out from you, then that's the beginning of the construction of an ego, a false sense of self, a false sense of centrality and leadership. You think that that information belongs to you. So, this ego, this seventh consciousness, this sense of what gives us the sense of self-centeredness, and it's always conveying information back and forth between the first six consciousnesses and my vijnana.

[09:27]

The storehouse is also where all the messages are coming from internally. storehouse of all the memory and thoughts and ideas and seeds of karma. Everything is stored there. Everything we ever did in our life is remembered somewhere, recorded somewhere. And the ninth consciousness, called the un-mora consciousness, is the other side of a line of nirjana.

[10:56]

It's called buddha nature. We have to remember that all these consciousnesses are really one consciousness. But it's like a little box, an accordion box. And you take it out this way and say, this is the line of Vijnana, this is blah, [...] blah. So in order to explain it, we split it out. So Buddha nature is not, although we say ninth consciousness is Buddha nature, it doesn't mean that all the other consciousnesses are not Buddha nature. in order to look at it, spread all the pieces out. Mind consciousness is what we call Buddha nature in its pure aspect. This is like the ocean, Dharmakaya. Dharmakaya, which is emptiness, fullness of emptiness.

[12:06]

And alaya vijnana, eighth consciousness, is expression called form. And all the other seven consciousnesses are manifestations of that form. And when ego, the seventh consciousness, is aware of itself as the center of this complex, that's called delusion. And when this seventh consciousness turns over,

[13:12]

turns around, and all the other consciousnesses turn around, that's called enlightenment. So when the seven consciousnesses controlled by ego turn over, then the four wisdoms, which correspond to the seven or eight consciousnesses, become manifest. So, when ego, which sees itself as the center of things, turns over, it becomes the great equality wisdom, which sees all things as equal. In other words, the center of things is everywhere, and not just residing in a certain consciousness.

[14:39]

In other words, below the surface, It sees that everything is really the same. And the sixth consciousness, manas, which is mind consciousness, when it turns over, it's called subtle observation wisdom. In other words, it sees all the differences, recognizes And when the equality wisdom, when we see things completely equally and as well as differently, when equality

[15:51]

realizes equality without any problem. This is called great mirroring wisdom, which corresponds to the alaya vijnana, turning over, where everything is seen just as it is, no mistakes, just reality is seen without any distortion. then this is called amoral consciousness, where everything is just Buddha nature, where delusion and enlightenment have no problem. The first six consciousnesses turn over.

[16:58]

It's called perfecting of action consciousness, wisdom. Wisdom of the perfection of action, which means that in activity, through the senses, there's just seeing, just hearing, just touching. Everything is clean and pure. All actions are clean and pure. No cleaning. No delusion. It's seen as delusion. Enlightenment is seen as enlightenment. And one example of equality and difference.

[18:03]

The wisdoms of equality and difference, when difference recognizes equality and equality recognizes difference. And when difference is equality and equality is difference is in the mantra of our practice This is what our practice at Basel I is about. It's about every day we do the same thing, over and over again. Same thing. Everything that we do is just the same thing, over and over. And yet, when you look carefully, there is nothing repeated. Nothing is ever repeated. Every moment. It has its own special quality. And it's not like any other moment that ever existed.

[19:07]

If we don't see the difference in equality, then we have no business here. Then life at Tassajar is just suffering, boring, meaningless. in front of meaningless stuff. So, in order to find the meaning in this practice, we have to see every moment, every act, every repetitious action as complete and unique and different and fresh. I mean, this is the secret of our practice. It's no secret. So mirror practice, or mirror wisdom, is like the ocean.

[20:43]

But the ocean needs to be expressed as activity. And our lives are like waves on the ocean. It's interesting about waves. I think I've talked about this before. Energy, wind, and sun are the main causes of waves on the surface of the ocean. And it looks like the wave is moving, but actually energy is moving, and the water just goes up and down. And if there's nothing stopping it, no resistance, the energy will just go forever, and you have a continuous wave.

[21:52]

And the energy of the life is like this. There is no, when we say, who is myself? our ego, seventh consciousness, points to whatever it can identify. But actually, there's nothing that you can grasp as yourself. The energy wave is moving, just like on the ocean. And this wave of our self is going like this. constantly being born and dying. Where is myself in all this? It's there and it's not there. Every moment it's bringing me up. So they say, where are you? Right there.

[23:05]

Don't see yourself. We have this problem in thinking that no self means that there's nobody there. There's a story. Gensha was Seppo's disciple. One day, Seto asked Gensho, his disciple, when you come to face a mirror, come face to face with the mirror, what will you do?

[24:08]

He said, I'll smash it into a thousand pieces. This mirroring wisdom needs to be smashed into a thousand pieces. Mirror is Dharmakaya, just reflecting everything as it is. But our life is through the six senses. the equality wisdom and the subtle observation wisdom.

[25:14]

Smashing the mirror means letting all the pieces trickle down so that this mirror is everywhere in all of our activity. Each little sliver reflects So that when we're washing dishes, we don't lose the mirror. When we're in trouble, we don't lose the mirror. in our life, in our busy life. Now, when we sit zazen, it's mostly big mirror, big round mirror mind, luminous mind.

[26:27]

But in our daily affairs, daily activities, All of those will smash the mirror and all the little splinters will reach into the smallest nook of our life. I remember Suzuki Roshi talking about life in zendo and life outside of the zendo, and he'd say, when you leave the zendo, forget all about the zendo. So this life of tasahai, this mantra, this tasahai mantra, going to the zengo, bowing, chanting, working, eating, sleeping, going to the bird, all one piece.

[28:07]

If we don't see this, it's all one piece. then we have this gap, and we fall through the gap. And the biggest problem is this self-consciousness, which is our ego. So the ego passes information, but you stand back and take its true place. So we don't say, get rid of your ego, but please control yourself. Do you have any questions?

[29:30]

Those shattered mirror pieces are domino gates? I never thought of them as domino gates. But yes, they're domino gates. Because any place is a place to enter. That's a good point, actually. Not only is any place a good place to enter, but every place is the right place to enter. Usually we think of Dharma Gates as maybe studies. We used to say the Dharma is By studying the various dharmas, we're studying dharma from various ways.

[30:47]

Of course, it doesn't mean that. But really, studying the dharma at any point in the universe You can start right there. Could you be a little more specific about what turning over consciousness is? Turning over is a kind of manner of speaking. Maybe transformation is another way of sense of it. But there's actually not any... I mean, it's a dream, but it's... And ego is in the dominant position.

[32:00]

All the other consciousnesses are influenced by it. In other words, when ego is dominant, then seeing, when seeing something pleasant, it wants to grab it, because ego wants it. So here the ego is in the driver's seat. Ego is in the driver's seat, and it's chariot. and is using the senses for its own fulfillment. I want this. I want that. This will enhance me. That will enhance me. In other words, it uses everything in the world that it sees to create its own sense of self. and gratification. And the bigger it gets, the more gratification it needs.

[33:04]

And it creates the world in its own image. It sees the world according to the way it sees itself. It creates the world in its own image. So, in a way, it plays God. And when ego is out of the way, Then there's transaction, instead of the messages going between, centering around the 7th consciousness, they go to the 8th consciousness, and the 8th consciousness, since it no longer is at the service of the ego, The messages go between the 9th consciousness and the 6th consciousnesses, through the 7th consciousness, but they don't stop there.

[34:13]

So, the 7th consciousness is kind of like a thief, who takes the stuff, it's kind of like the treasurer, when you know he spends all the money, or uses the money to to create his own empire. So, when seven consciousness is playing its rightful part, then everything naturally turns over, and these wisdoms are already there. They're not something new or something devised, but because The consciousnesses have been at the service of the ego. They have a certain face, develop a certain face, and when the ego takes its rightful place and stands out of the way, then its circuitry is different, and that's called turning away.

[35:20]

Whereas the senses, consciousnesses, are in the service of Buddha nature. rather than at the service of the ego. When buddhahood becomes the dominant quality, then things become clear. So the clarity is called turning over. And that's what we Why Zazen is difficult is because the 7th consciousness is so strong, you can't get the skin out of the way. The 7th consciousness, it gets beat up. The 7th consciousness really takes a beating in Zazen. And finally it's like, OK. Take me away. I'm curious about something that, throughout the sutra, the language is always negating the extremes.

[36:43]

Yes. But at the end it says, it is true and not false. Right, that's right. This is, you might say, an expression from the point of view of equality. not true, not false. But it does say that this sutra is true, not false. It makes a distinction. This is truth, not falsehood. And if you look at it literally, it looks like a kind of dumb statement. Why do you have to say something like that anyway? It's true because it's not false. It's true because it's not false. Well, of course, you know, the thing is true because it's not false. You don't have to say that, especially in the Supreme Wisdom Sutra.

[37:45]

this kind of true is beyond, what it means is this kind of true is beyond the true of true and false. If you say true as opposed to false, then That's a duality, true side and false side. And so, even though the sutra is saying it's true, because it's not false, the meaning actually is it's beyond truth and falsehood. It's just a way of expressing beyond truth and falsehood. I think I've also heard recently, during that expression, it has to do with distinguishing it from a merely provisional teaching and such, but this is an alternate.

[39:19]

Well, that's what I mean. Same thing. Provisional means the opposite, true and false. There's opposites. So it's a kind of a formality. What would you put it in a formal? What would you put it in a formal? So these seven consciousnesses are the one that sort of demands an explanation? Well, yeah. So it's not bad. Self-consciousness is not bad consciousness. It's just that it's easy for it to dwell in ignorance. Like you say, devotion. Right. Because we can take any of these explanations and just use it to reinforce its own structure.

[40:24]

Exactly. It's very, very smart and very clever. its claims to life. It really needs its sustenance for its existence. Since it's not a true consciousness, it needs all it can get to sustain it. That's a kind of problem. It feeds on distinctions. So it's always grasping things. It needs a lot of things. But it's a kind of illusion. It's hard to get it to believe that if it really lets go, it'll be okay. As far as the ego is concerned, as far as the subliminal consciousness is concerned, this is it.

[41:35]

This is my life. It doesn't believe that there is continuous life. This is it. And so, it really clings to life. And it doesn't like to look at the way things flow and the way things go. And it's threatened. Okay. Suppose it lets go, then what does it do? I mean, how does it take its rightful place in all that you have been describing? It must not disappear. You said it doesn't disappear. It doesn't get to know until it lets go. That's the truth. It's called faith. I like that question.

[42:38]

He's kind of saying, what's in it for me? I like how much is in it for me. No, I wasn't doing any justice. I was just being as practical as he was, and he sets up something and then says it should be with us and so, and it naturally then follows. Okay, how is this whole apparatus going to work without the Seventh Consciousness? You take a piece out of it and how does it keep on going? Well, you know, it's like saying, but you don't take a piece out. The piece is still there. It takes its rightful place. Doing what? Doing what it ought to do. I bought a wallet.

[43:48]

It's like walking in the dark, you know, and you can't touch the steps. There's no game keys. as to what... You know, I'm just... And you know this as well, but I mean, this is just... This wonderful thing that Suzuki Roku said, I hate to say this all the time, but he said, when you get enlightened, you may not like it. That's what you're talking about, this drying of the consciousness of enlightenment. No, just let it go. And let the light come through. Just get out of the way.

[44:48]

Take your head out of the way so the light can come through. The ego fills the space where the light is coming through. There's this big space. And the light is coming through. But the ego puts his head in there. It takes the place of the light. When your ego takes its head back, you know, and this light comes in, it's called enlightenment. I was kind of hearing also, you know, I was talking about poking your head in. Poking my head in? Yeah, poking your head in. I was remembering about, I guess it was in the one belt, people were telling stories about the vigorousian, the time of being, He stood up, and turned his back, and then turned over and stuck his head out, and he was ready to take his replacement back to the stand.

[45:56]

Let's get into it

[46:20]

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