Eight Awarenesses of Great Beings

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BZ-02633
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Study Sesshin Part 2

 

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so this is the part two of our study of fun
the awakenings of great beings or hace dining gocco tokens last
farcical
and to review what is a or
ah
first is to have few desires
second is to know how much is enough
third to enjoy serenity
fourth is to
maintain diligent effort
the fifth is not to neglect mindfulness
and we're going to proceed to the sixth seventh and eighth the sixth is to practice meditation of concentration
the seventh is to cultivate wisdom
and the eighth in causes translation is
not to be engaged in hollow discussions
so if we look at our
two three four five six teaser sort of the core of our meditation practice in many ways first of all to ah
to find a place it's tranquil and quiet serene
to make diligent effort
to practice mindfulness
to our cultivate concentration
and to bring forth wisdom
and those are common elements that you'll find in ah in a lot of these other dharma systems that that i mentioned like the eightfold path and the five meters in the factors of enlightenment
so i'm gonna go to six

six awakening is to practice meditation
to abide in dorna without being confused is called stability in meditation
he quote the buddha
if you gather your mind it will abide instability then you will understand the birth and death of all things in the world
you will continue to endeavour in practicing various aspects of meditation
when you have stability your mind will not be scattered
it's like a well roofed house or well built embankment which will help you maintain the water of understanding and keep you from being drowned this is called stability in meditation

often when they talk about meditation
ah
i think often in the in early buddhism hit
more technically speaking of concentration or samadi and it's identified with ah the for janice the job i'll go through view but let me read you what the honor buddha sister says ah
this this fact the sixth this dharma is for one whose mind is centered
there is a case where a monk quite withdrawn from sensuality withdrawn from unskillful mental qualities enters for every maids in the first jhana rapture and pleasure born from withdraw accompanied by directed thoughts and evaluate
oh asian
with the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluations he interest in remains the second jhana rapture in pleasure born of composure unification of awareness free from directed thought and evaluation internal assurance with the fading of rap
chur he remains economists mindful and alert and since his pleasure with the body he entered and remains in the third genre of which the noble ones declare economists and mindful he has a pleasant abiding
with the abandonment of pleasure and pain
as with the earlier disappearance of elation and stress he enters and remains in the fourth jhana purity of equanimity and mindfulness neither pleasure nor pain
yes that the so that's the this dump is for one whose mind is centered not for one whose mind is unscented soap
there are ways of looking at
early buddhist practice what we now see as chair of out of practice ah
where the jonah
states these the john is or concentrations
and some people
practice practice them some people cultivate them as meditative ah as meditative practices and approach them one by one and identify those physical and mental states in themselves
ah and then the other approaches
the janez are seen as naturally arising in the context of ones meditation so another would do not cultivated as particular states or particular concentrations admitted particular concentrations but they are
the marks of once deepening concentration ah we can not to talk about them a whole lot for practice them ah yea
an objectified way but we all know these states of mind ah i found her
a commentary on the john is ah
the just go through this very briefly ah
so the first jhana is
the rapture in pleasure that it comes out of withdraw stepping back from one's normal activities and attachments and he just ah
it fuses your body with with rapture
so it's it's it's very pleasant ah and we all have moments of those of that ah
hell it's it's described to the interesting the the metaphor this fused
just as if a skilled bath men or bath man's apprentice with port bass powder into a brass basin and needed together sprinkling it again and again with water so that his ball of bath powder saturated moines
mr laden permeated within and without would nevertheless not drip
even so the monk permeates suffuses and fills his very body with the rapture in pleasure born of withdraw
does it
makes sense
debt yeah i mean i think it's it has to do with how they prepared a bath right ah
it says if a skilled batman or badlands of presidents apprentice would pour bath powder like soap powder into a brass basin said which would also have a sweet odor and and consistency pour it into a brass base and and needed together sprinkling it with water to got the power
odder you sprinkling it with water until it forms a ball of vast powder that's saturated moisture laden permeated within and without so it's full of water and yet it would nevertheless not drip
so the it just it's it's it's fully it's full of water and yet it's contained right just this is what your this is what he's describing our bodies are like when we withdraw and feel feel this rapture that were full of this rapture and
joy and it doesn't leak you know and we don't lose it it's contained within our body jamming said
ah never gonna go to all these that ah and we will get the fourth one so this is a
you know we have this thing against stepwise practice in xin this is definitely stepwise frankness ah the forest
before the you go through these raptors states and then you'd divest yourself of rapture and they're just ah
canova a of equanimity furthermore with the abandoning a pleasure and stress this is the fourth as with the year earlier disappearance of elation and distress one enters and remains in the fourth jhana
purity of equanimity and mindfulness neither pleasure nor pain one sits permeating the body with a pure bright awareness so that there is nothing of the entire body on provided by the pure bright awareness and then the
just as if a person were sitting wrapped from head to toe with a white cloth so that they would be no part of the body to which the way cloth the dot extend even so
the practitioner sits permeating one's body with a pure bright awareness there is nothing of this entire body
on provided by pure bright awareness so it's like you just
all white
brilliant
as empty without any marks without the marks of
ha
of suffering
or of joy
just
i'm the one he had just receptive of whatever comes and the other hand read here in this pure awareness
so
that i think is the is the thrust of what is or what the sixth awakening is
to abide in dorma without being confused stability and meditation
the seventh awakening is to cultivate wisdom
it is to listen contemplate practice and have realization
the buddha said
monks if you have wisdom you are free from greed
you will always reflect on yourself and avoid mistakes thus you will attain liberation in the dharma i am speaking of
if you don't have wisdom you will be neither a follower of the way nor a supporter of it and there will be no name to describe you sounds rather grim ah indeed wisdom is a reliable vessel to bring you across the ocean of old age sickness and death
it is a bright lamp that brings light into the darkness of ignorance it is an excellent medicine for all of you were sick it is a sharp axe to cut down the tree of delusion thus you can deepen awakening through the wisdom of listening
contemplation and practice if you were eliminated illuminated by wisdom illuminated by wisdom even if you use your physical eyes you will have clear insights this is called to cultivate wisdom

it touched endearment is a here it says causes
if you were illuminated by wisdom even if you use your physical eyes you will have clear insight and the near my translation says when someone has the radiance of this wisdom then though he'd be blind he will clearly see what people are
which just interested
what what he says if i think
i can see this either way what would causes translation says even if you use your physical eyes ah the problem there is that ah that are sense
functions are ah
are the basis of delusion right ah hell he heard he said even view even though one is physically blind ah which is also perhaps a kind of delusion high you're clearly see what people are
i like that i like that that's really nice phrase and save you will have clear insight
you're clearly see what people are in one might say you will clearly see i will clearly see what i am
in other words the from the beginning we talk about ah he talks about the robbers of the senses
so not to allow the robbers of the senses to creep in if you don't do that than ah than that is ah
practicing bringing for its wisdom so you can see yourself clearly

oh yeah
can you remind us of that trevor

and that was the last time right
this
yeah riana

yes i noticed that you did yeah we had a lot of we had a really interesting discussion this weekend and we talked about dog it's beneficial loving speech in the for methods of
guidance and he goes on he goes on in beautiful terms about loving speech has someone pointed out
that are just raised the point of oh listening and we realized that's missing
that's missing from dystopian festival ah ah this is a lot of at speech about the outward motion but ah it seems i think to it seemed to us and i think it is the function of listening
is perhaps more important than speaking
ah and software will get up
rewrite that the way kind of linda was suggested this morning ah we later we will include listening and speaking actually tick not harm does that you know in thickness nine hands precepts ah it's it's very non do all the
precept of of right speech includes in vividly includes listening right
one of the other thing simply safe in the again in the on udo ceuta ah here's what he talks about as wisdom this point he says ah
this dharma is for one endowed with discernment
ah and
what he says this is the discernment of the arising
of arising and passing away
so this is like good
bodhi sit the dark dogan says ah
awry are bringing forth the at the thought of enlightenment is seeing into the nature of impermanence
i believe that is correct hey it's the wisdom is seeing that things arise and pass away and that wisdom
the wisdom of our entire action his based on that understanding when we understand that
it really conditions how how we're going to act towards ourselves and to and towards other been and other sex
so i like i like that aspect of the the the poly suitor
other thoughts or questions

yeah

the
eh
hi well
activity
that is is
that
helping that the suffering of other
if he called speaking highly
hard to visit
listing side distress
walt with me
i need to stress more on listening
speaking is easy for me
ah listening
means
mean stopping and holding another
as of equal value though i'm just speaking for myself but i think that we do put i think our society needs to put more
needs to put more emphasis on i'm listening so it's not that the speaking side is is irrelevant it's really important
and i think that that one implies brings forth the other but it's good it's useful for us in our society
you know he was in a situation if you're in a monastery there's an awful lot of listening that goes on
ah
in our world this
both
you know ah
anyway
his character

right
but actually
yes that's why that's why a council practice of council is such a great practice because i'm one of the guidelines is is listen a whole heartedly
and one of the particular instructions is don't rehearse what you're going to say you know ah just really take in what karen is saying without then that sending me into my own self regard
in lieu what am i gonna say oh you know it's like there's there's three more people than it's my turn to speak you know ah what am i gonna say and how do i want to appear it's like to the extent that we can empty ourselves of that then surprising things can arise
yeah so
a lot of the that came up

well
lattice structures
well this

kind of surprises

right well that's that's a
if not a human ah
habit it certainly is a cultural have it and you know i think about ah
these these
these eight are
what your been encouraged to do
and underneath them for all of us is the hell
yeah surgeon always is always talked about this desert
how is doing
ah
yes how is doing and you can place it in different parts of as different parts of speech the word how as a question as a noun ah
as an adverb you know it's that ah you think about that line from
joggers samadi ah the meaning is not in the words
it responds to the inquiring impulse
set response to if you raise that question how
then something in the world will respond to you
that's that's the encouragement in and actually when we were we're almost at dobbins commentary part where he you know basically bought what it boils down to his
you can do this
you can do this these practices
he's not giving them to you because ah he's not saying yeah these are the practices the buddha and you may so give up he has
that that is not the teaching this it's giving you these practices laying 'em out step by step or piece by piece because you may be able to do one of them
maple do able to one of them better than another and this can open a door to awakening for us
okay
let me go on to number eight okay and then we can
we get a dog in sport which is kind of interesting okay so different translations here ah
causes translation the eighth awakening is not to be engaged in hollow discussions it is to experience realization and be free from discriminatory thinking with thorough understanding of the true marks of all things for that goes back to the last point in making it the true mark of
mark of all things is that they are impermanent and non-self
ah this is called not to be engaged in hollow discussions
the buddha said if you get into hollow discussions your mind will be scattered
then you will be unable to attain liberation even if you have left the household meaning even if you've become a monk or nun so you should immediately leave behind scattered mind and hollow discussions
if you wish to attain the joy of serenity you need to be cute need to cure the sickness of hollow discussions this is called not to be engaged in hollow discussions
ah so near months translation is as i said earlier the eighth awakening is not playing around with theories and opinions what he called not playing around with theories and opinions means letting go of dualities and judgmental islam that one may is
xperience fully realizing the true nature of all things is what not playing around with theories and opinions means
ha

he translates the buddha i'm just going to be part of it therefore quickly abandoned your disordered mind and you're playing around with theories and notions if you wish to enjoy the pleasure that comes from calmness and the extinction of dividing the filing the extinction of the filing passions thoroughly limo
in a the affliction of playing around in your head
this is what i mean by not playing around with theories and opinions
this is interesting
i think to speak to your point zoo
the how of this
cause for noticing
hang yourself
noticing those our discussions are noticing what opinions you have and particularly noticing
once propensity for
distinguishing between for making a division between
me and you
self and other
that's the fundamental duality
and
the way part of what you do that is by really noticing the judgments
that we have about
anyone in anything just realizing those judgments as they come up benches it's not like dismissing them
because you may not so easily be able to get rid of them
but you can
notice oh so there's a judgment there's an opinion
ha and
sometimes it's not so strong and you can just set it aside
sometimes it's really strong and you have to dig in and investigate it
haven't i've been reading an interesting book or
ah it's been sitting on my shelf from a year by ben commonly on your guitar people seen that
ah you know it's really it's it's pretty interesting it's the yoga chara
the stuff is it's hard because it's very systematic but
basically the message is
look at all the stuff we create ourselves in our mind
lori came back from studying she's studying a have etc with with read that fundamental your guitar sutra ah and she's getting conscious creation only right you know it's like conscious creation or it's like okay stop already
i
and now it's it's like a mind in earworm worm in mice my head but it's really good it's like of you begin to see how you're consciously creating myself out of the sense perceptions and yoga charm that it gives you a way of really looking and categorizing no sense perceptions
to me it's a it's not it's not a photograph a painting of reality or reality it's up it's a map and that way it's very useful but that to me
you can use tools like that to begin to look at how to deconstruct these are the states of mind and that's that's why so actually in the in the rue de ceuta
this is really interesting
the eighth one ah
says this dharma is for one who enjoys non objectification
who delights in non objectification
not for one who enjoys in delights in objectification that means a little clearer
thus was it said with reference to what was it said there is a case where amongst mind leaps of grows confident steadfast and is from intercession of objectification
he doesn't really go in too much more there but
so
to me non objectification
is
to be completely subjective
and this is to to look at everything as part of
oneself in the largest way
but if you take it as part of yourself you know in some bar
narcissistic way
then you're turning yourself into an object
and you're delighting that's delighting in objectification
but to see as we're often told to see
this cup which is half full of tea
as part of myself
and literally to take some of it to incorporate that in myself and to handle it respectfully
he's not objectification
so i really like that that's how it's getting to various in in the sutra it's getting to a very physical response to the world around you ha like how do you relate to people and things ah and so you're not sure
just in your head laurie

hello

now

well what he says in the next sentences these are eight awakenings in each awakening contain all eight
typical dog in as thing just there are sixty four awaken us
when awakenings our practice thoroughly their number is countless when they are practiced in summary there are sixty four but it's like yeah you go from wisdom to i am you and you were me and we're all together google to you know
ah
so let me read read on here these are the last words a great teacher shakyamuni buddha this duncan the ultimate admonition of the my yana teaching he said on midnight of the fifteenth day of the second month buddha said
you should always endeavour whole heartedly to search for the way of liberation all things in the world whether they are in motion or not are insecure and bound to the gay now all of you be quiet and do not speak
as are his last words time is passing and i am going to cross over this is my last admonition to you
without
expounding dharma any further buddha entered power nevada
ah
another translation is that
behold now because i exhort you all compounded things are subject to vanish
strive with earnestness practice was earnestness
target says all disciples of the buddhist should study this teaching those who don't know or learn about it or not his disciples indeed this is this is the target is treasury of the true dharma i the wonder his heart of nirvana so this is like the summary of the whole
szabo gonzo
ah many may have been confused however there are many who do not know about his teaching
as there are few who have studied it mary may have been confused by demons and those who have few wholesome conditions from the past do not have the opportunity to see or hear about this teaching but you do
ah in the age of the true dharma an imitation dharma all disciples a buddha knew about this teaching and practiced practiced it but nowadays less than one or two out of a thousand monks seems to know about it how regrettable the world has declined since those two
times
while the true dharma prevails in the billion worlds and the buddha garment buddhist pure teaching is still intact
you should immediately practice it without negligence
so
here is referring to
the three ages of buddhism the three
that followed the buddha's passing
so he's talked about the true dharma the aged the to dharma was the first
depending on how you count the first five hundred years for the first thousand years during which the buddha's disciples were firmly able to hold onto the buddha's teachings
and then the age of imitation dharma
the second thousand years
ah or five hundred years i think it's a five hundreds but i'm usually heard ah because that would make sense of which only
which only resembles the right the right time it's a it's kind of the invitation of so that would bring us to about ah the tang dynasty
ah six hundred a d
and then the latter day of the law
which is also known in japanese as mapo which is where we're at ah which is the last for ten thousand years during which the dormant declines it still can be heard it's very difficult to hear but it's it's declining and that know what have
opens at the end of that you know like and we'd all goes around again who knows but this is one of the things about that the time that good that does that dogan
lived in it was really
very common thing in in japanese in all the schools of japanese buddhism to acknowledge we're in the age of decline here it's very hard it's very hard to hear the to teaching and so we need skillful means and a straightforward teaching to be able to
ah to meet the dharma
so
dogan says it is rare to encounter the buddha dharma even in a span of countless aeons a human body is difficult to attain
a human body in the three continents of the world is preferable
a human body in the southern com or cotton knit jumper visa is particularly so as one can have the chance to see the buddha here the dharma leave the household and attain the way
so that's where we are fortunate to live so these three continents is a kind of cause learn for contents of kind of cosmological ah buddhist cosmological logical view you had mount subaru in the middle and
and then it was surrounded by these these four continents and the southern one his jumper viva ah
and
that's the one in which humans live
ah and we're fortunate to live there because that's the one from which one can be awakened as a as a buddha
a jump of reaper replies to at at the middle of this continent
ha is a jumble tree which is ah
black plum
and this imageries is common to this cosmology is coming to buddhism hinduism and jainism so it's always throughout the ah
throughout the indian culture and gem good weeper is the only place
where being may become enlightened by being born as a human being
so
now we can learn and practices awakenings because the merit of our wholesome traditions from the best
by practicing a nurturing these awakenings you can certainly arrive at unsurpassable enlightenment and expound them to all beings just as the buddha did
and that was duggan's less trying to get andrea

yes
ah

well

right
well that's okay i mean i i think to be to be honest most of us learn how much is enough by going too far
you know that that's how we learn but if we're practicing that's think if we have a practice if we're mindful and a tune towards going on we recognize you know oh that was too much huge stink about
thanksgiving dinner you know of it's like a some of us are very hard cases we we eat too much every year you know we forget the lesson you know but but really that's how you listen that's how you have you listen to yourself ah and then you learn so
you have to be willing to
make mistakes and you have to have your attitude this
nonjudgmental and non objective attitude is to actually accept your mistakes and realize that your mistakes or your teachers
yeah hannah

well this is a great conundrum for us
in a whole lot of realm but that's you know historically that one reliefs out ah
question i asked my my teacher hirata roshi ah in an interview i did with him ah
but how could these enlightened zen masters in japan
have sanctioned and approved the atrocities that were leveled on ah koreans on chinese during ah
not a blog dream a lot the first half of the twentieth century
you know it's like
i can come to the conclusion
that whatever they're calling enlightenment
he's not my idea of enlightenment
and that is the conclusion that i come to
but if
it might mean it it doesn't meet these criteria
because you have to look deeply into these criteria but what he said which is really difficult
but i think it's human was
this was as far as they could see because as humans they were conditioned and even we see
there are moments when the buddha
articulated his conditioning in ways that one might not necessarily agree with so like it's on you
what is awakened hannah what's your view of the world and how do you share it with with others ah and had you accept others in there
shortcomings we saw this incredible movie
is made in japan are called an honest death has anyone seen that it's about these two marvelous doctors who are both are shingon priests
who are ah
palliative care specialists who has led hundreds and thousands of people
two
come to peace with their death
and then the husband
he has pancreatic cancer
and you watch and this nhk crew had region to to film him to the end
ah and what happened which was just
it is made us crazy was all of all of his wife practice
when out the window
she he kept asking for certain things he didn't want his life sustained he wanted he wanted painkilling drugs and she just didn't do it she wanted him to live as long as he could live as like expressly against his
written and spoken wishes and you watching the whole thing and it's like
okay
we see how deep the roots of our attachment go and it was really challenging thing for we a roomful of chaplin candidates ah have you pie i watch this and
it was so much anger that came up
henrik had to keep read arresting yet sake
what's going on that what's going what is not what is she doing this what's going on with you as your liking it
you know that what was she doing wrong but what are we carrying inside ourselves and i think that the whole thrust
of this are of this teaching is about that
and also i say if you go back to what i was saying about
ben connelly's yoga journal book the whole thrust of that and the whole thrust of our practice he is
look at ourselves and recognize that whatever we're seeing in other people
we
that is potentially and actually what we have within us and how do we work with that so that it doesn't run a muck in this world

yeah

oh

yeah

this way

yes
ah but that depends on how you that know that depends on what you think of birth after birth needs
yes
right so that's that's right that's what you know our
i have one birth and i eat way too much a thanksgiving
and
then a year rolls around the night have a chance for another burst as the same stupid thing you know
only i've been doing that for seventy years a but we have
you can look at birth after birth in a long time frame and also would taught to look at will look at the wheel of dependent origination as turning moment by moment
have each moment been
an opportunity for reverse and i really think that to the question just to carry and maybe this is a place to end is how
how do i do this
how do i meet this person
then i want to turn away from
how do i encounter my own illness
and death
how do i meet myself each morning when i sit down and face the wall
how
hence the question how
so i i think that's a good place to end
thank you very much
really
the enjoyable to study this i feel so lucky to have had like these with these five days of intensive kind of study like this and now we get to continue with today
yeah
every one of these things

desire

joyce

right
yeah
we're very
i i
ah we're just really lucky
really fortunate to have fallen into this rabbit hole