Exploring Consciousness and Realizing Wisdom
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Exploring consciousness with the aid of Buddha's teachings is a path to discovering and realizing deep, liberating Wisdom. Consciousness may be experienced as confining and confusing; at the same time it offers opportunities for learning skills and making discoveries.
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maybe now is a good time to bring it up and this image comes from a poem
by
hey
person
ha nem roomy
and
home in english good poem goes like this on
i think it if i think to call me is written in farsi
and
go something like this are the breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you
don't go back to sleep
you have to say
don't go back to sleep
everyone is walking
back and forth
on the threshold or at the threshold where the two worlds meet
the door is round and open don't go back to sleep
and various versions of what the two worlds are
one could be
enlightenment and delusion to be two worlds
or and two worlds the one could be on
nirvana and samsara
freedom and bondage or peace and suffering is a different words
ah conventional truth in ultimate truth
language and
freedom from the realm of language
and in terms of this morning discussion it could be one world is
i'm here a priori
and then i do is i do things i'm here and i practice everything
i recognize you
and but i'm here
and then i relate to you the other one is
you come and then there's me
one is i'm here and i count you
one by one i meet you one by one
the other is i'm counting and another is sort of there's counting
and then there's me
oh i'm here
those two worlds and they they they meet at the self
it's are two kinds of content to kinds of conscious activity one is
things come and there's consciousness with the self the other is their self consciousness and then
in other thanks those two was made at a threshold and everybody actually lives at that threshold
and for a long time when i heard that story about the two worlds meeting with the door open i kind of thought oh so if i'm in birth and death
i met the threshold of birth and death the doors open i can walk into nirvana
but now i feel more like to know
i don't walk into nirvana
and i don't walk into some sarah
i met the threshold
people may think they're walking into it
ah
some into birth and death and suffering they may think they're walking into it through that door
but really they're not want you to they're still at the threshold there's leaning the rob balance
or they may think they walk into nirvana into peace and freedom and that they're not really leaving the threshold there is leaning into nirvana
huh
he just a second
just a second
just a second just a sec
so that this this quote from descartes i think therefore i am is more the enlightened point of view
or maybe better way say the bed and a one world is thinking
therefore i am thinking therefore i am
when i was thinking i'm born in that thinking
i think
therefore i am
the i think part doesn't point out that i'm not it sounds like i'm here and that i think so thinking therefore i am as is like enlightenment and i think
he's more like illusion
but then the next part therefore i am kind of implies that i shouldn't have said i think in the first place
i should have it should have been thinking therefore i am thinking
thinking therefore i am
thinking therefore i am
yeah thinking therefore i am
i think you don't have to say therefore i am to say i think we already see you've already established that you are
so that therefore i am actually and substance has the potential to undo the delusion of i i'm here before i think
so it's interesting and
so it it's kind of at the threshold so it's not so much that return towards
one side of the other but that were at the threshold and we we have a chance to pivot
so we look oh i'm thinking
oh thinking i am
i'm talking
talking
therefore i am
look either way it's it's not so much as you look one where have the other but that you can pivot
a pivot on that threshold
you can see enlightenment and delusion from the same place
and
so part of the practice my bid to be flexible and upright not to be leaning
my some people who are suffering there would like to lead they would like to go to nirvana not lean landed nearby but they'd like to go to near bundaberg they want to go to your bonnet and leave samsara behind
but we cannot go to nirvana without leaning sums are behind you just look at nirvana
welcome it
enjoy it and give it up and then turn and look at samsara welcome it
suffer and give it up giving it up by turning to nirvana so we turned to nirvana but we don't mean into it heart we certainly don't jump and stay there but we enjoy it but because of our
flexible position at the threshold we
naturally get turned by the situation
we don't stay in nirvana and we don't stain sums we are free of since our which is nirvana but we don't stay in freedom from samsara without you know like looking away from it so we turn back and look at it again so we pivot pivoted the threshold
so the practices to be with for example if you're looking at some sour which is quite common
you're looking at samsara which means consciousness
where there's a self before events that some sour
the south before events is like you're holding onto the self
you're not with the cell area with the self that's their that you've got
and then you do things as that's birth and death
and holding onto that is is is stressful
in the stress can
propagate itself immensely
some we look at that world where there's a potential for suffering but we don't lean into it and we don't mean away from it or turn away from it and go into freedom from it and when we look at freedom we we are free
but we don't lean into it i also don't lean away from it note the lean away from it it is turn you wanna see some of just turn to change a phrase i do it
then to the grasp them little bit
i don't think anybody taught that little girl who calls my granddad anti-gay by taught her i did it
she figured that out by her
unconscious process supported her to turn action into i did that
her parents are both don't don't go walk around say i did it they say that
no longer able to connect probably overstated out lamentation or from other kids button
she's for the first thing to her is a sentences or her say was i did it
i did it
nobody said you have to sell before your action
therefore heavy saw all the actions associated with you your the doer of those action nobody target ship it's it's innate that i'm here
during those things
rather than nursing when the things i'd done somebody's here which is known so anyway
so i mentioned as recently and somebody who has studied sufiism and i don't know if this etymology is correct but he told me
that the word that the word dervish means somebody who stands at the threshold
so and i don't know if the word dervish comes from roomies talking about the threshold and the people who stand there are the dervishes i don't know
or if he if the word dervish was there before and he made his poem incorporating this concept of threshold
and then the additional thing is
i think from him come the whirling dervishes
the he would
kathy he would walk around a pillar i think
and these poems would come out and his disciples to read palms down while he was spinning around the pole
so there's spelling that they do i think the i imagine they're they're doctor doing this thing they're standing at that threshold between freedom and bondage between ease and suffering and they're not leaning into either one or the this sticky the kind of do with maybe decor little bit like this but not to me
because those hats will fall off
the whirling dervish
okay john
yes
iranian culture
the suffering as
else to go
suffering
the sickness
hey dad
yeah buying into suffering is leaning
into it would want to buy into suffering
actually suffering is buying into
buying into delusion
so
want to be upright was suffering so then the part of it does nowhere to go
i think that there's some wisdom in that that you don't to go someplace when they're suffering just be upright with it and relaxed
and it will be a pivot your spin
daniels
you'll be on
he'll be looking at nirvana
but again that pivoting requires training at the threshold we have to train ourselves so that were soft and flexible and we can be turned by events
hannah and we also need to listen to the teachings and involute as as her mind as our conscious mind is
is attending is acting in relationship to the teachings by make an effort to learn them and listen to them that transformed the root of leaning
that transforms the root of being unbalanced and the root of being stuck in one position
and then also
i said yesterday serving all buddhas means
in the process of doing these practices you serve your good friends
this is all done in the context of friendship
you don't do it alone which also resonates with
were born in the advent of events with when we can't be on our own were born in advent of our relationships
but we need to not just hear that teaching we we hear that teaching that transform dark
the basis of our consciousness so that makes it makes it possible for us to remembered to cultivate good friendships friendships that help us face something uprightly help others face suffering uprightly and also help others and are others see
nirvana realized nirvana and not stick there
we wanna be a friend to people so we can take them to nirvana without moving
to make them realize it's right here
hey without attaching to it
yes
would you say it louder please
yeah enter dharma gates without leaning into them
and realized it at when you're at the down and get you don't have to move to enter it
you don't move to realize the truth
strike comes from my mind of over
i have a one of the people who taught gardening and farming at green gulch was a a person who i think we do with part iraq indian i think and he actually spent some time studying with a uruk teacher your r sharma
and or no
and the way that this charm and taught was basically taught people about plants that was when the main teachings
and i heard that when people came to study with him
ha
he would say okay you want to study with me bring me twenty kinds of native plant grasses and if the person went away walked away
ah he wouldn't accept him as a student
people would accept would be people who would just look right down to feet
this is a native grasses
the manor people to find twenty read a drag their feet
especially to standing in a supermarket parking lot
but still
he wanted them to look where they were first and not walk away from here and try to find something
and i'm anarchy have any students
but that's kind of very much in accord with this teaching is
you want to study
bring me the truth and see if the person turn go someplace to find it if they do mary see later
that's like hesitating right
bring me the truth okay i'll see you later i'll come back later and give it to you
yes
did you have your hand raised
i
the
yes you seen you say my
you say my i say man you say my you say my for both samsara and nirvana
my samsara mind nirvana
is it is a my
what are you confessing
i didn't hear confession about any shortcoming
to say it to say it's hard isn't really
whatever you're confessing
you're confessing herself
okay but you can confess herself
so but how is that a shortcoming when you can find herself
what's a short come you know
have the cell
you do
so are you can you confessing attachment based on self okay
so you're confessing grasping
the self
if kirk are you confessing a lack of not abiding himself not abiding in the south you're biting in the soccer confessing that
swindon sense that you're confessing a shortcoming of wisdom
i confess
a shortcoming in the realization of a mind of know abode
i
have some anime and i will i wish to cultivate a mind of no bone
okay
how's elizabeth during dinner
no interesting when you
she doing okay
did you hear that
huh
yes
the breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you
don't go back to sleep
you have to say what you really want
don't go back to sleep
everyone's walking back and forth at the threshold where the two worlds meet
the door is round and open don't go back to sleep
home
hi
you realized what
you you realize all you are a distraction and you don't know how to let go of that
so you say
distraction plus stubbornness
why in a way i can accept that the statement all i am is distraction because it is sense consciousness is pretty much a distraction
a bill
but sometimes in order to on i don't know what
in order to like pile up again to him a child in order to pile up blocks
you know especially sometimes his little fingers can pick up tiny little blocks and pile them up in order to perform some of these actions in the workshop we sort of have to distract ourselves from the vast
world of the universe we sort of have to put aside how the dynamic
inconceivable process by which all beings are supporting us to
bring our thumb and forefinger together around a little piece of material
we sort of have to distract ourselves from the vast interdependence of our life and the way everybody supporting us a way we're supporting everybody gonna need to distract ourselves into this world of consciousness where where i am
in the totality of my life i cannot find myself
so innocent i i am a i'm a distraction
from all that makes me
yeah
but the stubborn part we can get over that
and we can temporarily opened to not being able to do anything
not being able to
you know may not be able to bring my thumb and forefinger together but open to actually how the whole universe makes this thumb and forefinger come together
hoping to that
and i'm here rather than i'm here and i'm gonna do this
that's a distraction from the whole universe is doing this and i'm here so and his innocence the world of delusion all i all i am when i'm here already is a distraction from everything
functioning and then there's me
the stubbornness is the his the
the part we can work on and be kind of the stubbornness
and realize it's there because for good reasons for lots of reasons making the stubbornness do i don't make the stubbornness by myself
so i've been to be kind of the stubbornness and be stubborn as long as i had to be stubborn that the stubbornness be there as long as it needs to be there who has done his job
then it can be a pivoting
dedication
delusion and study the conclusion and
destroy destroyed
they
at the same
your party doesn't want to play anymore and to keep lying around so addiction again is like addiction is like doing something as a distraction
so the buddha taught
at the beginning she said i found a middle way between addiction to sense pleasure and addiction to self mortification
he didn't say up on a middle way between sense pleasure and since more and and self worth self mortification didn't say i find a middle way between doing what's good for me and sacrificing myself or what's good for other pay
that because sometimes it's good to do it good for you and sometimes it's good to do what's good for others and not doesn't isn't necessarily good for you
didn't say he didn't say those are the extremes he said the addiction to it the addiction to sense pleasure in the addiction to self mortification or self denial
so
to deuce self or got to do what's good for yourself
while
distracting yourself
from what's good for others and to do what's good for others distracting yourself from what's good for you that addiction that's the problem
yeah it's like leaning to one side of the other
so since they were distracted my addictions or distract yourself from
the other side or just dragging herself and except the in are leaning and you can glean from one side to the other
so some people generally speaking are like distracted into you know serving others they're addicted to serving others because they liked the situation where nobody could fault them for being not a servant other so that make sure that they've got that down
and others are willing to be accused of being selfish
because if someone that did they just really liked are constantly keep their eye on the ball a pleasure for themselves and but then they know there's a risk that people will call him self centered but to get their their addiction keeps them over there and also they are distracted from those voices that are calling from the other side
why do is here both who wanna hear the cries
from south and the cry from others you're both of them and not lean into either one
listening to both
who said not leaning in either one you're listening to both
and part in part of what we're afraid of is one of them saying you're not taking care of me you shouldn't be listening to the other if you really cared about me you wouldn't be listening to the other
so that's one of the voices we do not like to hear
if you really cared about me you would have no concern for yourself that people can talk like out to us
and also there's another one is don't listen to them you know forget about him that voice to when you're helping people you know you're sacrificing yourself and unhealthy way such a voice
anything
yeah that basically says don't pay attention to the other side it's hard to hear that and there's all kinda skillful ways for to be drawn into laney one why the other
like
your unfeeling
your unfeeling you don't care
mike
again this like bodhisattvas
i've recently been saying that went when i when i hear jokes in my mind i should tell pete and i laugh
in a non-public i should tell people what the joke is because they they are initially know that when it is so i was gonna say bodhisattvas care a lot and that's and that's ah
that's what gets care bear heaven is a lot which is upon camelot right
but the care bears care a lot that's their that's their bliss so bodhisattvas care a lot but they don't care too much
they care enormously but not too much of course not too little but not too much they do not go into caring too much
and some people
i know
when people tell me you know they care for their mother
but they they confessed they cared too much for their mother they feel bad about hump and it's stressful how much they care about their mother
and then sometimes they they come back and they said yesterday i found a place where i cared for my mother but not too much and i felt really good
he was like just the right amount of care which was a lot but not excessive care
and my mother said you don't care about me anymore
because she's used to this excessive care so when you come back to the right amount she thinks you're abandoning her
that's part of the pain of shifting from leaning to uprightness
there's a there's a picture over there on the wall of a buddha's par nirvana and i haven't i haven't looked closely at that but i have another
a picture of buddhist part nirvana and in front of him either
the lay people and monks the monastics in the lay people in front of him and the monastics are crying because the buddhist dying and behind him or all the bodhisattvas who are they're not they're not laughing but they're they're almost that they're almost smiling
to be so happy to be what the buddha to to be with their teacher and they're not crying
they're just the their therein therein
there in the dharma with the buddha which is where they always want to be there not distressed by this passing and the boot is not distress but some beings are distressed they're carrying too much about their dear teacher
doesn't mean that if you cry you care too much though and i say that amount of sometimes crying
is an indication that you care just the right amount
like when at certain points in which is eager she was dying
i didn't cry when the other people were crying and i cried other times and couldn't figure out why i was crying and i just started crying what what more is these tears coming from wasn't the right time but they came
and i really felt good about that that i wasn't crying when i was supposed to
you know that excessive
you cry when it all the conditions come together and also get a taster about when my dad died
so i was in the bathtub
in san francisco
i think i'd probably with given my daughter about to
i didn't usually take baths he said with her and am my brother called me and my wife brought me the phone and he said dad died and i said okay i'll come to minnesota but i didn't cry and i wasn't even upset
i would i was like i knew any minute you know and when i was with him i just thought
i guess this is the last breath and i was just right there with him
when i was with him and then i went away and then when as far away he died and i heard and i just received it and said all com and i went and i went to the room where he was
i walked up to and justice
huge wonderful sobs came up out me just wonderful wonderful sobs that i wasn't supposed to do or not supposed to do i and i just thought so great because it's self help so much i wasn't doing it was just coming from i did
know where i was just in this
great sweetness of my father's kindness to me and my father's love of me
there was nothing about loss who are just all about our sweet he was and tears coming and my uncle came over to me and
kind of call me to stop
because you know he thought tom was wrong with me and what he wanted me to stop and for my uncle i stop pretty
and i didn't know i didn't say well i'm just gonna keep ah crying if you know so i stopped but before he stopped me before i before he told me to that i could stop and i should stop ah i was having a great time i never
cries like that that i could remember
it was so great
if so alive so real and i didn't do it i didn't expect it i didn't not expect
you know it was like nine abiding crime
and then up and i am i didn't attach to it so when i was told time to stop i stopped
yes
okay
anything else this morning yes
like
there
everybody i really respect everybody's desire to understanding canning similar but for me sick i don't know how a telephone wire down to now i just nowhere ah
so it's really helpful when you just described wherever he sat the that like every time you can't describe by only situation this is what they did i know
and then that feels really really informative
thank you
yes
when i like to report a message put in a mirror
i subscribe to date and
that interested in town and she was so delighted to see fifty five minutes before that she asked me to the out there
and to stay that
she loves me
hmm
the voices yeah i hear the voices of of younger people
okay well i'm out this morning
your own as the speculator for enough
i like to announce the next national
on saturday is only achieved and synergy will be revealed no wonder and unchanging truth and sacramento when i got one fire to know about and would have to get on the old board and waiting around the corner
and other way or anything fairly lenient with know if it's a going to internet on the fire or you should also be a lot of goals and i asked him and from now
it requires doesn't even register online with the mgm that readers notation the you website which are ready future by the need such as international day line part of the street and man was arrested
oh yeah well may locate the core carmel nineteenth
jack plug he is it seems surprising then he would be the same the to series you can roll would ban the nineteenth but has ever been with pedro
a brothel if elected members to be okay zero seven eight okay with insanely
but may or may seventeenth may seventieth april nineteen okay that sounds more reasonable to the other day
okay
oh yeah
oh yeah and also there's a bill bradley a for president thing in
that be so while ah for still it's still not an object in my consciousness
a which i intend to be upright with how about you
room