Last time, what I talked to you about was, without some more context, too abstract. So today I'm going to talk about something more practical. Can you hear me? When I say too abstract, I mean... Well, I don't mean that you aren't doing it already. What I talked about, you actually are already doing. You're already practicing as Buddha's disciples.

[01:03]

Then in the evening we talked about ... We had a general meeting which was rather philosophical, and we talked about how Zen Center exists in this country. I think it's useful for you to know such things because actually we're afloat in this country. Although we don't know what the ocean's like, still it's supporting us. And eventually you're going to have to know more about how to steer. But right now, actually, you're steering. And right now, actually, you're practicing Buddhism in a very wide sense, and you don't know it.

[02:35]

So we say, you know, to ourselves, just sit zazen. But zazen, you can't say there are different kinds of zazen, but zazen is has a different function in your practice at different times. When you first start practicing Dazen, it's usually in contrast to maybe a rather coarse state of mind, and it gives you some sense of possibilities in being alive that you hadn't thought of before, hadn't experienced before. But if you just do Zazen and lead an ordinary life, things will change slowly, but

[04:11]

Actually they change, not because you're doing zazen, but because you're practicing the precepts. And life here at Tassajara works so well for us, not because we're doing so much zazen, but because this life is based on practicing the precepts. So at some point in your practice. You're doing zazen and you say, well, why is my life so messed up and zazen, the feeling of zazen so fine? At some point you determine to practice the precepts. So, you know, the precepts are I don't kill and don't steal and whatever the rest. Actually, I can remember if I try. Don't kill, don't steal. Yeah, I'll think of them later. Oh yes, don't misuse the senses.

[05:43]

There's two more. Anyway, there's ten, actually. But there are five which are... The first five pertain to you, and the second five more or less pertain to your relationship to others. And the precepts aren't to be understood just as specific things. Well, if I don't kill, it's okay, and if I don't steal, it's okay, and if I don't and misuse the senses is okay. It's not so specific as that. Actually, all of your activity is covered by precepts, and they can be divided other ways. We can talk about the three. Greed, hate, and delusion are also You can understand each of the precepts from the point of view of greed, hate and delusion. You can steal something because you're greedy, or because you hate someone, or have some anger.

[07:10]

And you can steal because you are deluded, you don't know actually what things are, what possessions are. If you know what possessions, what things actually are, you don't steal them. You can't possess them in any way that stealing makes possible. From this point of view, we're not talking about Buddhism, we're just talking about some practical way to live. Doing zazen in this way, showing you some contrast between your usual state of mind and possible subtle states of mind, and practicing morality. are not exactly necessarily Buddhist. So maybe this is the stage most of us are at in our sense of our practice. It may not be actually

[08:34]

Our practice is probably much more Buddhist. So anyway, as long as you have that coarse state of mind, if you have some willpower and some taste for a nicer state of mind, it's pretty easy to keep doing zazen. But as I said last time, when your state of mind is no longer coarse, then you can't do zazen for that reason any longer. But you see, by that time you've usually begun to practice the precepts, because

[09:37]

you find that actually to exist in this world without entanglement, you have to practice the precepts. So, then you're practicing the precepts, and if you begin to practice them with their greater extensions, you're beginning to practice Buddhism. Then zazen, you see, is based on the precepts, because samadhi is only possible if you practice the precepts. So actual Buddhist meditation is possible from practicing the precepts. You understand? And we don't practice the precepts just because they cause us to accumulate karma. If you do such and such, you get this big load of karma, or you get some kind of punishment. That's more or less true, but it's not so serious, actually. It's like if you want to eat too much cake,

[11:13]

You can eat too much cake and you have a stomachache. That's not so serious. You can take alpha-seltzer. In other words, what I'm saying is that we don't emphasize so much the badness of being bad, or the hells you're going to suffer in for not following the rules, because the precepts aren't looked upon as rules so much as laws. And if you don't follow them,

[12:18]

have certain karma associated with them and there's some balance in that situation. But there's another aspect that's more important, which is that if you don't practice the precepts, not practicing the precepts locks you into a room. I don't know how to express it better than that, but... In other words, there's the usual world, the usual worldly life, and if you don't practice the precepts, you suffer or you have some cause and effect as a result. But the real problem is that you don't realize that there's a whole other life, a whole other way of life, or kind of life possible. So that's the real loss. So if you start practicing zazen, and then begin practicing the precept, and then

[13:47]

begin practicing zazen again, based on, maybe, equanimity. So, let's see if I can remember another list. The six paramitas are, I think, giving, and morality or harmony, patience and energy or courage and meditation and wisdom. And they're in that order partly because it suggests, actually, the way in which practice goes. That you start out with some less limited sense of yourself, which allows you to give and to share freely. And you begin to practice some harmonious relationship with other people.

[15:20]

you begin to understand better that stealing or criticizing other people or taking, as it's better translated, do not take what is not given. you understand that there's no really alternative to living except to practice the precepts. There's no other way. And patience, the third one,

[16:28]

you begin to know what the actual nature of time is. So last time when I talked about... I told the story about, you know, the grains of sand and the beautiful land. Well, nirvana is sometimes called a beautiful land. And in Jodo Shinshu it becomes the pure land. But from the point of view of Zen, each grain of sand, what you do, each moment is nirvana. And some completely different attitude toward time is necessary, and so the third paramita is patience. I've also talked about this from the point of view of waiting. And the fourth is energy or determination or courage. And actually, you can't practice Buddhism without determining to do it.

[17:58]

I mean, to ask how do you practice Buddhism is to avoid making a determination to do it. If you're determined to practice, you'll find a way to practice. But actually to make a complete decision to practice, no part of you can be lagging behind. So it's rather of these ordinary, more worldly practices, the most elementary form of skill and means, the paya, energy comes last. And we practice zazen also because it awakens our energy, our energy body or our true energy. And then you have the fifth meditation, jhana, which you can actually then practice. But first come giving and morality and patience and energy. Even though zazen may have gotten you started,

[19:32]

to realize the importance of giving morality, energy, and patience. Actually, true zazen begins after you're practicing giving and morality, and patience, and energy. And then last is wisdom. But some wisdom, of course, is needed in the beginning, or you couldn't Have the courage to, confidence to, continue practicing. So here we, I think, Buddhist concentrated life, like this monastic life, is based on the precepts, based on having some harmonious relationship between us. so that our zazen can be true zazen. Then, from this point of view, do not kill, which starts out as do not kill others, and then maybe you realize it means do not kill yourself. But from the point of view of Buddhism, it's a Buddhist precept,

[21:01]

and not just a general practical precept, in that it means do not kill bodhicitta. Do not kill the ultimate desire, that to be a Buddha. Do not kill your Buddhist spirit. You have to encourage yourself in some way to practice you You had some questions? Student, here at Pasadena, it seems a little easier to be a little less distracted. I mean, I am doing all right. And you sort of take care of things. And what you were saying about the vows, sometimes, maybe if I had more complete confidence in Buddha's way, I think it seems so difficult to say,

[23:08]

don't, in itself? You know, like, if you read Zen teachers, they just say, you are living about, or keeping, like Kaguya Roshan is a considered attention, you know, every moment after moment, you're living about. But should I, in a sense, if I had confidence to be aware of something, would it be easier to say no to certain things? I want to live out of it, have a rest of it, and so on. And so, in that sense, maybe I should use the precepts, you know. You know, I'm faced with the same kind of problems. If you're practicing Buddhism, you should take it seriously. Otherwise, you're wasting your time. But also, it's not just a matter of taking Buddhism seriously, it's a matter of taking yourself seriously. If you take yourself seriously, just as you are is okay. So if you start to do something, Sugyoshi would say, Oh, don't do it. Just as you are is okay. That's what we mean by don't. Why add something? Don't do that. Just as you are is okay.

[24:35]

So Buddha, you know, under the bow tree, or you on your cushion, realize that everything exists in that way. And when you understand actually what time is, you're not separated from Buddha. If you know, when you have an identity, that actually you need to know what's going on in your life, why is that? You just get what's going on in your life. And then you go off to a different path. At least that's what I'm trying to say. And for me, that's what I really feel. What you said

[26:08]

Last lecture, you asked about self and giving up, and it's quite related to what Mark said. And it comes, I think, from the fact that you look on Buddhism as more from the point of view of what I just said wasn't Buddhism, the practical side of if you practice morality, this happens, and if you do Zazen, you... That's not Buddhism, that's only preparation. And when you look at it from this point of view, yes, it's some practical wisdom to practice the precepts, and to do zazen. From this point of view, we can't have enough confidence to give up ourself, because practically speaking, it's not so wise. Right? So as long as you're in practical Buddhism, you know, practical Buddhism from a practical point of view, you can't give up yourself. You understand? So quit being so practical. What does I can't mean? I can't, you know.

[27:38]

Why don't you take away the pronouns? Then what? Why don't you just do it? I understand. Now, all we can start with in practicing is what we know. or rather not so much what we know, but how we know. And so maybe it's impossible at first to have some faith in reality, as Buddha describes it. If you could have that faith, then you could with confidence take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

[28:59]

And we say, you know, the meal chant, for instance, is very advanced Buddhism, actually. To practice good, what to practice good means is rather advanced, actually. Because the first we actually avoid negative. To practice good, you have to be quite good, actually. And what we say, you know, in the vows, I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, are quite advanced practice, actually, to actually be able to take refuge. So it's pretty difficult to have confidence in some absolute reality, as Buddha described it, and so give up, you know, our usual way. Maybe at first we try to practice as Darlene, or Liz, or something like that. And the more you practice, the more you realize that you are closer and know the patriarchs better than you know Liz.

[30:22]

Anyway, first we start practicing as Liz or Darlene, then maybe we practice as Buddha's disciple and Liz. And we sort of think, well, sometimes I'll be Liz and sometimes I'll be Buddha's disciple, because Liz is nice, too, and everyone's used to Liz or Darlene. I don't want to give up being Darlene, too. Certainly, Buddha's way should include being both Darlene Now, eventually you see that you don't need to be darling either, but that's pretty difficult. So, you can only start with, we can't say what we know because there's no what exactly, but there is a how we know, how we perceive things, how we see things. So if you do zazen enough, you can begin to see how you do things. And you can begin to see your relationships and how you're linked to things, and what that cause and how those causes are, and produce other causes. So you begin to try to live in some harmony with them. And as you live in some harmony with them,

[32:02]

your ability to see things clearly, like in a mirror, becomes greater. And you can begin to see the link between thinking and doing. So the precepts, in a way, you're practicing with how you do things, how you relate to other people. and to your own desires. And you can notice the link between thinking and doing. For example, it's very useful to have our eating bowl practice because it's a doing activity closely related to zazen. So you can notice, normally if you do zazen, you finish zazen and you get up and you start being distracted. But you can see that process very clearly in the eating bowls. For instance, when you're sitting, you know, you're finished eating and you're waiting, you can be sitting there. And your mind can be quite empty, maybe. I hope it can. And maybe you're sitting there with nothing happening at all. But then it's necessary to fold your bowls up,

[33:34]

You take out your spoon and pick up your setsu, etc. As soon as you pick up your setsu, you start thinking about tomorrow and the next day, etc. The very act of doing begins to activate the mind, to think about all kinds of things other than the eating bowls. So when you see something like that happen very clearly, then you can break that link. You can attempt, now I'm sitting in satsang, and my mind is quite blank. If you think that, you'll be in trouble. So, you're just there, right? And then when you start doing it, then you think, ah, my mind was quite blank. At that point you can try to do your eating bowls, keeping your state of mind blank. If you can do some simple thing like that, then it's much easier, when you practice zazen and when you are doing your ordinary activities, to break the link between doing and thinking. You know, the thinking that doesn't pertain to the doing.

[35:00]

Anyway, it's only in that kind of detail that we can actually practice. We say, after practicing zazen and the precepts, you achieve the four boundless or wide states of mind. And your states of mind then generally can be described as loving-kindness, or something like that, and compassion. Here we go again. The third is something else, I don't know what it is, I forget. And the fourth is equanimity. But of these... Oh, I know, the third one is sympathetic joy. Not just joy, but sympathetic joy. Empathetic joy. But the fourth isn't joyful or compassionate

[36:31]

loving or kind exactly, it's equanimity. And the fourth one is the most important, because with equanimity, in all situations, your practice can actually be what we mean by a Buddhist Mahayana practice. But I think for each of you, it would be very useful to you if you could have the confidence that actually, without knowing it, I'm practicing Buddhism. I can't know the whole ocean. I can only know the boat a little bit. But still, somehow this boat is supported, somehow my practice is going, somehow Zen Center is going. and Tassajara, you are actually inheriting. This isn't just some made-up commune with all of us thinking up the best way to live together based on our childhood or our reading. It's a continuous and inherited tradition in which all of Buddhism is present in it. So when you live in it, you're actually practicing all of Buddhism.

[38:03]

So you can have that kind of confidence, even though you don't know exactly how completely you're practicing Buddhism. If you can have that kind of confidence, that will help you. Then, within that, if you can have the specific practice of noticing how you exist, how you do things, And notice when they catch you up and when they don't. I don't think we can actually say, well, I'm going to give up myself. That's too general. Since the self doesn't exist, how are you going to give it up anyway? Those are just words we use for

[39:05]

to cause you a problem, maybe, but to give you a way of looking at your activity. At the practice, we've been given, you know, zazen and the precepts. And the precepts give us some clue, some guideline, which allows us to locate our practice.

[40:08]

It's not a matter of good or bad, it's a matter of there's some wise guidelines that allow you to notice your activity and how your activity entangles you and how your activity traps you in a particular room, which you think is the whole world. Could you hear what she said? She said that sometimes She begins to criticize other people, the people around her, and it sounds like it snowballs. It sort of builds up and it fills her or gives her some hateful feeling that's very suffocating.

[41:31]

Well, there are many ways to practice with that kind of feeling. One, of course, is from the beginning. It's useful to have noticed when it started. Oh, Tuesday morning it started. Monday I felt okay. Tuesday morning, what happened? Actually, it's good to notice at the moment it happens. That kind of observation helps. Because once you get into a certain frame of mind, that frame of mind... Actually, all of our life is just various frames of mind. We get caught in one frame of mind after another, or some big frame of mind, and it colours everything, so we can't see things as they are. It's actually very useful to be...

[42:48]

angry or feel hateful, because it shows you, gives you a very definite experience of a frame of mind, like a frame of a picture or a picture out of focus. But actually everything is a picture. So if you can get rid of such a small frame, frame of mind, you can get rid of larger frames of mind. So it's important to practice with a small frame of mind like that. And also useful is not to try to get rid of it, but to absorb it, take it as your the way in zazen you accept the pain of zazen. But there's space in that actual feeling. There's still space in the midst of it for other kinds of feelings than hatefulness or being critical.

[44:11]

And of course, practically, you can just see the disadvantage of being critical and you can stop. You know that Abhidhamma psychology, which maybe more of you should know more about, because it's very useful in our practice. Abhidhamma psychology is based on working now with the present, not with the past. So right now, if you had some critical thought, you, by an act of will, produce an uncritical thought. You don't get rid of the critical thought, but you think some other thought and you balance it with it and encourage that thought. That way of doing it doesn't just balance the thought, but begins to give you space around what happens in your mind. But probably the most useful of all with any frame of mind is to just remind yourself of a larger frame of mind, you know, as the sky or the stars, Buddhism or we're all going to be dead. Actually, that kind of being able to see the tree not as an object but as a growing, changing

[45:39]

those frameworks. There it is, something I can run my head into, but also it's going to disappear, and it's changing and growing. Having the ability to see two frameworks at once is very important in getting free from any particular one. Could you teach me an example of a time when you were able to see two frameworks at once? Sure. Let's work that out. But you still are there under the stars. You don't disappear, and you still feel hateful. It's just some wider framework. But Zazen is like that. Going out and looking at the sky every night before you go to bed might put you in a better frame of mind for sleeping. But also going and sitting Zazen might put you in a better frame of mind for sleeping. In both cases, it takes the ability to remind yourself of a wider framework than those you're copying.

[46:42]

And that ability to remind yourself of it is very close to bodhicitta, to the thought of enlightenment, to awakening yourself. So you see it. There's your hateful feeling. I'm sure it's not too hateful, but maybe it seems hateful to you. There's your hateful feeling. Right next door there's enlightenment. Not very far away, though. Sometimes I have a feeling that it's a dream or some desire for a different kind of thing. It's a kind of grasping, but it could also be desire. Well, you know, as long as you view the world from the point of view of how it benefits you, which we all do, your world is pretty limited. And you find, actually, that almost all of your perceptions, interests, can be classified as greed, hate or delusion. But hate includes love.

[48:11]

and you say, hey, that includes love, possessive love. And it doesn't mean... In the same way, you can remind yourself of another framework in which your desire or your greed for something is actually a greed for everyone to be enlightened. Now, that may sound like some trick, you know, because if you don't feel it, it's just some artificial thing. Actually, the more you practice, you see that the ordinary desires that we have are only contaminating or confusing or entangling when they're locked into that room. When you're no longer locked in that room, that same desire is actually a desire to enlighten another person.

[49:41]

So, I think you're right, that you should see two sides. On one side it's some greedy desire for yourself, but the more you begin to see that you can't... what the actual nature of this world is, greed and hate and delusion are useless. You can't actually steal anything or kill anything. Then you can... the same desires you have, which by habit take the form of lust or anger or something, more and more have this other side which you can begin to exist in or work with. Anyway, in this rather practical way we practice Buddhism.

[50:51]

And eventually you can have equanimity in all your situations and in your zazen. Thank you very much.

[51:16]

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