Five Hindrances and Seven Factors of Enlightenment

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BZ-02494
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Class 1

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you
good evening
happy to be here with you can you hear me okay
hum
so for the net for these four sessions
we're going to examine
ah
the five hindrances which are actually seven and i'll explain that and the seven factors of enlightenment
when i
first came here in the early nineteen eighties
searching roshi was
he spoke on these subjects i remember quite clearly you have that he spoke he often spoke on ah this so-called a tear vada or any ana
ah sets a practices
and of course he put it within a mahayana context and i think that's part of what i would like to hold
as the framework for what were examining over this is in his classes you know how does this actually
ah apply to our tarzan practice
and i was thinking you you may have heard this before i was thinking of far he looked for this quotation from suzuki roshi and found it know in a lecture that he gave in september of nineteen sixty seven
ah and he said our way
is any on a stick and my artistic
henny on a practice with mahayana spirit is the soto's and way
reach it formal practice with informal mind
this is our practice
i practice sometimes looks very informal but our mind is not formal
so this is the context in which suzuki roshi framed i don't want to say hinayana which means ah lesser vehicle has opposed to you my yana which means greater vehicle but i would say
this sort of foundational an early buddhist practices
in the context of our my on a zen practice switches which is large and to some extent ah the organization of mind is informal instead of our a ah very clear and well defined so
set of formal practices
and i would also add
at least for for this week and next week when we were talking about the hindrances ah i would say that
for us
the hindrance is not
so much an obstacle as it is gate it's the gate by which we will enter our practice it's what we have to deal with in ourselves the difficulties that we come up
we come up against in ourselves the difficulties that we come up against in our relationships with people and that is precisely
the place that we have to enter and work with
so are i want to start by looking at ah these five the five hindrances everybody has their hand out right ah hentges just to to name them ah

do you have it in front of you the five hindrances our desire sensory desire
ill will which is anger or hatred
sloth and torpor i really i remembered this from sojourns really classes are is a sloth and torpor you know i disliked does like ah
two brothers
i'm a worry and flurry
that was another one that's another way that he framed it's a treasure way you could also call it ah restlessness and remorse
ah and then the last factor here in analyst list i gave you his doubt but it's really skeptical doubt
a doubt itself is not necessarily a bad thing but this kind of corrosive doubt that undermines our the confidence that we might have in ourselves the confidence that we might have an our practice ah that's one of the factors
that's one of the hindrances
so these are the these are the five hindrances which as we as we look as we go further into the factors of enlightenment will see our
our serve
there there the factors of enlightenment are a sort of antidote to these hindrances
the our practices by which we can find ourselves
free from the hindrances
so this is kind of the framework of these these two sets of practices
you'll find them are will go into them individually but you find them ah
in a variety of places in the ah in the early the early teachings of buddha in the pali suitors there they come up these lists come up again and again ah but the context that are
is quite interesting to me ah
this sparked my my thought about this is our that these are
systems that appear in the ah
in the city baton suitor that might the four foundations of mindfulness and they appear in the fourth the ford foundation of mindfulness which is mindfulness of the dharmas and there's a number of others that appear there but these to me are ah
to be particularly alive and interesting and so stand on their own
so that's what we're going to look at in the course of ah these four classes
and ah
i want to encourage you as were as are going to this please interrupt me
ah if you have a question or you have something that you want to hear ah because i'd i'd like this to be a fairly open exchange that's the way ah i like to do classes so ah as you have questions please
feel comfortable and free to ah jesus say
that you have a question or say wait a minute or something like that okay
yeah
you just mentioned
i'm gonna go into that in greater detail
oh well that's sort of go into greater detail to the four foundations of mindfulness are are kind of the basic teaching on mindfulness and i'm gonna have to take a step back to talk about that but ah
the fourth founded this is what all unpacked the fourth foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of the dharmas which which has a variety of meanings but one what is mindfulness of is keeping in mind or remembering we have to talk about what mindfulness is these dharma
systems and
the
hindrances and factors of enlightenment are two of the systems that are mentioned explicitly in that forest foundation and mindfulness sergei
yeah and i'm going to go back to that yeah ah but that's not the entire i mean i i think that there's an open question
ah about what is how does this apply to r zen practice ah and that's the conundrum of what suzuki roshi call this henne artistic practice in my ana
spirit is this is a kind of dynamic an interesting tension

so i want to read you let me give you a context about mindfulness i'm going to give you two contents about line for this one is ah serve the traditional
a more traditional notion of mindfulness as fountain in the policy does ah
so first of all ah
right mindfulness mindfulness is it appears in list after list in ah in the buddhist teachings so in the eightfold path
ah it's the seventh of the for patents ah
and
interestingly enough in the factors of enlightenment it's the first factor of enlightenment so there's a lot of redundancy
so the term mindfulness
it's translated it's the translation that we kind of more commonly are conventionally use for the poly term sa te
or the sanskrit term smitty same same word really
and what it really means ah more literally
ah it means to remember
or to recollect
i like this word i like both those were remember like you know use it's like you've been dismembered and you have to pull your limbs together and put yourself together in the same thing with with recollect we have to collect again what had previously been color
acted
and it gets translated i think it's this is a sort of nineteenth century translation ah as a mindfulness ah
but ah
it really means something like remember ah had sold the for fact the four foundations of mindfulness are mindfulness remembering
the body
which means remembering paying attention putting your attention on your breath putting your attention on sensations that arise within your body and applying yourself to what's happening physically
the second foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of the feelings
and in the
in the buddhist sense ah is a very particular interpretation of feelings which is quite different from our our western notion of feelings which is
kind of more akin to our emotions or how we feel about something right but in the buddhist term ah films a very particular meaning it's basically
when something arises through the senses
ah
the first thing that happens is a feeling and that feeling is ah
it's positive note is pleasurable
it's negative on pleasurable or it's neutral
those are the three dimensions the three first
clear cleanest simplest perceptions of our sensation so in other words there are sensation ah when we think of emotion by the time we get to emotion which is actually the next factor for enlightenment ah we've already created a story
about what is taken in through the senses but had at the at the at the simplest perceptual level
ah there's just
positive negative and neutral that makes sense
i'm so that's a second foundation so it's looking at
these bear perceptions as they arise ah first of all as they rise in our meditation because that's the place where we actually get to where it's quiet enough so that we get to look at what's going on
we get to look at it at a at a really base live
the third foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of ah
our thoughts
so that's looking at
as a perception arises in our body we have a feeling and really really quickly
we start creating a story
about that feeling and that story is based on the
accumulated
our accumulated experience the experiences that we have to have come up in our life ah
you know it's like if i have a sticking pain say in my knee then immediately i think about i might think about okay where's it gonna go with is gonna get worse as is gonna get better is this because i know i fell on a summit step
ah in new york ten years ago you begin to put together all of all of the elements of what of your ah memory
with that sensation so that's kind of
being mindful of your thoughts
and then the fourth foundation which is very interesting to me is ah
what's called
mindfulness of the dharmas

sometimes it's translated as mindfulness of mental objects but i think the dharmas is ah
is it isn't much better isn't much better turn yeah jeremy
well that's it i'm that do just about to go there so ah
dharmas can be
every sensation that you have is the dharma if you look at the the kind of very analytical sort of psychological ah system
that you find in the commentary of early buddhism or every emotion every mental state is classified as a dharma
on and so you have you have several meetings to drug a one is just it's just each
thought that comes up has a characteristic of a dharma ah it's also true that dharma is used as ah a kind of global sense of our the way the world is so dharmas like
everything functions according to dharma dharma is like law the buddha's law you know what it's kind of equivalent to said parallel to like gravity gravity is a dharma you know ah
the way that i think it's that i feel that it's used in the context of the ford foundation of mindfulness is that there are arm
the dharma is also the buddhist teachings
so that's the third meaning of it ah so in the fourth foundation of mindfulness ah you have
it's pointing to
the dharmas as systems so ah those
those systems ah here i'm reading from from kitchener on ah
the first system that he refers to when so my and with means looking first at you look at the five hindrances that's a system of dharmas ah and you also look at the
the five scandals the which we talk about in the heart sutra formed feeling feelings perceptions formations consciousness these are the aggregates that provisionally makeup what we see as ourself
ah we also look at ah the dharmas as the working of the
six senses
so sucks seeing hearing smelling tasting touching and thinking those are those are the six senses and it's the so we're looking at the system of the six senses and also the objects of those senses
which means
you have
in order to
see something you have to have a functional oregon and i
and ah
i'm looking across at that and there's a chair which is the object and those two things come together and they meet in my mind and there and so the function of that organ and the function and the the object itself
go create a perception zip that makes sense yeah

yeah well that's another right all phenomena is that's the second way that i that i framed it but this is this is yet another way and this is also typical home that i'm looking at this is the the particularity of the way it's used
in the fourth foundation of mindfulness
so
that's the that's another system men another system that he uses his are
looks at the seven factors of an oven of enlightenment and so
you can use any of the systems of dharma that we have but what often framed as the poor foundation of mindfulness is is looking
through by means of the systems of of traditional systems that the buddha has taught so what this means to me
and this is all said a preliminary to getting into them what this means to me is ah
there's a misconception i think
in ah
modern day particularly in sort of the
i would say if i have to be blood the pet of selling of mindfulness and on the set a marketplace of consciousness that that we see these days ah
mindfulness is is often construed as bear attention had actually it's not
mindfulness is an active principle
ah it's actively looking at
your body it's actively looking at your feelings it's actively looking at your thoughts and in the fourth foundations actively intervening with these systems to examine ah what you are thinking and what you're feeling
what you're doing
so it's using these are what it says mindfulness of the dharmas or mindfulness of these dormice systems it's taking up
ah these systems and using them as a lens through which one can see one's life
the does that make sense
so it's an active principle it's not a it's not like oh i'm mindful you know i'm just seeing things as they aren't know you're actually have to it's it's an act of interpretation
and as we know from ah
you know our thirty second understanding of nuclear physics ah you know are just the
ah are very vague idea of the heisenberg uncertainty principle that
when we shine a light on something
by shining light on something we actually affected and change it
so when you shine the light of the dharma on your habits your actions your perceptions then you have the tools by which you can actually a factor in a reality yeah
right
that is
korea
right now view
what we're gonna get into that because the attraction the second factor of enlightenment
the second factor of enlightenment is investigating the dharmas right but we'll get to that yeah yeah but is it it's it's not necessarily are because if you are prey to the
you know if you are prey to sloth and torpor for example you can be too lazy to do them so i don't have the energy to do that i don't really want to look at stake too much or if you are if you are if you are subject to worry and flurry then psych
okay i'm looking at but i really you know i don't believe in this this is not really ways it can't be right you know so are the hindrances are
in that sense obstacles to how we understand reality that we wake up right
yeah so if the a third of changes the thing observe how do you receive from users and now
that's a really good question harm i will give you a provisional action answer and i think that that's a really that's like a core question that we let's hold the told that also for for the next few weeks i am not
somebody as if we i had a long discussion with somebody of a few weeks ago about this and
because and i have to i have to look at myself right and my nature is i'm kind of a doubt type not a skeptical dowd type maybe but you know i can't say maybe i am ah i don't
i don't really believe this is really heretical what i'm gonna say i don't really believe that there that you can absolute that there's a way that you can see absolutely things as they are i think that's an idealization and i don't believe it
i think that everything that we see
has some conditionality what we can see is the conditionality
you know we can see are the more we investigate ourselves and the more we practice the more we can see both the useful lenses and also the distorting lens is that we place on our consciousness ah and that helps us to see things clearer but did
it's all i'm seeing things through my consciousness you going to see things through your consciousness and i believe so
but we you know it's like we approach it sort of like ah i think the word is asymptotic we we just come closer and closer we could come closer and closer but never quite meet but maybe you can maybe there is maybe the buddha did
but i think it's a really good question the whole that
one
is what i'm knowingness
isn't that the definition there's different definitions of emptiness and there's also so there's
there's emptiness
kenyatta
and there's also
such this
that's another such niche which is data ah
yes but they're seen from different perspectives
right so you can see you could say emptiness i just came back from upaya zen center where they have their own translation of the heart sutra they never usually word emptiness they use the word boundlessness
you know vastness so emptiness has to my mind ah and uncomfortable
ah avalon of meaning in english because it means like it's void or empty there's nothing there whereas
another way to look at emptiness is really his fullness it's the interpenetration of ah of causes and conditions
which are really know ultimately they are not knowable ultimately they cannot be poor stores or you know into perceivable
aha moment or things yeah
so thank you
i went i was caught by the term bear attention ah and i think that
on my little experience with it is when one is looking one i'm looking
ah well i'm in the midst of the hindrances
coming to a point of bear attention allows me to investigate
what's going on
yeah we're coming to a point i don't know if it's bear attention has come to a point of attention attempt right well yeah know just my experience with it was it was sort of spacious bright crown and then when i wasn't so flurried and worry like it
some yeah i'm not been on adjectives ah affliction is going up yeah yeah ah
and
the deeper we are maybe the clearer our intention is the less it's caught by ideas of me and mine
yeah i'm done my ghost peppers into the
need to look for first time
right
ha that's one of the that certainly is one of the
strong directives of the buddhist teachings is not to look for first causes and even in the context of of karma the buddha said you know if we look at our ancient tangled karma
we recognize that it's ancient tangled karma but to look at to try to identify all the strands and sources of that karma the buddha said leads to ah
leads to
ah
man is in confusion actually ah so
that's not necessarily sometimes that arises something we see the root of of our activity the root of our delusion ah but it's ah it's a different process say than the then certain cycle certain western psychological processes
which is not say there aren't causes is just the question at hand is
given how i'm feeling or how i'm acting at this moment
what do i intend to do with the next moment
how do i intend to move forward ah given where i am doesn't make sense
okay
so this is kind of have a background i want to read you something ah

a couple quotations about are seeing these damas ah
so ah
one author says that ah contemplating these dorm as the fourth foundation of mindfulness ah teaches want to see the world through
buddhist spectacles
and i also think that in the context of her practice
this is something that we do together
so we sit together
when we do walking meditation we walked together
ah we feel each step
in pace with each other
and so there's an aspect of the practice that is also collective or if you will transpersonal
ha
the inmates of this zendo as in the inmates of a prison or each of our activities
each of our perceptions of
our bodies our thoughts
the way we're seeing the world really affects each other
ha
so when someone is feeling grief and they're experiencing grief as a as dharma
to some extent we all feel this
ah when there's joy
when his anger
we all are perceiving that there's anger in the air
and we understand this and if we are practicing were capable of holding this mindfully
so ah
as time goes on and were working through the process of mindfulness we're looking at the five hindrances we're looking at factors of enlightenment and so forth this
is simultaneously providing opportunity for us to transform as so-called individuals but also to affect ah the community to come to fetch the people who are sitting together ah
and that practice then least ideally can sort of ben towards harmonious and awakened relationships
that's the perspective that i have that's that's part of what i see as the as the zen perspective which is
which is somewhat different from the early buddhist perspective where the motivation would be and the activity would be more seen on an individual basis
to make sense
so i just want to say that's kind of the context in which i we hold the site the hindrance
the hindrances are not necessarily my hindrances
they're identified in a way because they are common human experiences ah
and the same thing is true with the factors of enlightenment and with our enlightened activity itself the enlightened actively of one person ah affects the enlightenment of of everyone
so let me stop there before i kind of launch into the factors themselves because or do have any thoughts or questions

yeah gift

yeah
how do we
just how
in what way

literal my body
like
emotions
very basic
right
what it's talking about his
is that first arising sensation before you put a name to it
and that process happens very very quickly
and i think and i i believe this and i i have some experience in but i think you know ah the deeper and clearer your meditation is ah the bureau the quicker one's perception can be
hum
i had a conversation with
the terrified of translator bhikkhu bodhi ha
cause
i've been
i've been unclear about the the third of those sensations the ah so it's positive negative neutral
and i said is it neutral or is it mixed
ah you know can something be once we put a name to it something can be
in our in my mind anyway
both
people and playful pay painful and pleasurable
and
he kind of granted that but he also said i think if you look really really carefully ah you might see that actually it's a it's a kind of flickering or a fluctuating ah activity between painful and
unpaved and and painful and and pleasurable and then there's something that just or or not they don't have an effect to catch to attach them so i think you know i can't
i think this is something to
investigate this is investigating the dharmas to investigate for yourself and if you can perceive it that level ah fine if you can't then the net okay and just look at a level of or of thoughts or look at a level of fear of physical
a a physical perception
ah but hold that as a possibility in your mind that that there's a very basic
physiological perception you know it's like to think of ah
ha
if you hold your hand
over a flame or someone sticks you with needle before you make a story you have a priest you have a reaction right you know before he even know what it is sometimes you're stopped and you just don't know you might not have any idea what it is ah and i think it's talking about things at that
at that level
yeah i remember destruction
june days
on the identification yesterday
she can up there's someone else was saying when anxiety arises a sensation whenever that i can say to myself anxiety is rising
anxiety
i am not
right right
really i mean my understanding is no such an emphasis on thousands and thousands on whether you have that kind of the practice connects to says she said
we do
said he mentioned it
spiritual practice she said
something spiritual path
close
well let me read your
okay so
two or later we'll get to the five hindrances i think ah
let me read you to approaches
so in light of what you were saying this is a traditional so first of all ah
you say again the five hindrances what they are want to go through a nemo go through them individually at some point sooner or later baby in the fifth week ah sensory desire is the first one
and ah
it's the
particular desire to seek happiness through the senses
the second hindrances ill will
and it's ah i think this is in your hand at all kinds of thoughts related to wanting to reject or feelings of hostility resentment hatred and bitterness
the third factor third hindrances sloth and torpor to heaviness of the body in a dullness of the mind which drag one down into
disabling inertia and depression
the for the fourth is worry and flurry
or restlessness and remorse at its it's two factors that point to the inability to calm the mind
and then
doubt
which is the lack of trust or lack of conviction and it's looking at the kind of not the philosophical kind of doubt a creative gonna doubt but skeptical or corrosive doubt
ah that undermines ah our ability to function or ability think
so then
the paragraph had found it very interesting so the five hindrances identified as mental factors that hinder or progress in meditation and in our daily lives in the taro vada tradition these factors are identified specifically as obstacles to the john
our stages of concentration through which ah in caravan system one one progress is towards enlightenment and they are there are stages of meditation practice
and we don't pay much we don't pay attention to stages of practice is not that that they may not exist but we're not looking them as has distinct
expressions of our of our zen practice so i like this within the may my honor tradition the five entrants hindrances are identified as obstacles to show mata ha or tranquility
meditation show my tar you could say is tranquility there's also an element of concentration in it samadhi
but i really like here's to go back to suzuki roshi
he says are and this is our
in the champions and mind beginner dinners mind ah on readiness and mindfulness
and he says the important thing in our understanding is to have a smooth freethinking way of observation
we have to think into observe things without stagnation which means to be fresh every minute ah to be able to ever afresh and free perception of what's going on in our minds we have to sink into observe things without
stagnation we should accept things as they are without difficulty our mind should be soft and open enough to understand things as they are when are thinking is soft and i would say ah maybe not soft but flexible
when our mind is really fluid and flexible it is called imperturbable thinking
this kind of thinking is always stable so this kind of thinking if you like his ah
thinking in the manner of being
a stock of bamboo
very strong
very upright
when the wind blows it bends this way comes back to center pence's way comes back the center ah at bamboo is a really interesting model because you know when you peel away layer by layer for the bamboo
he kicked to the center and there's nothing there
it's empty
and yet it's so strong and flexible so this is this is this kind of fluidity inflexibility that's imperturbable ah our minds should be soft and open to understand things as they are when are thinking is soft it's called imperturbable thinking this kind of thinking is always stay
able it is called mindfulness
so this is his definition of mindfulness and i think it's it's very much in line with what with this notion of ah
mindfulness is the absence of these hindrances which means our it allows of our our ability to ah to be at ease or tranquil and flexible to every
condition that comes our way that make sense
so ah now to get to what to what judy was saying ha
i came across something i think this is also your hand up by gil fronds deal
who's of upasana teacher but feel is also a dharma heir of certain roshi he's got recognition is a teacher in both lineages but he's mostly teaching for paulson down the peninsula he's a really really really good teacher
can really good person ah
so he says gill says you must be very patient with the hindrances and not dismissive of them
you don't indulge them
you become interested in them and study them in other words you don't indulge him by believing that you know like on really that my ill-will is the truth or my desire is the truth and so on and so forth but you don't push them away either
you investigate them
ah
and he uses this
formula which has the acronym rain
ah are is in in relation to the to the to the hindrances recognize them
a is except that they're there
i is investigate them sort of be curious what what did they feel like how to be manifest in your body in your mind
and then the end is what judy was saying is not investigation
none i didn't write down identification thank you ah the investigation the hindrances are passing process that comes and goes they are not who i am
that seems like the most important
yeah but
right so what

right so i think this is one of them
this is one of the interesting things about what we're looking at here ah
i remember when i was at ah
i was at tassajara in nineteen eighty eight and gill was the
go as she saw
and he had already he had been very well trained in the caravan tradition he'd been a terabyte a bunk in thailand ah and then he was the she saw in the zen tradition and i remember i don't remember the content of his lectures but i river his lectures being
having a kind of clarity and detail that i was
i just hadn't really encountered much in our tradition is like he could he could break down the experiences of zazen
into ah these elements ah that were they were fresh to me at the time
have i think that we have this we're constantly working with this if you ah
and for me this is this is an open question you know to what extent do we apply
ah
the
analytic capacity of our minds
to our meditational experience
we're not we're often i don't feel like we're encouraged
ah so much to do that
and yet the the underpinning of our practice is we need constantly to be looking at and engaging with our lives so you know i'm not saying and this this is one of the conundrums of of
of what will be doing over the next few weeks is i'm not saying you should take these up as discrete practices and do them in zaza
it's more that i'm saying this is a traditional buddhist framework one that suzuki roshi understood one that i know sojourn understands and it's kind of like sits in in the background or sits a little under the radar of
what we do and how we live ah so that our gives a kind of focus
ah
without without having a gaining idea gives a kind of focus to r zazen
and it gives us a way to work with our lives particularly
whether we're doing that and this is this is you know let me read something else saw this is from our
a new punakha tara who was one of the foremost dot
terra vata
monks and translators and commentators ah so
it's a really nice passage ah he says one who earnestly aspires to the unshakable deliverance of the mind and other words to awakening
should select a drink a definite working ground
have a direct and practical import
so what i'd say the working ground in a way is like that's a vow
you should select a vow for oneself that's how i'm working that's what i'm working with to go forward and he says of a practical import it it's widest sense on which the entire in which the structure of one's entire life
should be based
so it's not just what you do what he's talking about here is just not as looking at ah the hindrances investing in the hindrances and ah and turning them as a meditation practice but actually has an existential practice
hum
let me let me read it in a real war holding fast to that working ground you could say holding fast to your vow
never losing sight of it for long even this alone will be a considerable and encouraging process in the control and development of our mind because in that way the directive and purposive energies of mind will be strengthened considerably
ah one who has chosen the conquest of the five hindrances for working ground should examine which of the five our strongest at one's personal situation
then one should current carefully observe how and and what which occasions they usually appear one should also no further the positive forces forces within one's own mind by which each of these images can best be countered and finally conquered and one should also examine one's life
for the opportunity to develop these qualities ah
so
so that's a life work not necessarily not not specifically the activity of zaza
yeah this is and the activia zod the purpose of zazen of course we always say the purpose of zazen is to to zaza
ah which is well and good but the purpose of zen practice is to be yourself in the most in the deepest and largest way and one of my teachers soda or said the purpose of zen is to help people
is to help send could be exists is this is our vow or buddha or bodhisattva vow beans are numberless i vow to awaken with them are i vow to save them that is you know the prime directive
so what i like about neon japonicus ah
message ah is that
we find this working ground and we find this vow then it gives us direction ah he's not here is not talking specifically he talks elsewhere about our actual meditative practice but here is talking about her whole life
and i find that really encouraging and movie
the does that get your question jerry
something about the expression of are all i
my carry weight
to steady herself

rather than now
the
this notion reinventing oneself and be cautioned me to be careful with that because
himself cancer
rather than allowing
like to even here
conscious effort
somehow
it bridges to this in the stands are
the study in many ways study this then when i'm just sitting are then
whatever is coming out
it's happening feels like my experience is these these things are happening in recognizing acceptance investigation
identification enzymes that but i'm not really aware if i was aware of it is i well yes so it's not that they're not happen it's just the themselves i say that's true so in zazen we learn
and
a certain skill of non identification
but we don't live in zazen
and in other places
dogan teachings like the buddha's teachings the very finally to somebody asked him a question and he gives them an answer and that answer is the answer of that moment to that person ah so in can call on
ah which that's a quotation from
he's talking within and from
the context of zazen
in bordeaux sought to show she show ball
he's coming from another angle so in the bodhisattvas for embracing
dharmas are actions their his message is what what does a body bodhisattva for do you know ah
you know body soft fur doesn't this is not giving instruction the bodhisattva thinks not thinking
the instruction he's giving bodhisattva practices generosity
kind speech beneficial action and identity action of cooperation so in another context he's talking about the teaching and so in that in that context the in generosity says we give self to self and others to others
that's that is an active principle
although it it involves a certain it it may also involve a complete receptivity that's maybe maybe what gives one to one or oneself to oneself and others to others is just being able i mean
if i accept you completely
for all that you are all that you say it all but you do then in a sense that's allowing you to be you
but also if i see if if i see that you may need some correction received that i may need some correction you may find a skillful way to do that and that's also part of that it's not it's not just receptivity and in his framing of zazen he
talking about this receptivity and that gets the i completely out of the way
so the hindrances and nine identification is seeing that i am more than
what boils down to this particular hindrance ah and yet
i have some work to do
i don't like this i don't like that you know i'm attracted to this and lazy you know i'm anxious of you know i don't you know i don't believe anything i think all these all these cities like this is work that i have to do
you know and are not necessarily it's not necessarily about
allowing the ten thousand things to come forth and enlightened me but it doesn't exclude that either this is a conundrum of the scepticism this is part of what i'm i'm asking here
yeah chris
so my notion about this nod identification
paris
none identification so that's a process of change
where
words it's not where we are but woman ago it was what what we were so for example of anxiety
you're having time
so i was invited by press his method of rain you see that and receiving observation of there are no longer
and no longer without anxiety so the person who were to that's not a we are now the physical knowledge you might be analogy to this process my be c flashes it is who we were
what was the word questions by far for you so i thought i was i thought you said flatulence and i couldn't believe it or use that is what you said right like clutches and then it isn't we were happy that it out it's not who we are but it's important that have sense for some time
you know it does and when other people are out see things i mean it does make of it
in italy's well you know what they say that right
absa films
okay i'm not gonna say it some of you know what i'm going to say
he who dealt it smelt it he who smelt it dealt it
a know but it's precisely what i was saying earlier on
that
the application of practice the application and will the application of the factors of enlightenment to the hindrances is the shining of the light of awareness in practice on
on those obstacles and the shining of that light is transformative
ah in that light
as soon as you turn your mind to if you've you know it's not going to work from flatulence actually there you may have to take an antacid but
but for your ill will or any of these hindrances as you put your awareness on it as you practice with it which means which means this this is where mindfulness is an active principle as you turn your mine
and in your attention to that and you this is where we use the factors of enlightenment ah then one is naturally ah this identifying with it and as you put that attention on it ah
you change
you have the possibility of changing that hindered right this you senior as you see it but even as you look at it you it's it's changing and may not go away because it's some of these things are very very deep so deeply seated
ah so it may not go away but that is the way that's our method that's the method of of of buddhist practice has actually to shine the light of mindfulness on the are
the difficult places of our life difficult that's right
that's right and you know like one of my teachers
i said ah you know i really only want to work with people
who have a regular zaza and practice
because i you know because i know
that if they have irregular zazen practice
they are working with themselves
it's not that's the only way to work with oneself but i but he had confidence that if they are doing that over over a period of time
you cannot sit here
face the wall
without in one way or another really encountering yourself
and that's we trust in that process that's certainly the process of zazen as has conveyed by
suzuki roshi and dogan and and zojirushi yeah
i was just thinking about
instructions
just before
and thinking about that
question as have a little bit different

hey
methodology and it makes sense and it also
at least
when we now there's still and i like i get this right
i think that that's
you know there's different is there there are
categories of codes
that are getting at
different places different aspects of the self
and some of them you know it feels to me like like that one is ah
very strong medicine
and so it's you know it's a practice that ah is about a kind of
it's a very radical this identification that is perhaps an antidote to a very strong identification
each of these coins and each of the buddhist teachings is about unlocking aspects of the self and they are particular tools or keys that that go into those areas so ah
you i'd say
when you're cold just let the cold kill you when you're hot to slip the he'd kill you
ah those are those are radical teachings that are designed to push you beyond your usual preferences and discriminations
ah
but it's not to me it's not saying
that on there there's a distinction in this is this is one of the things that we see a neon upon a good talks about it and it it's framed differently in ah
perhaps in mahayana there's ah
you can there's the two truths there's the relative in the absolute awe in terrified is also framed as mundane and a super monday
you know so
in the mundane world we have a thermostat on that wall
and if it's too hot we opened the windows
if it's too cold because the windows
because we're actually operating in that in that reality
ah in other places
you know where brickley you know i've been in places where in a zen practice is really intense you know it's like
all the doors are flung open all the windows are wide open you know and you either broil or freeze and that's what you sit with that's another that's another dimension a practice quite legitimate ah
and
you know where
with you read but if you read actually you duggan's for kansas zheng jie and and all of the
the earlier zombies you know the all the earlier zazen instructions they can we say you know a place it's not too warm not too cold you know they're trying you know because in that sense ah
we carry are suffering i carry my suffering with me into this room
and
so it it's not i don't need it to be warm or cold because i've had enough shit within me to work on
but if you give me if you open the windows and it's freezing ah
maybe i have another angle to work at my suffering if that makes sense so these are just different approaches ah and the odds are appropriate to
different aspects in different dimensions of our of our practice they are not the truth that's really important they are not you know they're not the truth they are
effective that is pointedly coming from a direction so that you have something to work with and that working with that may help you
this identify with the bag of shit that you carry within you that you carry with you into the zendo and sit down in your lap with
that make sense
so you know a really good teacher sometimes they'll be very kind
and generous and granting and sometimes they'll be tough and mean you know and it
it may be instinctual on their part but it's it's it's a mark of what the teacher thinks hopefully hopefully to teach thinks will be helpful to you you know on the just dollars and the shadow side it you know it can
can be
a reflection of what the teacher needs for him or herself but that's another problem that's not what i'm talking about

we have a couple of minutes left
so i think what's gonna happen is that next week i'm going to go through the hindrances one by one that sort of structurally
makes sense to me
ah but let me see if there's something else i want to import oh i wanted to say something about too short
you have that chart
okay
i found this in sri lanka ah in a buddhist bookstore about fifteen years ago and brought it back and
trying to forget it it is a but it is it's a you see on the left says my medication short mindfulness of breathing
but it has all of these different all of these systems of dharmas so
towards the top
ah you have that straight line across
which says it says initial and sustained application bliss and one point in this you see that so those i don't i dare miss numbered but those are the seven factors of enlightenment
for some reason they are to number four's i have no idea why he gets an error ah you see that
so those are you know awareness investigation effort rapture
com
joy we'll we'll we'll talk about that in detail ah that's one of the factors of enlightenment ah a kind of lightness and happiness
ah and then
on the the lower arc
the second ring
it says central craving ill will slot torpor see that so those are the hindrances
ah
and
you can now spend the next week trying to figure out
his fault works together
but
in someone's mind it does but it's this is this is one of the things i want said that that the
the contrast between our zen practice and ah via and tear votre practice so book i've been working with a lot which is a fantastic book it's got such a patina the direct path to realization by and lyle
a n a l a y o
and when you read this and will you read sort of the the traditional tarot vata
the suitors and the commentary it's so complicated you know it's like there's this which leads to this which leads to this weekend it's affected by this and that's what talking with this chart is right you know our and it's like this is not
this is not our practice
and yet
it's good to understand aspects of the way that this is analyzed and know the buddha didn't necessarily analyze and put as you know
i a reduced some of the buddhist commentary on the
ah send the buddhist commentaries on the hindrances are quite beautiful and clear and then the later commentators very complex looking at you know they have a very and an idea of the mechanism of how this works and to me the mechanism of how it works
is a profoundly their version of the mechanism as of works is a profoundly indian way of thinking it's an indian philosophical way of thinking which is quite different from the chinese and japanese which is different again from how we think about it and yet i enjoy
i enjoy for myself that sort of the intellectual challenge of looking at the variety of human mind and human expression and how they think of or what is at a base
the same goal the same understanding that the desire to ah the understand about suffering in the end of suffering
which is which is what we're doing what we're trying to do
so before i close and he any last thoughts or questions yet him a freak out
where are you here
yeah okay so the six realms are that's a cut that's
the cause that's a com cosmology so these are these are six types of beings ah this is six realms are so that you have the human realm the heavenly realm which is of god realm which is like you know sitting around under a tree on a
warm day drinking wine and eating you know in eating cake and fruit and you know doing that for a couple of thousand calpers ah the assurers are fighting demons
so if you're yeah we all know people who are us you know who are just pissed off all the time and ready to start a fight at any minute
ah the at animal realm the in which is to me this is a big mistake but the animal realm is ah described as animals are described is stupid
you know kind of just pushed the roof-ground by their their instincts and and dump which is i don't think get out can leave us actually encounter at animals ah the hell realm is just you know the realm where you're suffering every minute
you know where you're like burning in hell and you know it's not so different from a from dante's vision of hell and the protests are on
hungry ghosts
so they are
beings who are eternally hungry and they're depicted as having huge swollen bellies like malnourished ah beings and very long almost pencil thin throats
and gaping mouths but their their necks and throats are so thin that they can't possibly satisfy their hunger so you know that's like i think
in modern days a addiction would be would be the hungry ghost is the an addict is a hungry ghost you will
right but what we're really doing you know so
in one version this cosmology life after life were born in these in in v said perhaps more realms in the buddhist in his in
perspective we are born in these realms potentially born in these realms moment by moment
something happens you know a few
insult me you know i
may respond as a fighting demon
you know if i'm ah sitting here i could be sitting here and craving you know a big glass of scotch you know you could i could be for one can be born in one of these realms moment by moment and were consistently trans migrating through the
so we're born moment by moment that's not to negate that we may that there may be lives or reverse in which we exist in one of the one or these planes for for a long period of time but i'm more interested in where were born moment by moment yesterday
we gotta end

well now i was more like
yes what i would say is
what i would say is for home is look at the five hindrances
and try to identify which are the most relevant for you which one is the most relevant which one or two is most relevant and i think when we come in if we could if you'd be willing to share that that would be great and then once you've identified with it
really look at how that works in your life over over the next week okay are you give on right then