I'm very happy that you've all studied the text. I'm just going to go over a little bit to remind us of certain things. You know, Abbot Oborah, in his commentary, talks a lot about the five skandhas. Besides Ron and the Shuso, who can tell me what defines Khanda's art? Warmth? Healing? Perception? Mental formation? I have a question. Already. What's a Khanda advocate? He talks about skanda aggregates.

[01:03]

Yeah, those are the aggregates. In other words, aggregates are the elements that you put together to make concrete. It's called aggregates. Aggregate. Little word puzzles. So, aggregates are the elements That's what they are. They aggregate collectively and form a solid thing called concrete, which we say, I am a person that's a concrete that the aggregates make. And we think it's Don't let them solidify into a solid thing.

[02:09]

So, the five skandhas are like categories. And within those categories are elements called the dharmas. So the dharma has two meanings. It has more than two meanings. Dharma gates, that's the teaching as Buddhist truth, wisdom. That's the Dharma, with a capital D. The Dharmas with a small d are all the elements that, psychophysical elements, that make up this consciousness. So, here's an example of Dharmas. Little boys are made of snails and a puppy dog tail.

[03:20]

Those are the dharmas. You don't have to know anything more. Except that, when you go to see your therapist and you start talking about your feelings and your traumas and your expectations, the psychophysical darkness, which make you up, which is what you are. And then you realize that you've been in love with somebody and they rejected you and you feel terrible and you realize it was all fantasy. separate existence. They're just predicated on various causes and conditions, but they have no basis in fundamental reality.

[04:26]

There is a kind of reality of the dharmas. The dharmas exist due to various causes and conditions, but when the causes and conditions are no longer present, then they disappear. So dharmas appear and disappear. Dharmas always appear and disappear. And we have to take them seriously at the time, but this is why, you know, these dharmas and skandhas which cause us a lot of suffering because we take them too seriously. Now I know we don't have to.

[05:29]

So we're stuck in samsara. But when we practice, we learn to accept them but not hang on to them. which is hard because once we accept our feelings and we get attached to things in the world, which is flowing, and then whatever we are attached to flows on, we're still attached to it and it'll never come back. we've been attracted to, and it's changing and moving on. And then we don't have it anymore.

[06:32]

So we're transforming all the time, and all the dharmas around us are transforming all the time. So how to negotiate in a world that's constantly transforming, and where nothing is really inherently substantial, There is substantiality to a certain degree, but it's uncertain. So, skanda actually has a meaning of covering. The skanda is form, which is the body, feelings, perceptions, elements which create an appearance, and all of these elements we call �myself.'

[07:44]

So in Buddhism it says, �There is no self.' It doesn't mean that there is no self. Somebody once said, the reason Buddha emphasized no-self is because in his day people were so egotistical and he had to show them the other side. Of course the same is today. So if you say, we say all dharmas are empty, all dharmas are empty of inherent existence, But without emptiness, we can't live. So we should be happy that things change. The problem is that we get caught by appearances and it's very difficult to change.

[08:45]

But we have to do that. You meet somebody and you fall in love. When you say form is the body, is that because this is perception? I mean, so this isn't form? This is a form. I know, but what about this? That's a form, too. That's a bronze form. This is a flesh form. Some forms. You know, everything is a dharma. You can say that all created things are dharmas. specifically the Buddhist teachings. the perceptions and dharmas of this body, psychophysical elements, that's what we're basically... otherwise you go out into science and so forth and you lose your place.

[10:21]

So we stay within the narrow confines of what we're interested in is the reality of this body-mind complex. And he's talking about practice, what the Heart Sutra teaches us about practice. And this is on page 30 of my book. I don't know about the paperback. So he says, the Heart Sutra teaches us the method of training by which we can see emptiness in each of the steps which, whatever our attitude to life, we are being forced to make.

[12:04]

So we think that we have free will. driven by our karma. And even if you want to do something else, it's really hard, because it's hard to step out of the rhythm of your life, which is being driven by karma. This is why it's very hard to change society, American society, because so many of us in our society have mortgages, children, families, jobs, And if you were to revolt, you would lose all that. That's what keeps everybody in place, and our television sets. That's basically what keeps our society in place. And so it's really hard, even though people may want to change things, it's very hard to change things.

[13:08]

It's very slow. And even when you do, I remember at the end of World War II, we thought, now the world is free again, but it just turned under again, and everything got turned around again. You know, revolution means when you start here and you make a circle and come back to the beginning. We call revolt revolution. what happens in the world are revolts, not revolutions, because it would come back to it. But actually it is a kind of revolution because when we have a revolt, those who revolt against the elderly come back to the beginning and become the aggressors over and over again. It's king of the mountain. Anyway, at present we keep doing the same things over and over again.

[14:16]

in the endless round of mundane good and bad, built up on the ego illusion, we may happen to do good, we may happen to do evil. How could such a great person do something so strange? How could such a man do something so wrong? This is all part of the round. Even though we try to be as good as we can, something happens, we make a mistake, we put our foot in it, and bingo, we fall. saw step by step retreading the same paths, impelled by the deep-rooted karma, such is our life. The spirit of Mahayana Buddhism is to discover life's real meaning. Against our will, anger arises. To discover in the very midst of it the world of life, Mahayana Buddhism, which is not a particular school, but an attitude, is to get rid of the passions so that purity comes forth.

[15:35]

That's the usual way of thinking. But in Mahayana Buddhism, the passions are the bodhi. Without getting rid of the passions, Profundity means technically to penetrate to the real form under the illusion, the truth in all the lies. And when the true character of the self is realized in the religious sense, that is the knowledge of ultimate emptiness, a fire to negate everything. The profound Prajnaparamita negates self. all away. By this power of renouncing, the power of the knowledge of ultimate emptiness, we complete a training which carries us across to nirvana. Master Dogen says, just discard or forget body and mind and throw them into the abode of the Buddha.

[16:37]

Then following the movement of the grace of the Buddha, without use of force or fatiguing the mind, we must find the meaning of life within birth and death. This is why we always talk about no gaining mind. Gaining mind just simply People sometimes say, I've said Zazen for 10 years and I didn't get anything out of it. Well yes, because if you really said Zazen, you'd be bragging about not getting anything out of it.

[17:40]

Zazen is renunciation. Zazen is dropping body and mind, letting go of everything, dropping the self. That's what Zazen is. Maybe meditation makes you happy and calm and all these things, nice things. Those are secondary benefits, but it's not the primary thing. The primary thing is to let go, is to drop everything. Just drop it and see what's there. Drop everything and see what is there. How can you know what the fundamental thing is if you don't drop everything? Because everything is covering the fundamental thing. The skandhas are called covering. They're covering the fundamental thing, even though the fundamental thing is always there, like the sun.

[18:42]

The skandhas' attachment to the skandhas is like clouds. So when we let go of the self, the true self appears. It's not that when you let go of the self, there's nothing there. That's one kind of Buddhism. When you let go of the self, nothing's there. Emptiness doesn't mean nothing. Emptiness means true self, true personality. through self-protection, basically, and to allow the true personality to arise, a true self to arise. We have to let go of the coverings.

[19:47]

So that's what Zazen is. Sometimes people say, well, I like Zazen. I don't like Zazen. I feel good in Zazen. I don't But letting go doesn't mean to collapse into a puddle. Letting go, to me, it means letting go of our conditioned responses, letting go of our conditioning so that your true posture will rise up because you don't have anything holding you down. We have a big load, a carry load. We carry a load around with us, which doesn't allow our true posture to rise. When we let go of the load, this is Buddhism. Shakyamuni said, lay down the burden.

[20:49]

That's what practice is. Lay down the burden. So we're carrying a burden around with us. And when we can let go of the burden, we can sit up straight without it, because that's up straight like a child. So, he says, the Zen way of meditation is renouncing. Renouncing itself has to be renounced. And so it is no renouncing. Religion is not something imposed. The effort to throw off It is no renouncing. No renouncing, and yet, not without renouncing. That is the real renouncing. It is not something done at the instance of another. So this is a tricky language, right? Renouncing is not renouncing, not renouncing, [...] ren

[22:04]

It's just that when you shake the tree, what doesn't fall off is you. To look through to the real form is to penetrate to one's reality free from self-perception. This is the true renunciation. Not trying to throw away, and yet throwing away all the same. When we can gaze steadily at our ignoble self, and understand this, this is itself the principle of renunciation. In other words, you see who you really are. When you really come to a deadlock, it is renunciation. To change our condition from this to that is not renunciation. And that is the principle of renunciation.

[23:22]

When we have penetrated to the bottom of this illusory self, not without negating, and yet not negating, there is the power of the knowledge of ultimate emptiness, and the self is let go of. Through the power of ultimate emptiness of renunciation, there can be a change to a state which leads So, when we go back to the beginning, it says when Avalokiteshvara, who is Kanan, of course. Kanan's Kuan Yin is Avalokiteshvara in Chinese. Kanan is Avalokiteshvara in Japan, Japanese.

[24:26]

but kanjizai means the one who hears the cries of the world while coursing in prājñāpāramitā and brings forth compassion. Suzuki Roshi always emphasized that your problem is your practice. Well, when we get into a tough spot, we change our equipment. So, we're always changing our equipment, trying to get comfortable, you know, when there's really no way to get comfortable except momentarily. We sit down on the couch, and it's nice, and then pretty soon, you know, you feel a little uncomfortable, you cross your leg, and then that feels pretty good, and then that starts feeling uncomfortable, and then you uncross it, cross the other leg, and then you get another couple of pillows.

[25:50]

So we're always trying to get comfortable, but it's a losing preposition, because everything's changing. Yes? Two things you've said over the years to me, One is, it doesn't matter so much what happens to you, it's how you deal with it. And the other is the story of when you and your legs were in great pain, and Suzuki Roshi said, don't move. And you realized that that was about it, and you went to bow down. So it seems like we always have some problem, and it's how we deal with it. that is the indicator of our practice. So my question is, can you speak a little about what is not moving, but not in the literal sense of not moving, but how the moving of getting comfortable on a couch is an expression of loose understanding versus just

[27:06]

just trying to be comfortable. Well, if you can get comfortable on the couch and stay there, great. No problem. The problem is that in a world where everything is moving, nothing is not moving, mountains move, waters move, the sky moves, everything is moving, how do you get comfortable? How do you sit still? without being pushed around by that movement. So, the comfort has to come from inside, rather than changing positions. The comfort has to come from inside, and the way the comfort comes from inside is letting go. So, when my teacher said, don't move, You know, we're sitting in Zazen for 40 minutes, and he said, well, let's sit 10 minutes more, or let's sit for another hour or something.

[28:14]

And then you can't move, and you want to move. And so, wanting to move, but not being able to move, you can't stay, and you can't leave. And what do you do? You have to let go. It's the only way. No, you have to go through the wall. You can't climb over it. When we get to a wall, we usually go down this way, or we go that way. But here, you have to go through the wall. So, as I said, it's a koan. You don't have to say move. It's not literally not moving. It's literally not moving, yeah. It is literally not moving. It's literally not moving. But you find the place that can't be moved. No matter what. And that may look like moving. No. Why does it look like moving? Because we're not on the cushion all the time.

[29:15]

We're not on the, you know... No, we're not on the cushion. The bell rings and then we're so-called moving, so... Please. I got you. That's right. When you are on the cushion, this is great dynamic activity within stillness. And when you move off the cushion, this is great stillness within activity. So, stillness is always there. At the essence, the center is always present So whether you're moving or still, it's the same. Wherever you go, the zendo's there.

[30:41]

Because you're always in practice mode, but it doesn't always feel like it. You know, the zendo, it's the cushions and the nice floor, and we sit there with our legs crossed. But when you get up and move around, You're always centered, no matter what your activity is. You're always centered in the same way as when you're sitting. That's how you have your composure. That's the way you keep your composure. We don't always keep our composure. We get lost and we get pushed off, but because we have a practice, we get back on. It's not like you just run around wondering what to do. You say, oh yeah, composure, get back. get back to your hara, get back to your breath, get back to your center. So you lose your composure, but you always come back to your composure, because you are always in a practice mode.

[31:52]

That's what we call practice. It's not like you walk out the door, you know, and everything changes. I mean, it does change, but even though it's all changing, you are centered. Yeah, when you say letting go, do you mean returning to your breath? Well, it means there's no past or future. There's no past or future? Yes. No past or future. do to let go with your body? Well, you just don't pick anything up. I'm sorry? Just don't pick anything up. You don't pick up anything.

[32:55]

So you don't even pick up your breath? The breath is always there, it's not yours. You're being breathed, so just let yourself be breathed. Let yourself be lived. A long breath or a short breath doesn't matter. So yes, always be centered. So what you do in Zazen is just continually stay with your center and let your posture expand. Let your whole body, mind expand into the universe. So there's no restriction. Zazen is the most restricted form in order to experience unrestricted, the greatest unrestrictedness. You don't desire anything, you don't want anything, there's nothing to want, there's nothing to get, there's no future, past,

[34:10]

And there's no future. There's just one breath at a time. This breath, inhaling, we come to life. Exhaling, we die. That exhaling is important, because that's when everything goes, whoosh, with the breath. And then a fresh breath is inspiration. And then, whoosh, goodbye. Hello? Goodbye? So it's just pure existence. Pure existence. The reason it's pure is because it's not dual. That's purity. It's not good or bad or right or wrong. That's why it's pure. That's impurity.

[35:24]

Nancy? Could it be pure dislike? What? Could it be pure? It can't be pure liking or pure disliking. Pure like and pure dislike? Yeah. Well, that's a good question. Yeah. When it's just like. That's pure. And when thought just dislikes and there's no opposite, that's pure. As soon as the opposite comes, that's a purity. So, the same with the sensation in your leg when you're sitting Zazen and you say, you can say this is pain if you want to, You say, I don't like it. It's okay, you don't like it, but that's the purity. In order to actually sustain yourself, you have to be able to be one with whatever it is.

[36:38]

Whatever is there, to just be one without creating an opposite. As soon as you create an opposite, you create suffering, you create problems. So, when you think about sensation, it may be what we usually call pain, but basically it's a sensation. And when you say, I would rather have something else, then it becomes suffering. As long as you don't like it, it's suffering. Since you don't like it, it's suffering, because you're creating a schism. We live in the world of schism, the dualistic world. So how do we negotiate the dualistic world? Because this is what he's talking about.

[37:42]

He's saying, in the dualistic world where we live, anger comes up, un-cultor. We didn't say, I want to get angry. Somebody insulted you, and you got angry. So what do you do with the anger when it arises? What do you do with the pain in your leg when it arises? That's the practice. What do you do with these things when they arise? How do you stay in nirvana? My old teacher always used to say, don't get caught. But we get caught. We get hooked. We get hooked by our feelings and our emotions and our mental activity.

[38:45]

Like fish, we take the bait, and then we get caught. And then we just get hooked around. I use this example often. When you shake the stick as a dog, and you say, hey doggie, and then you move the stick, and the doggy gets, what's that, what's that? And then the doggy moves with it, and he wants to bite it. So you can control the dog just by moving the stick. You can do whatever you want. You can go over here, you can go over there. So that's getting hooked, right? And we do it all the time. But when you shake the stick at the lion, the lion goes for the person. Do you really want to stand up, or are you OK? I think people want to stand up. OK. For two minutes.

[39:56]

So he talks about self-delusion. And it's easy to fall into self-delusion thinking that we are right when we are wrong, and that what we think is correct. We don't realize, so many people, that they're not exactly mad, but self-delusion You know that one? When you see how people vote, you think, how could that happen? That they elected this person, right? Because people do have one issue, or something, and they're easily deluded, easily led. But we don't know that that's happening.

[40:58]

It's important to admit, I'm a little So he says, consider, for example, a mad man. He does not know he is mad. When he realizes it is madness, soon he recovers. These days, there is an increase of the madness, which affirms its own sanity. To be saying what is saying is already madness. He who says, I am mad, is indeed a real person. So I knew an abbot. from his karma went out of his mind. He was so honest. It seemed that his very honesty drove him out of his mind.

[42:03]

He was in a country temple in Mino and the monks were anxious about him and came with him to Tokyo. I was at that time in charge of a school and they came to ask my help. I put him up in a little room in a small temple and then took him to the hospital. We all went together. But when we came to the hospital, he would not hear of going in. I've come to Tokyo to see the city, he said. As these monks here can tell you, I have never even had a cold in my life. It's nonsense for you to talk about my going into hospital. Ridiculous. I'm perfectly well. It was very awkward. But in such cases, a lie is permissible. Of course you are. Very strong. Nothing wrong with you at all. any illness that they want to examine. They want to have a demonstration of perfect healthiness. Luckily, you have come to Tokyo for sightseeing, so you won't mind just being examined in the hospital.

[43:11]

Oh, it's just an examination. Okay. And he went in. The head of the hospital made his various tests, and while he was running through them, the adult was saying, Doctor, I am not ill. And I've never even had a cold my whole life. The doctor was saying with a faint smile, no indeed. The patient was mentally sick. But when he asserted he had no illness, the answer could only be, no indeed. Tell the madman he is mad and he does not understand. If he could understand, he would be well again. Are not the people today all raving and yet bragging of their sanity? Yes. The five skandhas have no fixed real nature. And in relation to our body and mind, we are as if dreaming or raving when we take them as somehow an actual self. Then what is this I? This I is a madman. It is clinging to empty delusions in a dream, when by good fortune, through the holy teaching, we realize, little by little, that the dream is a dream that is joy.

[44:20]

still seeing the dream, still raving, yet more and more realizing the character of life, that it was a dream, such as real happiness. In each one of his works, Master Dogen says, those who have practiced Buddhism must deeply feel the passing nature of things and have faith in karma. In the opening passages of his book on spiritual First the round of impermanence, and then the principle of karma. The round of impermanence is seen by reviewing our past. Looking back over tens and tens of years, the principle of karma has referenced to our actual present experience. In other words, when we look back we see how all the volitional actions we have taken up,

[45:28]

form a pattern have led us to the present day, person, place, where we are. It's all easy to map out. Just look back over it and you can see how it all happened. But you can change. It's possible to change your karma. You can't change the karma, but you can change the pattern of the continuing karma. The past cannot be changed. But the present can be changed because we can establish a new pattern for our lives. Suzuki Roshi said the only thing that's different in Buddhism than any other religion is that we can change our karma. Well, the six magic powers of the Arhats, you know, like to fly through the air, to see through walls, you know, like these imaginative powers, which Siddhartha Giriraj of course says we're just somebody's imagination to impress people.

[47:12]

He said the real magic power that we have is the power to change our karma. that we don't have to continue as if it were fate, as if we were bound by fate. It's possible to start over again. There was a Zen abbot who said, I count my birthday from the day I was effect of the karma is still there, but my acts are not based on that karma. They are based on when I was reborn, at that moment, when I was redeemed.

[48:16]

Excuse me. If you change your karma, do you do that as an act of will? Yes. Yeah, as an act of will. So in the context of Zen, each person has a will. Let me talk about will. There's will, there's willfulness, and there's willingness. So, will is your intention to do something. You will yourself all the time to do something. Willfulness is kind of egotistical will. Willingness is the ability to go along with something. You're turning yourself over, you're turning your will over to a pattern, or you're turning your will over to go along with something.

[49:45]

That's called willingness. So if you operate with willingness, then you continue on with your current... No. Willingness to take a new route. In other words, instead of... you check yourself. Anger comes up, and instead of being driven by the anger, You are in control. You take control of the anger rather than being controlled by the anger. And that's an act of will? Willingness. That's an act of willingness to let go. I'm willing to let go of that and take the consequences. I'm willing to let go of this anger and take the consequences. And that's called practice.

[50:46]

That's exactly what he's talking about. Being driven by karma. You can't say that anger won't come up. You can't say that revenge won't come up. You can't say all these dharmas won't come up. But as they come up, you let them go. That's willingness to practice instead of willingness pulled around by a stick of karma. In other words, when anger comes up we submit to letting it control us. I'm just using anger as an example. So how do you not let it control you? You may want it to control you, but then that's the madness. You don't realize that you're being caught by your craziness. you'd rather do that than let go.

[51:47]

This is how we keep creating the problem. Pretty soon we start reacting to everything through anger, because the karma is driving us. So it's stepping You act. That's called response instead of reaction. Will is reaction. Yes. You're responding from a place of stepping back rather than reacting without being circumspect. And then the anger has you. You say, I am consumed by anger. Well, being consumed means you're allowing yourself to be burned up.

[52:52]

Why do that? Because it feels good. Because you're protecting your ego. So, stepping back is letting go of the ego. Stepping, taking a step back, and turn the light inward. That's what Darwin says. Turn the light inward, so that you're not being caught by it. But then we think that there's something wrong with that, because we're not being loyal to our emotions. Yes, and this is where we get caught. Because we want to be loyal to our emotions. So, we'll go down fighting. It's the wrong fight. Doesn't that, I mean that's, you know, heroism, it's great, but... It's just that, heck of it, couldn't you sit back and be willing to observe your rage?

[53:55]

Yeah, yeah. Willing to. Sit back and observe your anger? Yes. Yes. And that's not reacting then? No, that's responding. That's not, it's not reacting, that's right, the anger comes up and then you consider, you just step back so that, and when you are used to doing that, then you react. I'm really appreciating what you're saying, and as you're talking in the choice of your language, I'm noticing that you talk about the anger, not your anger, and so the stepping back is impersonalizing, just being aware of anger arising, and in that you see the Heart Sutra in it.

[55:00]

that it's just something that has occurred in this moment, causes and conditions coming together, it's nothing that's set permanent, because there's no, it's not mine anymore, it's not something that I am invested in, or that I, how did you say it, hold dear in some way, it's just what's happened. Yeah, well, to say it's not mine, I think we have to own our anger. Yes. But I understand what you're saying. It's just anger. It's just anger. I'm not attached to the whole storyline behind the anger that's arisen. And so it can dissipate. So when the anger comes up, it's my anger. But when I let go of it, it's just anger. Yeah. And it no longer has its hold. The thing is, where do you want to live?

[56:03]

The whole point is, where do you want to live? Do you want to live a life of... It's very exciting to live in our emotions, which are totally unreliable. Where do you want to live? in a life that's free, that's total freedom. Do you want to live in freedom? Because whenever we start getting caught by our emotions and our feelings, we lose our freedom, even though we think that we're gaining our freedom. But who has freedom? People. Because we're always getting caught by our emotions, we keep losing our freedom. And then we keep saying that We're losing our freedom because it's somebody else's fault.

[57:07]

As soon as we get into blame, we lose it. Even though there's plenty of blame to go around. It's true. But when we get caught by blame, we lose our freedom. We're always losing our freedom. Because we don't realize it, we keep struggling are all the time struggling with our feelings and our thoughts and our emotions. The description for me that's the most helpful in looking at these two ways was right in the beginning of the reading and it's the existent I and the non-existent I. That just helped me. Yeah, OK. Well, if you say there's no I, that's true. If you say there is an I, that's also true.

[58:13]

It's got to be the I that's not an I. Otherwise, who's saying there's no I? Right? If you say there's no I, well, who is it that's saying that? So there's no self. So it's the self that's not a self. It's not like you take away. to themselves. The emptiness is the form. So the form is the form of emptiness, and the emptiness is the emptiness of form. I know it's hard to grasp because we think emptiness means nothing. You can think of it as nothing, it's okay. But if you want to study emptiness, you still get through the form. And you see how nothing is really substantial. Things are only substantial momentarily.

[59:17]

That's what it means. Momentarily everything's way of expression. But emptiness is the container. Emptiness is right there in the form, as the form. So all the forms are the forms of emptiness. So all of us are the forms of emptiness. But then when we say emptiness, we're trying to see something that's not there. Emptiness is the most present thing. And the forms are its expression. Emptiness is expressing itself as forms. Otherwise you couldn't move, things won't change.

[60:31]

So change is the most important thing. We don't like it when things are going well. We don't like it when things are not going so well. But it doesn't matter. So here's a little bit of Thich Nhat Hanh. He says, Long live emptiness. Form is the wave and emptiness is the water, right? So this is a perfect illustration, the water and the waves. The water is the essence or the foundation or the fundamental and the waves are its expression, right? So we're all waves in the water of emptiness. That's pretty graspable, but if you grasp it too tight.

[61:39]

The Indians in India speak in a language that can scare us, but we have to understand their way of expression in order to really understand them. In the West, when we draw a circle, we consider it to be zero, nothingness. But in India, a circle means totality, wholeness. The meaning is the opposite. So form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. It's like wave and water. Water is wave. Form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form. The same is true with feelings, the five skandhas, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. We keep coming back to the five skandhas all the time because these five In the Vietnamese literature, there are two lines of poetry made by a Zen master of the Li dynasty in the 12th century. He said, if it exists, then one speck of dust exists.

[62:44]

If it doesn't exist, then the whole cosmos doesn't. He means that the notions of existence and nonexistence are just created by our minds. He also said that the entire cosmos can be put on the tip of a hair, and the sun and the moon can be seen in a mustard seed. These are images that show us that one contains everything, and everything is just one. You know that modern science has perceived the truth that not only matter and energy are one, but matter and space are also one. Not only matter and space are one, but matter, space, and mind are one, because mind is in it. Because form is emptiness, form is possible. In form we find everything else, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Emptiness means empty of a separate self. It is full of everything, full of life. The word emptiness should not scare us. It is a wonderful word. To be empty does not mean non-existent.

[63:47]

If a sheet of paper is not empty, how could the sunshine, the lager, and the forest come into it? How could it be a sheet of paper The cup, in order to be empty, has to be there. Form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness, in order to be empty of a separate self, have to be there. Emptiness is the ground of everything. Thanks to emptiness, everything is possible. This is the declaration made by Nagarjuna, the Buddhist philosopher of the second century. Emptiness is quite an optimistic concept. If I am not empty, I cannot be here. And if you are not empty, you cannot be there. Because you are there, I can be here. This is the true meaning of emptiness. Form does not have a separate existence. Avalokita wants us to understand this point. If we were not empty, we become a block of matter. We cannot breathe, we cannot think. To be empty means to be alive, to breathe in and to breathe out.

[64:48]

We cannot be alive if we were not about impermanence because without impermanence nothing is possible. A Buddhist who came to see me from Great Britain complained that life was empty and impermanent. He had been a Buddhist for five years and had thought about emptiness and impermanence a great deal. He told me that one day his 14-year-old daughter told him, Daddy, please don't complain about impermanence. Without impermanence, how can I grow up? When you have a grain of corn, you entrust it to the soil. You hope that it will become a tall corn plant. If there is no impermanence, the grain of corn will remain a grain of corn forever. And you will never have an ear of corn to eat. Impermanence is crucial to the life of everything. Instead of complaining about impermanence, we might say, long live impermanence.

[65:50]

The queen is dead. Long live the queen. Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. This is a very optimistic note, and it's the same with emptiness. Emptiness is important, because without emptiness nothing is possible. So we should also say, along with emptiness, emptiness is the basis of everything. Thanks to emptiness, life itself is possible. All the five skandhas follow the same principle. So this is a very nice book. I highly recommend it. It's not very long. So I'm happy to discuss with you a few minutes. I have to skip around because we'll never get finished if I don't.

[67:39]

He talks about his own problem that he has with his ego. I can't read everything that comes before that, but it's a nice little story. He says, I remember how I felt when I was 44 and my old Zen teacher died. When I was young, I used to be scolded by both my parents and my teacher, but now my parents have come to pray And when he died, an inexpressible loneliness came over me. Four years previously, I had gone back to my hometown, and I used to act as his assistant. At that time, I was fairly full of myself. Quite a name in Buddhist scholarship, they said. And then I had been a professor here and there, and a headmaster there. Oh, I was pretty well satisfied with myself when I came home. I was one of those men of elevated view. I came home with the conviction that my wisdom was very far seen.

[69:14]

But the teacher still saw me as the same runny-nosed youngster as before. Every day I used to scrub the floor and the teacher would come up behind me. Look at that. What sort of cleaning is that supposed to be? All black and white patches like a picture or something. The number one boy ought to be able to make a better job of the cleaning than that. Another time I was supposed to have made a reply in the wrong tone. If you still don't know how to answer properly, your spiritual training doesn't amount to much, does it? I was scolded over everything. I remember one day an old lady came to the temple and told us that she had brought the girl along with her. On asking how old the girl might be, she said, oh, she's 60. Certainly to an old lady of 80, the daughter of 60 is still a girl. In spite of all the wrinkles, a girl is a girl. Whatever the age may be, a girl is still a girl. In the same way, to the teacher, I was still a little boy.

[70:16]

That really happens. However distinguished a countenance I had put on, however many professorships I might have held, that was nothing to the teacher. I might feel myself a man of elevated view. much. Do some self-examination." Sometimes I used to feel, why doesn't the old man let up a bit? Yes, let up a bit. Just a bit, Dad. But when he died, I had that unmemorable loneliness. Now, there are many to praise, but the teacher who was really kind to me, who used to hide his tears of love under his scoldings, is dead, and I am alone. He says, the fact of our illusions, we must realize our clinging attachment to the five skandha aggregates for what it is.

[71:24]

In this, he negates and negates. But when we come to realize we are nothing at all, then we have an experience of the sublime world of Kanan, which embraces all in an infinite forgiveness. In the Bodhisattva, the world of emptiness and the world of form are not two. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. In these He says, because the worlds stand on illusion, even good is no more than an occasional event caused by associations. And when the associations are bad, the manifestation created by that good entirely disappears. Relative good and evil are always appearing and disappearing.

[72:26]

The sutra says, though merit be piled up high as the Himalaya, one flash of anger and it is all consumed. Merits from good deeds, when associations become a little unfavorable, are destroyed with a flaring up of passion. Our life is destruction of what has been built and building up of what has been destroyed. Underneath building, a destruction, and underneath destruction, building, repeating again and again the same sort of things. All worlds of illusory attachment to self are the same. human state is symbolized as a Buddhist story of Sainokawara. There is a temple where this story is illustrated. In the ruined temple of Daisenji, there is a representation of Sainokawara, of which a good deal remains. There is the dry riverbed of the story, and in the middle stands a great stone figure of the Bodhisattva

[73:30]

who takes care of young children when they die, sometimes aborted children or young children. There is the driver a bit of the story. In the middle stands a great stone figure of the Bodhisattva Jizo. Around it have been piled up countless little pagodas. The story is familiar to all Japanese. how those who die in early childhood go to this place and employ themselves in building the pagodas. They remember their parents in the world and build one for their father and one for their mother, piling up stones one by one. A demon suddenly rushes in from the side and, whirling an iron pole, smashes down everything they have built. The children, terrified, run to the stone Jizo and hide themselves for a while in the long sleeves of his compassion. If they are always to be destroyed, why build them?

[74:42]

But that will not do, for this is Sayi no Kawara, a place where the karma associations find fulfillment. When the demon goes off, the crowds of children come back out again and build their pagoda towers. Just as they think they have finished, out comes the demon, and all is destroyed. Does that sound familiar? What was built up is broken down, and then what was broken down is rebuilt. Repeating again and again, the same task is the state of sayi no kawara. Is not our human condition like this also? In the worlds of relative good and evil raised up on illusory attachment to self, we may do some good, but then when the karma associations are unfavorable, evil passions arise and destroy it all. We rebuild what was destroyed, and what we build is again destroyed. When we think we have completed something, it disappears. and what has disappeared again comes about. So the endless wheel of life revolves.

[75:43]

This is the character of the human condition, and in spiritual training it is called the law of circularity. What a thing to happen to such a splendid person! This is all the shiftings of human nature. From the point of view of spirituality, it is only going round and around in the world of relative good and evil. It is not the profound spirituality All the worlds of illusory sticking to self are worlds of birth and death. So then he talks about the world beyond birth and death. Next chapter. Death page, 67. Also, I recommend reading Kanze, which I have in the Xerox platform.

[76:51]

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