So we use dualistic words in a non-dualistic way. At lunch we were talking also about scientific language. If you want to understand science, you have to understand the scientific language. Learn the language. And in Buddhism, you have to learn the terms. And understand it because we use dualistic terms in a non-dualistic way. And so, as I said last night, the monk asked Joshu, does the dog have Buddha nature? And Joshu said, Wu, which means no. But he didn't mean that the dog doesn't have Buddha nature. He was using Wu, which means no, in a non-dualistic way. And you have to understand that. The monk didn't understand that. He said, well, jeez, I don't know.

[01:01]

So when we say empty, it also means full. And so you have to understand this fact. Otherwise, when you read any of the Zen literature, it sounds crazy. But if you realize that, the terms that they're using are dualistic terms used in a non-dualistic way, then they get some clue as to what has happened. So then the next part is the fourth part where Avalokiteshvara again says, O Shariputra, all dharmas are also micro-indigenous. The skandhas are micro-indigenous, and the dharmas are also micro-indigenous.

[02:05]

Dharma has several meanings, a lot of meanings, but there are two meanings in this instance. Here, dharmas means things. A dharma is a thing. Capital D Dharma is The Buddha's teaching is the Dharma. The Buddha taught the Dharma. Or the Buddha taught the Dharma with a capital D. Buddha's teaching. The law, the way things are. And the Dharmas, with a small d, are the elements of existence. You taught the Dharma about the Dharmas. The Dharmas are the elements of the Dharma. So the elements of existence are called dharmas. And technically speaking, the Abhidharmas, the analytical school of Buddhism, put together lists of dharmas, which were psychophysical elements of a human being.

[03:20]

which they felt were the most important, and studied the human psyche and human activity using those dharmas. So there were technical dharmas, which are those dharmas which are most important in human activity. And then there are the dharmas which just means anything is a dharma. And then there's the Dharma with a capital D, which is Buddhist teaching in the world. But here is the small Dharma. Well, even though this one has got a capital D, but actually all Dharmas are marked with emptiness. It could be all Dharmas. It could mean Buddhist teaching. Yeah, it could mean like that way. So the Abhidharmas, there were schools of Buddhism which felt that Of course, nothing was real except the elements that constructed them.

[04:22]

The elements come together and create a construction. And we call that a person or a chair or a building made up of these garments. And so they talked about the garments as if they were actually substantial things. And the things that they made, or were created through them, were not substantial. But here, the sutra is saying, All the dharmas are empty in their own being. There are no dharmas which are not dependent. This is kind of cutting through absolutely everything that's dependent. They do not appear nor disappear. They are not tainted nor pure, and they don't increase or decrease. hard to understand, but do not appear nor disappear. I talked about that last night, that a thing seems to appear and seems to disappear.

[05:28]

You know, we say, well I talked about the life of a person as a child, and then growing up and then being an older person, and we say the person, the child appeared, and then later on turned into the old man. But actually nothing turns into something else. It looks like one thing turns into something else, but nothing turns into something else. This particular aggregation is only for this moment and influences the next, influences another arising. But it doesn't turn into that. And Dogen talks about this and says, spring does not turn into summer. Firewood does not become ash. It looks like you burn the firewood and it becomes ash.

[06:34]

But firewood is firewood. And it is in its own dharma position. And it has its own before and after. And ash is in its dharma position. has its own before and after. One thing doesn't turn into another, although it seems like it does, because we see the flow is continuous. But the flow is made up of discrete moments, which are independent and at the same time influenced by past actions, past occurrences, and they're the stem of the former moment. And at the same time, there isn't a single thing that is graspable, that arises and disappears.

[07:38]

So things seem to arise and they seem to disappear, but actually There's no real entity that arises or disappears. But we create, our minds create a real life out of this. We create a scenario and a story about what life is through our consciousness and imagination and agreement. We agree on, people agree, and we have different societies that agree in different ways about what life's about, what's going on. People really have different ways of making agreements about what's real and what's not. But it doesn't mean there isn't a certain reality to the way things are, the way things arise. But we don't necessarily understand that reality. And often we think we do.

[08:43]

our partial view of things. So life is endless and continuous and yet made up of discrete moments. And when we talk about birth and death, we talk about certain cycles. But life itself is continuous and birth and death are momentary. away for us to a kind of perception that we have. So that's why it's often said that this life is illusory. Not an illusion, but it's illusory. It's slippery. It's, you know, hard to see it as it is. And then the dharmas don't appear or disappear. They're not tainted nor pure.

[09:48]

I don't want to talk about mark. All dhammas are marked with their genes. Everything has its characteristic. So you can say a mark is like a characteristic. And the characteristic of this dhamma is it's a cup and it's made of glass. But its mark is that it's It's a container. The mark of a cup is that it's a container. The mark of water is that it's wet. The mark of fire is that it's hot. And the mark of all dharmas here says, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. In other words, their true characteristic is not what we attribute to them. It's the empty nature.

[10:51]

What is that? And it's 430. So, if you like, we can have another class tomorrow night. I don't know if we'll ever get done. Yes? Oh. You got your hand in front of your mouth, don't you? It'll be good? Okay. Okay. Okay. Hallelujah.

[12:08]

He's being the co-deal. I'm being the co-deal. He's an idiot, right? He must be wearing wisdom. Yeah. Great wisdom. Dvalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita, perceive that all five skandhas in their own being are empty and what's saved from all suffering, O Chariputra, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not from form, that which is form is emptiness, that which is emptiness, form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness, O Shariputra.

[13:09]

They do not appear nor disappear, are not tainted nor pure, do not increase nor decrease. Therefore in emptiness no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no color, no sound, no smell, no object of mine, no realm of eyes, and still no realm of mind, consciousness, no existence. of it until no old age and death, and also no extinction of it, no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, and also no attainment with nothing to attain.

[14:14]

From every perverted view, one dwells in Nirvana. In the three worlds, all buddhas depend on Prajnaparamita, and attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. Therefore know the Prajnaparamita is the great transcendent mantra. It's the supreme mantra which is able to lead all suffering and is true, not false. So proclaim the Prajna Paramita Mantra. Proclaim the mantra that says Gathe, Gathe, Parangate, Parasangate, Bodhisattva. And so, there's a lot to go here.

[16:06]

These are the last nights I'm going to sleep here. You may never get to the end. But, I don't think I'm going to go over what I did. Except to say that in Section 4, We stopped yesterday afternoon over Shariputra. Avalokiteshvara again is existing in Shariputra. He says, over Shariputra, all the dharmas are marketed as well as all skandhas. They do not appear and disappear. We talked about that. Are not tainted nor pure. Do not increase nor decrease. So the dharmas are the elements of existence. are also a mark of emptiness. And I say that the marks of emptiness, the mark of something is its characteristic. So, the mark of water is wet, and the mark of fire is hot.

[17:09]

And the mark of all garments, of all elements, is empty. Yes. That's its P-mark. Not just its... Even though the characteristic of fire is hot, it's true characteristic is emptiness. No inherent nature. Fire does depend on fuel. So then the sutra says, the dharmas are not tainted nor pure. And in Buddhist psychology, we have pure dharmas and impure dharmas.

[18:14]

And impure elements and pure elements. And when you think about the human body, Buddhism usually describes the body as a container of impurities. And if you think about it, it sucks. Don't describe to me. It's too smelly. And don't look for an opportunity. But it's the way with all things, we divide into pure and impure, and we're always trying to seek the pure. Religion is always trying to seek the pure purity, and we impurity.

[19:20]

But one creature is and we see these wonderful vegetables and fruits and they're gorgeous and very pure. And then we eat what we like and what suits us and then we throw this away and we call it garbage. So how can something so gorgeous become garbage? It's interesting. other creatures that inhabit this world besides themselves. So pure and impure are just relative values.

[20:24]

Although, it's true that in order to take care of ourselves, we sought to So that the darkness in themselves are not pure or impure. Things themselves are not pure or impure. Only pure and impure are according to how they are used. You know, poison, medicine is a kind of poison. And so, you use just the right amount of medicine to cure us.

[21:33]

But if we use too much, we'll kill us. Medicine and sickness mutually cure. So then the sutra goes on to say, dharmas do not increase or decrease. Things do not increase nor decrease. This is an interesting statement. Increase and decrease are comparative values. I think we actually talked about this yesterday, that increase and decrease are also comparative values. And we say something gets bigger and something gets smaller, diminishes in size. But this is only from a certain perspective.

[22:47]

our true nature doesn't increase or decrease. So the true mark of emptiness, the true mark of darkness, the suchness of darkness does not increase or decrease. Suchness means absolute The absolute quality of everything which permeates all of existence is the same in all existence. And that's called, for lack of a better word, suchness. But it's called various things according to how it's used, or how we think about it. Sometimes we call it dharmakaya.

[23:53]

So it has various names. But suchness is the immovable reality of all dharma. Which, no matter what shape things take, doesn't increase or decrease. It's kind of like water. I think that, actually, there's only so much water in the world. And it takes various forms all over the world, continuously. But no matter what the forms are, there's only so much water. And water doesn't increase or decrease, even though the forms that it takes are always changing. And our nature is like this.

[25:02]

So, then the fifth part of the sutra says, therefore, in emptiness, no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness, the skandhas are repeatedly there. Remember what the skandhas are. So therefore, in emptiness, there is no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness. So it sounds like it's negating, the sutra sounds like it's negating the But what it means is that forms are dependent origination, that feelings arise dependent on other things, that perceptions arise dependently on other things.

[26:27]

that mental formations arise dependently and consciousness arises dependently. There is no such thing as a consciousness which is independent. No such thing as mental formations that are independent. That's what I mean by emptiness. As I said before, if you just think of the term emptiness as being independent, you can understand easily what people are saying. that just take the term independence to mean interdependence. And interdependence means no self. So to say, there's nothing in this universe that has a separate, independent existence of self. And you and I are creatures of no self. Even though we feel there is one, the self that we feel

[27:28]

is not an independently existing self. It's an independently existing self. Which means that it has no permanent core and is a part of everything else. But that's more wonderful than having an independent self. That means that we can realize that our true nature is the nature of the universe. Our true self is the whole universe. No need to feel isolated. But when you let go of ego, which is Buddhist practice, let go of ego, then you can realize your true self. no special self, but is the self of the universe.

[28:32]

So you have quite a big self. We all have quite a big self, which includes all of us. But it's not realized because of self-saving. So then that sutra goes on to talk about the mirror. As I said, this is the sutra of the mirror. No eyes. So pure form and emptiness, no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. No means. No. No color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object in mind. No realm of eyes until the realm of mind consciousness. no ignorance, and also no extinction of it, until no old age and death, and also no extinction of it, no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, and also no attainment.

[29:40]

In these sentences, the whole All of Buddha's original sermons are contained right here. So, no feelings. So, these first three lines, the first six, are the six roots of subjectivity, which are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. I am the number six organs, six doorways of perception. These are the six doorways of perception.

[30:42]

And color, sound, smell, taste, touch, and objects are among the six objects of the senses. Realm of eyes, the children of realm of mind consciousness is an abbreviation. Realm of eyes means consciousness, eye consciousness, ear consciousness, tongue consciousness, feeling consciousness. The sixth consciousness is the younger. The sutra says, no realm of eyes Until, until means you understand the rest. Until, no realm of mind consciousness. The other three consciousnesses aren't delineated, they're understood.

[31:47]

So, in order to have sight, there has to be an eye, there has to be something seen, which is an object, And there has to be consciousness. These three diamonds all have to be present in order for one to see. If you have two, you don't see. If you have one, you don't see. So you have to have all three. So this is called dependent sight. Sight is dependent. So, eyes are not eyes. Ears are not ears. Ears are only ears when they're dependent on an object, a consciousness. So, these are the six roots of subjectivity, the six roots of objectivity, and the six

[32:59]

Buddhist psychology goes into great detail about how all this awareness happens. And so the sutra is saying none of these dharmas have independent existence. They're all dependently So I have a little note here that says, what I take to be myself is not myself, and what I take to be not myself is myself. Does that make sense? What I think is myself is really not myself at all. And what I don't think about as myself is really myself.

[34:03]

All the elements that are not what I think about when I think of myself, are really the basis of this self, which doesn't really exist as a self. So, then the sutra says, no ignorance and also no extinction of it, until no old age and death, and also no extinction of that. Well, this phrase is talking about dependent co-arising in the twelve links of the chain of causation, which is a very detailed study about how suffering, birth, death and suffering arise. And it's too much to go into at this point. But the gist of it is that one of the various ways of

[35:06]

looking at the twelve links in the chain of causation, one way of looking at it is that it's a cycle of rebirth. Cycle of rebirth. And in the cycle of rebirth, in a circle you can start anywhere. But the cycle starts Ignorance. And ignorance is the basis of karmic formations, which are volitional actions. I'm not sure I can remember what the sequence is. And karma formations are the basis of name and form. And name and form is the basis of

[36:09]

coming into existence, which is the basis of desire, which is the basis of craving, which is the basis of grasping, which is the basis of attachments, which is the basis of suffering, which is the basis of old age and death, which is the basis of death. And the cycle goes around and back through ignorance and just keeps going around and around from one rebirth to another. I don't think I said or changed that, but it's pretty close. But it's mostly through our grasping and attachment to life. and the illusions of satisfaction, or trying to gain satisfaction, that we continue this process, which is a process of rebirth into the realm of suffering.

[37:26]

So, the sutra says, no ignorance is to be used. And also, no extinction of it, until It doesn't enumerate all the steps, but it talks about the beginning and the end. And also no extinction of it. So Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist practice is to extinguish the cycle of birth and death. of birth and death, then you take away, you go backwards through the cycle until you've taken away all the causes for suffering. And then you have this freedom. You understand what I'm saying?

[38:29]

Good. So, there's always a cause for every effect. Always a cause. There's nothing that arises without a cause. So, if you eliminate all the causes of suffering, which include the craving to be alive, to exist, to stay alive, then you eliminate all the causes of suffering. That's pretty logical. Except that it means something else. So, in Mahayana Buddhism, you know, respect this, but the Bodhisattva doesn't try to do that. The Bodhisattva tries to live a clean life, which is beyond grasping and attachment.

[39:30]

But it doesn't try to stop the cycle of rebirth. So Bodhisattva, the effort of a Bodhisattva is to be free of karmic life while in the midst of it. So this is called life of vow rather than life of karmic. So Bodhisattva or Siddhustin lives a life of vow. a lack of intention, rather than a lack of karma. Lack of karma means driven by desire, and caught by desire, and being continually reborn in the realm of desire. Where the Bodhisattva's vow is to stay within the world, not to try to get out of

[40:36]

world of life, but to be free of not creating harm, not creating conditions for suffering in the midst of a suffering world. And that's how Bodhisattva helps people. Helps people to free themselves from suffering in the midst of suffering and help everyone But sutra, this is one of the most difficult parts to talk about.

[41:48]

To be free from Not just from the cycle of birth and death. To be free from the cycle of birth and death without going to one side or the other. So that's called non-duality, which is what the Sutra is, of course, continuously talking about. And old age is a dependent old age.

[42:59]

And death is a dependent death. There is no ignorance. Intrinsically. There is no old age and death intrinsically. Old age, we just call it old age and death, actually. Some of it is. And he said, oh, some of you. Oh, you must be pretty old. But someone else, oh, you're not so old. From my point of view, 60's not that old. So, this is You can be free, actually, of conditions.

[44:04]

Well, in the midst of conditions. So then that sutra goes on to say, no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. This is talking about the four noble truths. The first noble truth is, this is a Buddhist main thing, right? Life itself has the seeds of suffering within it. And suffering originates through a craving. And there is a way to get out of it. A way to deal with it. That's called stopping. And the way to do that is to follow the old path. So Buddha is called the great physician.

[45:05]

He diagnoses the ailment. The ailment is the seeds of suffering that are caused by craving and desire. We say delusion. That's very nice. That's actually a kind of soft way I said, don't you think it would be OK to change delusions, our desires to delusions? He said, no. But later, you changed it. So, and then the cure. So the sutra is saying that suffering is not suffering.

[46:14]

Origination is not, there is no origination of suffering. There is no stopping of suffering and there is no path. Now, Edward Kanzay, who is one of the great translators of the Five Important Literatures, says that the Sutra, the Heart Sutra, is a misstatement of the form of the Truth. And the way he says, his reason is, he says suffering, in the end, suffering cannot stand up against emptiness. memory. Instead of the mark of human existence being something, it's changed to emptiness.

[47:23]

And since And the rest is part of the origination. All cravings are actually emptiness. The mark of all cravings are also emptiness. The mark of stopping is also emptiness. And the Eightfold Path, all the elements of the Eightfold Path are also emptiness. So it's really saying emptiness If you understand emptiness, you will be free. If you really understand the true emptiness of your own nature, that will free you.

[48:12]

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