Tonight I wanted to talk about samatha, and I just started, you know, some... I've been using the term here and there, and I guess not everybody is familiar with the term samatha and vipassana, right? So... But I'm not going to, like, define it exhaustively. It's just a word, and it refers to lots of different practices. So the Samatha practice that I've been sort of bringing up and recommending is the one that I feel is really close to the traditional instructions of the Zen school. of our lineage. But there are many other kinds of, there's many, many, well, infinite ways, infinite different types of samatha, because in terms of what you're attending to, that can vary greatly.

[01:18]

Sometimes samatha, the thing that the mind is attending to is a mental image. like the breath. Sometimes it's the image of the Buddha, for example, Shakyamuni Buddha, or some other Buddha. We had a visiting teacher at Green Gulch named Tara Thoko Rinpoche quite a few years ago, and he taught Samatha. And the kind he taught was to focus the attention on the image of a Buddha. And this was practiced, like I said yesterday, actually with the eyes open. You can start by actually closing your eyes and seeing if you can see the Buddha, but actually you're...

[02:21]

in the kind he taught we're actually trying to like see a buddha standing there or sitting there right in front of you like with your eyes open like just see it there and uh um so a lot of teachers recommend that type of shamatha where you use the image of the buddha as the visual object not the visual object the mental object that you're focusing on to stabilize the consciousness. As part of that type of meditation, as a warm-up, people often use the breath as a mental object, as a mental image. to clear away, uh, excitation or excessive, uh, thinking or ideation that might be going on.

[03:27]

Oh, look at the little mouse running around the dining room among the feet. Hello, goodbye. Here it goes. Ooh, it's active, too. There it goes. We like those little mice. Um... Huh. about that one. But one can use the image of the breath as the thing that you attend to in meditation, and one can attain, realize, full shamatha, meditating on the breath. Meditating on Buddha, I think, is a little harder to actually get a little Buddha to sit right out there in front of you, like nice and clear. And actually, one thing I was reading recently about that is that there's two ways that you can see that.

[04:35]

One way you can see it is as in this moment, your mind has freshly created this image of of the Buddha, a nice freshly created clear picture of Shakyamuni Buddha sitting there. But some people feel that it's actually superior to not think of it as a freshly created image of Buddha, but actually as an image of actually the Buddha. Actually you're actually seeing Shakyamuni Buddha sitting right there. That's even more beneficial for creating shamatha. I can see that. Can you imagine that you might be quite attentive to an actual Buddha sitting there? Maybe I won't get distracted after all for a while here. But this type of... And we did that in the Zen students. The Zen students did that. I mean, you know, Zen students.

[05:36]

I mean, the people at Green Gulch that were there that were Zen students before he arrived, that said they were Zen students, they tried their practice. And I didn't actually ask people how successful they were, but I heard rumors that not too many people, like, got a nice, real clear sense of, like, boom, there was Shakyamuni Buddha sitting right there. And we mostly were working with Shakyamuni Buddha. It, uh, It's actually easier to see with your eyes shut, right? You know what I mean? Easier to sort of see there. And I can see him right now. But to open your eyes and see it, it takes a lot more concentration. I looked at Tartuka was sitting next to me because I was Abbott at the time, and it looked like he had his eyes shut, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it's pretty hard to actually see it. And then once you see it, to see it again and [...] have a continuity.

[06:36]

So you can imagine the level of concentration necessary to consistently and constantly not get distracted from such a mental image. But that type of meditation is not very often recommended by Zen teachers. However, there are some cases where Zen teachers have recommended that. So, for example, the fourth and fifth ancestor did recommend this kind of mindfulness of Buddha and even visualizing Buddha. Fourth and fifth ancestors actually taught that. That is all they taught. And the fourth ancestor, Daoshin, said that there's many, many kinds of shamatha, and he taught many kinds of shamatha. the main one, the one he was most well known for was to attend to no objects of thought.

[07:42]

To have no objects of thought. And to have no objects of thought, to be mindful of no objects of thought, is to be mindful of Buddha. So if you can't do that practice, then he would recommend being mindful of Buddha. And then if you could be mindful of Buddha, then he would recommend switching to being mindful of that that Buddha was not an object of thought. And also, last year we studied the Samadhi Nirmocana Sutra, and there, as we know from last few classes, it says in Chapter 8, teaches samatha and vipassana, tranquility and insight. And there, in that case, the way that they primarily, first of all, teach samatha is that samatha is to dwell in solitude and perfectly direct the mind inward and attend to mental engagement with the mind itself.

[09:02]

The attentive mind that is mentally engaged with itself. Mentally engaged inward with itself. And then vipassana, or insight, is to investigate the nature of phenomena. So the shamatha practice is to, in this case, direct the mind to the inner stream of the meditating consciousness, or direct the mind to be engaged with itself. And then, when that's constant, and then there arises mental and physical pliancy and joy, when this full feeling of joy and flexibility and light in the body and mind, then one is ready to practice actual insight.

[10:07]

And based on this tranquility, one then investigates, actively investigates, the nature of phenomena. Now, it's interesting to me that one of the ways of attaining tranquility is to attend to the nature of mind, or to attend to the nature of mind, that is, that everything that happens is just the mind. So no matter what happens, no matter what you're observing, one kind of Samatha practice is to attend to that as attending to the mind itself.

[11:08]

When you are fully settled in that, then you investigate all phenomena and find out that all phenomena are mind itself. So, in this case you can use the It's like you use what you find out from insight as the thing you focus on in your tranquility. Okay, so There's another way to talk about a tranquility practice or a stabilizing practice. You learn this backward step.

[12:17]

You turn the light around and you practice what is called non-thinking. And non-thinking is can be seen as a shamatha practice in the sense that non-thinking does not mean not thinking. It is the way of relating to thinking. It is a non-conceptual way of relating to thinking. Thinking is arising and ceasing and the meditating on this conceptual level is pretty disturbed usually because we're into excessive mental elaboration of our conceptual life. Now you're talking.

[13:22]

Now you're talking. Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's the teaching, you know. Train yourself thus. In the touched, there will be just the touched. Well, in touched means the warm touch or the cold touch. In the warm touch, there will be just the warm touch. In the cold touch, there will be just the cold touch. In the hot touch, there will be just the hot touch. In the freezing touch, there will be just the freezing touch. In the tepid touch, there's just the tepid touch. You train yourself that way. It's the same training. But this is conceptual training. These are conceptual categories. Seen, heard, and smell, touch, taste, and cognized means, you know, as a mental concept. But the other ones are mental concepts too. You could say that, no, they are physical events, but you do not know about your physical events.

[14:28]

You have no conscious awareness of them. And if you did, you would... Except when you give them a name, right. But that's not a physical event. That's a mental thing then. And then we are aware. If we were aware of what's going on physically, we would all just pass out instantly. You know. We live in this, you know, the world of the self is the conceptual world, but the conceptual world can be liberated if we let the conceptual world be the conceptual world. We're starting to shift a little bit into one of the other types of shamatha, but I'll try to stay somewhat in the realm of the one I was just talking about, which is sort of related. Was there some excitement there? Yes? Yes. Yeah, because you're telling us about it now.

[15:30]

Oh, okay. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Well, a sensation here and a sensation there, those are mental concepts. Here and there, ladies and gentlemen, are mental concepts. They are not physical concepts. The body does not have here and there. This is a concept. So here, there, and in between are exactly concepts, and that's what you get cured of if you train yourself in not elaborating concepts of here and there.

[16:42]

Now, you can also have here and there and say, wait a minute, I think what we've got here is pain. Well, fine. It's nice that you've got a little, maybe another perspective on something which you usually would do it in another way, that's fine, and that's somewhat educational, I'm sure. But it doesn't mean you jumped out of the realm of conception by your story. Doesn't sound that way to me. The way to become free of the realm of conception is to settle completely into the realm of conception non-conceptually. Then, okay, then you have shamatha. Then when you have shamatha... then you can start looking at what is the nature of these conceptions and then you can realize actual a life which is something you know like our like your body just the way you actually are free of your idea of that you know like you know you find your body which is not the body of here and there and in between you find this other body which is like not into that kind of stuff

[17:52]

It doesn't have to walk around in here and there and in between, and excuse me, please, can I get through that spot there? But in order to find that body, that Buddha body, you first of all have to settle with the human here and there conceptual body, non-conceptually, attain Samatha, and based on that, then examine the body, the conceptual body, and find out that the conceptual body is not the body, it's just the concept of the body that we've been living in all this time. But to deeply see that, you heard about that just now, and you kind of know that's true, but to deeply see that, you have to be in the shamatha state to have it, like, take over and penetrate you completely and liberate you from that story. Yes? Yes. What does it mean to... Well, let's say now that you've achieved some... You're ready to... You've achieved stabilization.

[19:12]

You've been watching your conceptual activity, which is basically everything that happens. Everything that rises and ceases is conceptual activity. You've been watching that, without elaborating it at all, and now you're settled with it. Now you can actually, like, look and see, well, what is the nature of conception? How does it happen? Is it, you know, is it out there, in here? Do I believe it exists on its own? Yeah, it is. It is a training in insight. But first we're training in, like, settling. Then there's training and insight. But the real insight, there can be insight without shamatha. So again, in the Samdhinirma Jnana Sutra, it says, talks about a kind of insight that's not based in the shamatha. And the Buddha said that's not vipassana.

[20:14]

It just looks like vipassana. But if it's for real insight, it has to be insight which is abiding in this stable body. And that kind of insight can penetrate to the true nature, the ultimate nature of phenomena, and liberate us, liberate the being from the phenomena. And the process of study and investigation is another training, following the training in Samatha. So let's see, Sarah. Yes, that's non-conceptual. It's not exactly non-conceptualization. It's like, I would say, a non-conceptual way or non-conceptual mode. Yeah, you could say non-conceptualization, but it sounds a little too active.

[21:17]

So non-conceptually focusing on conception is a way to quiescence, instability. And then of course that's the stage for further study of the very thing that you are now studying from the point of view of not elaborating it at all, which you want to continue to do when you start studying. But now you've learned not only how not to elaborate on conception, but you've also attained this energetic bliss body. of tranquility, which will now be a resource for your probing into the thing which you were not elaborating before. Right.

[22:24]

Yes. [...] Right. I think part of the reason why the Zen people avoided these terms was because of the potential of splitting up a process which is not truly split up. But I would like you to understand that although the process isn't split up, I would like you to understand the whole process. And even if discussing it in a way to help you understand it

[23:31]

potentially starts to split something up, which isn't really straight up, that again is another danger. But I recognize that danger. Yeah, I understand. Well, I wouldn't say no, stillness isn't insight, but I would just say that stillness is not enough. One needs to bring in activity of the discursive mind again in order to achieve, in order to realize insight. Yeah. Yes.

[24:34]

Yes. In stillness. Yes. Yeah, it's kind of an insight. I heard you say, where are these concepts embedded? I heard you say that. And I would like to find out where they're embedded. But it may require more than just attaining stabilization in order to find out where they're embedded. I may have to ask a few questions. I may have to do a few experiments in order to actually find out where these concepts are embedded, how they arise, and what is their nature.

[25:51]

So if in stillness there can still be awareness of arising and ceasing, so we have stillness, without feeling a contradiction and being able to also witness in that stillness the arising and ceasing, this can happen. And we need this stillness in order to actually have insight into the nature of phenomena that are arising and ceasing. So, if we have insight, let's hear about it. But when we hear about it, we're going to have that little talk. And that little talk itself, although it's happening in stillness, that little talk is not stillness, it's talk. And then there might be some comments in the talk, and then there might be some responses to those comments. This dialogue, this interaction, is not...

[26:55]

just stabilization, it is inside work. And it can occur in stillness, and that's the place it really does function best, but it's not the same as just simply, for example, not making any conceptual elaboration on what's appearing and disappearing. It is actually asking some questions and maybe having some little arguments about the nonsense of what was just said and the incoherence of that logical statement and stuff like that and being able to hang in there and not lose the Samatha and be happy to continue to talk about this because of Samatha. Because you can say whatever you want. Hey man, I'm full of pliancy and joy. So, you know, let's keep talking. But without that shamatha, you can get kind of discouraged when you're doing insight work. Because kind of like, emptiness, pinnacle arising, depending on this and that and this and the ceasing of that.

[28:00]

You gotta be kind of like up for this stuff. Like really like, this is really interesting. Wow. What's happening over there? Is this shamatha? Vipassana or the two together? What about Samatha and Vipassana? Did you say excuse me for giving me a compliment? You shouldn't be doing that. You should only give me compliments in private. Well, it's that time that you like to go to bed. So, anyway, I'd like to spend more time on the Samatha, but I think you can probably, some of you might be able to put some of this into practice quite soon.

[29:13]

Yes. Pardon? A quick question? Yeah. Yes. Yes. I don't say that, but I... Some great masters have said stuff like, they've said stuff like, I will not make any mental elaboration upon the rising and ceasing of phenomena. They've actually said that in their Samatha practice. Or I might say more like, you know, in the scene, there will be just the scene. I might say that to myself while I'm sitting. Or almost, or in the background when I hear the sound of the creek, you know, I might kind of hear Buddha saying, in the herd, there's just a herd.

[30:19]

So I might kind of say that to myself, yeah. But you might be able to listen in that way or observe your listening in that way without saying that. But I think it's okay to say it for a while. And you can actually keep saying it for a long time and still achieve shamatha. But even if you don't say anything, there's still some little talk like that going on. And that's why Shalanta is not enough. Because there's still some little chatter going on that you have to bring forth and study. So it might as well be up front. You might as well have a little instruction you're giving yourself while you're meditating. It's fine. It's fine. Non-thinking is another just simple little instruction that you might have going on. You might feel like non-thinking, non-thinking, non-thinking.

[31:22]

That might be what you have going on there. Or just sitting. Or shikantaza. Those words might be going through my practice of shikantaza. You might be saying that to yourself. And saying that to yourself is not the practice. The practice is actually that when you say that and everything else that happens, there's no, conceptual elaboration upon your sitting. The practice that you're doing is actually the practice of just the sitting, not any elaboration on the sitting. And even if there is some elaboration of sitting, somehow that gets cut off, or just some chattering in the hills, and there's just a sitting there. It's still a concept, though. that arises and ceases, but it's just that. Then, from there, you even go beyond that, though, and practice vipassana to inquire into what is this sitting anyway?

[32:34]

This sitting that's cut off from all conceptual aberration is just a radiant little glow worm here. What is that? actually, ultimately. So then you have to penetrate that just sitting. And that's part of the reason for interaction with the teacher. OK? Thank you.

[33:05]

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