Since the beginning of the year? Since the beginning of the year? No? Can't hear? Since the beginning of the year? We've been studying the practice of samadhi. And in particular the last few weeks I have been trying to warm up to the presentation of the practice of samadhi within the overall context of the Bodhisattva's path to Buddhahood. We talked about the different meanings of samadhi which we may go over again soon.

[01:08]

But one of the meanings of samadhi is the using to describe the mind of Buddha. And that kind of samadhi is a samadhi which includes all the practices of the Buddha's mind and heart. It includes wisdom, but also samadhi is sometimes used in a more specific way to refer primarily to concentration practices because samadhi can be translated as concentration. then also samadhi means the fact that minds, that all minds do have this quality of concentration.

[02:13]

All minds are to some extent concentrated by nature because all minds have this samadhi which is the element of mind and object being one point. So all minds all of our experience has this one-pointedness to it. Everything we, whenever we know anything, there's actually a one-pointedness there. However, this samadhi can be relatively weak so that many people, although the nature of their mind includes having this quality of one-pointedness, most people have very little awareness of that. Then there are certain practices so-called concentration practices where we develop a deeper and deeper sense of the one-pointedness of mind. And then, based on realizing one-pointedness, we then do meditation, meditations which have to do with understanding all things.

[03:32]

And then the later meanings of samadhi are the mind which is not only fully realized, but is also penetrating thoroughly the nature of all things. And this is like the Buddha's Buddha mind. And there is a traditional presentation of the path from the beginning of of moving towards Buddhahood to the end is the description of that path. And in the Zen literature you do find mentions of it, but it's usually not presented within Zen teaching. Although certain Zen teachers demonstrate, although they don't re-present or present again this whole system, this whole picture of the whole path of a bodhisattva to Buddhahood, understand it and are familiar with it, have learned about it.

[04:44]

But the emphasis in Zen is not so much on teaching people about this wonderful path of the bodhisattva to Buddhahood, This presentation of the course of becoming a Buddha was available in China. Many wonderful teachers were teaching this over the course and gradually doing all kinds of innovative ways to promote the Bodhisattva course. And the Zen school was also trying to promote the Bodhisattva course. But it usually didn't do it by presenting the course as a system. But I am trying to present it to you so you know sort of the big picture in which Zen practice has blossomed.

[06:04]

However, as I present this big picture, this exhaustive picture of the path to Buddhahood, I feel a need to continually return to the Zen teachings. And I develop, I deepen my appreciation for the value of Zen teachings in the context of this overall big practice of the bodhisattva. So I'll give you some examples. The way early Zen dealt with this issue and this issue of a practice, of a bodhisattva that goes through all kinds of apparent stages and levels.

[07:19]

starting with the founder of the Zen tradition, Dharma, we don't have too much hearsay about how he taught. But one of the things that we do have was a short instruction he gave to one of his disciples, the disciple who became his successor. And the instruction he gave to him basically was, outside, cease all, inside, no coughing or sighing in the mind. So, What is apparently external, don't get involved. What is apparently internal, don't get involved.

[08:39]

With a mind like this, which he called a mind like a wall, you enter the way. What way? He didn't say, but it's the Bodhisattva way. This is his instruction for how to enter the Bodhisattva way. Not a big elaborate course, but he lived in China and he came from India and he was living in a world where there was this elaborate, extensive, very extensive training course for Buddhas. But his simple instruction, under the circumstances of this great vehicle to bring enlightenment to all beings, his simple, basic instruction to his disciple was, don't get involved in anything.

[09:45]

This is the way you enter, the Bodhisattva way. And so, If you hear somebody around Green Gulch telling you about all these Bodhisattva practices and getting really enthusiastic about how great they are, because they are, Bodhidharma would be there saying, don't get involved in what this guy is saying. And also, don't get involved with any coughing or sighing in her mind. If it's a her that has coughing and sighing. Thus you will enter the way which you're hearing about. You're hearing about this bodhisattva way.

[10:49]

You want to know how to enter it? Don't get involved. Don't get involved with it. And the more you open to it, the more wonderful it will appear to be, and the more wonderful it appears to be, the more you might be tempted to get involved in it. Wouldn't it be good to get involved in something really good? But it's not just Bodhidharma that said don't get involved. As I'll mention again, the bodhisattva way is to be totally devoted to all these practices, but not apprehending any of them. This is bodhisattva teaching in India. Do this practice, do that practice, do that practice, and that practice, and that practice, that practice, and do all these practices, you know, on and on they go, do all these practices through non-apprehension.

[11:55]

So it's really the Zen school, for example, in Bodhidharma's case, is just a very Bodhidharma way of putting this Bodhisattva path, of keeping us on track as we hear about it. Can you wait? Then six generations, and you have the sixth ancestor. And from this teacher, all the Zen schools come. And the two main disciples of the sixth ancestor, the two main disciples, as you can see right over in the chart, one's name is Nanyue Huairang, and the other one's name is named Qingyuan Xingzi. in our lineage. These two Buddhist monks were the main disciples of the sixth ancestor who had thousands of disciples.

[13:03]

These are the two main ones. All the Zen schools come from these two teachers who are disciples of the sixth ancestor. They grew up in China. in the sixth and seventh centuries. By this time, China, the biggest country in the world, at that particular time in its history was a Buddhist country. I mean, it was like Buddhism was a national religion for a while at this time. And so these two monks, when they go to the sixth ancestor, They're living in China, which has already been presented very nicely by some great scholar monks, by some great scholar yogis. China has been presented with an exhaustive and creative picture of the Bodhisattva path. These guys have heard about this. So the first one that I mentioned would be Chingyuan, Sagan.

[14:08]

He goes to the sixth ancestor and he says, I think the sixth ancestor maybe says something like, where are you from? And he says where he's from. And then he says, how can we practice in such a way that we don't fall into steps and stages? So it isn't that in Zen we... don't get involved with steps in the sense of that we don't study them, that we don't recommend them, that we don't see them appearing and disappearing. It's just that we don't get involved with them. We don't attach to them. We don't get greedy in relationship to them. And also, we don't neglect them. So not getting involved means you don't deny them or affirm them. You enter into this middle relationship with them where you don't have to deny them or affirm them.

[15:11]

So anyway, he says, how can I practice in that way so I won't fall thinking of practice as, you know, climbing some ladder? Now, in fact, there are ladder climbing practices and bodhisattvas do climb ladders. They climb the ladder of the ten stages, these stages of practice. They climb these transcendent stages, but they don't get stuck in them as they climb. And also they don't hold on to the rungs of the ladder as they climb. They move through stages as they practice the stages. They don't get involved. So I don't know how many conversations Sengen had with the Sixth Ancestor, but this is one that I value very much. He knew about the stages of the Bodhisattva, and he wanted to know how he got stuck in them.

[16:21]

The Sixth Ancestor said, well, what have you been practicing? He said, I haven't even been practicing the Four Noble Truths. He hasn't even been practicing the basic teachings of Buddhism. He said, well, if you're not even practicing... And then he says, well, what stage have you got stuck in? And he says, if I hadn't even been practicing the Four Noble Truths, what stage could I get stuck in? Okay. Okay. Then this other monk, Nanyue comes, Huairang comes to the Sixth Ancestor, and the Sixth Ancestor says, you know, where are you from? And I think he says, I'm from Mount Sung or something. And then the Sixth Ancestor, it's kind of a pun, he says, what is it that thus comes?

[17:25]

It's a pun because he was asking, what is it that thus comes? It's a triple pun. In other words, when you came here, what came? And also, what is it that comes in thusness? In other words, what comes like that? And also, that's a name for the Buddha. So he's saying, what is Buddha? But he's also saying, what was it, what is it when you come? What is it right now? What's Buddha? Thusness, what is coming in truth. What is it that thus comes? And Huay Rang said, to say this is it, misses the mark. So, I'll finish the story. Finish the story. Okay, I'll finish the story. Okay, finish it. To say, this is it, or it is even, misses the mark.

[18:44]

And then the sixth ancestor says, well, is there no practice in realization, no practice in enlightenment? And he says, I don't say there is no practice in enlightenment, I just say that it cannot be defiled, or must not be defiled. And the sixth ancestor says, this way of non-defilement is what all Buddhas have been maintaining. Now you are like this, and I am like this too. One way to comment on this would be to say, what is it that thus comes?

[19:45]

Or what is Buddha? What is the practice of a bodhisattva? How do you get to be a Buddha? And he said, to say it's this, to say it's like this or like that, that misses the point. So there is presented, the Buddha is presented and the Buddha has qualities and there's a path to Buddha. But to say this is it, defiles it. So in the midst of all these teachings, the Buddhas are primarily, according to the Sixth Ancestor, with keeping the undefiled way while doing all these practices. And one more, two generations after Huayuan, you have the monk, well actually one generation, you have Matsu, and then you have Matsu's disciple, Baijiang, and both of them taught that the way of meditation requires cultivation.

[21:02]

Just don't be defiled. Before I get into more lofty things, in a way, I would just say that, again, many people come to this Zen Center and go into the meditation hall and practice meditation. And one of the ways they practice meditation is, I don't know, following their breathing, countering their breathing. That's one of the ways. To say, this is it, or this isn't it, to say this is Buddha, following your breath, to say this is it, and this is the point. To say this isn't it, to go up to somebody who, you know, or go up to yourself sitting there following your breathing and say this isn't it, that misses the point too.

[22:13]

You're sitting there, not even counting your breath, just sitting there. And you say that's it, that misses the point. And if you're just sitting there and saying this isn't it, that misses the point. Now, if you're sitting there daydreaming, you say, now this is it. Or you say, no, this isn't it. Most people say this isn't it. Right? How could daydreaming be the Buddha? Buddha must be something different from daydreaming, right? So, this is not it. But also, to say Buddha is the same as daydreaming, saying this is it. The important point is that when you're sitting in that meditation hall, that you're undefiled. You're practicing non-defilement.

[23:23]

You're not getting involved with what you're doing. Like, for example, if you're daydreaming, you don't get involved. Like, you don't get involved by saying, This is Buddha. This isn't Buddha. You're not involved like, let's have more of this, or less of this, or the seminar of this. You're not involved. You don't get involved in your experience. But you do go in there and have an experience and be very wholeheartedly not getting involved in it. And you're there having the experience and not getting involved in it. You're not grasping your experience.

[24:34]

You're not seeking anything else. You actually are not getting involved. The practice doesn't have you in there defiling it. And that's the practice. The practice sitting there, undefiled by you, or me, or Jesse. Nobody's defiling it. Nobody's messing with it. That's the practice that the Buddhas are taking care of. Now, when you can practice like this in undefiled way, then if you want to, you can learn how to skip rope, or jump rope, or suck a popsicle, or follow your breath, or practice patience, or practice precepts, or practice diligence, or practice all kinds of profound concentrations. Because this non-defilement is wisdom. This not getting involved is another study of emptiness that you know there aren't really any practices there to do anyway.

[25:45]

And that protects you while you're doing these practices. So, if you hear about these practices, please take care not to get stuck in them, not to avoid them. But to be diligent about all these virtuous practices with no clinging, no seeking, no getting stuck, no avoiding, no affirming, no denying. In other words, be perfectly balanced about this. So, now, are we ready for Todd's question? Well, one person, if that's enough. Todd? When you're first starting, it seems like a certain amount of getting involved is not only inevitable but necessary.

[26:46]

Well, if it's inevitable, then I guess you could promote it to necessary. But if it didn't happen... if it didn't happen, if the inevitable wasn't really part of inevitable. In other words, it is possible to wander into this place by accident. Some people might be like a UPS guy. He might come in here and just not leave. And he had no veining idea. I mean, was to get paid to deliver the stuff. But then when he just stopped. you know, and just stopped defiling, and there he, here he was. That could have been the beginning of his Precious. So you don't have to go through this, actually, that's the beginner's mind way. You don't have to, like, skip over the beginner's mind. But most people do. Most people, they can't get to a Zen center without getting involved in steps and stages.

[27:51]

So most people, yeah, right. To say it's necessary, then it's sort of redundant. Whatever way you get here, I guess it's necessary that you came that way. If you took a bus, the bus was necessary. If you moved across the planet, then moving across the planet was necessary. In other words, whatever illusions you think brought you to practice, well, I guess you needed those. But anyway, whatever problems we have, whatever defiled practices we have, then we can just like not defile that. In other words, anybody have any confessions about any defilements here? And move on. And if you want to do more defilements, I mean,

[28:55]

basically Zen Center will let you do it. Some Zen teachers will not. You're out. If you, you know, you know, one slight little sign of like trying to get the practice, trying to be a bodhisattva in a grasping way, and they would say, would you please get out? Some of them will do that because they think that's helpful. Like that. But you can keep defiling your practice indefinitely and still stay at Zen Center. You can. And it gives certain other people a job to do. Okay, now... Just keep this in mind, you know, as we proceed down on this path, okay?

[29:56]

So the bodhisattva path, as I... What's the first step or the first stage, the first step? What is the first thing? What's the foundation? Compassion. What's the next step or the next stage? Bodhicitta. The aspiration to... Realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings. And when this arises, one is a bodhisattva. One is hooked on the bodhisattva path. One is cooked. One yearns for Buddhahood and one yearns to follow the path to Buddhahood. And this bodhicitta has two types. Remember the two types? Intention. Right? Yeah, moving into it, moving into it or setting it rolling. The intention is actually the feeling, the yearning that you actually want to be Buddha.

[31:00]

And the other thing is that you actually make a vow. and you make a vow, you know, to yourself, but also you make a vow publicly to somebody else who's a bodhisattva preceptor who also has, you know, holds the same vow that you have, is caring for the same vow that you have, that you wish to make. Okay? So we have formal ceremonies like that at Zen Center. Next. What's next? What? The practice, yeah. And the practice is basically what? It's the paramitas, yeah. And the paramitas are basically what? You can say six, but you can say shorter than six. What's the simple way of saying the paramitas? Compassion and wisdom. All right. or compassion and means, compassion and compassionate means.

[32:07]

So compassion is like usually in this case karuna, and means is upaya, and wisdom is prajna. So the religious practice is compassion and wisdom joined, but also it's compassion in terms of these skillful means, which are basically giving, and study, patience, diligence, and concentration. Those are the means. Where is she? Where's Christina? There she is. Where did you get the picture? Means are vehicles of compassion, but also means are modes of attraction. Modes of attraction.

[33:12]

And one of the things I liked about Zen was that Zen was not a proselytizing religion. But I was wrong. It is a proselytizing religion. It's just It's just a cool proselytizing position. Some people get attracted by somebody in the street who says, want a Cadillac? Want to get laid? And some people say, yeah. Say, well, just join this school of Buddhism and you'll get what you want. Some people don't like that approach. Yeah, I'm solo. Yeah, this is what I liked about Zen. And then I saw this. Okay. Can you see it?

[34:37]

So this is one of the skillful means. Sitting upright attracts people to the Bodhisattva way. Why? I don't know. Some people think this is beautiful and they're attracted to beauty. I want to sit like that. A lot of people wonder, you know, how is sitting compassion? And I talked about that before. And once I'm sitting as compassion in the sense that it's training at compassion, you sit there and you sit there and you sit there until you are totally full of compassion. You sit there and you accept Buddha's compassion until you're overflowing with it. That's one way it's compassion, is in the sense of generating the feeling of compassion. But another way it's compassion is that it's... It's not about you getting concentrated and you avoiding all kinds of difficulty and you avoiding all kinds of sleazy states of body and mind and you not getting into... all that stuff.

[35:58]

encouraging other people to enter the Buddha way. So this picture encouraged me to become a Zen student. And now you sit and encourage people to become Zen students. When I come to the Zen Do and see people sitting in there, I keep thinking, God, there must be something to this. Look at them. Hour after hour, year after year, they just sit there. And I know that they haven't gotten anything out of it yet. At first they did. And that was inevitable. And necessary. And then they didn't. And then they complained and cried for years. But now, After 20, 30 years, now they don't get anything, but they're still happy.

[37:05]

They're happy because they understand that they're encouraging others to practice other virtues. They're encouraging people to practice patience because they're demonstrating patience. They're giving. They're giving their life blood. You're giving your life blood to encourage people to sit when you sit. Now, if you don't think you are, then you're missing out on part of the practice called giving. And if you don't understand that you're encouraging people to enter the Buddha way by your sitting, by showing them something beautiful and pretty and beautiful and useful that they can actually put their body that way. If you don't see that, you're missing out on how you are actually practicing compassion and encouraging people to practice. Now, most of you know that all this is patience. Most of you know that you practice patience, right? Right?

[38:07]

Yeah. Yeah. He sat enough, almost everybody sat enough to like, hey, this is hard and I'm still here. Wow. At first, you know, I got angry and started trying to blame, you know, somebody for the situation of being in a sasheen. Like in the early days of Zen Center, one of the early Zen students who was also a, he was the, he wasn't the captain of the standard football team, but he was voted most inspirational. And he also was one of the apes in the early Planet of the Ape movie. This is the high quality Zen students we used to have. And he's sitting there and he's thinking, Suzuki Roshi and these other Japanese priests, this is like the revenge for us beating him in the Second World War.

[39:09]

This is how we get back to get these Americans into these concentration camps. And get them to voluntarily torture themselves by sitting cross-legged for hours and hours. Some of you, I know some of you, actually, I think that, right? Got really angry after Tangario. Why does it have to hurt so much? I hear quite frequently. Anyway, people get through this and gradually start practicing patience. You're practicing patience. Now, would you understand that that encourages other people to practice patience? That you're helping other people to practice patience by all the practice of the patience you practice? And also, all those hours in the Zanda when you weren't stealing anything or lying... When you weren't intoxicating yourself by misusing sexuality, those few minutes you weren't misusing sexuality, you were practicing the precepts.

[40:13]

And not only that, but it encourages people when you're in a zendo not stealing. It encourages them that you don't like. Take their bowls. Take their cushion. Take their gomashio. Take too much seconds so they don't get any. That encourages them when you practice the precepts. And most people do. And so you help people. And even people don't care about the good things you do in there. And you're diligent. Sometimes you're diligent. And not that diligence isn't just for you. And so on. All that goes on, all those practices in the simple sitting practice. But then there's also outside the sitting practice, are you giving? When you talk to people, are you giving? Is that a gift? Or even if it isn't a gift, is there giving going on and you don't even know where the gift is, but you feel like giving is happening.

[41:18]

You don't even know who's giving or who's not. Are you practicing giving? Are you practicing precepts? The Bodhisattva practice is to do those practices and to learn how to do them until finally you're doing all those practices all the time. So you understand that you're doing them all the time and you want to and you continue to do that, to live that way, to practice these virtues. These are compassionate, skillful means. This is sort of basically half the practice. However, This has to be joined with, and of course I didn't mention, concentration. Some of you are practicing concentration. Many Zen students practice concentration. Some are more into it than others, just like some are more into giving than others, and some are more into patience than others. But anyway, lots of Zen students practice concentration. But all these practices are done and they advance through non-apprehension.

[42:23]

In other words, they must be joined with wisdom so that we don't defile them. Wisdom is the wisdom which realizes emptiness, which understands you know, what these practices really are. Namely, they aren't something that I can do, or that I can't do. They're something that happens through the actual bodhisattva practice, which is not done by a self. The self is like dropped out of the picture. That's the non-defiling of these virtues. Now, of course, As Todd said, mostly when we try to practice giving or diligence or precepts at the beginning or the early phases, we are thinking in terms of ourselves doing them and that this is what they are and that's not what they are.

[43:26]

We're defiling left and right. So part of the practice also is for you to dualistically confess that you're dualistically practicing virtue. And then someday maybe it will happen that the practice you confess your practice of virtue and you confess your defilement of the practice of virtue, but although the confession happens, you don't get involved. And this is like starting to see how it actually happens. Okay, so wisdom protects all these bodhisattva practices. Wisdom also protects wisdom. And also, the bodhisattva practices give life to wisdom, so wisdom isn't just seeing clearly, it's seeing clearly joined with all these virtuous practices. Yes? When you speak of non-apprehension, is apprehension considered cognitive healing?

[44:31]

Does that mean that if you do something cognitive, it's a self-inaction? But it has another meaning. Is apprehension cognitive? Well, it's cognitive in the sense that it is a misconception. So it's cognitive in the sense it's associated with cognition. So it's a way of knowing. Think in terms of grasper and grasped. It's a dualistic way of understanding the practices of our life. It doesn't mean you don't understand it. You can understand it. You can understand what? The different stages, the different skillful means. Yeah. Yes. That would... You can, and that's what we're trying to work towards, is actually understanding what's going on without any gravity.

[45:40]

So it could even be a cognitive understanding. Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. So... So can I, can you, can we go into the Zendo or do anything else around here? Can we sit and walk and stand and lie down? Can we live and not defile it? That's the question. So, if you want to... So, again, I'm about to continue, little by little, dealing in terms of all kinds of stages and things to learn. But aside from those, even before we get into them, can you go into this... I hear people, not necessarily consciously or intentionally, but they do confess that that's the way they practice.

[46:59]

They're trying to avoid distraction and get concentration. It's fine to want concentration. It's fine to want to give up distraction. Matter of fact, that would be fine. But if there's distraction, can you practice in an undefiled way with it? If there's concentration, can you practice in an undefiled way with it? This is the main teaching of Zen, is to not get involved in concentration. Distraction. If you get concentration, give it away. If you get distraction, give it away. Anybody like my distraction? Here, here, got it. In Zen we do have concentration, but the Zen student, the good Zen student, can't have it.

[48:07]

But you also can't have distraction. You can't have anything. So if you've got something, then you've got something to confess. So we didn't get much further on the path tonight, but I wanted just to go take maybe a couple more baby steps. One more baby step is we have all these practices, bodhisattvas are doing these practices. So I ask myself, am I practicing giving? Am I practicing the precepts? I'll just tell you. Am I practicing giving? The answer is Am I practicing the precepts? I'm trying. Actually, I'm trying. Am I practicing patience? I'm trying. Am I practicing diligence?

[49:12]

I'm trying. Am I practicing concentration? Actually, I'm trying. Now let's ask the question again. Am I practicing concentration? Am I practicing giving? Yes. Not too well, but yes. You have to ask yourself, are you practicing these practices? And if you're not, would you like to? If you'd like to be a bodhisattva, if you'd like to be a Buddha, these are the practices that all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas practice, these five practices I just mentioned. to achieve Buddhahood for the welfare of others, but they also do it for the welfare of others before achieving Buddhahood, because they helped people before. If they don't help people, we're not doing them right.

[50:14]

I shouldn't say we're not doing them right, but we're not doing them very well. practice, giving skillfully, it encourages people to do the same. It attracts them into the practice. So some people give, I guess some people give and it might make other people get more stingy. Or they might say, well you gave so I'm not going to. such that you don't let somebody else off in the practice, but actually make it look like, that looked really interesting. How did you do that? How did you get so much fun out of giving that? Show me how to do it. Well, you go kind of like, you put your left foot out, right hand out, and left hand on top, and then you turn. Anyway, are you practicing these practices? Do you want to practice these practices? Now, the next thing is wisdom. We need to develop wisdom to purify these practices.

[51:19]

And we need to do these practices with the wisdom. And the wisdom occurs in these three levels, which I thought I was going to talk about tonight, but I didn't get there yet. Three levels are the level of This one's called Shrutamaya Prajna, which means prajna by means of hearing. Shrut. And the next one, Shintamaya Prajna. And citta, you could say, is by thinking or by thought. And then that last one is called bhavana. Bhavana, prajna through meditation. How these three ways of wisdom work is quite complicated.

[52:32]

And to learn about these, we'll take some, you know, we'll have to understand how this works. But I'm just telling you that the traditional presentation of the Bodhisattva path involves these three levels of wisdom, three kinds of wisdom. And what is involved here will be news So this will be news about some of the details of what it takes to traverse the voice of the path. But as you hear about these things, please try to relax. Don't get involved in all this. Yeah? Yeah. There's a few types of wisdom that I just mentioned. I wrote down before, I listened to... over the teacher and through experience, do those equate with hearing and thought?

[53:37]

So, through listening means you listen to the teaching and also you read the teaching. mostly by listening and reading, although you can taste, you can lick the teaching, you can smell the teaching, you can touch the teaching. So basically, that kind of relationship, you study the traditional teachings of the Bodhisattva path and with the Bodhisattva teacher. The next level is you internally, you think about it, you ponder it, you reflect on it. And this process of reflection I think would be great if we could actually go into detail about this process of examination of the teachings, of examination of phenomena that happens in wisdom at this level. And the third level, to complete the story, wisdom that comes through meditation.

[54:42]

And in this case, this has two basic branches in the traditional presentation. One branch is calming or tranquility, and the other branch is insight or observation or contemplation. Samatha is the calming side, vipassana, the insight or the contemplation, observation side. And basically, as I mentioned before, one side, the side of calming, could be spoken of as sensory withdrawal. which means your attention to withdraw from the senses in the sense of train your attention to not get involved in sensory experience.

[55:49]

To, again, not grasp or seek would apply. And so on. I thought, you know, tonight I would elaborate on this, but I guess I'm not going to. And then the vipassana, the observation, is instead of withdrawing from the teaching or the phenomena, you contemplate it, you examine it, you analyze it. And the phenomena could be sense phenomena, it could be thoughts in your own mind, or it could be the teachings. So it could be a bodily experience, it could be feelings, general states of consciousness, or it could be teachings. So if you look at the four foundations of mindfulness, those could be topics here under the second aspect of wisdom developed through meditation.

[56:55]

So these can be developed separately. So first you develop one, the calming practices, then you develop the insight practices, then you join them together and practice with them joined. And then every phase of learning, every phase of development along the path, you go calm, insight, join them. So every topic of insight, you listen to it, then you calm down with it, you examine it, and then you join the calming and examining. And the examining that you do together with the calming, you use the same understanding and method of examination that you developed under the second form of wisdom. You do the first form of wisdom, the second form of wisdom, the third form of wisdom, you bring in calming to it.

[58:06]

Join the calming with insight or examination, which is join the calming with the examination you did in the previous stage. That's why this stage of reflection or pondering or examination is also used in the Vipassana work that's done in the wisdom of meditation. So the next, so there's three big areas I think that you're not familiar with. One is, what is this type of wisdom called wisdom through thinking or reflecting? And then, again, I think you are somewhat familiar with teachings about the calming practices, which we'll go over those again. But then the passion or the observation practices, those I think you're not so familiar with. but they are part of the deal for becoming a Buddha.

[59:09]

And all this of developing wisdom, and this practice is joined then with all these practices of virtue, and this practice will gradually purify our practices of virtue. And you got it written. But you know, it probably won't help you any. I think actually this kind of group situation will be most helpful. But it'll take some more time. So it's like I say, we're going to move slowly. Yes, Joe? Is the boot up here? Is the Buddha pure? I hesitate to say yes.

[60:17]

I don't want to say yes. I think Stephen was next, yes? Did you say not practice a virtue without defilement? Would it be better to practice it with defilement than not to practice it? Definitely. Like, for example, practicing the precepts with defilement, is that better than not practicing the precepts at all? I would say definitely, unless you have a teacher who thinks it would be better if you didn't even try to practice the precepts because you're doing so badly at them.

[61:30]

You know? You're so bad at them, I think it'd be better if you just admit that you're not practicing them at all. Just don't even try to admit that you're like a total immoral troublemaker. I would like you at least to remember that and try, you know, under those circumstances to keep in touch with how deluded and cruel you are. Now, if you listen to that kind of talk without striking back, in fact, you're suddenly practicing the precepts. Now, if there's some defilement, I would say, pretty good. You know, not strike back at this bodhisattva who gave you that instruction. But mostly, unless you get some kind of big encouragement like that, You probably should try and then admit the defilement.

[62:36]

In admitting the defilement, see if you can do it in an undefiled way. And if you can't admit it in an undefiled way, confess it. You not only confessed in an undefiled way, not only did you confess, but you did the confession in an undefiled way. And then basically you'll learn how to confess in an undefiled way. And if you can do that, you can gradually, that process of confession will change your practice of precepts. And the other practices too. So if you notice that you're giving in order to get credit for it or so people will like you or so people won't, you know, if you're doing it from the self-centered, self-serving way and confessing that, you're doing pretty well, I'd say. Please, let's work on developing our virtue practices as much as we can, even though we don't have perfect wisdom yet. Okay. Max, did you want to say something? I just wanted to ask, like in northern India, the Vajrayana developed and the idea of having practices to speed up the path to Buddhahood.

[63:50]

Yeah. I was just wondering how you feel about that. Practices to speed it up? Right. Well, I mean, they claim, what I've read is like, instead of... to speed up Buddhahood. That's what they're all about. They just said if you're sitting around and you don't do any practices, that kind of slows it down. So all the practices are trying to speed it up. Didn't you know that? And practicing giving all the time speeds up enlightenment. You're practicing enlightenment when you are giving. It speeds it up. You're realizing it. So yeah, they're all about speeding it up. Okay? And what we're just trying to say is, if you're doing any of these speeding up enlightenment, you can do them without trying to gain anything for yourself. Okay? And if you notice you're trying to gain anything for yourself, Own up to it.

[64:52]

Avow it, you know. Like when we say in the morning, we say, all my ancient twisted... And you might hear Max saying, I'm trying to gain something from this practice right now. You heard that? Yes. So what about the idea In the Lotus Sutra, that's what we were studying this last Sunday. What about the idea of merit, yes? Yeah. Isn't that sort of gaining it again? Well, again, if you practice giving, even in a defiled way, there's some merit. If you read the Lotus Sutra or the Diamond Sutra, one of the phrases of the Diamond Sutra, the merit of reading one or reciting a phrase of the Diamond Sutra is like incalculably more meritorious than giving oceans of jewels to Buddhas.

[65:59]

So these practices are like high-potency merit generators. OK? That's what virtue is about. Virtue is about generating lots of merit. But we want to generate production with perfect wisdom. Otherwise, it's defiled. Pardon? It becomes merit for your sake. becomes merit, you know, in some dualistic way. So, yes, all these virtue practices have merit, generate merit, and that's good. Now, we need to also practice meditation so we can develop wisdom to protect all these virtuous practices from getting, well, I shouldn't say protect them from being undermined, or another way to put it is to help them fully blossom.

[67:10]

which they will do when they're joined with understanding, purified understanding. Okay? I'll let you evacuate the sauna. Are you warm? You too. Yeah, it's over here. You're by this throat too. I'm sorry that we're moving so slowly, but I have to keep, what do you call it, justifying the system so that you don't lose track of the basic practice that applies to everything. Yes? Do you intend to keep teaching this until you get to the end of it?

[68:16]

Well, you know, I already did get to the end of it. I got to Buddhahood last week. Remember? Yeah. So now it's like going back over and filling in the details. And there's tremendous detail to be filled in. Now, do I wish, do I wait, will I continue until all the detail is filled in? I die, but I don't know if I will die before or after this completion of the picture is done. Especially since I feel obliged to constantly return to remind us to not process. by trying to, like, get something out of it. That, you know, kind of slows it down. Otherwise we could just race through it and you'd just sit there and it would just sink into you, you know, because you had no hindrance due to any kind of attachments.

[69:18]

You'd understand the stuff, like, just... That would only take about a few months. You'd just, like, all these sutras would just pour into you and that would be it. You'd immediately, you know, be the sutras. but it'd probably take more than a few months, but that seems... that's fine because to me it's really interesting... interesting teaching of bodhisattva. This is Hisamatsu Shinichi, Japanese person. And when I saw this picture, there was a subtitle, and it said, in deepest thought, And when I read that, I thought, yes, deepest thought should look beautiful. When we're thinking deeply, our body should be beautiful. And I think when a basketball player is doing something, or a gymnast,

[70:25]

or a piano player, when they're doing these beautiful things, I think they're thinking very deeply. But some of us who have no skills like that, we can do it this way. And I think, you know, on the zendo, and I see the people sitting there, I think it's very beautiful what you're doing. It was published in Life magazine, 1954. This picture made you want to be a photographer? That series? Yeah, they were lovely. Lovely. Is that enough for tonight? Thank you.

[71:15]

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