November 10th, 2007, Serial No. 01095

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in number the
the earliest
when i was a berkeley high before such
i have had that every position

port though
thank you
maybe
most most of you know where the middle of our aspects of practice period of one month period of increased study and possibly increase attendance
and
i it's been going to might usually tennis has been a little the low side but i think that p m
the sustaining a theme of studying the para muitos which were our subject is has been good
and i found in lectures and classes have been very
on the ball
filing it's going well
ah
and a little i'm actually relieved surgeons that can here
he wrote her a couple of mondays ago you can understand
it
so you know we're studying the parra meters and just for you those of you who haven't been here so much the umpire meters per meter means
crossing over or going beyond
and the six para muitos are giving or generosity morality or discipline patience
energy
or on
so i went for angie effort
meditation and wisdom
so today i'm going to talk about wisdom which sanskrit word is prajna
actually the is pronounced more like yeah we all say prajna and and i actually liked the sound of project and better saw say project but just wish to say for the record that it's actually pronounced more like because i can't do it exactly when i pride in yeah
and the the you know buddhism has lots of lists of qualities and
noble
i'm
ah realizations of different qualities of a personality and what we can do as humans
but the colonies of the part the parra muitos have the particular quality of of transcendence which is not some kind of glorious you know going to some ethereal place necessarily but moving beyond what our boundaries are or what are apparent
boundaries are or what we what what what a are apparent restrictions on
learning or studying or moving
to
not be so confined by what what appears to be or limitations
happy and one way you could look at it is that we're going beyond we're we're expanding going and getting bigger
but another way you know if you see if you just think about in terms of size that would be
a misleading i think it could also be seen as is in a way i remember getting smaller but you can see it as though
that were already just fine
and that because we've we've covered up that fineness
we have this limitation and not being able to just recognize what we are so rather than expanding getting really big you could imagine it as
letting go of what's hindering us recovering us up all the those are just images that are very partial but
i think it's a mistake to to think of us getting really big in the sense that we usually think of big

so i also like you new to consider what what you think with the minutes and we use all these words in lecture and study but i think it's really part of
being present and and part of mine for us to not just take our words for granted and not take language for granted
so wisdom you know it's a big word and in all cultures and all religions seem to have that word and in one form or another
so when we thought about with wisdom and buddhism
should think about what do we really mean or how did how do you
i understand that word in buddhism

if i think about wisdom the just the word in english
i'm not so much from what i've learned in buddhism just just you you given that word to me my first response would be well as somebody who's has a lot of like experience who hasn't really good judgment has accumulated a kind of
something some quality that
is that the is smart and has good judgment sees big picture
and they've done this through i'm not sure how they'd done this but probably through a lot of
through a lot of living a lot of life experience lot of learning studying an influence from others
and i don't know how you think the word but i think in this culture and there's a certain you need the way the people will think about moved into some kind of is connected with some kind of accumulation accumulation of
experience that results in allies outlook
which i think that's true but i think in buddhism
that the then there's that aspect in buddhism as well as an accumulation of knowledge and practice and experience but also is really important is it that there is a letting go quality that was in is actually in buddhism very much connected with letting go and not
some the emphasis is more the letting go of and it is on the accumulating
so letting go of our biases letting go of the what were attached to which is as buddhists
second truth that that seven noble truth that we are
because we clean and are attached the things pervasively
we become unhappy because we can't let go
so who wisdom and buddhism has to do with letting go not so much with accumulating

and in the census and lenses and isn't i think this is why i like this practice is just to be able to sit quietly and just let go of all the stuff and i'm usually
pursuing
only some of the stuff

so the question is
so i don't know if you see with and like that or not

the though you know if the word prajna is as i said is what we used for wisdom sanskrit word
i'm in if you in in reading about prize and doing some preparation for the talk i realized that that prajna and wisdom and buddhism is not just one there's a certain overriding energy to that but it's not just one particular frequency that there is that there is
you know if you caught him levels but there are aspects of prajna it's not just projects as one thing
there's an overriding energy to it but it's not just one particular thing so pregnant can be as simple as just an inquisitive kind of mine wanted to understand how something works has that that aspect of investigation of wanting to
see how things actually are basically you know i think most most people would agree that was as see things as they as they actually are seeing clearly so
wanting to just to understand how things have some little machine works for instance could be an aspect the prajna just to enquire to to want to learn something
and doubt doubting wanting to understand what's really true what's not and having some doubt about what may be the status quo is is also part of price now it can easily it can bear peer into a kind of obsessive down
outer skeptical about which is can become neurotic but you know healthy doubt which has has an oak which has an open mind within it
is also aspect of wisdom i don't know i don't know what's true i would like to find out

mindfulness is also aspect of prajna just mind being willing to pay attention to how can we possibly know see things as they are unless we're willing to pay attention
if we're totally wrapped up in our drama and our personal story and and personal drawn all the time how can we see what's actually happening in front of us has it's happening
some mindfulness is also part of prize now
there is a aspect of
maybe the maybe the most important aspect that we emphasize in zen practice is emptiness or shunyata in sanskrit
an emptiness of some of an own being you know some intrinsic core reference point is at the bottom of everything some particular hum
origin for instance origin that's independent they're so far we can't locate any independent origin in ourselves or korean phenomena so but we want there to be one we want to have some feeling of
something that's secure that we can that we can be you know locate even if we don't think about it in that way i think emotionally least i find you it myself that i want to have something to keep
something that i can really count on that i can get my hands on
so you know you can talk about it like a chump a rubbish he talks about like pulling the rug out from under us that that the prisoner is actually whatever we want to stand on as being something that makes us secure and
hum
well just to say that something that makes us feel secure when everyone to stand on
we put the wrote this gets pulled away there's really nothing to stand off
and that's what that's what the four noble truths are all about you know we didn't you could say we can stand on eight it on the noble eightfold path but

as long as there's a sense of attachment of holding and clean
hum there's a problem
so in it is also just wherever we noticed that we have just that were standing on something could be a relationship it can be practice could be yourself image be a job can be a family whatever it is to be able to
let that rub be pulled out from under us or acknowledge that the bets the death a part of our life that we can always be standing on this particular rug and then it's okay if it's pulled out
as now
and actually that's a kind of can be a daily practice it doesn't need to be particularly dramatic or big deal
if i think about my work life
all day long you know i'm concerned about myself image and people's relationship to me and it's all how am i doing am i doing well and doing poorly and put a lot of juice energy and at work and i enjoy my job
but i'm also very invested with my image of myself in this job so that's what kind of rug with i stand on you know my my image of a me which is my ego
in my work situation and all day long just being willing to just route just recognize that in a way recognize a it's not exactly pulling the rug out but it's it's realizing just realizing that yes i'm standing on this rug and then it's not really necessary

and also disputed this to more possibilities for practicing the poem he doesn't protect practicing on pricing apart me to his one is just being open minded just having an open mind
which is being present which is being living at the moment
and in minimizing our agenda
i think you have to me this has really been the most powerful aspect of prisoner of wisdom just having an open mind
suzuki roshi call it soft mind
mind that just is ready just just to accept whatever comes
without having some fixed point of view than that we're getting behind all the time
and another way would be a kind of the other side of that kind of practice for the carnitas know there was that the open side is just too if you're feeling if we're feeling stingy in terms of the
current meta donna party me to of giving her generosity if we're feeling stingy we just noticed that we're feeling stingy where it is open to the yes i am really stingy now rather than i should be really generous non stingy and that's just the way it is but i really i really perceive that that's what's happening and i'm
interested in this as a reality is a fact so i'm interested in tasting if this tasting with the stinginess actually is i don't just want to do this blindly i am going to be stingy i want to do with
some awareness
the other side of that is that we can make some effort to be generous and
even if we don't feel jealous and try to be generous anyway
even if we don't feel it's hard to know for the energetic and try to be energy efficient but we can try to be energetic go run around the block
so that's the others the other side of just being open would be trying something even though you don't really feel like a try it anyway see what that feels like
see know that we have these on the altar we have these several figures that are all represent sept two of them in particular represent wisdom or prajna
and they're kind of interesting
this is my juicery scuse me
if i drop it would be terrible
this is my juicery
am i drew three is the in zan industry is currently let me say the patron saint of magician is very important as own practice
and manjushri in other different images of manjushri according to what country they come from in one ear and so forth traditionally manjushri in one hand i think it's right hand
has a sword which is the sort of cutting through ignorance
wisdom so a double edged was in so it cuts through ignorance and in zen in particular emphasis of cutting through dualism
in the other hand laundry she holds something which represents knowledge or the teachings that conventional teachings
especially prajna parameter as the teachings the wisdom literature this particular manjushri does not have and see we're sort of on the gentle side
we've got rid of the stick you know we don't use the sticks so much anymore and this manjushri doesn't have a sword has manjushri just think it is in teaching mood yet with one hand and the other hand from alan this research on as this morning and this had other hand mudras she's holding a cup can get so
with cook too which is what alan and sojourn carry their teaching staff
but this would generally be represent knowledge
in traditional i can understand
mm so we have knowledge on one hand
which has some dualistic aspect of years me and here's what i know and then you have the sword which is cutting through that whole division and me and what i know and and just a sort of interest in general and then you have been she is riding on a lion and the lion
his confidence power of our practice
lions were a buddhism
ah
and some laundry she is a fairly fears character with this you know especially tibetan monks issues in this sword swinging a sword riding scarce lion but manjushri the word the name under three means a gentle glory
to actually do if actually gentle
so even though there's a fierce quality there's also very gentle quality which i would associate with being open open quality
someone someone just is the
masculine principle and then we have president part of meta who is the feminine principle of wisdom and
this figure the middle is one that rebecca did which is persian empire meta
and again this is not the conventional persian empire meat and this is rebecca's
if i hit him in the market to this a bucket evocation of protein per meter but traditionally the feminine principle and private apartment to in terms of an image i'm actually one ox manjushri because she
she has a four arms
and
one arm
as a same kind of sword manjushri does the other arm holds the same kind of wisdom teachings knowledge that monge issue does but she's got two more and these other two are just sitting in mudra doing meditation doing zazen so not own
oh as she cutting through delusion not only is she aware of the teachings and
respect to the teaching but also she just sitting

so you know you can see it on these least three different levels just it's just the way of hanover
a a scheme for understanding are just different way of looking at wisdom understanding wisdom so on one hand we have the teachings which are
at the sutras and and on the very structure of buddhism which is so
precise

and this is only to common knowledge and it seems necessary
although knowledge is dualistic you can see it as like a dharma gate
yeah down we start out with the teachings presented to us and a conceptual away and here's meters at teachings in here is the way at all is and this is right and mrs wrong and there's eight of these sixteen of those and this is why this works in this is why networks
and then we have to take it beyond that this is what a car it has taken beyond the the
conceptual ideation or aspect of it and actualizing it into being what it is that we've been presented with as an idea or a structure
so if we don't do that we we just hanging out at the gate it's a pretty good day we just hang out there for a whole lifetime and just do reading and studying and thinking and it will have some effect i think it actually influences us but until we actually this away i think we're we've name this period embodying
the parameters unless we actually
inhabit somehow had that even really a said we just have to do it so the knowledge that we've learned in our brain we have to actually do and you could say what we do with our body we do with the body and our brain and everything we've got and it's that
that transformation of some had invention of a conceptual recognition into actually this is what our this is what we do
that is the transcendent aspect of it
the knowledge but i should not be snobby about knowledge
and then of monks all the schools of buddhism can to downplay conventional learning
nevertheless so as long as i've known surgeon he's been doing tremendous amount of reading every day and dogan was a consonant scholar although he downplayed it he was and he need a tremendous amount and rather a tremendous amount
then then was really what gets me more fun is this the sword monday sword which is cutting through delusion and this is this is where zen practice really a sort of collins come in
cons are in other heart they're here they can be irritating to me you know not to be able to feel with one in talking about
so by why so hard for me to understand it is because it's is a sword there is is cutting through my whole way of thinking my whole thinking process of being cut
somehow it doesn't quite work the figure out have to find some different approach
but here's an example is an level call on but it's a little interchange with joe you
a month after shoe what is meditation and master said it is not meditation monk said why is it not meditation and master said it's alive it's alive
so the monk is wants to make meditation and the subject something that we can look at and it's okay do this i mean we can talk about it like dead and if we really want to understand meditation resides in
we can't make it and we can't make it into an object
so that was this a joke joshua saying you know it's it's not a subject is not of it's not an object it's not something which we can
put out here and look at we can do it for purposes of discussion but if you want to actually experience it
just be alive
and another example
how can the i think on shortener let her go
and then so such as the the other
slicing aspect her wisdom and finally wishes president part of me meters just sitting what she represents and just sitting
is
and you can say is buddha nature just you can say resting and buddha nature

his hard to put words to it
but it is a good palm
logan's teacher raging created as common as a very really famous com and i've always liked it quite a lot and i don't know poetry and so but this one i like a lot mrs called the windmill
and a discuss the whole body
like a mouth
hanging an emptiness
not asking whether the breeze be from south or north
easter west
for all alike preach the prize now
teaching tingling tingling tingling
how did it once more
the whole body like a mouth hanging in emptiness
not asking whether the breeze be from south or north east or west
for all alike preached prajna
tingling feeling feeling
and then after that com of merging has a little commentary where he says the entire body is prajna the entirety of others is now the entirety of the self is punished him east west south or north the entire realm is prisoner
so this is just sitting

and
and it's just sitting in this is just open mind whichever way the wind blows that's okay

so i've stop there you have any comment
i found a top of way far
just a couple of congo

the any jet

love
he will be want to stay with that unite guestrooms and one beginner's my but if you can some people may not know what you're referring to
i just handed
yeah
wow
hey
when anything was

that is helpful to me
happening
yeah as as mindfulness
my voice isn't looking for they just take that the mindfulness doesn't discriminate between i like having a tape was there
as can sway interested
so come on
like now
the mouth is something which can take anything in everything you know he takes something into her mouth so the are our whole self as like an hour will just take him for taking yeah we're not pushing away or sealing off and just can pick in the things he's going to move through us
but i did scary
helga
a
and
daniel

well he asserted has been careful not to not think he doesn't not recommend that he doesn't say don't study
ha
it's just not emphasize on much
so
you know usually as the is not so extreme is just said some matter of emphasis just the emphasis is on direct experience and now working with a teacher and and sitting and can just being really mindful of your every moment that's where the emphasis is but i don't use
italy in there are extreme cases where teachers in the past been a big effort was burned them plates for them loop with reference you know it's just you know they don't burn book sometimes because they feel like it's becoming to study oriented to know the being street reaction and just sort of training
get the ball drop it
the contrast between teachers and new tremendous amount of studying now and and that the emphasis on it is interesting
maybe somebody who has lots of studying like a say something
helen
who will die
question what you need
most of us myself included
phil
and why it is
lucky what the embargo of people who read
hey new places
hundred million fine
it's interesting by the main thing
you you just how we do
ah drinking health is just ah
you've heard me

but you know you were saying earlier
april
he some time
some people have an insatiable
inquiry and past year
know which is that's how they are here
yeah but you can explore for dubai
off but you have to people who were dragged back into the
in some
he's being body of knowledge and giving back the bathroom
i just want to go back out let me indulge myself just for a second as if it hadn't been already
i'm
there's one story this whole notion of pulling the rug out from under us
and there's a wonderful story of the street punjab as a hindu guru the non dualistic can kinda guru who i died maybe twenty years ago and i think alexandra met him in india one point
he he knew he had a good friend who is a christian minister of living in india from i think he was european
and minister was really devoted and really devout christian
and a really passionate about his whole life was was his practice by three pooja would have all his various genetic experiences and visions and be visited by deities and all kinds of colorful experiences which he didn't make a big deal about but he just loves part of his life anybody relate them to is for
friend that as friend it is becoming more and more frustrated because he never had these kinds of experiences and he'd been diligently feeling just been built diligently practicing christianity and really trying hard and he didn't have these kinds of experiences and frequent judges seemingly resident not been launched just sitting around and everyone is one
therefore experiences so that interested in what can i you know why my so block like can i experienced in the profanity on your experiences and she point is it was really simple all you have to do is take your bible and throw it in ganges
and dumping no problem
why you couldn't do it he just could not do it you know if it not your thing that i was thinking what if somebody told you so do to throw your roxio out the window and driving along and they say how does really frustrating and then making any progress in practice whatsoever hey take your roxy thrown out to and with this keep on driving okay
but
and
elephant sarah
as
packing at stinginess and generosity and and in on the internet and an input try chance and to act chance
i think we all know you know that that any is useful sometimes the i'm trying to it i i just remembered as you'd think that something that happened in my life when i was on
in cleveland doing are in my training i am going up
i'm training geriatric care outpatient clinic and infected every time we get a and us how life is now
every time many prescribing medication and yet to again if laugh million
he wants know after and everyone who's doing it and somehow you plan this i think why it
just another way to to the client one day i said to himself
gee i hope is paper
happy
work and i just kept that you know and really meant so much back and now i can't as planned to do that it doesn't work as well if i stay as a device and android to it just happened as i was on my way of work to that bought he my and i were
stay with more building credit angus and the aim of this
yeah i understand and understand gonna bring her
ah well on that note and also going back to the question of study and thinking about be open now
the tape
do you have the way be learned work and you said accumulate as aurora
you work with them were developed with them ultimately for mystery
and you know our whole by my open now so
we need to keep it as open as possible so in keeping a all over the top posts including spain for him
because we we never know for it's probably in history and how we're how we're becoming wise of reply that it is it happening all the time anyway
the way the industry
so we expected that in queen
that moment when you realize that the paperwork and now
is it takes to me to participate with can give a key
okay now yes here
so has to know someone just manjushri is not in this particular one that is holding a teachings in one end
one thing that the open not which evokes fermina also is now
finding out what on how much content so i don't know if this sense there
knowing your own
knowing your own mind and knowing your own way and not just following are just and the one thing that appeals to me about with this practice is that i can sit with my own self and my own thoughts and i consider
an articulate but it's not about someone telling me how within my life without me figuring out how to authentic group of my life and take the teachings and to digest them so
that's something that just came up when i when you answer foods question about taking a i mean i thought gloves and i cannot so get out for them decide what isn't
now they think about that is true
course that is just the mouth there you know
there's no there's no brain and those issues
so i don't know what jamaica on to as empty gates
maybe just one more her counseling is them along those lines like says the now on at ease
speaks off
and passion of
when of the appalachians for irony is that she is have nothing about news
and
oh death as i see day
statues of that constitute killing
the past her room
the
the expression
whatever it is that

kay thank you
me that