I know. This guy told the story of Samhita. [...] If somebody told a story about one of us, about our life, that story is, you know, whatever story it is, it would be like one story that you told them. Tell another story tomorrow, and you could feel in some sense that the story you told tomorrow might have some new elements that you didn't bring up the day before. That make sense?

[01:01]

But you might feel both stories were true, and you didn't say either one of the stories, of course, was telling every single thing that happened in your life. But to your ability, that's to your ability, you're telling a story about your experience. What are your experiences, someone just said? But I suggest to you that any story you tell about your life or somebody else's life, even though you feel it's true, in fact, thinking about your story actually reaches the actualities of the things you've depicted. And yet you might tell the story and feel that's the best story you could tell, even though you might understand the story doesn't really reach the events that occur. Because in order to tell a story, you have to convert the events into conceptual images in order to be able to speak up.

[02:08]

Our experiences, in terms of basic sensory experience, are conceptual, and therefore we can't speak of it without converting the experiences or without using images to grasp the experiences, then we can tell stories. And we may feel that these images by which we construct the story do refer to what happened, even though there's nothing in the story in which you can actually find a reference for So, for example, my concept of Bernard, everybody knows my concept of Bernard isn't Bernard. And Bernard is not my concept of Bernard.

[03:10]

The word Bernard is not Bernard, and Bernard is not the word Bernard, but most people think there's something in Bernard that actually justifies, that that actually refers to Bernard. but there's nothing in him that refers to him, even though the word does refer to him accurately and usefully. So I just say that I'm not trying to talk you into anything, but just say that the story of a sangha is a story of a sangha. It was a story about him meeting a celestial bodhisattva, and part of the story is that celestial bodhisattva's can actually relate to us through various forms. But depending on our state of maturity, we will see them in different ways. And we will not be able to see the full dimension of a bodhisattva if we don't have spiritual maturity.

[04:25]

without great compassion, you can't really see some of these celestial bodhisattvas in any form other than things you've already seen, like dogs and people. So in the story, he actually saw the dog, and he cared for the dog so much that he was able to see that the dog was the celestial bodhisattva Maitreya. And then... And then he went with Maitreya to a situation called Tushita Heaven, which is this very special, highly auspicious state of experience wherein he was able to receive teachings directly from the Celestial Bodhisattva. And then he actually sort of left that condition and came back to the world and taught the teachings which he received from this bodhisattva in this very special state of meditation, because these heavens are, in a sense, very special forms of meditation where you can actually meet bodhisattvas.

[05:44]

There's other forms of meditation, you could say, which are called pure lands, where you can actually meet Buddhas. And so part of Mahayana Buddhism is telling us a story that human beings can enter into states of meditation where we can actually go to and actually meet and receive teachings from Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, and even receive, you know, prediction from Buddhas as to our future spiritual progress. And then... After he was back in this world, which is not usually considered to be heaven, but it's called the world where you can practice patience. The Saha world means... the world where you can practice patience. And you can practice patience here because it's so challenging often. There's so much suffering and confusion and cruelty that it's lots of opportunities to practice patience, pretty much.

[06:51]

Almost always you can practice patience here. I mean, there's opportunities. So he came back to the Saha world, and in the Saha world he taught these things he learned, but he also wrote some new texts, and at certain points when he was writing these texts, when he wasn't exactly clear how to express in his own new way some of the things he received from Maitreya, he invoked Maitreya and asked him to come actually into this world again. actually teach him without going to Tushita Heaven, to actually come into this Saha world and teach here, at least to him personally, late at night on some occasions, and clarify certain points which he then taught. So he gave directly, supposedly, conveyed to us teachings which he received from a Sangha in Tushita Heaven, and he also wrote things on his own here in this world, with some assistance from the Bodhisattva.

[07:55]

And so that's part of the story of the Sangha, a figure who actually wrote certain things himself and transcribed or was the amanuensis for the celestial bodhisattva. I just wondered how you feel about that story. About that story, how do you feel about that? Resistance. Yes. Resistance. Resistance to. Yes. Yes. It's more acceptable for me as a patient state. Since I'm in awe of wisdom, I can't imagine it coming from something other than an alter state of some kind.

[09:10]

Meditation states. What is it? What's the meditation state you're referring to? A meditation state where this information is perceivable on a Yes. I think the story of the dog turning into what he actually saw, a dream, when the dog became a dream, that's such a powerful point, that particular thing. And also, somewhat like having a muse or a bar, having a muse. Whatever that is, if people read more poetry and things below, somehow that's how I understand it. The solace of Bodhisattva as news. In the same way as that's hard to understand how people even read poetry.

[10:12]

Similar to me. What does that mean? Yes, I have a When I heard this story, on the one hand, I had a feeling, I just believed it. Also, almost at the same time, I had a feeling of this almost superior compassion. It felt unreal and very real. I was sick to death. Yes? Me? Yeah. I want to play. Pardon? Yes. The part, I really like the part where he calls on Maitreya to help with his writing and reminds me of calling on Avalokiteshvara, Jizo Bodhisattva, having a relationship with the Bodhisattva where you're in dialogue with that and that energy is available.

[11:34]

That part of the story. Yes. Yes. It was sort of evil, on the one hand, to sound like I was a real person, like, in a sense, but it's sort of inspirational, like, to think that the cultivation of practice might be able to touch the iceberg of that compassion. On the other hand, the first time I heard the story, I was told that he picked the woods of the Doak, and I found myself in extreme revulsion. I really thought of his body. I didn't need to do that. I was the one who did it. Yes. I think it's said that he felt revulsion when he... Especially when he got close to the snow, that he felt revulsion, but he was able to... able to, you know, hang in there. And I think that when you come close to someone who's suffering and you don't feel revulsion towards them, that still is compassion.

[12:46]

You know, like there's some people who wouldn't mind sticking your nose in their shit. It's possible you might not. But still, you know, to stick your nose in their shit would still be compassion. Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's not compassion. When my daughter first vomited in me, my face, you know, just shortly before she was born, she really chowed down and then she just put the whole thing up in the air. It was dark and it made my face. And as it was coming, I thought, uh-oh. But actually, I thought, wow, that doesn't smell bad at all. It was actually very... mild stuff. I was surprisingly unrepulsed. But I used to help paralyzed men move their balls.

[13:48]

I used to reach up inside them and pull the stuff out of them because they couldn't move it out themselves. So I used to help them. When I first did it, I thought, oh, yikes. But after a while, it was really not a problem at all. really easy after a while, but at first there's some repulsion of doing that kind of thing for a person. But anyway, he did feel repulsion. The fact that we can go ahead and help people even if we do feel repulsion and even if we don't. Of course, if we don't, we have to be careful that we aren't indulging in some sensual desire. Someone you're attracted to might need your help and you can get close to them to help them, but you have to be careful that you aren't really indulging you know, getting gratification out of it for yourself. You have to watch out for that, because then that can hurt the person, that you're using them, you know, to stimulate yourself, to get some off on being close and helping them. So that wouldn't be appropriate either, but I think it's fine. And so we have to meditate on how we could have a mind that our compassion would be strong enough so that we could actually

[14:54]

move into the repulsion space if it was necessary. Some people in the streets of our country never really like, you know, they kind of feel like they deserve a donation because of the smell. They're like, that's a world-class smell you got there. This is not a joke that they smell like that. It's very hard to get close to that smell. This is probably not healthy here. You know, get away from here. They may need your help, so you can get close. As you may know, if you get close, if you can just very slowly move closely, your nose dies to adapt. After a while, it doesn't seem so bad anymore. It's a bit difficult. Yes? I was encouraged by the 12 years of... After a full practice, that's not going to make it out.

[15:56]

I think it was four times. He was about to leave. He'd see some sign of how long things take, like water wearing away rock. He'd be like, oh, that was only four years. That part was encouraging. Yes. Thanks for telling the story. Actually, I look forward to it. But the story reminded me of your speech several times about to give in to the mind without a situation. I think there is no other way to give back compassion. Any other responses to this story, Cynthia? Yeah, I also found the story just inspiring and kind of wondrous.

[17:14]

And I was able to just accept it when I first listened. But that, you know, my central brain has all these questions about just how that's possible and, you know, just, yeah, the transmission of these truths seems like it's very mysterious. I don't understand. Mary? Well, he was looking inside into where the student had been. That's not . But it's possible. Eric? I guess on one hand, my actual mind says, this couldn't be true.

[18:17]

On the other hand, things in this world and the office world that are beyond my comprehension. So given those two together, I'm willing to just kind of take it at face value and kind of believe it or disbelieve it and just say, well, what's the teaching without believing what it's Yes. I like to let it enter my body and I see an idea about it. And I don't really feel a need to know. I don't feel a need to figure it out. So tonight when you talked about it, I've had this desire come. I thought, I really wish I could go to one of those cabins. It seems to me like a birth story. This is Maitreya of Featured Birth, and out of this story comes this marvelous literature.

[19:31]

It's born from this other way of creation story. Here is a kind of a birth, but I thought it was almost like death, but it's more like this giving birth in sort of a different way than you think. I wonder about really nice things wrapped in a nasty little package. Yeah, one of the advantages of wrapping Dharma in obnoxious packages is that if you can open to the obnoxiousness, then you might also open to the Dharma. So sometimes, sometimes it works out that the Dharma comes in a very difficult to accept way, so that if you can accept the appearance, if you cannot resist the appearance, then you'll also open to something which you're closed to when it's in a nice appearance.

[20:46]

Because when it's in a nice appearance, the Dharma's in nice things too, but If you open to nice things, you can still be closed to obnoxious things. Because if you open to obnoxious things, you can be closed to nice things too. So the Dharma coming in in a noxious presentation is saying, can you accept the Dharma even here? Can you open even to this? Because we're usually somewhat closed to receiving the Dharma. We're a little bit into picking and choosing, you know, like, and our independent pick and choosing, that blocks the term. What do you want us to open to? What do you want us to open to? There, is it like the essence of the living? Do you want us to open to everything, the literal meaning and everything? Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[21:46]

Yeah, the literal, and then the non-literal. Yes. Right. That's what I would want for everybody. So again, I think he said something about... Some part of his mind might say this is not true, but again, the story of the Sangha, this story of the Sangha is not actually what happened. We know that for sure. You can tell about anybody really what happened. what happened actually is very mysterious. So in this text, in chapter six of the next chapter of this text, it speaks of the three different patterns of consciousness or the three characteristics of phenomena. One of the characteristics is a dependent co-arising. And the dependent co-arising or the dependently co-arisen nature of things and everything that exists has this dependently co-arisen nature.

[22:54]

You can't grasp that because it's not out there, separate from you, because you're part of it. The dependently co-arisen nature of everybody you know, including yourself, is ungraspable because you can't put it out there and grasp it. You're part of it. Your relationship with everybody is really basically very mysterious and ungraspable. In order to, like, grasp something and tell a story about it, you have to put some kind of packaging on it. And so this story is a story about Asanga meeting Maitreya. And Asanga meeting Maitreya. But what I just said does not actually characterize Asanga meeting Maitreya. the actual other dependent phenomena of this bodhisattva meeting a celestial bodhisattva, this historical bodhisattva meeting a celestial bodhisattva who takes a historical form in a historical bodhisattva's life, this story about that, that thing, if I say, Asanga said this happened, his saying of what happened isn't what happened.

[24:17]

But what happened saying what happened. Something happened between him and the Bodhisattva. If you say you didn't meet Maitreya, there is something, there's some basis for you saying you didn't meet Maitreya today. There's some basis of that. You can't say anything without there being some actual creative event upon which you've based your story. You can't tell the truth, you can't try to lie about what happened or tell the truth about what happened, you can't feel like you're telling a lie without basing that lie on something. You can't tell what you think is the truth without basing what you think really happened today on what happened. You are grounded in reality of dependent core rising. However, the story you're telling requires that you render what actually happened into a conceptual package so you can talk about it. So Asanga did that in his meeting with Maitreya, but there was actually something happened there with him and something that led him to make this story.

[25:29]

And then he proceeded to have something else happen, which is the basis of him saying, I went to meet Maitreya. But that story, I went to Tushita Heaven, does not actually reach what happened. But something, of course, did happen. Something dependently co-arose, which he called, and then Maitreya took me to his special school. And there he taught me these things. And he comes back from this experience, which he tells this story about, and the story is not the experience, and then he writes these texts down. Which, you know, transform a huge, very flourishing Indian culture, and make this whole new wave of thing. But some experience happened to him.

[26:30]

If you look at these texts, just imagine yourself writing them. First just read it and just say, OK, now imagine after having some experience. which you tell the story about. And again, the story is not the experience. But the story is the way you know the experience, such as you can talk about it. How do you know it's true? How do you know? How do you know? How do you stand? How do you stand? I don't know for sure. What I feel more confident about is that the story is based on something. And I feel confident that the story does not reach what happened to Asanga.

[27:37]

And I feel confident, I know enough about Asanga to feel confident that he did not think that the story he told about what happened between him and Maitreya actually reached what happened between him and Maitreya. I've studied, I've listened to enough and read enough of Asanga's writing to understand that he's not saying that the story about what happened actually reached the actual ungraspable basis of this story. That I have confidence in. Now, do I actually know who Maitreya is, such that I could actually ask Maitreya, did you do this with the Sangha? I have not yet been myself, been able... to experience Maitreya in such a way that I actually felt that he or she, actually, I can bring him into my house and ask him questions and really feel like he's actually giving me answers to my questions about the text.

[28:40]

I've not been able to do that. But I'm saying, even if I was able to do that and tell you about that, I still would have been, I think my understanding would continue, which is this teaching of Maitreya, that what actually happened between me and Maitreya was really ungraspable, and I render it into a way that I could tell because of that experience. But the thing I say is not the experience. But I still could be confident that something that never happened before, I call Maitreya or I call a bodhisattva. If I'm studying a text, I could actually call, would some bodhisattvas please come and help me understand this text? And even doing that, I might feel a little calmer. Like, I'm not doing this all by myself. Actually, I was in Texas and studying this sutra, studying Chapter 6 with people, and we were reciting it. And this one guy that was in the retreat was like a

[29:41]

really having a hard time with this text, with chapter 6 and chapter 7 of this text. He said he didn't really understand anything. And then he thought, and I was talking about some other thing, about invoking the presence of the bodhisattvas to help us study. And so he did that. And he understood. And he said, I'll never study this stuff alone again. That's how he felt at the time. And that, and we do a lot of ceremonies like that where we actually invite the bodhisattvas to come to help us in the practice. But most of us do not actually feel like, oh, I'm actually seeing the bodhisattva. So I haven't had that experience really of like feeling like I've been able to evoke the presence of a bodhisattva and feel like they're actually having a conversation with me. You know, not a celestial bodhisattva. I sometimes think of humans that are acting as bodhisattva in my life.

[30:44]

At least, if not like 24 hours a day, at least once in a while they seem to suddenly manifest great compassion in my life for me at that time. I sometimes feel like that. And I was just thinking of Suzuki Roshi's son, Hoitsu. Do you know about him? Suzuki Roshi has a son named Hoitsu, and he's the successor of Suzuki Roshi back in Japan. And he came and told us a story about he was having an asthma attack in his house in Japan, and he was just barely getting any air, and he heard his mother's voice basically saying in Japanese, you know, don't give up, keep trying to find some breath, you know. She kept saying that. He kept hearing her. And then he did find some breath, and he said later, I forgot how he put it, I think he said, My mother is Avalokiteshvara.

[31:52]

But I didn't so much think exactly that it was his mother was Avalokiteshvara, but Avalokiteshvara was his voice. Rather than just like... having some voice which he never heard before, like, Hello, this is Avlokiteshvar. Can I really like you to try to find some pressure? That Avlokiteshvar used his mother's voice through his memory to get him to keep trying to live a little longer because, you know, he's a helpful person to have live a little longer. So he had that experience that his mother was Avlokiteshvar I thought it was the ability to use the sound of his mother's voice through his memory to stimulate a different part of himself than his adult part, like the little boy part, more skillful at finding breath than the old smoker, who kind of lost touch with his breathing process by abusing it with cigarettes. So, anyway, I feel about it, and I also feel like, it's kind of like I feel like this Mahayana thing, it has certain horizons, which I feel in the West, we have not looked up, you know, but kind of keeping our nose down in the Zen garden, which is really

[33:20]

But there are certain dimensions of the Mahayana which I'd just like to tell you about for you to start opening up to. Like, for example, what I was leading up to is also what happened last week. The issue of rebirth. How are you going to think about rebirth? The founder of the tradition says there is rebirth. He said that. The Buddha said that. How are you going to deal with that? Well, first of all, listen to it. You don't have to believe it. And the Buddha didn't say part of right view is that karmic consequences. Another part of right view is that there is rebirth. That's part of right view, that teaching. But the Buddha didn't say believe that because I said it. He's just saying that's right view. He's not saying you should have right view by believing what I just told you is right view.

[34:23]

I'm just telling you what right view is, according to me, so you can consider how you feel about that, and that will be a way for you to cultivate right view. So last week we brought that up and talked about it because the first part of this chapter is saying when there's birth, it tells you how to live. But another way to come to understand and have right view is not by just believing what the Buddha said, but by studying these teachings on mind. And as you study the teachings on mind and as you become more confident in the teachings of mind, then you can use these teachings to deduce the reasonableness of rebirth as just part of the way the mind works would tell you that there would be rebirth. So by understanding and being more confident about the teachings of mind, not believing them, but listening to them and reasoning with them and arguing with them and coming up with alternative suggestions and seeing how they work, but as you become more and more attuned through the study of mind, you can use that same teaching and that same kind of

[35:34]

and you can just switch, turn it over on rebirth process. That's how you can actually prove to yourself and be certain that there's rebirth. So that's on the horizon too. It's not just the horizon of there is rebirth. On the horizon is actually you being able to verify for yourself, first conceptually and then through direct perception, without even entering into high levels of trance, that there is rebirth. Because even if you could see rebirth through meditation, you wouldn't necessarily understand what you were seeing. Different yogis that have seen rebirth have had different interpretations from the Buddha about what they were seeing. And at the end of the talk last week, I also said something about to What did I say? I said something and Elena said, thank God. What was it? What did I say?

[36:35]

Don't forget the end of Chapter 5. Don't forget the last part of Chapter 5, which is saying that... So the first part of Chapter 5 is giving you some information about rebirth process, and the last information it's giving you is in terms of the appropriation of predispositions, and then the storehouse consciousness as a basis for perception and all these different types of consciousness and all that. That's part of understanding, the secrets of mind, consciousness, intellect. But the real understanding is when you actually realize that these are fictions, and you actually don't perceive them as real. and you actually don't perceive them, because you're actually looking at what's real, and when you look at what's real, you don't see these things anymore, because these are actually appearances. So that's sort of an antidote to a misconception about what this teaching about rebirth is, and yet there is the teaching that there is rebirth.

[37:49]

So I guess we could maybe read this chapter again together. Actually, I want to tell you one more story. Is that okay? So there was this Chinese monk who I think he died in about 430 in the common era. And he was, you know, he was a person and he, I think he was a person who was, if I remember his story correctly, he... Well, I'm not going to tell his whole story. I'm just going to say that after being one of the most important nuns in history, and we visited his temple, beautiful temple, and next to his temple was the nun's temple where we went and visited the lady.

[39:09]

There were two sets of temples overlooking the rice fields. His name was Dao An. And he... And so anyway, he was perhaps at that time the most learned monk in all of China and one of the greatest influences on developing the tradition. And as he was dying, he said that his great hope was to be reborn in a pure land and be able to understand the Prajnaparamita literature better. because he didn't really quite understand it. And you know, he didn't actually understand it very well. He died before the great translator Kumar Jeeva came to China and translated the Prajnaparamita literature quite a bit better than before. His translations actually weren't too good and he didn't speak Dawa didn't speak, read Sanskrit. So he actually was having trouble understanding these Mahayana texts.

[40:09]

So his hope was to be born in a pure land where he was able to understand them. And I always thought, this is just amazing, that the greatest, in some sense, the greatest heart and mind in the whole ocean of Buddhists in China still kind of knew that he didn't fully understand this Mahayana teaching and wanted to be reborn in pure land. So he wanted to be reborn, and reborn in a special situation where he could learn these teachings so he could help people more effectively. And again, I tell you that story because I heard that story, you know, 20, 30 years ago, and I thought, you know, it's kind of a different perspective from what I have at this point in my life. I wouldn't necessarily say like, to be reborn in a pure land so I can understand Dharma better. But I think the more you study, the more you understand specifically where you actually don't understand very well and really do want to understand well.

[41:17]

And you help some great teachers to understand. Before that, you might have some other thing you want to do. I don't know what. But I just thought that was interesting, that that was how he felt right at the end of his great long practice career. You know, it was kind of a drop in the bucket, and he just wanted to go on and keep studying forever the Dharma. Would you like to eat more? Yes, I would. Yeah, I think I would. I'm willing to not be born in a pure land, but I do understand that I either have to be born in a pure land or I have to wait for the next cosmic era in this world for a Buddha to help me out with my vow.

[42:25]

It's not so much help me out, but help us out. It's not really like me becoming a Buddha, but rather me doing my part in making a Buddha. And in order for that to happen, there has to be some prediction. And so, I don't know if exactly I have to go to a Pure Land, but I need somebody to get prediction. So, I don't really know, but... Yeah, right. You're born into your land and come back to this world. That's right. That would be born into a heaven. And that I don't usually think about it that way, but I more think about it just in terms of I know I should practice concentration practice because I understand that when I concentrate, I can understand things that I can't understand when I'm not concentrated.

[43:45]

So I know when I'm studying a text, if I don't calm down, it's just going to bounce off me. So I've told you many times that the first talk during sesshin, I kind of feel like I should just not say anything because most people, whatever I say just sort of bounces off them, because people are so tough at the beginning of sesshin generally. They're kind of like, tough. Nobody's going to fool me. I know how to defend myself from any untruths or whatever. But towards the latter part of the session, people are kind of like, you know... If people want to lie to me, fine. If people want to tell me the truth, if people want to spit on me, if people want me to, like, you know, help them make... You know, like, anything. Anything but this. Okay.

[44:45]

Would you like to come and clean the toilets? Fine. So by the end of session, you take the teaching and you sort of, it just goes right in. Like, you know, again, it's the idea of when you haven't watered a plant in a long time, it gets kind of crusty on the top. You pour water and it just runs right off, right? It doesn't go in. But if you spray it with a mist, the mist doesn't run off. You spray it with the mist, it just gets wet. And you spray it again, it gets wet. And pretty soon it gets moist and soft. Then you pour the water, and the water just goes right through. You just keep pouring and pouring, and it just keeps going right through. So I know that when I'm concentrated, this stuff just goes right in and goes right through me. And it's good for it to not get stuck. just like water going through the earth nourishing the soil and the root hairs aren't holding onto the water they're just receiving it and letting it bring the nourishment of the soil to them and also some of the water in passing through everything's leaping through us moving through us

[46:07]

But if we are tough and like, I'm only going to let certain stuff, I'm only going to let purified water come through. Before. Rather than just let whatever comes through, come through. We'll see how we deal with it. I know that. So in that sense, I do feel like I need to enter into meditation in order to understand these teachings. I have that confidence. And that's kind of like being reborn in heaven or entering heaven. Pure land is a special situation because the heavens don't all have Buddhas in them. Pure lands actually have Buddhas in them. And Buddhas perform special services that wonderful bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are almost everywhere. You know. At certain levels of organization, you won't find Buddhas unless you go to certain locations. They kind of have a certain position in the picture, different from bodhisattvas.

[47:16]

So there are different ways of preparing yourself, preparing your state of mind so that you can receive the teachings. And that preparation, to some extent, is preparing yourself for a kind of, in a sense, heaven is better than some special situations, but those special situations, difficult situations, situations where it's very difficult for you to let stuff in because you feel like it's going to pollute you or poison you. So you get some situation and say, okay, I can open here. In Sashin, I can open. You know, it's okay if I cry. It's okay if I, you know, you know, people will take care of me. And if I die in Sashin, I'll be like the first person in Zen Center to die in Sashin. It would be great, you know. You could be the first. Huh? That's right. He did die during Sashin.

[48:21]

You're right. But he wasn't in the zenda. So, actually, people have died during sesshins, but they... So, zenda is really a safe place. If you go to some rooms, it's a few feet away. Okay, let's chant the scripture. question let's chant it with respect to the secrets of mind Subtitles by the Amara.org community

[49:22]

Monty, because I'm not here, I'm involved in asking this in order to benefit any beings to bring happiness to many beings. I was sent here from the world and I was sick of the welfare of benefiting happiness with many beings simply because of humans. Your intention is questioning this. But this subject is good, you distill it therefore we shall not see this, and while I will describe three new ways in which it's supposed to be said to be secrets of mind, thought, and consciousness, we shall not see in whatever type of sentient being there may be an assembly in existence. Time to lean to understand human beings and test the body and their eyes. We can see some birds such as eggworm, or wombworm, or blasterworm, or spontaneous sleepworm. We can efficiently detect and survive due to facts of appropriation, the appropriation of the physical sense powers. To support the appropriation of previous decisions which proliferate conventional designations and use exercise names and concepts of mind and stress policies, I am going to set the rails to increase incentive stands in these operations so that we can effectively appropriation these decisions.

[50:59]

Appropriation is how to go up in the formless realm. The shahamati consciousness could also call it the appropriating consciousness because it holds an appropriate supply and that way it is called the baseless consciousness because there is the same establishment in the body within. Thus, they are fully connected and thoroughly connected. It's a slow-minded new person, collects and accumulates, forms, sounds, smells, states, and tangible objects. They shall want to be the sixth full collection of consciousness, AI consciousness, dear consciousness, ghost consciousness, telepathy. Consciousness and non-consciousness arises and you can find in a body you never created. Consciousness and non-consciousness arises and you can find in a body you never created. Consciousness and non-consciousness arises and you can find in a body you never created. I'm having the same objective for a great future, a lot of being in your consciousness and those consciousnesses that are consciousnesses that are out of your consciousness arise defending onto the earth those that are out of your body and associate with consciousnesses and silenced out these intangibles.

[52:19]

If I would now consider telling a body consciousness that conceptual mental consciousness arises at the same time and having the same objective reference, if there arises one-eyed consciousness that arises together with that only one mental consciousness, would it have the same object of exit? Consciousness, likewise, it should include over five consciousnesses that rise together, at least little ones. Together, they flannel with one conceptual mental consciousness, which has the same object of activity as the five-fold collection of consciousnesses. For example, In addition to three rising black waves and a great flooding river, it's indicative of one way or the other. As if it was a tradition to put two waves, or many waves, or a fence in front of four waves, or the rise of a different river. So how do you think we'll not be broken if we'll never be a family spot? In addition to the inner icing of a single name, they should have perfectly clear out their accidental swallowing, which will arise if the cause of inhibitions for the inner icing of two languages or naming it to the express, it's been possible that if it should still arise, however, that correct figure would not be transformed.

[53:40]

Sure, the image that will never be twiddling to show the body just as it is will no longer be a perfected magnet upon an abiding India for creating consciousness to a cause of conditions where the simultaneous arising of one-eyed consciousness or a precedent just one-eyed consciousness will arise. I make the positive additions for the singular, I say well, human thought at full assemblage of consciousness are aggressive, then I'll do that by full assemblage of consciousness will also arise. What kind of behavior will I keep? It's like this, but it's not because you rely on knowledge of the system of doctrine. The system of doctrine are wise to respect to the secrets of mind, thought, and consciousness. However, it is not a cognizant means of what we saw. The sense implies to respect to the secrets of mind, thought, and consciousness. It is not only in us, but it is said because it makes those who are self-conceited wise. ...specialize in those who are subversive, wise, and always do not perceive their own internal appropriateness.

[54:48]

They also do not perceive an appropriated consciousness, but they are at accord with reality. They also do not perceive a basis, nor do they perceive a basis consciousness. They do not... Relations, nor do they perceive mind, they do not perceive eye, nor do they perceive form, nor do they perceive mind, consciousness, they do not perceive the near, nor do they perceive the sound, nor do they perceive the near, consciousness, they do not perceive the nose, nor do they perceive the smell, nor do they perceive... Consciousness day, not to see the tongue, nor to taste the taste, nor to eat the secret tongue. Consciousness day, not to see the body, nor to eat the secret tangible object, nor to feel the body. Consciousness, be sure of what you eat, so you stop as you not receive the wrong particular part. It seems that I'm not your divinity or mental consciousness, but they are in accord with reality. These will result as I've said to be wise, but respect to the ultimate.

[55:51]

This is our trinity. These will result as you are wise, but respect to the ultimate. And as I've said to be wise, but respect to the secret. My consciousness, the Jail of the Disappointed Self, does not rise with respect to the secrets of my God. I am conscious and instrumentally high, but that seems to me to rise with respect to the secrets of my God. My consciousness, the Jail of the Disappointed Self, does not rise So another frame put on this text is another frame I would suggest you put on this text is the frame of this is a framework to help you reverse the framework which you bring to every experience the framework which we normally bring to experience

[57:16]

By studying this framework, it's not that you should adopt it as a new framework exactly, but you try on this framework as a way to upset or reverse or invert or turn around the framework that you already have, a framework of frameworks you already have. So like yesterday, the Buddha way is basically leaping or turning. But it's not so easy to leap and turn unless we kind of like reopen to the situation. So if you can reopen to this text with all of its obnoxious difficulties and dangers that are in this text. What dangers are in this text? Well, there's a danger of misunderstanding. There's a danger that your new understandings that you've developed with this text will be worse than your old understandings, but you won't be able to go back to your old understandings.

[58:19]

Lose your bad old understandings, which were pretty bad, but you're surviving on them. Get these new understandings, which could be a lot worse. But these new understandings are provided primarily to help you overcome your old understandings and these new understandings. But if you make a tremendous effort on the new understanding, you'll just stay in your old understanding. And new understandings or the new frame is also partly a part of it is to apply to your old understandings. Part of what this text is telling you about is the structure of your habitual way of doing things. So it's a frame or a structure or it's a story. It's a fiction to help you understand how you usually believe your fictions. until you actually don't believe them anymore. And then you don't believe this one either. So the point of this is not that you learn all this information and get all this psychological teaching and carry that around too on top of everything else you've got.

[59:29]

But to use it in such a way that really changes the way you see things, but not just to change it to this way, The way you see and that you understand more thoroughly how the way you usually see things is delusion. But without making that into something else that you hold on to. The new understanding into something you hold on to either. So this teaching should be... What's the word? Self-destructive? Self-destructing. Self-denial, self-destructing. This teaching was self-destructing. Yeah, this teaching was self-destructing. Whereas our old teachings, our old views, don't seem to be self-destructing. They seem to be self-perpetuating. So this teaching is about how they self-perpetuate.

[60:34]

So you can get tipped off to how they're self-perpetuating, and then this one shouldn't either, even though you might keep studying and keep teaching it. The more you do it, the more rapidly it'll self-destruct. Finally, you're just spinning all the time with this teaching, and you're using this teaching as the stuff you spin. And you draw in illusions and attachments into the vortex, and just keep spinning them, throwing them off, and spinning them, and throwing them off, and invite other people to come in and do the same. So this is just one possible way to do that. Another possible way is, like in that movie, Huckabee, just bounce a ball in your head. Just bounce a ball in your head. Just bouncing a ball in your head. Yeah, I wouldn't reckon that. This is better, actually. So, anyway, and also, I want to point out that this is one of Asanga's texts, so the main sutra, the main sutra for Asanga in his teaching of Yogacara is the sutra that you just chanted.

[61:51]

This is his main sutra. In terms of his unique teaching, he also, of course, studied the Prajnaparamita, His main inspiration to this new teaching which he and his brother brought forward, this sutra is the most important to him. And this chapter is the part that's very important for the Abhidharma part. The first part of this sutra is about the ultimate. And in the ultimate, you don't perceive mind, thought, and consciousness. That's the first four chapters of this sutra about that. Very interesting. Now, in this fifth chapter, we start studying the conventional structure of consciousness. This isn't the ultimate. The latter part of the chapter is when you see the ultimate. You don't see the conventional. In the latter part of the chapter, when you tune into the ultimate, you don't see the first part of the chapter, which is the conventional. Because in the ultimate, you don't see the conventional. In the ultimate, you're seeing the ultimate character of the conventional rather than seeing the conventional.

[62:56]

You're looking at the conventional, but you're seeing so you don't see the conventional. So the latter part of the chapter, you don't see the first part of the chapter. The first part of the chapter is the part of the sutra where they first are introducing conventional psychic phenomena, conventional conscious structuring, conscious functioning. book here, which is called The Summary of the Mahayana. It actually starts out, Asanga starts out in the first chapter by giving a summary of the Mahayana. And he says that, it's not even the first chapter, it's in the sort of the introduction. And he talks about this Bodhisattva who talks about these ten excellent qualities, the ten excellent teachings of the Mahayana. And he lists the ten excellent teachings the Sangha does, reciting this sutra, this Mahayana sutra, the ten excellent teachings.

[63:59]

The first of the ten excellent teachings in the Mahayana are the excellent teachings of the support of the knowable, or the support of cognition. That's the first of the ten excellent teachings of the Mahayana. So then, so in his text, he has the first section of text is the support of in support of the marble is what? What do you think that might be? Huh? I mean, that's conventional. Is that conventional or old? Actually, it is conventional. What? Mind, thought, and consciousness. This chapter is a book. This chapter here, in the sutra, these are the supports of the knowable. The support of the knowable is alaya, mind, or alaya-vijjana, thought, manas, and consciousness.

[65:01]

These are the supports of cognition. These three working together are the support of cognition in this sutra and in the Sanghas where he goes in and talks about these. So this first chapter of this text is really helpful to study this chapter. This first chapter, the Mahayana Samgraha, the summary of Mahayana, is very nice for this chapter here. So you might want to check out chapter 5 as you're reading chapter 5 of the Sangha Nirmala Sangha. And the beginning of the first chapter of the Sangha says, this summary of the great vehicle is an Abhidharma teaching on the scriptures of the great vehicles. This is his Abhidharma Mahayana. The song is in this, this is one of the basic texts.

[66:03]

And this one, this first chapter goes right to this, this chapter. Image opening effects. I'll have to open. To this text, my mind goes, okay, yeah. How do I actually open to it beyond going, okay, yeah? Besides that, you could open to it and not say, okay, yeah. Just open it and read it without saying, okay, yeah. You don't say, okay, no. You can also, you know, there's many things you can do as part of, in response to opening to the text. You have to basically give yourself to the text.

[67:05]

Give the gift of reading the text, or reciting the text, or memorizing the text. That's memorizing it. Like, yeah, I guess people read a text and say, okay, yeah, but how about memorizing it? And then many could also memorize chapter one, this Mahayana Abhidharma. So again, this text is not really Mahayana Abhidharma, because Abhidharma is not really the sutra. Abhidharma is the commentary of Buddha's disciples on the Buddha's teachings. So this is an Abhidharma teaching on the sutra. Make sense? And so it starts out by talking about mind, thought, and consciousness. And then it talks about rebirth and how alaya works in rebirth. But it goes into a little bit more detail than what's said in the chapter.

[68:07]

And then it talks about... And then it expands on what it says in the sutra, particularly expands on this. It gives more information about manas than the sutra. In some sense, he says something the sutra doesn't say. I don't think the sutra says, it's just part here, that what it's telling you about thought, it tells you that thought is of two types. Thought or manas says it's of two types. One type, is that thought is just the previous cognition. Remember I told you that eye consciousness arises from... What are the conditions for eye consciousness? Eye. sensible radiation and what?

[69:11]

Eye consciousness? No, no. What's the support of eye consciousness? We've got eye consciousness. What's supporting it? Supporting it is the eye organ, the sensible radiation, visible radiation and Huh? Huh? No, no. What support? Eye consciousness doesn't support eye consciousness. The previous cognition. It's not... Eye consciousness isn't necessarily supported by eye consciousness. In other words, you could have an ear consciousness. You could have an ear consciousness, cognition of sound. Okay? And then that goes away. And now you could have the arising of an eye consciousness. to support an eye consciousness, it's the previous cognition, whatever it is. So in the case of a sense consciousness, like an eye consciousness, a direct perception, the conditions that it depends on, the main conditions it depends on,

[70:15]

organ, sensible of the organ, and the previous consciousness, the previous cognition. Those are the three main conditions for the arising of, for example, an I-consciousness. It could have been an I-consciousness, but it's whatever was just the just deceased consciousness. Those are the supports. But for Manas, Manas is actually the just previous consciousness. So this consciousness, the second type of consciousness in the mind-thought-consciousness, is the previous thought. So this is actually the condition, this is a condition for the arising of these sense consciousnesses. Okay, so when each one of these arise, they depend on Manas, in the sense that Manas gets to just to see sense consciousnesses. And when I say sixth consciousness is here because the mind consciousness perception in terms of mind consciousness is also here.

[71:23]

And mind consciousness also, it depends on, it depends on the mind organ, right? It depends on the previous cognition, which is the same. Does that make sense? And it depends on mental data, or it can also have the same object. It can coexist with an eye consciousness, so it could also be looking at the object of what could be the eye consciousness. I mean, it could be the sensible radiation, visible radiation. So it could be seeing visible radiation, but it wouldn't be supported by the physical organ. It would be supported by monas. and it would be supported by manas as its organ, and it would be supported by manas as its previous cognition. So it would be a double support for the sense consciousness, mental sense consciousness. So all these consciousnesses depend on manas.

[72:29]

However, what Asanga points out in his chapter, which we don't see in the sutra, is he says that manas is of two types. One, we saw in the sutra and we see other places. Before this Mahayana Sutra, in earlier Buddhism, the same structure of support was there, of these three conditions, antecedent cognition, organ, and object. They made things for all sense consciousnesses. But now, the Sangha tells us that there's another kind of mamas which is a defiling mass. This defiling mass is the part that comes with the function that we do need to have sense consciousnesses or mind consciousnesses, direct perception. It brings with it a conception, an image of what's happening.

[73:33]

And it confuses the image of what's happening with what's happening. It takes the image and clearly knows to be the object, which is a mistake. So, that starts the defiling process of this whole setup. Plus, it also is associated, according to Asanga and Vasubandhi, it's always associated with four defilements, the view of self, pride of self, love of self, and confusion of self. So, this chapter in the Mahayana elaborates on this point, which is not really unpacked in the sutra. That's why it's good to read this commentary together with this chapter in the sutra. Well, particularly the first chapter with this fifth chapter.

[74:39]

And the other chapters will apply to other chapters in this century. And then the other thing that we're being told here is that this consciousness, the first one called mind, is latent, passive. It's the consciousness which has all the seeds for all the images which Manas uses to grasp what's happening. So these sense consciences are always the relationship to the world and coming up with their direct perceptions, but their direct perceptions are tied together with this other state of consciousness or this other transformation of consciousness, which is necessary because of the function of being the previous cognition, because the previous cognition is it.

[75:44]

What the previous cognition brings with it, these images, and performs a defiling function. And the images are coming from what is latent in the alaya vijnana, which collects all the seeds from past karma. And then based on these seeds, the organ function of mind or actually the antecedent condition function of mind brings in the defiling into the process. Could you explain exactly what the defiling is? The defiling? The first aspect of the defiling is that... And another way that the Sangha puts it is that a liar comes to term... manas and the six vijnanas. Alaya comes to term as thought or thinking and consciousness.

[76:49]

So alaya is this latent storehouse of all possible seeds from past action, which include all the images because of our ancient activities. But they're latent. But then they come to term, or they mature, as these forms of consciousness. When they come to term, and one of the ways they come to term is they come to term as the function of the previous form of cognition. It's support to the current cognition. But that brings with it some of the seeds from past karma. And the seeds of past karma then manifest as images. And the images then get projected upon the results of the sense cognitions. And when they get projected, the nature of taking, of using the image to grasp the phenomena is that after we do that, we confuse the image with what we're seeing.

[77:52]

We can't separate image by which you grasp the thing from the thing. So again, I like this example. If you look at the hillside, and if it's kind of blurry, you put on glasses, and then suddenly it becomes clear. When you have the glasses on, you can't tell the difference between the way the hill looks and the glasses. Or another way to put it is you can't any longer remember what it looks like when it was unclear when you see it clearly. The unclear and ambiguous picture, you kind of remember that it was there, but you can't see it anymore when you have the clear image. If you take the clear image away, you can see the ambiguous one, the blurry one. If you put it on, you can't tell the difference between the clear one and the blurry one. And actually, all you see is the clear one. That's a mistake. The hills aren't really like that. And again, the optometrist... our ophthalmologist says that actually the hills are the way, the hills are really the way things look when you have glasses on.

[78:57]

That's the way they really are. That's the way they talk. But really the way the hills are, are the way you experience them with no conceptual mediation. And really the way they are means the way they are in their uniqueness. When you put the glasses on, things become generalized. and you can actually put them into the lens. The lens will make them a certain level of clarity, depending on the lens, and they'll all be that clear. Take them away, things aren't general anymore. And then also this confusion of the image with the phenomena, it brings with it also a balance of self-view, self-love, self-pride, and self-confusion. And that's partly because this function here is also a maturing of these seeds. So it's the maturing of these seeds that are from the depositing of past karma based on belief in self.

[80:07]

So now because of belief in self is deposited into the latent consciousness has an effect. Belief in self has an effect. And part of the effect is that when we perform the function we also have the concept of self, too. So it brings with it the confusion of image and object, and it brings with it the confusion of self. So alaya comes to turn at this function. And then, based on this confusion and this pride in self, plus the confusion of image and object, the actions based on that have the effect planting more seeds would give rise to more of the same. So this is a frame on the basic fundamental misconception of our situation, which is our main problem in life, this situation. According to this school, the main problem is this aspect of consciousness.

[81:12]

This is the generating This is a generator misconception, and the action is based on it. Why is also a problem, because it keeps feeding us more seeds, or it has all these seeds which are defiled, or the results of defilement, and then they mature as more defilements. Thank you. But for the time being, we need this defiled thinking because it's essential for the function of any kind of cognition. But this is teaching that this defiled thinking can be terminated. If it's terminated, then alaya can actually be completely transformed so it doesn't supply any more seeds for delusion. And we can also start transforming alaya even before this major reversal occurs.

[82:18]

Wholesome activity still can be defiled by self-view, self-love, self-pride, and self-confusion. Wholesome activity can still be mistaken by mistaking your image of wholesome activity. So there is wholesome activity, according to the Buddha. But the image of the wholesome activity is not the wholesome activity. It's a nice image, because it's an image of wholesome activity, but the image of wholesome activity is not wholesome activity. The appearance of wholesome activity is not. Wholesome activity is not an appearance. It's an actual activity. Just like you're not an appearance, basically, you're an activity. People can make you into an appearance, and you can see yourself as an appearance, but you're not basically an appearance. You're, first of all and primarily, a dependent core rising, not an appearance of dependent core rising.

[83:28]

And everybody else is that way, too. But we make our stories about ourselves and others based on appearances or conceptions. We don't know how to tell a story about something that's preconceptual. Except if it's an image or a perception, we make a story about that. I I'm not sure exactly when or where this Abhidhamma study will continue, besides in my own practice, because I'm going to continue studying it. I have no choice in the matter, apparently. There will be another class here at Green Gulch in the spring on this. I'm not sure exactly whether we'll be studying it in the intensive or not. But I will continue to offer the... So I just would point you to Chapter 5 that we're studying now and Chapter 1 of the Summary of Mahayana.

[84:50]

Study those two. And if you have questions, discuss them with each other and if you want to include me in your discussions. But that would be dangerous to have these discussions because somebody might think you're really smart or really stupid. And the other people might be afraid of you because they might think that you think they're stupid or smart. So it's kind of a dangerous study. People get pretty riled up about this stuff. It's almost like politics. Yes? If you don't want to take care of this chapter 5, please put it up in this chair here. If you want to take care of it, please do so. You can have it. I just don't want you to throw it away. Thank you for your attention.

[85:54]

obnoxious material. May our belief extend to every being and place, Thank you.

[86:29]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_81.24