I vow to taste the truth of the Prophet's words. During this sasheen I've been talking about the meaning of prajna and paramita and the Sixth Patriarch's explanation or interpretation of the meaning of prajna and paramita and

[01:26]

of related terms such as dhyana and samadhi. Prajna is inherent wisdom of Buddha nature and Paramita, literally meaning to cross over, but is understood as the culmination of or the essence of completion. maybe like a full circle or a seamless circle in the sense of when crossing over to the other shore is like from the shore of samsara to the shore of nirvana.

[02:54]

But when the gap is closed, when the other shore is reached, nirvana is present in samsara, and samsara is present in nirvana. So there's really no going or coming in the real sense. But the going to the other shore is described like riding the sea or riding the waves, going with the waves. And Dhyana, he describes as meditation, of course, in all Buddhist schools. The meaning of dhyana basically is non-attachment.

[04:06]

Meditation on non-attachment. And samadhi is perfect peacefulness, perfect stillness and peacefulness. and perfect rest and at the source of all things. So then he describes samadhi and prajna as really not being different, but just two aspects of one thing. And he says, samadhi and prajna are like the lamp and its light. Samadhi is like the flame.

[05:13]

And prajna is the light, is the light of the flame. They're not two different things, but we describe them in different ways. And one is the basis of the other. But you can't separate them. So the light is the flame and the flame is the light. And so from our deep samadhi, prajna arises, which is just our natural order of mind. As we say in the meal sutra, the natural order of mind. When we're rid of greed, hate and delusion, the natural order of mind appears spontaneously. And that greed, hate and delusion, using these terms, are the covering of our nature, cover over our nature so that we really don't know where we are, we don't know who we are.

[06:25]

When we build a personality based on delusion or ill will or greed or some other kind of emotions which belong to these, We cover over our nature. We build another self on top of our self. And we call it our self. So through practice, our effort is to discover or uncover, take the covering off, so that we find our self as we are. So yesterday I mentioned Rinzai's four propositions, four ways of describing samadhi.

[07:28]

I didn't say it in that way, but in the Rinzai Roku, Rinzai talks about four ways of teaching, or four different situations that he puts his students into, which he describes. He doesn't describe them, but he alludes to them. And the first one he says, Sometimes I take away the person and leave the circumstances. And sometimes I take away the circumstances and leave the person. And sometimes I take away both the person and the circumstances.

[08:29]

And sometimes I don't take away either the person or the circumstances. So one way to think about these, which most people, which is the usual way to think about them, these four propositions, is when you take away the person and just leave the circumstances, is when we're involved in circumstances and not thinking about ourselves. our self has, there's no particular self-consciousness, but only attention to doing something, and attention to outer circumstances. And this is a kind of samadhi, or

[09:36]

Samadhi, strictly speaking, is concentration. I described it in some other way, but literally it kind of means attention and concentration. And when our concentration is on outer things or on circumstances and we forget about ourself, that's the kind of concentration or samadhi in which the person is taken away and only circumstances remain. And that can be characterized by when you're completely absorbed in something. A painter is absorbed in painting. And if you've ever had that kind of experience, you find that time goes by and you didn't know anything about it.

[10:52]

You're so absorbed in your work, in the painting, that hours have gone by and it seems like minutes. or the surgeon who is working very carefully and closely on some operation and a bomb goes off and he doesn't even hear it, that kind of concentration, is a kind of samadhi. But that kind of samadhi is also experienced by most everyone in their everyday life. If you go to a movie, you can easily be absorbed by that kind of concentration. Or if you hate someone and are thinking about how you're going to take revenge, that's also a kind of samadhi, absorption. Or if you're planning to blow up the world, that's also a kind of absorption that people get into.

[11:58]

So we're always absorbed in one thing or another. It's not especially Buddhist Samadhi. But it's a kind of concentration. So strictly speaking, we don't refer to that as Samadhi. Because it doesn't have freedom from everything as its basis. It doesn't have emptiness as its basis. But it does belong to samadhi. In its true sense, when we have self-mastery, in the sense that we're not pulled around by our emotions, we're not in the samadhi of being pulled around by ideas and notions and emotions and feelings and concepts, then we can call it samadhi.

[13:09]

When it's paying attention to things without any notion of profit or gain or self-interest, then we can call it samadhi in circumstances, when there's freedom in it. And the other kind of samadhi, which is the second one, circumstances are taken away and the person remains. It's like when we sit in zazen, We leave all outer circumstances. And we don't take up anything. And no matter what's going on around us, we're just absorbed in breathing and posture.

[14:15]

And we are totally 100% we hope, 100% involved in what's right before us. And we, in a sense, without leaving the world, we leave all circumstances. And the only thing we pay attention to is narrowing down our activity to this one thing. And we call it leaving behind the circumstances of the world in order to meet ourself at the source.

[15:17]

So in this circumstance, no one can help us or do anything for us. And we don't need anything particularly. Heat and cold don't particularly affect us. We don't get hungry. We have everything we need at that point. At a certain time, out of the goodness of our hearts, someone serves us meals. Out of the goodness of our hearts, someone serves us a meal, and we eat it and enjoy it. But we don't really have any particular craving to eat. If you're really absorbed in zazen, it's very nice to eat. and you enjoy it when it's there, but you don't have any particular craving for it. And you don't have any particular craving for anything.

[16:25]

We do sometimes have desire. In shallow states of zazen, desire is still there. But in a deep state of zazen, desire is not there. And we're just totally existing, self-existing, without needing anything. And in perfect contentment. And this is... complete absorption should be. When we reach the bottom of our zazen, the bottom of our life, in that complete absorption we touch some kind of reality.

[17:38]

which is pretty difficult to touch otherwise. And the third samadhi is when both the person and the circumstances are taken away. That means no circumstances and no person. no self-consciousness and no circumstances. That's when you really reach the bottom of total absorption in zazen, and there's no person and no circumstances. and no concepts about anything, no ideas about anything, just a complete oneness of yourself with everything, in which everything disappears.

[19:06]

We don't often reach that in zazen, but from time to time we do. It's not a going away of things. It's just that we see through everything. We see the real nature of everything. know the real nature of ourself and we know the real nature of things. And we don't feel the difference. There's no difference between anything. And the fourth one, fourth samadhi is where neither Neither circumstances nor the person are taken away.

[20:15]

Everything is right there, present. And this is the fully rounded state of activity where you don't lose the third state and the fourth state. where everything that you do is based on your samadhi power, where you see the emptiness of everything, but you see the emptiness of everything in its fullness. So whatever you do, you do completely with compassion and understanding, not ignoring phenomena and yet seeing it in its true sense.

[21:28]

It's like described in the last Oxford picture where the man with the bag comes down and spreads wisdom and understanding through circumstances, not avoiding circumstances. But whatever circumstances arise, uses those circumstances as a skillful means. This is the culmination of practice, is to be able to use your prajna and samadhi into Use the circumstances that arise in the world, in your world, as a vehicle to teach without necessarily teaching.

[22:54]

And that's actually the culmination of practice. So in the Heart Sutra, Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva, Kanjizai, in Japanese, we say Kanjizai. Kanjizai is the same as Avalokiteshvara.

[24:06]

Kanjizai, Avalokiteshvara, the meaning of the name is something like the one who hears the sounds of the world. Kanjizai is the same but also has the meaning of one who understands the forms of the world. One who understands the true form of the world. And so the Heart Sutra goes on to explain that the true form, true form, what is true form? It is no form. The real true form of everything is no particular form. And then he goes on to explain what that means. So Heart Sutra is a kind of explanation or expounding by Kanjizai or Avalokiteshvara, with the permission of the Buddha, of what is the true form of things.

[25:37]

So the sutra says, avalokiteśvara, when practicing or coursing in the Prajnaparamita, perceives, perceived or realized that all the five skandhas in their own being are empty. and was saved from suffering and distress. Saved from all suffering. So, five skandhas form feeling, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. Five heaps Anyway, they're described as heaps. Heaps is a kind of literal translation, but five interdependent things.

[26:52]

And it's a kind of description of the person. Rupa can mean all form, anything that has forms. But strictly speaking here it means our body. Body. And feelings. Feelings in the body. And perceptions, which also has the meaning of thoughts. Impulses is a little misleading, but it means thought forms, ideas, constructions, mental constructions. And the fifth is vijnana or consciousness. And consciousness, strictly speaking, means to discriminate, to

[27:59]

compare and to set apart, set apart one thing from another. So the first one, rupa, skanda, which is form, body, belongs to the body. And the other four belong to the mind. Feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness. Although feelings also belongs kind of in between. So the Indians, Indian Buddhists, said these five skandhas are a kind of general way of talking about a person, of describing a person. As you can say, this is a person, or you can say, this is, this form here is a combination of five skandhas. We only say it's a person out of convenience.

[29:02]

So to take the point of view of, not the point of view of reality, he says five skandhas in their own being are empty. From the point of view of appearance, you say it's a person. You say, from the point of view of appearance, you say, oh, that's a person, or this is a chair, or this is a building. But from the point of view of reality, we talk about its constituents, what it's made out of. If we want to look at a chair, we say, oh, this is a chair. But if we take all the parts apart, all the pieces that make up the chair apart, then we say, there's really no chair there. It's just the parts. We feel a little bit differently about ourselves than we do about chairs.

[30:19]

We say, well, wait a minute. You can't just describe me the same way you describe a chair. I think there's more to a person than there is to a chair. But it's true, there is more to a person than there is to a chair. But strictly speaking, according to Buddhism, we all have the same basic nature, which is emptiness, the true form. of form is emptiness. When it's together, when the aggregates—forms, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness—come together, we call it a person. When it's not together, we don't call it anything. Shariputra, Buddha's disciple, asks Avalokiteśvara to please say something about the true form.

[31:43]

And he says, Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form. Form is emptiness. He's answering this question. The true form of form is empty. Everything has no nature of its own. It's not that when we take away form we have emptiness. There are two ways of looking at emptiness. One way is if you have a glass of water And then you pour the glass of water into the sink. You say, now the glass is empty. That's one way of using the word emptiness. The other way of using the word emptiness is even while the water is in the glass, we call it empty.

[32:49]

And that's the kind of emptiness we're referring to. But When you empty the glass, that's empty. Emptiness is emptiness. That's emptiness is emptiness. And when the glass is full of water, you say, this form is emptiness. And emptiness is the true nature of this form. So, Nagarjuna describes emptiness as the no-form of all forms. If everything had its own nature as a form, then nothing could change. But because everything is constantly changing, everything is constantly changing,

[33:58]

Or not even changing, you know. We can say changing for convenience. We can say transforming for convenience. But strictly speaking, if you look at it very closely, it's not changing or transforming. It's that things never really happen the way we see them. If everything had its own form, then it would exist from beginningless beginning to endless end, without ever changing. So, in order for things to arise and exist, they have to give way. Everything has to give way to everything else. You have to get out of the way so that something else can come up.

[35:02]

So everything is constantly getting out of the way by losing its position, by disappearing. And something else is appearing. And this is happening all the time. And this is the true form. The true form is no special form. But all forms are part of the true form. All the forms. are belong to the true form, which is emptiness. But there's no form that exists by itself, for itself, and has its own reason. So form is emptiness. It is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Form is form. Things are as they are, and emptiness is emptiness.

[36:07]

Nothing is. That's right. What isn't, isn't. And what is, is. But what is belongs to what isn't, and what isn't belongs to what is. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. The same is true of our feelings. The same is true of our perceptions. Same is true of our thought constructions. Same is true of consciousness. Therefore, in emptiness, there is no nose, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. Because everything exists as emptiness, they exist. So because of emptiness doesn't mean that things don't exist.

[37:11]

Because of emptiness everything does exist. If there were no emptiness, nothing would exist. If everything was not empty in its own nature, nothing would exist. So In order to know the reality of ourself, we try to realize the reality of our position on every moment, which is a new position. Every moment is a new life for us in relationship to everything else, which is constantly shifting and changing. And we're always making room for something new.

[38:11]

When we want things to stay the way they are, and they don't, we call it suffering. Because we're not going with the wave, or with the way things go. So, you know, it's like the principle of having children. all the old flowers disappear and the new flowers come up. So this is how we, we don't identify with ourself as permanent, but what we do identify with is emptiness.

[39:24]

And when we sit in zazen, we just resume our true nature. It's not that we've lost our nature, without any thought coverings, without anything to interfere, nothing to cover over, nothing to bother us. We can do that, but we also have to realize that nature in everything we do. This is the fourth

[40:37]

samadhi, where just in the midst of everything we act out our life according to the reality.

[41:01]

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