Dongshan Class 2

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Serial: 
BZ-02772
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#duplicate of 02771

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right in one job
you offer a coming today tonight
and it's a recording very good
so i'm first my apologies from a for last week i was on the fence about
presenting all those stories that each one is just so lovely i couldn't help at it out any or just picking a few and the allowing more time for discussion so in retrospect i think it would have been better if i would have offered less to have a little more space between them
for people to process serious questions formulate comments and thoughts and fetch or maybe have another day or evening of of class to spread it out on the bit more so thank you again for indulge me and allowing a their presentation to go a over the fifteen
in a scheduled scheduled time i think this evening because it's a as a single theme there's gonna be unpacked to be easier to manage in production at the appropriate time
i'm
don't think about fit is is beyond words and letters and systems of thought and thinking and all those processes can help us understand the way or mind works but
at the same time are many teachers have told us just throughout those systems and don't think about them don't get especially as with one not for like creating you're using a system for for it is teaching a distressing ship as either
composite for us to a
reveal our true self and to go from there
i was studying or i am sitting that the diamond sutra and i came across a passage that
a encourages this and a i hope it lay the foundation for the rest of the evening
section seventeen know what attains transit dental wisdom of a three part of it
zebedee what do you think whether to togheter was with dip on buddha was there any formula for the attainment of the consummation of incomparable enlightenment
no world honored one as i understand buddha's teaching there was no formula by which the to talk into attained the consummation of incomparable enlightenment
buddha said you are right sub booty verily there was no formula by which the to takata attain the consummation of incomparable enlightenment said booty had there been any such formula dip on car a buddha would not have predicted concerning me in the ages of
the future you will come to be a buddha called shakyamuni the dip ancora buddha made that prediction concerning me because there is actually no formula for the attainment of the confirmation of incomparable enlightenment the reason herein is that to togheter
is a signification implying all formulas in case anyone says that the to target to attain the consummation of incomparable enlightenment i tell you truly said booty that there is no formula by which the buddha attained it said booty the basis of to targeted attainment of the
consummation of incomparable enlightenment is wholly be ot it is neither real nor unreal
hence i say that the whole realm of formulations is not really such therefore it is called realm of formulations
so what i read this or it it felt like there was two size being presented one is don't get attached to forms
and the other side is there are forms and need to just their provisional their temporal there any given moment things
configure into a form and they dissipate into formulas formlessness so we can't really attached to a particular form is an ongoing process of staying awake and seeing the forms changing
i do africa literally means thus come or thus gone so when we if you imagine
a being thus coming and thus going it had it it has a more kind of ethereal feel to it is coming and going without like stopping in here i am and now i'm outta here

you know when we're young very young we had this open mind and we haven't really configured systems so we have this wide open
mine that is taking in the world and is that we love to be around children is there so open and in a way naive ah and are as adults we've kind of lost them of that naive a day because we learned in school and from
a family and cause the conditions of our life various ways and grouping things and learning about how things go together you know putting like shapes together or light colors together in kindergarden ah learning and in a grade school although various systems about how to
i understand the world so these are systems that are beneficial for us to understand the world but sometimes they get the way of actually experiencing the world so as adults we actually become childlike in a way and not childish but we returned to that openness and that's what
ah the five positions are a guide to help us out learn how to do that

so
with this screenshare
so what we have here are the five positions and a they're often called the five ranks but i like to call them a or despair them as positions which are temporal we constantly move back and forth we don't fix into one
or another when you when you hear things about ranks are ranking we immediately want to go to the top right what's the best rank to be it are the highest rank to be in and that can be deceptive and distracting to act to our practice so if we think of them as positions will be live at work
fluidity and less fixedness to them so on the left are the
ah the trigrams of the a shame which i wrote on the at the posting to the yahoo group which is where toes on a utilized those are the yin and yang the active and passive sides of our lives into a formulation that will
help instruct us in our buddhist practice and i'm on the right side are circles which are a little bit easier for us to understand and is only easier for me to describe this evening so i'm going to be used in those circles to describe the
ha the various dualities in our life the primary thing being wisdom and vexation so if you look at the the five or i tried grams there you can see that there in front of soldiers office in the form of bricks the long run
six or the yang or the active side and the split bricks a short breaks are the passage side the inside so yang and yin and there's five positions and here's a temple cat struggling to at a time
and there she is sitting upright with those positions as well
and finally one of my favorite pictures is a the depiction of the five positions a circular form in the kitchen that sojourn and i share and
while one kid say will be less distracted we just saw the circles i'd like to have this on the screen for a while so we actually see a it's not just as circles it's people in relationship to the circles or the to to the expressions that arise in our life
is a david and up on in my apartment a doorway and function of course it is his office
though they are add the positions i'll be talking about are going from the top and to the bottom

so it's a of is looking at the duality thinner a life i can say there is a was in the foreground and once in the background stillness or activity effient and function at nirvana and some thorough
and practice or wisdom and vexation or irritations
so it's important to know that a nothing exists alone
it's only a relationship to his opposite
which is a defining a piece of what emptiness means emptiest means that there's no abiding self that something arrive in relationship to another
so as well hidden and what's revealed and one of my favorite expressions is over a civic hero she's is were half good and were half bad we actually contain both or as whitman said in a week we contain multitudes though we tried to
we present our good sign or a deficit side it was also that that darker side that is in abeyance that is still there and when we start practicing it comes it becomes more clear about our vaccinations
as we continue to practice we actually become more transparent we can see both sides of ourselves little more easily and other people come to know as a little more easily as we trust the understanding of buddhism and we actually can be honest with one another and be clear about the both sides are are here
with the i contain the so-called good and the so-called bad
so in the first position i hear a there is the dark side here which is vexation and the so-called a clear sign of white side which is wisdom now in other renderings of the five positions these
the black and white would be reversed so there's no no a trick no attribution to the black side being vexation the white them it can be the exact opposite i just happened to copy this out of out of a book and is what we're going with this evening
so in the for so when we're practicing a surgeon said the other night and shows on enlightenment brings us to practice and what that is ah is that we realized that there is something off in the way that we're living our life something is askew something is amiss
myths and there's a desire to one of fix it or come to terms with it or understand it so this first position
ah is called form in emptiness one way describing his form an emptiness which of course relates to the heart sutra the world of form which lets say it's our disappointment and the vexation of relationship
the situation with a the political climate or country climate change whatever it happens to be for you that's the form that are causing us some discomfort and as we sit we get a glimpse into emptiness now until that happens is
just vexation that bother us but it is certain place in practice we actually see that there is
the emptiness
of that form
at his heart is hard to describe but the one of the easier ways of may be accessing that is to say when you're in nature
so we often described you know being in nature like being being in awe of the vastness and the openness of that will there is a description where there's there's a there's a mindset of what is going on in front of me is as awesome as beautiful and i'm speechless
and it is being still in the presence of that are awesome a scene is an experience of emptiness for beyond labeling it so it's a form
and it's empty
so if a glimpse into the real
and
we get a taste of you know what our self centered way of looking at things is shifted that we'd become a little less self centered oh there's something beyond my self centered thinking here that that i'm i should investigate and we experience that is awesome
and once we get a taste of this wisdom or the wisdom of emptiness and the a awesomeness of that there is a desire to want to cultivate more wisdom and get rid of
the vexation
and that is what's happening in this in the second a circle here so the the white is a growing amount of wisdom cultivating wisdom and getting settled in are sitting practice and as a little bit still have a
that vexation that little residue can have a problem that we that we have and so i'm in a way
when way this is know it is very disagree dualistic way of looking at a or alive but it's important to see it to see the dualistic side before we me
moved to the non dual side
ah so in this a a circle or position we've gone from form or is a is emptiness to emptiness is form because mostly were experiencing the emptiness of things and there's like a little residual going to be the
jewel of a form there that we're we're seeing
ah you know one could be likened to a a a good piece of grit and an oyster you know there this residual irritation that is getting polish into a pearl but in tourists completely formed into a pearl and still irritating
so is like i want to get rid of the that vexation and that's the great position to be in or that describes a place when we come to practice whereby we realize that man i really made a lot of mistakes in my life i really screwed up a lot i i should have apologize
as i should have done better been all that for a self deprecating thing it is taking place that second position because we become less self centered of entering practice from the first position and we see
the so-called a mistakes or errors in our of her away
ah this is also a circle or opposition is also a appropriate to describe the are hot ideal where the are hot of the old terra school of buddhism or the school of buddhism is when the monks and nuns is where the monks and nuns really phone
focused on eliminating vaccinations no label them very clearly and and working very very hard to cultivate a purity if you will
so those are that they are
clearly the dualistic side of of our practice which is very important in establishing the form of our practice form is emptiness and emptiness is form
come in the third position
a form is form emptiness of emptiness and what this position
represents for me is our mudra this is a cut the circle of wisdom is our hand mujer cosmic mudra a were holding if you will the vexation whatever the vexation to happen to be
we're sitting upright
we're giving ourselves often instruction and when it comes to the merger at the hand the thumb tips are lightly touching the not collapse for their open and holding the vexation
this or this or that of course a two dimensional a the depiction of form is form emptiness emptiness that what would be more easy to understand or see would be a it was three dimensional so if you remember from so
science school science class years ago in school they'd have a a picture of the ah of the earth and then they will cut off or set they would cut out a a quarter of an eighth of so you can see the core of the earth so if you imagine yourself sitting you're not to gin with two dimensional your three dimensional
know your belly hanging out you have a curve in your lower back in your upright like the the teaching stick stick that the our teachers are all but in the center of our military is that vexation and were holding it perfectly still
this is a i'm a little bit like a seesaw these five positions and the middle position form as form emptiness emptiness you can see clearly there's all that emptiness in the and the are the former vexation in the middle
is the fulcrum it's the balance point of practice and in many ways as the really sweet place to land in or azov and practice because the vexation are no longer a overwhelming us but they're still there and involved
then we're sitting in stillness and we have a hold on them so to speak
they're not controlling us
in a way we might be thinking that we're controlling them but there's a balance
in the balance and in in our life now with that

this the place also that i'm reminded of in the the go on about how do you draw up how you jump off a hundred foot pole
the
ha because it's so comfortable were sitting there still are a vexatious are in i'm in control or at peace so to speak we have perspective on them and so we don't want to go anywhere else this is fine i'm okay with a little bit of dirt or irritant but i'm emma
i'm cool here i'm sitting upright and it it it's okay nobody's perfect roster said i'm half good half bands i've got a handle on the bed and i'm still not good
perhaps
so now we're on the other side of the fulcrum at at the at the fourth position where emptiness is no different than form and form is no different than emptiness and all these expressions are contained in the heart surgery so what next
again and i hope that the five positions helps to eliminate that teaching
so i'm
it looks like that vexation have disappeared because is just a circle with a nothing in the center but actually it's more like in the ox hurting pictures where there's no there's nothing to pick it
we're actually we've we've actually disappeared
that that emptiness is no different than form form as though different than emptiness so because there's nothing to compare the other thing too is mean disappeared
and is the place where we're sitting solve them and
there's in a sense no consciousness no awareness of it
we're just sitting and then when his little beep and we become aware of are sitting that's okay we we haven't disappeared we've gotta reappeared in a way maybe it in a central feel a bit like the third position
but because we've just appeared as a deeper feeling or settle this in our practice
this is a little bit like as a story is about the buddha when he had awaken experience he he won story is that he he stayed by itself for three weeks in a for itself joyous samadi and just sitting
they're realized that he couldn't share this with anybody because it was just so so profound in a he can have disappeared and with no longer have a vexed by things bara had been destroyed and he was there
but as we know he returned to the marketplace and he ran into the five aesthetic said he had been practiced with earlier so he he left his sort of a joy a joyful space of peace under the boat bodhi tree and came back out into the world to be with people
so this is once again form is form and emptiness emptiness like in the third position but there's no longer a wearing about are being concerned with a enlightenment or delusion wisdom or vexation
he could leave already walks through that a position in the third and now we actually see that in in that black there which is so called vexation that we're living in the world of delusion we're not living in enlightenment we actually art
beat were diluted within delusion were consciously making a choice to be in the world and to help other people
like a lotus and muddy water there is a mud and then there's a lotus above the waterline you know blooming though with one piece
the black and white they're all mixed together

i'm
so before i go on to the next a another a rendering of the five positions is there anybody that has a question that they like to ask
you could undo yourself
i am a question or maybe you're going it
the cycle head
or maybe you're gonna get into this but i'm curious one of the bars com i had the she put on the lam
infographic the trigrams if if you if you if you look at the jewel beer samadhi or the hook or my that was a the palm that we have that don't schon wrote and gave to his disciples so's on and that's where the photo schools named after and within the in the june
mirrored samadi there's a reference to these are trigrams tranquil of yeah and
i think that out to the have a yahoo group the oh a learn rather well i haven't tried to frenemy but i have another question about it yeah so what for example the first to there's less lines ah on you know
is application is not as much emptiness well no that's not true because we're growing and them you know they go from three lines to three lines to gunfire front line is that the growth growing a you don't pay them i can't say actually i haven't studied of the trigrams and the
machine there i just wanted to include that so we know the source of tucson's a teaching and when you're on the temple grounds if you're wondering why are these bricks like this
belgian ah wanted to have a a toes on five positions there when he stepped out of his office and for others are walking by in kenya ah excuse me
okay yeah
have done the hitching of and so on so
if you can put up the thing because i thought they were just the cats and i didn't realize that you had puts he answered the trigrams in such on a on the trigrams than the hexagrams are different i mean i have like i don't i don't want thank you joe
i don't want to get into a discussion about the try grand because i'm not versed in that okay but here here the the the lines so id
on his inner truths
the pure white one and this one is on like served and forget the name of it it's sort of like things are unstable because the answer is bomb
there's so much yeah i mean there's so much whatever so that this have meanings now they i'm sure they do have any what no problem the main thing joe
ah okay i am
let's see can get can get okay
here we are okay so i'm
so don't get you know he said he didn't once he didn't want people to i use systems to understand the dharma that all you need to do with chicken taza
but actually ah
a what said from eight eight hundred seventy two twelve hundred and thirty five is of four hundred years as though forty years after after dose on a dog mg wrote a ginger go on and the famous line that
our to study the buddha way is to study to sell oneself to study oneself as to forget oneself to forget oneself as to be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas to be enlightened by the temp down the dharmas is to be freed from one's body and mind and those of
others no trace of enlightenment remains and is traces enlightenment is continued forever
so ah
it makes a fair amount of sense just steady it just the lines as poetry
but when i am a with looking around at in researching this is actually been commentaries on how this is a be worthy of dumb shots fired positions and after like to share with you share with you now

so to stay the buddha way is to study the self is called of the shift in practice so this the place where they said earlier this evening where we're going along in our life and are some dissatisfaction with how things are going or not go
going
and then somehow another mysteriously may wind up having this experience or this shift that it could be otherwise
and everyone here found berkeley then center at one time or another and in are here this evening so we're continuing this shift or this orientation and shifting towards a wifi mind
and shifting away from a life of creating more karma to one upgrading or following bow or intention
ah so a my any roshi a translates the japanese word in the english letters are nar a so neurol or naru something like that as study but ah according to his translation it means to learn
learn you notice it at the study is to learn a repetitious way like saw then sitting up and over and over again
doing calligraphy over and over again washing the dishes over and over again it's a repetitious activity that is actually studying were studying the self by repeating ourself over and over again
so jiro she said that he never liked to repeat himself he always wanted to do different things and that he came to to so koji he saw suzuki roshi every day bowing and offering incense every day bowing and offer incense in a repetitive thing
and with it was totally it was a shift it was a shift for sajjan from like i don't want to repeat myself to i'm following this teacher an going the i'm gonna investigate further with this repetitions about and i recommend the repetition chapter in zen mind beginner's mind
for a short legs a lecture that examines is a process
so we've got so we've shifted from a life of karma and cannot being a little bit unconscious or very unconscious to like to have more conscious living and shifting towards way seeking mine
and from a that a position
a form is emptiness
a shift to study the buddha ways through the south we we go to a willing submission to study the self is to forget the self you're submitting yourself to practice
so when we submit ourselves to practice we submit ourselves to weight loss we want we focus on west was what brought us here well my overweight tennis i want to get rid of my weight is extra weight so that becomes the vexation
and we're submitting ourselves to practice to the intention of letting go of our resistances letting go of our opinions and our fears
so will become to practice as we all know we have a lot of opinions a lot of think thinking about how things should be and if we can laugh if we can persevere in practice in community we learned to let go a little bit of our point of view doesn't need for get our point of view but we let
go of it and we let go of our resistance and and start letting in the other factors of awakening the other sanga members ideas and we process that is not just about me it's about us in community
to stay the self as to forget the self to forget the old self the old fixed self the means this person
we've gotten a glimpse into an awakening place where this person is not serving this person so well
so what am i gonna do about that
so where the third position
the third position is called at the position of achievement
for me when i hear achievement it means like a rank of achieved something i've got something i like to think of it is affirmation
we're on the path a were kind of in the dark and we continue practicing we keep bumping into things but a certain point we get some affirmation we get some okay guinness that we're on we're on the right track or on a trajectory toward a a greater awakening
and lessing are lessening are suffering
so how are how are we affirmed i like to think of it as when were upright sitting sitting upright with or murderer and reflecting on our vaccinations or vexatious and a lord controlling us there actually
in a place of a eve their inner a lap
their innermost in are open place of our where were breathing
we become more buddhists century and less self centered

so in this affirmation to forget to self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas were actually waking up to all the things around us that are affirming us that we actually are no longer we're looking at damn it is about me and those things were actually
lee being affirmed by our world or awkward or the dharmas that we are in the with the world

and it takes a lotta trust because if you forget yourself if you forget the self or habit energy as wait a minute it going to be taken advantage of
did i go in the right way so it take it takes a while to get to this place where we actually trust or practice and trust are dumber brothers and sisters and our teachers to help us with our vacations
and when we have this a sense of joy or uprightness this is called a gg use the my which is actually what the a one way of saying with the boot experience under the bodhi tree we don't know really what he experiences the story that i'm sharing with you think it for what it's
worth but it's itself joy as herself receiving samadhi or concentration of awareness in our practice
in the zendo or after we bail out the sojourn roshi before stepping out if you look up there is a calligraphy of suzuki roshi is above the
the doorframe and that's the calligraphy for gg who semi king of somebody's
self joy the mahdi
or concentration
so in the fourth position
to be enlightened by the ten thousand and dharmas has to be freed from one's body and mind and those of others
that the collective achievement
so with no longer a an affirmation of just this person just me but there's a collective feeling for all of us practicing and this is the the are you know we're not a a hermetic practice although ones then we might feel that we're we're doing a hermetic
practice but it's a collective practice the a practice with sanga
and a in in in country as the gg use a my or self fulfilling or soft joyous as samadhi in taji you the my is others fulfilling waxy helping others we actually are we are with others and this is
my experience has been like in in sashimi we will be cultivated enough time on the cushion and we're not talking and dividing thing for works using our other senses to receive the world and relate to each one of us there is a
a dropping away of this self centered person and we were doing things together and you can see it
especially during serving in meals he noted is basically a violent expression and we're just moving to the zendo serving taking receiving eating cleaning and all that seamlessly
so there's this sense of others fulfillment a concentration so because we're we're losing that felt selfish feeling or i'm monday i need to get better i need to be awake and all that we actually are starting to turn her energy towards others as
and helping others because is less we realize two things one is ah
at the body fat ideal we bring others across ah with us we don't go first
and when we when we do that we also are being brought over is not me first is me together

and in the final a position and no trace him alive it remained in this traces enlightenment is continued forever
this is an integration of affirmation or integration of achievement so we're no longer wearing about enlightenment or delusion where his were just in the mud together practicing
a body and mind have dropped away his dogan you know phrase it
about his or his great awakening

i search and describe disposition of the fifth position is kind of like an old man and the in the corner of the a room with people or in a in a quiet corner of a a a town square not that people don't recognize
there he just there she's chief just there and not making any noise and pretty invisible but with a watchful eyes actually seeing an interesting what is a what needs to happen here in my awake and aware to help other people
will because i've gone through the bamboo true but i'm a so called on the other side of that and
what's next

oh
that is
that all by prepared notes that i wanted to share with you all today and a in people have questions or comments now the time thank you very much

you can just a meat yourself and we
oh me

actually you new image yourself again so i said i was listening earlier and i took some notes and i just wanted to say
i found it really illuminating when you said you know how we're holding vexation an our raja i never necessarily thought of that exact thing and and way you described as i think i've had my hand up because i wanted to describe have you home taxation and your new but as effective as he did you did
despite that with a softness and a kindness annual taxation doesn't leave us but we hold it lightly and that was just so beautiful i wanted to thank you i don't know this question about it down it just struck me to sell lumley right well am
you will be gifts will be all presented instruction we talk about being aware that like thumb tips lightly touching and if are some tips are are pushing harder and harder is using that were vexed about something and if they've drifted apart maybe it's just too much a deal with the were just kind of
a disconnected and and a checking out so you don't want can also it because nothing exists by itself but other way of saying it it were holding enlightenment
it's not just vexation were wholly we're holding our awakening but i think from a practice place of easier ah
and maybe more
useful in a way to think that we're holding her vexation they're not holding us
yeah i'm leveling it ah you're welcome but see all the tall has a raised hand oh great yeah joe what's up
what's up as to thank you this has been terrific the the will you said about a the five ranks and that wonderful dog and thing with five dollars on and i never thought of that way but it's so helpful
a to illuminate the five ranks for me because you know had been very involved in the dogan and the five ranks have been pretty i'll take to me on this one thing i just want to put out there which is from what you said about the actual words on for study
the second version you're saying that keeps happening and it occurred to me that the the practice simply practice is good thing that realizes that to practice the buddha ways to practice the self moon practice the self is to let go of all things
that i just found that help also wanted to offer to folks yeah
yeah we we typically here to stay the buddha way is to study their self the acquisition i i i read this afternoon was oneself so it actually feels like more ownership live stream oneself this self here
let's see a noble son am i didn't check it with you about the japanese for a steady do you be call on that we're an island as his hand or maybe he has a sense of it
the outward i'm not the to study the buddha way
oh no now we come to become to become can become understand that icy or accomplish accomplish
i think yeah yeah oh very time
madam pick up right ah capable of fun
god becomes a buddha tomato check
when penny shining shining on roof tile yeah enchanting to her near ah
can cover that she can't other yeah and you know ah thank you you you you to come to cancun yeah yeah going to come to princess he began to
thank you
i was speaking with viana am a this afternoon and a she brought out a category roche's or maybe later his latest collection of lecture there it is light that shines through infinity and there's a teaching in there that was pretty much a reworked
ing also of the five positions if people want to explore that i don't want to get into it now but ah it's just that
what's it thing that you know that there's nothing do under the sun you know the things are created but we don't know who who may be preceded them that inspired them
i am
we have chris and also allen had his hand up thank you
chris thank you and the last class we were discussing about what's on our side which sprout grass sprouts right i mean we've formulated that digging through the roots struggling for the roads his practice and that note that nurses to sprout of what's on the other side and somebody wisecrack know what is back on the other side and somebody
a wisecrack astro turf was wondering if like judy or anybody else had a ah work of analogy to what's on the other side
follow me
whether the other side yeah on this side of the shore you know we have grass and it's sprouting because we get to dig to struggle through the roots and the dirt and get dirty as the other side is enlightenment right when you cross over the other side was a new asked what was the
are you or someone asked what was what was the imagery on what's on the other side and you know somebody's job astro turf good has no roof the group's chairman but judy was wondering about that if i recall than anyone else have a analogy or visualization i was on the other side i know we're speaking pervert probably
we have like knows i had appointed as i said was you know
a grass it doesn't sprout right so with that me that what is an o'clock
yeah what does that look like
good question why wouldn't it also just be grass and sprouts as it is on this side
well are we say enlightenment is all the others as on the other shore there is no other shore is this short so when we realize that grass sprouts on this shore are no different than grass and sprouts or the other shore were safe but we're seeing it with buddha's i am not a ross is self centered i
i we see there's no difference and were enough in a third position
ah yeah
or maybe opposition mix together
so i did think about that a little bit doing as as and when i shouldn't been thinking you have a quanto as you speak so then i think the other side is more like the perhaps more like the pure land where it's direction is more important than the other side place
it's a his aspiration of gordo yeah you move your practice for that you paddle or row or swim or whatever your struggle for like sisyphus whatever is is a struggle that's what's important what's what's really there is not the places that important as the direction
someplace else we don't wanna be here we wanna be elsewhere
and the grass is always greener on the other side right
yes and no ah we wanna be here but we are in a moment of time furnace and a directional right and we do want to figure out how to tell the tiller and the rudder ah well the other side gives us an idea about our direction for example to yeah there's the issue or a karate imagery where the tiger she's got all three
cause on the ground but her one paul is reaching towards something and that's to a dragon that's in the air and that is the ideal the ginza go on that we're reaching for that's what's on the other side
like that yeah
i'm
ah
i didn't i came to a city practice when i was twenty eight and i was pretty a dull and not so aware over my i'm suffering and be able to do anything about it prior prior to that but i did have
a and awakening
when i was hitchhiking in germany and was about twenty and i want to share this story with you because it is for me it is part of my secular life that
invokes the so-called spiritual life if you will so when i was hitchhiking i met a couple of vegetarians and they were not proselytizing i just they just didn't need animals and rather go into the details of what xp
variance talking with them and observing them it was pretty clear that their lifestyle with different then when i grew up with and what i even with aware of that could be a lifestyle of abstaining from eating animals so that i woke up to something profound
and when i came back to a america to finish up my a college education i became a vegetarian
and like most vegetarians and the first get on board with that they get really onboard and they get on their soapbox and they start arguing the pros and cons and all the rest of that and so that was a for me being in the first position that there was something about
the suffering of animals that i didn't want to participate in and i was working to understand that better and better but there was a so much a
a vexation in my life that it it it became ah
it fueled the argument or fuel of my conviction around it and as you might imagine and you've probably experienced yourself is kind of alien need to hear someone tell you about what you should be doing
so i'm of years after that ah i stumbled into burning of place and started sitting zazen
and my mind started slowing down
and i are
for this discussion i found myself in a in a place of a being in the third position
were there with a a a balance between the lifestyle that i had adopted
and as think that was going on in the world that i felt with a problematic
i'm not a
a beneficial thing that are harmed the
the animals with their suffering as well as and who come to know now the planet with a global warming and what does cut clear cutting the amazon forest for pasture land all the rest of rested that
so i sat in practice with my father who the veterinarian who worked on animals that were destined for slaughterhouse that was supported by those animals that were being slaughtered and i loved the taste of all that food that i ate growing up there was nothing particularly wrong with it
and all my best friends are animal leaders so how do i reconcile
that go on of the something very dear to my heart about animal rights and not a harming animals that eating animals a year at the same time
the world is is what it is
and so when i came across a passage in the in the platform sutra where the six ancestor who was a gorgeous story or didn't eat animals he lived with hunters for a while and he had a vegetables to his roots
vegetables of things cooking in the the broth potter the cauldron along with the animals that the hunters had gathered a hunters had i gathered hundred said we i get killed him and brought brought back so when i read that my first impulse was a horrible and with the other is
the the vegetables are tainted ah this isn't a good thing but actually it's the fifth position it's the black position in the five positions which for this particular argument or discussion point is the highest position is the
addition that i can let go of my preferences of the duality of not eating animals is good eating animals is bad and that the six ancestors this model of i'm eating animals about eating plants but i'm not separate myself from the as
animal eaters and were cooking together in a way as those like to say where the soup pot were all stirred up together and that's been a model or practice for me even though i still have residue i'm still holding that vexation about the plight of animals and slaughterhouses in the and the climate changed all are
arrested that
but it helps me a to be with you all
and hopefully it helps you be with me that i'm not on my soapbox telling you to stop eating at
ah so i'm
he was have any thoughts on that are their own stories but how they came to practice or how they're working with these these positions of understanding and and gonna close the gap of these of dualistic thinking
now if you don't have a hand up essa essa height i could it mean really thank you for being here it's wonderful that you've been a while yeah i remember the last conversation you and i had been maybe about a year ago or so at the zendo but
on
one of the things that on living in the united states of america where were shackled with one fundamental problem that we can see are very well today and it's the black and white divide you know african americans were enslaved and we still have
issues around black lives matter and these harvard university has a are studied caught the implicit ah it's an implicit research study and it shows i don't know if you've ever seen the experiment where the young children there with the dolls is a black doll and there's a white dog
on many of you are probably familiar with that experience and so we don't know how it is the children by the age of two and three and five come to know and understand that that white is better than black right and there's an awareness that we come
to whether it's vegetarianism or an awareness that you know we can destroy the environment the we were destroying and an awareness that food am i was born raised roman catholic and sin is black
there's a black cat black gets inextricably linked with evil right you were talking earlier about how we learn systems and it's just one of the things you when i talked about before is how do we bring about this awareness of diversity right a
symbols but i think it has to be deep within our are thinking right while we we want to i made i may be going to walk but we want to embrace the reality is if this group here was all black we might think twice about the black white the black being vexatious because whilst
thus it's just really hard in this country to deal with this black white thing so it's really a wonderful opportunity as you said originally it doesn't have to be black and doesn't have to be white so i don't really say in terms of it would really be great to flip the script on this because it would enlighten us to say wow the black cat all these negative
things about black we need to we need to change even it's symbolically even a by agree with yuasa thank you for bringing that up and thank you for a highlighting the points that i made it to beginning which is that we were born
and then the systems that we are that we learn for a better or for worse that kind of that that of flavor our life and as we come into practice we get and as doggett said you'd you'd have to let go of these systems we have to see the
that the systems are provisional and if they've been if they've been created a to keep a culture down to keep an animal down whatever happens to be we have to see through at all and
ah the the a image of being in the marketplace and mixing it up with all the colors all the forms that we have in this life that's where the real work is an a a a a caught if
let's incumbent upon us is to keep the dialogue going and not close down so of so i appreciate people ears open when i started talking about not eating animals because
most of my friends here a out of leaders that when a rasping golf on what it is vegetarian things again oh my god i find a word a of five position or ethnic so again also thank you for bringing it up and we're working together to
make this happen
so are you willing to change this lecture if you were to give it again and switch it around would you have that level of our flexibility and and dumb spots and be the be able to not just black is i've just just that in question for
well the thing is
i would like to do this class again i'd like to do last week's class again
so ah

when we look at my understanding is when we look at
wisdom and vexation
we can clock we can call it
anything we just lead to things it can be one and two it can be red and green it could be ah
a circle and square whatever it happens to be but the beauty of it is and is where i what gives a on his way
a piece of mine when we talk about integration
that aren't that my understanding of my suffering it when things are not integrated and their separate and when their separate i talk about like and white jew and gentile in all that all the various duality that are in this world but if i can re-live integrate
ocean
and that there's just one piece
that's where i find that's where i find my
wakening and help a carolina et al
i don't know if this is on a different subject that i was surprised when i saw it too because i was thinking oh god that's gonna be enlightenment because i was thinking of the pie which i was trying to learn you for bringing that up which in the dar that's been in on the brand's history is full on on the da
arc which is i say my understanding is the enlightenment part
and the light installing delusional parasite i will support you know young surprising that a kind of reversed in this one like not an interesting thing that on a saw brings up interesting and very valuable things can be gather in the dark in the light their distinguished
in the dark they come together to how do we hold both of those and not just attached to one side of the other a out the julianne
i think that that aces point is is very well taken and also i think that carol was saying in essence what what i was going to say that the fifth rank to my understanding is the rank of the undifferentiated
ah that the dark makes all forms one and had that archetype really aren't typically in zen
ah
the light stands for differentiation
and difference and dark stands for oneness so if you look at in response to what isa was any if you look at things from that perspective ah then
in certain way the system the system works and of course to system is itself
dealing with dealing with dualities yeah system henry it's it's worth noting as well that ah dogan was ah with three critical
of the way the five ranks ah were used in ah in then he didn't he didn't explicitly use them anywhere and he did explicitly criticize them and other places but implicitly as you were saying say in
the in the opening to gain joke on it was always it was it was in him that system was in him in the same way i or perhaps it is in a parallel way to
the way that
white supremacy is embedded in the system of our society ah and so there's there's no escaping it there's there's only the way of a to me of acknowledging and hand him in a non abrasive but acknowledge
aging and ah
ah
trying to be free yeah ah choy anyway that's that's what i wanted to say just think there's a there's a tremendous ambiguity about the the implications of dark and light and you can play it either way gear
yeah yeah it won't wouldn't be sits on that and we we kissed her eyes downward there's still open but we're not where we're focusing inward and if we shine a light on something it's a very different mine mine place so there's is this light and dark thing
that are constantly in play and
ranch stream flow in the dark you know this a saluki rashi's commentary on the sand okay again thank you care for bringing that up would be is a great study and i'm sure the stuff online for that a lectures around that
juliana think you you have the last question or comment tonight
i am
i i actually was i think cause i actually said what i was going to say essentially so and i i just because i have read very little about terrorism in the past and it seems that those on
opposites are can be associated with a wide variety of values so so dark isn't always bad in in the taoists cosmology ah so that's all i wanted to say but i think was i'm probably saved better of the well it's sixth year
with will either
things are at one
we were born or at at the umbilical cord a cut and then it becomes too and we're constantly working on getting back to one but we have we can't do that and left me recognize the multiplicity or the duality of things and
the is is endless and thank you all for being here i have it is helping the be understand these teachings and your questions or comments or all ah helpful and i'll be thinking about them ah
for a long time and as there's a recording of this so if you want to worry refer back to anything that i went over a you to berkeley than video is therefore us to i enjoy for others to as well
and he left comments or questions or thoughts
okay judy to thank you for your offering can thank you for your off from you're welcome thank you judy is waving her hand as a see hi judy
viewed you read it judy
i wanted to thank you and i also am i want to say you know we study these things that we study them within cultures and and right now it's a really important high stakes time and i really is eisa bringing forward this really significant call on and things
tree and the language that we use existed at that time in a in a context of culture and and place and class race and gender and all these things and religion and the same as happening now and we can't quite know our in the midst of it but we can
call attention to the symbols and the language and all this so i appreciate how appreciate your
ah ross your way of inviting dialogue man i appreciate aces courage and clarity to to bring forward i think an important tom
thank you for that judy a in preparation for tonight's class i thought about this and i thought about the charge on black and white that might or me for people and so i made a point of saying without going into it any further as far as a a a social political discussion
a keeping it on on track for practice and what the symbols represent is a oh as a over all teaching that it could be a any range of colors or think that we can look at visually as two separate things but with a care concern in this day and age
that
ah black has a is this represents
and we didn't we need to work to straighten that out
and study the sand okay it all comes together in the dark
they actually that him to the perfection of wisdom i actually wrote a different version of it after sitting during a session and realizing that it's images of light and darkness might bear reexamination so i think my husband throughout our yeah
yeah well it they're not ranked it's position so we're constantly evolving and i would have thought we'd be having this conversation back and tang china or of when it's a tranquil yeah in japan yeah go okay well good night you all thanks again for your participation and
showing up and
i will see you on the path