Well, tonight I want to just go over this once more for the sake of clarity, okay? And I assume you've all been studying something. So I'll go over our classifications and relationships. We're talking about the eight levels of consciousness, the hierarchy of consciousness. I was thinking about the trouble some people have with the word hierarchy.

[01:03]

And it seems to me that the trouble that people have with the word hierarchy is this. The seventh consciousness is what people feel motivates other people to elevate themselves in a hierarchy. But whether or not mono-vijnana is there, is ego, hierarchy still exists as the order of things. So, I'm not a scientist, but I think in science all phenomena are classified according to the hierarchy of their parts. So anyway, it doesn't have anything to do with ego particularly, but we usually associate hierarchy with ego or with power or position, power positions, right?

[02:15]

So if we can drop our associations and just look at it with the eye of the mirror wisdom, which just sees everything as it is, then we won't have any problem here. So in the hierarchy of consciousness, what did you say? I said, all right, let's do that. In the hierarchy of consciousness, the first five are the senses. The consciousnesses which are the consciousness of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. And those consciousnesses are transmitted to mind consciousness, which is discriminating consciousness of mind. And manas, or mind consciousness in this model, discriminates the various messages that it gets from the senses and distinguishes something seen

[03:31]

from something heard, something smelled, from something tasted. Tozan, in another verse, says, when you can hear with the eye and see with the nose, then you hit the mark. And then, mano vijnana, I mean, yeah, mano vijnana is the ego consciousness, sense itself. And alaya vijnana is the storehouse consciousness, which, when purified, becomes the jewel mirror of our mind. And because it is like the doorway to infinity, for lack of a better word.

[04:32]

So, when Mano-Vijnana, or the seventh consciousness, is in control, or ego, when ego is dominant, then these are called consciousnesses. When the ego is no longer dominant, when ego finds its rightful place as the conveyor between the vijñāna and the mind consciousness, manas. And the consciousnesses are turned, transformed, then they're called wisdoms or prajnas. Then they correspond to the Mirror Wisdom, the Equality Wisdom, the Observing Wisdom, and the Perfection of Action Wisdom.

[05:37]

So they're called Wisdoms instead of Consciousnesses. But this is just terms. This is just a way of thinking about it. Right? Yes? Well, it's just a way of thinking about it, but also I'm going to call it, after that, kind of, criticism. And then the mirror wisdom corresponds to the Dharmakaya Buddha, and the equality wisdom corresponds to the Sambhogakaya Buddha, and the observing wisdom and the perfection of action wisdom correspond to the Nirmanakaya Buddha, the three bodies of Buddha. And dharmakaya is mind, our nature, and sambhogakaya is our wisdom, and nirmanakaya is our existence, our manifestation.

[06:55]

Do you have any questions about that? That's just a... Dharmakaya is our nature. It's what we are. It's our... It's what we are in the sense that Everything that exists is myself and I am everything. That's what that means. That's my nature. As Dharmakaya Buddha, as Dharmakaya, that's our nature. Yes? I don't have the desire

[08:08]

When this gets sick, it wants to get well again. So it searches for a cure. So what is it that suffers? So in consciousness, this is what suffers. This is what has joy, but also has suffering. And so it wants to it may not realize it's sick, but it may, and then it wants to get a cure. So actually, ego is what takes us, turns desire toward practice. But enlightened ego, awakened ego, let's say, awakened ego, turns us toward practice. So when we come to practice, We're full of ego, usually.

[09:40]

And because our desire is to just do something for ourself. And then later you learn that we don't sit zazen just for ourself. We don't practice just for ourself. This is when we have maturity. We understand this. Because this is no longer, we don't need to do anything for ourself anymore. When that's no longer dominant where you realize that in order for you to be happy, or you know, whatever, you need to put other people first. It's sort of a thing that the ego kind of stumbles on. Yeah, the ego really stumbles on that one. That's the ego's stumbling block. That's where you get at the kind of Yeah, when one can step back from putting oneself first, then ego is starting to turn.

[10:52]

The subconscious is beginning to turn. So our society is based on promoting ego. And it's very hard to, you know, not see that as the thing to do. That's the way to go. That's why it's so hard for a lot of people to live, you know, in the world. Because it's so hard to go against the stream. It's very powerful. It really catches you up, you know. How does Zazen? Well, Zazen turns. In Zazen, this is at a minimum, because there's no place to express it.

[11:55]

It still can be there, you know. So, there's no gap between this and this. In pure Zazen, where this is not operating, There is no gap between these two. Well, what does that mean when it's not awkward? What is what? I mean, what does it look like when it's not awkward? Well, don't you see something? Yeah. It looks like a massive, dark, pitch black, and you can't recognize it. You don't know what it is. And you say, this is boring. It looks like boredom. I guess what I'm getting at is, it seems to me that there's some, in my experience anyway, there's some difference between, you know, for example, not having a discriminated thought, or not having a judgment, and sort of not, and having it, but not really truly associating it.

[13:06]

So, I'm not sure what No, no. It means... The word judgment is also kind of confusing. Because we do have to judge things, right? We have to discriminate. But it means not discriminating based on this. Okay? So discrimination based on this is called egocentricity. That means the ego is at the center. So we put the ego off to the side. So, then we have eccentricity. But anyway, and when the ego is no longer operating as the center of the self, then the mind opens up.

[14:19]

The mind is already open, but the mind, it's no longer, this covers, this seventh consciousness is like a big blanket, you know, and it just covers everything over. So when it's taken down, The sun is there all the time but it's like a big cloud and you just take it down and your true nature is revealed. And so, I don't want to talk anymore about that now because that's what we're going to get into when we start investigating the ranks. So I'm going to talk about the four wisdoms a little more before we go on.

[15:33]

So the first one is called Mirror. This is a precious mirror, a jewel mirror. The second one is called, it has two names actually. The translator uses the term in two different ways in the same paragraph called universal nature. One of them is observing, and the fourth is perfecting of action.

[16:36]

Now, mirror wisdom is like the dharmakaya. When the dharmakaya... The dharmakaya is the source of everything. And the mirror wisdom is its expression. And the mirror is like impartial. Has no... partiality at all. And Dharmakaya Vairochana Buddha, Dharmakaya Vairochana is the embodiment of Dharmakaya. It's a kind of, the symbol of the perfect mirror. Dharmakaya Buddha just sits in his heaven and doesn't move. complete stillness and just emanates everything.

[18:11]

It's kind of the closest thing to God in Buddhism. So, the mirror is our true mind which reflects everything without partiality, just sees everything as it is. And when the seventh consciousness is no longer covering everything, then there's no reason why we don't see everything as it is. So, one good reason for turning ego over, transforming it is in order to see everything as it is, to see reality with your own eyes, because ego creates partiality.

[19:17]

So, we can say this is the character for mind. And that character for mind will stand for the mirror, the dharmakaya. The equality, universal or equality wisdom, appears when the ego is transformed. And instead of seeing everything from your own point of view, the quality of everything. Instead of seeing from a judgmental hierarchy, you see everything is completely equal. A mouse is equal to an elephant. A grain of sand is equal to Mount Sumeru.

[20:27]

This is the wisdom of seeing everything completely equal. So this is horizontal wisdom. Horizontal, in the horizontal plane, everything is the same. So that's this way. And the observing wisdom is the wisdom when manas is turned, then it becomes the observing wisdom. Observing in the sense that it sees the difference, clearly, the difference between everything. It sees everything as completely independent. The table is not the tablecloth.

[21:32]

The floor is not the ceiling. The floor is the floor. the person is the person, Joe is Joe, Mary is Mary, the knife is the knife, and so forth. That's hierarchy. That's vertical, seeing everything as distinct from everything else, and in comparison to everything else. That's hierarchy. Everything has a place. And that place is not taken up by anything else. And some things are up here, and some things are down here. This is without regard to a view of self. This is without regard to a view of self. With that gone, then you can't see it. It's actually a relationship. Right. Without self-interest. Yeah. Now a mountain is a mountain. Yeah, mountains are mountains.

[22:34]

That's right. Mountains are mountains. Here, mountains are not mountains. Rivers are not rivers. Here, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. And this is everything is just as it is. Everything is just as it is because the mirror reflects everything just as it is, without interpretation, or without adding or subtracting anything. So, horizontal is leveling. And vertical is hierarchy. And where the two meet is where we live. That's where our life takes place. At the crossroads of everything is equal and everything is completely independent. Everything is equal and everything is unequal.

[23:37]

And in its unequalness, everything is equal. Is that how, before ego is transformed or after? It's just the way it is anyway. But it's the way we see it. But we can see it. When ego is not interpreting, then it becomes clear. This is, everything is one. And this is, everything is two. More than one. So we say, neither one nor two. Merging a difference. Merging a difference. So this is the mirror in the middle. This is a different layout. Where we're putting the mirror in the middle instead of on top.

[24:43]

a linear hierarchy, we're making a mandala, where mind is in the middle. And ego turns into equality, sees things equally, without discriminating. And mind consciousness observes the hierarchy of things without interfering without... it sees it in its true sense. And then, the perfecting of action wisdom is through our activity. When this is seen correctly, then it informs our activity, so that we act without ego. I mean, without ego, dominating.

[25:48]

So, it needs feet in order to move, right? This is static. So, we can do this. That's Buddha symbol. The Nazis took it over and perverted it, but I'm reclaiming it. It goes the other way. This is going, this is going this way. The other one goes that way. But in Buddhism we use both. Is that where, is this where it comes from? This is from what comes from? The swastika? The swastika is a Buddhist symbol. Ancient Buddhist symbol. No, but this is, when that Buddhist symbol is Is that the meaning of this Buddha symbol? Yes.

[26:50]

It was a little stretch for me. But I didn't invent it. I didn't invent it. I'm just interpreting it. But it works. So it has movement through the five... The activity produced through sensory awareness is our... how we move through life. In form... with the... This is the dual mirror of samadhi. Samadhi... This means literally concentration, but what it actually means is moment by moment being the continual renewal of now, being completely one with the continual renewal of this moment

[28:08]

So, this kind of symbolizes the dual mirror samadhi, which is our purified activities, so to speak, which takes place in the mud of life. This is living like a lotus, in the mud. So, with the mirror uncovered, illuminating both vertical and horizontal, and the feet to move I read the saying that nirvana equals samsara, samsara equals nirvana.

[29:41]

Would that be another expression? Yes, that's right. This is samsara and this is nirvana, but the whole thing is one piece. Yes. I don't understand what you mean. Moving? Where are we moving to? Just moving. Just moving. Moving in emptiness. Do you always think we're going somewhere? But actually, we're just moving in emptiness. Now, can you talk about how these relate to the five ranks? How it relates to the five ranks? The mirror wisdom is the first two ranks.

[30:41]

To really find out how those correspond is very difficult. So the closest I can come is that what I'm saying now is the mirror wisdom is the first two ranks. It's really the first rank, but it includes the second rank. because the two are just two sides of one rank, really. And the quality wisdom is the third rank, coming from within the real. And the observing wisdom is the fourth rank, and the perfecting of action wisdom is the fifth rank. Compassion is related to perfection of action.

[32:12]

It's hard to say where it starts. It would be hard to say at which rank that starts. You can sit around and be a mirror. You have to sort of act in the world. is wisdom, and the activity of wisdom is compassion. So the second rank I would think would be where it would manifest, because the second rank is the activity of the first rank. Being and... I like to use the terms being and moving, or being and doing. static, fairly static, and it's the symbol of, symbolized by the darkness, right, where there's no movement, no obvious movement.

[33:46]

That's being, and that's our true nature is being, and movement is stillness, and activity comes out of stillness. being and doing. So being is wisdom and doing is compassion. But, you know, these are just, again, they both belong, they're just two hands of one being. So in our activity, you know, people that are very busy all the time doing, rarely have the opportunity to just experience being, pure being. And people who sit all the time, if you sit too much, then you don't have the experience of doing. So this is one of the problems, you know, that can happen in Zen practice.

[34:56]

especially our kind of Zen practice, is sitting too much. Suzuki Roshi, he didn't ask us to sit too much. Actually, we sat a lot, but he was very much into activity. And one of the criticisms of the Soto school is, oh, they're just always sitting around. that are always like rice bags, you know, looking at the black wall all day long. So, we have to be able to express our sitting, our being within our doing. While we're doing, to know that doing is based on being, and experience that being.

[35:57]

That's why it's good in your day just to stop and breathe and realize, yeah, this is just being, you know. What am I doing? Anyway, we get to that. So those are really the two sides. And actually compassion is just an expression of wisdom, as it expresses itself. But wisdom is you know, in this sense, is the source. And when it moves, it should move compassionately. And one problem sometimes with Zen practice is we really overemphasize sometimes wisdom, which is monjushri. and at the expense of compassion, which is, obviously, kusvara, we get caught up in wanting our understanding to be good.

[37:15]

And it's good to have understanding. If your understanding isn't so good and you have a lot of action, then you should slow down, try to understand more. And if your understanding is good, but you don't do anything, you should get out and do something to express what you think you know. So practice is always balance. And when we come to the monastery to practice, we look at a person's character. And if a person is too busy, we say, because... for a while. And if somebody's too slow in planning, we give them something busy to do. Why don't you try this for a while? So to balance the person's character. And then we have a lot of trouble. Because it's very hard to motivate ourselves to do the things that we don't like to do.

[38:20]

To do the things that are not what we call our nature. We kind of get stuck in our nature. And each one of us does have a certain natural characteristic, you know, that's identifiable and true to ourself. But we can always extend that. We don't have to be stuck in, oh, I'm this way. I'm like this. This is the kind of person I am. We get stuck there. So we try to help a person to extend a little bit beyond our idea of ourself. And then we find our true level. So, hopefully, in Zen practice, we stretch ourself. Stretch ourself as much as possible, especially in the beginning. You really have to stretch yourself as much as possible, which can be painful.

[39:25]

So, if you have some you know, are a beginner and you have some problem, I think if you look and see, look at it and think, well, maybe they're just trying to stretch me. See if I can relax a little bit and stretch. That's helpful. So, This brings us to But before, just before I say anything about that, we tend to think of the absolute as the final word.

[41:06]

the discrimination or the result of the actualization of the absolute in the world, which it is. But you see, the absolute and the relative are opposites. So that's a duality, right? And if we talk about enlightenment and delusion, well, that's another duality. So the enlightenment you're talking about is enlightenment It can't be enlightenment, actually, because it's the opposite of delusion. So there has to be something beyond that. The synthesis of absolute and relative is called... Now. You know, when we were talking yesterday, I think it was, when we were having shosan, and a question came up about drifting off, I think it was your question, drifting off in zazen, and somebody asked the question, why do you, why do we, what do we do when we start drifting off, and is that okay to sleep, or things like that?

[42:42]

And I realized that the thing actually, that we do exist in, is continually wake up. So, drifting, sleeping, whatever we're doing that's not this, awareness of this, is sleeping. In one form or another, dreaming is sleeping, even if it's a daydream. What we do when we bring ourselves back, I said, we just keep bringing ourselves back. But actually, we keep waking up. It's continually waking up. And when you wake up, there's nothing there except now. We just keep continually waking up to now. And samadhi is to be continually in now.

[43:46]

That's all there is to zazen. How can you be continually in that? That's a good question. It does seem like an outcome. Because what happens to now? It becomes men. Becomes what? It does become men? It always did. How can now become men? That's what we think. That's where our mind works. Well, when we get into an exciting situation, then now becomes more apparent. Because your mind is working together with your activity, and thinking is just happening if you get into a desperate situation.

[44:53]

And so you have the feeling of just... you don't have the feeling of past and present so much. You're just a long moment of now, which is actually closer. If you say, now turns into then, then it's just an idea. Now is also just an idea, but now is what you can experience any moment. So it looks like now is changing, looks like the future is changing into the present, which is changing into the past. But now is just an expression, is an expression of now, but the events on now change. And it looks like time is moving. In other words, we see everything backwards.

[46:02]

From a certain point of view, we're looking at time from our standpoint. this seventh consciousness standpoint. And it looks like time is moving. Of course, time is just a concept. I can say it any time I want, and it's true. So, the future is just an idea. We plan for the future. We have speculation and ideas about the future. But can you see or touch the future? It's just an idea. It's just ideas we have. And you say, well, tomorrow is a work day. But there's just an idea that we have. We say, you know, we'll go to bed and then it'll be dawn.

[47:06]

And the world turns and the sun. Nevertheless, tomorrow, future, it's just an idea. And the only way that it could not be an idea is if you think that everything is predestined. Many are Presbyterians. Many are Presbyterians. I don't know. Good thing I don't know what a Presbyterian is. That's the second time I heard that today from two different people. There must be something going on. Can you even say that events change? Events change? Well, that's questionable.

[48:07]

Because we see life as continuity, we say events change. But, you know, in the Yinzhou Kong, Dogen talks about firewood and ash. Firewood is in the state of being firewood. Ash is in the state of being ash. Firewood is not before, and then ash is not afterward. It's just, when you look at things from the point of view of continuity, it looks like firewood turns into ash. And the point of view of continuity is? Yes. Of one kind of time. The continuity of time. That's right. Whereas the stillness of time, firewood is the center of the universe. And it has its before and after. Everything in the universe is related to that firewood as the center. And in another moment, so to speak, ash is completely independent.

[49:14]

And everything in the universe is related to ash at that moment, because that ash had this before... it's history, right? And it's future, so to speak. And it's present. So this is the other side of... this is the still side of time. Or so-called eternal time. Where even events don't change. Huh? Where even events don't change. Yeah, there's only one event per thing. per Dharma. Each Dharma has its own eternal event. So that's this. And the fact that everything, right, everything is completely independent, hierarchically. But there are different ways of looking at things. But this is very fundamental. And so we go along in our life, you know, believing in the continuity of things.

[50:28]

We believe in this, that everything is doing. And until you sit zazen, it's pretty hard to see that everything is being. Which is what Doga is talking about, when he says firewood is firewood. And he's in the stage of being firewood and has... before and after, that's pure being, pure existence. And in that moment it only exists, the whole universe arises with that dharma at that moment. But you have to fan, or you don't get to breathe, right? Oops, that one went over my head. Well, I mean, you have to act. You know, acting in the world is part of the being, is the action.

[51:31]

That's right, when it occurs, it's a movement and a rest. But they happen at the same time. So we say stillness within activity, inactivity within stillness. That's the third rank, actually. Because the first rank is this. Being. The second rank is doing. The first rank epitomizes the dark with a little bit of light. It's the noumenal hidden within It's the phenomenal hidden within... this is numinal. The other one is the numinal hidden within the phenomenal. You know, the numinal is the basis of everything.

[52:35]

This is the first rank. This one, remember? That stands for the numinal. The phenomenal. It doesn't have much going on. It's hidden underneath, or within, you know, as potential. Right? Within the nirvana. So this is just pure existence. And this rank, everything, all of the other four ranks relate to this. Because this is the basis of all the activity. The other four are involved with activity. How one acts. And this one is how one Bees. But this is always the basis of all the activity. And so the other four are variations on approaches to activity based on Big Mind.

[53:45]

Yes? Once one has realized the management of ego. Are you saying that through once one has realized the management of ego? Yeah. So, the five ranks are, as I said before, are characterized by realization. Now, don't be discouraged because realization is intimately connected with practice. So when you practice, then you have realization. Realization is present within your practice, whether you realize it or not. I won't say enlightenment is present within your practice, whether you realize it or not. Realization is that you realize that. I'm not sure that even continuity is the right word.

[54:54]

I would say maybe if you can achieve this unity So this is why the characteristic of Zen practice is to be one with your activity, which means to experience, just experience now. One of the things about monastic practice is that we do have things to do, but the things we have to do are not as important as the being.

[55:58]

to bring out, to immerse ourselves in the existence part, the being, is what is important, most important. The other side is important too. So we have activity, but we shouldn't be so attached to our activity that we forget about this. That's why when we start getting caught up and emotional and angry and frustrated and and bewildered, just remember that this is the important thing.

[57:09]

You know, not so much the stuff that we do. We take care of our surroundings in order to keep our life in order, and to support ourselves, and to make it work, right? And so we have a lot of activity which is just based on this. All the activity in the zendo is just based on this, so we can pay attention to this. Every time you bow, it means you're returning to this. Is that where the practice of mindfulness comes in? That's right, practice of mindfulness, practice of now. So, all the activities in the zendo are very formal, so you don't forget that. You don't just walk in and then go like this. You see that? Put your hands in front of you. You pay attention to what you're doing.

[58:12]

So, it's rather arbitrary. You know, it could be another way. But this is the way it is. And not only is it this way, but this connects us with the practice through history. And so we don't lose the continuity. a practice throughout history. And that connection is important. The connection can be broken within one generation. And we say, well, so what? But then everybody starts just doing their own thing.

[59:14]

And pretty soon, the whole thing gets lost. And you say, jeez, we were doing something back there. But I can't remember what it was. We think that we could just invent this by ourselves. That's egotistical to think that we don't need the ancestors. You know, for hundreds and thousands of years, for thousands of years, couple thousand years, these people have been giving their lives over to making it possible for us to practice. And then you say, What do we need them for? So, let's go to the first rank.

[60:24]

Now, there's several translations for this Harkuin. This is Tozan's verse for the first rank, but there are different translations. And Eikenroshi says that he doesn't like this translation at all, because it puts... But anyway, I'll read it. The apparent within the real. In the third watch of the night, before the moon appears, no wonder when we meet there's no recognition. Still cherished in my heart is the beauty of earlier days. Now, can anybody say what, kind of give a little interpretation of that verse through your study? Well it seems like he's talking about the universal and that's the dark before the moon appears.

[61:46]

So you can't differentiate, you can't discriminate. But that's still cherished in my heart is the beauty of earlier days, that's the reflection of the relative, there's some kernel of the relative within there, some memory of some kind of details, some kind of discrimination. Anybody else? That's what you were talking about, when we go into the now of that samadhi, we don't recognize it. We just pass through it, and here in the dark part of the night we're passing through that because we don't see it. Anybody else? The apparent within the real.

[62:53]

In the third watch of the night, before the moon appears, the moon is illuminating, right? No wonder when we meet there's no recognition. Still cherished in my heart is, you can also say, a vague memory of earlier days. You're there but you don't know it. It's like we see our nature but we don't recognize it. We see it but we don't recognize it. It's still too dark and dim. We're looking for something that flashes before our eyes. We're looking for an object. But the mirror is not an object and it has no special shape or form. If you look for it, you can't find it. If you look for some idea you have, it doesn't correspond to any idea, although it is what produces the idea.

[63:59]

So, you know, when we sit in zazen for the first time, kind of interesting feeling, you know, or maybe the third time, kind of interesting feeling, and it's like vacant, kind of empty and vacant, and you wonder whether you're supposed to be looking at the wall or, so I keep my eyes open or closed, there's some kind of feeling that you have, you just can't identify, but somehow you want to do it again. Isn't that interesting? And then, There's just something about it that you recognize, that you sense, but you can't recognize it. You can't put your finger on it, but you know that it's something. This is actually your first Tencho experience, but you don't realize it. If you actually have that experience and come back and sit thousands again, it means that you've already had some kind of realization.

[65:20]

You just don't know what you realize, that's all. Because we're always looking for something special and extraordinary. And the thing that you find is the most plain, dull, unattractive, A thing that you can probably imagine. Kind of tasteless. Doesn't have any taste. Kind of like water. That's like plain water. And we're looking for something to fill the space. And we do this in Zazen all the time. There's this plain water, when we sit down, all we need to do is just experience the plain water. But we fill it up with all kinds of things, that space. And it's, you know, when you have a hole, it gets filled up.

[66:23]

If you have a table, look at all the stuff on the table. If you have a flat surface, it just gets filled up with stuff, you know? You notice that. So our mind is the same way. If you just But it's impossible to keep it clear completely. It does get filled with things. And the things actually give you a view of what it is. There's an old saying, in order to see the mountain clearly, it's like the bird sound in the clear, the echo of the birds chirping in the deep mountains makes the mountain. Makes the quiet.

[67:27]

Yeah, the experience, the sound of the bird brings forth the quiet of the mountain. If this team corresponds to a first potential experience, which most people, I think, I'm not saying that this corresponds to a first Kensho experience. Oh, you aren't? No. I said that when you sat down Zen, the first time, you had an awakening experience. Yes. That's all I said. Okay. I'm not trying to say that... Does this correspond to that experience? Well, I'm... I'm not identifying this with that. Okay. Alright.

[68:28]

Because I was... My next question was to ask about this whole paragraph that you talked about getting stuck there. Yes. Most of us haven't even been able to stay there for a few minutes. Well, we do get stuck there, but that's right. So that's why I'm not equating that. I'm just saying that, right? That's an aside. That's an aside, okay. So he says, he says, the rank of the apparent within the real denotes the rank of the absolute. The rank in which one experiences the great death shouts, When the true practitioner, filled with power from his secret study, meritorious achievements and hidden practices, suddenly bursts through into this rank, the empty sky vanishes and the iron mountain crumbles. Above there is not a tile to cover his head, and below there is not an inch of ground for him to stand on. The delusive passions are non-existent. Enlightenment is non-existent.

[69:30]

Samsara is non-existent. Nirvana is non-existent. This is the state of total empty solidity, without sound and without odor, like a bottomless clear pool. It is as if every fleck of cloud had been wiped from the vast sky." Okay, now this is more of a deep than the previous one that I... Although, you can have a very deep experience on your first thousand. And we've all experienced something like this. This is very dramatic, right? You know, when you read this, they present it in a very dramatic way. But if you take and kind of level off the drama and look at your own life of Zazen practice, you can see you've had very deep experience of Zazen, whether you recognize it or not. How can you see that if you don't recognize it? That's a good point. You may not recognize it as a deep experience.

[70:33]

So that's the same as not seeing it? No, you can see it, but you don't think that it was anything. You can see it as something else. Yeah, you think, well, this is boring. I just had this whole day of boredom. You don't realize what a deep experience that was. This is called selling water by the river. or standing in the middle of the river saying, where's the water? Where's the water? We're actually experiencing it all the time. But we're not going, CAAH! We're not going, CAAH! Oh, this tastes good! CAAH! It's a good way to get rid of a blues band. We're not experiencing it.

[71:35]

CAAH! That's right. In fact, a lot of the CAAHs don't happen in the Zendaya. A lot of the CAAHs, that's right. They CAAH. If they CAAH, then they leave it behind. So kā is just an expression of, oh, you know, oh. Or in tears. Do you ever start crying in zazen for no reason at all? Same thing. Actually, enlightenment experience is more like crying than yelling kā. Well, Laughter can be. Yeah. Somewhere, Baba Kriyan, remember, said, the purifying event has no marks at all. At the time, you're not even... That's right.

[72:36]

It's only later. The purifying event. It wasn't like you said, Ah, Shazam! And in our school it's characterized as walking in the fog, after a while you realize that your clothes are wet. Does this have to do with the distribution or cleaning of the place? Well, you know, let's say it's on a kind of spit. And when it's standing up like this, it's ego. And when it's turning like this, it becomes wisdom. So it goes like this. It's not either one or the other.

[73:39]

Sometimes it's up, right? Sometimes it's 25 degrees. Sometimes it's 45. Sometimes it's completely turned over. And then sometimes it's back up again. In some ways it's such an extraordinary experience, but on the other hand, we're so used to living from our ego that... That's right, it becomes an extraordinary experience. That's right, that's actually the thing, is that when we have an extraordinary experience, it's just because it seems extraordinary, because of where we've been. Yeah, the contrast. So, when you're actually existing in that samadhi all the time, you don't notice it. It just seems like ordinary. Only when you have a contrast do you see it.

[74:42]

So that's why you don't realize your own I hate to say enlightenment, but I like to say it, too. Could you say something more about this getting stuck? Stuck? Well, it's redone. You just glanced off of ordinary mind with a technical description of what we keep referring to as ordinary mind. Yeah, ordinary mind means enlightenment. But could I say in terms of what in my mind is when the, when Ma Vijnana is just doing this thing without being over-empowered? Without, yeah, without any bias. Bias. Right. Thank you. Are you done with that?

[75:54]

That's enlightening. That's our verbal model. It's indescribable. But this is the way of talking about it. So don't write it down as, God, this is what it is. It's just a way of talking about it. I guess just what I'm sort of tagging is that in our day-to-day parlance, when we throw out ordinary mind, just to have it kind of veer off in that direction, rather than sort of hang out lazily without any kind of...

[76:55]

This practice is the practice of appreciation. And appreciation means whether things are going the way you want them to, or whether things are going the way you don't want them to, still you appreciate every moment. That's our goal. That's think-not-thinking. It's another variant of that. the unbearable quality of being. So, we usually judge our life on the basis of doing only. We get very caught up in judging our life on the basis of doing. And so events become very important to us. Events and goals become very important to us. And when events and goals become very important to us and we base our life on them, then our life goes crash.

[78:12]

It goes up and crash. Up, crash. Up, crash. Because we don't have any... we're not appreciating the quality of being. And we think, God, it's awful, you know, it's great, you know. And that's wonderful. And it's okay to feel that way, but when we lose this connection, then it's just the world of delusion. It's just the world of rising and crashing. So, we have to be able to appreciate our life, no matter what's going on. And that's what we learn in Zazen. Because we're immersed in being. In Zazen we're immersed in being. All of our activity is completely concentrated on being.

[79:14]

And whatever happens is okay. Because we're just experiencing pure existence. Pure being. Now. And whatever happens, no matter how much your legs hurt, it's okay. If it's not okay, then you damage yourself. As long as it's okay, in a real sense, you don't hurt yourself. It's a hard lesson, a really hard lesson, but that's the lesson that we learned in Zazen. That everything is okay, even if it's not okay. That's going beyond the duality of good and bad, like and dislike, right and wrong, me and you, it and me, and so forth. But it's really hard.

[80:22]

That's why Hakuin says, you have to go through nine banks of brambles. And you do. But you come out, like, when you've done something difficult, When you come out the other side, you feel good. Even if you got wounded. This doesn't mean you don't leave the zendo if it catches on fire, right? Well, it depends on the circumstances. There once was a zen master when the bandits came. And he said, well, OK, if you want to bring down the zendo, It's just like the cool breeze blowing through the hall. Anyway, I don't recommend this. This is above and beyond the call of duty. I remember when the Vietnamese were burying themselves during the Vietnam War.

[81:26]

These monks, people in grass, isn't he rushy about that? Is that okay for a Buddhist monk to do that? Because that was a question, you know, for people that are practicing, and what kind of role model is that? He said, that's not necessary. Please don't do that. But yet, it's above and beyond, right? It's a very individual decision. It's not something that people should do. It's nine o'clock. So we'll continue this one.

[82:16]

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