Last week, I announced, can you hear me in the back? Last week I announced, I guess, a series of discussions that I'm committed to this year, being devoted to the practice of Samadhi. Samadhi is a Sanskrit word and may be translated as joining, uniting, or it could be translated as concentration, and it's a very important practice that is available to us in this lifetime.

[01:07]

There are many kinds of Samadhi, many meanings of Samadhi, and many meanings of concentration too, and in the study of concentration in the context of the practice of the Buddha way, I think it's helpful to understand the different uses of the word, the different meanings of the word, so that when you hear them, you will be clear and understand the intent. I hesitate to make a blanket statement about such a vast and complex phenomena as concentration

[02:51]

or Samadhi, but still let me say that what we mean by concentration in the context of the Buddha way is not trying hard to watch something or focus on something. It's rather training in realizing that the mind is already one-pointed, so in the practice of concentration, I need to be careful not to practice it in such a way that kind of denies its reality already. In other words, since what it is, is non-dual, then a dualistic

[03:59]

approach to its development is somewhat dangerous, but also since it's non-dual, a dualistic approach is okay. Last week I talked about a way of developing concentration, Samadhi, a way of developing a realization of the one-pointedness of our mind, and again, one-pointedness means that the awareness, that our awareness and what we're aware of are one-point. We feel

[05:04]

in this one-pointedness often that there's a separation between awareness and the object of awareness. There is a feeling or a belief in a separation between mind and its objects, and a great deal of our life is involved in how the mind deals with objects which it believes to be separate. But basically, when a mind is dealing with an object that it feels or believes to be separate, or when a mind is accompanied or pervaded by the belief that what it's aware of, that its object of knowledge, is separate, when a mind is like that, a mind

[06:12]

is afflicted by anxiety. And from this anxiety, other problems arise. Fear attempts to get rid of the anxiety and fear, rather than turn around and look at it and see its source and become free of it. So, developing Samadhi is to develop a realization and a confidence in the fact, the basic fact, that moment by moment, mind and its objects, or subject and object, are actually always non-dual, united, one with the experience.

[07:13]

Last week, I talked about a way of developing this state which celebrates this unity of self and other, of mind and objects. And the way I talked about it last week was something like, when the mind is aware of an object, bring great compassion to that meeting. Or, another way would be, that in every meeting in life, bring great compassion to the meeting. Bringing compassion to the meeting develops a sense of the oneness, the unity, the one-pointedness of the parties in the meeting.

[08:21]

And compassion, as I mentioned, includes a concern for the welfare of beings. Great compassion concern is concern with the welfare of all beings. The welfare of all life. And it involves a kind of wish that all beings would be free from anxiety, fear and affliction and pain arising from ignorance. But it can also be unpacked or unfolded, this concern for the welfare of all beings,

[09:42]

in terms of activities like the practice of giving, the practice of discipline and ethical integrity, the practice of patience, the practice of heroic devotion to all wholesome activities, and the practice of samadhi, the practice of concentration. So samadhi is developed by bringing compassion to every meeting. And also samadhi is part of the compassion practice itself. Today I'd like to mention that that type of samadhi, which can realize,

[10:54]

the non-separation of ourself and others. Once it's realized, of course, then also calm is realized, tranquility is realized, ease is realized, flexibility is realized, bright alertness is realized. But still, I didn't mention that this samadhi has been joined to wisdom. And the samadhi that I've so far mentioned is a samadhi which could still allow, in the practitioner who is blessed with this realization, still allow in this practitioner a belief in a separation which the samadhi has temporarily overcome.

[12:01]

So it is possible to quite deeply realize non-duality while still holding on to the belief in duality. So there is that possibility of an authentic state of concentration where really the way you are, fully, you know, or very fully embodies one-pointedness of thought. And the afflictions of anxiety which come from believing in separation of thought and its objects are abated, have been subdued, or what do you call it, are at bay. But still within this samadhi, within this wonderful concentration,

[13:14]

the practitioner still may hold a belief in the separation. However, the belief in separation has almost no function now. So it is possible to then do further training where we have come to be absorbed in this one-pointedness of thought, blessed thereby with the full realization of tranquility and ease and freedom from anxiety. And then further, we then turn, which we haven't done so far, and start to examine the thought process and examine the object which is not seen as separate,

[14:20]

and also even examine the belief which we're still holding in separateness. And as this examination, as this discernment develops, it becomes full-fledged wisdom. Then this wonderful concentration state, this wonderful realization of the non-duality of mind is joined with an understanding that the apparent separation which is still available, that phenomena of a feeling of separation which is still available in mind but is not having any influence, that that is illusory. And then wisdom and compassion are united, and then wisdom and compassion are brought to every meeting. And then the calm, concentrated state is no longer holding a belief in the

[15:25]

separate self, that the person, the belief that the person is separate from other persons, for example, other animals and plants and mountains and rivers. This is the actual beginning of, strictly speaking, Buddhist practice. Prior to that, the Samadhis, prior to this realization of the union of wisdom and compassion being brought to every meeting, prior to that, the Samadhis are not particularly Buddhist. Yogis of many traditions develop these kinds of Samadhis that I mentioned previously. But when the Samadhi is conjoined with the wisdom which sees selflessness, then it becomes, strictly speaking, Buddhist, in other words, enlightened. So there can be concentration with still ignorance. It's still a nice situation, it's the best.

[16:33]

In the world of ignorance, concentration is the greatest happiness. So the highest worldly states, and worldly means still holding on to the world, where you're separate from other beings, the highest worldly states are these concentrations. And again, other traditions, non-Buddhist traditions, have yogis who have realized these states. And Shakyamuni Buddha himself realized these Samadhis while he still wasn't fully enlightened, while he still held on to a misconception of the way we are, namely, the misconception that we're separate from each other. And then, there is even the possibility to go into another dimension of Samadhi, which is even to transcend the wisdom which understands that the person doesn't have an

[17:44]

individual self, and is not separate from other persons. To transcend that wisdom, and to attain wisdom beyond wisdom, which understands not only are all people selfless, but all things are selfless. And this is the Samadhi of the Bodhisattva and the Buddha. And we sometimes say, when we hear about this fourth type of Samadhi, so what? Because the third type of Samadhi sets me free from suffering. The second kind of Samadhi sets me free of suffering temporarily. The third kind of Samadhi sets me free from suffering permanently. The fourth kind of Samadhi sets me free from being free.

[18:46]

The first kind of Samadhi is the fact, just the fact, that right now all of our minds are one-pointed. That's the first Samadhi. The fact that no matter what you're doing, your mind is one-pointed. The second Samadhi is the realization of that, the thorough absorption in that, and is blissful, and is freedom while you're in it. But when that Samadhi state ends, you will again be afflicted by the belief that you're separate. The third Samadhi, you no longer believe you're separate, so you cannot be afflicted by it anymore. You are free. But you have not yet realized that all things are selfless, so you might think that your freedom had a self. You might think that freedom was really different from bondage. You might think that garbage was really different than

[19:58]

lunch. You might think that enlightenment was different from delusion, and therefore, that belief would somewhat hinder you if you wanted to benefit beings, because you might want to stay in the enlightenment and freedom which you've attained, and not just give it away and plunge back into the world of chaotic misery. But if you go beyond freedom, if you go beyond enlightenment, beyond it and have no attachment to freedom, not because you're just a nice guy and are willing to give up your liberation, but because you understand that there's no liberation to hold on to. You naturally give it up. You're not doing anybody a favor, you just can't find anything called liberation, even though you've attained it fully. You prove you've attained it fully by

[20:59]

letting go of it. This is the fourth kind of Samadhi. And I was thinking, I was going to, you know, Green Gulch has a visual aids department, which is a blackboard, and we can make diagrams on them, and on the blackboard right now there is a diagram. So I was thinking of bringing our visual aids thing and put the blackboard behind me, but then I thought, hey, these human beings have the ability to imagine, to visualize what's on the blackboard, just like I visualized it before I drew it on the blackboard so that after it was drawn I could check to see if it was what I was thinking of. And sure enough, it's right up there, although the lines aren't quite as nice as in my mind. So I offer you a little visualization of the relationship between these four kinds of Samadhi,

[22:02]

these four meanings of Samadhi, okay? So basically it is a visualization of four circles, and they're concentric. And to make, to start the picture, so a picture of four concentric circles, one, two, three, four, and then outside the fourth one there's just space, I guess, huh? And inside the middle one, the central one, there's space too, okay? So there's space all over the place now, right? Now I would suggest you put in the middle of the central one the Roman numeral, excuse me for, you're a Roman, but anyway, the Roman numeral one, and then in the second circle put the Roman numeral two, and the third circle put the Roman numeral three, and the fourth circle put Roman numeral four. Just a suggestion, if you want to leave them with empty, fine. And that symbolizes four meanings of Samadhi, or four types of Samadhi,

[23:07]

okay? Once again, the central one is emphasizing that all states of mind are characterized by Samadhi. They have other characteristics, but the one I'm emphasizing now is this one-pointedness. The second circle is the realization through Samadhi practice of that Samadhi. It's kind of like we have hearts, right? All people have hearts, and then you can do a heart practice which sort of like realizes your heart. And then the third circle represents another, still now we have this realization of Samadhi, but now we have it conjoined with an understanding which has seen through sort of anti-Samadhi belief. So human beings have Samadhi, but generally speaking they believe in anti-Samadhi.

[24:11]

What's apparent to most people is not Samadhi. Now they walk around basically and they're thinking most of the time, not Samadhi, not Samadhi, not Samadhi. In other words, this awareness and that object are separate. That's not Samadhi. So the way we see things generally is not Samadhi. So generally the way we walk around is in a state of concentration which celebrates not Samadhi, ironically. We're absorbed in believing in separation, so that this practice is to reverse the usual unhappy situation that we're in and now become absorbed in and consistently or even uninterruptedly celebrating our conviction in the one-pointedness of thought

[25:14]

until actually we think about that and meditate on that until actually our body feels like that and the body actually changes. So this Samadhi actually includes that your body changes. Your old body kind of melts and you get this new soft kind of glowing body. I often think of this children's book that I read when I was a kid and it's not any longer politically correct. The name of the book used to be Little Black Sambo and it was about a black kid or black boy that lived in the jungle and anyway the climax of the story is this tiger is chasing this little guy around a tree and he runs around the tree until this black and yellow

[26:15]

tiger melts into butter. That's kind of like Samadhi. But still even though you've melted into this wonderful feeling of non-separation and are unafflicted in this soft radiant composure, still when you arise from this exercise you may lose that sense and again feel afflicted because you have not yet given up your basic view, your anti-Samadhi view of separation. So then the next level is Samadhi number three is actually the realization of the selflessness of this person. It's not that there's no person,

[27:27]

it's just that there's no self of this person which is separate from other persons. But still I may believe that the freedom that's realized, the Nirvana that's realized at this level is something separate from the misery of cyclic existence which has been transcended by giving up this view of self and other. So this third circle, Samadhi three, is given by giving up views of self and other, really giving them up, really not grasping them. And Samadhi four is giving up even the distinction between the freedom which has been attained and the bondage which we used to know. Giving up the duality between the bliss and ease we feel and the pain we used to feel

[28:34]

and thereby being able to be intimate with all beings with no reservations and live the life of a Buddha, live the life of a Bodhisattva. So those are the four circles, can you see them? Anybody having trouble visualizing those four circles with the numbers? And to help you, in case you should happen to ever forget the circles, we made a little diagram and if you'd like a little piece of paper that has the circles on it with some information about what's going on in each layer, you can pick one up at the tea party afterwards. It's as a gift of the teaching department of Zen Center. That's the code that was pressed on the Xerox machine. During here at Green Gorge we're having a practice period, an intensive training period

[29:54]

in Samadhi right now. We've had about two weeks of training in Samadhi and in a sense what's what I've been emphasizing so far is practices to realize Samadhi number two. And people are kind of like realizing Samadhi number two, right? By the way, one of the things that sometimes happens on the path of realizing Samadhi number two is when you start to loosen up this sense of separation, or I shouldn't say when you start loosening up the sense of separation, but when the sense of separation starts to loosen up and you start to feel the calm and relaxation around that weakening of the sense of separation,

[30:55]

one might sort of notice that and feel somewhat happy about that and also feel a little bit complacent about that, like, hey, I got there, and become a little lax. So you've been practicing relaxation around this, you've been practicing relaxation around what you're aware of, and when you start to be successful then you become susceptible to becoming lax and sleepy, lax and sleepy. So then you have to figure out a way to be alert and relaxed because this Samadhi is not just being asleep, although it shares with sleep this thing about being relaxed and at ease. I just want to briefly mention what I just said is something of a review,

[32:29]

a kind of review for the people in the intensive and a kind of review of last week and also a review in the sense of telling you what's been going on here for the last two weeks. And now I'd like to make a brief preview. And the preview is that we're now on the verge of starting to practice Samadhi number three and four. I'll try to not get into that too much right now. My plan is to spend the next week we're having, to really concentrate on the practices which help us enter into the third and fourth type of Samadhi, which will start us to start looking at the objects which we've been relaxing with. So the way I've been talking about entering the Samadhi is whatever object comes,

[33:35]

meet that object with complete relaxation as a way of entering Samadhi. Another way of talking about how to enter Samadhi is Samadhi number two. Another way of talking about entering Samadhi number two is meet whatever comes with no mind. No mind is another way, a traditional Chinese Zen way of talking about complete relaxation. And maybe you can, I don't know, does that make sense that if you had no mind, you'd probably be relaxed? One Zen teacher said, when you sit in meditation, but I would add to that when you walk in meditation,

[34:44]

but sitting is probably easier to understand, act as though you'd cut your head off and set it next to you at your seat. Sit as though your head was like somewhere else. In other words, put aside your usual discriminating mind. Once again, to meet whatever comes, having put aside your head, having put aside your usual discriminating mind, is also another way of saying, meet whatever comes with great compassion. So usually, when we meet someone, we have a mind that discriminates. This person is my dearest friend, not my enemy. This person is my enemy, not my dearest friend. This person I would give a pint of blood to, readily. This person I'd give a quart to, readily. This person I wouldn't get

[35:53]

near to, readily. This person I would like to hurt, because they did these things to me. These are discriminations, right? Most of us know some people that think like that, right? So as a way to enter Samadhi number two, I recommend that whenever you meet a person, or when you're looking at yourself, whenever you look at something in yourself, some emotion, some idea, you meet that phenomena with no mind. You meet it by giving up your discernment, your discriminations. In other words, you meet it with complete relaxation of your mind and body. Thereby, you enter Samadhi number two. Now, actually, I said complete relaxation, but strictly speaking, it's not complete

[36:57]

until we also let go of our deep belief in independent self. So, strictly speaking, I would say, if you can relax completely, except for that deep belief in inherent existence of the self, if you can relax about everything else, you can enter Samadhi too, just by that relaxation. And this is also, as I said, to bring compassion to every meeting. The next step after getting calm, becoming calm, is then, instead of just meeting this phenomena, this object, giving up your discrimination, it isn't that you take the

[38:02]

object, you start to look to see what it is. Another way to talk about entering Samadhi number two is that you meet everything that comes intimately. So, meeting with complete relaxation, I would say, is the same as meeting intimately. However, the thorough realization of the meeting in intimacy requires examination and learning about what it is you're meeting. At first, all you got to do is give up all your grasping and seeking around what you think this thing is. That opens you up to calm and gets you ready to like look and see, I've given up all my ideas of what this is, of who this is, now I've given up all my ideas,

[39:05]

I'm calm, now the next step is I'm going to actually inquire as to what it is beyond me just giving up my ideas of it. And then we start to enter into wisdom. That's the preview of what we're going to do next. And next week, I'll tell you what we found out and how that went. And now I would like to, again, if you can stand it, another kind of review. Someone came and told me, and I've heard this story before, it's actually many people have come, not many, several people have come and told me about this phenomenon of where they're in pain, they're sitting in pain, living in pain, being with the pain,

[40:07]

being with the pain, trying to get away from the pain, giving up trying to get away from the pain, trying to get away from the pain, seeing that they can't get away from the pain, giving up trying to get away because they see they can't. Finally, anyway, not trying to get away from the pain that they feel, and also not trying to look for it and find it and jump into it, but just actually like be alert, be awake and notice what's happening, and they notice the pain and they just like notice the pain and they notice the pain, and then they get bored with noticing the pain, but they just keep noticing the pain anyway, and then they get discouraged looking at the pain and then just keep looking at the pain anyway, and then they think about how long the pain has been going on and they give up thinking about how long it's been going on and they just look at the pain and they think about how long it's going to go on and they stop thinking about how long it's gonna go on and they just look at the pain, and they be with the pain and they be with the pain, and then something happens and they're no more pain. Even though, if, often times if you have them look it's like, well it's still there.

[41:15]

The pain is there and yet it's not there, or it changed or something. They became intimate with the pain, they. The awareness became intimate with the pain, in other words, the awareness which was always one with the pain is now understood as one with the pain. There became an understanding of the oneness with the pain. Samadhi arrived. And then, of course, prior to that, too, there was no resistance to the pain anymore. There was no indulgence in the pain anymore. There was just pain and awareness of pain, pain and awareness of pain, pain and awareness of pain and pretty soon the tiger melts and it's just butter and it's like no cholesterol butter. It's not going to hurt you. And then there's a joy and an ease and a fearlessness in the middle of pain.

[42:23]

And some people call that no pain, which is understandable, but if they're able to look at actually the sensation, the sensation is pretty much identical to the sensation that was there before. That's samadhi number two, at least. Now, it might be samadhi three and four, but not necessarily. We'd have to do more checking to see if it's three and four have been attained, but that's something that has happened for some of the people here. It's kind of like becoming one with their pain and experiencing the freedom of that non-duality. I had an experience like that myself one time, and it wasn't because I did anything

[43:34]

fancy or brilliant, it wasn't because, I don't know, anyway, I was in one of these intensives where there's a lot of sitting and I had quite a bit of pain in my legs. I was a new Zen student, this is 1968 this happened, I was younger, and I was in pain in the sitting, cross-legged, and I went to see the teacher, his name was Suzuki Roshi, and his name was Suzuki Roshi, and I sat down to have an interview with him about meditation and I crossed my legs and I had some pain, and some pain came, and we talked for a while, and then he said, oh, excuse me, it's like he forgot something that he had to take care of,

[44:35]

so he got up and left, he said, you stay here, so I stayed there sitting cross-legged and I heard him go upstairs, the interview room was on the ground floor, and I heard him go upstairs to the second floor, and I could hear him going up the stairs and I could hear him going down the hall above my head, and I could hear his office door open, and I could hear him going to the office, and close the door, and then I heard upstairs noon service starting, and the chanting, and then I heard noon service end, and then I heard the chanting for lunch start, you know, and then I heard the lunch and people running around serving the meal, and then I heard the end of lunch, and then I heard all the people leave the meditation hall and go out, you know, go their various places, and then I heard him come out of his office and walk down the hall and come down the stairs, and sometime during this period of time from when he had left and

[45:43]

the service and the break lunch, which is a long time, you know, I don't know how long, but more than an hour, I started to notice that there was no pain, I mean, there was this kind of heat and intensity, but it wasn't pain, and I thought, oh, he set this up to show me this, you know, there's no pain in the middle of the pain, pretty nice trick, but I don't know where it went, but it went away even though I didn't do anything, but somehow it was there and it wasn't there. So anyway, after lunch, he came downstairs back to the room, and I thought he was going to come in and say, see, get the picture, kid, but he opened the door and he went, oh, he really seemed like he forgot I was there,

[46:46]

and then he kind of said, oh, oh, and then he sat down and talked to me some more, and then we ended our conversation, and I left and had a break, and then went back to sitting and I sat down again, and the pain came back, but I somehow didn't get back to that place of the non-duality again, I just hurt. Anyway, in Svabhadi number two, you get temporary relief from suffering, because you're no longer afflicted by the suffering being out there, coming at you, you're no longer afflicted at trying to get away from it, or make it last, there's just mind and pain are one, and this is bliss, which is a cross between bliss and peace. That'll stick.

[47:57]

Another kind of review thing is quite a few people who practice Zen, and I suppose other, particularly people who are interested in religion, well, everybody, almost all people are into judging themselves and judging others, most people are into that, right? And a lot of people, anyway, judge themselves badly. A lot of people think they're jerks, like they have voices in their head saying, you're a jerk, or something like, or you're worthless, or you are a piece of excrement. People have those kind of voices in their head, did you know that? I know some people like that, they hear that in their head, like in meditation, they come in here and sit down, and then something in their head says, you're a piece of excrement, or something like that, and some people think other people are excrement. Have you heard about that? Sometimes they say it, you're a shit.

[49:06]

Matter of fact, one time at one of our meetings here at Zen Center, somebody said to a former abbot of Zen Center, you are a piece of shit. Somebody said that, people talk like that, they think like that, and they talk like that about other people, did you know that? And people at Zen Center do that, right? But on top of that, the thing about the one place, one difference about so-called religious people or spiritual people is when they think like that, they feel really bad, because they think, I shouldn't be calling people shits, I shouldn't be thinking people are shit, and then, of course, they feel bad thinking that they're shit, right? But then they even feel bad that they are treating themselves that way. So it's an unhappy thought, plus they feel even more unhappy because they should think they shouldn't be thinking like that. This is called being visited by demons,

[50:15]

these are de-mind demons. So people who are trying to practice samadhi have this kind of stuff happening, can you believe it? They want to practice like one-pointed concentration and enter into this bliss, but then they have these events happening, which is kind of hard for them to relax with, but guess what I've suggested to them? Guess. Out loud, guess. Relax with whatever comes. Yeah, relax, even with this obnoxious material, relax. Relax with like, you're a worthless piece of excrement. Now, one of the nice things about that kind of talk is that when you're relaxed with it, you might not go right to sleep, but it's more like you're relaxing, but still it's kind of like it pokes you, it kind of keeps you awake. Excrement, the worst excrement. You shouldn't

[51:23]

be thinking like that. You're a lousy Zen student. So that's the kind of nice thing about that, is it keeps you awake a little bit. So if you have relaxation and that poking and that sticking, so then you have this kind of erectness and alertness, and at the same time you're swooning. You erect swoon. So you're like, I'm awake and I'm relaxed. And there's lots of noise around here. So we meet this nasty language, these nasty thoughts with great compassion, with love, with intimacy. And intimacy again is like to be really close and not grasp it or seek it to last or go away. Now, in some Buddhist teachings and particularly in early Buddhism, people may find

[52:30]

examples where they say, when these kind of like nasty things come, eliminate them, get rid of them, destroy them. But I don't know how people understood those teachings in the old days, but nowadays I hesitate to say, destroy this, because that's what people naturally, I noticed, do. They have these thoughts of destroying people, and then they want to destroy the thought of destroying the people, and then they want to destroy the person who has the thought of destroying the person. It's like this kind of language doesn't seem to actually work, except it does work. It works to aggravate the situation and makes people more upset. And they can hardly believe that anyone's saying, make friends with this nasty talk, whether you're thinking nasty thoughts towards others or nasty thoughts towards yourself, be friendly, be loving. It doesn't mean you say, that's a good thought, it means this is a negative thought, this is a painful thought, this is a nasty thought, this is a disrespectful thought,

[53:32]

this is an unloving thought, and I am going to practice loving it. Loving and not liking it, but being intimate with it, relaxing with it, putting aside my discrimination that this is a bad thought, just be intimate with it. In this way, we don't get rid of these thoughts. I've noticed that I don't see any less of these thoughts. Zen Center's been around for almost, actually Zen Center's been, this organization's been around for 40 years. I've been around for 30 some, and I haven't seen any decrease in the amount of this kind of negative judgmental thinking going on among the yogis or in the outside world. Looks like on TV, you know, what I can see, it's in the newspapers, like it's still out there thriving, but I do feel there is a development of intimacy and kindness and samadhi with these negative

[54:39]

thoughts. That I see developing in individuals and in groups, and in this group here that we have during this practice period, I see the group who have the ability to think nasty thoughts of themselves and others and actually do, they do, they've been doing it during these first two weeks. They told me, they confess, they're thinking like, you know, this person's like, you know, they're thinking like that, but they're relaxing with that and not grasping that, and nobody's getting, very little damage has been occurring among the people or towards themselves. It's great. This is like a great practice period. These people are not grasping their nasty thoughts. Can you believe that's happening? Huh? Yeah, you don't know if you can believe it, but I'm telling you, and I'm not telling you to believe me, I'm just telling you, and so I'm very happy to see people not, it's not, actually, if nobody was thinking any nasty thoughts and they were relaxing with that, I'd be happy with that,

[55:42]

but the fact that they're thinking all this very potent negative stuff and not grasping that, plus, of course, the positive thoughts they're thinking, they're also not grasping those. I'm very happy to see this, and it's a very harmonious situation. So fortunately, we don't have to worry, because we do have a lot of negative thoughts going on here, and so we can see how people are handling it, and they're handling it very well. So it's a regular situation where people have these minds which are saying, these are the good people, and these are the medium good people, and those are the not-so-good people, and those are the, like, potential excludees. These people may soon be asked to leave the meditation area because they do not belong in such a sacred place, that they have these discriminations, but they're not, like, grabbing onto them, and so they're happy. So it's a happy situation. But we, again, we don't eliminate this stuff. We don't kill it. We don't destroy it. We tame it.

[56:46]

So it's still here, but it doesn't hurt anybody. You are the worst, blah, [...] oh yeah? Relax with it, and it doesn't hurt anybody. It doesn't hurt me. When I say it to myself, I relax, it doesn't hurt me. I think of it, somebody else, I say it, I think it doesn't hurt them. I can even say it out loud. If I'm relaxed enough, they know I'm relaxed with it. I'm just mentioning it to show them, you know, how relaxed I am with these thoughts I have about them. Of course, I've got to be very careful of that, but it's possible. So the Bodhisattva's world is a world where there's the Buddha, like we have a nice Buddha up there, see the Buddha? And the Buddha's a little one, actually, and then we have this great Bodhisattva behind the Buddha, and I think we have the little Buddha and the big Bodhisattva. We can get into that later, but anyway, we have this Buddha, and I've been recently looking at

[57:53]

that Buddha, and it's a really cute Buddha. Look at that Buddha sometimes, it's so sweet, that face, it's like almost too much. Anyway, a very happy Buddha sitting up there, and in the Buddha's world, or the Bodhisattva world, we have the Buddhas, and you have the big Bodhisattvas, but also, if you look at the assembly, and here in the scriptures, who else is at the assembly? There's all these great Bodhisattvas, and all these, in other words, all these great beings who have realized fully Samadhi number four, and then you have a whole bunch of people who have reached Samadhi number three, who have fully realized Samadhi number three. These are the saints, the Arhats, you know, the Buddhist saints, they're there too. So all these saints, all these Bodhisattvas, all around the Buddha, but that's not all. Then you also have humans, like some of you, but then that's not all. Then you have also, in Sanskrit, Kimaras, Mohuragas, Gandharvas, Yakshas, Garudas,

[58:59]

Nagas, you know, in other words, you have all kinds of like sleazy, dangerous, powerful demons who have come face-to-face with the Buddha, and they looked in the Buddha's face, and the Buddha looked back in their face. The Buddha didn't look away, the Buddha looked right at them, and they felt such love that they just totally dropped their program. So now they're sitting there around the Bodhisattvas and around the saints, and they're like going, these demons are kind of going, huh, let's hear more, Buddha. In the face of Buddha's love, they become non-toxic, and if they stay in Buddha's presence and keep studying the Dharma, they will become Buddhas. In the meantime, if they should drift away from the Buddha before they have some understanding,

[60:07]

they will again become dangerous, harmful beings and manifest their toxic potential. But in the face of that love, this negativity is tamed. Even the Buddha can't destroy anything, nothing is annihilated, and even the Buddha can't make anything last. The Buddha can't make the Bodhisattvas last, can't make the saints last, can't make the people last, can't make the demons last, can't make things last, can't annihilate them. But the Buddha teaches the middle way, which tames humans into Buddhas, tames demons into Buddhas. So no matter how bad you got demons in you or demons coming at you, no matter how bad they are, if you meet them with Buddha's love, of no mind, they will be tamed and they will become Buddha. This is something I just said.

[61:09]

I did say that. And even if I say believe, it's just me talking. It's not meant to be coercive, it's meant to be loving, it's just a way to be intimate with you, to go around telling you stuff like that. Believe. Believe in Buddha's love. Believe in loving everybody. Believe in giving up all distinctions. Believe in giving up the distinction between your suffering and others' suffering. Enter the Samadhi number two, number three, and number four. So I've been emphasizing Samadhi number two so far, and next week we're going to do number three and four, and then next Sunday I'll tell you about three and four some more. But the rest of the year we're going to… this is a lot to take in, so the rest of the year we'll be going over these Samadhis, these states of concentration that have been transmitted to us by the Buddhist

[62:16]

tradition and other yogic traditions, okay? So as I've said many times before, you're in Samadhi now, you're not behind the cloud, you'll never get rich by digging a ditch, you're in Samadhi now. Afterwards, would you come and talk to me? Today, if it's all right with you, I'll stand. Is that okay? Because it's easier on my leg to stand. One thing I want to say at the beginning, one sort of detail of the practice of meeting whatever comes with complete relaxation, and that is that complete relaxation

[63:16]

includes relaxing around the idea of relaxation. So complete relaxation means you don't hold some expectation about what relaxation would be. So complete relaxation would include you being able to say, you know, something like that. So it's not like complete relaxation looks this way. Just like it's not like Samadhi looks this way. So if, of course, most people have an idea what Samadhi is like, right? Or what concentration is like. So of course you don't know most, but a lot of you have that idea, right? Some idea. Like today I gave you some ideas, didn't I? So most of you have some ideas now about what Samadhi is, right? So if you grasp those ideas, that's antithetical to Samadhi. But to not grasp those ideas promotes Samadhi. And similarly,

[64:20]

not grasping any idea of relaxation is part of relaxation. Does that make sense? Pardon? Yeah, and I didn't say practicing Samadhi is easy. Becoming what you actually already are somehow is difficult. Because we're very good at trying to be something that we're not. So we feel kind of awkward about like being ourself, right? Like, well, how do I do that? You just did. Nice going. Is there anything you would like to discuss? Yes? I have a question about politics and Samadhi. Politics and Samadhi? Yes. Leaving aside the current political situation and using Nazis as examples, because they seem to be easier for me to use as an example. I'm in favor sometimes of killing people sometimes. For example, if I was in the Warsaw Ghetto,

[65:28]

I would hope that I would be brave enough to kill Nazis in the resistance. I think to do this, I need to make distinctions and separations. I need to... You need to make a distinction about who you're going to kill and who you're not going to kill. Exactly. And I don't think there's a contradiction between making that distinction and understanding, realizing the non-separation as well. And I just wanted to know if you can comment on that. Well, can I comment on part of what you said first? May I comment on part of what you said? You can comment on any part. So I thought I heard you say something like, I don't think there's a contradiction between making distinctions and realizing not separateness. There's not a contradiction between making

[66:32]

distinctions and realizing Samadhi. I agree. So if there's distinctions made, that distinction doesn't... isn't a contradiction to Samadhi. Samadhi is that the mind is one-pointed with that distinction. So if you make a distinction and you realize that in making the distinction, in other words, the appearance of the distinction is a phenomenon that you're aware of, if you realize the one-pointedness and awareness in the distinction, you've entered, you've realized Samadhi. I'm not quite there with that part. Well... Can you say more? Yeah, sure. I mean, I'll say a million times, this is not easy to get because, like I say, we're anti-Samadhi most of the time, so it's hard to get Samadhi. But anyway, again, if the mind makes a distinction, usually we think, this is... I'm over here, that's a distinction. Or I make a distinction, for example, between me and you.

[67:35]

And by that distinction, I think you're separate from me. But also I can make a distinction that you're a good person, not a bad person. So I have that distinction I've made, my mind has made that distinction. Now, if I think that that distinction is separate from my awareness of the distinction, then that belief is antithetical to Samadhi, which is... Samadhi is the fact, supposedly, that the mind is one-pointed, non-dual with its distinctions. Awareness is non-dual with this distinction. That's always the case. When I realize that, when I'm absorbed in that fact, when I can sort of feel the ease and stability of oneness with the waves of life, then Samadhi is becoming realized. Samadhi number two, at least. So that's the first part. So the distinction itself is not at odds with Samadhi. What's at

[68:41]

odds with the Samadhi is to grab the distinction, to grasp the distinction as separate from the awareness. That is antithetical to Samadhi. That obscures the Samadhi for us. So we can do that. We have minds which can grasp things as separate, and that creates agitation and anxiety. Giving up that distinction, letting go of it, not eliminating it, it's still there. So the distinction isn't contradictory to Samadhi. Grasping the distinction isn't really antithetical exactly, but sort of antithetical, but it kind of obscures the Samadhi. Okay? That's the first part that I wanted to comment on. Do you have some other aspect you'd like to bring up? Yeah, because if it obscures, I'm not sure, well, I can't articulate what I was

[69:47]

going to say, so I'll stop. Okay. Is there some other thing you'd like to bring up? Okay. So it is possible in this world to take a screen and put it out in front of yourself and not be able to see what's on the other side of the screen, right? So if you grasp distinctions, then distinctions get in your face and you can't see the oneness because of the grasping. The grasping gets in the way of the intimacy of the object and the subject. If we give up the grasping, we start to become more intimate with the object, and in the intimacy, we realize more and more Samadhi, at least Samadhi number two, which is great. Yes. These grades of Samadhi, it seems like that's kind of objectifying it. Yeah, when I talk, it seems like I'm objectifying. In other words, I say something, so now there's this word out there,

[70:47]

but I feel, what do you call it, comforted by the tradition that those who realize non-duality put words out there, which seem to be objects. They're talking about no object separate from subject, and then they put objects out there, which maybe they realize aren't separate, but everybody else thinks they are. And then we even put it on a piece of paper for you to look at and put on the wall. Well, actually, Samadhi one does include Samadhi four. Samadhi one actually does include Samadhi two, three, and four, because Samadhi one pervades all states. And Samadhi two also includes Samadhi three and four. And they actually all contain each other. But of course, the one that sort of gets the

[71:53]

big prize is Samadhi four, which is not only including all the other Samadhis, but understanding that all the other Samadhis include it. Whereas in Samadhi one, a lot of people have Samadhi one, which actually includes all the other Samadhis, but they actually have no sense of any of the Samadhis. They have no understanding of them, because all they have is one number one. But number one actually does include all the other ones, but people who only have number one don't even know they have number one. People who have number two know they have number one and two, but they usually don't understand they have three and four. And they can't demonstrate that they understand three and four by their behavior, but actually they already got three and four. So actually we do have all the Samadhis already. We already are in Samadhi now. You're not behind the plow. You are in Buddha Samadhi right now. And this is a question of understanding that by practice, joyful practice of Samadhi, in which we more and more understand

[72:56]

that all the Samadhis include each other, that the most deluded person in the world includes all the Buddhas. Of course everybody knows all the Buddhas include probably, actually some people don't even know that all the Buddhas include all the people. But it's not so difficult to understand. Well the Buddhas of course they embrace all beings, care about all beings, devoted to all beings. So Buddhas embrace all beings. Buddhas embrace all minds, all Samadhis. But even somebody who hasn't realized a shred of this wonderful thing about their life completely includes all Buddhas. And the Buddhas understand that and they don't. The ones who don't understand that are completely included in the ones who do. Of course the ones who do completely include the ones who don't. This is non-duality, isn't it swell? Isn't it amazing? And does the green dragon, is that just the soil that we till when we get into Samadhi?

[73:58]

Is that, it's not, I guess, somehow we don't see a step from the green dragon? We don't see a step from the green dragon? That's what we have to realize, because we're not separate from the green dragon. So in one sense a green dragon is a big, green, slimy, smelly, dangerous, powerful being that we have to get intimate with. In another sense the green dragon is being intimate with big slimy beings and little slimy beings. It's being intimate with beings who are saying, no, no, no, mine, mine, mine. My little prince, my little angel has become, no, no, no, mine, mine, mine. Mine! Mine! So being intimate with him is the green dragon. And he is the green dragon, although he's not green.

[75:03]

But as Fu said, she was quoted recently by my daughter, she said, be aware, he's fast and dangerous. He's fast and dangerous, this little angel has become fast and dangerous. I've heard this word shamatha several times. Yes, shamatha. Shamatha is emphasizing, samadhi includes both shamatha and vipassana. Shamatha is calm abiding and vipassana is higher vision or insight. So samadhi embraces both. Shamatha emphasizes what I was talking about earlier and that is as you become more and more immersed and absorbed in the one pointedness of thought, you get to a point where your physical

[76:08]

situation changes and your body becomes relaxed and light and joyful and flexible and your mind becomes joyful and light and flexible and alert and it's like your mind says, well, what needs to be done? What wholesome activity should we do next? Let's do this. Okay. All right. Would you please move that mountain? Okay. So shamatha is like this very healthy body and mind in that sense, but you don't necessarily have insight. So then we have to do insight to even become more intimate with the object. So you get somewhat intimate with the object, you become calm. But then as you go deeper and get more and more dynamic understanding with the object, you become insightful and then the samadhi is even more complete. So shamatha is the calming side and vipassana is the seeing side or the contemplation side. They both come together and are one pointed in the attaining, full attaining of samadhi.

[77:15]

I think Catherine and then Stephen. The deep seated belief in self about that. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes, it is.

[78:18]

Right. And so you can receive samadhi teachings. Usually in Buddhist programs, you get samadhi teachings and teachings about selflessness. And you understand samadhi teachings and you can start practicing samadhi, calming yourself and so on. And then you keep studying the insight teachings, teachings about selflessness. And when you understand them intellectually, then and have intellectual actually transformation around them, you can have intellectual change of being. Then you bring that understanding through various levels of reflection deeper. And then you take that deeper understanding and you bring that together with samadhi. And then that understanding starts to pervade your body and mind in samadhi. And then there's a permanent change of your body and you actually become a person who doesn't actually, doesn't have the ability to grasp that idea anymore,

[79:36]

can't find anything to grasp. And then that too, that understanding that is continually cooked in the samadhi until this wonderful thing called Buddhahood is achieved. After the understanding of selflessness has been completely met in one-pointedness, then this anxiety around self-clinging and stuff like that doesn't come up anymore at all. What does come up is an intermediate state where the appearance of something out there,

[80:44]

separate from the subject, it still looks like that, but you know it's just an illusion. And you know that if you tried to get it, and you have tried to get it, you know you never will get it, you can't find it. So you don't grasp it anymore, so there's no anxiety. You just never are fooled anymore, you just don't go for it. But it still looks like that. After being in samadhi with not grasping it, not grasping the appearance of it being out there separate for a long time, it stops even appearing that way. But when it appears and you don't grasp it, there's no anxiety, there's no fear, and there's no pain around pain even. Like if you break your leg, there's no pain around it. But as I mentioned a couple days ago here, even when you no longer grasp for it at all, there still is a repertoire of habits which were developed under the auspices of belief

[81:46]

in self, and grasping that belief, those habits keep happening for a while. But there's no anxiety around them, it's more like, it's just you see yourself doing stupid things that you totally just feel embarrassed about, and confess willingly, and no defense about, and not even afraid of what they're going to do to you for doing this stupid thing. And they will do things to you. As a matter of fact, help them realize that they've helped. Don't say, well, I'm enlightened, so that wasn't really a problem. Say, no, that was stupid, I'm sorry. I'm getting over this, but I still am kind of like, I have some bad habits here. And no problem admitting that, because there's nobody like that you're holding on to that's getting a bad reputation. Yes? Right, inside you're still saying stuff like, what a low quality Zen student. You're still

[82:47]

saying stuff like that. No, this seems dangerous to me is not a deluded thought. That's not a deluded thought. Right, so you won't any longer say, so you will continue the habit of saying that things that aren't dangerous are dangerous. You'll continue that. But then you'll see how stupid that is. For example, you'll see, oh, this person is defaming me. That's dangerous. This is a habit. It's not really dangerous. It's actually helpful that they're doing that, generally speaking. So it's a habit to think, oh, when people are criticizing me and putting me down, that's like dangerous. That's a habit. But to be able to see now, this is dangerous, like you see someone walking to the edge of a cliff and say, that's dangerous. That's not delusion. That's correct. So then you're like, in that case, hopefully there's no habits that

[83:50]

are going to come up and say, but even if some habits do come up, like don't go help them because you might get in trouble. You don't believe that one. But it still comes up. You say, what? And you go. But just the habits there still, you know, like protect yourself, don't help that person. So sometimes it's a dangerous thing. It's not a habit. It's just a clear, it's a fact. Other times, you have things that you think are dangerous from old times, which really aren't. Mainly things about protecting yourself are mainly, are protecting your independent self. All those habits still come up until you meet them and laugh at them 17 times. And I'm sort of kidding about 17, but I think it is approximately correct. I don't know who's next. Stephen and then Jackie. Somebody over here. What's your name? Alex. Stephen. Was he before those? You don't know. Stephen. I felt some envy this morning. You seem to be

[84:54]

describing a three-week program for realizing the highest samadhi that I'm not part of. But you can come to the next one. So my question is, is it necessary? You are part of it, though, Stephen. You are part of it. You're hearing about it and you can start practicing these too. You're just not part of the residential program. Right. You're in the non-residential program. Right. So my question is, is it necessary to withdraw into monastic or semi-monastic place to do a practice in order to realize what you are talking about? Well, it's not necessary, but it's hard without that. It's hard without the support, but it is possible. Like the Buddha, you know, at a certain point didn't have a monastery around him, and yet he was able to withdraw into samadhi practice. But of course, that's the Buddha, right? So most of us do need the Sangha to sort of like give us reflection and support us in the practice.

[86:00]

But it doesn't mean that it's not possible. It's just harder without that kind of setup. So that's why we have this Zen Center, because a lot of people have trouble being, you know, really consistent in this effort of meeting things with compassion moment by moment, unless they're in a situation where the title of the program is Meet Everything with Compassion. You know, what's the program here again? Meet Everything with Compassion. Oh, yeah, yeah, right. It doesn't mean everybody's doing it, but they can remember that, right? And sometimes, even though they haven't been doing it consistently, sometimes they kind of get in the groove and they start to notice, these other people are doing that. I mean, they're like, they're doing great, you know, and when you start seeing other people are doing it, you're doing it. Maybe they don't actually think they are doing it, but when you see they are, you're doing it. And also, if they are doing it, and you think they're not, you're not doing it. But you're in a program that says, do it. So you say, oh, I should do it. And so you confess.

[87:09]

So in the monastery, there's a lot of confession going on. Whereas out in the street, people don't necessarily go up to each other and say, you know, I'm sorry I wasn't kind to you, just now. Sometimes they do, though. But sometimes you don't do that with people, right? Because you think, oh, they'll think I'm weird, they'll lock me up. One Bodhisattva walked around and said, I don't disparage you, I don't disparage you, I don't disparage you, I don't disparage you. And people started beating up on him. Because he went around and told them that he's not disparaging them. But he kept doing it anyway. Jackie? There are some things, some grasping that goes on in the meditation practice for me that I'm very clear about that I'm grasping. However, I'm a little unclear about feelings and grasping.

[88:12]

In other words, there are moments in my practice where a tear wells up. And I would consider that grasping. But it happens where I'm not even aware of it. Yes. So at what point do you make that distinction? Well, let's see. Let's say I was sitting and I looked at the floor and a tear came up. And I just saw the tear and felt the tear rolling down my cheeks, hits the corner of my mouth, curls around on my chin, hangs on the chin for a while and then drops into the floor. That doesn't necessarily have any clinging there. But doesn't it mean that prior to that I had already elaborated on a thought? Not necessarily. Like, for example, I might have just thought of someone being kind to me,

[89:19]

just thought of a kind act. You know? Or I just might have thought of selflessness. I might have just thought of selflessness. And my body responds to that with tears. Sometimes I see people do beautiful things. You know, sometimes I see people becoming free of their limitations. And usually when I see that, tears come from my eyes out of just being moved to tears by how great people can be. There doesn't need to be any grasping there. Just like, oh my God, this is possible to be. Freedom is possible. Like one time I was walking down Van Ness Avenue and I went by this newspaper stand and there was a newspaper in a little box, you know, and the newspaper in the box and it said in big letters about four inches tall across the whole page it said, freedom.

[90:21]

And I just burst into tears. I don't think it's because I was elaborating. I just, just the word freedom just struck my heart. And I just was moved and my body secreted these fluids. So it doesn't need to be. Buddha can look at us and tears can come to her eyes and roll down her cheeks, onto her breast, just because she loves us and her body responds with tears when she sees us suffering. It doesn't have to be any elaboration. When I saw my father lying, you know, in his coffin, when I went up there,

[91:05]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ