I vow to face the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good evening. Good evening. I bow to you, dear friends, and to you, dear family, and to you, dear friends. Last night I started to talk about idealistness, that part, so I'm going to go over that part

[01:11]

again to bring us into line with, refresh our memory. Learned audience, it has been the tradition of our school to take idealistness as our object, non-objectivity as our basis, and non-attachment as our fundamental principle. Those are three. Idealistness, non-objectivity, and non-attachment. And he starts talking about the middle one first. Non-objectivity means not to be absorbed by objects when in contact with objects. Idealistness means not to be carried away by any particular idea in the exercise of the mental faculty,

[02:12]

and non-attachment is the characteristic of essence of mind, or self-nature. And I said that I like to think of that as appropriate engagement, because the mind is engaged, but engaged but not attached. So what is appropriate engagement in our life, our daily life? We're constantly engaged, the mind is constantly engaged, and the citta, or thinking mind, is continually working and discriminating, and meeting people and circumstances, and dealing with that all the time.

[03:27]

So how do we... Well, not only that, but we also become engaged in continuing ways. We become engaged with relationships in continuing ways, and through this mental activity we become entangled with the world. And so he says, we take idealistness as our object. Idealistness is also, you could say, mindlessness.

[04:35]

No idea, or actually no mind, but it means not to be caught by our partiality. Partiality means to see something in a certain way. To see something in a certain way. When we observe, we observe something in a certain way according to the limit of our mental faculties. And our mental faculties are quite limited. Animals are pretty good, you know. It's said that a polar bear in the Arctic can smell a seal

[05:39]

two feet under the ice at two miles. But our faculties are quite limited. Of course, our mind can reach anywhere, but we limit our mind. We limit our mind through our thinking faculty because we think our mind is limited. We can think of many things. So we objectify through our thinking, and that's a great faculty that we have. But it's difficult to experience through our thinking mind. So thinking mind, first comes experience, and then we have a thought.

[06:41]

Sometimes we have abstract thinking about something. But to think, to have a feeling, or an emotion, this comes first, and then the thought is about this, and creates an image, and an idea about it. And we say sometimes, and then we put it into language, we say sometimes, do animals think? That's a question. The reason we question that is because we have this feeling that thinking comes through words, language. If we don't think in language, then we're not thinking. There is a theory like that. And so there's this question, do animals think? Well, if you have an animal, you know that they do something, like thinking,

[07:43]

which sometimes is much more accurate thinking than our own thinking. Because animals may not think so much in concepts, but they think more directly. The dog knows what's going on in that person's heart. And why are you growling? He knows more than we know. And he looks at you and says, which way will we go? When you're taking a walk. Well, are we going to go this way, or are we going to go that way? This is all thinking, but without words. And one of the problems that I think we have is that because of our intellectual abilities,

[08:47]

we tend to cover our intuition, or not rely so much on our intuition, because we rely on our thinking ability. Over-reliance on thinking ability covers intuition. So we get cut off from our intuition very easily. And we live in the realm of concepts. So when we talk about self-nature, or big mind, because our intuition is dim, our thinking mind says, well, what's that? What are you talking about? Because experience is not so great. So when we talk about samadhi,

[09:50]

samadhi is the still mind, the quality of still mind, the quality of the mind ground, which is reached through intuition. In other words, directly, without needing to go through the conceptual faculty of mind, the conceptual thinking faculty. Usually everything has to be filtered through the conceptual thinking faculty, but we can't reach our mind ground through the conceptual thinking faculty. We can only reach it through directly

[10:52]

when the conceptual thinking faculty is not conceiving of something outside of itself. This is the problem with thinking. There's no problem with thinking. The mind should be thinking, but the mind should not hinder our intuition. So that's why he says idealistness. It's not that there shouldn't be ideas, but ideas should not interfere with directly touching, directly knowing the still ground of mind. And that directly touching, that intuition is called samadhi. It's nothing mysterious.

[11:57]

And out of that, the wisdom called prajna is illuminating, illuminates the mind. From this deep pool, intuitive wisdom illuminates the mind. So, it's important to realize that this mind is not my mind. This body is not my body. We say, this is my body, but that's just a way of speaking. And we say, this is my mind, but that's just a way of speaking. This body and this mind do not belong to me. If this body and this mind belong to me, then some thief is going to steal,

[13:03]

sometime. If this body and this mind really belong to me, that means I can't lose them. Or, if I do lose them, where am I? So, there is something that's underneath, or something supporting, or something that is the essence of this body-mind, and of flowers and birds. And we can know what that is by directly touching it.

[14:11]

So, then he talks about all things, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, should be treated as void or empty. And we know what that means. Empty means empty of its own nature. Empty means that everything is interdependent. Instead of each thing having its own soul, when we say, you know, in Buddhism, we say, there's no soul. And people say, what kind of religion is that? They do. But actually, in Buddhism, there's no individual soul. But there is something that is common to everyone.

[15:19]

There's something that's common to everyone and common to everything. And there are names for it, but the names don't describe it. It's just a name, because we have to have something to say about it. So we call it self-nature. Here it's called self-nature. Buddha-nature. Ta-ta-ta. Suchness. Someone called it the one soul of humanity. The single soul of humanity, which is shared by everyone. And each individual, you can say each individual is a soul,

[16:24]

but you can't say each individual has a soul. Soul means solo, individual. So we're all flying solo. But we don't have it. It just seems like we're independent. Trees are also independent, but they don't move around like we do. But since we are so mobile, we tend to think of ourselves in a certain way. So he says, all things, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, should be treated as empty in their own nature. But emptiness means interdependent.

[17:28]

One universal soul with innumerable, uncountable aspects called human beings, trees, birds, tiles and pebbles, all of which are continually preaching the Dharma. Even in times of disputes and quarrels, we should treat our intimates and our enemies alike and never think of retaliation. I often think that the Jews and the Arabs should stand back to back and embrace the whole universe and stop their foolishness. This is the most foolish display

[18:36]

on the world stage. And the Irish are no better. In the exercise of our thinking faculty, let the past be dead or be gone. Let go of it. Let go of the past. Can you imagine that some of the excuse for all this mayhem is Isaac and Esau? It's true. These two brothers, 5,000 years ago, or whatever it's been, had this break. And ever since, it's been mayhem. And people relate to this,

[19:43]

continue to relate to it, and fight this battle, this same battle, generation after generation. It's insane. So he says, let go, let the past be dead. And in our lives, we fight our old battles of our youth. We're all fighting the old battles of our youth, the battles of our old family, you know. We just keep perpetuating it. This is called karmic consequence. It's called transmigration through the hell realms. Right here. If we allow our thoughts, past, present, and future, to link up in a series, we put ourselves under restraint. We talked about that last night.

[20:45]

On the other hand, if we never let our minds attach to anything, we shall gain emancipation. For this reason, we take non-attachment as our fundamental principle. So to free ourselves from absorption in external objects is called non-objectivity. No attachment to objects. Not being absorbed. Or what do we say? Fascinated. Or caught. Suzuki Roshi used to say, don't get caught by anything. We get hooked, you know, and caught like fish with the bait, you know, we put in our mouth. And not only do... We get caught by the straight hook, because we grab onto it. Doesn't need any barbs. So, to free ourselves

[21:56]

from absorption in external objects is called non-objectivity. And when we are in a position to do so, the nature of Dharma will be pure. For this reason, we take non-objectivity as our basis. The nature of Dharma is always pure. I think someone asked a question the night before about, can consciousness be defiled? Which is an interesting question. It's like saying, when you see something, when you see red, does the eye become red? No. The eye does not become stained by seeing red. And when consciousness is aware or observes something red, does consciousness become red? We say that water,

[22:58]

you know, water actually is everywhere. And takes innumerable forms. And sometimes it's water that we drink, pure water. Sometimes it's whiskey. Sometimes it's poison. Sometimes it's filthy. But water in itself is always pure. It's always pure water. Because when it runs underground, it becomes purified. And all of the coloring is taken out and resumes its true nature. In the shuso ceremony, after the shuso answers the question, he brings back the staff and hands it to the abbot. And he says,

[23:59]

water returns to the source. So although water and consciousness can take on various colorings, it's not stained by anything. Because true consciousness, or basic consciousness, is suchness. And this suchness is expressed through our individual consciousness. And so we say, this is my consciousness. But even though it's my consciousness, it doesn't belong to me. It's just consciousness, a big mind, which is expressed through this little mind. Everything belongs

[25:02]

to Buddha nature. So, actually, even though we feel that we have something, we really don't have anything. But it's hard to get used to this idea. So he says, to keep our mind free from defilement under all circumstances is called idealism. So defilement means here, dualistic thinking. What defiles our mind is our dualistic thinking, our partiality. Seeing everything from a certain point of view is a kind of defilement.

[26:05]

So he says, our mind should stand aloof from circumstances. And on no account should we allow circumstances to influence the function of our mind. Well, circumstances do influence the function of our mind. And we can't really stand aloof from circumstances. I think the wording is kind of difficult here. But it means don't get caught by things. To be engaged in the world and yet not to be attached to anything. It means to take responsibility for what you need to take responsibility for. Basically it means don't be self-centered.

[27:08]

In plain English. It means don't get caught by selfish mind. Because a selfish mind is a defilement. And because of selfish mind we can't see our true nature. It clouds our true nature. So it's very rarely that we actually get a glimpse of true nature. Selfish mind is hot mind. And nirvana is cool mind. Cool mind means mind that is not based on self-centeredness. When our mind is not based on self-centeredness

[28:10]

or selfishness it's a taste of nirvana. But he says, on no occasion should we allow them to influence the function of our mind but it is a great mistake to suppress our mind from all thinking. So he qualifies this. It's a great mistake to suppress our mind from all thinking. For even if we succeed in getting rid of all thoughts and die immediately thereafter we shall still be reborn someplace else. So what is it that is reborn someplace else? In this interdependent realm that we live in there is no entity that has its own

[29:10]

inherent existence. And everything is dependent on everything else and everything is continually shifting so that there is no real substantial self to anything. And in this shifting and interdependence everything becomes everything else. Everything transforms and is a part of everything else. This is transmigration or rebirth. Everything is continually being reborn dying and being reborn but we see it as a continuous motion. And we see our life as a continuous motion as a human being and we see birds lives as continuous motion of birds but everything is continually being reborn

[30:12]

moment by moment. Tomorrow we should live this day completely as this day and tomorrow completely as tomorrow because tomorrow is a different life than today's life. Then he says, mark this treaders of the past it is bad enough for a person to commit blunders from not knowing the meaning of the law but how much worse would it be to encourage others to follow suit. Being deluded, one sees not and in addition one is disrespectful of the Buddhist canon. Therefore we take ideallessness as our object. Learned audience, let me explain more fully why we take ideallessness as our object.

[31:12]

I think it's time to stand up. No, it's nine o'clock. We stop at nine ten. Oh, don't. We do stop at nine ten but I have to pee. Do you want to just... Yeah, I do. It's your time. These are the Buddha's These are Do you want to just...

[31:50]

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