To practice Buddhism, we have to be able to have the eye of wisdom, the eye of enlightenment. It must be Easter Sunday, feels like people are coming to church. Just to practice Buddhism to correct our weak points won't be enough.

[01:00]

If you practice in that way, you even can't correct your weak points. But it's necessary to, of course, to try to correct our weak points, and by trying you may not correct them, but you will correct many things. They say in China, if you have one weak organ, one weak thing, a weak heart or a weak stomach, you will win the race. In other words, if for some reason you have something wrong with you that makes you take care of yourself, you will take care of everything at the same time. So we should know what our weak point is and try to work on it.

[02:11]

Suzuki Roshi always thought his main weak point was absent-mindedness, so he was always very forgetful. Finally, when he was quite old, maybe fifty, he gave up trying to correct being forgetful. But from the time he was thirteen, when he first joined his teacher, his teacher wrote him all the time, this is your weak point, every day, Suzuki Roshi said his teacher would tell him. And though he never corrected that point, he became quite patient with other people, not being able to correct their weak points, and he began to be able to survive in the midst of criticism, and that's pretty important.

[03:13]

If you're easily criticized or you want to not be criticized because you're right, even when you're wrong, you should be able to survive in criticism. If Suzuki Roshi hadn't been able to, he could never have come to America and practiced with us, for everyone in Japan criticized him, and the Japanese community in America criticized him, and we criticized him too. It's you're too Japanese. I think Buddha said that endurance, the ability to endure, is more important than practicing

[04:23]

the precepts or asceticism. So our aim, you know, must be not just to correct our weak points, but to open our eye of wisdom, so we can tell the difference between what looks good and what's really good. But most of us only know what looks good. How do we tell the difference between what looks good and what's really good? It requires the eye of enlightenment. And when you have that eye opened, there's no doubt about your path. No doubt about what to do each moment.

[05:25]

You're no longer at war with yourself. And such sureness can't be based just on the idea that you're right, you know, or you've discovered the secret of the universe. That's rather presumptuous. The beginning of practice is, and the end of practice is, understanding of suffering and our own inadequacy, incompleteness, and what we need to work on. In the Eightfold Path, the last one is samadhi, or sometimes translated, concentration.

[06:41]

And samadhi means a concentrated or collected state of mind, like crystal, where everything is very clear and connected. Buddhist practice, you know, is to establish the individual on his own two feet. We're not interested, though it looks maybe like we are, we're not interested in group or community philosophy. You want to be controlled by yourself, not by civilization or law or some group. Since we have a community, this is actually some weak point, because we don't have any

[08:01]

particular plan, for example, as I was talking to someone recently, about how to bring up the children who are part of Zen Center's community. Since our effort is to establish the individual completely, it's up to each individual to bring up his children. But still, I think we need some common ideas about community life, since we seem to have developed a Buddhist village here, around San Francisco building and elsewhere. Through the individual standing on his own feet, all of culture will be created.

[09:07]

Only in this way can you have actual creativity to be free from your culture. And we don't mean an individual like a castle. We don't mean some kind of wall in which you protect yourself, establishing some strong identity which everybody is in awe of. Oh, look at that castle. We don't dare criticize him. He's too powerful. That's quite some weak position. We mean to establish yourself like a field, maybe. Long after the castle has fallen down, the field is still there. So the field is what's permanent. So when we establish ourselves as an individual on our own feet, everything should be able

[10:16]

to enter us and leave quite easily. So we practice zazen, letting ideas or thoughts come and go quite easily. And as you practice more widely, letting people and situations come and go. And when they're gone, they're gone. The field is just fallow again. No castle or anything on it. So the last of the eightfold.

[11:18]

That is concentration or this kind of more intuitive than intuitive aliveness that allows everything to enter or go away. This is one reason why practice with a teacher is to completely understand your teacher's way. In the end, you know, we can't talk about Buddhism. We have to show each other Buddhism. And if you're going to be like a field, you have to be able to completely know some other person's way.

[12:22]

And who will stand still for it? Maybe your wife or husband will more or less stand still. But a teacher is somebody who will stand still for it. And you should be free from your teacher's way. But in this way, Suzuki Roshi said, you know, you can become describing enlightenment. You can become as pure as white cloth. And you can become as sharp as steel. But it takes a long time to understand completely another person's way. But Suzuki Roshi used to say, although I have to show you, you know,

[13:36]

I'm afraid you'll study my weak points because he said his life wasn't so good, you know. But even his weak points we should know. So this number eight, you know, the last of the Eightfold Path, is what the alchemists were trying to achieve, a transformation of everything into spiritual substance. Certainly for us it's a transformation or opening of our consciousness, of our eye of wisdom. And it looks like everything has been transformed,

[14:38]

because everything is as clear as crystal. And yet actually, of course, nothing has been transformed. Before that, we were too interested in ourself to see things as they actually are. So how do we open our eye of wisdom? Well, the seven aspects of the Eightfold Path, prior to this one, samadhi, are antidotes to what obstructs us from seeing the world as it actually is.

[15:40]

So number seven is mindfulness. And mindfulness is still in the realm of conceptual thought. You want to be mindful, or you think about being mindful, or you're conscious of what you're doing. And number eight, you're no longer conscious in the usual sense. At that point you can be, as Bodhidharma answered the emperor when he asked who he was, he said, I don't know. Or, when you can ask what practice is, or anything, I don't know. For, at that level, you've entered the actual present of things in the process of happening.

[16:47]

Not after the fact. But the first seven are when you're still in the world of after the fact. You see things after they've happened. And so you're mindful. Practicing mindfulness. Bringing your attention back to what you're actually doing on each moment. Not in each moment, but on each moment. Or being each moment. And then number six, you know, is right effort. And I think this one is the most difficult for us, because we have such a strong idea of naturalness.

[17:48]

Of being natural. Zen is natural. Just to be honest, or natural, is our true life. Maybe that's true, but... There's something one-sided about it, and quite superficial. It's a way our ego controls us. It's a way of being selfish, of saying, I won't do it that way, because that's artificial, I'll do it this way, this is natural. Anyway, the idea of natural, you should explore more. What is natural? Is a city not natural? Is a anthill natural? How can we say what's natural?

[18:53]

Some gesture, like a mudra, natural. Natural. Babies do it, you know. Is it natural, or is it unnatural? Is that natural? That's natural. What's natural? So we think of willpower as something added, some discipline, or... But Buddhism says, you know, we suffer because we're half alive. So the practice is to awaken the other half. And if you're quite satisfied with yourself, oh, just as I am is perfect. We say things like that, but we mean included in that

[19:55]

an acceptance of your working with your faults, or weak points. So you ignore the fact that you're not perfect. Willpower, or willingness. Not seeing, actually, that a flower, you know, opens by some kind of willpower. What makes a flower grow straight up? Making some effort to grow straight up, even though the weight of the flower, you know, particularly these artificial flowers that are grown many places with chemicals, which die after one day or two days, kind of shriveling up in the flower pot. A healthy flower won't have such big blossom that pulls it over.

[21:06]

But I think we're all interested in some big fruit or blossom coming out of us. We can't sustain it. And most of us, it never comes to fruit. Actually, we just think about it all the time. It's so huge, this enormous flower we think we're going to produce which will spread over the whole world. You should be content with some little flower, you know. Maybe right here. So that's the flower, you know, trying to grow straight up, is you, yourself, trying to practice Buddhism. What actually holds you together, you know, your many diverse parts, you know. If you wake up in the morning and that thing we usually call a sense of meaning, or something is gone, you'll find yourself in utter confusion and terrified.

[22:08]

But even under that terror, something is there. And you should be able to rest comfortably in that. And then you'll know what real willpower. Not willpower against something. The actual thing, which... You can't say actual thing, but... It's what most people identify with some spiritual substance. It's interesting now, you know, science, calculus, physics, have gotten to the point, you know, where they can't explain anything.

[23:12]

They're so full of contradictions now. You know, like... So... So they are having to. There's quite a turmoil in science now, among the very best people across the world, because the whole thing is falling apart. The most basic contradictions are there. But no matter, as I said yesterday, what pi is, you know, 3.1444 or whatever,

[24:15]

still you can draw a circle. So, on the surface, you know, right effort is described as encouraging your good side and making space for that side which isn't developed yet, and discouraging your confusion and greed and delusion, and discouraging that which has not yet arisen. You see? Okay, and then before... I guess that must be number 6, right? Yeah, number... Number 5 is right livelihood.

[25:20]

And right livelihood is maybe the fruit of right speech and right action, which have come before right livelihood. So, right livelihood means what we do with other people. Do we do something with other people which actually benefits them and benefits your own life? Life. And ultimately, is your livelihood a recognition of the spiritual nature? I don't... by spiritual nature, I don't know what I mean. But anyway, spiritual nature of everything. Can you hear me in the back? Okay. Amazing. I'm barely talking. Yes.

[26:26]

So, we should be able to live, you know, actually without possession. Or rather, with the idea that we... what we have, we are only caring for and passing it on. If you have that feeling, I'm caring for this now, I'm caring for green gulch now, you know, and we'll pass it on for other people to use, this moment and in the future. Or I'm caring for this stick which someone made for me. And, well, pass it on sometime to someone else to use. And anyway, before right livelihood is right action and right speech.

[27:33]

And right action and right speech cover most of the precepts which we talked about, or which David and Diane vowed to follow forever yesterday when they got married. If you do so, you will help us very much. And before right action and right speech are right intentions and right views. Right views means to know our own imperfection, to know suffering, and each person's suffering. And to recognize our interrelationship with everything.

[28:41]

You know, Buddha said, Buddha supposedly said, Buddha is great because people are great. And if people don't need Buddha, or there's no... people aren't ready for Buddha, there'll be no Buddha. Our practice is a mutual thing. There is no Buddha, great Buddha or great teacher, separate from great students. And if people are not ready for Buddha, for Buddhism, there won't be any Buddhism. And so right views or right desire is to awaken some kind of

[29:45]

conviction, some strong intention to do something about it, to participate with other people. Without these two, right views and right intentions, or wisdom, you know, then without them, morality and concentration, which are the actual seeds of enlightenment, have no real meaning. Morality, separate from wisdom, is just some rote attempt to avoid difficulty. So right views and right intentions mean that you've actually seen what the nature of this world is and decided to live in accord with it.

[30:53]

And deciding to live in accord with it means that you have to practice morality. We call it morality, but actually it means being in harmony with things. And if you're in harmony, you're not at war with yourself. Most of us are involved in some self-defeating activities. We try this or that, and just at the moment of success we defeat ourselves in some way. Almost everyone does this. If you're not conscious of it, maybe you should become conscious of how we are scared of success, real success. And also how we won't accept, actually, fake success. How even a little bit of your eye of wisdom is open.

[31:59]

If you get yourself involved in something that you are determined to be successful at or you're convinced is the right way, if you defeat yourself at it, it may be some wisdom coming up saying, that's not right, warning you, trying to make you get back on the track. So it's some war where one side of us defeats... When we think something's good, but we don't know what's really good, one side of us defeats our chasing what only looks good.

[33:03]

And then when we try to follow our more inner, deeper request, we are scared of that and we defeat that or turn away from that. That's what's in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. You keep looking at the dimmer light. We can't look at things just as they are. So our practice is to balance our nature and to come into some harmonious relationship with everything. And we can tell, as long as we're at war with ourselves, at some conflict. We know we need to think more carefully about what this world is actually like, what we mean by right views and right intentions

[34:06]

and by how we practice right action, right speech. Speech, action, which allows our big nature to come into existence. And out of this harmony, a harmony not just based on being right, but based also on your weak points, a harmony that includes everything, criticism, difficulty, whatever. Out of that harmony, you can develop concentration, even-mindedness, and finally, some transmutation of your consciousness called samadhi. And in this way, your eye of wisdom will be opened. Thank you.

[35:27]

How do you get free of your conflicted thinking and allow that to arise which knows no boundaries, which is beyond discrimination, which unerringly flies to the mark, which assists all things in its activity. That is the purpose of this practice and of zazen. Do you have any questions? Anything you might want to say? You want to talk about? Yeah.

[36:59]

Right effort is sometimes described as four aspects to give you some help in practicing right effort. Just two would not be enough. One is to encourage your good points, which means dana and netta, giving and recognizing the identity of relationships, not putting up boundaries or walls, and discouraging what has arisen in our mind

[38:15]

that hinders us or creates a lot of karma or creates walls. But those two points are not enough because as you practice you see more subtly that not only do walls and openness already exist, but there is some tendency for more walls to come up and more openness to be created. And knowing that tendency, you can be aware of what has not yet arisen, discouraging by the way you live new walls arising and encouraging by the way you live more openness in your life and consciousness.

[39:15]

Is that clear? Thank you. Why were they killing him that way? You know,

[40:20]

it may be that dolphins and elephants and humans are all equally intelligent. Yes. Dolphins emphasize the sense of hearing, we emphasize the visual sense, elephants emphasize smelling. But if your intelligence was in the shape of an elephant, you would be unable to... you would be a slave to human beings who can control you. So if there is no way for an elephant or a camel

[41:30]

to to escape from such a situation, what better way but to endure it? That's not exactly what you meant. You mean something like why endure something you can do something about or you can avoid? Yes.

[42:46]

I... Yes. I understand what you mean, it's just your example of animals. I think animals are really intelligent, you know. And I'm... one of my favorite examples is the ants at Tassajara which build a hive, ant hill, in the summer by which you can tell how cold the winter will be next winter. And we can't even... if we remember the weatherman's telephone number and the phone number, he won't know what the weather is tomorrow. Exactly. So that's some kind of intelligence that we've lost or don't have access to because we we emphasize some discriminating superficial intelligence. Wow. That's very strategic but also very destructive.

[43:57]

Intelligence is everywhere. I think that kind of question which comes up for us which is are we just enduring or being masochistic for no reason? I think you have to go to the source of your particular example. I think it can't be responded to in general because it's just words. Of course I'm not... I'm not so interested in having one of you put an automobile on my foot and I'll see if I can endure it.

[45:06]

I suppose if I found an automobile on my foot I would try to endure it. But endurance it's not... the important thing is not what we endure but that we have... that we are able to endure. Maybe practicing Zazen or sitting in Sashin opens up our ability to endure. But what particular thing we endure is not so important because if you can endure you can be open to your diverse nature. That endurance itself is very close to crystal-like consciousness. The ability to stay with things no matter how terrible.

[46:15]

Stay with your... Anyway, that's enough. Satsang with Mooji Our intelligence, our concentration, our consciousness

[47:37]

is not limited to this particular fortress or that particular fortress. There is one big field which we can all move freely in. That's it.

[47:57]

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