I've been commenting on the Eight Awarenesses of the Enlightened Person, which is Dogen Zenji's last writing, and which of course was coincidentally Shakyamuni Buddha's last words, according to certain sources. And this is very simple. The interesting thing is, after all of Dogen's very difficult to penetrate writings that this last one should be so very simple. So I'll bring you up to where we are. The first awareness is having few desires. and knowing how to be satisfied, enjoying serenity and tranquility, exerting diligent effort, not forgetting right thought, practicing samadhi, cultivating wisdom, and avoiding idle talk, which is the most difficult of all.

[01:18]

So today we're going to... I'm going to talk about cultivating wisdom, the seventh aspect. So Dogen says, wisdom is aroused by hearing, reflecting, practicing, and realizing. And then he says, the Buddha says, when you practitioners have wisdom, you are without greed. referring to the first one. Always reflect upon yourselves. Do not lose this wisdom. In this way, you can thus attain liberation in my dharma. One who does not is neither a follower of the way, or, well, let's see, is neither a monk nor a layperson. True wisdom is a stout boat which crosses a sea of old age, sickness, and death.

[02:27]

It is also a great bright torch in pitch black ignorance, a good medicine for all sick people, a sharp axe which fells the tree of delusion. Therefore, by means of this wisdom, which is heard, reflected upon, and practiced, you will increase your merit. When one has the illumination of wisdom, even though one's eyes are merely physical eyes, one is a clear-seeing person. This is what is meant by wisdom. Well, there are two aspects of wisdom. One is called prajna and the other is called panja in Sanskrit. Panja is more like knowledge and wisdom which comes through knowledge or understanding.

[03:28]

And prajna is more like intuition, which transcends the thinking mind. So prajna is, you could say, is like the basis of panya. We say prajnaparamita, the wisdom which is the perfection of wisdom, or the wisdom which is non-dualistic, and which is more than your own personal wisdom. It's the wisdom which underlies all things. It's the wisdom which crawl to our mother's breast when we're born.

[04:33]

And it's the wisdom that a chicken picks its way out of the shell in order to come into the world. And it's the wisdom which governs the true workings of all beings. So to access this wisdom and stay in this wisdom is called opening up a big mind. And then, Panya is more like our personal wisdom, our knowledge, partly our accumulated knowledge and our discernment. and are putting into action right understanding. So, there are three aspects of paññā, which actually are right understanding, right thought, and right speech, which are three aspects of the Eightfold Path.

[05:51]

So, Dogen says, wisdom is aroused by hearing, reflecting, practicing and realizing. So, realizing is actually prajna. Hearing, reflecting and practicing come from this deeper understanding. And all of us have this deeper understanding, but it's not necessarily accessed or open to us. And what keeps us from Accessing this deeper prajna is our sense of self. Sense of self is like a door which covers the doorway. When self covers the doorway, then the light is obscured. So according to Buddhadharma, self is the problem.

[06:59]

Self is the source of suffering and the source of delusion and the source of ignorance. So what do we do with this self? How do we deal with this self? What is our approach? So this is the problem that we have. And we may have some knowledge, but Our knowledge is, although worldly knowledge is important, we substitute it often for the deeper understanding of our intuitive wisdom. So sometimes we say the more we think, the further off we go. So a thinking mind is important, very important.

[08:03]

But as human beings, our thinking mind becomes more and more developed, and we become human beings with big heads, you know, like the futuristic human has this huge head and this little skinny body. This is important, this huge head. So we become very overbalanced with our knowledge. And we feel that accumulating knowledge, this is the age of accumulation of knowledge. And accumulating knowledge is going to save us. But actually, the accumulation of knowledge is just a more sophisticated way of destroying the world. Unfortunately. But we can't stop this. We can't stop the accumulation of knowledge and the cleverness of mind, which creates all kinds of destructive problems for us.

[09:06]

Even our medicines are destroying us. Until we know how to control our self-centeredness, our selfishness, our ego, our I, we'll always be suffering and creating suffering and destroying the world. So this is the problem of Buddhadharma. And as Buddha said, the only thing I'm Teaching is how to relieve suffering in a fundamental way. Fundamental way means for each person to realize the reality for themselves.

[10:11]

I find it interesting, there was an attorney wheel a conversation between two young men who had grown up in a Zen center as children, and what their experience was. And one was saying to the other, in Buddhism, you can't save your children. Everyone has to save themselves. And this is why it's kind of difficult to bring up children in a Buddhist environment. Because although you can teach children and you can teach adults as well, the teaching is not what saves them. What saves them is their own effort to find their true nature.

[11:17]

So your children cannot inherit your Buddhism. They inherit something from you, but not your Buddhism. That has to come through their own efforts. That's very interesting. So even though there's a large Buddhist movement, which is very helpful in the world, fundamentally everyone has to find their own salvation through their own effort. So, what is the problem? What is this problem of the I, of the self? We say there is a self where actually there is no self.

[12:22]

In the higher understanding model, and I talk about this quite often, the understanding or feeling of self is consciousness. Self is consciousness. And consciousness is associated with our senses. what we see through the eye creates an image. And when there is the eye and the object and the consciousness, all three together, there arises the picture of seeing something. And then this picture of seeing something arouses a feeling.

[13:34]

And the feeling is one of desire, or aversion, or neutrality. So, because of our habit energy, when we see a chocolate cake, when I see the chocolate cake, the mouth starts to salivate. And then the idea of hunger comes up, the desire, the idea of desire, the feeling of desire for the chocolate cake, whether you're hungry or not. Chocolate cake does not alleviate hunger, it alleviates desire. And then we start to cling to our desire, and we have an attachment to the desire, and so forth, and then it escalates until we really want that chocolate cake.

[14:38]

And then when we have the chocolate cake, the desire is dissipated, and there's a moment of release. And then when it's gone, there's some other feeling. And then A little later, we don't want that anymore. Once we satiate it, we don't want it anymore. And then another piece of chocolate cake comes, and then it's aversion. So aversion and desire and clinging keep alternating with each other. And as soon as this idea of clinging or wanting comes up, the I is born. So we have to separate what is in consciousness, what is I and what is not I. So among the various levels of consciousness, there is consciousness which is not self-consciousness, and there is consciousness which is self-consciousness.

[15:55]

So the I seeds the ear hears, the nose knows, the tongue tastes, the hand feels, the mind thinks. So these are six aspects of consciousness, which are the doorways, and they are all neutral. Seeing just sees. Hearing just hears. But the sixth consciousness, the mind, differentiates and says, oh, I hear the airplane. Oh, I see the car. Oh, I smell the toast, and so forth. So this is the function of thinking consciousness, which is the sixth level of consciousness. The first five are just the sense stores

[16:59]

And the sixth level of consciousness is discriminating between the six doors of sense, and naming what one sees, hears, smells, tastes, and so forth. And this all takes place without a self, without a separate self. It's just the working of nature. When the dog barks, the dog bark is heard. And we say, I hear the dog bark. Well, you don't hear the dog bark. Hearing is the dog bark. Or the dog bark is just heard. But we identify with the dog barking. We identify with hearing. So we say, oh, I heard the dog bark.

[18:03]

But actually, the dog bark was just heard by consciousness. The spider walking across the wall during Zazen was just seen by the eye and cognized by consciousness. If consciousness doesn't say, that's a spider, then there's just something moving across the wall. There's just movement across the wall. There are many ways to observe something. But we tend to observe through our subjective partiality. We say, that's a spider moving across the wall. But actually, you don't have any idea, or you have an idea, but you do not know what that is. You could also say, this is the dynamics of nature in motion.

[19:12]

You could say many things, but our first thought is, that's a spider, because that's the idea we have. So we tend to move and think and act around these ideas. As soon as the idea and the identification comes, the I arises, in a certain way. So then there's the level of consciousness which is called eye consciousness, which separates ourself as an individual from the rest of nature and gives us the feeling or the sense of an individuated person.

[20:25]

And this I is what says, I want. This is the consciousness of desire, consciousness of wanting. And this consciousness of wanting is what drives us to accomplish in this world. So it's discriminating consciousness on a higher level, on a different level than the sixth consciousness. Sixth consciousness discriminates in a thinking manner between the world, the areas of sense. But the seventh consciousness distinguishes or discriminates as the center of your life. So when desire arises, we identify with desire.

[21:34]

If we say, who are you? At any moment, you will identify with your desire. I am hungry. I am sleepy. You identify with the feelings and the desires. So, as soon as we identify with desire and make a preference based on desire, the I is born. Until that time, there really is no I arising, even though there is seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, feeling and thinking. It's not centered on the I. The I has not yet arisen until there is what's called Upadana in Sanskrit, which means clinging and attachment, something like clinging and attachment.

[22:50]

It's a bigger sense than attachment, but attachment to objects of sense, which are perceived through the doors of sense. This seventh consciousness has a function, but it becomes the center of our life. And it's the consciousness of partiality because it does not see clearly. It does not see clearly. It doesn't allow us to see clearly because it's partial to itself. We say Zen is to see everything as it is. So to see everything as it is means to see with a mirror mind, the mirror which reflects everything impartially and without preference.

[23:54]

But it's very difficult for us to reflect the world impartially and without preference. As soon as something comes up, we have a preference. And we either desire it or avert it. So this is the function of the seventh consciousness, or how it functions. So this is called the false idea of self. And this is identifying the ego or the self as contrasted to what is not self. The Buddhists and actually the old Buddhist philosophers actually identified distinctly what is the ego and what its place is in the human being, how it functions, and how it can be neutralized.

[25:02]

And then the eighth level of consciousness, called the alaya vijnana, the storehouse consciousness, is the storehouse for all of the memory for all of our actions, and it stores the seeds for the next actions. So, whatever we've done all our life is stored, like in the computer of the Alaya Vijnana. and when the seeds... it's like little plants which have these seeds and when the seeds are watered through habit energy, the seeds sprout and then we act out of our habit energy and we act out of the birth of these seeds which

[26:17]

determine the way we act in our life. And this seventh consciousness, ego consciousness, is always interplaying with the storehouse consciousness. These two are always interactive. And the seventh consciousness is continually producing karma. This is the karmic consciousness which is producing habitual processes which keep us continually on a certain track. The our actions are constantly, continually producing seeds which are continually sprouting, which keeps us continually operating in a narrow field.

[27:38]

And we can't see beyond that field. So our vision is always limited because of the interaction between these two aspects of consciousness. And until we break that wheel, our view is always partial and limited. When the seventh consciousness is no longer producing karma, karmic volitional ideas, views, then we begin to see, or we suddenly see, without partiality. This is called seeing.

[28:45]

seeing things as they are. Then the eighth level of consciousness, the storehouse consciousness, becomes the great mirror wisdom of Prajna, the fundamental wisdom. Fundamental wisdom, which sees everything unadorned and clear and uninfluenced. by any kind of partiality. And the seventh consciousness, which is partial to itself, it becomes, when it's turned around, transformed, becomes the wisdom of equality, great universal equality wisdom, which sees that the equality of all things, when impartially, sees how everything is actually one.

[30:03]

This is called awakening. Awakening is when we see everything as one, one piece. All the interactive parts of this universe are one piece. This is the great universal wisdom And it's called awakening to this understanding. But that's not enough. And when mind consciousness, the sixth consciousness, level of consciousness, is transformed, it becomes the marvelous observing wisdom, as it's called, which in which we see everything, each individual thing, as unique and valid. We see into the nature of each individual and recognize every individual thing and appreciate every individual existence.

[31:10]

This is the other side. These two have to balance each other to see everything as one and to see everything as individual and multiplicity. You say one is all and all is one. This is called awakening. And the fruit of this awakening or the actualization of this awakening is when the sense consciousnesses are transformed, and they become the perfecting of action wisdom, where this understanding is acted out in the world of sense observation. And there's no ego in it.

[32:17]

because the ego consciousness or self-centered consciousness has been neutralized. It has a place, but it only is beneficial when it's transformed. It's like when a bully suddenly awakens up, awakens and becomes a helpful person. You really appreciate that person. That person really got some wisdom finally. But that same energy that creates the bully, when it's transformed, creates the compassion, the wonderful compassionate person. So our energy is very wild, wild energy. takes many forms and becomes very partial to the way it's embodied in an individual.

[33:28]

And that energy has to be worked with and transformed through practice. So the purpose of practice is to transform this big ego energy into wisdom, energy which allows prajna to arise and allows panya to express itself. But until the ego is transformed, until this sense of self is no longer obscuring the fundamental wisdom, we're still in the dark. That's why in Zen practice we say there has to be some awakening, some opening.

[34:38]

No matter how much you know, it's not enough. There has to be an opening, and the opening comes when this seventh consciousness is transformed and realizes the equality of all things. As long as we have eco-consciousness or self-consciousness or partiality, we see ourselves as separate. Partiality sees ourselves as separate from everything else. When we realize, truly realize, our oneness with everything, this is waking up and transformation. But it's not enough. Oneness is not enough. As it says in the Sandokai, as Sekhito says in the Sandokai, just understanding that all is one is not enough. We have to understand that everything exists

[35:45]

and appreciate that. Everything is also two. So this thing, not one, not two. It's not quite one. It's not exactly one. It's not exactly two. It's one and two. although we may have an awakening, that awakening must be followed up by practice. If it's not followed up by practice, it's very easy for us to revert back to our partiality.

[36:52]

And someone who makes a big effort to eliminate partiality, even though they have not had a big experience, that itself is an awakening. The effort to reduce, the effort to deal with partiality, you know, to work with it, and to be aware of it, and to struggle with it, is also enlightened practice. So whether you had a big awakening or haven't had a big awakening, it doesn't matter. It matters, but it doesn't matter. Your effort to deal with it is your enlightenment. So, you know, we say that practice begins with enlightenment.

[38:02]

It's not like your work hard and then finally you'll get enlightened. The fact that you actually engage in practice, wholeheartedly dealing with the problem of the self, it's enlightened practice. The fact that you take it on from the beginning is your enlightenment. And then the rest of your life you cultivate that enlightenment. You keep cultivating that wisdom and at some point you may have a big opening of the mind and then put that aside and keep practicing as an ordinary person, cultivating that wisdom and refining it. So, everyone is in a little different place as far as understanding

[39:04]

refinement and practice. And we should all understand that. And those who have good understanding should be helping those who have less understanding. And this is part of your understanding. If you have this understanding that those who have understanding should be helping those who have less understanding, if you understand that, then you understand something. You understand what practice is. If you just are only interested in your own understanding and always comparing yourself to those who have less understanding and feeling proud that you have more understanding than the people who have less understanding, this is your delusion.

[40:18]

No matter how much understanding you have, or how much wisdom you have, if you are proud of it, it's totally delusion. The hardest thing to deal with is pride. They say that one may reach the highest level of Bodhisattva practice, but the hardest thing to get rid of is spiritual pride. And when you get that far, it's almost impossible. So you have to let go of that from the very beginning. Spiritual pride is, no matter how much we know, it's nothing. You have to realize that. No matter how enlightened you are, it's really nothing. And if you realize that, then you can act in an enlightened way.

[41:28]

So a truly enlightened person may be unrecognizable apart from some ordinary person. In the five ranks, the study of the five ranks, the last, the furthest rank, the highest rank is a picture of an old man sniffling, sitting by the fire, has no idea about Zen or Buddhism or wisdom or anything, just taking care of things. around, but there's something about this person's puttering that helps everyone.

[42:43]

So it's important to be able to see. The thing about this nice model of consciousness, if we keep that in mind, we can see, we can identify this sense of self which arises through desire. When desire is not there, we have to differentiate between desire and desire. There's the desire which keeps us relatively contented as a person in the world. And then there's the desire, which is called greed, which is more than we need. And when we talk about desire, this is what we mean. The desire over and above the desire for things that we need. So a monk who practices in a monastery or whose life has that quality tries to reduce the needs to the minimum to see what that's like.

[44:16]

What's it like to not have anything? What does one really need? And then From that limited point of view, we can look at the rest of all of our lives. Well, what do we really need? What is necessary? So if you can reduce yourself to that, at least for some period of time, to reduce your life to that minimum, then you begin to see what your life is really about. What life itself is really about. without inordinate desires. So when we're talking about desire, we're talking about inordinate desire. Stuff that you don't need. Desire which comes up just for the sake of satisfying itself. And when that desire comes up, it's called creating a self. A self is created.

[45:18]

But when that desire, inordinate desire, is not there, then the seventh consciousness the ego consciousness stops being partial and is only working for the benefit of life itself, because that consciousness sees everything as equal. And when it views everything as equal, that equality allows us to see how everything is ourself. And so one works for the benefit of the big self, which includes everything, rather than just for the benefit of the small self, which we call ourself. That's called wisdom. It's called not being self-centered.

[46:27]

It's Buddha-centric. Centered on Buddha. And in harmony with everything. Harmonizing with your surroundings. without sticking out. Do you have a question? Yes. I've been listening to your definition of I and self and At least into reality.

[47:51]

Excuse me? At least into reality. Into reality. But in doing so, it seems that you're creating a duality between the common I, the common self, and the Buddhist I, the Buddhist self. I was wondering if that can be resolved. Well, the common self and the Buddhist self, it's creating a distinction between the true self and the false self. The true self is one that's not self-created, whereas the false self, so-called, is a self that is self-created. In other words, it's put together. The self which is actually an illusory self.

[49:03]

We feel that it's our self, but in one moment it can be totally destroyed. The self that cannot be destroyed is the true self. God, I hate you. And fear of not having enough.

[51:26]

Fear of having what we don't want. These are the two main fears, actually. Fear of not existing anymore. Fear of not having what we need. And fear of having what we don't want. So, we build security, or we make an effort to build security so that we don't have to, you know, as protection. So, self-protection is what drives so many of us, you know, it's a big drive. And, you know, I think about millionaires, you know, people accumulate all this wealth and stuff. It has to be driven out of fear. Because why do you need all that except to alleviate your fears? So fear and building all this weaponry is all built out of fear and creating fear in order to produce this stuff.

[52:37]

So fear is really driving the world. And the fears that you're talking about, you know, from childhood, it's insecurities, and I don't know what you mean by people doing this for you. Because we do it for ourselves, you know. at some point in your life, to put yourself in a position where you don't need anything. And find out who you are. Find out what your real needs are and who you really are. Because as long as we need all this support system, we can't really get down to the bottom of who we really are. It's very difficult.

[53:40]

Very difficult. If you can say, I don't need this, I don't need this, I don't need this, then that's a good beginning. See what you don't need. Just look at it. Do I need this? Do I really need that? Do I need to feel this way? Just question your needs and question your feelings and what you're drawn to. Just as an exercise. I think that would be very helpful. And see what you can be free of. Our parents did things to us, our environment did things to us, but we don't have to be attached to that. There's a certain point called growing up that means, hey, I don't have to follow that anymore. You pop out of your shell, pop out of your skin. It's kind of been holding you down.

[54:42]

You can do that. That's called freedom. And it's also called leaving home, you know. We talk about the monks, the one that's left home, right? But how do you leave home without leaving home? The practice is to leave home without... Leaving home really means to let go of the bondage and the baggage of all the stuff that has been holding you down and that you've been clinging to all this time. And find yourself as a new person. You know, we say born-again Christians, but be a born-again person. We really need to be born again. I mean, I think that's vital. But you don't have to be Christian to do it.

[55:43]

But we should all have this transformation and being born, you know, relief from all this stuff that we feel has been holding us down. You don't need to pay obedience to that anymore. And you should analyze, well, what is that? What are these things that I don't have, that I can leave? and just start my life fresh. That's what I'd like to do. That's called a way-seeking mind.

[57:06]

When desire is transformed, through practice, it's no longer called desire, it's called way-seeking mind. And that is that inner drive, that deep desire, as Nuki Roshi calls it, our inmost request. It transforms desire into way-seeking mind.

[57:32]

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