Let me first explain what I'm doing, if I know. I've taken a break from giving public lectures here for a number of reasons, but mostly because I'm trying to... It was a little hiatus for me to try to... see how to teach Zen to a lay audience, to lay people. In Mahayana Buddhism, the whole thrust of Mahayana Buddhism is that the lay person is the Buddha, and the lay person is the goal of the teaching. And the history of Buddhism in Thailand and China and Korea and Japan is punctuated by efforts of

[01:07]

various teachers who for some reason take this responsibility or the society encourages it in some way, is punctuated by efforts to make real practice or meditation practice or some kind of thoroughgoing practice available in the population. And not just for elite monks or a more shamanic elite within Buddhism. And usually they seem to be successful for a while and then they fade away. And again, the teaching is mostly carried by a lineage, or if not a lineage in the sense that at least an initiated group that passes the teaching on. And then the larger population really has a kind of belief in Buddhism, and a belief which affects their practice.

[02:31]

A friend of mine, Susan Oyama, has written a book called The Antogeny of Information, which is an extremely brilliant, almost intimidating book. And yet she knows actually nothing about Buddhism. But she's a third-generation Japanese, and somehow through her grandparents and parents, some quality of looking at the world that's characteristically Asian and Buddhist has come through her thinking, which has made her look at the nature-nurture distinction in a way, probably the most brilliant way it's been treated today. And the Buddhist community is quite interested in her book, but she does, I mean, I'm quite close friends with her, and she knows nothing. You know, I say Vipassana, she'd never heard the word Vipassana, she'd never heard the word, I mean, practically anything. But Dharmakaya, she doesn't, I mean, the most simple term, she's not fond of it at all.

[03:37]

In fact, she moved away from doing Oriental or Asian things to being kind of a Westerner psychologist, philosopher. So what I'm saying is that there is, even if the emphasis is on belief, there is a way of looking at the world that comes through to the larger population, whether they practice Buddhism specifically as a skill or not. And that is very tough. I mean, it sticks through, in this case, three generations of living in the United States. She was actually born in one of the camps, where we relocated the Japanese. And likewise, our Western views are equally resilient.

[04:38]

It takes some generations before Western views and Buddhist views can be really seen clearly in such a way that there can be a genuine combination of the two, or you can make a choice between the two. So at this point in my life, this is being a Westerner, and sitting in the middle of Buddhist practice and Western life, I'm trying to resolve these questions in my own life and person. So it's fairly easy to, or at least the task of introducing Buddhism in the West, I've done quite a bit of it, and it's something, at least in the United States, I don't feel like doing anymore. And I'm quite interested in practicing with people leading a more monastic-style life, because it's just much easier to teach.

[05:50]

There's no comparison. because the state of mind is there to hear the teachings. And so in between, lay, to actually teach in a way that lay people in their regular lives can understand, which was, and make use of, which was the goal of Sudhirishi. I don't know if it's possible. I don't think I'm very successful. So we can practice and be exposed to practice, and it does influence us the way Susannah Younger's parents and grandparents influenced her. But still, for the most part, I feel the skills, And the actuality of Buddhist practice becomes something that is not really present in lay people's lives in general, but rather is a flavor or certain ideas that make their life better or sound like Buddhism, look like Buddhism.

[06:54]

So I decided to attempt, I think I'm going to give four lectures in four Sundays, right? To see if we can have not a lecture or a sermon, but a kind of practice session. So those of you who want to come, I would like you to try to come to all four. And I'd like you to try to come at 10 o'clock or not, as I've watched people coming in after 10. I mean, it's unavoidable, it's okay, but it's a habit, I don't like it. And is it less of you? It's okay. I really want to see if we can find a way to practice, find out something about practice. And the most basic of all practices in Buddhism is mindfulness.

[08:02]

But assumed there is a mind that can be mindful, or a mind that can practice mindfulness. That's not so easy. Zazen is considered probably the easiest shortcut to coming to a mind that can be mindful, but it's not intrinsic. In other words, mindfulness is a more fundamental practice than zazen. But it's a rare, and that's the Buddha of the future, and I try to put it as shown with one leg down. and are seated, not in lotus posture. And sometimes Avalokitesvara, I believe, is shown with the leg down, meaning a non-yogic, teaching in a non-yogic way or teaching to lay people. Even though this figure has a kind of headdress and all, which symbolizes being lay and not yogic, it doesn't appreciate that.

[09:09]

Still sitting cross-legged. And in general, the Buddhas are presented sitting cross-legged because the cross-legged posture is so identified with the realization of mindfulness, even though mindfulness is more fundamental than sitting cross-legged or not. Now, when I believe Longchenpa or someone says, all, when they talk about all, Buddha is all, Realization of all or all as the universe or something like that. They list what all includes, and it includes teachers, teaching, an audience, and situation and events and time and so forth. But the first thing in the list are teachers and teaching. Which means that this Asian Buddhist view of the world assumes that there's a process of everything changing and that one's relationship to change is actually a kind of teaching.

[10:19]

And so you have to be willing to be taught by everything. and by a teacher, and be willing to share your consciousness in some way. I think this is a problem in the West because, one, our individualism feels threatened by a certain kind of sharing. Plus, I think that the kind of psychic life that we have encourages secrets, and that we often have a kind of secret life or parallel life that runs to us that's secret, that we don't discuss, that's important to us as a kind of resource. And that sense of a secret life, which is also in another form or reinforces the sense of an unconscious life, is somewhat challenged by mindfulness practice. And I've been reading Elaine Pagel's book recently, too.

[11:31]

I just had lunch with her in New York. She's an old friend of mine whose husband was just killed, unfortunately, falling off a mountain in Colorado, near Estonia. And her first book was The Gnostic Gospels, and the second book is the the famous books, is Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. And it's quite an interesting book. And I suggest, for any of you who want to look at Western mind, that that book's used. And interesting to see how Christianity has made use of this story of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. But in any case, Christianity developed, it seems, through what I read in her book and also my own study, through linking itself to sexuality as a most definitive element in spirituality.

[12:49]

In a way, I don't know any other religion that has done, or teaching has done, And although Jews and Christians have interpreted at various times in history this story differently, still Adam and Eve are closed by God in the Garden of Eden. There's a sense of not liking nakedness in our society. And a lot of these things that we take as kind of instinctual in our mind and activity, I don't think are instinctual or intrinsic, but rather mostly culture and mostly something we create. And that's important in Buddhism to think of your states of mind as something you've created and you have a relation and participation in and not something you're given. And Adam is, while Eve is created from, it's interesting, I mean, it's pretty obvious, it's more than obvious that women create males and females.

[13:55]

But in the myth of the Bible, a male creates the female, or God creates the female through the male's rib. And the male is created by God, but the female is chosen because she's better than animals. God looks around and says, geez, these animals I've created aren't good enough. Let's create somebody good enough. And the woman listens to... And the man... contaminates the whole of creation. The whole of creation is contaminated by the man. I mean, that's an amazing idea. The whole of creation is contaminated just because this man, man, listened to this female and took her advice to eat this apple. And she took the advice of this snake who represents animals. It's a very weird situation to put us all in. It's very strange. I mean, it's a real trick that's been laid on us, in my opinion, anyway. And that, again, that all of creation is affected.

[15:02]

And that somehow all of creation is morally connected to your thoughts and desire. In Buddhism, that's not the case. Creation is seen as dharmic units of perceptual units. Just what you hear, just what you feel, think or see on each moment. And these dharmic units are upheld by your Really, the emphasis is on actions, not on thought. So I think mindfulness in one of its simplest forms is inventory. You simply are taking inventory of what you find you are. And so those of you who, especially those of you who are coming to this practice session next Sunday, I would like you to take an inventory, but a thoroughgoing conscious inventory, almost like you're taking a log of something you tell someone.

[16:14]

But rather, of what are your states of mind? And in particular, how much of your states of mind are involved with sexual thoughts or involved with thoughts about status, or what kind of person you are, or how you feel, or generally how many moments are involved with a kind of unease, and how many moments do you feel complete? And if we take the word mindfulness, and I chose mindfulness, awareness, and consciousness, But I think in my talks I usually go a little too fast, so I'm trying to go slower here. I may not be going slow enough, because we could spend four sessions on just mine. But in any case, I took three words, mindfulness, awareness and consciousness. But I have to start with any discussion like this using ink, using language.

[17:20]

There's no way, there's very little way I can, particularly with a lay audience, communicate mindfulness, awareness or consciousness in any way but using words. And these are our words that are available to us in English. And you may think it's others, but those are the three I decided to pay attention to. And they're different. And mind is one of those words in English which covers all kinds of things. generally means a brain-based consciousness, which manifests as thoughts. It's thought of as brain-based in the major definitions. And it's also thought of as including consciousness and unconsciousness, and a kind of larger, all-inclusive sense of the phenomena associated with consciousness, awareness, and mind.

[18:23]

But I think the sense of mind that's in mindfulness at Buddhism is more like mind the baby, or I don't mind, in the sense that it's your whole being that's involved. Or when somebody goes crazy, they say you lose your mind. You don't lose your thoughts. Well, he lost his thoughts. It doesn't sound very serious. It's probably good, but you say you lose your mind. So I think this thing about going crazy is... I mean, there is craziness, which is... biological or chemical or, you know, you had brain damage or in some way there's something missing or there's some countable physical effectiveness.

[19:38]

But any of us can go crazy and get in that kind of situation or stress or something. And where do we go crazy to? Well, you go crazy to your thoughts. You go crazy in your thoughts. If you're free of your thoughts, you almost cannot go crazy. I mean, unless there's something defective where you can't be free of your thoughts, or you just can't function. Every year, the roadrunners, my favorite bird, comes and knocks on my window. And he thinks I'm in a zoo. And he taps and I look up. And then I look back down at my desk. He taps again and I look up. And he sort of examines me from the window. And this morning there was a young one who didn't do that, but he looked in that window quite a bit and walked in that porch.

[20:42]

And certainly I can't communicate with him by my thoughts exactly. But I felt... that I shared a mind with, with the bird. So in any case, what I'm saying is, you can pay... English or language is usually wiser than we are. It may not be wise enough, and it may be the problem, but usually, I mean, most people can't distinguish very well between feelings and emotions, and they don't distinguish very well between consciousness and awareness. But if you're going to practice and realize the potentialities of our aliveness, at least we should know what our language suggests to us. So I think it's useful to pay some attention, like take for a day, mind, or mindfulness, or what you mean by mind, and when you use mind, take for a day, maybe.

[21:47]

And take for a day awareness. Do you use awareness different than consciousness? And take for a day consciousness. And you say you're conscious of something. What do you feel when you're conscious of something? So, anyway, that's trying to stick today to mindfulness. So in the sense of mind, we pay attention to something by minding it. And full really means in this case, not in contrast to empty, but full in the sense of complete, pay full attention. Now the question is in this, can you pay full attention? And nes is the state of. I think we can take nes in this mindfulness to mean suchness. Now, I'm going to try to be fairly, by the end of the four, I hope fairly clear so that you can see how Zen differs from Vipassana, say, and from other Buddhist teachings.

[23:05]

And it's rather important to know the differences, because you have a kind of general, you know, mix. If you've been studying Buddhism, you read a lot of this and read a lot of that, and all these terms and ideas and facts just get kind of sludged together. But in fact, they represent long histories of distinguishing them. That's how the schools arose. And so it's... I don't know, maybe if you're a potter, say, and your teacher pots a certain way, you should really learn that teacher's way thoroughly, because if you pot in some other way, maybe it won't work as well. I don't know if potting is a good example. But in Zen practice and in Buddhist practice, the various Buddhist practices, to actually go all the way with the practice, you have to understand that practice thoroughly. If it's mixed up with other practices, you won't really get into much detail in how you practice.

[24:09]

I was thinking the other day about how speed is a function of detail, in other words, if 10,000 potential perceptual events in a second. If you perceive 20 of them, 65 miles an hour is going to be very fast. If you perceive 1,000 of them, 65 miles an hour is going to seem quite slow. If you perceive 10,000 of them, you're going to feel like you're stopped. And there is that kind of difference in the degree to which the details of the world are educating you. The details of the world are present here. And you're open to it. Sukhya, she describes wisdom as readiness of mind. Wisdom itself, he describes as the readiness of mind. So ness, maybe in this case, is the suchness. Suchness has been a very important term in Zen which I will talk about later.

[25:14]

But let's say that there's a suchness to this mindfulness. There's a state of being mindful. And in early traditions, ancient, not Buddhist, ancient traditions and societies of ancient hunting and gathering populations were usually shamanic, the emphasis was living in a sacred state of mind, and as much as possible living in a sacred state of mind. And sacred means dedicated to a single purpose or singularity. This altar is sacred because it has a single purpose, the Buddha, and offering incense to it. So, in Zen and in Buddhist practice, living in sacredness means living in awareness, living in the suchness of awareness.

[26:21]

At first, it may be helpful to actually visualize this state of awareness. and to physically feel it, to see if you can feel open. I mean, I sometimes say to practice the word welcome, to see if on each perceptual moment you can have the feeling of welcome on that moment. And this whole worldview that is trust in this is based on the sense that everything is power or energy. In fact, mind and energy are virtually identical things. meanings in Buddhism. And to open yourself to this dharmakaya, to this power of everything-in-its-all-at-onceness, mindfulness is the main gate. And it's very similar. Well, anyway, I've described Buddhist practice, the yogic practice side of it, as a kind of urban large population shamanism.

[27:38]

It's not geographically based. It's not based on particular plants in a particular area. But very similar teachings developed in very large populations, China, India, etc. And for the people who can't do, you know, this other thing, which... There are differences between Shaolinism and Buddhism. But it's basically, again, an urban teaching. Even if you practice in the mountains, And even though the practice is maybe best realized in a kind of isolated practice, if you want to do it in a hurry, like in a crested monastery. Still, even in an isolated place or by yourself in a cave, it's still a kind of, it's a teaching that's arisen in urban large populations. So one of the first practices in Buddhism, you know, the Sixth Patriarch, teaching the Sixth Patriarch, this first Chinese sutra is called, which is made up and has a lot of political overtones, but still the two stories, the two poems, where the one says that mind is a mirror, and the other says that there's no mirror and there's nothing to polish, and there's no stand for the mirror.

[29:11]

But still, instead of looking at those as one is a better understanding than the other or one is a wrong understanding, rather mirror mind is an initial practice in Buddhism. There are two practices, actually. And so if you're going to practice mindfulness and try to move out of your thoughts where you may not get crazy, but certainly you can get quite distracted and sick and uneasy and so forth, you want to be able to create a source mind that's not thought. Basically, that's the first practice, to create a source mind that's not thought, a source mind that's always your resource. And within that resource, the source mind, you can have any kind of crazy feelings, or sad, or miserable, or whatever, because they are actually a form of energy which returns to and arrives from this source mind. So you don't have to even transform it. you can find everything as pointing to the source mind or characterized by the source mind.

[30:24]

And the source mind means moving out of your identifying with your stream of thoughts. So mirror mind is quite a good practice. And it's simply, it's like... looking at the sunset or something looking at something that involves you completely and you just look you don't even see you just hear you don't know what you're hearing you just hear you just see and sometimes it's called some forms bear attention and this is something you can do anywhere you practice this mirror mind as often as you can, when there's a moment to do it, of just looking at something and seeing if you can have no thoughts, and seeing if you can extend those periods of time in which you just look at something and have no thoughts.

[31:28]

This is, I don't think in general, Buddhist practice is easier for Asians than for Westerners. It's easier to sustain it because society supports it. Only it's easier to go. But there are examples of where it is easier. And I think this is one, because Asians accept that a no-thought state of mind is more fundamental, radiant, powerful, basic, etc. We tend to think thoughts are more powerful, important, and being thoughtless or being empty-headed or, you know, we characterize these things in a negative way. And our identity and our world and Adam's thoughts affect the whole, in the biblical story, contaminate the

[32:34]

whole of nature. So somehow you've got to come to believe. And it's a kind of kinship or a satori experience to actually shift from the validity of thoughts to the validity of a mind which is not, doesn't arise from thoughts. And to really feel that, I mean, and know it, what should I say, a cellular way, it's such an experience that is so freeing that, you know, it's one of the first kinships. But even if you only understand it intellectually, it's important to understand intellectually, you make an effort at finding, practicing with, seeing if you can find your mind, your attention, free of thoughts sometimes, and seeing if you can get... It's a kind of physical feel for it.

[33:45]

And if you get more of a physical feel for it, you can sustain it. Now, in traditional mindfulness practice, the four foundations of mindfulness practice Our mindfulness, since the translation is a little complicated, but the various translations are contemplating the body as the body. Some say contemplating the body in the body. Some say contemplating the body on the body. And I would say most accurately is contemplating the body through the body. These are all different. And that's the problem with translation. Because it's not what you're trying to do, the first foundation, not mindfulness itself, which is a kind of power, I think we can say, but the foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of the body.

[34:59]

But it's not mindfulness of the body, but bodyfulness of the body. That's not so easy to do. And the first teaching usually is to reside in your breath body. Anyway, it's before our contemplation of the... Whatever I say, I can see it. It's a long list. Anyway, let's put it simple. Contemplation of, to, on, through the body. Contemplation of the body on the body means contemplation of the feelings on the feelings or through the feelings. Contemplation of the mind on or through the mind. And contemplation of mind objects on mind objects or through mind objects. So those four, which take a while, get skillful at it.

[36:04]

And this kind of skill is independent of enlightenment. It may be the basis of enlightenment. You may achieve or realize what Buddhism has called enlightenment and not be very skillful at these things. But if you want to have this thorough in your life, you need these, what are really yogic skills. So whether we're talking gradual or sudden enlightenment in practice, as either preparation or thoroughly to realize, these practices are fundamental to Buddhism. So in addition to what I'm suggesting is this mirror-mind practice. and looking at the language with which you describe thoughts, awareness, feeling, and so forth. I would like you also to see to what extent you can find your body through your body and not through the observation of your mind.

[37:12]

Treating your body not as something less non-intelligent or non-conscious or non-aware. So the postures of the body are important. The way you pick up and handle things and the way each thing is done distinctly. In other words, a body action is a dharma. Each step is a dharma. You uphold or enact each dharma. Dogen emphasizes in the Sutra, she's enacting. It's not passive to observe things as they are. You enact things as they are. And presiding in your breath body. Well, anyway, that's the beginning mindfulness practice I've been discussing.

[38:26]

Thank you very much.

[38:30]

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