Someone told me recently that they thought I first started coming to Texas to visit the Houston Zen community in 1994. So if that's so, I've been coming here to the Houston Zen community for 13 years. Or 13 times, anyway. I also came to Texas in 1965 on my way to Mexico. Also recently someone called me Sergeant Anderson. I didn't like Sergeant Anderson very much, that term.

[01:05]

But I practiced not being attached to my likes and dislikes. And I suggested, and then I thought, well, what about General Anderson? And I think that's the way most people see me. They see a General Anderson in the sense of, you know, A general conceptual category. That's why most people see me as a general rep. Just like most people see you as a general. Oh yeah, that's Jim. Generally, that's Jim. So there's some validity to being called, when you talk to me, to realize that what you're seeing through your eyes is a general version of me. So you can call me general if you wish. And I thought about, what about private Anderson? I didn't like that either. But not being attached to it like in private Anderson. I came upon corporal Anderson.

[02:09]

I thought, that's good. Corporal. Corporal Anderson. and The meditation practice which I feel most heart for, the meditation practice which I would like to encourage, is not limited to sitting posture.

[03:23]

It's not limited to any posture. And it can be realized in any posture. The meditation practice that I'm most wanting to encourage is what I understand to be the meditation practice of the Buddha, which is practicing wholeheartedly not being attached to anything, not being attached to delusion, and not being attached to enlightenment. And when we're sitting here, if any delusions arise in our minds, I would like to encourage

[04:37]

being upright with those illusions, not attaching to them, and not trying to get rid of them. If enlightenment should happen to come up while we're sitting here, sounds good, but I think even better is letting go of enlightenment, leaping beyond it. That would be what I think the Buddhas and ancestors would practice, or how they practice. Leaping beyond delusion into enlightenment. Leaping beyond enlightenment into enlightenment. Leaping beyond enlightenment into delusion. Wholeheartedly living, giving up discrimination, giving up speaking.

[05:58]

And if we're not giving up speaking, to confess it and repent it. If we are giving up seeking, do it again. So this is a practice of meditation which is, the one I'm talking about now, is identical to enlightenment. Enlightenment is not being attached and not seeking.

[07:09]

Of course, Buddhists are not attached to their practice and don't seek anything. That's enlightenment and that's one and two. practice that way, it's also enlightenment. Or another way to put it is, enlightenment isn't just being that way, it's that way in action. It's acting that way. It's walking that way. It's walking that way. It's thinking that way. So a Buddha is not just a Buddha. A Buddha is a practicing Buddha. And the sixth ancestor of them says that a Buddha is the practice of Buddha, or Buddha is a practice of Buddha. And the character that they use is the character which means to walk, to practice, to be committed to the precepts.

[08:12]

And it also has the connotation of the kind of activity that we do together. It's the kind of walking that we do together. It's the kind of practice that we do together. So Buddhas are not only practicing Buddhas, enlightenment is not only the practice of enlightenment, it is the practice of enlightenment together. And what's that like? It's like walking and not being caught by the discriminations that are arising while you're walking. Not being caught by the discrimination of left foot and right foot, for example. Not being caught by the discrimination of walking and stopping and sitting and standing. So, one could go on, but That's basically the practice of meditation of the Buddha, according to Portugal Anderson.

[09:24]

Sitting here, not seeking anything. Talking to you, not seeking anything. Listening to me, not seeking anything. You and I not being caused by discrimination, in a moment of not being caused by discrimination, and not seeking anything, we enter the practice of Buddha, the meditation of the Buddha, the samadhi of the Buddha. And then, of course, if one does it moment after moment, the samadhi gets deeper, though One moment like that counts, but to do it repeatedly, somehow it gets deeper. So Buddha practice can get deeper and deeper by being connected to other moments of Buddha

[10:47]

without any discrimination that can go either. Now, there are other kinds of meditation practice, some of which are quite good. For example, practicing concentration is good. The Buddha practiced concentration very well before realizing Buddhahood. Also in past lives, before realizing Buddhahood, Buddha practiced concentration. That is a kind of meditation. You can do it in sitting posture, so it could be called Zazen. But not everybody who's practicing concentration is doing the same practice as the Buddha's ancestors. Also, I think you probably have heard about some people who practice meditation with the understanding that this meditation will lead to enlightenment.

[12:20]

And a meditation that leads to enlightenment, then once enlightenment is realized, they would think you don't have to continue to do that practice to serve the purpose of getting you to enlightenment. So there are quite a few people who want to be a disciple of the Buddha, who maybe consider themselves to be a disciple of Buddha, who maybe even are considered to be great teachers of the Buddha way, who teach a way of meditation that leads to enlightenment. And then once enlightenment came, they say it's not necessary to continue practice because you've arrived at the goal. But that understanding comes from being caught by the discrimination between the practice and the enlightenment. So in the tradition coming from Dogen, kind of up to here right now, there is the understanding

[13:30]

The view that enlightenment and practice are true is not in accordance with our tradition. The view that they're one is, and according to that view, practice would be realizing enlightenment every moment, and there would be no end to the practice, and no end to enlightenment. You're free to not feel it on you.

[14:37]

If there's anything coming up that you'd like to express, you're welcome to come forward and do so. You can just come. Please come. I'm not sure this is a question. It doesn't have to be a question. Just express yourself. OK. If you have a question or comment, I could also say, if you have any feedback for me, please come. Because what you're talking about, seeking, that struck me really hard when Because if you didn't note all the times when you were seeking to know yourself, you would see how unsatisfactory my life was.

[16:45]

Because you wouldn't be seeking. You didn't feel something missing. So it's a very powerful way of seeing that you think It's stupid to listen. Uh-huh. Or another way to put it is you think that your life is separate from Buddhahood. Yeah. And you think you're propped up. is separate from Buddhist practice. Every moment of, for example, sitting together, each moment, you could think, oh, this person sitting here, the way this person's practicing, sitting on my feet with me, that practice is separate from Buddhist practice.

[17:55]

And then you could, like, believe that, And there you would not be doing the practice of buddha. Because buddha does not sit, talk, and yawn, and think, my practice is separate from buddha's practice. In fact, I... Occasionally I think buddha does think, however, my practice is buddha's practice. Must be. They don't do that. Yeah. They don't. But they don't do that at all. realize the practice in Buddhist practice. And it's possible that you, you know, would, I don't know what, just like you are right now, and not be caught by the idea

[18:57]

that you're a little bit, or more than a little bit, separate from Buddhist practice. Now, if you don't get caught by the discrimination, you still may have some problems, like, I don't know what, getting old, losing your marbles, going blind, losing your hearing. have lost sick friends or be sick yourself, these are very possible conditions that we might find ourselves in. I know some people that don't appreciate it very much. Yeah. And that situation can be discriminated from being really appreciated and feeling really good being totally happy and greatly compassionate and wise, you can discriminate between the two, and you could not be caught by it, and then you would have a practice of good ancestry.

[20:13]

Right-wide, you have the problems that you have. You could also have some likes and dislikes, like you could like the temperature in the room or not. You could like lunch or dislike lunch. Oh no, some of you might have liked lunch today, some of you might have disliked it, like you didn't take the survey. But regardless of what you thought of lunch and what you think of this room and the people in it, whether you like them or not, it's possible to, like, not get involved in those likes and dislikes. It's very similar to not get involved in the discrimination between the present state and the Supreme Enlightenment. I'm not saying your present state is supreme enlightenment. I'm not saying that. It's not. As far as I know.

[21:14]

However, the practice of Buddha is available. And supreme enlightenment is available. It's right available right now. And not having a view that you're separate from it is the practice. Also, having a view that you're the same as it is also not the practice. That's another discrimination. Do you understand? You discriminate. I'm the same as complete enlightenment. Getting caught by that would be another thing that a Buddha wouldn't do. It's not Buddha's practice to be caught. I get discrimination. This is Buddhist practice. When I tell you what Buddhist practice is, you could make a discrimination about that and get caught by that. Or not. It's actually, I have a discrimination for you that I don't want you to get caught by.

[22:29]

Here it is. It's slightly better, or maybe even quite a bit better, to be caught by the delusion that you are separate from supreme, perfect enlightenment. It's somewhat better to be caught by that one than to be caught by the discrimination that you're actually supreme, perfectly enlightened. That's the worst thing to do. Attach to it. And then don't get attached to that discrimination I just told you either. But generally speaking, it's better to be stuck on the side of feeling separate than to be stuck on the side of thinking that we're the same as we are. We don't take people to the hospital who think they're separate from Buddha. Don't get starving to people who think they're separate from God.

[23:36]

Anything else you'd like to express? Boom, boom, boom. Any other feedback for me? The transcendent practices of bodhisattvas are sometimes called paramitas.

[26:11]

Heard about that? Paramitas? It's often translated as, literally, going beyond. Like, giving paramita means giving which is gone beyond. It's gone. Usually in toilets, we don't cook, you know, like sacred Buddhist things in toilets. But in Gayatri's toilet, they had the characters, they had the characters between going beyond. And at first when I saw it, I thought, oh my God, the sacred Bodhisattva turns right above the toilet. And I thought, well, yeah, go beyond where it's supposed to be and put it in the toilet. Makes perfect sense, right? Don't be attached to sacred and the prior.

[27:16]

Yes, you may. You didn't say Captain Mayor. Yes, you did. You did say Captain Mayor. You said Corporal Mayor. Corporal. Corporal Mayor. Corporal. Corporal Mayor. Reverend Encarnacionis. . Yes? It's intimidating a little bit to come up here like this. That's one expression I wanted to make. Thank you very much for letting us know. I wanted to ask you about whether... You can hear well up here, can't you? Yes. No? No. No? No. Would you like to? No.

[28:42]

Are you sure? I'm sure. Well, I'll have to change of mind later. Go right ahead. In my life, in my practice, it's real different for me when I'm with other people from when I'm on the cushion or by myself at home. I'm not sure that's for everybody. Can I say something? Yeah, please. One in her practice is very different when she's with people and when she's not with people? Yes. You have to admit that you're not with people. It's very different when I'm with people rather than being alone. Yes. Another way to put it is my practice is really different when I think I'm with people and when I think I'm not with people. Well, that's probably the answer to my question. Yeah, right. Even just today, being here, I made a mistake with the oreo. And I realized that I thought I was an expert.

[29:44]

I mean, because I've done it pretty many times. And so I had this awful feeling of, you know, a bad feeling about myself, you know, that I was dumb. And is it, I guess, are they equally useful The things that you see when you are in relation to other people, and the things that you see when you're meditating, I mean, are... I don't know about equal, but everything's useful. What, um, you told me that... Including evil. Evil's useful, too. That may be the next, maybe not the next. I love the evil part. Anyway, I also want to say that when you, yeah, when you think that you're making a mistake and you feel bad about it, that helps you see that probably you're caught by the discrimination of mistake and not mistake.

[30:57]

And some vision of myself. that I wasn't quite aware of. And some idea about myself, that I knew something. That and that idea that you know something, except you're caught by that. Yes. You don't just have the idea, you're caught by it. Very caught. Yeah, really caught and surprised by it. Yeah, and sometimes you have the idea and you're not caught by it. It's possible to have the idea I'm unskillful and not be caught by it. Just have the idea. Just like have the idea, also have the idea other people aren't skillful and not be caught by those. It's possible. And that's what we're trying to find is the mind that thinks things like mistake and not mistake and just get caught by the other one. There's such a mind. I'm still trying to get more information from you about whether sitting in silence reveals those same things.

[32:15]

It can. Sitting in silence, there's not talking, and then there's also not talking but hearing a little message arise in your mind. I'm separate from the person next to me or I'm sitting well that thought can arise inside and you can you can grasp it which is quite easy and also not get involved in it not grasp it not get trapped by it you can think You can be sitting and you can think of something you did at the top of your mind that is fearful, or you can think of something right now that you feel for somebody in the room, some kind of unkind thought, and you can see that that's an unkind thought, and you can actually feel pain at that unkind thought, and also not be caught by it.

[33:30]

It's helpful to feel pain at the unkind thought, but not because you're attached to being kind or unkind, but just see that that causes pain and see it very clearly. Have it be illuminated. And being caught up in that discrimination tends to make it harder to understand the discrimination. and he enters down the effect of the discrimination aside from being attached to it. And when you're with people and you do an action, so your kindness takes a physical, so they hear it or see it or you find her, it seems to me that somehow Maybe Galen told me once, and maybe I don't know if I got this right, but that was created karma.

[34:36]

So in a sense that's quite worse than having it just exist in your mind. It's not exactly worse. It's the next step. I think having in your mind is also karma. Karma is basically, karma is always cognitive. Karma is cognitive. Karma is a cognitive representation of your relationship with the universe. The basic meaning of karma is how your mind is construing construct storytelling about your relationship with the world. That's the basic concept. And that has consequences. And if you then speak from that particular point of view, or that particular story of your relationship with the world, then that's called vocal karma.

[35:46]

But that's also cognitive, because it's physical. but cognitive, because it's a physical expression that has the thread of your story about your relationship. So if you look at someone and you think, this person is precious, I value them, I want to benefit them, I see myself in a relationship of sympathy and love towards them, that's karma. my mind has just created a story of being in this very warm, loving relationship with this person. And that has consequences. Then if I speak to her, mindfully, that picture of my relationship with her goes into my speech. And if I make a posture with my body towards her, it may also, it's imbued with that intention, with that

[36:52]

cognitive representation of my relationship. So all three are karma, body, speech, and mind. But the body and speech are only karma when they're imbued with this cognitive pattern. Vocal activity and physical postures that don't have this cognitive element are not karma. The physical activities are not karma. trees falling off and leaves falling off a tree are not really karma because the leaf does not intend. The leaf doesn't have a picture of the relationship of gravity and the season and so on. So it's activity but not karma. Your hair growing longer is not really karma. It doesn't come from the intention. It doesn't come from your picture of your relationship with people. But the activity of your body is not carnal.

[37:55]

If somebody, if you're exhaling and somebody puts their hand on your mouth, you know, la la la la, you make the sound that's not carnal. It's carnal if maybe the person is patting your mouth, but that sound is not coming from your intention. So not all of our activity is carnal, but all of our carnal is intentional cognitive activity. And one more thing I wanted to say was that at the beginning when she said, talking about it being different when she practices with people, and I changed it to different when you think you're practicing with people. And when you think you're not practicing with people. Those are two different karmic situations. Two different pictures of your relationship with the world. The way I see it is I'm not with people, or the way I see it is I'm with people. But that's not really true that you're with people or not with people, the way you think it.

[38:59]

You think you're not with people. Somebody might be standing behind you. But when we think we're not with people, it's hard for us actually to understand what's going on, if we believe that. That's why we generally suggest people practice in such a way that they think they're with people. And usually the people who are practicing in such a way that people look at them and say they're not practicing with people. In other words, certain sages, certain teachers who are out in the mountains by themselves and people say, oh look, she's up there in the mountains all by herself and she's not practicing with people. The master up in the mountains doesn't think that way. Even if they think that way, they don't believe that. They know that they're always practicing together with people.

[39:59]

But if you don't know you're always practicing together with people, then you probably, it's probably good to go someplace where you think you are practicing together with people. Because in reality, practice is what you do with everybody. Now, if you're in this and you go into the next room, and you're preparing for the informal tea, putting the cookies out, you may not see anybody else in the room, but you might think, I'm practicing with people, I'm making their snack. But you could also be in there and think, I'm not practicing with people. I'm making a snack for them, but I'm not practicing with them. So I could be like, smash myself right here without even, you know, I can come all out in that fashion. And, you know, just kind of rolled on the street in my happy fatness. This is a way of thinking about things.

[41:01]

And some people, even in a room full of people, they say, I'm not practicing with these people. It's a delusion that we often have of access to the delusion, I'm not practicing with people. I'm not practicing with everybody. There's such a delusion. You may have heard about it or seen it somewhere. But it's a delusion. And also the idea that you're practicing together with everyone, although truly you are, the idea you have about it is not actually it. The way you're practicing together with everyone is inconceivable, but it's also true that you are. To believe that teaching and know that your version of it is not it, that's good. To have that story that you're practicing together with everyone and then not grasp that, not hold to that, I would say, that's good.

[42:09]

That's something to watch out for, your idea that you're with people or not. And I would say that if you don't get caught by either idea, that will lead to the opening and to the realization of the practice that is actually being done together with everybody. That you're embracing and sustaining all beings, and all beings are embracing and sustaining you. That's the samadhi that the Buddhists are practicing. The candidate needs service. That's the self-fulfilling and receiving samadhi. That's the samadhi of the Buddhists. The awareness of embracing and sustaining everyone and being embraced and sustained by everyone. The realization of that samadhi comes from nothing attached to any story, including that one. But again, if you have a story that you're practicing with some people and not with others, and you don't attach to that story, that will lead you to realizing that you're practicing with everyone and everyone's practicing with you.

[43:30]

If you have a story that you are practicing with everybody and everybody's practicing with you, if you don't attach to that dissemination, that non-attachment will open you to see, to realize, what you're not attached to. And for that other story, it won't lead you to realize what you're not attached to. It won't. Not being attached will not lead you to realize that you're not practicing with people. In the meantime, it's good to come and practice with people, until we understand that we're always practicing together. That's a lot of work to practice together, and it's a lot of work not to practice together. Either way, it's a lot of work. But it's going to be difficult. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for coming. And I wanted to give you a forecast for a future

[44:35]

for future meetings, and that is tomorrow I would like to look to you at this Bodhisattva precept of regulation and serenity. I'd like to look at it with you in this way, to look for how it is that if you have forms of serenity, if you have regulation of conduct and and teaches about ceremonial behaviors. And if you do not, if you don't care about them much, not all of them, but you just don't care much, then you might think that you weren't attached to them. Like an example, like a way of offering incense.

[45:42]

If you don't care about it, you might not notice, you might think you're not attached to how the incense is offered. But if you put quite a bit of energy into how the incense is offered, then you may notice that when people offer it differently from that, or when you offer it differently from that, you're somewhat irritated or nauseated or pained. And then black people think, well, they do not care about these bones because you can care about them. And what you and other people do is annoying. and if you look at that tomorrow about how these forms and ceremonies, in one sense, what that precept is, is it's realized, that precept is realized when, you know, when you avoid evil by doing these forms together with nothing attached to them.

[47:04]

And the other way to do it is when you're attached to these forms, these forms help you see the doing of evil. How you actually, with these nice little forms, can notice how you actually have a problem with human beings who are not doing them in the way that you want them to be done. So that pivot between form, evil, and non-attachment, or form, evil, and attachment, avoiding evil and non-attachment around the form, that is to look back at you tomorrow. Thank you. I'm John Bingham. Good evening. And one more thing on this point.

[48:18]

You can watch for the rest of the night, you know. Like, for example, when the sailors come in, the sailors can watch and you can watch. And when you're using your bowl, you can watch yourself and you can watch the other people. And you can notice how you feel about yourself when you do various things with your bowl and your chopsticks You can notice how you feel about that, and you can notice how you feel about the other people and what they're doing. And you can notice really how you feel, and you can see how you feel about life. Get some data about this. You can pick up some tonight, and we can review your findings tomorrow. There's so many opportunities. That could, yeah.

[49:24]

But it's not like the mafia issue. We can discuss the mafia issue. Food, the mafia, the bulls, the way the service holds the cops, the way they serve you, the way they receive. The service has opinions about the diners. The diners have opinions about the service. Getting right into it. Actually, this is like actually looking towards realizing the dharma body of Buddha by giving this promise. If there's no further offerings from you, I actually could have some walking meditation, some sitting meditation before the next ceremony that we attempt to do.

[50:40]

Somewhat in relationship to the tradition of sotasen. Thank you.

[50:54]

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