This morning, I want to talk about case number 80 in the Blue Cliff Record, called Joshu's Newborn Baby. Maybe you're familiar with this case. A monk asked Master Joshu, Does a newborn baby possess the sixth sense? Sixth sense or not? Sometimes it says sixth senses, and sometimes the sixth sense. Joshu said, it is like throwing a ball into the rapids. The monk later asked Master Tosu the same question. not the same question, but gave him the choice of response.

[01:06]

And he said, what is the meaning of throwing a ball into the rapids? And Tosu said, moment after moment, without ceasing. Here this translator has Men after men. Men means, what's the meaning of this moment? This particular isolated moment. This moment, just as it is. Not just a moment as we usually think of a moment, but a moment in its essence. So you can call that kind of moment a moment of just this.

[02:10]

Just this after just this. Endlessly. This kind of question comes from the idea that a baby newborn baby senses are purified. So the question is like, does the newborn baby have the sixth sense? In the study of consciousness, Buddhism talks about the eight consciousnesses. I'm sure that most of you are familiar with the eight consciousnesses, but I'll talk about them.

[03:15]

The first five consciousnesses are seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling. Those are the doorways, called the doorways of perception. And each one is a consciousness, a consciousness of hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. And then there's a sixth consciousness, which is the consciousness which discriminates, knows the difference between hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. And this is called discriminating consciousness. So the question is, does the baby, newborn baby, have the sense of discriminating consciousness?

[04:27]

And the seventh consciousness, seventh level of consciousness is That's the consciousness which sees itself as distinct from the world. That's the consciousness which accounts for our saying, I am me, mine, this is mine, this is who I am, and creates a sense of self out of the other. Seventh consciousness takes the information given to it by the first six consciousnesses, and makes a self out of it.

[05:32]

And then eighth consciousness, eighth level of consciousness, is called alaya ujjana, alaya consciousness, which is the place where all of the impressions, mental impressions, are stored. It's sometimes called the storehouse consciousness, and all of the seeds of action and thought are deposited there. And it's a great repository of consciousness. Sometimes this is called the foundation of consciousness. But sometimes there's another level of consciousness called the 9th level, which is the 8th level turned over or purified.

[06:43]

And that 9th level, which is the 8th level purified, is boundless consciousness. which reaches everywhere. And it's according to this understanding, the four consciousnesses, when purified, are turned into the four wisdoms. The first consciousness is the first five. And the sense consciousnesses, when purified, are called the Wisdom of Great Accomplishment, because these are the senses which are touching the world.

[07:52]

Sixth consciousness is called Great Observing Wisdom, a wisdom which sees everything just as it is in reality. Seventh consciousness is called Great Non-Discriminating Consciousness. which sees great equality in wisdom, which sees everything as completely equal. And the wisdom of the Eighth Consciousness, when purified, is called Great Round Mirror Wisdom, which reflects everything, just as it is. and which sees everything as itself.

[09:09]

This is what Tozon saw when he was crossing the river. When Tozon was crossing the river and saw his reflections, his consciousness was turned into four wisdoms. And alaya consciousness, the eighth consciousness, turned into the great round mirror of wisdom. So Tozan could see himself reflected everywhere. So this case here is about Is the newborn baby's sixth consciousness really active?

[10:16]

When we're born, of course we're born with all of the senses and all of the consciousnesses, but they're not developed. They develop to a certain extent, but they're not trained. And as the child grows, consciousness, various consciousnesses develop. But the question has a double meaning. Is he talking about a little baby, or is he talking about you and me? He said, maybe he's saying, when you and I become like a newborn baby, what about our sixth consciousness? What about our discriminating mind? Do we still have it or not?

[11:19]

when awakened, still have this germinating mind? Or are we like a baby? Sometimes, you know, the analogy is that awakened mind is like the mind of a baby. Child's mind. or baby's mind in the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. This is Baba Wawa. Is there anything said or not? This describes non-discriminating mind of the baby Bodhisattva. This is Baba Wawa. is referring to, is path. Not the child, not the little baby's path, but Bodhisattva's path, awakened path.

[12:37]

When we're born, sixth consciousness is not very highly developed, so we have what we call innocence. Innocent mind. as an innocent, no matter what the baby does, you know, maybe throws a rattle at you, or spits up his food on the floor, you know, things that we wouldn't tolerate when people get older and know better. They say, if the baby doesn't know better, you know, ha ha ha. Wasn't that wonderful? So the baby, because it's innocent, can do whatever it wants, and it's fine, it's fine. The baby doesn't really hurt us in that way, physically. It hurts us, maybe our ears, you know, or some other way, but the baby is very innocent.

[13:41]

When a baby grows up and starts learning how to operate in the world, discriminating consciousness grows more and more and gets very strong. And pretty soon the baby grows up into a youth and an adult, and discriminating consciousness covers the world, so to speak, and obscures the innocence. Innocence is lost and only discriminating consciousness remains. And we see the world as divided up into little pieces. And seventh consciousness, which is ego consciousness, is working together with discriminating consciousness to create a sense of separation from the universe. or from one being.

[14:46]

And we find ourselves lonely in the world, standing out with this creative body and mind. So we make some effort because we feel lost. to find our way back to that innocence. But we can't go back to being a baby. We have to go ahead to find our innocence. Everything goes this way, even though water flows both ways. In order to find our true mind, our innocence, non-discriminating mind, you have to go forward. So if we go backwards, then instead of becoming childlike, we could become childish.

[15:50]

So there's a big difference between being childlike and being childish. If we try to go back to acting like a baby, we become childish. So that won't work. So we have to go forward to find ourselves, which is very painful. It can be very painful, because we've built up a self. And to let go of that self, which is our security, makes us feel even more lost. So we have to become even more lost before we become found. And when the monk asks, Joshu, does the baby still have the sixth consciousness, discriminating consciousness, he says, it's like tossing a ball on swiftly flowing water.

[16:59]

And then he asks, dosu, what does it mean, throwing a ball on swiftly flowing water? Moment after moment. Unceasing. Moment after moment. Man after man. Men is the sense of consciousness of right now. Non-discriminating consciousness of this moment. Letting go of our ideas and preconceptions and just standing naked in reality.

[18:08]

It's pretty hard to do. Someone said to me, when I'm in the Zendo, it's pretty good. I can feel that strong sense of just now. But as soon as I walk out the door, everything changes. How do we maintain a sense of man after man, when you walk out the door. When we're sitting in the bedroom, body and mind just come together. There's nothing in between. When you're sitting in the bathroom, body and mind just come together. One piece. No separation. As soon as you get up and walk out the door, somebody walks by, somebody starts talking to you, somebody hands you something to do, you start sweeping, or serving, or working, and talking, and consciousness is moving.

[19:25]

So, the mind and body are separate. body and mind come apart, and you have thinking and acting. But actually, what comes in between is, if you know how to practice, when body and mind come apart, and all that stuff comes in between, body and mind includes all that stuff that comes in between. It includes all the activity and motion and confusion. It's called our life. Even though it looks different, it just expands. A body and mind is like a balloon. It just expands to include whatever comes along. non-discriminating activity just continues.

[20:42]

Non-discriminating does not mean not to discriminate. We think, we hear about non-discriminating activity, it means that your mind should stop. Your mind never stops. It means within discrimination, it's within the most Your thinking mind is at the same time non-discriminating. Discriminating mind means selfish, self-centered mind, which is the activity of the Seventh Consciousness. Otherwise, if I was sitting there in my seat, but I got up, I could just walk into the stove.

[21:56]

We'd all just be kind of bumbling around, walking off the edges of things and bumping into walls. So we're constantly discriminating. We're constantly making a choice as to what to do. But what is the choice based on? How do we choose what to do? When ego consciousness is in the forefront, it's always making choices in favor of ourselves, in favor of false identities. That's called discriminating minds. And when that consciousness is turned and purified, the choices are made according to, what's next?

[23:00]

What's the best thing for this situation? A purified ego sees itself as a part of everything. A non-purified ego sees everything separate from ourselves. so we get angry at someone for constantly picking and choosing and feeling sorry for ourselves. We base our life on self-sorrow and being hurt. And we easily become victims of life. Even though we live in this wonderful land of plenty, where nothing is missing.

[24:10]

We can have anything we want in this life, in this country. We're all spoiled. And we base our lives on feeling sorry for ourselves if we can't get what we want. So, purified consciousness, what's for the thing to do? sees itself as part of the situation, sees itself in balance with its surroundings, and knows what to do, without thinking too much. when we don't have so much desire in the realm of ego.

[25:23]

Pretty easy. That's called non-thinking. Non-discriminating mind. It just picks up at the right place. It's also intuitive. It knows. When we stop trusting in ego consciousness, then we begin to trust in true consciousness, or our true self. We have more confidence in our true self, and then our actions become more intuitive, directly known. When we get up from Zazen, after Tafil, and you walk around, and you don't have a sense of fear.

[26:29]

Not much sense of fear, usually. Because your consciousness has been purified. Your consciousness has been purified. Not much sense of fear. And an innocent mind. And then, we get back into our activity in the world and we start dodging things and learn how to cope. But it's really important to retain that purified consciousness both through dodging and by mindfulness in our activity. That's true mindfulness. Sometimes we feel that mindfulness is just watching the motion of our body and so forth. That is mindfulness. But mindfulness is to always remember to keep coming back to letting go of ego consciousness.

[27:47]

So when somebody says something to us and it hurts, what does that mean? Or somebody gets the place that we should have had, and we feel hurt, what does that mean? As soon as we feel something, what level of consciousness is being affected? mostly level number seven. We live in level number seven. And as much as we can purify that level, we can live peacefully. That's called coming back to our true nature.

[28:55]

So our old teacher Suzuki Roshi used to say, dharma is just resuming our true nature. Before sense of ego, consciousness. And while we hurt But why we're so bothered and exasperated is because there's that balance between our ego consciousness and our mind. Dr. Jami Roshi, who was my teacher when I was used to call dhagyan, the battleground of the mind and the heart. It's not always a battleground, but it can be.

[30:04]

And I think we've all experienced it. It's the forge, actually, of purification. Six consciousnesses, or eight consciousnesses, turn over and become purified, or become purified and turn over, and become the four wisdoms. What do you think?

[31:24]

Hmm. That's a wonderful poem by Tojan. about that. When Tozan was with Ingang, Ingang Donjo, his teacher, there was, I can't remember the incident, but he wrote a wonderful poem which I'm glad you asked about. There's this wonderful, I remember what this incident was about. It's a long story, but to make the long story short, Tozan had heard this story about inanimate objects expounding in Dharma. And he asked his teacher about, do inanimate objects expound dharma?

[32:33]

Actually, he asked this question of another teacher, Nusang. And Nusang sent him to Luzon. And Luzon enlightened him about the subject. There's a sutra that says, several sutras that talk about stones, piles, streams, rivers are all expounding the Buddha's dharma. All the voices of the Buddha expound the dharma. Wonderful, how wonderful. If you fail to listen with your eyes, if you fail to listen with your ears, listen with your eyes and you will hear them.

[33:40]

If you can't hear it with your ears, try listening with your eyes, and you'll hear the sermons of sentient beings, insentient beings, expanding in darkness. I think that's what he meant. I read in the book, when the moon stops, that is good. You say that the mind never stops. I'm always in truth. Mostly I'm thinking about purification. The mind is purified. What type of religion do you believe in? I don't know where to look for it.

[35:10]

You talk about stopping the mind. Buddha says, when the mind is stopped, that is Buddha, right? But stopping the mind doesn't mean stopping all thought, even though sometimes it's described as, just stop all thought. And when we sit in sadhana, we say, stop thinking. Don't let your mind move. But no matter. I would like to see if anybody in this assembly could mind to stop moving today, for the indulgence. No one's mind has stopped moving, but yet a lot is non-moving mind.

[36:12]

The mind which is moving is non-moving mind. The mind which is stopped is not thinking to stop, but discriminating mind to stop. Discriminating mind on the level of seventh consciousness. non-egotistical mind, like a thought, like the blood running through your veins, or the breath coming and going. Thinking mind is working just like that. Sometimes we can stop thinking altogether and just bear consciousness. That's possible. But it's pretty hard to maintain it.

[37:17]

It tells you instead of exaggerating, think, not thinking. It's very cool because you are free now, you know, peace, freedom, and do not suppress your But it continues to move. And probably it is just the wind. Yes, just the wind. Nowhere, from day to day, it stops. And it grows into the population. It creates the mind. Yes, right. So thoughts are moving through the mind. Thoughts are moving through the mind, but the mind is not taking up the thought and building fantasy, or building on the foundation of the thought.

[38:22]

So actually it's called not thinking. Because thoughts are moving through the mind, but the mind is not taking up the thought and thinking about it. And sometimes we get stuck in zazen when we don't know that. And we say, oh, my mind is chattering away all day, you know, but it's just thoughts moving through the mind. Don't be bothered by thoughts moving through the mind. If you're not bothered by the movement of thoughts passing through in front of you, then you can sit pretty comfortably, without worrying. Consciousness.

[39:25]

Pretty hard to find, actually. For some reason, It talks about, really in detail, about trans... well, there is. Yeah, but not about the eight consciousnesses so much. The Vambhidharma Kosha talks about the eight consciousnesses. You might look there. I don't know if it's not been published. But there are 15 pieces of it. When the machine is over, he'll be around.

[40:28]

That's it. He knows. Better than I do. Sometimes it is better. Sometimes it is better. Yeah. There is a difference. There is a difference. But there are levels of consciousness. And there's the consciousness which is just bare attention. And when there's a consciousness, a level of consciousness that's aware and discriminating, that first level of consciousness can just bear attention and know what's going on.

[41:49]

And then there's a third level of consciousness which is discriminating the other two, and which is further removed, and more discursive, more discriminatory. So you have the first level of consciousness which is not discriminatory, but it's a bare awareness. And that's the level of consciousness which we drink as others. But the other two are also working, and you can't only have that, because the other two discriminatory levels of consciousness are also working from time to time, which is necessary. But at that time, those two levels, which are more objective, are also part of the first level.

[42:54]

And so they actually become purified in Zazen. So even your discriminatory mind in Zazen, which says, I am sitting Zazen, and this is pain, and so forth, the first level of consciousness just sees everything as it is. When there's pain, it says, this is This is a painful feeling. The third level of consciousness is. This painful feeling is suffering. It's making a judgment. The first level of consciousness just sees everything as it is. The second level of consciousness identifies it. The third level of consciousness makes a judgment. We're mostly concerned with the first level, just this.

[43:56]

The second level is that 10 legs are painful, or these are painful legs. That's all right. There hasn't been a judgment yet. The third level is just this suffering. And then it's all is lost. So we try to stay within the level of the first consciousness. Or the second. First and second. Huh? Who is charging? A lot of questions, I knew that. Leave it behind if you can, you know.

[45:40]

We're carrying around a lot of baggage. And it's really easy to put it down and walk off. But it seems easy. But it's not really easy. Because the baggage seems limited to us, or glued to us. Shakyamuni Buddha says, lay down the burden. And if it's perfect the practice is to lay down the burden. We can, but little by little. And we go through a lot of painful stuff. And we just lay it down. Until finally we can get some freedom from it. It takes time. It's a little by little. The person who shows up at the door with their head shaved and says, I'm a monk.

[46:49]

This person is not a monk. And if you gave him something to do, he'd probably run away in about an hour. So it's easy to get the idea that you can do this, but actually doing it takes time, a whole lifetime. not only to lay down the burden, but keep it there. Because the bird wants to keep jumping back up on you. Thank you.

[48:24]

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