This morning I'm going to talk about the same thing I talked about at the San Francisco Zen Center last Saturday. only in a little different way. I want to talk about case number 80 in the booklet record. In this case, a monk asks Joshu, Zen Master Joshu, does a newborn baby have the sixth consciousness or not? And Joshu said, it's like tossing a ball on a swift flowing current.

[01:15]

And the monk went and saw Joshu's Dharma brother, Tutsu. And he told Tutsu this story. And he asked Tutsu what he thought of Joshu's answer. And Tutsi said, moment to moment, non-stop flow. The teaching schools of Buddhism talk about the eight and nine consciousnesses and I want to explain a little bit about those consciousnesses, our consciousness. The various teaching schools had a little different way of expressing or explaining to themselves the various factors of consciousness.

[02:26]

So my explanation may differ a little bit from some other explanation you've heard. First, we have five senses seen. A sense of sight, a sense of smell, a sense of taste, a sense of touch, and a sense of hearing. And each one of these senses has an object and a consciousness, which is its awareness. And these are the first five consciousnesses. The sixth consciousness is called mind consciousness, or mano vijnana. Vijnana is consciousness, or in its meaning, it's discrimination. And the two aspects of mind consciousness are mano vijnana and manas.

[03:34]

And mano vijnana is like the discriminating consciousness of mind. which is closely tied to the first five consciousnesses. We have our eye, ear, nose, and so forth. We have consciousness through these doors. These are called the doors of perception. But manas, I mean, mano vijnana, is the consciousness which discriminates between the various spheres of consciousness. And so it's called discriminating consciousness. And manas is the seventh consciousness, which is like the judgmental consciousness. It gives form to consciousness, form to our mind, and is the basis of the sixth consciousness.

[04:41]

So this is the consciousness which makes judgments and forms imagination and gives form to our thoughts. And it's also called ego consciousness. Because unless this consciousness is based on the eighth or ninth consciousness, it sees everything in a distorted way, or it understands in a distorted way. So the eighth consciousness is called alaya-vijnana, or the storehouse consciousness. where all of the good and bad memories and seeds and actions are stored and also where they're re-sprouted.

[05:46]

So habit energy and conception is the product of the Eighth Consciousness. Eighth Consciousness is vast consciousness. Alaya Vijnana is the consciousness of consciousness. It's unlimited consciousness. And in its pure state, it's sometimes called the Ninth Consciousness or Buddha nature. just purity, non-differentiated purity. So eighth and ninth consciousness is really the same or very close. And so when these consciousnesses are defiled, then they have these names.

[06:54]

the first five consciousness, consciousnesses, and sixth consciousness, which is discriminating consciousness, and seventh consciousness, which is mind consciousness or ego consciousness, and the eighth consciousness, which is alaya vijnana, storehouse consciousness. We say that every time you have a thought or an act. The seeds from that act or thought are simultaneously, a seed is created. And when the conditions are right, various conditions come together to water that seed, then the seed sprouts again. So if you do something a few times, the various conditions that caused you to do that act, activate the seed which is planted when you do something, and you do the same thing again, or you go in the same direction, or something sprouts.

[08:23]

So this is a kind of model for how our consciousness works. You can talk about it in various ways. This is the way, this is the Buddhist model of mind consciousness. So when our consciousness is purified, then these consciousnesses turn into knowledge or wisdom. So we say the āyā-vijñāna, the eighth consciousness, turns into the great mirror of wisdom in its purity. Great mirror of wisdom which reflects everything just as it is. And the seventh consciousness, manas, turns into the great equality wisdom which

[09:25]

sees everything in its undifferentiated aspect. And the sixth consciousness, when it's purified, turns into great observing wisdom. And the first five consciousnesses, sense consciousnesses, when they're purified, turn into great accomplishment wisdom. So when the monk asked Joshu, does the baby have the sixth consciousness? Joshu said, like tossing a ball on a swift flowing current. And then the monk went and asked, Tutsu, what do you think of Joshu's answer?

[10:39]

And Tutsu said, moment to moment, nonstop flow. So when the monk was talking about the baby, he wasn't really talking about babies. He was talking about when you have accomplishment, when we have great accomplishment and our mind becomes pure, when our consciousness is pure. When we become like a baby again, is what he's saying. When our mind becomes like a baby's mind, do we still have a discriminating consciousness? Sometimes we say, baby's path is the path.

[12:03]

But if we say that, Setso says, if we say that baby's path is the path, you'll misunderstand. So we have to talk a little bit about What is the baby's path and what is the path of accomplishment? What's the difference between the baby's path and the path of accomplishment which is also like the baby's path? Originally, a baby has the sixth consciousness. A baby has all of the consciousnesses. potentially, but they're not developed. So a baby doesn't really discriminate so much.

[13:13]

When the baby needs something, the baby says something. But mostly the baby's life is just discovering without any preconception, no ideas about anything. The baby really doesn't have any ideas about things. But whatever the baby meets is new and the baby's mind is fresh and meets something with completely open, fresh, un-preconceived meeting. So when a baby meets, it's just meeting. There may be some trace of fear, some trace of doubt or something, but very slight, you know. Baby has traces, but no development. So baby can put, if you light a match, the baby will want to put his hand in the match, in the fire, you know.

[14:15]

So he said, no, can't do that. But actually, there are some cultures where they let the baby crawl up to the fire. And they know the baby's gonna touch the fire, but they let them do it. In a culture where the baby has to learn about those things right away, they have to let the baby do that. We don't have to let the baby do that right away. they can take their time in learning that kind of thing. So this is baby's path. Complete non-discrimination and complete non-judgmentalism. But the baby has to be taken care of. Somebody's got to, mommy and daddy, have to take care of the baby, or somebody has to take care of the baby.

[15:18]

Otherwise the baby just, because of that non-discriminating quality, non-judgmental quality, will just end up nowhere, or end up being fed by the wolf or something. Hopefully. Abandoned babies don't make it very far. But a person, as they grow older, learns how to discriminate and learns how to make judgments. And our whole life, from babyhood until adulthood, is learning how to discriminate and make judgments and develop those consciousnesses. Until we get to a point where we say to ourselves, I'm confused, or I don't understand this world, or what's going on here, or life is painful, something's difficult, we run into this kind of impasse.

[16:35]

Unless we're either numbed in some way, or have a false sense of security, or think that everything is going along just fine because we never run into many problems. But if you're at all sensitive or thoughtful, you can see that there's a problem. It's not enough to just develop our discriminating and judgmental consciousnesses. So that's why we're all here, as a matter of fact. So, this leads us to various places and some people come to Zen practice in order to, they don't know why necessarily, but why we come to Zen practice is to straighten out our mind

[17:49]

actually, to look at our sixth and seventh consciousness, to look at our states of consciousness, our conscious mind, and to get some calmness of our mind, some composure of mind, so that we're not being controlled by ignorance of consciousness. actually to purify our conscious mind. When we purify our conscious mind, then our conscious mind is again like a baby's mind. A not childish mind that's different.

[18:53]

but the mind of accomplishment which has gone through the experience of life and returns to the fundamental consciousness where we recognize buddhanature. and all of our activity comes out of our buddha nature without hindrance. So when we sit zazen, we say that according to the Yogacara concept of mind consciousness, the sixth consciousness the discriminating consciousness depends on the seventh consciousness, which is thinking and judgment and imagination.

[20:02]

And when that consciousness is turned down, then the sixth consciousness becomes pure because it's not dependent on the thinking mind. So when we sit in zazen, we say, stop thinking. And when we stop the conscious movement of that seventh consciousness, then the sixth consciousness becomes less discriminatory. And those sixth and seventh consciousness turn around and become knowledge or wisdom. It's called wisdom of non-discrimination. So these are the characteristics of zazen, non-discrimination and equality. So that's how we can sit comfortably, because our consciousness doesn't become a hindrance to our Buddha nature.

[21:09]

When those consciousnesses are turned around, then Buddha nature is always there, but it becomes revealed. So, and this is accomplishment. So, when we talk about our goal of zazen, what is our goal in Buddhism? The goal isn't to get somewhere, but it's just to allow our original nature to manifest, to become apparent, or stand in the forefront, rather than being covered up by the clouds of our mind. So our practice is the practice. I don't mean just sitting. The practice of sitting in everyday life is to allow our Buddha nature to manifest and to open up our mind so that that can happen.

[22:29]

That's called accomplishment. That's our accomplishment in tsa-tse. So the six senses, the five senses, when they're turned, when they're purified, are the great accomplishment wisdom. I have the great good fortune to be able to take care of a little baby. That's what my practice is right now, as a matter of fact. While Liz is going to nursing school for this month, I'm being mother. So I appreciate, I've always appreciated mother's practice. And now I have the opportunity to practice it myself. I remember reading a long time ago, reading about, it was either Sri Ramakrishna or Ramana Maharshi, I can't remember which one, but one of them practiced becoming a woman for maybe six months or something, I can't remember how long it was, but he put on women's clothes, this is in India, and went down to the river and washed clothes,

[24:02]

and did all the cooking and just completely mingled with the women, lived with the women, lived a woman's life with the women, because he wanted to find out what that was like. It's really interesting. Maybe, of course, men and women all in the same life now, you know, here in America, but not completely. Anyway, for me it's a very wonderful kind of practice to be a mother and to be on a baby's schedule. To me, baby is like another little monk. We gave him a bath in the sink and then sometimes we put his bath, he has a little robe that we put on after he comes out of the bath how Viz put it over his one shoulder, you know, like a caisson.

[25:06]

She said, look, he's a little monk. And he looked exactly like a little monk, you know, big smile, standing up there, completely free. So I feel like we're a couple of little monks, you know. But he's also my teacher, definitely my teacher, because he has his undisputed purity. And I'm his chi-ship, you know, his attendant. So I have to be very attentive, and I can't let things slip by. If I let something slip by, you know, he gives me a business. You let that slip by. So I can't make any mistakes. And I have to do everything right on time.

[26:09]

And if I start wandering, you know, he lets me know. But he's very, very good. He's very patient, actually, with me. And because I'm patient with him, too. So we get along very well. And he only gives me a problem when I'm not paying attention. And I do that along with my regular duties. I just happen to transfer it so that when in between eating and changing diapers, and taking a nap, and those things. I can talk to people and do whatever work I have to do, and do my usual business.

[27:12]

It's more restricting. I can't go anyplace. It's hard to go someplace, because if you're out in the afternoon, he has to take his nap. or he has to have his bottle, or something like that. So, I have to learn how to... I can make it work, but... It reminds me, though, of being at Tassajara. I haven't had such a strict schedule since I was at Tassajara, and so for me, it's like monastic practice. Fran was saying... She wrote an article for Kahawai, and she said, although it hasn't appeared yet, she showed it to me and said, mother's practice is a little bit like monastic practice, even though it's never been recognized as such. But it's really true, because you're on a very strict schedule. But the problem is that mothers and children usually grow up or practice together alone, whereas in monastic practice you have a lot of people who you're practicing the same practice with.

[28:23]

So in the past, mothers and children in less quote developed countries, mothers and children practiced in larger groups, you know, the women and children have their practice and the men have their practice, it's more divided. But in America, everybody's separated and you have all these rows of houses and everybody lives autonomously in their house. So you don't have this, mothers and children don't have the support that they have in other countries. Not, they do to some extent, you can't, I'm not making it, Every generalization has its exceptions, but generally it's so. Great loneliness. And it's hard for mothers to appreciate their practice. Not always, but a great deal of the time there's this anxiety to do something else.

[29:31]

And it's hard to feel it justified, settling into bringing up somebody. It's turned around, the thought has turned around to, oh, I'm just a slave to housework, or I'm a slave to the child, or a slave to my family. When it's seen in its correct aspect, it's quite a pleasure. to do these things. It's a great, actually a great accomplishment and very fulfilling. But it's hard these days to make it fulfilling. And it's good if a child has both a mother and a father to balance those two sides. If it's just one parent, it's very difficult because if it's on the mother's side, just the mother taking care of the child, then the child doesn't have the discipline of a father.

[30:45]

And if it's just the father taking care of the child, the child usually doesn't have that warmth or some indispensable quality that a woman has. somehow I think it would be a good idea if there was some place where single parents could bring their children or something like that, where they could have some interaction with the opposite sex. just in that kind of way, parental way, so that our children feel more well-balanced.

[31:46]

But the thing about this kind of schedule that I have is I can't linger anywhere. No place where you can linger. When something's called for, just focus on that activity. And when it changes, when the next thing is called for, you just have to focus on that activity. When the baby's crying, you need something, and you can't linger where you are. You have to just pay attention to the baby's need. And then when the telephone rings, you have to ask the baby to be good and answer the telephone. And forget all about the baby. And then when that's through, you have to do the next thing. And then someone else knocks on the door, and you have to be attentive to the person knocking on the door.

[32:59]

And the baby has to take its place in this rhythm. of your life. And the baby does. It's interesting. We tend to think that the baby has his demands and that's it. But baby learns how to cooperate with the situation. If you allow that, or if you take the baby into consideration that way, And so the whole situation becomes harmonious. But if you see anything going wrong, if you see anything that changes as something going wrong, then your mind starts to move. And this is a very important point. We always hear about, if you read literature, it says, don't let your mind move.

[34:06]

When you sit in meditation, don't let your mind move. Letting your mind move means being caught by discrimination or caught by judgment. So being caught by discrimination or being caught by judgment means something's gone wrong. Something is wrong. It means being caught by right and wrong. So if something happens, you just have to take care of it. But if you say, oh, this is wrong, then your mind starts to get into a mode, into a judgmental mode, and then everything starts to go wrong. And you start blaming things, and you start making judgments. and there's no longer a non-stop flow.

[35:11]

Your ball is no longer bouncing on the stream. Just to be able to respond to each situation as it comes up. As soon as you... Mind moves. As soon as your mind moves, you're caught. And then you start spiraling down. And then you start agonizing and get into the realm of suffering. And the world of blaming. And the world of harassment. feel harassed. And if you just take, if we just take each moment's attention, just focus on each moment's attention without being bothered.

[36:27]

As soon as you're bothered by anything, that's discrimination. Then you're off. You've fallen off. It's like a razor's edge. You can walk it very well, actually. Actually, the razor's edge becomes a broad path. But you have to be very attentive. And you can't make judgments. just take care of what comes up. So in the midst of the most grueling activity, in the midst of the fastest changes, you have this calm mind, which just takes care of each thing as it comes.

[37:30]

And this is the power of zazen. This is how we practice zazen, moment after moment in our life. We always have time for everything. We may not practice it perfectly. There are times, you know, when even the most perfectly balanced person, composed person, has something. So there's always some problem. But this is our practice.

[38:37]

This is what our practice is about. And if you practice it, put this into practice. And just let your nature, this is what we call being yourself. But why we practice is to be ourself. And this is called being yourself. So a person who, a well accomplished person,

[39:44]

Nothing bothers that person. Or if something bothers that person, they know how to take care of it right away without being bothered. It may be impossible, you know. It's really not impossible. It's quite possible, but... It's endless. Endless practice. Do you have a question?

[41:00]

Pat. When you were talking about walking the narrow path, it reminded me of... Miriam and I were hiking recently. We noticed that a narrow path where you have danger, real danger on one side, is very difficult to walk. But the same path, if you were walking a sidewalk, the same width, would be no problem at all. You wouldn't even think about it. So, the problem for me in walking in a tight place is if I think that any misstep is dangerous. will take me all the way down the mountain if I don't think it's so dangerous that I can walk it.

[42:07]

So, can you talk about walking a narrow path and what happens when you're afraid that you'll step off How do you, what happens when you step up? Well, I want to talk about the first part rather than the last part. You know, when you see something's dangerous, then you're very, very careful. And that's how we should practice. Because we don't see the dangerous part, we just go ahead and do whatever we want. But if you see that it's dangerous, you should practice as if you're in danger.

[43:09]

As if if you do something wrong, you account for it. And our practice should always be like that. But when you get used to doing that, then even though you know it's dangerous to fall down the cliff, you're used to doing that, you're used to the road. And so you're careful, still careful, but you don't, you're not worried about it. So that's a kind of accomplishment. That's the accomplishment of having practiced for a long period of time. But still, you know, I remember Katagiri Roshi saying we should handle our life like Wet tofu. Like you were carrying wet tofu in your hands.

[44:14]

When you bow, you should hold your arms as if you had two eggs, an egg under each armpit. If you bring your arms into the side of the... So the carefulness of how we do things in the Zindo should be carried out into our life. And that's how our practice proceeds. So we learn every day, we learn how to be careful. The first thing we do in the morning is learn, is practice carefulness. And that's the basis. It's called mindfulness, right? It's the basis of our practice. In every moment of consciousness, mindfulness is the basis. So we should practice being careful like that.

[45:21]

So that's right, you know, whatever you do, there's a way of dropping down the cliff. And so to be conscious and careful and go slow, go easy. And then after a while, you know, you just find yourself moving more quickly and you're not so scared because you're used to it. But it's true, you know, when you walk across a log and there's a rushing river down there, And even if the log is three feet wide, you know, you better walk down the sidewalk. I think of that a lot. But what happens when you fall down is another question. I can't answer that. asking for a sidewalk situation is not why we're here.

[46:23]

That we really are walking a mountain path. The real question is if you're encouraging someone or you're encouraging yourself or you're being encouraged by someone to walk a dangerous path and they don't have experience They don't have so much experience. If you have experience, then... I have a deal of experience with climbing trees and things like that, so I don't think about it, but that's a certain realm. I feel like I don't have so much experience with walking other kinds of narrow, dangerous paths. So, If you don't have experience, it's scary. And you're on all fours. And you don't want to go. So, what does it mean, whichever side you're on, the one who's encouraging, or the one who's being encouraged, how do you go ahead?

[47:33]

Well, you know, once you're on all fours, you're on your way. And then, you know, your friend or your teacher or someone, older brother, you know, says, oh, move this way, move that way, you know, guides you somehow. And sometimes, you know, if you're, when you get older, you may have to be pushed into something. There are different methods, you know, you can't say that there's one method for every situation. Each person is different, and the method for each person is a little different. There are methods that work with most people, but each person is quite different. The thing about having a small sangha is that you can deal with each person more individually. In a large sangha, you have to deal more in generalities.

[48:33]

So it's quite a good advantage having a small sangha. But the student has to either start crawling or start moving. Otherwise, the teacher has to come out and move you. Come on. We're all going this way. And if you don't go, you'll be left behind. Yes? I'm bothered by the ape consciousness. That seems to be left out. The seeds of habit in the ape consciousness. And it seemed to relate to me to what you said about living moment to moment. Because it seems like one thing that can happen is that there can be loops.

[49:38]

Can be what? you're caught up in habit, then your moment-to-moment can turn into loose that you don't recognize as loose. Yeah, that's right. That's why we cut off when we, you know, we don't really, we do live by habit, but that's when the eighth consciousness is not purified, then it's just habit, it's just called karma, karma fruit, you know, just called living by karma, which is habit energy or uncontrollable energy, uncontrollable consequences. And the object is to get to the point where you can control to a certain extent, control not

[50:40]

Not that you have a lot of control, you know, but you're not being controlled by that habit energy or karmic energy, karmic energy. So it doesn't mean you don't have habit, but what you want to do is establish good habits rather than bad habits. So that, you know, you don't want to have to think every time you do something, whether or not you're going to do it. You have a certain habit. But the habit is a conscious habit, not unconscious habit. So, you do something that is a habit, but you do it consciously. And you can also say no to something, you know, when the impulse comes.

[51:48]

You can change the impulse, you can do something else. So that's having control. That's right, so that's when the eighth consciousness is purified, it's no longer just being subject to karma. just being subject to habit, the cause and effect of habit, which is what we call being out of control. Somewhat relates to my question. I'm curious about what happens at those turning points. More specifically, you said that even the most perfectly balanced person will reach a point where they will have problems or might fall off the path or something, some kind of luck, and lose their balance.

[52:53]

And it seems that the balance is a product of discipline and really working to stay on that path. And then at some point, something seems to happen, and all of a sudden, it feels like At that point, you know how to get back on. The person who knows how to practice isn't thrown by that, but knows how to get back on. Well, I guess I mean more, what is happening that throws you off at a certain point? Well, there is something, you know. You may forget yourself for a moment. Something unexpected comes up, which

[53:54]

you may not be able to handle. So you have to come back on yourself. You have to withdraw and find yourself. Find your balance. Find yourself. And then you come back up. It happens to everybody. But someone like Joshu, you know, Joshu is very famous for never being thrown off. And even if he is thrown off, he finds himself where he's thrown off. You know, if a storm comes, you know, picks him up like the... What's her name? The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy, you know. She's there playing, and it's out there in Kansas, right? And a whirlwind comes and picks her up and lands her in Oz.

[54:59]

But, well, here I am in Oz. What's this place, you know? She goes from there. Did her adventure start from Oz? Anyway, that kind of, you know, We always find ourselves someplace, and if something throws us off or puts us someplace, well, we have to go from where we find ourselves, not where we think we are, or not from where we want to be, but from where we actually are. So we always have to find ourselves where we actually are and respond from that place. I have two questions. One is, With this carefulness, where does spontaneity enter in? Always. Do you be spontaneously careful or carefully spontaneous? Yeah, always spontaneous. Does it go, it goes with careful?

[56:02]

Yeah. Oh, that's good. Yeah. My other question was, when you concentrate on something completely, does that eliminate boredom? Yeah. Yes, it does. No room for boredom. Or if there is boredom, then boredom is okay as long as you don't judge it. There's room for boredom, as long as you make room for it. This is boredom. Okay? But don't stay there too long. If you're actually attentive, you won't stay there too long. If you can see the nature of everything. There's no way you can be bored.

[57:06]

Once you're fulfilled by your own nature, there's no way that you can be bored. there's a little boredom, you know, which means that something motivates you to go on to the next thing. You get tired of this, you know, and you want to find new ground, you know. But when we're really content with ourself, concentrated on whatever the task at hand is, There's no room for boredom, because we're completely at one with ourself. Boredom means separation. You have a chasm.

[58:11]

I'm going to stop now. Thank you very much. ♪ Which is why I never left ♪

[58:29]

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