As we know as body you form perceptions, mental formations or impulses. Sometimes talk about mental formations, sometimes it's impulses, sometimes thinking. Feelings and consciousness. And the Heart Sutra says that all of them being what they are, At the same time they're empty in their own being. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. And the same is true of feelings. Feelings are emptiness, emptiness is feeling. Same with perceptions and impulses and with consciousness. There is a form of consciousness, various forms of consciousness, and at the same time, fundamentally, consciousness is empty.

[01:06]

That's the basic Buddhist teaching. You know, the Mahayana view of consciousness comes from Vasubandhu. And Vasubandhu is one of the major Indian ancestors that the Doshi bows to during service, during the recitation of the ancestors, the lineage. The Doshi bows to the seven Buddhas before Buddha, stays bowing through Shakyamuni, the founder, and then does a full prostration at Nagarjuna, and then Basubandhu and then we go into Bodhidharma. So Nagarjuna and Basubandhu are kind of the two pillars, of course the founding pillar of Shakyamuni and then the two main pillars are Nagarjuna and Basubandhu.

[02:22]

Nagarjuna, we have the teaching on the Heart Sutra that we recite and the teaching of emptiness and the teaching of interdependence. And from Vasubandhu, we have the teaching on consciousness in a much more elaborate way that you find in the original sutras. Some people call it, it's our Mahayana psychology, Buddhist psychology. And this morning I got confused. I was doing doshi and I thought that Vasubandhu came before Nagarjuna. So I was waiting to hear the name. Basubandhu, instead I heard the name Nagarjuna. I guess, you know, it's important to, maybe it's this forgetting, it's sort of the insistence of the teaching of interdependence and emptiness, and to, since I knew that I was going to talk about consciousness, so that was sort of the lineage reminding me that consciousness has to be understood in the light of interdependence and emptiness.

[03:46]

Um... So Vasubandhu's teaching on consciousness includes the other skandhas as aspects of consciousness. Even though in the five skandhas, consciousness is one of the five skandhas, in the teaching on Vasubandhu's teaching, the other skandhas are aspects of consciousness. So that's why sometimes his teaching is known as the mind-only teaching. only mind, but this is mind in the sense of big mind, not in the sense of small mind or the intellect. So, perceptions, impulses or thinking and feelings or even the form, even forms or the body, are aspects of the big mind.

[04:54]

In a sense, as Suzuki Roshi always talked about big mind as including everything, so it includes all the skandhas. It includes everything in both the objective and the subjective worlds, the inside and outside. most what's going on inside, what appears to be inside our mind, our feelings, our thinking, a stream of consciousness, and at the same time what goes on between us and the so-called objects or the environment, situations in the external world and with other people. All of that is mind and they reflect one another. And so we realize that truth, you know, in Satsang, that when we're sitting all together for a long time...

[06:05]

And then we're all experiencing our skandhas and our consciousness, as I will talk about in a little bit. And then what's going on inside of us and what's coming up inside of us then also starts being reflected in our interactions with other people, you know, and other people have their things coming up and then you have, you get into situations of some tension and conflict that the old Sashim director is laughing here, knows all about it. And so that's mine in that sense, which also includes, you know, cleaning the floor and washing the dishes, doing the various jobs that we do in the so-called objective world of our ordinary life. So in perception, the sense organ, the objects and consciousness come together.

[07:20]

But consciousness, the consciousness that's in relationship to the various senses and in relationship to the various objects has many different aspects. And neither the sense organ, the seeing or hearing or touching or smelling, or what we see through the eyes, what we hear through the ears, or what we touch, exists without consciousness. So consciousness includes the five senses, seeing consciousness, hearing consciousness, touching consciousness, and so on, smelling. And then, those are the first five consciousnesses. Then the sixth consciousness is called in Buddhism the Mono-Vijñāna.

[08:26]

Then comes the seventh consciousness, which is Manas. Then the eighth consciousness is the alaya, vijnana, and then the ninth consciousness is the Buddha consciousness. The mono-vijnana includes all the assumptions we make about the objective world, how we try to think about it, how we try to categorize it, figure it out, rationalize it, That's the sixth consciousness and we experience that in Zazen, you know, in kind of there's one of the ways that we think is sort of thinking about situations and how to understand them or classify them or this or that and so on. Then The manas includes all the kind of wishful thinking, all the desire and the hate, you know, that comes through in our thinking about situations and people that we love, people that we're clinging to in our endearment and affections and people that we're hating and are upset with and kind of hearing that tape going on and on.

[09:57]

And it includes also the ego consciousness, the sense of entitlement and self-consciousness. You know, so-and-so slighted me, you know, and don't they know that I'm this or that, or I have this or that position, and so on and so forth. Or I'm nothing, I'm worthless, you know. don't have anything, you know, and so on and so forth, right? So it kind of goes those kinds of ways. And that kind of self-consciousness is the one that often makes people sick. Like people with depression, you know, have this kind of thinking about themselves going on all the time, or thinking about the loved one, you know, how they loved and hated, you know, so and so, right? And they're feeling very sad about it, or they're feeling very happy and uplifted about somebody new they met, and it's a new relationship, a new affair, and so on and so forth, right?

[11:12]

So this is the manas, the self-consciousness, that includes desire and the various dispositions. It's a self-consciousness, being self-conscious. Now the manas tries to grasp the store consciousness and tries to make a self out of the store consciousness. And the store consciousness basically is where everything in our experience is laid down and registered. both in the subjective world and the objective world. So this is like memory is an example of the store consciousness. So part of our thinking is sort of fanning, is bringing out ideas and constructing things out of memory.

[12:13]

or anticipating something in the future based on the past, going from the past to the future and bypassing the present moment. So in Zazen, we always emphasize the moment to moment and staying with raising the thought of enlightenment, which really means the thought thinking with our bodies. So we're experiencing the stream of consciousness, seeing, hearing, smelling and so on. We're rationalizing. We're, you know, fantasizing about the past or the future. And our practice is to bring, gather our consciousness and bring it into the present by raising the thought of enlightenment, which is to think with our body.

[13:25]

So we bring back our consciousness to the posture. or to breathing, to inhaling and exhaling. So to... because it appears that our thinking kind of has this... there's a tight grip. Our thinking has a kind of a tight grip on us. That's how we're conditioned by past experience. Through our thinking, we're conditioned by past experience, and then feelings follow from that. So when consciousness is turned by practice, then we have just seeing, just hearing, without subject or object.

[14:40]

So who's hearing? Why are we hearing? We don't raise that question so much. It's just hearing. And then reason, or this attempt to kind of organize our perceptions, is turned into the wisdom of discernment, or the wisdom of differences. How to see the differences between phenomena, but without discriminating. So this is how we can kind of put the analytical mind in the service of prajna, which is something quite difficult to do. But that's the basis of the wisdom of differences, of discernment. And then the self-consciousness becomes the wisdom of sameness or equality.

[15:49]

where we see everything as ourself. Everything is the same. Every situation or every person or being is reflecting our nature. And then the eighth consciousness turns into the bright mirror that reflects everything as it is. And then with this mirror, then we can work with the senses according to the circumstances. And that's the wisdom of skillful means. So all these consciousnesses then are turned by practice.

[16:51]

And the root consciousness contains all these dharmas, both the pure and impure dharmas. So the sense consciousness builds the root consciousness, the experience that we have, sort of builds, lays down our experience, which then conditions us how we're going to respond next. And this is how, you know, Western psychology understands how our childhood affects us when we grow up or builds our personality. lays down certain kinds of experiences, certain causes and conditions that are going to affect what our character is and how we're going to respond to situations for a lifetime.

[18:01]

And out of those causes and conditions then we construct a sense of self. A sense of self which then just perpetuates the same causing conditions that we experienced in childhood when kind of our Buddha nature got covered over and conditioned. But at the same time, the root consciousness also, all the sense consciousness comes out of the root consciousness. So everything that we perceived in the world are seeds of alaya, vijnana. And this is what Vasubandhu calls the imagination of the unreal. So, for example, the seeds are words and images through which we perceive the world.

[19:10]

So to see, so Satsangi Rishi says, to see is not to see. And not to see is to see. So what is reality or what are the things themselves beyond what we make of them? So we always have to leave some space for things being more than what we're making of them in a particular situation. So there's always this spaciousness. We're feeling conditioned in a particular situation. We could always come back to our breathing and restore a sense of self that is wider than the situation that is pressing us at that moment. to respond in a certain kind of way to somebody, let's say.

[20:25]

So, this purification of consciousness in practice, we have to, there's something similar to practice in therapy, let's say to some extent, in that we have to return our sense of self to the causes and conditions that generated it. And be mindful of the kind of situations that bring up this, our sense of small self, where we become reactive or defensive But once we do that, since, you know, the consciousness, the seventh consciousnesses are seen as effects of the store consciousness, which is basically what was laid down by experience. But then once we return the sense of self to the causes and conditions that condition it, then that self is still under delusion.

[22:05]

So basically, So therapy stops there, at the causes and conditions, but we're still afflicted by delusion, because the store consciousness has a pure and impure aspect. The impure is just conditioning, but the impure is the aspect of the eighth consciousness that is not conditioned by anything. And that aspect of consciousness that is not conditioned by anything is what Zen practice is based on. That's the basis for practice. And that dimension of experience is not present in therapy for the most part. that aspect of consciousness that is not conditioned, is that the same thing as Big Mind?

[23:11]

That's one question. I think it's a yes. I have another question behind that, and that is, if Big Mind is not conditioned, is it a skanda, or is it not one of the skandas? Well, the skandhas, you can think of it as form, right, or body. Consciousness is a skandha. Yeah. What about big mind? Well, big mind includes everything, so it includes all the skandhas. Does it include anything more than the skandhas? Or does the skandhas include everything that there is? Everything that... form includes everything there is. is that there is nothing that is unchanging and undying and uncreated? There's a sutra that says there is. Wait, I didn't follow that.

[24:15]

Well, we talked about the unconditioned. There's form, all form and all ascondas arise as a result of causes and conditions. But there's there is this idea that there's something that's called, that is unconditioned. Yes. Well, it's not just an idea. It's something that we experience. We experience? It's a Zen. So that's the sense of spaciousness where we're not, you know, caught up, let's say, by feeling or thinking or pain or pleasure. So we have to include it, we have to... It's beyond form and beyond the skandhas. Yeah. Form is emptiness. Right? Emptiness is the unconditioned. So feelings are empty and emptiness is feelings.

[25:21]

You know, body is emptiness. Emptiness is the body. So the aspect of emptiness of all this kandas is the unconditioned. Several people have raised their hands and then I have a little story that I wanted to tell. Paul. that when you get past yourself, you remember what it was before you had this identity. Well that's the, I mean the Buddha consciousness is something that is not born with birth and doesn't die with death.

[26:28]

So that's the sense of the unborn. Then the question about the, that's the ninth consciousness, question about the root consciousness is, you know, some people believe in rebirth and some people don't. But the people who we leave in rebirth, what goes from one assemblage of skandhas to another assemblage of skandhas, from one birth to another birth, is the eighth consciousness. So what remains, you know, the psychical elements that remain beyond death are the elements of eighth consciousness, which go on to conform your next birth, based on, because the eighth consciousness also turns the wheel of karma, the wheel of cause and effect. And so there are effects of your actions and volitional actions in this life that have an effect on this life.

[27:39]

That's how the past determines the present and the future. But some people believe that that also continues after death and in your next birth. That is also basic Buddhist teaching. Yes? The purpose of the word Zazen is that in this Shikakaza state of just allowing our bodily experiences to be, that the unconditioned, or what you might call the ninth consciousness, is somehow able to to be there, able to influence or be present?

[28:47]

The posture of Zazen is the gate for the meeting of the relative and the absolute or the realization that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. the good side or the bad side, it would seem to be related to the ninth consciousness. And so that there's something that may be experienced through that hasn't... it's hard to find a word that has a way of... But there's an opening somehow, so that that may come to bear on the other consciousnesses.

[29:51]

So perhaps it's through this... Well, the... My consciousness, as that becomes less... It's just interdependence of all the subjective and objective worlds. You know, that's the eighth consciousness. And emptiness is the ninth consciousness. And emptiness is the teaching of interdependence and vice versa. So, with practice, the eighth consciousness becomes just interdependence. How everything reflects everything else. And everything arises together. So there's a lessening, you might say, of the unconscious, the memory, the conditioned, so that there's a more sense of interdependence than being bound by memory and conditioned?

[30:55]

Then how does the unconditioned, or does it, is there a way to be unconditioned? Through our experience of those, helps that process that we somehow have contact with them? Yeah well that's sort of the interrelationship between form and emptiness you know how memory Memory is not just a hindrance, but it's a wholesome dharma at the same time. So, the past, the present and the future may hinder each other, but that may just be seen from a certain perspective. From a different perspective, the past, the present and the future don't hinder each other at all. Just like we may hinder each other, and from a different perspective, we don't hinder each other at all. So it's the other perspective that has a chance to operate?

[32:02]

What's your word? I mean, who's other? Or some other experience? Well, the sense of self obstructs the working of interdependence. Right? Because the sense of self is based on having some kind of independent existence. and of subject or thinking that the object has some independent existence from us. It exists out there. And in the West we're particularly prone to that illusion of the objective world as if the objective world didn't arise with a subject. So that kind of illusion of independence of the subject or of the object obstructs the working of Indra's net or of the interdependence of the universe. Yes?

[33:03]

The unconditioned is there. The unconditioned is unconditioned. Yes. So it exists beyond time and space and so on. And at least the way I I understand, which might not be correct. The small mind, as he said, the small mind obstructs our direct experience of the unconditioned. And in Zazen, through, I think emptiness is a word that, emptiness isn't really the right word, because it's really a question of receptivity. When our mind is not clouded by all of these illusions, the illusion of the self and all our problems and all the things we think about most of the time, when our mind is empty of those things which don't have any real independent existence,

[34:15]

we can have the direct experience of the unconditioned, and that's what is nice if it happens to us, or any other time, but any other time that we're not, that small self or body and mind fall away, then there's the experience of the unconditioned, and it happens when we're receptive to it. Yeah, I mean, you can call it unconditioned, you can call it emptiness, you can call it, you know, ultimate reality, you can call it many names, but neither, all the names are empty, so emptiness is good term because it's empty of definition. Empty of definition, empty of form, but not empty of essence. In other words, there's not nothing. There's no thing, but there's not nothing. Well, yeah. the unconditioned reality. In that sense it's not empty.

[35:19]

We experience the emptiness of the ordinary stuff that's in our mind and then connect with the unconditioned. Right, but it's difficult to grasp it. We try to grasp it, but it's ungraspable. So we can say We say sometimes the emptiness is the essence and the function of emptiness is samadhi or stillness or calm mind. That's one way to say it because we feel it. But what is it? Is it really a feeling or is it a no-feeling? Is samadhi a feeling or a no-feeling? Or stillness? But, you know, now Arjuna called emptiness wondrous being. So it's also a sense of being, but you could say being or non-being, I mean, that's where the words fail.

[36:29]

The story that I wanted to say and that the dawn has the stick up already Do I have time no time? Yeah, okay Stop talking You know when One of the ways I was thinking about the store consciousness because it's the cause and effect, it's sort of like a father-son or mother-daughter relationship, you know, and there's a kind of transmission of experience that takes place, you know, between parents and children. And since, you know, I've spent a significant amount of time with my children, because I'm a single parent half the time, three days a week, and I've been raising these two boys, and you've heard me talk about them several times, if not at an issue, you know.

[37:39]

But You know, I talked in a previous talk also that my father and stepfather died, you know, in the last year. And I've been seeing my kids how the difficult time that they give me, you know, when they get, they don't, you know, they don't want to go to bed or they don't want to eat their food or don't want to do their homework and so on. how much that is difficult for me and yet how similar they are to the way I was with my parents. And so it's a very kind of perfect reflection where I experience the effect of it in a different direction. where you know I experienced the difficulty or the conditioning or the hindrance of something that was mine but I'm seeing it reflected coming back at me and now me being in the receiving end the way you know let's say my father was at the receiving end of my behavior at that time and you know there's there's a

[39:07]

There's a little story about a duck, a father duck with three ducklings. And so they're walking and they come to a river. And so the father duckling says to the three ducklings, well, I'm going to take you to the other side, but first I want to ask each of you a question. So he asked the first one, well, would you take me to the other side? And the duckling says, of course, daddy, how couldn't you? You're my father, you know, how couldn't I take you? And he says, well, then I won't take you to the other side. Then the second one, he has the same question. I don't know if you've heard this story or not, but he has the same question and he gets the same response because it's kind of the common sense, right?

[40:13]

They're at that moment feeling very dependent on the father sort of crossing them and they're going to sort of show their best altruistic behavior, so to speak, right? And then he finally asked the third duckling, well, how about you? Would you cross me to the other side? And he says, mm-mm. I wouldn't cross you to the other side, but I would cross my own children to the other side. So what I thought was, because I was feeling a sense, you know, especially with... What's he doing? Huh? What's the father doing? Right. Well, it's an allegory. It's a metaphor. But I found it very meaningful just in terms of my relationship to my father and stepfather and relationship to my own kids and that kind of

[41:25]

generational transmission of karma and I'm not sure if it's karma or not or how this relates to the store consciousness but you know because kids have to do what they're going to do which is you know rebel and be angry and don't do this and don't act don't cooperate with what you want them to do right And somehow, to be a parent, you can't expect any different, particularly given that you did the same thing. And I remember my dad once told me, well, you know, he was having a hard time with me or something, and I said that he didn't like or something, and he said, well, just wait until you have your own kids. And I remember I told my mother then, she said, oh, that's very generous of him, you know, sort of holding me to the, you know, to the law of karma.

[42:33]

You know, the mother is more on the compassionate side, you know, rather than... I mean, in my case, in this case, not always, but stereotypically at least, it was true in my case. that my mother expected my father to be more generous, you know, more compassionate in that. But the fact is that I did pay, you know, with my kids. I paid everything, you know, that I did in relationship to my father with my own kids. And so he was right in that sense, right? Except that the extra thing is that you know then you have all this guilt to feel about you know what you did wrong or how you were a bad son you know or how you responded in anger but the fact is that your job is to do that to be angry when you're going to be angry in some way and then you have to deal with it you pay with it with your kids not but not with your parents

[43:45]

I mean you'll never pay your debt to your parents so the way you pay your debt is with your own kids and then it becomes more bearable so that my anger, the way to deal with my anger at my dad is how I respond to how I deal with my anger at my kids. so that's the way to honor them now that I have more maturity than I did as a kid and yesterday I was helping my younger son with math you know which really didn't want to study math and the teachers were all worried you know that that you know that maybe he had a learning problem

[44:50]

You know, and he just doesn't like, you know, he's spoiled because, you know, in order not to do, you know, what my father did with me, which was, you know, spank me and hit me with a belt and all that stuff, you know, I didn't do that. And so I think our whole generation was more. kind of loving and one who thought we could raise kids just on love, you know. And instead of, you know, having children of love, you know, you have these children, strombatious kids, you know, running around, you know, bringing down the house, you know. So, very secure, you know, but in that very security is like, well, no, I don't want that, you know, and where's my food, you know, and no, you bought me this phone, you know, this is really a cheap phone, you know. Go buy me, you know, I don't even have a cellular phone, I bought my 14 year old a cellular phone, you know, and he's, oh, this phone, no, forget this, you know, I want the real, you know, new fancy expensive ones, you know, so very entitled.

[45:57]

Very, very entitled. Much more than I ever was.

[46:01]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ