During this study period, we are dealing with the hindrances and the supports to our practice. And last time I talked about five hindrances. Five hindrances is a kind of stereotype formula, not formula, but list of major hindrances to understanding or practicing. And I'll just tell you what those are again. The first one is desire, sensual desire, which includes sexual desire, but also includes various desires that we have, which tend to obscure our clear understanding.

[01:29]

And the second one is anger or ill will. And third is laziness or sloth and torpor. And the fourth one is agitation and worry or worry and flurry or however you want to say it. Unnecessary anxiety. And the fifth is skeptical doubt. So today, I want to put the emphasis on supportive factors. And there's a list. Buddhists have a list for everything. There's a list called the seven factors of enlightenment, or the seven factors conducive to enlightenment. or sometimes the seven factors leading to enlightenment.

[02:33]

And these seven factors leading to enlightenment or expressing enlightenment, however you want to think of them, are positive practices. So I'll name them off. The first one is mindfulness. The second one is called investigation, or investigating the dharmas, or investigating the dharmas and the dharma. I'll talk about that one. That one is a little complex. And the third one is energy, effort. And the fourth one is joy, or sometimes called rapture. You didn't know what that one was including, did you?

[03:45]

But rapture or joy. And the fifth one is calmness, or sometimes called tranquility. I think calmness is good. Tranquility, has funny connotations sometimes. So calmness or tranquility is okay. And then the sixth one is concentration, what we call samadhi, or concentrated meditation, strictly speaking, meditation. concentrated mind in meditation. And the last one is equanimity. Some of these sound very similar, and we tend to overlap them, if you think about it.

[04:51]

The last three, calmness, concentration and equanimity. Sometimes we tend to talk about them or think about them in the same way. But there are subtle differences. And they really belong to each other and come out of the same root. But each one has its own characteristics. And the same with mindfulness and investigation of the dharmas are very close. And also energy or effort and joy are also very close. And as a matter of fact, each one, they speak about each one of these factors as being a support for the next one, or setting it up for the next one.

[06:02]

So when we talk about mindfulness, mindfulness is a support factor for investigating the dharmas. And investigating the dharmas is a support factor for energy. And energy is a support factor for joyfulness. And joy is a support factor for calmness or tranquility. And calmness is a support factor for concentration. And concentration is a support factor for even-mindedness or equanimity. So all these seven factors are very compatible and supportive of each other. And when all seven factors are present in full function, then enlightenment is present.

[07:22]

in functioning, or we're functioning in an enlightened manner. There are various ways of thinking about enlightenment, so when we say, if I say, talk in this way, it doesn't invalidate other ways of thinking about enlightenment. This is one way that we can talk about enlightenment, through these factors. And sometimes we talk about sudden enlightenment and gradual enlightenment. When the sixth patriarch was asked about sudden enlightenment versus gradual enlightenment, he said, some people are quick and other people are slower. But, you know, in Zen we have the school of sudden enlightenment and the school of gradual enlightenment.

[08:30]

But if we worry too much about one or the other, we'll be very confused. And for Dogon, enlightenment is synonymous with practice. Enlightenment arises through practice. And when there's real practice, enlightenment is present, even though whether we recognize it or not. So when we talk about seven factors of enlightenment, we're talking about seven factors which are present in real practice. So if we really practice, in this way, then enlightenment is present. So the seven factors of enlightenment are channels or ways of opening up our consciousness to enlightenment.

[09:40]

Mindfulness, strictly speaking, mindfulness means practicing awareness of our body, awareness of feelings as they arise, awareness of thoughts as they arise, and awareness of the various dharmas as they arise. Dharmas being both mental factors and states of mind, and also body states. So when we study Buddhadharma, we study ourself. And to study ourself, we study ourself in the body.

[10:51]

and we study ourself in the feelings as feelings arise we say this is a good feeling or this is a bad feeling or this is a neutral feeling that's how we study feelings and one way to study feelings and when thoughts arise, we pay attention to what it is that we're thinking. Or we can say, this is a wholesome thought, or this is an unwholesome thought, or this is a neutral thought. That way of thinking is kind of a stereotype of how we study Buddhism, but we don't always You know, when we're living our life, we don't think in that way.

[11:57]

We just, usually, we have some idea of what we want to do, and our body follows our mind. Body follows mind, usually. We have some dream, some idea, and then we put the idea into action. And either we can do it easily or it's difficult. Or either we can do it in the way we think about it, or it turns out some other way because of circumstances. Or we have some desire, and we know what we want, and we go after it, and everything follows after our desire. But investigation... Well, I'll talk about investigation. I'm still talking about mindfulness. You see how they overlap. But investigation is to look at what's behind or what's present in our actions rather than just being intent on satisfying our desire.

[13:04]

We look at how things happen, why they happen, why some action that we took leads to suffering or some difficult situation and why our action leads to some pleasant or satisfying situation. That's called investigation. But mindfulness is just paying attention to practice. So one factor of mindfulness would be, I want to be practicing whatever I do. That's a thought of mindfulness. Whatever I do, I want to know that what the reason is behind it and whether or not it comes from selfishness.

[14:06]

What kind of desire does it come from? Why am I doing what I'm doing? And to always be mindful when of the dharmas as they arise. Whenever a thought comes up, you know, this is hunger. And another thought comes up, this is anxiety. And another thought or feeling comes up, this is lust, or this is desire, or this is jealousy, or this is hate, or anguish, or whatever comes up, feeling or thought, that you know that this thought has arisen right now, and then you notice when it disappears, and you notice what the next thought or feeling is,

[15:18]

And you also notice what your body is doing. Sitting down. You don't just sit down, but you notice how you're sitting down. How you're handling your body when you sit down, or how your body is working when you stand up. How your body is moving when you're walking. In whatever activity you're involved in, how do you use your body? Being conscious and aware of how What bodily factors are involved? You can take it even as far as seeing. What's involved in the act of seeing? What's involved in the act of hearing? Touching, smelling, tasting. Real awareness. This is mindfulness. And mindfulness of knowing when you're on and when you're off.

[16:24]

So if you know when you're on, you also know when you're off. If you really are intent on mindfulness, you know, this is being on. So when we're in the zendo, we can practice that very easily, because the zendo is... that's all there is to do in the zendo. on your sitting zazen, and you realize what the body feels like, what the thoughts are that are arising, what the feelings are that are arising, what the dharmas are that are arising, and when they leave, disappear. But sometimes we forget, even when we're in the zendo. You lose mindfulness, even in the zendo. But there's nothing else to do. So when you remember, you continue. But when you're not in the zendo, the practice should be the same.

[17:28]

That kind of awareness of body states, feeling states, mental states, and dharmas as they arise and disappear. So, there's always clear consciousness a clear comprehension of what's coming up, what's there at any one moment. And investigation is based on mindfulness. When there's mindfulness, then we can investigate the dharmas. We have a tendency, you know, to judge ourself and say if we do something, some act that leads to unwholesomeness.

[18:39]

Let's say we're walking down the street and we walk by a pie shop or some, you know, as an example, or some restaurant or some place where the smell, the odor of the pies makes contact with your nose. And you weren't thinking about pies before, but suddenly you're thinking about pies. So you notice that through the, because of what you smell, the nose, your mind is suddenly thinking about pies. Pies, the concept pies is risen in your consciousness. And then the message comes and you're suddenly, which is transferred to your tummy and you're thinking,

[19:44]

all those pies would certainly taste good in my mouth and then they would feel good in my tummy after I chewed them. All these processes, your mind thinks of these processes very quickly. And you don't even know that your mind has gone through these processes. But actually our mind does go through these processes so quickly that maybe they're subliminal or We're not aware of them. We just are aware of maybe the major ones. Smell, pie, hungry. And mindfulness would be to be aware that that's happening, the various processes. And then you have to make some decision. You might think, well, I think I'll have a pie. I'll go in the store and have a pie."

[20:48]

Or you may think, well, although I would like to have a pie, I don't think it's a good idea because I was going someplace else and if I stop to have a pie, I'll be late or I'll be doing something that wasn't determined. So you can make a choice at that point. Shall I stop and have pies, a pie or Shall I continue on my way? And we're always confronted with this kind of decision. All day long. Not just with pies, but with various things. They don't necessarily have to be objects in the realm of form, like a pie. Pie is an object in the realm of form. But they can be mental objects, which are harder to get away from. harder to deal with. The mental objects are always distracting us.

[21:50]

Some idea comes in our mind. We can just think about pies without having to smell them. And it's just a thought. So, say, here's the thought of a pie. That's mindfulness. And what do I do with the pie? What do I do with the thought? That's investigation. And then you decide what to do with the thought. That's one way of investigating the dharmas. When a dharma comes up, a dharma is any kind of thought or feeling or desire or either in the realm of wholesome or unwholesome. But it also means to investigate Buddhism, the Dharma, capital D, Dharma. But, you know, they go together.

[22:55]

You may think that investigating Buddhism is to read books on Buddhism. Read books about Buddhism is to investigate Buddhism. That is investigating Buddhism, but that's investigating through intellectual or secondary principle. We actually investigate Buddhism by investigating ourself, by noticing when things come up and being aware and making decisions based on what our life is about. If we know what our life is about, then when something comes up, we can make a decision pretty easily, because we know what our direction is.

[23:59]

But if we're confused, when something comes up, we may get sidetracked, because something looks very pleasant. You say, well, gee, what's wrong with having some of that? What's wrong with having some of that pie? I mean, pies are to eat, you know, and then we can rationalize about pies, or about anything. And pretty soon, we forget where... what our destination is, and we get sidetracked. Now, it's okay to get sidetracked. We all get sidetracked. But... we may find ourselves just hanging around the pie shop. If you just stop and get a piece of pie, then you say, well, okay, that was a good piece of pie, now I'll go on. Well, maybe I'll get there in time, maybe I won't.

[25:02]

You may have to run faster. But you may just end up hanging around the pie shop, forgetting where you have to go. It's like when you're a little kid, you know, and your mother sends you to the store to get some butter. But you have to get home quickly because the butter will melt if you don't. But then you see a cat, you know, and you follow the cat. Pretty soon you had something dripping down your arm and you wondered what it was. And we get caught in those situations. Our life still stays in the childish situation. And we grow up, but we take many of those childish traits with us as we grow and we don't get rid of them. So, when we start to study Buddhism, we make some effort to let go of the childish traits, not childlike.

[26:08]

Childlike is a little different, but childish. getting sidetracked and so forth, and confused. So mindfulness is a way of not being confused, knowing what we're doing. And investigation is the development, maybe, of mindfulness. And in order to really investigate the Dharma, either through the dharmas or through studying intellectually, we have to have energy, effort. We have to make effort. is one of the factors that's, when you read the various lists of how to study Buddhism, and there are lots of lists, effort is always in every single one of them.

[27:26]

Without effort, nothing happens. So effort is maybe the underlying factor for enlightened awareness. I remember Suzuki Roshi saying, talking about effort, actually effort is associated with strong spirit. Strong spirit and effort are kind of synonymous in this sense. It means that you don't hold back. A lot of times I hear people say, if I give too much energy, then I'll be drained.

[28:34]

You know that? If I give too much effort, I'll be drained. As if effort is something that you have in a holding tank. I have five gallons of energy, or five gallons of effort. And if I give four gallons, I'll only have one gallon left. But energy doesn't work that way. Energy is not a commodity or something that you can measure. Effort creates energy. And the more you give away, the more the tank fills up. It's not like a tank, it's like a tube, a circular tube. It's true that at certain times our energy is low, and maybe as we get older our energy decreases in some way.

[29:37]

If we're in the habit of producing energy, then we're also inducing energy at the same time. And if energy is wholesome, then if the object of the energy is wholesome, then the energy is rather endless. So sometimes we say, well, I'll save myself for this one, or something like that. But saving yourself doesn't work. It just puts you in a energy-less state. So sometimes we say, to use ourself up completely. Each time, to use yourself up completely. If you know how to use yourself up completely, you also know how to draw on energy completely.

[30:51]

It's true that we get tired when we do something. When you work hard, you get tired. And getting tired you rest, and then when you rest, you're renewed. So it's a kind of cycle which has four phases. You do it, you do something hard, and you get tired, and then you rest, and then you're renewed. So this cycle is continuous, continued over and over again. But if you don't, when you use yourself completely, you just get that much more energy. If you use yourself a little bit, you get some new energy and some old energy. And then they kind of mix. And the energy you have isn't quite as strong. It's not as fresh. You're kind of mixing the fresh with the stale.

[32:11]

So you notice, I think, those people who use themselves up completely, moment after moment, are usually the people who have the most energy and the freshest energy. If you notice, people who have the most to do are usually the ones who have the most time to do more. People who have, who save themselves always never have time to do anything. If you look at that, you can see that that's generally true. People that are really busy and working energetically always have time to do more. Not always, but generally. and have time for what they're doing.

[33:19]

So, in an effort is a big factor in investigating dharma and as a factor of enlightenment. And the next factor, of course, is joy or rapture. Rapture is a kind of extension of joy. When you have mindfulness and clear comprehension and investigation and effort, then joy arises naturally. When you're doing something that's very satisfying, joy is usually a factor that arises naturally. So, If you have joy in your practice, then practice must be going pretty well.

[34:26]

If you don't have joy in your practice, there's something wrong, because it's really an accompanying factor. when you work hard, you know, and get tired day after day, but you're doing something satisfying. It's like when you climb to the top of a mountain, it's hard and it's dusty and your legs hurt and your pack gets heavy and so forth, but when you get there, you know, you feel wonderful satisfaction, kind of joy, or even rapture, you know. That kind of feeling, not so much superficial joy.

[35:29]

You know, if you have an ice cream cone, it tastes good, and you have some momentary joy. But momentary joy comes and goes very quickly. The joy as an enlightenment factor is the underlying enjoyment of being alive, doing something that you know is correct. And no matter what happens, that joy is still there. It's not something that is easily pushed over or covered, even when things don't go right. But when these factors are explained or commented on, usually the commentator says something like, if you associate with other people who are practicing the Dharma and stay away from people whose lives are more superficial,

[36:56]

then the joy will arise. But I think that we can't do that, you know. We have to associate with everyone. And all of these factors, when we do sasheen, and when we practice in the zendo, we're practicing with people who we associate with people who are doing the same thing that we're doing. We all have a like mind and like aspirations and so forth. But when you're not in the zendo, you're mixing with people who don't have like aspirations and so forth. So, part of our practice is to be able to find ourself in any situation, to continue our underlying practice in any situation that comes up, no matter who we're associating with or where it is.

[38:11]

So joy is a factor which, an underlying factor for tranquility or calmness of mind. Today, we had the flea market in front of the house. And during work period, everybody was doing something that was completely different than what they thought they were going to be doing. And there were a lot of confusion. A lot of confusion, a lot of hustle and bustle, and people running around hither and thither.

[39:27]

And I was thinking of calmness of mind in this unusual situation. How is everybody dealing with this situation with calmness of mind? When you get into an unusual situation where you're completely thrown out of your expectations and direction. How do you maintain a calm, composed mind? Not getting upset, not allowing confusion to turn you around and so forth. This is a very important factor, calmness of mind. And it's easy to practice calmness of mind when you're in the Zen dome.

[40:36]

And in some Buddhist meditation practices, what they mean by calmness of mind is to sit down and let go of all of your problems and sit in meditation. But what we mean by calmness of mind is also that, but also when you're out there in the world dealing with all those unexpected situations or situations which are not conducive to meditation, how do you keep your calm mind in that situation? This is what we really mean by calm mind. mind which is not upset, or if it is upset, it quickly regains its balance. We do get upset, you know, and we get upset at very small things, constantly.

[41:45]

There's always something interrupting. If you want to do something, you think about it, if you want to do something, there's always something that's interrupting. what you're doing. There's always something that's getting in the way. I would say at least every five minutes. Whether you're driving a car, walking someplace, eating your meal, sleeping, going to sleep, dealing with somebody. Our life is a life of interruption. All the time. We're being interrupted all the time. So calmness of mind is in the midst of interruptions to stay in your place, not get pushed over.

[42:54]

No matter what happens. That's a big factor of enlightenment. To always come back to yourself. And really never get pushed off. Even if you get pushed off to come back to where you are. Where am I? That's a big koan. Each one of these is also a big koan. Where am I, really? When you get pushed off your place, where are you? And if you want to get back to your place, well, where is it that you're getting back to? So the next factor is concentration, or samadhi. Strictly speaking, concentration here means, in meditation, samadhi.

[44:00]

It means one-pointedness of mind. That's the literal meaning. One-pointedness of mind. Mind which is focused somewhere. Focused mind. And in the larger sense, it means mind which is focused on reality, always within the realm of reality, rather than in the realm of delusion or illusion, but always residing or concentrated on reality. So, zazen, we say, you know, sometimes we sit, when we sit zazen or when we're in a zendo, we talk about outside the zendo is the real world. Do you notice we do that sometimes? When we go back to the real world, meaning the world of working and relationships and so forth, as if the world of zazen is some other kind of world.

[45:21]

It is some other kind of world, in a sense. The world of Zazen is the world, not the real world. But the real world also is not the real world. Sometimes, you know, if you want to talk about reality, To define reality means, the definition of reality is non-substantial. Okay? What we say, when we're talking about reality, we say, this is real. This is real. All these objects are real. That's the real world. But actually, that's the non-substantial world.

[46:24]

It's not the real world. It is real, but it's also not real. If you know that it's not real, then you can talk about it, the reality of it. So, sometimes we say, real, not substantial. The reality is not something that you can grasp, actually. The reality is in between the substantial. The changing aspect of everything is the reality of it. The substantial aspect is also reality,

[47:30]

It's gone in a flash. Only for a moment is it real. And then it's something else. So our suffering is caused by our misunderstanding. Most of our suffering is caused by our misunderstanding of what is the real world and what is not. So in Buddhism we talk about the perverted views. One of the perverted views is taking what is real for what is not real. Taking what is not real for what is real. That's called a perverted view, upside down view. Sometimes called topsy turvy because that means upside down. So when you study yourself, study the dharmas, you study the realm of reality.

[48:40]

Mindfulness is mindfulness of the world of reality. Being mindful that you're always in the realm of reality, even when you're not. To know the difference. If you're mindful, you know you're mindful of reality, but when You're not in reality, you know that. So you know the difference between delusion and reality, maybe. But at least you're investigating the difference. So investigation is to investigate the difference between illusion, delusion, and reality. And illusion, delusion, and illusion, and reality. So you need energy, effort. Usually when we know something about reality, it's frightening.

[49:48]

Because we want things to be substantial. We want a stable world, which is something that we can rely on. And when you find out that there's nothing you can rely on, then you get scared, which is the opposite of joy. But when you have some realization, then you're not so bothered by that. You accept it, and then you have some joy, true joy, because you know something. So, concentration or samadhi. Samadhi is living in the realm of reality. That's what it really means. It's concentration, one-pointedness. But in a wider sense, it means being present in reality.

[50:55]

And then the last one, which is equanimity, means unshakableness. In other words, it means impartiality. With impartiality, you see everything as a whole. You can see the whole coin. If you're not partial to heads and tails, you can see the whole coin. And most of our viewpoints are based on partiality. If you say, what is your view of the world? Usually your view comes from some partial understanding. Partial has two kinds of meanings. One meaning of partial is that it's something that you like.

[52:12]

I'm partial to something. And the other meaning is that you only see a part of something. And one is based on the other. You say, I like something. I like it this way. It means you're partial to it. You're taking part. You're taking one part and rejecting another part. And when we discriminate in that way, we're not viewing something completely. So we can't really see reality. We're only seeing reality from our partial point of view. If we investigate and see something from a total point of view, which is very difficult to do. Total point of view is no point of view at all, actually.

[53:15]

But we have to have a standpoint in order to see things. So we take some viewing point to look at. things from. Even though, if we know that our viewing point is only partial, then that's okay. But if we think that our viewing point is the right point of view, without viewing the total picture, then it's partiality and delusion. If we know that our delusion is delusion, That's okay. That's enlightenment. But if you don't know that, then it's really being diluted within delusion. So, when we say something, or view something, or have an opinion on something, we need to qualify it by saying, well, from this point of view, I see it like this, or it's like that,

[54:26]

But you need to qualify it, I think, from where I stand, or from how I divide up the universe. So how we see something totally, it's impossible. Except in zazen, you can be total, because you give up thinking altogether, you give up any viewpoint altogether. And without trying to think about anything or view anything, you actually become your natural state, which is everything. Our natural state is complete and whole. But as soon as we start thinking, then we divide it up into partial viewpoints. As soon as we start thinking about something. We have to think. We have to have partiality. But not so many people are interested in the total point of view, which is giving up of all points of view.

[55:42]

So zero, if you wanted to look at it from the point of view of mathematics, zero is the common, is the below, that includes everything. And then from zero arises 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So, zero is the complete view. And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are partial views. So equanimity means not falling into views, not falling into views which are usually fostered by desire.

[56:48]

Desire is what creates views. We say, I want, I would like, I see, I this, I that. I comes from desire, and desire creates these points of view, or creates our standing point. So understanding the nature of desire is investigation, and that's something that if you're going to study Buddhism, you have to investigate the nature of desire. What is that? And how does it work? And how does it separate ourself from ourself? Okay.

[57:54]

I don't have any time for questions, but Shakyamuni Buddha.

[58:11]

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