When we do this chant that we just did, which is inviting someone to give a talk, that the Kokyo should begin the chant in a strong voice so that we all can relate to where the beginning is. That way, sometimes I feel as if everyone is waiting for me to say something. But I don't particularly want to invite myself to give this talk. I'd rather that you invited me to give this talk. So if the Kokyo right away is there and leads the chant, then we can all join in, and then I feel comfortable doing what I'm doing. But if the kokyo doesn't jump in another way, not necessarily jump, but isn't there to lead the chant, then even though I know it's fine for me to drop, it feels a little funny.

[01:14]

That little funny feeling is very fleeting, and I don't even say much to myself. that lasts for just an instant. And sometimes I think, well, do I have to make this move? So I would like us to, when you're cooking, that you start to chant. I don't think it's ever been, I don't think anyone's ever said that before, so I just thought I'd say something.

[02:19]

This is, I think this is the fifth day of sashimi. which I think, I feel is an accomplishment. It's just kind of a way of life. It just feels like a long drive. Actually, it's not much different than the beginning. Not a lot different than the beginning.

[03:29]

And although I feel good about sushi, I'm getting a little bit tired of it. But not enough to make a difference. Just a fleeting feeling. I want to get back to what I was talking about yesterday a little bit. I was talking about the Four Wisdoms and the Eight Consciousnesses. When the Eight Consciousnesses are purified, as I said, turned over yesterday, and we kind of got hung up on words, so today I'll use the word purified.

[04:35]

which I don't want to use in its dualistic sense. When we think of purity, we think of purity as the opposite of impure, which is natural. But by purity we mean non-dualistic. Dualistic idea of purity is that if you do take all the bad away, then what you're left with is the good. And the Buddhists tried to practice that way for a long time, separating the bad from the good, and just trying to be good. But they found out that something was wrong. Something was wrong in that. Something didn't work so well. What were they doing wrong?

[05:38]

And there were a lot of Buddhists who were very dissatisfied with that kind of understanding. And so in the first century, Nagarjuna appeared and reinstated the truth of the Dharma in non-dualistic terms. You have to find the pure within the impure. You can't take away all the impurities in order to find the pure. It's just like water and dirt. The water in the stream is pure water, but as it goes toward the ocean, it collects impurities.

[06:56]

And by the time it gets to the ocean, the impurities blend with all the other impurities, and the water goes back up into the sky, and then comes back again as pure water, and keeps flowing this way, just like our life. If we try to stay strictly within pure water, which has no defilements, it's pretty hard. So water has to find itself as water, no matter where it is. Even in a muddy pool, you still find water. And the water itself is actually quite pure, because you can take all of the impurities out of it, and it's still just pure water.

[08:04]

There's only so much water in the world that I believe is a scientific fact. there's a certain amount of water, potentially, and it doesn't increase or decrease, it just changes its form. So where we have to find water is right in the middle of the stream, wherever it happens to be. We call a monk an unsui. An unsui means clouds in water. It's a great image, clouds in water.

[09:06]

Because if you follow the progress of clouds in water, it's a pure reality. And as I like to say, plumbing, if you study plumbing, plumbing is true. That's probably why plumbers get paid so much. What I want to talk about, that's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is the four wisdoms. And the Eight Consciousnesses write, instead of turning over is one way to express it, purity, purifying is another way. When the Eight Consciousnesses become purified, the Four Wisdoms naturally appear, because the Four Wisdoms are our nature, pure nature.

[10:18]

And again, I will say what the Four Wisdoms are. The Four Wisdoms are the Great Round Mirror Wisdom, which corresponds to the Eighth Consciousness, or the Elaya called Elaya Vijnana. Vijnana means consciousness, and Elaya means storehouse, where all the seeds and impressions, karma action is returned to our life. It motivates our life. Our karmic life is motivated by the seeds coming to fruition in the eighth consciousness. It's called sometimes sub-consciousness. So sixth and seventh consciousnesses are sometimes called sub-conscious.

[11:24]

We don't notice them all the time. They're below conscious consciousness. And the seventh consciousness is manas, or ego consciousness, the conveyor of impressions and information between the eighth consciousness and the sixth consciousness. But the seventh consciousness, when it's purified, is called Great Equality Wisdom. It sees everything equally in its true nature. Yes? What is conveyor belt? You know, the conveyor belt. Convey means to pass on. If I give you some information, I convey it.

[12:30]

It's given, or passing on. You said equaling yesterday, you were talking about it. I wonder if non-comparatively also... Non-comparatively we would fit into equal, yeah. And the sixth consciousness, which is mind consciousness, mano vijnana, is discriminating consciousness, which tells us the difference between things. And it tells us the difference between the impressions we get through the senses. And it's called thinking mind. And this sixth consciousness, when it's purified, It's called subtle observation wisdom, which sees everything, which sees all the differences in their true sense.

[13:42]

And then the first five consciousnesses, the sense consciousnesses, the doorways, doorway which receive sense impressions, eye, ear, nose, tongue, and touch. It's called, when those five senses are purified, they're called the perfecting of action wisdom. So the trick is to have the mirror wisdom illuminating the perfecting of action wisdom.

[14:49]

The mirror wisdom is like the source, feeling of the source. And these four wisdoms and eight consciousnesses correspond to the three bodies of our Buddha nature. The three bodies, of course, as you know, are Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya. And even though you know all this, I'm going to explain it anyway. Dharmakaya is our absolute nature, which is beyond explanation, beyond description, and has within itself all the potential for creation.

[15:54]

It can be described, typically, as emptiness. But it's also form. But it's also beyond anything that you can say about it. And it is expressed by... It expresses itself through the nirmanakaya and the sambhogakaya. So sambhogakaya is sometimes called the reward body or enjoyment body or expression body. After realization of a Buddha, the Buddha, through their enjoyment of realization, expresses the Dharma.

[17:08]

And, say, the Lotus Sutra is an expression of Sambhogakaya Buddha. Who wrote the Lotus Sutra? Who wrote the Prajnaparamita Sutra? You can't really say, you know, if you try to say it was so-and-so, nobody knows. So we can say it's the Sambhogakaya, Buddha as inspiration. Through the inspiration of Buddha, of Dharmakaya, it was written by Sambhogakaya, which may be some person, or people, but spirit of Buddha through which something appears.

[18:20]

It's Buddha through this spiritual medium. Not spirit medium, but spiritual inspiration. And actually, whoever wrote the Lotus Sutra was Buddha. But not exactly Dharmakaya Buddha. Not exactly... No, I take that back. If Dharmakaya Buddha expressed as sambhogakaya buddha. And nirmanakaya buddha is the personification of dharmakaya buddha. Buddha is expressed as a person walking around. So we say shakyamuni nirmanakaya buddha. In the leel chant we say shakyamuni nirmanakaya shakyamuni buddha. Nirmanakaya means embodied as a person.

[19:32]

So each one of us here is Nirmanakaya Shakyamuni Buddha. In the old translation of the meal chant we used to say the innumerable Nirmanakaya Shakyamuni Buddhas. Not just one. I didn't change it. Why did they change it? I cannot respond for everybody else. They've been holding out on us. So, this is the way we think about it, actually, when we think about Nirmala Kali Buddha. The three bodies, is actually an expression of ourself. This is really important to understand. Dharmakaya Buddha, Nirmanakaya Buddha, and Sangodakaya Buddha are three expressions of ourself, three bodies of ourself as Buddha.

[20:43]

Dharmakaya And the four wisdoms and eight consciousnesses correspond to the three bodies. Dharmakaya is I talked yesterday about 8th and 9th consciousnesses. 9th consciousness is Ammora consciousness, which is really a lie of consciousness in its purified, evident purified.

[21:56]

And purified means the coming together of enlightenment and delusion. Not the elimination of delusion, but actually to see delusion as enlightenment, and enlightenment as delusion. To see this world of delusion as the world of enlightenment, that's purification. And this is what the heart sutra is talking about. So, dharmakaya, when alaya-vijnana is turned, means the universe, form is emptiness and emptiness is form, seen in its true light, and corresponds to dharmakaya.

[23:09]

body of Buddha. And when ego consciousness, seventh consciousness, is purified, it's called Great Equality Wisdom, and corresponds to Sambhogakaya. And in that release, it finds enjoyment, is able to appreciate, enjoy its true reality, and express itself that way. Rather than expressing itself as ego, it expresses itself as Buddha. And sixth consciousness,

[24:11]

which is subtle observation wisdom in its purity, and the first five consciousnesses together, which become the perfecting of action wisdom, together is the nirmanakaya. corresponds to the nirmanakaya. So dharmakaya is like the great source without becoming a deity. It's the great source. Which you can't really describe.

[25:14]

And Sambhogakaya is great faith for life. That's interesting about ego. When ego is turned, it becomes enlightened. So Sambhogakaya is that the expression of enlightenment becomes the expression of enlightenment body. And nirmanakaya is acting within the realm of enlightenment. Everyday activity within the realm of enlightenment. And the three bodies are not something that we need to get, but is actually what we are.

[26:25]

And four wisdoms are not something that we need to get, but is actually what we are. And eight consciousnesses, if you look at yourself, if we look at ourselves as a good None of these actually are reality. They're only descriptions. They're only models for looking at ourselves. But these models seem to have held up for a pretty long time. And if we want to look at study ourself from the point of view of Buddha and enlightenment.

[27:29]

This is a good way. This focuses us on the subject. So we have to be careful that we can use this model. But the model is not the thing itself. The thing itself is right here. So, if we're too literal, we make a big mistake, because we start identifying the reality with the model too much. and we have to give ourselves some room to play with the model. We can't play with the model, then we become attached to the model.

[28:38]

Suzuki Roshi was very careful, actually, not to Just stay away from descriptions too much. Very careful not to get too much into descriptions, which I think is pretty good. But this model seems pretty good to me, and I'm beginning to enjoy it a lot. So I want to go a little bit further with it. But I think it's important for us to see ourself, to have some understanding of dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya, and to see it in relation to our consciousness and our wisdom.

[29:44]

If we keep this in mind, not become attached to it, but keep it as a way of focusing on our practice, I think it will help us. So as I said yesterday, The seventh consciousness, which is ego, is kind of like a stopper. The seventh consciousness is like an information center and a conveyor of impressions between the sixth consciousness, which receives all of its messages from the senses, between the Sixth Consciousness and the Eighth Consciousness, the alaya vijnana, where the messages are stored and impressions are, our karma action is, response is fed back into the Sixth Consciousness so that when we see or hear or smell or taste or touch

[31:22]

we respond in a certain way. Yesterday, Lou was telling me about neurons. Neurons, which are the storage juncture points. Maybe we could say that nerves are not wires. but they come to stops where there's gaps and the message is transmitted across that gap, electrochemically. When we have a habit, that small gap comes together and is wired, is the modern slang, literally wired, does become a straight shot and when you break a habit, They're not routed in a certain way.

[32:34]

It's called synapse. Synapse? Synapse. Synapse. That gap is called synapse. So it's important to keep the gaps open. That's right. Right. So if you don't habitually respond to each new thing, So the seventh consciousness plays a really important part in our actions. And whenever we do something, respond, that response makes an impression. It's described like a seal in mud or in clay. The seal is a perfect impression. If I say I eat something and I notice the taste and how it feels and the sense I get, that impression is formed as a seed in consciousness, in the eighth align of consciousness.

[34:06]

The next time that happens, the seed feeds information about it back. And habit, or energy, is formed when those... After we do something two or three times in the same way, the neurons close the gap. And we're programmed in to doing something a certain way. And the action is called karma. So all of the impressions of action, of karma, are stored as seeds in the eighth consciousness. And when we meet a situation, the seed sprouts. And the impression influences our action again, the present action.

[35:19]

So we form our view of the world through these impressions. And through the constant feedback and seeds sprouting, and it goes around and around, and pretty soon we're caught in a kind of small view of a world that we create instead of being open to each situation as a new situation in itself. To respond to every situation as it really is in a fresh way. Of course we are creatures of habit and need habit in order to function But we get easily caught in predetermining how things really are, instead of seeing how they really are.

[36:27]

Because our neurons no longer have a gap, and we automatically go into a certain mode So purifying, or turning over, is to be released from our delusory way of thinking. It's sometimes very hard to get out of the cycle of the way we think and act. And we feel kind of like we're constipated.

[37:34]

Mentally and spiritually. And kensho, so-called kensho, is kind of like blowing the cork. And the pure light of the eighth consciousness or ninth consciousness, Buddha nature, just comes through in its purity and you see everything as it really is. So sometimes, you know, teachers will drive you to have an experience where you blow the cork and you just kind of have a pure euphoria or turnaround. But In our practice, it's more like, it's not gradual in that it's step by step, but because of the nature of our practice, which is a mantra, at some point you realize that somewhere back there,

[38:55]

You changed. I used to do things a certain way and I realize now that it's different. Isn't that interesting? I no longer am constipated. I didn't realize it. That's more like Kinship in our practice. Not so much a blowing out of the court, but... Watch it, man. You just notice that you have some freedom that you didn't used to have. Could you say something about caffeine? I don't want to say anything about caffeine. You always ask me about caffeine.

[39:59]

I don't think caffeine has anything to do with it. If we lay it on caffeine, we got a problem. If we lay it on food, sleep, It means that we're just avoiding the problem. Putting it off. Yes? You mentioned about Shakyamuni Buddha, what about in the other two bodies, Vairochana Buddha?

[41:04]

Vairochana is... Dharmakaya is embodied by Vairochana. So in order to make a picture of Dharmakaya, you know, the Buddhists said Vairochana, you know, is the Buddha which embodies Dharmakaya. Does it have any meaning or is it just a meaning? Well, it has meaning. It's Dharmakaya. But you don't have to have Vairagyana Buddha. Vairagyana Buddha. Because human beings like to see something and touch something, you know, we say, Dharmakaya is embodied by the figure of Vairochana. The Vairochana represents this Dharmakaya.

[42:05]

So, Dharmakaya, Vairochana, Buddha. Dharmakaya is the word, and Vairochana is a picture. Like a statue? Yeah, like a picture. But Vairācana has, you know, you can say, you put up a picture and you say, this is Vairācana Buddha, and Vairācana Buddha embodies all of the qualities of Dharmakaya, which are indescribable. So in order to describe something indescribable, they have a very indescribable Buddha sitting there. in a inscrutable Buddha who doesn't move throughout all eternity, which is... Eternity is too small a word for... to describe Ramana Chandra Buddha, but the eternal Buddha, which, although

[43:21]

forms come and go. Vairagyana, the Dharmakara, is not moved by anything. But all forms are actually an expression of Dharmakara, of Vairagyana. And the same goes for Vachana. Vachana is like Buddha of light. Luminescent. Its base, the charm of Buddha is The Buddha of, what's his name, the Buddha of the infinite light, luminosity that illuminates

[44:45]

Amitābha Buddha. Yeah, Amitābha Buddha. He brings this down. in paradise or something like that, but I just like to refer to him as the Buddha of So, all these three are our own three bodies.

[46:16]

So, when I hear you talk in terms of Trinity, I can't help but think of the Christian early trinity of the Prophets and the Holy Ghost being pretty similar to the Christianistic tradition of what is able to come. Buddha and Shakyamuni, It doesn't cover enough. So we have to cover the cosmic realm, and the spiritual realm, and the mundane realm. That's all we have to cover. I think it's pretty close, actually.

[47:21]

So, is it this kalyas or bodies that create our minds or is it our minds that create those bodies? That's a great question. I'll leave that to you. Because actually in the Hindu tradition also there is this three aspects which have very Related to the Gurus or the Christians? They create each other.

[48:22]

You mean the different traditions they create each other? No, from the Christians. They create each other. That's the non-dual understanding, when people create each other. If you say one creates the other, then it doesn't mean anything. Which is the same as saying maybe that they are the same. They are the same, yes. There's the same and different. This is... Again, they're the same and different. Even the sixth consciousness and the seventh consciousness are the same and different.

[49:26]

The sixth consciousness is subtle observation of everything different. The seventh consciousness is equalizing consciousness, the consciousness of total equality. when total equality means differentiation, and differentiation is total equality, then you have a non-dual reality. There's a great American poem, an American one. I'm sure there's plenty of them. It's called, Which Came First, the Chicken or the Bird? And there's what F. Scott Fitzgerald said, the mark of a first-rate mind is to be able to hold two opposing views and not be paralyzed.

[50:28]

That's a great reference. Flow with the two. What? Flow with the two opposing views. Flow with the two views. One doesn't necessarily eliminate the other. Maybe think we're either right or wrong, good or bad. It doesn't matter. One thing doesn't necessarily eliminate the other. Anyway.

[51:05]

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