I love to taste the truth and I love to talk in Jesus' words. Morning. This morning I want to talk about the view in the Platform Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch's talk on Dhyana. actually Dhyana and Samadhi. Dhyana, of course, is the Sanskrit word, the Indian word for meditation.

[01:12]

So he talks about, well, what do we mean by meditation in our school? One day, the patriarch spoke to the assembly and he said, in our meditation practice, we neither dwell upon the mind in contradistinction to the essence of mind, nor upon purity, nor do we approve of non-activity.

[02:22]

As to dwelling upon the mind, the mind is primarily delusive, and when we realize that it is only a phantasm, there is no need to dwell on it. As to dwelling upon purity, our nature is intrinsically pure, and so far as we get rid of all delusive idea, there will be nothing but purity in our nature, for it is the delusive idea that obscures suchness. If we direct our mind to dwell upon purity, we are only creating another delusion, the delusion of purity. Since delusion has no abiding place, it is delusive to dwell upon it. Purity has neither shape nor form. But some people go so far as to invent the form of purity and treat it as a problem for solution. Holding such an opinion, these people are purity ridden and their essence of mind is thereby obscured.

[03:26]

So I'll go back over this. In our practice of zazen meditation, or zazen, We neither dwell upon the mind in contradistinction to the essence of mind, nor upon purity. As we know, and as we know of our practice, when we practice meditation, we don't dwell on our thinking mind, on our thoughts. but rather we resume our true nature, which he calls our essence of mind. He uses this term essence of mind when he speaks of our nature, and of course essence of mind is the foundation of thinking mind.

[04:34]

you can say that essence of mind is big mind, thinking mind is small mind. But small mind, of course, is an expression of big mind. So we shouldn't belittle small mind or intellectual mind, the intellect. But when we you know mind has various levels, consciousness has various levels, and so we use consciousness or mind depending on the level on which our activity takes place. So when you're studying we're using our intellect.

[05:41]

When we're interacting with people, we use our intellect on another level. And when we're practicing meditation, we use our intellect on another level. So we say non-thinking. When someone asked Sagan, what is the, what do you think about in Zazen? Or maybe it was Sekito. What do you think about in, maybe it was somebody else. What do you think about in Zazen? He said, I think non-thinking. We said, then the monk said, well, how do you think non-thinking? He said, beyond thinking and not thinking, or no thinking, or non-thinking, or something like that.

[06:47]

Hard to translate, but the meaning is not dwelling, neither dwelling nor not dwelling on thinking, on the intellect, on that level of mind. in Zazen, in meditation, so-called, we let go of discriminative thinking. So, discriminative thinking is what obscures essence of mind. But discriminative thinking is important and necessary, but it has no place in meditation. That's not the level on which meditation takes place.

[07:51]

So when we practice Zazen, we let go of discriminative thinking. in order to allow the mind to express its unity. Discrimination means to divide, so discriminative thinking falls into categories, divides the mind into categories. and polarities, good and bad, right and wrong, yes and no. But this level of mind is where we usually reside.

[08:55]

This is our usual everyday thinking mind. discriminative thinking and partiality, like and dislike, good and bad, right and wrong. But in meditation we have the opportunity to let go of that discursive, divisive thinking and simply settle on our essence of mind. Well, isn't that escape? Since we're not involving the mind or the body in emotional activity or in thinking activity on that level. Escape is a funny word.

[09:58]

In the Four Noble Truths, life is suffering, the cause of suffering, and the way out of suffering is to settle on our true essence of mind, letting go of karmic activity, which is created by clinging and attachment. So, in a way, yes, it's an escape from the drama of our life, from the dream life. The dream life is created by our discriminating mind and the mind of desire.

[11:10]

So we live the dream life and the dream life is always changing. It's like a play. We enter the play in some way and if someone doesn't enter the play, we say, Why aren't you in the play? And anyone that's not playing our game, we tend to look at askance, you know, why aren't you playing this game? In Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh was the neutral player and both sides were saying, well, why don't you play our game? And so he couldn't play the game on one side or the other, so he was expelled. This is the problem that the monk has to face, because the monk is not involved in the duality of the game, the polarities of the game.

[12:26]

So meditation is to let go of the polarities of the game, to step outside of the drama. And we may look at it or call it escaping, but on the other hand, Zazen is to awaken. we step out of the dream and awaken. So dream has various kinds of connotations. There's dreaming while we're sleeping, that's inadvertent dreaming. And then there's purposeful dreaming, which is while we are awake, so to speak, We have our schemes and our plans and our goals.

[13:37]

And these are dreams, waking dreams. And then we fulfill our dreams. As a matter of fact, when we're in school, we're supposed to be working toward fulfilling our dreams. I want to be a this, I want to be a that. I want to work toward this. That's, you know, fulfilling our dream, allowing the dream to come into what we call reality. But it's still the activity of the dream thoughts. We dream and then we act. We dream and we act. So this is the dream life, the life of the drama, dreamer. But we say, this is the real world, and sometimes after Sashin, somebody would say, well now we have to enter the real world, but that's simply a manner, a figure of speech.

[14:52]

We're actually leaving the real world and going into the dream world again, The dream world is what we call our life. We identify with it as our life. And it is our life. But we should realize that that's not our complete life. To sit zazen, to practice meditation is to return to our true nature, to let go of the dream and simply reside in our undivided nature, which is not driven by desire, it's not driven by emotion, and it's not driven by discriminative thinking.

[16:10]

So even though we may have some doubt, there's some reason why we continue to sit zazen, why we continue to practice So if we only sit Zazen then we easily become purity bound because this is our pure activity and if we only practice in the world and on the world stage without understanding or touching our true nature, then we become ignorant, we remain ignorant. So to realize that the life of the drama is on the stage of

[17:24]

The essence of mind is the essence of mind that's supporting the drama. So both are necessary. It's like the screen and the movie. Our life of drama is the movie. But the movie only takes place on the blank screen. can't have a movie until you have a blank screen. So the blank screen is our nature, the mind ground. And the movie is projected on the mind ground. And the movie is a kind of projection of our mind. We have the five senses, which are the doors of perception.

[18:37]

And we have the thinking mind, which is discriminating between them. But our senses and thinking mind are very limited, even though they're considered unlimited. The mind is for great things and can be stretched to include everything. But it still has limitations. And our senses, our way of understanding through our perceptions is also very limited so we tend to create this drama out of this limitation the sensory limitation so when we let go of the drama we can come back to our true nature but true nature is

[19:45]

the foundation for our drama. So how to live the drama as reality, that's the problem we have. How to live the drama without losing touch with our essence of mind. So he says, in our Zazen, we neither dwell upon the mind, in contradistinction to the essence of mind, we don't dwell on the thoughts, nor upon purity, nor do we approve of non-activity. The essence of mind is no special state of mind. when we want to have some special experience, which is maybe the Zen state of mind or the Zen experience.

[20:58]

The Zen state of mind is no special state of mind. When you wake up, you realize that it's not a special state of mind that you're waking up to. So in Zazen, we sit and keep our back straight, hopefully, let the mind follow the breath, and let go of thinking mind. But thinking mind keeps churning out thoughts all the time, one after another. The mind is still dreaming, because that's the function of thinking mind, to dream. Think and dream. So we just let that happen. We don't try to stop it or dwell on it. We don't dwell on it and we don't try to stop it because if you try to stop it, you're setting up some kind of opposition and then you fall into discrimination.

[22:07]

So it's walking a very fine line to not fall into discriminating mind. And at the same time, to allow, to have the mind be big enough, wide enough to allow everything to come up and go. So the mind in zazen is like a big empty hall and all kinds of things that are running through it. Or maybe like a sewer pipe. The water's all rushing through and alligators and things flowing toward the sea. But the big hall doesn't get disturbed by anything that's going on. Simply stuff going on. Just watching.

[23:10]

It's called watching the scenery of our life. like riding in a train maybe and just watching all this stuff going by. So no special state of mind means that states of mind are continually changing. Every second, every moment is a new state of mind. And to just allow whatever state of mind there is to be there and to watch, to be aware of this state of mind, then this state of mind, then this state of mind, then this state of mind, moment by moment. There's nothing special to think about or not think about. It's like The movie is going on, but the screen is what we're paying attention to.

[24:13]

No special drama. Of course, there's the drama of the pain and the drama of trying to figure out how to deal with the drama that's going on. It's not especially relevant. to just simply settle on the posture, the breathing, with equanimity, not being upset by anything. Not getting caught by our personal drama of the moment. we get caught by the personal drama of the moment. We latch on to something that seems to disturb us or seems to be intrusive.

[25:19]

So he says, So we don't approve of non-activity. And as to dwelling upon the mind, the mind is primarily delusive, as I just described. And when we realize that it is only a phantasm, there is no need to dwell on it. As to dwelling upon purity, our nature is intrinsically pure. And so far as we get rid of all delusive idea, there will be nothing but purity in our nature. For it is the delusive idea that obscures suchness or purity. Purity in this sense means non-duality. Pure mind means the mind that is not discriminating. As soon as the mind starts discriminating, that's called impurity. So to try to cultivate pure mind or purity doesn't work.

[26:35]

You can't do that. You can only let go of discriminating mind because pure mind is the mind that is no longer discriminating. So you can't cultivate it as something. You can't create it, purity. Purity is also found within the impure. So if you try to take away the impurities in order to find the purities, that doesn't work. That's why we don't try to sit with a blank mind in the platform sutra. He's always talking about not sitting with a blank mind. So sitting with a blank mind or trying to get rid of all the impurities doesn't work.

[27:41]

We have to allow the purity to arise within the impurity. So when thoughts appear in your mind, We don't dwell on them, but we also don't worry about them. Without discriminating good thoughts from bad thoughts, or thoughts should be here or they shouldn't be here, purity of mind arises. We think, well, if there are no thoughts, that's purity of mind. No matter how long we've been practicing, that always happens. We think no thoughts is purity of mind. But purity of mind is non-discriminating mind.

[28:46]

So we let go of thoughts and come back to posture and breathing. But we don't try to get rid of the thoughts or chase them away. We simply pay attention to what we're doing. Simply keep coming back. Letting go of thoughts is not the same as chasing them away. So our attention becomes diverted. And then we let go and come back. and let go and come back over and over and over again without getting angry, without thinking, oh my, I've only been, I've been sitting all day and I've only concentrated for three minutes. And you think that those three minutes that you concentrated are good and the rest is bad. No matter how long you've been practicing, this always happens.

[29:54]

So, he says, if we direct our mind to dwell upon purity, we are only creating another delusion, the delusion of purity. Since delusion has no abiding place, it is delusive to dwell upon it. Purity has neither shape nor form. But some people go so far as to invent the form of purity and treat it as a problem for solution. Holding such an opinion, these people are purity-ridden, and their essence of mind is thereby obscured." So if we have some idea of enlightened mind, what enlightenment is, that's also a delusive idea. because our idea of an enlightened mind is purity. And then we create the idea of purity and cling to that.

[31:07]

So we're continually falling into one-sidedness. Learned audience, those who train themselves for imperturbability should, in their contact with all types of people, ignore the faults of others. They should be indifferent to others' merit or demerit, good or evil, for such an attitude accords with the imperturbability of the essence of mind. learned audience, a person unenlightened, maybe unperturbed physically, but as soon as that person opens the mouth, he criticizes others and talks about their merits and demerits, ability or weakness, good or evil. Thus, he deviates from the right course.

[32:15]

On the other hand, to dwell upon our own mind or upon purity is also a stumbling block in the path. So on another occasion, He preached to the assembly as follows. Learned audience, what is sitting for meditation? In our school, to sit, which is sa. means to gain absolute freedom and to be mentally unperturbed in all outward circumstances, be they good or otherwise. And to meditate means to realize inwardly the imperturbability of the essence of mind. That's zen. So za is to sit, and zen is to sit imperturbably. without being disturbed, without letting anything disturb you.

[33:16]

To sit means to gain absolute freedom and to be mentally unperturbed in all outward circumstances, be they good or otherwise. So this is non-discriminating mind. you know, things do disturb us. The point is not whether things disturb us or not, but our attachment to the disturbance. How do we stay settled in all circumstances? That's to practice Dhyana all the time, So to meditate means to realize inwardly the imperturbability of the essence of mind.

[34:28]

So once we settle on essence of mind, in Zazen, it's the calm imperturbability. sitting no matter what is going on. So Zazen itself forces us to settle on our essence of mind. This is why we say don't move. And then he says, learned audience, what are dhyana and samadhi? Before I talk about that, I just want to say that imperturbability does not mean to be stiff or to fight or to offer resistance or to be like a,

[35:47]

concrete building. That's not imperturbability. Imperturbability means softness, soft mind, flexible mind, flexible body, flexible disposition. So, you know, grass is imperturbable because when the wind blows, the grass bends over. And then it comes back up. That's imperturbability. Flexibility is imperturbability. The grass bends over, but it's fine, no problem. It's not disturbed. Okay, come back up. But a tall tree, you know, very stiff, old, you say, wow, that's a strong tree. But the wind comes and the tree falls over. So, imperturbability is not to stand your ground and fight.

[37:04]

It's to bend with the wind, to go along with things, to allow something to happen, to not have strong resistance. Strong resistance. Well, you always lose with strong resistance. You know, the whole force in Zazen, all the forces of the universe are pressing down on you. And if you resist, you just get washed away. So you have to let all the forces of the universe flow through you. no resistance, then there's no problem. Maybe a little problem, but you can deal with the problem.

[38:11]

So, he says, What are Dhyana and Samadhi? Dhyana, which is meditation, means to be free from attachment to all outer objects and Samadhi means to attain inner calmness. So Samadhi is calm mind and Dhyana is within circumstances. So non-attachment doesn't mean detachment. It means within engagement to not be caught by what you're engaged in. But we get caught. We get caught by our feelings, we get caught by our emotions, by our thoughts.

[39:20]

And as soon as we get caught, Of course we catch, then we just get turned around by circumstances. So to be free within the circumstances, to find our freedom within the problem, that's dhyana, that's meditation. When we are free from attachment to outer objects, it doesn't mean free from engagement, but free from attachment, the mind will be in peace. Our essence of mind is intrinsically pure, and the reason why we are perturbed is because we allow ourselves to be carried away by the circumstances we're in. One who is able to keep the mind unperturbed, irrespective of circumstances, has attained samadhi. So Samadhi is settled mind.

[40:23]

People say, well, I would like to have peace of mind. But it only comes with non-discrimination and non-attachment. To be free from attachment to all objects is Dhyana. And to attain inner calmness is Samadhi. When we are in a position to deal with Dhyana and to keep our mind in Samadhi, then we are said to have attained Dhyana and Samadhi. The Bodhisattva Shila Sutra says, our essence of mind is intrinsically pure. Learned audience, let us realize this for ourselves at all times. Let us train ourselves, practice it by ourselves, and attain Buddhahood by our own effort. Would you have a question?

[41:35]

I wonder if there's two kinds of thoughts. thoughts that just come up on their own, and then thoughts that come from habitual mind patterns? Well, there are many. There are various levels of the arising of thoughts. There are thoughts which come up on their own, but there's some cause for them. There's a cause for every thought, but some of the thoughts we don't know what the cause is, we're just not aware of what the cause is, but this is what we call random thinking. But then there's purposeful thinking, and that's another level of thinking, that's karmic thinking.

[42:41]

which because it gives you direction, you're giving direction to your life through purposeful thinking. Volitional thinking gives purpose to your life. There's volitional thinking and volitional action. Volitional thinking creates karma by itself just through the thought. When it's acted out then it creates create results. But random thinking may or may not be karmic. It's complex. So there's some effort we have to make then to be aware of that, right? Yeah. Not to get caught by that. Not to get caught by what? The volitional thinking. or not to believe that it's real in some sense, right?

[43:50]

Not to think that it's substantial. Well, it's substantial. You might think of it like a dream, right? There's something going on there, right? We have to be careful what we dream and how we act it out. Because once we start acting out our dreams, then not only do we believe in them, but they perpetuate themselves. And then we become the victim of our thinking and actions. And we can't get out of that cycle. That's the problem with bad karma. We become the victims of our own thinking and actions. That's the big problem.

[44:55]

And then other people also become victims of our actions and thoughts. So we should be careful to act in ways that are beneficial and think in thoughts that are beneficial. But in Zazen, we let go of the whole thing. In Zazen, the idea is that we let go of our thoughts and we turn maybe to our posture. Not maybe. What? Okay, definitely then. To posture and breathing. It seems that there's, I feel like, at least for me, and I don't see how to avoid having that whole process be riddled with discrimination. I am sensing a difference between thought, between being lost in thought, and...

[46:02]

It doesn't have to take place. What doesn't have to take place? The discrimination between... I can still somehow choose to follow posture and... No, it's simply that your intention is posture. Intention is attention on posture and breathing and unifying posture, breathing and thought. and then everything's changing. There's nothing wrong with that. Everything's changing, your posture is changing, your breath is changing, your mind is changing, and you're simply re-establishing yourself all the time. So there's nothing wrong, there's nothing right. It's simply, this is what's happening, this is the thing to do. not like oh this is wrong no it's just like oh you know just leave the judgmental mind out of it there is thought you know there's purposeful thought but the thought is the thought of Zazen and everything's included in the thought of Zazen

[47:46]

is to sit zazen. So that's the thing of the moment. And when there's no you, then it's zazen. And the way it's no you is to let go of discriminating mind. Letting go of discriminating mind, being settled in yourself. In everyday life, though, problems come up that call for positions to be taken to discuss the merits and demerits So I'm looking toward how does one maintain that? The same way, because in Dzazen every moment there's a decision to be made, but you're not making that decision based on self, you're making the decision based on what is best for this situation, what makes this situation work. So there's discrimination but it's not the same kind of discrimination, it's discrimination of non-discrimination.

[48:56]

It's discrimination, it's making decisions without interposing a self which is discriminating. People perceive things the way they perceive them, but as he says here, don't set up oppositions. So how do you deal with opposition without setting up confrontation in a self-centered way? If you think about that as your mode, then even though you may fail, still you may also not fail. And the more you deal with things that way, the more you find out how to do that.

[50:05]

Peter? So as we're sitting and we say, straightened up. And we could call that a kind of discrimination. We see the difference between crooked and straight. But that's different from, oh no, I'm sitting with a crooked back. It's just a different discrimination which is not based on self-centeredness. That's the difference. We're always making choices. You cannot live your life making choices moment by moment. Every moment you have to make a choice. But if you make choices continually based on self-centeredness, that's called discrimination. When you make choices based on non-discrimination, that's practice. Thank you.

[51:09]

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