And this is what the Heart Sutra is about. The Heart Sutra says, Avalokitesvara is talking to Shariputra, and he says, Shariputra, all dharmas are empty in their own being. In other words, all the elements are constituents of They don't have a self-nature, because everything is dependent on something else. There's nothing that's not dependent on something else for its existence. So when you get down to what are elements, elements are something that seem to be the bottom line of their line. And the avidhammas, some of them, some of the schools, felt that the dharmas were, although human nature and the nature of all beings is empty of its own inherent being, the dharmas were something solid.

[01:47]

But the Mahayanas came along and said, sorry folks, even the dharmas are empty. Five skandhas are empty and the dharmas are all empty. So that's the gist of the Heart Sutra. That's what it's talking about. All forms are empty. There is no form that has its own being, and yet all forms are the forms of emptiness. Emptiness has no special form, but all the forms that there are, are the forms of emptiness. So if you want to study emptiness, you study the emptiness of forms. So, this is So the dharma is the law that governs the dharmas.

[02:55]

And when you say dharma gates are boundless, why bound them? Dharma gates means the teachings. In other words, in a speck of sand is the whole thing. So the speck of sand is a dharma gate. Whatever you do is a dharmagate. This is what our practice is based on. Our practice is based on when you are completely one with your activity, everything in the universe is included. And that's a dharmagate, if you can perceive it. So whatever we do, that's our practice, if you do it that way. So this is undivided activity.

[04:01]

Zenki. Everything, and so Dogen says everything has its, not just Dogen, but this is my understanding, everything has its dharma position. But Dogen really uses this term a lot. Each dharma has its own dharma position. And when each dharma is has its thorough, when each dharma is thoroughly itself, then the whole universe is included in its activity. Because nothing exists by itself. Everything exists because of everything else. So nothing is, you know, there's a scientific fact, I think, There's only so much water in the world.

[05:04]

And it doesn't increase or decrease. It's just either here or there. But it doesn't increase or decrease. So if you took a little bit of water out of the universe or out of the world, something strange would happen. Because all water is dependent on something. Hydrogen, oxygen, plus everything else. Water is dependent on the earth. Mountains are dependent on water. Water is dependent on... I mean, you just go on forever. So everything is interdependent with everything else. This is the Dharma. So this is the undivided activity that Doug is actually, that underlies what he's talking about.

[06:13]

And the Zen key, the total dynamic working means everything is working together and supporting everything else. And even though it looks like things are antagonistic toward each other, that's still not outside of the undivided activity of the universe. And the object. Yeah. The organ and the consciousness need the object in order for them to be seen. And all three elements have to be there in order for someone to say, oh, I see that. If I say, I see that cushion, there has to be a cushion,

[07:18]

to be seen. There has to be something that sees it, and consciousness which recognizes it. So the object becomes part of the totality of seeing, and it's not separate from seeing, even though it's an object for this subject. But if you say, is a human being only a collection of dharmas? Then you think, well, then what is there to life?

[08:24]

What is there special about life? That's only if you don't realize that your true self is the totality of life. Then you think that something's lost when you die. So if what we are is the totality of life, then there's no birth or death. It's just birth and death, although we feel them because of our individuality, are just a certain part of a process which we call birth and death. Buddhism is not useful. I said Zazen is not useful.

[09:31]

I may have said Buddhism. Either way is okay. There isn't an actuality. It's just all there at the same time. It's all there at the same time, but all there at the same time includes hierarchy. Okay. Because since everything is different, everything is the same, that's no hierarchy. That's horizontal, right? Everything's on the same level. The hierarchy is, there's also the vertical existence.

[10:34]

which is hierarchy, everything exists differently. And difference implies hierarchy. Some things are here, something else is there, something else is here. So in nature there's always hierarchy. But both exist. This is the four wisdoms. One is that everything is horizontal, the same, we see everything in a horizontal nature, no hierarchy. Our hierarchy is not involved, but then we also see how everything is also involved in hierarchy, because each thing is individual and independent at the same time that it's dependent. If I see, this happens frequently, I see something I see things, I see something in a particular way, and it's limiting.

[11:39]

It's limited. And so, then there's a shift, and the limits expand. And it seems like that's, that at one level there's the hierarchy, and then I'm seeing it from the horizontal. Yeah. That's right. So, things, you know, life exists on many different levels. So when we talk about one level, that's what we're talking about. Then we can shift to another level. So we see everything in its limited sense, and we also see it in its unlimited sense. So when you put value on, when you say Buddhism is useful, that's seeing it in its limited sense, as compared to something else. When we say useful, then we're talking about comparison. Something is useless or it's useful in comparison to something else.

[12:42]

So we put value on things according to its use. So if you want something maybe very useful, something maybe not so useful, so we say, well, this is worthless, this is valuable. general category that we then get stuck in. Right, so we get stuck in the category of comparative values. And that's where we spend our life, is in the category of comparative values. So we say zazen is good for nothing, which means it's outside of the category of useful values or comparative values. If it's not outside of the realm of comparative values, then it's just another And I remember your talks during Desert Storm and all of that. It seems that that's what we're looking at as a country, just the limited value of the Rebecca, you look troubled.

[14:10]

When we say useful or non-useful, isn't that sort of a human-centric point of view? I mean, we say, oh, ants have no use to us. Or snails have no use to us. They just are destructive. That's a comparative point of view. Snails are maybe useless to us, but they're completely useless. It's a different kind of snail. Some people like to eat them. Not the kind that grew in our garden in Berkeley. But actually, the kind that grew in our garden in Berkeley were imported from someplace known to be eaten. Does everybody... I feel very warm and kind of stuffy. Do you feel that way?

[15:11]

Or are you cold? Can we open a few windows? A little bit? Not so much, but something, some circulation. So, to say useless, I hate to have to explain this, but it's just a way of shocking you into getting off in a useful bent. Trying to manipulate it. Yeah, trying to manipulate your mind to stop thinking in the unusual way. It's not a commodity. It has comparative value and absolute value. Snails have absolute value. because they're snails. I did not create snails and snails are just there, right?

[16:13]

And they have absolute value in the realm of life. So you can say, we say a snail is small and a dog is big, but a dog is not big and a snail is not small. A snail is just a snail, and a dog is just a dog. But because we're five feet or six feet tall, we think a dog is big, or an elephant is big, and a snail is small. But snails are not small, and dogs are not big. So we're always comparing in this way. We have to compare. But that's only one side. The other side is that everything has absolute value. So we say zazen has no value, no comparative value.

[17:13]

It's not an activity to get something, which is compared to some other activity. It has its own value, which is absolute. And no one knows what that is. Yes? Would you say then that the trouble with the world, human world, is that we live too much without our feet in absolute... Yeah. We're swimming in the waves, but our feet are not on the ground. So we just get tossed around by the realm of comparative values. I was laughing at Rebecca because we were talking a little earlier about, I was using a metaphor for, it feels like practicing the last year and a half here, so it feels like I'm turning water in a deep end of a pool sometimes.

[18:20]

Yeah. Dogen says, you know, It's like, you should feel like you're swimming in the ocean, in the waves, which, you know, the surface is always like this. But your feet, you should be walking on the bottom of your feet at the same time. Well, it seems like Zinki, then, is I'm thinking about the absolute value of a snail, or anything, or zazen, as you were taking. It seems like zeke, then, is really coming down very strongly. You can read it as coming down very strongly on the side of this absolute value, sort of counterbalancing the... It's not very relativistic, actually.

[19:23]

It is, though, because he talks about things. It has to be things which are involved in the total dynamism. Right. It has to be dharmas that are the subject of the dharma. and we're sort of caught in this relative point of view. Yeah, that's right. So it's very hard for us to see the absolute value of any dharma or anything. That's why he says in Genjo Koan, firewood is firewood and ash is ash.

[20:28]

we say firewood turns into ash. The firewood is firewood, and it's in its own dharma position as firewood, and it has its own before and after, has its own history, and its own future, and its own present. And the next, and then something is called ash, and it has its own dharma position as ash. So, there is a process in which one thing seems to turn into another. But that's our perception. One thing turns into another. What we don't perceive is the side in which each thing has its own absolute value as its dharma position, because we're always comparing. The next step is ash compared to firewood. So it's like one commentator Nishihari Bokusan says about that, he says, if you asked tofu, if you said to tofu, you were once beans, tofu would laugh at you.

[21:43]

Say, what are you talking about? What's a bean anyway? If you told cottage cheese it was once milk, You would say, what are you talking about? What's milk? It's just because I can't remember. It's just that you can't remember, because... I'm not being remember, I mean... Well, what about human beings? What if I told you, Alan, that you were, you know, Babel curse, or, you know, galaxy facts? As a matter of fact, we were. We're stardust. I'm with you all the way up to the point that I think about the fluid nature of time.

[22:46]

Oh, time. And along with that, the idea that we recreate the universe. And then we recreate the universe moment by moment. Create, yeah, not recreate. Oh, create. Thank you. How do we think about these two things together? Time. One little piece is in the other flowing. Being is time, and time is being. They're not two different things. So we say, things happen in time. But that's just a way of speaking. Things are time, and time is things. So we tend to separate things from time.

[23:52]

So we have these kinds of conceptions about it. It's just like saying form is emptiness and emptiness is form. We tend to think of emptiness as a thing and form as a thing, but actually the form of something is emptiness. And emptiness is the nature of things. So as time is inseparable from being, and being is inseparable from time, so there are many ways to look at time. There's actually the next fascicle. The fascicle before this is called Uji, Time Being. And I suggest that you study that this week. But we haven't gotten to our text yet, so I'm trying to see kind of where we left off.

[25:11]

At number four, you know, let me read up to, since this is so short, I'll read up to, we discussed section five at the first night. And so it's nice to kind of come back to that, because this is the example that he uses for his subject here. So I'll read up to there. He says, the great way of all Buddhas thoroughly practiced is emancipation and realization. Notice he says thoroughly practiced. meaning thoroughness. Thoroughness is one of Dogen's, a word that he uses a lot, a term that he uses a lot. Thoroughness means thoroughly done, undivided activity. The great way of all Buddhas, thoroughly practiced, is emancipation and realization.

[26:21]

Emancipation means that in birth you are emancipated from birth, or freed from birth, or freed from life, within life. In death you are emancipated from death. Thus there is detachment from birth and death, and penetrating birth and death. Penetrating birth and death can also, you can also say immersion in birth and death. Such is the complete practice of the way. There is letting go of birth and death and vitalizing crossing or entering birth and death. Such is the thorough practice of the Great Way. Realization is birth, and birth is realization. At the time of realization, there is nothing but birth totally actualized, nothing but death totally actualized. Such activity makes birth holy birth, death holy death. You can substitute life for birth. Actualized just so at this moment, this activity is neither large nor small.

[27:25]

neither immeasurable nor measurable, neither remote nor urgent. Birth, in its right nowness, is undivided activity. Undivided activity is birth in its immediacy. Birth neither comes nor goes. Birth neither appears nor is already existing. Thus, birth is totally manifested and death is totally manifested. Totally manifested, zenki. Know that there are innumerable beings or dharmas. He uses the word, when he translated, when this was translated, he didn't like to use the word dharma. But being here means dharma. So know that there are innumerable dharmas in yourself. And there is birth and there is death. Quietly think over whether birth and all things that arise together with birth are inseparable or not. There is neither a moment nor a thing that is apart from birth, and there is neither an object nor a mind that is apart from death, birth.

[28:34]

So here is the example. And I read the example from the other translation last time, so I'll read it from this one this time. Birth is just like riding in a boat. You raise the sails and row with the oar. Although you row, the boat gives you a ride. And without the boat, no one could ride. But you ride in the boat, and your riding makes the boat what it is. Investigate a moment such as this. At just such a moment, there is nothing but the world or the time of the boat. The sky, the water, and the shore are all the boat's world. You can substitute time for world also. The sky, the water, and the shore are all the boat's time world, which is not the same as a time world that is not the boat's." And Dr. Abbe says, life, translates it as, life is what I make it to exist.

[29:44]

And I take, And he said, it is for this reason that life is what I make to exist, and I is what life makes me. So there is a cooperating between myself and life. I think we talked about that last time, or the first time. When you ride in a boat, your body and mind and the environs together are the undivided activity of the boat. the entire earth and the entire sky are both the undivided activity of the boat. Thus, birth, or life, is nothing but you, and you are nothing but life, or birth."

[30:49]

Jeremy, any other questions? I'm reading the clearies. Translation. It's not that different. At this very moment, the boat is the world. Even the sky, the water, and the shore have all become circumstances of the boat, unlike circumstances which are not the boat. And then, later on, we have the whole earth and all space are workings of the boat. Don't forget, working means thinking. What are the circumstances that are not the boat? If the whole earth and the sky are... It just seems like if we think of life as entirely an interpenetration, then are there in fact circumstances that are not part of that interpenetration? Well, that's a little unclear.

[32:00]

The circumstances that are not... the boat circumstance, but you can... So you think about it in a different dharma moment? Well, if you think about it, there are some things which are clearly influencing, and there are some things which are distantly influencing. And that which is distantly influencing is almost theoretically influencing. I mean, it's so distant that you don't feel its influence. But in all of our lives, our lives are dependent on causes and conditions. So there are conditions which are very close to us, like the weather and the people around us. And causes and conditions, right?

[33:03]

So the conditions are the weather, the people around us, the circumstances of our life in any moment. And so there are some circumstances which are very influential, and there's some which are a little more distant. But it's hard to say how many actual conditions are influencing our life at any moment. I mean, there are uncountable conditions influencing our life on each moment that are very close to us. And then there are conditions, as you go out, that don't exert pretty much influence on our life at any moment. But very distant things are influencing our life at any moment. But some aren't. There are names for approximate causes and distant causes, and so forth.

[34:13]

And the causes and conditions working together determine how we will interact with life. So, the boat goes along, and the boat is like any vehicle for our life. And so we move with something. together with something we move, even if it's just walking down the street. And then the sky is participating and influencing our life. And the various things, the automobiles, the traffic, and the people, and the emotions, and feelings, and thoughts of everything around us, are conditions which are causing us to do something in a certain way. And we respond to life. And life responds to us.

[35:17]

But actually, the whole thing is just total dynamic, the total dynamism of the undivided activity of universal activity. And we have a part in it. So we co- In our individual way, we co-operate with life, which is actually moving us anyway. And the way we co-operate with life determines whether we're happy or unhappy, or make mistakes or do things harmoniously or smoothly. So the more we understand what our life is, the easier it is to do that. So what gets us into trouble is our ego, right?

[36:25]

That's what we say, you have such a big ego, that's why you get into trouble. Ego means a sense of self, a false sense of self, which doesn't cooperate with what life is telling us. But there was some question in the air, and I lost it. I think the question that Alan raised was, what are the circumstances that are not about the book? And you could rephrase it. And I thought the answer that you suggested sounded pretty good, which is in another Dharma moment, when a boat isn't, and the circumstances aren't about the boat, or it's the moment that the person enters the boat, the earth and the sky are connected with the boat. The boat's time. Yeah, it's the boat's time, but there may be another time when it's not the boat's time.

[37:27]

Yeah, when there's a different circumstance. our consciousness is not one with the boat. So there's consciousness and some sense of touch, smell, hearing, seeing, thinking, tasting, and the object, which is the boat. And when consciousness and the sense faculties are one with the boat, then that's a complete activity. And it's all the time of the boat. But when you go into your car, then you leave the boat alone, and it's all the time of the car. Or the time of your office, or the time of dinner, or something like that. sitting down at the table is the whole universe.

[38:30]

The whole universe is right there. And it's the time of dinner. Dinner's dinner time. I was thinking of this notion as a way of taking sort of snapshots of the reality. And the reality is always there. The snapshot is focusing on the vote, or focusing at a very microscopic level. There's a t-shirt of the entire galaxy in the air that says, you are here, point to the dots. And that's the reality. And you could be that insignificant in that reality if you're looking at it from that far away. Or if you're looking at it, you're completely in your mind, indulging. and you've completely fixated on some thought going through your mind, that reality could be that tiny.

[39:33]

But the fact that you happen to be focusing on that particular thing doesn't change the fact that all of it is going on. That's how I was thinking. So everything is the dot. Yeah, everything is the dot, that's right. That's the thought that his statement springs from, that we're already enlightened. Well, there is already enlightenment. Well, thank you. You can save me another question. Right. He's already enlightened. So there is no divided activity then? Well. Essentially, there's no divided activity, but we tend to divide it. We tend to make the division. Because we discriminate.

[40:38]

It's okay to discriminate. We have to discriminate. We have to make a choice. When we choose one thing, we discriminate against something else. So we're always choosing, moment by moment. We're choosing to do something. And that's discriminating. We make a choice moment by moment. And when we choose one thing, we eliminate something else. We divide. So we're constantly in divided activity. But divided activity is the expression of undivided activity. Yes. And as we've been talking, I have this strange image of the boat, where in our Zen practice, we talk a lot about being one with the boat and the undivided activity. But if you step into the boat, and you don't want to get your feet wet, and you sort of bring the land with you,

[41:52]

By introducing yourself, there's divided activity, and maybe if you don't pay attention, you even fall into the water. But, if I'm understanding you right, at the moment you fall into the water, that's undivided activity. From a certain perspective. The moment you fall into the water, that's called awakening. Yeah. And, well, but there's no before awakening. No before? Right. In the fascicle. Yeah, that's an interesting statement. Shall we go on? Could we switch? What? It seems in that sentence, Brian, that you read, I mean, it seems to me almost like the important part of that sentence is at this very moment.

[43:08]

Yeah, at this very moment. The beginning phrase is not just sort of there to dangle, but it's real important. Right, at that very moment. At just such a moment. At just such a moment. So when you ride in a boat, your body and mind and the environments together are the undivided activity of the boat. So it's like when you look at a painting, you know, And if you saw a painting of a boat, and the water, and the sky, and the birds, you tend to look at the subject. What's the subject of the painting? The subject of the painting is the boat. And then the water is a kind of something that the boat is riding in, and the sky is the background. But actually, in the painting, everything is in the foreground. That's what the value of the two dimensions, non-comparative value of a two-dimensional painting is that all the spaces are equal.

[44:08]

You know, painting up to the 20th century, during Renaissance painting, had perspective. You know, to make... It's a quite wonderful trick to have perspective where you have the boat in the foreground and the water and so forth, and you can step into the painting. But actually, 20th century painting is more flat, two-dimensional, in order to bring to our attention the fact that sky and the boat and the water have equal value. And the negative spaces, so-called, between the positive objects are also positive. So when you see a really good painting, there's something wonderful about the way the negative, so what's usually seen as the negative spaces surrounding the positive objects are also just as important as the objects.

[45:22]

And so when you step into the boat, everything is, takes on equal value and is included in the picture of the boat. Sky and water are all the same value as the boat and the person and the activity. That's all the boat's time. at this moment. So Zen Master Yuanru Engo, priest Keqin said, birth is undivided activity, death is undivided activity. Clearly, now clarify and investigate these words.

[46:29]

What you should investigate is this. While the undivided activity of birth has no beginning or end, and covers the entire earth and the entire sky, it hinders neither birth's undivided activity nor death's undivided activity. At the very moment of death's undivided activity, while it covers the entire earth and the entire sky, it hinders neither death's undivided activity nor birth's undivided activity. This being so, birth does not hinder death and death does not hinder birth. Does that make no sense? In Abe's translation,

[47:35]

He says, the following quotation comes in a poem by Yuan Wu that Dogen quotes at more length in Shobo Genzo's Shinjin Yakudo, "'Life is the manifestation of the total dynamism, death is the manifestation of the total dynamism, filling to the full the immensity of space, the unburied mind always bright and clear.'" At the time of life's total manifestation, beyond the duality of birth and death, life does not hinder death's total manifestation and vice versa. Life's total manifestation and death's total manifestation, though equally encompassing all dharmas, do not hinder each other.

[48:41]

That is, each stage of time is total and yet does not impede on any other. Let me read a little more at number seven. Both the entire earth and the entire sky appear in birth as well as in death. However, it is not that one and the same entire sky and earth are fully manifested in birth and also fully manifested in death. Although not one, they are not different. Although not different, they are not the same. Although not the same, there are not many. Similarly, in birth there is undivided activity in all things, and in death there is undivided activity of all things. There is undivided activity in what is not birth and not death. There is birth and there is death in undivided activity." So he's looking at it from various perspectives. We tend to think that if we look at it from one perspective, it eliminates the other perspective.

[49:49]

That's our usual way of thinking. So... You know, since time... is intimately the activity itself. You can substitute the words time for any activity, or for any object, as far as that goes. So, when we think about life, We can say time. Or we can say this thing called life.

[50:57]

But the time, each thing has its own particular time. It doesn't interfere with the time of anything else. So time doesn't overlap with other time. doesn't interfere with some other time. Does that not make sense? Five o'clock doesn't interfere with four o'clock. No. It always flows in one direction. It seems to flow in one direction. But even though it flows in more than one direction, it still doesn't interfere. Time is not an addiction in time. Well, time flows. It's just an idea we have. No, but I mean here, when you were talking about time, you did mean time as in 4 o'clock and 5 o'clock. Yeah. The time of something? Well, there's absolute time and relative time.

[52:00]

Relative time is 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock. It's saying 1 inch and 2 inch are relative Right. One inch is relative. Four and five are just measurements that we've made up. They're measurements. That's called relative. Yeah. That's relative time. That's relative time. Relative time is one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock. Isn't it? No, if I say three inches, if I say three inches, that's a measurement. It's three inches in time. It has to be three inches of something. You know, usually we talk about, when we talk about time, we don't talk about time at all. We only talk about the units of measurement of it. Yeah, right. But we don't usually just talk about three inches. We talk about three inches of something. We define it. But time, we never bother to define it.

[53:07]

We don't bother to define it, no. But nevertheless, we do compare one time with another. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Eight o'clock, nine o'clock? Are you having a good time? Good time, bad time? So that's relative time. But absolute time is just now. Did you tell us to read dharma? Time for activity, is that what you said? Time for life. You can read time for activity. Okay. Go ahead. Time has no beginning or end.

[54:23]

In absolute time has no beginning or end. That's right, it's just now. So at any time we can say now, and it's just the time now. Now is nothing also. Now is what? Now is nothing. Now is no special thing. Although... You can't measure that. No, you can't measure it. Right, it's always gone. It's always gone, but it's coming. Well, coming and going are just ways of talking about it. Conventional ways of talking about it. As soon as I say now it's gone. Yes, as soon as you say now it's gone, but you also say now now. With what mind would you eat this little cake? But, nevertheless, now, even though this moment of now is no longer this moment of now, now is just now.

[55:28]

Because I can say now anytime. Because it doesn't belong to coming and going. Now doesn't belong to coming and going. Although we can speak of it as things that are now coming and going. Actually now it's not, it doesn't belong to coming and going. The real now doesn't belong to coming and going. Can we get it just another way? Yes. You're trying to make things easy. No, I don't think this is going to make it any easier. Good. While the undivided activity of birth has no beginning or end and covers the entire earth and entire sky, it hinders neither births to undivided activity nor deaths to undivided activity. My mind just goes blank at the syntax.

[56:33]

The implication is, to me, while the undivided Earth and the entire sky, usually we would think that it would hinder Earth's undivided activity. But I don't understand what that means either. Why would we think that it being undivided and endless, how could we think of that and still think that it would hinder itself? I'm lost. Is it because it's timeless, it can't hinder, either looking at it as death or looking at it as birth? If I don't understand the word hinder. What you should investigate is, well the undivided, well hinder is an interesting word because sometimes hinder is used in its opposite sense.

[57:44]

Yeah, it has to do with each thing in its own time doesn't hinder any other activity because everything happens in its own time. Could I get back to now? Anytime. Can you get away from now? No. So far, we've just focused on now as a snapshot. It's just a quick little now. No, we haven't. I thought we focused on it both ways. But then it just occurs to me that now is just a long, sustained... Yeah, now is timelessness.

[59:04]

But yet it's time. Yeah. But it's absolute time too. Yeah, absolute time is timelessness. So, maybe you can capture... Three is instant, but... Or a lot. But the only way you can capture it is by not capturing it. The only way you can capture it is by letting it go. Let it go and it fills your hands. Yes. I keep coming back to this image and I don't know why. You know, we've talked about the snapshot or the frames. So that we have these instances rather than a flow. And I keep thinking about those bars on the Golden Gate Bridge that are deliberately designed so that if you slow down, you see them and it blocks the view. But if you move fast enough, they disappear.

[60:09]

And somehow those two things seem very closely related. Well, yes, our whole life is like that. doing something without realizing it, we move in order to see things in a certain way. We're very much locked into our senses. Our senses see, hear, feel, and so forth in a very limited way. And so we have rhythm in order to clarify. We have movement and we move and our whole life is determined by this, you know, gravity. Actually, everything we do is determined by gravity. It has something to do with gravity. With working against gravity. As an example.

[61:15]

Gravity wants to hold us down. And our spirit is working against it constantly. And these are the two forces. And so whatever we do is determined by that force. And so the way we move and how we act, it's all determined by that force. And then there are gravitational pulls between people and things. So we see in a certain way because of the way we move through life, through gravitational pulls, forces. So our view is very limited. Our understanding is very limited. But he said, you should investigate is, well, the undivided activity of birth has no beginning or end.

[62:26]

See, here, he says the undivided activity of birth has no beginning or end. When you take out the fact, you know, as soon as you lose the idea, or let go of the idea that anything is permanent, or that anything has its own intrinsic Independence. As soon as you forget that idea, then you see that life is endless. Our life is endless. We tend to think that our life started when we were born, and it ends when we die. Because of our sense of individuality as a person. But in the totality of life, There's just endless becoming. But our human consciousness is also somewhat limited.

[63:43]

And because of the body, And the senses are part of this world. We only see as far as this world, as far as we can comprehend this world, or sense this world. But each one of us is an arising of the totality of life, as an expression of the totality of life as a piece of this world. worldly being. So, he says, while the undivided activity of birth has no beginning or end and covers the entire earth and entire sky, it hinders neither birth's undivided activity nor death's undivided activity. This is the way of speaking. At the moment of death's undivided activity,

[64:48]

Well, it covers the entire earth and the entire sky. It hinders neither its own undivided activity nor birth's undivided activity. In other words, this being so, birth does not hinder death and death does not hinder birth. So, everything can take place. Birth can take place and death can take place. They don't interfere with each other. And yet, each one, in In life, so-called, life covers everything. In death, death covers everything. So, it's like, you know, in Ginjo Koan, he says, it's like the moon, it's not like the moon in the water.

[66:00]

Not like the moon reflected in the water. When one side is dark, the other side is, when one side is illuminated, the other side is dark. So if you look at the moon, you know, the moon is illuminated, one side, but the other side is in the dark. So the side, when we look at the moon, it looks like a full moon. And the full moon covers everything, just the full moon. But the other side is actually dark. And if you look at the other side that's dark, it just looks like everything is night. There's no moon tonight. You know the moon is there. So when the moon is completely illuminated, we call that light, we call that full moon. And when it's not illuminated, it's just everything is dark. But these are two phases of the moon. It's like you said the other night, the two sides of your hand, right?

[67:07]

This is life and this is death, but they're two sides of the one hand. And they don't interfere with each other. The back of my hand doesn't interfere with the front of my hand. But they're both, belong, they're both this hand. So, this way there's one kind of activity. This way there's another kind of activity. Birth and death are two activities of the one hand. They're two expressions of the total dynamic working, or zenki. They don't interfere with each other. And yet, when one is dominant, the other is still there, but we don't call it death when the moon is illuminated. So dark and light are two ways of expression in Buddhadharma.

[68:08]

Light means everything is revealed in its individuality. So, life in the world is the light side, because everything is illuminated. And death is the dark side, where things disappear and everything is one. But they're both encompassed by the total dynamism, which is called life, in a non-dualistic meaning. So death looks like, maybe, who knows, right? Looks like everything has disappeared. But in that disappearance is actually the great potential for life. The great potential of life exists in the dark.

[69:09]

And it's expressed as the light. So both dark and light are necessary. Both birth and death are necessary things. One is not more important than the other. They're both necessary expressions of totality of life, which he calls undivided activity or thinking. the whole works. So maybe that's enough for tonight. We have one more class and it should work out just great.

[70:00]

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