Today, I want to repeat the order of dependent arising as a basis. Personality materiality gives rise to the sense bases. The sense bases give rise to contact. Contact gives rise to feeling. Feeling gives rise to craving. Craving gives rise to attachment.

[01:45]

Attachment gives rise to becoming. Becoming gives rise to birth. This is called one turning of the chain or wheel of dependent origination from beginning to end. And in reverse order, suffering arises because of birth. Birth arises because of becoming. Becoming arises because of attachment. Attachment arises because of craving. Craving arises because of feeling. Feeling arises because of contact. Contact arises because of descent spaces. Descent spaces arise because of mentality-materiality. Mentality-materiality arises because of to replace ignorance with mindfulness and attachment with freedom.

[03:32]

And to always remain in, or reside, The unborn Buddha mind is our fundamental existence. And when craving and attachment are present, then based on ignorance, The Buddha mind is obscured.

[04:41]

Fundamental Buddha mind cannot be found. Even though craving and attachment are aspects of our fundamental Buddha mind. But these aspects of our Buddha mind So, this is the problem. Even though craving and attachment are Buddha-mind, they're aspects of Buddha-mind which create suffering. You know, in Judeo-Christian is also an aspect of God, or good.

[05:59]

But it's the part that causes suffering. Evil causes suffering. So it's how do we get out of evil or how do we escape from suffering. But if we try to escape from suffering by trying to make everything pleasant, it doesn't work.

[07:15]

That doesn't work. to live with mindfulness about how suffering arises and how it ceases is how to practice. And to be mindful is to be aware when conditioned arising begins and to be aware of how it arises and how we cause it to arise. And instead of being captivated by desires which lead to suffering, to enjoy our unborn Buddha mind.

[08:35]

to actually learn to enjoy our original mind as a place where we want to abide. This is why suffering is called a condition for enlightenment. Because when we have so much pain and suffering, it leads us to search for our original mind. Problem is, our original mind may not be so interesting. And so we actually tend to, you know, look up, pass over it. Well that, I know that. go on with something interesting and exciting.

[09:39]

So we crave excitement and interest. Plain food, you know, may not be so interesting. And the more we excite ourselves, the more boring the excitement we had last time was. And we have to create more excitement And the more excitement we stimulate, the more uninteresting our Buddha mind seems. Well, I'm going to read Buddhadasa's example number three, which is about, he says, for our third example, let's suppose that a young lady sees her boyfriend walking along with another woman.

[11:16]

I think most of us can relate to this. She immediately becomes inflamed. Within the space of a brief moment, she becomes so enraged that it is just as if she had passed through ten hells. And all this because she saw her boyfriend walking together with another woman. What has happened is that her eyes have seen the form of her boyfriend with another woman. This causes eye consciousness to arise immediately because we have the eye and then we have the object. Before this moment, this kind of consciousness did not exist.

[12:30]

There was only a functionless consciousness, a consciousness without any duty to perform. You could say there was no consciousness, but now this kind of consciousness arises with that form and these eyes, and together they make contact. Just a moment ago, there was no contact. Now there is. There is a coming together of the I, the I-object or form, and the I-consciousness. Contact arises and causes feeling, craving, and so on to arise. Or to put it in more detail, once consciousness arises, it causes a newly conditioned kind of body-mind to arise. which in turn gives rise to the kind of sense bases, eyes, that can experience suffering.

[13:36]

So the conditions for suffering have now arisen. This is followed by a feeling of suffering and a restless craving. Then arises attachment to the I-concept. I, I, I'm so mad, I could die. And it all arose by way of the I, E-Y-E. Interesting that it's two words within. This is birth, jati. It is a suffering-prone ego, an I that can experience dissatisfaction has arisen and will become subject to suffering. We can simply say that it is an ego so attached to its arising that it suffers.

[14:41]

been so attached to its arising, meaning it cannot let go of this idea, or this feeling, or this... In this particular instance, jealousy, or envy, which maybe gives rise to a feeling of abandonment, And so it's hard to let go of these concepts once they've arisen. And then this is who we are at that moment, you know. When there's no attachment, no craving, and there's just residing in the unborn Buddha mind, that's who we are.

[15:54]

And then as soon as this other person is born, that's who we are. So we're not any special person. We're just who we are at that moment, from moment to moment. There seems to be a continuity. There is a kind of continuity. And we say, well, there's Susan. I know Susan. Susan is like this and like that. But actually, Susan is a different person on each moment. On each moment there is a different Susan. Even though it looks like the same Susan traveling through space and time. So we could simply say that it is an ego so attached to its suffering, to its arising, that it suffers.

[17:01]

It is the passing away of its ego that is suffering, sorrow and frustration. This is full-blown paticca-samuppada. So its arising is suffering and its passing away is also suffering. It's really hard to let go of something once it's arisen. Especially jealousy and envy, you know, those kinds of emotions are very hard to let go of once they've arisen. Because that's... myself has been injured. You know, my... I have been injured. I have been treated badly. I have... I have... We cannot let go of it.

[18:06]

Try hard to let go of jealousy in the situation. You can't let go of it and it stirs up all these butterflies in your stomach, you know, for weeks and months on end. So, this is full, the cycle of actually, it's arising and it's dying out, is this full cycle of the 11 conditions, all within the mind of this young girl. This particular example of Pachi's Samutpada arises by way of the eye, because she saw it. And it's simply a situation, and she's gone through ten hells just seeing the situation, not knowing anything about it, actually.

[19:11]

Now, let us suppose that this young lady was fooled by one of her friends. In fact, her boyfriend is not going with any other woman, but someone decides to play a trick on her and tells her that her boyfriend was seen going with some other woman and she believes it. Now, this is ear contact. Sound comes in by way of the ear, and ear consciousness, accompanied by ignorance, is present. Because there is no mindfulness, this ear consciousness gives rise to mentality materiality. That is, her body and mind are newly primed to give rise to the sense bases, which will function in a way that leads to suffering, as in this example. Once the sense bases have arisen, arises. Restless craving then arises, which gives rise to attachment.

[20:17]

Then there is the full-blown becoming of the I-mind concept. It is the birth of the I which has suffering, grief, and lamentation. Suffering has arisen in accordance with the law of dependent origination by way of the ear. Again, several hours or days later, this young lady may simply begin to doubt the sincerity of her boyfriend. No one has said anything to her, and she hasn't seen anything. In her own mind, she begins to doubt whether or not her boyfriend is begoing with another woman. She begins to make assumptions, and so dependent origination begins to operate by way of the mind door. A mental object comes into contact with the mind, and mind consciousness arises. This mind consciousness conditions a new mentality, materiality, to arise that was an inert body-mind, not conditioned to experience suffering. And it is now that condition, that mentality, materiality, that condition, sense bases, capable of experiencing suffering to arrive.

[21:23]

The sense bases condition suffering-prone, suffering-prone contact to arrive. These follow, then follows restless craving and clinging to attachment, and the same kind of suffering arises again. This is a case of dependent origination becoming active in that young lady by way of mind consciousness. In the three cases of this young lady, we can see that when she saw forms with her eyes, dependent origination became active in her by way of eye consciousness. When she heard her friend telling her a lie, dependent origination was activated by ear consciousness. And finally, when she began to doubt all on her own, dependent origination became functional by way of mind consciousness. This shows that dependent origination can arise dependent on different bases, and suffering will be the result in each case. So please observe that in just a very short time, the complete course of dependent origination leading to suffering can arise.

[22:32]

It is the complete chain of all 11 conditions. In the brief moment that a daughter-in-law sees her mother-in-law's face, suppressed restlessness and uneasiness arise. In Japan, the mother-in-law is very domineering to the daughter-in-law. And daughters who marry, you know, when they marry their husband, they're always totally afraid of the mother-in-law, who, you know, is very demanding and critical. So, in a brief moment, dependent origination manifests itself with all its living conditions.

[23:36]

She sees a form with her eyes that gives rise to the kind of eye-consciousness that conditions a change in mentality-materiality to a mentality-materiality ready for suffering. Prone sense bases which condition contact conducive to suffering. The feeling that then arises is unpleasant. The resultant craving is restless because she does not like her mother-in-law's face. Then there arises attachment, becoming, and the birth of the I-concept, which hates the mother-in-law's face, and so suffering finally arises. Bankei talks in a very similar way from a Zen standpoint.

[24:36]

As I said yesterday, Bankei talks about always residing in the unborn Buddha mind. I think these are very complementary in some way. He says, when you're listening to my talk, suddenly a dog barks in the distance. And you're not thinking about a dog, but you hear, but the bark of the dog is heard. And without trying to hear the bark of the dog, the bark of the dog is He said, this is the unborn Buddha mind without trying to do anything, without creating any special sense of dog or bark or anything.

[25:45]

It's just the mind takes care of itself. Hearing hears. Seeing sees. tasting tastes, smelling smells, feeling feels. But there is no eye that sees, there is no eye that hears, there is no eye that touches, or no eye that smells. There is just smelling, tasting, touching, seeing and hearing, and thinking. But we say, I am thinking, and in a sense that's true. And, as a matter of fact, we do have volitional thinking. There is volitional thinking. And volitional thinking is the I thinking.

[26:50]

The I, we have to remember how it arises, and not just think that, take the I for granted, that there is such a thing. But mindfulness realizes that even though we say, I am thinking these thoughts, that in reality there is no I. thinking of thoughts, or that sees, hears, and so forth. When the I concept is absent, then there's just residing in the unborn Buddha mind. At the same time, have a very strong sense of I, a strong sense of yes and no, and a discriminating mind.

[28:12]

A Theravada attitude, like Grace was saying yesterday, we'd all be Theravada monks sitting in our caves, not interacting with the world. Theravada practice is more like the practice of analysis, and it's a somewhat reductionist way of approaching life, to reduce life to its elements and see clearly. It's very scientific, I mean it's kind of scientific in a way. Reduce life to its elements and live your life so that you don't make any problems.

[29:22]

and careful not to engage in a good life in a way that will create karma. Mahayana Majamaka philosophy is somewhat consistent with this. But Yogacara philosophy, in other words, a way of practice, is synthesis. emphasizing the fact that everything is one, which means that Madhyamaka philosophy is the same, in the sense that rather than separating samsara, which is the land of the ego, from nirvana, which is the land of the Buddha mind.

[30:29]

Samsara is nirvana, and nirvana is samsara. To find nirvana within samsara, and samsara within nirvana. Within our discriminating consciousness, to find release. to find our freedom within discriminating consciousness. So, we don't divide Mahasamsara and Nirvana into two parts. realizing that all manifestations are manifestations of Buddha-nature.

[31:34]

But, on the other hand, one has to live with mindfulness. and carefulness, because it's the same in both disciplines. Ignorance is the condition for the arising of all these elements, of all these other conditions. And once attachment, craving and attachment are there, we lose our clear mind. So the Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra says the same thing, just in a different way, in a more broad context.

[32:43]

to just study the bones of the practice, which is what this is. So I like Buddhadasa. He says, Buddha's understanding and practice is very simple. It's just how to stay clear of suffering. by understanding how it arises and how it ceases. That's really the basic thing. And a lot of other stuff has been added to it. Reincarnation and all these speculative aspects. In the old days, the Zen monks were not so different.

[34:26]

They're actually pretty much the same. Except that in China, they had a different life than in Southeast Asia, and a different life than in India, and a different life than in America. In America, we don't live monk's lives. Even the priests live lives like laypeople more. as they do now in Japan. But it wasn't always like that in Japan. So, in the Platform Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch says, it's not necessary to be a monk and to practice in a monastery in order to practice. The main thing is to stay clear of attachments. and to not stray from your essence of mind, which is the same thing as to settle yourself on Buddha-mind, or the unborn Buddha-mind.

[35:49]

It's actually the same thing. and the way to practice in our daily lives. How do you practice in your daily life? Well, don't stray from your unborn Buddha mind. When you find yourself straying from your unborn Buddha mind, and you notice that, that's mindfulness. That's practice. And you can practice it all day long. And the signs are interest, craving, grasping, attachment. When you find yourself becoming involved in that way, you're carried away with things.

[36:54]

It's called commerce. And that's how people support themselves. You say, America is now the biggest arms merchant. It has been for a long time. And so the arms merchants say, well, if we don't sell the arms to other people, someone else will. So we might as well do it. as if that's a rational excuse. And then the government contemplates that and they say, well, that's worth thinking about. That's an idea that's worth thinking about, contemplating. It's a totally unwholesome idea. Totally corrupt way of doing things. Just because, well, if we don't, someone else will, so we might as well. has nothing to do with our own morality.

[38:19]

So, this is the kind of world we live in, and it's constantly being fed to us. These kinds of ideas are constantly being fed to us as legitimate things that we should take up. So it's very hard. And often, as children, our emotions and minds are corrupted by this advertising. So we grow up with it, and it's hard to get rid of after we grow up with it. It's just part of us. And it's hard to deal with it.

[39:22]

And somehow we have to live with it. But I think that by mindfulness, we've been carrying around for a long time. I think it's possible. But sometimes, you always have it with you. And then the kind of practice to how to deal with that, when the illness keeps coming up in response to something, whenever that something appears, a condition, a conditioning. So if we were actually free of our conditioned responses, we would have total freedom, real freedom.

[40:24]

But when this happens, that happens. When this appears, that will respond. And then the I arises, and we're caught. Our most constant refrain was, don't get caught by anything. But then, when we don't get caught by anything, we start to lose our friends. suddenly we're in a different world than our people that we know for so long. So that makes life a little more difficult.

[41:26]

So this is where compassion is necessary, because then you see the suffering of your friends. maybe before, you were in it. And because you're in it, you may see it, but you can't do anything about it, particularly. But when you step outside of it, then you can see how everyone's causing suffering for themselves, that the cave-like practice that Grace was talking about is devoid of compassion.

[42:30]

It's like, I'm going to retreat and find my own happiness or my own settled mind. This was always the complaint against Mahayana produced the compassionate practice. But compassion is a very important aspect. Otherwise we get too singled out from life. So compassion actually brings us back into the world. And so that we can actually help people. But sometimes we have to retreat first. We have to back off and find ourselves before we can go back and help other people. So this is actually the practice plan.

[43:42]

see clearly, and you retreat and practice. You go up the mountain, so to speak. And then you come down the mountain and enter back into society. So this is why we thought, you know, when you go to the monastery, you retreat from society and give yourself that space to practice. And then you come back into society again. in various ways, help people. So, compassion is very important. Going back and forth, this is why daily practice is important. In the morning, or whenever, you go to the zen door, and that's retreating from the world.

[44:56]

And then when there's no difference between coming to Zendo and being outside of Zendo, East side.

[45:55]

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