So, good evening everyone. We're in the fourth class of this four-class series. The first two classes touched on the five hindrances and the second classes have been focusing on the seven factors of enlightenment and they kind of go together as Dharma systems spoken of in the Foundations of Mindfulness, in the Mindfulness of the Dharmas, the fourth foundation. Let me just, to review, just remind you of these, both the hindrances and the factors of enlightenment. So the five hindrances are sensory desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, or worry and flurry, and skeptical doubt.

[01:10]

And also to touch on the system that we spoke of that seems useful to people, a system of how to work with the hindrances, it's a system that they use in the Spirit Rock Insight Community, and the acronym is RAIN, in terms of the Hint is to recognize them, to accept them, In other words, not accept them like say it's okay, but to accept in the sense that yes, this is happening. I see that this is taking place inside me. To investigate, which is to be curious, to investigate, to see how does it feel, what are the

[02:16]

physical and mental manifestations of this hindrance as it's arising and then finally The end is non-identification To recognize that The arising of the hindrance is a is itself a a Transitory experience that is not identical with who I am. So that's RAIN. Recognize, accept, investigate, and not identify. So then we move to the seven factors of enlightenment. These factors of enlightenment are known in Pali as the Bhojanga. And anga means factors and it means also limbs.

[03:27]

It's kind of like the parts of our body when our body is functioning well. And so these seven factors are mindfulness, sati, investigation, of the dharmas, dhamma vichaya. Energy or effort, virya. Rapture or happiness, piti. Calm, pasadi. Concentration, tattva means meditation, samadhi. And the last one is equanimity, upeka. And these are the seven factors that we were speaking of last time in a mundane sense.

[04:33]

These are the factors that lead us towards a life that is relatively free and rooted in kind of ease and happiness. In a more absolute sense, in the sense that you see in the commentarial tradition, these factors are they arise in the context of one's enlightened activity. So what you could say is that they are both a set of practices that we cultivate in order to manifest enlightened activity

[05:40]

And then, but at the same time, they're also the expression of enlightened activity. Does that make sense? The fruit. They're both the fruit and they're the path. You know, at a certain point, when one comes to the fulfillment of these practices, then please feel free to interrupt at any time. It's interesting that the first two were the horror and the day of rain. Yeah. The first, well, the first one, which is, which is really the first one is mindfulness. And that is, it's interesting because it's like, when we speak about The Paramitas, which I'm going to speak of to some extent in my lecture on Saturday, I'm going to speak, I'm going to, since it's our fundraising event, I'm going to talk about Dana Paramita.

[06:53]

So the Bodhisattva Paramita as perfection, which is the same thing. The Paramitas are, mark out the path by which we move towards bodhisattva activity and they're also the natural expression of bodhisattva activity. So the way Suzuki Roshi talks about the paramitas and the way he talks about dana paramita, he uses the term dana prajnaparamita. And so what he's saying is that, and the view of the Paramitas, and it's parallel to the view of these factors of enlightenment, is that in order to be activated as Bodhisattva practices, prajna has to infuse each one.

[08:02]

Without prajna, then they they fall into kind of dualistic activity. And here, the same thing is true in a parallel sense of mindfulness. Without the working and awareness of mindfulness within all these factors of enlightenment, then they have at least the potentiality to fall into dualistic activity. Yeah. What are the qualities of Prajna? What are the qualities of Prajna? You know, it translates as, it's basically transcendental wisdom. So it's, and there are, you can break Prajna down into several, several dimensions of wisdom. One is,

[09:04]

the great mirror wisdom, you know, by which one is seeing oneself reflected. There's also wisdom of equality. There are various aspects of wisdom, but each of them is inherent in what has to be brought, that wisdom has to be brought to our generosity, otherwise it becomes charity. It has to be brought to our energy, otherwise it becomes just blind effort. I think my problem is that I'm finding it vague in terms of how one knows what one is bringing to that, in terms of what this wisdom is. Right. But we're not studying that today, so I don't want to get caught on that. If you're asking that question about mindfulness, then I think it has, we go back to the foundations of mindfulness.

[10:21]

So it's mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of the feelings, mindfulness of the thoughts, and mindfulness of the dharmas. And mindfulness means remembering, recollecting. So in that sense, that's running through. And it's interesting, because the factors of enlightenment, which are one of the dharma systems that's being investigated in the foundations of mindfulness, the first one of those factors of enlightenment is mindfulness. So there's this kind of circular motion. The mindfulness recognizing the Dharma is not also recognizing like every moment is an opportunity to learn or to see reflected something of value.

[11:30]

I mean, don't things come up, wouldn't you say, or would you say that things come up for a purpose? to make it the most simple and pop-sounding phrase. I don't necessarily think that things come up for a purpose. I think the aspect of mindfulness that's really interesting to me is that it gives us a way with which we can purpose whatever comes up. In other words, things don't come up for a reason, they just come up. But if you are looking through the lens of mindfulness, if you're looking through this dharma system, then you have a way of understanding what the potential teaching is in each moment that arises. Does that make sense? It's a little distinction.

[12:30]

And that's the thing. It's an active process that depends upon the coming forth of our mind and consciousness to meet our experience. There's a catchphrase I've developed of my own. It says, make all that you have into everything you need. That's good. So, when at a moment, you purpose that moment. Yeah. You know, I mean, there's an expression in... I think it comes from Freud, where he said, where id is, there shall ego be. It's the same thing. Where these impulses and experiences arise, by virtue of consciousness, we are able to see them and work with them.

[13:42]

So in other words, we're able to use them instead of being used by them. But he's suggesting he's going to turn you to reflect on your id or your inner drive. victim of it. It's not that you can get rid of it, you know, but not to be pushed around by it. And that's why, you know, we have various expressions of this. Suzuki Roshi said, you'll be the boss of you. And there's a koan in which the master says, I use the 24 hours and you are used by the 24 hours. So that's one side. And there's also the side, of course, that you see where we are turned by the experiences that we have. So it's not all just one-sided.

[14:43]

It's a very fluid and shifting sense of reality. But if we're trying, we get the most gain out of it if we notice that it's happening? You want to say gain? I don't want to say gain. But that's another moment for an opportunity for, I really don't like that word mindfulness, but to remember. If the mind is latching on to gain, then that's another opportunity to remember what to do about that. in October that Bob Rosenbaum edited with Barry Magid called What's Wrong With Mindfulness. It's being published by Simon & Schuster and it's a very interesting book.

[15:47]

I've got an essay in it, but it explores this question of the hesitation that one might have about mindfulness. There's an interesting expression. The development of mindfulness as a particular quality and ability is key to the development of all the other factors. It's really necessary. Mindfulness, noticing the object in the present moment, also has a function of bringing these factors into proper balance. And there's an expression in one of the suttas that I like a lot, where the Buddha says, Mindfulness, O disciples, I declare, is essential in all things everywhere.

[16:56]

It is as salt is to the curry. It's really neat. Isn't that a neat idea? It brings forth the flavor and quality that's inherent in what we're taking that's nurturing. And it brings it forth and helps it focus, just like a little bit of salt does. Really, really vivid. Yeah, Jeremy. I keep thinking mindfulness is like rosin without focusing on the breathing. Not necessarily. And this is one of the distinctions that we're... Mindfulness is... In that sense, mindfulness is one of the... You could think of it as one of the components of zazen, but it's not zazen itself. Because...

[17:56]

Zazen is kind of larger and more formless than that. So one of the things that we're doing here is we're taking these early Buddhist systems and we're exploring how in a broad way it fits into what our practice is without falling into a place where we're practicing each factor of enlightenment. That zazen in its formless way includes these factors. But here what we're doing is we're taking a little step back and we're looking at what those factors might be so that we can understand the workings of our own body and mind more effectively, but not so that we're learning kind of a step-by-step or element-by-element approach to our zazen.

[19:16]

Does that make sense? When you talk about it being formless, What do you mean? Just not going step by step, but you're still mindful of how your body's feeling, where your breath is. What I mean is that my understanding of Zazen is that it's extremely, as we're taught it, it's an extremely fluid and It's a fluid way of meeting yourself and meeting the moment that doesn't reduce to a particular technique or a particular approach. Yeah, I think it's very interesting how Zazen is taught. It's very hands-off. It's very simple, and it sort of gives you a basic form, and then you sort of go with it.

[20:18]

Versus other meditative practices, they get right in there. They get in the mind with you. Your teacher is with you in your mind, going through it with you. And giving a very particular instruction. And Zazen is very different. I'm just fine. So if you went to a, particularly say a Vipassana retreat in the Goenka system, has anyone done that? Has anyone done a Goenka retreat? It's a particular methodology that comes from Burmese, comes from a The Burmese meditation system that was established at the end of the 19th, early 20th century, has a way of making meditation available to large numbers of people, particularly people who are not monks.

[21:21]

Guided meditation? Well, it's not so much guided meditation. It has, in this method, it has some very particular stages, you know, and so it would begin with a very particular mode of anapanasati, of mindfulness of breathing, where you would pay, you know, for like a day or two, you pay very close attention, you know, to the air as it passes across your freedom. Yeah. One of the things that Chozen and Hogenbeis have emphasized at Great Vow is that they often teach such practices along with the basic Zen. So we did a lot of things like that. I think we actually had a session on the seven factors of enlightenment, and we spent a day

[22:23]

mindfulness of breath, you know, like the Buddha's teachings on these things. Cultivating, cultivating, and actually it was a very deep practice because in, in having a Sashin with that format, I remember that later going to sort of a more classic Sashin format, I was just more mindful without trying, I wasn't trying to do now I'm going to do mindfulness of whatever. But I was aware of this quality of investigation of states and investigation of feelings and thoughts and mind objects and all that stuff. So it's... And I remember Kyogen Carlson and Greg Kramer, they did... It was actually my first retreat. He's a Metta teacher. And Kyogen is a Zen teacher. But they interspersed the two forms and some of it had these things along with Metta practice and stuff like that. And it was very interesting to experience the interplay of these.

[23:29]

Yeah, I think it's fine, you know, and it's just not what we're, it's kind of not what the approach is that we have here, based on what was passed on from Suzuki Roshi to Sojin. And it's also, you know, that kind of really archetypal Soto Zen meditation has this formless quality and you know if you read any of Uchiyama Roshi's books, Opening the Hand of Thought or others you see, it's very much, it's kind of, it's an open awareness meditation rather than a particular kind of concentration. And it's just, these are just different approaches. Yeah. To the whole system, not just mindfulness, but the system of the jhanas, is something you were saying that we hold loosely, but we also recognize as signposts, or indicators, or in our particular practice.

[24:47]

We might or we might not, you know. So we were talking about the jhanas are meditative concentrations and when you read about the Buddha's enlightenment they kind of in that narrative he he mentions the different concentrations that he moves through as he comes to enlightenment. In many ways, in Theravada Buddhism, there are people who do jhāna practice. they cultivate the jhanas and move through those jhanic states, those particular concentrations, each one of which has its own character. And the other way to approach it is that as your meditation deepens,

[25:52]

these jhanic states arise. So is it a cultivation or is it an arising? And I think that, again, that we have this, the Soto Zen approach is really an open awareness approach. There are other schools, very effective schools of Buddhism that are more based on concentrations, on focusing one's attention. And so it's a question of whether you're looking out and up and taking everything in, or whether you're looking primarily in and focusing and intensifying. These are different approaches.

[26:54]

These are kind of two really major characterizations of a meditation technique. I thought you were going to say in and through. But these factors, I know what it was. I was talking with a Dharma brother of mine who grew up in the San Francisco Zen Center system and has been practicing for 30 years or so. We were talking about this stuff and he said, well, I don't know this stuff. I never studied this stuff. So you can go through your whole Zen career and not know anything about these other aspects of pretty straightforward Buddhism.

[28:01]

And I'm not criticizing that. That's just a different approach. Would you say he embodied or had the being of these jhanas in his practice or his life or whatever? I can't say. And he didn't lose from not knowing about it, is kind of my question. I think that he might have, but I don't think that one necessarily does. Does that make sense? I don't think you necessarily need to do this work. but you need to do work. And this is a way of, this is an approach to doing it. And as I said, when we started this class, I feel like my inspiration here goes back to my experience at Berkeley Zen Center 35 years ago.

[29:09]

You know, coming here and Sojin Roshi was talking about these practices but he wasn't talking about them as things that you should do in zazen he was talking about it as the background the sort of dharmic background so you understand where you're coming from so you understand something about what Suzuki Roshi meant when he said we have Hinayana practice and Mahayana mind, without getting into what the nuances of that might be. My sense of it is that it does come back to this duality, non-duality distinction, Mahayana, Theravada, that in Theravada you're working with dualities. There is a non-duality there, but you're working with dualities in your practice.

[30:16]

Kusla, Ekusla, Kusla, [...] which you find in Theravadan practice, where there really are steps in the practice, there are real distinctions in the practice that are related to enlightenment. Yeah, but it's... It's also not necessarily... That has the potentiality of getting really mushy. Yeah, it's a broad perspective. Right. I think there really is wholesome and unwholesome within our practice. Oh, I think so. I think though, just speaking of zazen in our meditative practice, it really, for me,

[31:23]

The salvation in it is in its absolute simplicity. It's almost zero quality. It's non-duality. The fact that you take up the form and you take up the form of the Buddha, that all becomes included. That is something very, very alien to a Theravadan mind, which is much more dialectical. Well, it's very dialectical. And there's just a different relationship to the dialectical in the Mahayana Zen form. I guess for me it's related to the dialectical in our relationship to the dialectical. Maybe. I hope this is not too obscure for you, but one thing I think that's relevant to this, and I've said this, I think I've said this before, a conversation that we've been having with Deepu Bodhi, where he basically says, early Buddhism does not really emphasize ambiguity.

[32:42]

It's this, not this. And I think when you read early Buddhism, you find that, and that's all very good until you get down to brass tacks, and you still have to decide what to do. Yeah, actually, that's my point, because I'm thinking about the homework that we had. Yes, I want to get to that. And so to me, it's like, whatever they dharmagate, if you will, to these, is off the cushion, so to speak. How do these factors of enlightenment reveal themselves in the moment in our daily life, in our relationships? And how is it useful to be aware of this framing, if you will, of reality, aspects Well, do you want to speak to that?

[33:45]

Do you want to sort of recap for people what that homework was? Well, my memory and my understanding of it was to choose one of the factors of enlightenment that's coming up, that's coming up, I'll just speak for myself, for me, either as there's an edge there, or it's something I particularly want to cultivate and so on, focus on, and then just do it. and see what the experience was. So mine was equanimity and particularly kind of noticing this tranquility distinct from equanimity aspect. And I noticed that actually just holding that intention was helpful, which somehow bridges to I think what you were saying, which is It wasn't, even though the intention, I guess, was to pay attention, cultivate, I was actually kind of confused.

[34:48]

Am I paying attention? Am I cultivating this right now? Which was kind of an interesting observation. Excuse me for interrupting. Do you need something? Yes, the Zendo key that usually hangs on the porch. I'm trying to do night watch. Okay, so the Zendo key is missing. Really? Off the porch. We'll have to be back. Thank you. Go ahead. So that was one thing that I noticed, is am I paying attention to this? Am I cultivating this right now? And I guess it connects to, I think, what this discussion was the last few minutes of, is equanimity something that I have any really Control over or is it just something that I can notice in the moment?

[35:53]

It's arising. It's passing away And so that if The conditions are right. I'm having an experience in the moment My body even though there's all kinds of stuff going on in all this And so what what it kept bringing me back to is I What does it really mean to cultivate equanimity? Is that something I'm only doing in Zazen and then, you know, we get off the cushion and the next thing happens and you're just practicing with what's arising? And the other piece of that that I noticed is that it put much more focus to me on me in relationship with the environment with other people, with animals, with the trees, with the breeze, with the temperature. And so it kind of raised for me, what really do I mean by equanimity in relationship?

[37:00]

And sometimes that brought me a peace of mind, and sometimes that brought up tension. Can anyone else work on equanimity? Coincidentally, I did. I took a slightly different tack on the homework, though. I heard, or imagined hearing, if we find equanimity in our life, is it coming up too much, or do we have too much of it? I'm not sure of whatever it was, but the homework, exactly. But that's kind of how I looked at it. First of all, I pursue equanimity as a practice already, and so I really try to be aware of a lot of things in my garden all the time, and it does bring me a great deal of peace, just that generalized awareness. And also knowing that as the

[38:02]

water dries up or as the plants die that I'm not missing or losing out or the fact that I miss the beautiful sunny day when I get home to my garden and it's already dark, I can still maintain equanimity. So that's how I worked on it and I don't think I could possibly have too much but I may be wrong. Well, I think that's one of the commentaries on equanimity, is that it's something that you can never have too much of. But let me read something from this gloss on equanimity, if you will. Its quality is neutrality. It is mental equipoise, not hedonic indifference. In other words, not resignation or indifference, but just maintaining a balance.

[39:07]

Equanimity is the result of a calm, concentrated mind. It is hard, indeed, to be undisturbed when touched by the vicissitudes of life. but the person who cultivates this difficult quality of equanimity is not upset. Within our experience, gain and loss, good repute and ill repute, praise and censure, blame, pain and happiness, one never wavers. One is firm as a solid rock. Touched by happiness or by pain, the wise show neither elation nor depression. And the poet says, it's easy enough to be pleasant when life flows along like a song, but the man worthwhile is the man who can smile when everything goes dead wrong. It's Zen. I don't know if it's Zen.

[40:09]

There is this idea of composure that we have in Zen. Yes, it's composure. However, as you said last week, you have to be careful of detachment. Right. Composure would mean you're taking it in, but not reacting. Detachment would be not taking it in. You're not really taking it in. Right. But all these are a matter of degree. The needle moves a little bit this way. And much of that is, if you make an effort, some of it is self-emphasizing. some of this equanimity or mindfulness, but it's still a matter of degree. It's not, you know, you'll have, oh, for a split second you have total mindfulness or equanimity. Right. But you know, I mean, I can speak for myself. One knows when one loses it. Loses enough of it.

[41:14]

But isn't that where they intercept? Like, I find, like, to practice, to work on one seems almost impossible because the moment that you lose it, then you can move to mindfulness, you can move to reminding yourself. Kind of like in Zazen, when you remind yourself to come back to the breath. So to me, they're so intertwined. And if you decide to practice concentration, for example, doesn't it bring you to a spot of relaxation? Maybe. You know, I'm just thinking of something that happened to me in the last couple of days, I lost my composure. I lost my temper. And so, therefore, I lost my equanimity, which was my intention, and fell into the hindrance of ill will.

[42:30]

And then regretted it and fell into the hindrance of restlessness or worry you know and I recognized that uh and I recognized that I was tempted to create a cycle of kind of self-incrimination doubt creeps in yes and also late of another person, but also blame of me. And it was very potent. And I think that the, let me just see what I, what factor of enlightenment I could say I invoked. I need to think about it.

[43:32]

I need to think about it. I had to, no, I mean, I think I had to look at, I had to, I had to investigate and I had to practice some calming and also some concentration, some withdrawing, stepping back into my body and my mind to regather myself before some expression of equanimity could arise. And, you know, I'm not sure I'm completely there yet. And it's not, one thing is it's not entirely an internal process. That there's an aspect of it that's internal, working with myself, but it's not complete

[44:36]

until I find some way to communicate with the person that I lost my composure with. Does that make sense? Yeah. Well, let me ask, if you can't communicate with that person, you can still process it in a way. How would you do that? I mean, how would you imagine doing that? Let's say it was a person in traffic or a person in the store or a traveling situation, and yet there's a hanging Well, I think what I would do would be to recognize the non-composure and to recognize the triggering process and inquire of myself, is there something I've learned here that I can use the next time this set of circumstances arises so I don't respond the same way. Who was it?

[45:40]

What? This is still interesting territory because it keeps springing up for me. We learn language in order to articulate in a way the ineffable. We give expression to what in total silence and zazen. And we do that because we're in relationship. It serves a purpose. It's ennobling, if you will. And so as I hear you saying this, it's like, are these things just naturally arising? So in a way, it's just like giving language to just what's happening. And what does this word cultivate then really mean? I don't think it's naturally arising. I mean, this is something Lori and I have been talking about a lot lately. That there's an aspect that's built into animals that's about me.

[46:56]

and it's about self-protection. And there's a hard-wired dimension of that. There are other dimensions. There's also the dimension of connectedness, dimensions of, say, limbic resonance, or the relationship between mother or parent and child. That's true too, but there's an existential line that we often draw between you and me. And if you step over that line, I'm going to defend. And so there's stuff like that that's hardwired, I think. I'm not willing to be argued with. And that our training, if we are Buddhas, then we have another model. And that model is not about me and mind, not about establishing or defending the self.

[48:04]

And so it's a transpersonal manifestation. It's a higher manifestation, at least, you know, if you want to say so. Yeah. I want to just backtrack a little bit. There's a few things that came up. um before I lose my train of thought. So for me working with these this week was interesting um because I vacillated between all of them these you know seven stages and five hindrances and one thing I was really struck with is um that all of these things really give me no place to stand. Because there's no place to settle. Because if you spend too much time, if I spend too much time focusing on one aspect, then everything else is ignored.

[49:05]

And that would immediately throw me back into one of the hindrances, and then I immediately try to get out of that hindrance, and then go into another one, and then come back to some other aspect here, and I'm constantly bounced around. So there's no place to stand. which was really powerful to kind of think about and originally concentration was the one for me that really I was struggling with initially it was like this one pointed single focus attentive thing and that became so intense that I felt I was I had no relaxation and no because this there was just this fierce you know thing So I thought, well, that's not really a place to stand because it's not very inclusive, right? So it might work for a few minutes, but then where is everything else? And so then I just began to notice how naturally I kind of vacillated between all of these things. Well, that's one way of putting it. The other way of putting it is you're intuiting that

[50:09]

these factors need to be in balance with each other. Right. The whole thing, while the hindrances work hand in hand with these seven factors, because they support each other, they feed on each other, and as I said, I felt bounced around between all of these things, and it seemed fairly apparent that yes, they all have to be present, if you know in in in my life like i can't just be focusing on one aspect of the exclusion of everything else yeah so that was very interesting to really pay attention to that because there's often a tendency for me to just sort of pick one thing and just i'm just going to do this you know i'm not realizing that there's all this stuff i'm leaving out right well that may be you know you may be a concentration type Now each of us has our own particular inclinations and our, you know, our kind of the characterological strengths and, you know, some people are really leaning towards concentration, you know, and so they need, those people need to be balanced by other factors.

[51:30]

Other people, you know, are like all over the map and could use some concentration, some focus. So, you know, we, We need our own formula. Right, but even within that though, it's not really possible to stay in any of those places for very long. None of them leave you any ground to stand on. Right, that's right. That's really good. I like the way you said that. There's no place to stand, really. You can try. But they're not meant to, we separate them to facilitate wording discussion, but they're all meant to be balanced and flow with the brain, like a heat map or something. Yeah, so this is what we say in Zen, when you say something, when you give a talk, it's

[52:31]

And so this is an analytic approach to something that is really not susceptible to this kind of minute and particular and granular rank. quantification. And maybe the true functioning of all of these is that they are all present all the time and we are moving through them all moment by moment by moment. Right and they're arising you know they they come up and they come down and you know but to be able but part of it is can I move from factor to factor according to what I need to rebalance myself. And this is what I think that to me all of the Buddha's teachings, whether it's Mahayana or Theravada, you know, you read the Pali Sutras, it's like the Pali Sutras, almost all of them are the Buddha's response to a particular question or particular situation.

[53:51]

And sometimes they appear contradictory because in each moment, in each sutta, he's responding to the situation that's right in front of him, that's being presented to him, and he's getting a response that is appropriate to that situation. So these factors of enlightenment are not absolute. The paramitas are not absolute. If we look at the Buddhist cosmology, the six realms, humans and animals and the fighting demons and the hungry ghosts, that's just a map, a schematic of the infinite number of states of being that we could conceivably be in that are very nuanced. The thrust of his teachings are not about elucidating points of doctrine that are absolute, but are about bringing us into balance.

[55:01]

And our practice, the whole of our practice, and that's why it's different for each one of us, is about, moment by moment, bringing ourselves back into balance. And so what you need isn't even given more, maybe different from what I need. I was listening to the word cultivation and seeing it come up here in three paragraphs under the Pali Cana. It says, these non-hindrances, non-corruptions, etc., when developed and cultivated, lead to the realization of the fruit of true knowledge and liberation. So he is actually telling us to cultivate, or here it says cultivate and develop. I wanted to read you something which really struck me today as I was reading some of the commentary, two short pieces.

[56:06]

So from a sutra in the discourse on the bhojangas in the Samyukta Nikaya, one of the one of the Pali Sutta collections. He said, thus I heard, at one time the Buddha was living at Rajagaha, at the Vellavana, in the squirrel's feeding ground. At that time, the Venerable Mahakasyapa, who was the Buddha's first disciple, one he transmitted to Mahakasyapa, was living in the Pihali cave. He was stricken, he was sick, stricken with severe illness. Then the Buddha rose from his solitude in the evening and visited Mahakasyapa. He took his seat and he spoke to Mahakasyapa in this way. Well, Kasyapa, how is it with you? Are you bearing up? Are you enduring? Do your pains lessen or increase?

[57:14]

Are there signs of your pains lessening and not increasing? Mahakasyapa says, No, Lord, I am not bearing up, I am not enduring, the pain is terrible. There is not a sign of the pain's lessening, but of their increasing. And then the Buddha says, Kashapa, these seven factors of enlightenment are well expounded by me, cultivated and much developed by me. And when cultivated and developed, they conduce to full realization, perfect wisdom to nirvana. What are they? Mindfulness. This, O Kasyapa, is well-expounded by me and cultivated and much developed by me. And when cultivated and much developed, it conduces to full realization, perfect wisdom, to nirvana. Then investigation, energy, rapture, calm, concentration, equanimity. These seven factors of enlightenment, verily, Kasyapa, are well-expounded by me, so on and so forth.

[58:17]

Mahakasyapa says, Verily, blessed one, they are factors of enlightenment. Verily, O welcome one, they are factors of enlightenment, uttered Mahakasyapa. Thus spoke the Buddha, and the Venerable Mahakasyapa rejoicing, welcomed the utterances of the worthy one, and the Venerable Mahakasyapa rose from his illness. There and then, that ailment of the Venerable Mahakasyapa vanished. And then another discourse. Once the Buddha himself was ill, and the Venerable Mahakunda recited the Bhojangas, the factors of enlightenment, the Buddha's grievous illness vanished. And the commentary is by Aldous Huxley. He says, Man's mind tremendously and profoundly influences and affects the body. If allowed to function viciously and entertain unwholesome and harmful thoughts, mind can cause disaster, nay, even kill a being.

[59:28]

But mind can also cure a sick body. When concentrated on right thoughts with right understanding, the effects mind can produce are immense. Mind not only makes sick, it also I actually had an experience of this early on in chaplaincy, that I was with a woman who was Catholic, devout Catholic, and we ended up in a guided imagery where she rated her pain scale from 0 to 10, and as we went into prayer and the imagery shifted, her need was met, so to speak, of actually being in a balanced relationship, in this case with God, she understood that to be, she rated She rated her pain scale again, and it went from something like an eight to a three, which was really mind-blowing. Because, you know, you talk to the pain specialist, and people talk about integrative medicine, you know, all these things. But in the moment, in her experience of prayer, so I don't know which of those factors, but I would imagine she was tapped into those factors with something about, what, Jeremy?

[60:40]

was saying that it's this, well, as I heard it, this related relationship of these factors, that there is nowhere to stand, but when you're really in balanced relationship, there that is. Right. But I think, you know, I like this just such a stark narrative that reminds us it's about healing you know it's it's we are all ill in one way or another and that these factors and the whole dharma is about bringing oneself back into balance into healing but again he mentioned all of them yeah because that that's to be inclusive is to include all of them and that's the darkness right right yeah Yeah, I think that's right.

[61:43]

I'm going to comment that in terms of intentional health and self-care, you might stand up and stretch right now. I don't know what's going on. I'm wondering if anyone else had anything to report from the homework assignment?

[63:18]

I do. I forgot what I picked, but I was before Zadran sitting in the chair, where I just felt a pure acceptance of our reality of the moment for like a half hour. So I was feeling, it seemed like I was feeling all those factors in alignment. for a while, but I knew they were going to come and go. And then they'd come and go, they'd come and go, they'd come and go, and gone throughout today too, because I kind of realized that the sounds or the things I don't like, I was treating, treated them with more of a kindness and compassion. It's just like, I had to stop bothering them.

[64:21]

Well, I think that one of the things, the perspective that we have from our sort of tradition but that they all reside within us. We have the ability to access them in any given moment because they're not something we have to learn about. We may have to remember that they're there, but they're there. It's nice to remember. It's helpful to remember. Well, that's the function of mindfulness. Mindfulness is remembering. But the members are all there. They may feel like they're kind of scattered, but they're there. I think it's not a bad idea to remind oneself that the

[65:29]

these factors are within the larger vessel of the Four Noble Truths. Yeah. And in fact, in that Satipatthana Sutra, the next Dharma system is that Four Noble Truth. That's right. So cessation or non-attachment for these is very basic processes that are involved in the Dharma are at work always within these factors. Yeah, I'm sure that in the Theravada commentarial system, they probably have some progression of these dharma systems within the fourth foundation of mindfulness, but I tend not to think of it that way. I tend to think of them as a series of useful systems that one can invoke. Right. with the Four Noble Truths, I think that goes back to what you were saying in terms of not becoming attached to any one factor.

[66:42]

That's a fundamental aspect of the Four Noble Truths in terms of cessation of desire, of that sort of basic dynamic that's there, fundamental dynamic, non-attachment. I gotta think about that a bit. Let's come back to that. Not sure. There are other people who, yeah. Yeah, I approached it by looking at the hindrances to see which I thought were at least up, seemed to be up more than some of the others. And I came up with sloth and torpor and also restlessness. So it seemed that pointed me to energy. And so I went with looking at what I might need to cultivate. If that's the word I want to use, I'm not sure. And like others have said, I really felt the interrelation of all these, especially talking about energy, it seemed like that was a component of a lot and that to

[67:57]

bring that forth or to experience it or kind of looking at it was mindfulness of course was needed for that and then seems for investigation and for me maybe even concentration energy is needed so it was really all of a piece definitely and Yeah, I'm not sure what else I want to say about it. So I wasn't so much working at cultivating it, it was just noticing. And for me, a phrase that has been around a long time is the just do it, because I can procrastinate and just get stuck. So finding that, and that flow of energy when it's happening, and there's this continuous practice. You know, we talk about that, Dogen talks about that. So it's very interrelated with that and time. everything just kind of this flow. But we can stop it too.

[69:02]

We can stop and say, well, that's not gonna happen now. So it was just something that I was just kind of watching. I wasn't really applying it to things necessarily, but I was trying to be aware of it in my body, my mind, different situations, just kind of looking at it. Yeah, it's interesting because in the Paramitas, you have the sequence of energy, same virya, is the fourth paramita, and it follows patience. And all of them, that kind of energy has to be in the context of wisdom. Otherwise, it's not a mindful energy, it can be a kind of mindless energy. Right, right, with the whole being distracted by all these different things and going in different directions. And really related to restlessness and worry and flurry. And consuming energy. Right.

[70:03]

Right. Well, I was working with mindfulness and I'm really grateful for what you said, Jeremy, because it was frustrating because I couldn't stay mindful. You know, the way I was doing it, according to the Pali Canon, you know, just mindful of my own self, which was challenging. Seeing, you know, that's fine when I'm all by myself or something, but then I've got to move to cooking, and then it was really hard to stay mindful, because now I'm concentrated. And I also had noticed how much I'm focused on what's going on around me. So my energy was external. Mine was more internal, looking at my own internal processes. So, that was... it kind of led to a lot of frustration, really. Because I couldn't stay in that one state, it seemed like.

[71:08]

Because, of course, you're always in... What happens when now someone comes in the room? Now you're in a relationship. I'm losing sight of my, maybe my breath, because now I'm focusing on this other person. So, it was, I don't know, it was just a frustrating feeling. Couldn't quite know what to do with it. Well, it seems like there's, in those spaces, what I'm hearing is that the hindrance of doubt would creep in. That, you know, each time you, when you, as you had to change direction, what I'm hearing is that there's a, the doubt arises, like, okay, what now? Or, what happened to what I was doing?

[72:11]

And that's, that can be a difficulty. And I think what we're trying to cultivate is a mindfulness that's fluid and flexible and that's able to change with the moment-by-moment circumstances. Yes, so that's a different mindfulness than what the Buddha's talking about in the Pali Canon. He's talking about both. That's the thing. in the context that he's often speaking about, mindfulness in the context of meditation. That's often the context. Well, yeah, if you will, it's related to the jhanas. this fluid mindfulness of everyday life, that is really important.

[73:19]

Because we don't live, nobody lives in meditation. But isn't that, as you were talking and now just as you're talking, that sounds more like equanimity than mindfulness as the way you were explaining mindfulness as remedial. No, I mean it's like, when I think about when I wash the dishes, You know, I can wash the dishes in a way that is really kind of daydreaming. And I can wash the dishes in a way where there's actually a fair amount of concentration and I'm really, I'm paying attention to to the dish and I'm seeing this spot that I need to apply the sponge to. It's like I'm not thoughtless. I'm really actually paying attention. So there's some element of concentration which is bringing my mind to the task at hand.

[74:22]

Which is not necessarily calm. It could also be energetic. Uh, when you're playing the guitar, when you're playing music, I'm not sure that calmness is the quality that, you know, sometimes it is, uh, but it's more a kind of coming together of energy. and concentration and mindfulness and allowing whatever is happening in a particular piece of music or what's happening in the ensemble that you're playing with to actually shift and develop and evolve from moment to moment. It's not the same to my mind as calmness. It's like wholehearted activity.

[75:27]

Yeah, yeah. Responsive as well. Yeah. What I've been noticing is the awareness of my inner and outer, I mean, my inner self and outer outside myself, how it affects each other. So when I wash dishes sometimes, I think about that and how my focus changes according to what I'm doing and what affects me inside and outside, or how I see it outside. So I'm just wondering. I don't know if it's, what's the right wording? Mindfulness or awareness? I think mindfulness is a factor there. You know, and your awareness is constantly shifting. Sometimes your awareness is on what you, now whether you can clearly distinguish what's inside and what's outside is another question. But, you know, you notice the

[76:28]

the shifting and the movement of your awareness. That's mindfulness. My awareness is like, I'm thinking about what I'm doing, and then it's shifted to the sponge, and then it's shifted to the dish, and it's constantly in motion. That's the wonderful thing of wonderful capacity of awareness is constantly is to be in motion rather than locked. You know, like a telescope that can only point at one object. And, you know, unless you consciously move it and then it'll point on the next object. But whereas our awareness is fluid every instant. I was also going to say, he's got energy allowing him to shift and refocus.

[77:32]

Yeah. It's one of the things, and like Leslie was saying, it takes energy to move. Right. Right, it does take energy, and as in, as we know from, you know, our five, you know, our thirty-second understanding of physics, when we apply energy to whatever it is we are looking at or working with, that energy also changes the object of that energy. It does, then it starts to shadow the internal and external effects. Well then you don't, yeah, you become clear that you can't distinguish in any definitive sense what's in what's inside and what's outside yeah i don't know if people have been willing to share i haven't spoken yet but i'm particularly curious about what people's experience was of this word cultivate the fact yeah good question do people have anything to say about cultivate yeah so i guess for me i

[78:54]

So I looked at effort, and it was very interesting because I didn't have to look for effort. I am somebody who is always, I very naturally put effort into things, into saying, so I teach, I'm a graduate student, into teaching the students. I'm always very tired at the end of an hour and a half because I'm talking with a lot of energy, I'm putting in a lot of energy. I think that cultivating you know, the, I think the idea of sort of fixating on the effort, fixating on the type of effort that I'm manifesting, you know, is this effort life affirming? Is this effort draining? Things like that was, it was tempting, but instead this idea of sort of the effort was arising in my life and then having an opportunity to, to meet whatever had arisen that I was then saying, Oh, this looks like effort or this resembles effort. And so then, You know, cultivation was not, because I guess the naive thing that I took in was that cultivating would mean, you know, I'll find something I don't do a lot and I'll try to do it more.

[80:01]

That was definitely the thing that came to mind first. But instead I arrived at practicing with effort, which is very different in my life. It's something that is arising. You know, it's not something that I would think I need to have a lot more of. And so then cultivating effort became this question of, really kind of cultivating my, um, my awareness of what it was that arose in my life that I called effort and how that then resonated throughout. And so then it very much leads, of course, like we've all said to the interconnectedness of it, because in meeting the effort that arose or the activity that I call it effort, I saw that, you know, it contained all these dimensions of, you know, the effort that arose from, from flurry, right. Whereas there was other effort that arose from calm and things like that. So I think cultivating a sort of meaningful contact, maybe, with that kind of activity was sort of what I came to experience as cultivation.

[81:05]

It's a really curious question, because for me too, the idea of... I had a hard time understanding the line between cultivation and natural arising. It's really unclear for me. I don't understand where that lives, if it lives anywhere. So there were moments when I felt like, yeah, I'm cultivating this concentration. But then there were other moments when I thought I was cultivating something else, but concentration arose. So, and again, they all interconnect. So it's a very difficult thing to pin down. One aspect of cultivation that I think about is the is the developing the ability to be aware of the arising and the differentiations that are happening in the moment.

[82:09]

And it's sort of, it's a cultivation of being aware of the mind and what is happening, what is rising and passing away, with respect to the hindrances and with respect to these factors as such. So it's an awareness, it's cultivation of an awareness of these factors. Not of the factor themselves as such, which I think is there too, possibly, but how they come and go, how they arise, how they fall away. Especially for me, the hindrances. For me, that's something really palpable for me, is cultivating the awareness of ill-will, the awareness of desire, the awareness of doubt, the awareness of what I call as the slipping of my energies downward, or these types of things.

[83:14]

I mean, that's the cultivation, but it's in the moment. I think we're out of time, it's almost time to end. A teacher I had once said something very interesting about Soto Zen practice. and I think it pertains to this matter of cultivation, what he said was that in Soto Zen, when enlightenment arises, you just kind of plow it back under, into the soil of being. And when I think of cultivation, that image arises so it's like we turn the soil constantly and we plant the seeds you know and then we're you know we're we're we're turning it we're tending the plants we're watering uh and that's cultivation but it's uh it depends on having a really

[84:31]

rich, loose, fertile soil. And so it's like the essence of cultivation is making sure that the soil is okay, because if the soil is okay, if not okay, the best seeds that you have are not going to grow. And so the notion of cultivation in our practice is that we're constantly turning and enriching the soil that we have to work with. And so, all of the factors of enlightenment are, you know, they're turned, they're oxygenated, they're air, you know, it's like all of that, that's the way I think of cultivation. It sounds a lot like when the surgeon talks about compost, even though the context in which he talks about it, you know, Difficulties.

[85:32]

It sounds very resonant with what you just said. Yeah, I don't think it's all that strange. It's almost time to end this. No one brought up joy. Did anyone alternate with joy? I think it's the most understated of all of the factors. Yeah, it's tricky because it's also rapture, which has a particular problematic Christian... It can be transplanted. Can I celebrate a minute of joy? Last week I got these glasses, and I may have commented to a few people how I was having trouble with them. I went to the eye doctor, and we did all this, they reinvestigated the whole eye thing, and the tests and everything, Finally, they were all sitting around looking at me, and I just still can't see. And she took the glasses that owned her this short, and she bent them this way and bent them that way and put them back on my face.

[86:35]

And I looked at her, and she was the first thing I'd seen clearly in 10 years. I said, oh, you're so beautiful! And so I had a moment of joy. I didn't cultivate it, but it sure came up. Well, that's a good place to end. Thank you all for the class. And really enjoyable.

[86:52]

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