Good morning. Well, as you may have noticed, I'm sitting in the chair for breakfast. And ever since the end of June, May, I woke up one morning and my legs were very painful. So this muscle here, back here, it's been that way ever since. So I've been, you know, having to deal with this. And mostly I've been sitting. Satsang is usually the easiest position for me. I don't even know. But not for too long. I don't know how that works, but.

[01:03]

This religion, a kind of problem because it becomes very painful and this is the kind of problem that takes a while. Rahul had a similar kind of problem. It took him six months. So I haven't sat in a chair yet, but this morning was the first time. Usually in the morning it's the most painful, stiff. And then during the day... Oh, you can't hear, right? I can hear, but I'm screaming. Yeah, that's what I was wondering, this way. Yeah, that's better, right? Okay. Sergeant, I think the microphone is turned the wrong way. No, not that one. The recording might be the other way. You won't be picked up. I'll be picked up. Thank you. So anyway, this is something that I work with.

[02:08]

And from time to time in my 45 years of practice, I've always had, from time to time, I had a leg or knee or sciatica problem. But I've always managed to figure out how to work with it. And so that's just been my practice. How do I work with this? How do I work with this? So now I'm dealing with how do I work with this? So I just take it one sitting at a time. But I exercise. I keep exercising because I think that's important. Keep walking. And sometimes walking is difficult. But I still do it because it's important to keep moving, I think.

[03:24]

And to rest. But it's pretty constant, but it has a low ebb. So anyway, I know that everybody has some problem and I've seen the whole section. The bleachers over there. So I'm happy to join you. This is also a kind of ego thing, you know, that's associated with sitting in the chair. You know, like, gosh, you know, I have to sit in the chair. But actually, it's a good way to sit. And I actually enjoyed my breakfast this morning sitting in the chair. It was a new experience.

[04:27]

There was something very neat about it. You had more room for your It also gives me a lot more sympathy for everybody and all their aches and pains. Sometimes it sounds like I'm dismissive, but I'm actually not. Because my way is just to always keep working with how I can do this. without letting it dominate me. So, that's always been my kind of advice. But it's not what I expected of everybody.

[05:30]

Because in this situation, everyone has to decide for themselves what their, how far they will go, what their capabilities are sitting. And so I don't demand something from people. It's really between you and your doctor. So I don't want to cause anybody any problems. I just have my own way, and it's just the way it is. But I'm still doing it. That's the way I feel about it. Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know what's going on with me. We first know this song. We first know this song. Do you have any advice? So today I'm going to present a long, not too long, a teaching of Master Hongjue, which I've been talking about.

[06:51]

I used Master Hongjue's practice instructions during our class. And so I'm going to continue with Master Hongjue's teachings. And so, there are several of these wonderful teachings. One is called the Guidepost of Silent Illumination, and another is called the Guidepost for the Hall of Pure Bliss. And, as you know, Nogin wrote a response to Hongju's practice instruction about Zazen, called The Acupuncture Needle of Zazen, which you may be more familiar with.

[07:53]

But today, I'm going to read his comment his guidepost for the hall of pure bliss. So I just want to talk a little bit about what is bliss. I looked it up in the dictionary. And of course, even though I know what it means, I still wanted to see what other people thought it meant. So, bliss is like exalted happiness. or heavenly joy, something like that. And I realized that what we call, what Dogon calls, and what is called, this is not just Dogon's term, Jinju Yu is a lie. Jijuyu Samadhi is our blissful practice.

[09:02]

Blissful Samadhi. It's called Self-Joyous Samadhi. And I've talked about this before many times. Jijuyu Samadhi is what Dogen calls Shikantaza. You may be more familiar with the term Shikantaza. through Dogen, but he also talks about Jijuyu Zamae. Jijuyu, giving and receiving, and then of course there's Tajuyu Zamae, which is giving to others. So, giving to ourselves and giving to others, or finding the self-joyous Samadhi within ourselves and touching others to awaken it in them. So, this is actually what we mean by bliss.

[10:11]

By seeking appearances and sounds, one cannot truly find a way. The deep source of realization comes with constancy, bliss, self, and purity. Its purity is constant. Its bliss is myself. The two are mutually dependent, like firewood and fire. The self's bliss is not exhausted. Constant purity has no end. Deep existence is beyond forms. Wisdom illuminates the inside of the circle. Inside the circle, the self vanishes, neither existent nor nonexistent. Intimately conveying spiritual energy, it subtly turns the mysterious pivot. When the mysterious pivot finds the opportunity to turn, the original light auspiciously appears.

[11:22]

When the mind's conditioning has not yet sprouted, how can words and images be distinguished? Who is it that can distinguish them? Clearly understand and know by yourself. Whole and inclusive with inherent insight, it is not concerned with discriminating thought. When discriminating thought is not involved, it is like white reed flowers shining in the snow. One beam of light's gleam permeates the vastness. The gleam permeates through all directions. From the beginning, not covered or concealed, Catching the opportunity to emerge amid transformations, it flourishes. Following appropriately amid transformations, the pure bliss is unchanged. The sky encompasses it. The ocean seals it.

[12:25]

Every moment without deficiency, in the achievement without deficiency, inside and outside, are interfused. All dharmas transcend their limits. All gates are wide open. Through the open gates are the byways of plain, playful wandering. Dropping off senses and sense objects is like the flowers of our gazing and listening falling away. Gazing and listening are only distant conditions of thousands of hands and eyes. Others die from being too busy, but I maintain continuity in the wonder of continuity. Others die from being too busy, but I maintain continuity. In the wonder of continuity are no traces of subtle identifications. Within purity is bliss.

[13:28]

Within silence is illumination. The house of silent illumination is the hall of pure bliss. Dwelling in peace and forgetting hardship, let go of adornments and become genuine. The motto for becoming genuine is, nothing is gained by speaking. The goodness of Vimalakirti enters the gate of non-duality. So, as we know, So, Clunger was the propagator of silent illumination practice, silent illumination zen, which is often criticized by kana-sen, or proponents of koan-zen. And, of course, these two styles are not really two at all.

[14:34]

They're really one thing. But one side sometimes criticizes the other through ignorance. Silent illumination, or shikantaza, is the practice of the essence of all koans. And all koans express the essence of shikantaza, or silent illumination. And so we don't discriminate one or the other. or reject one in favor of the other. Koans are wonderful pointers, but shikantaza is really the essence, which is silent elimination.

[15:42]

By seeking appearances and sounds, one cannot truly find a way. The deep source of realization comes with constancy, bliss, self, and purity. Its purity is constant, its bliss is myself. So, I think we have to, when we read this kind of poetry, or it's not really poetry, it's poetically, it's like a statement, or using words to express something that words can't express, actually. And so we have to be able to read between the lines, or as Suzuki Roshi would say, to read the other side of the page. So that the words express something, but the meaning has to be what we bring to it, actually.

[16:55]

And so, by seeking appearances and sounds, one cannot truly find the way. The deep source of realization comes with constancy, bliss, self, and purity. Its purity is constant, its bliss is myself. When I read these lines, Constancy, bliss, self-impurity. Constancy is, I remember, you probably know this, but when I asked Suzuki Rishi, what is nirvana, he said, seeing one thing through to the end. This is like constancy. Constancy is No matter how things are going, the practice remains as the fundamental thing.

[18:00]

So practice is what guides us through every circumstance. And when we fall off, we get back on. And we're always falling off and getting back up. Constancy is never losing sight of what is the practice. Constancy and bliss. When we have constancy, Constancy is like the essence of pure practice. And purity is the essence of bliss. So bliss arises through purity and constancy.

[19:02]

And it's not something that we're always aware of, but it's always there. And when it runs very deep, it gives us faith in the practice. So, he said, the two are mutually dependent. The two meaning purity and bliss. The two are mutually dependent like firewood and fire. The self's bliss is not exhausted. Constant purity has no end. Deep existence is beyond forms. purity and bliss. I remember in the class when I was reading this book of Luz Ariane, the French resistance fighter who was blind.

[20:22]

And he said that when he was blind, he was filled with, when he became blind, he became filled with light and bliss. And the light and the bliss were totally dependent on each other, interdependent. So when the light was there, the bliss was there. And when the bliss was there, the light was there. And when he was angry or frightened or in some unwholesome state of mind, it totally disappeared. And then he didn't know where he was. He was confused and lost until the light came back with bliss. So the bliss and the light were totally one thing. So it definitely reminds me of his practice was so much like this.

[21:34]

So then he says, wisdom illuminates the inside of the circle. Inside the circle, the self vanishes, neither existent nor non-existent. One should talk about the circle a lot, and about the circle of bliss, the circle of light, and the circle of wonder. I think you just read that constancy and bliss have no end. In Siddhartha she said nirvana is following something to its end. All the way through. All the way through. So my question is, there seems to be no end and maybe an end End is a way, we have to read the other side of the page. This is where you have to read the other side of the page. If you take every word literally, then you end up in the whole end line. The end is endless.

[22:37]

But there is a provisional end moment by moment. No, it's just simply, well, each moment has a beginning, middle and an end. Endlessly. Yeah, I think endlessly probably is a better word, but you know, we don't always think of the right word when we're saying something. Because later, oh yeah, that would really be better. That's called editing. I understand your point, but... I don't. Thank you. So, wisdom illuminates the inside of the circle. I'll just give you a little example. He says, with thoughts clear, sitting silently, wander into the center of the circle of wonder.

[23:55]

You just kind of wander into the circle of, oh. So, I looked up the word wonder also, even though I thought I didn't know what that meant. But, um, wonder means astonishment, or surprise, or a certain kind of clarity that is not based on anything that is preconceived or habitual or it's waking up to something that is beyond our usual way of discerning things. And so, with thoughts clear, sitting silently, wander into the center of the circle of wonder, and this is how you must penetrate and study. And then he says, with the depths clear and utterly silent, thoroughly illuminate the source

[25:15]

empty and split and spirited, vast and bright, even though you have lucidly scrutinized your image, and no shadow or echo meets it. Searching throughout, you see that you still have distinguished between the merits of a hundred undertakings. In other words, you're still not there. Then you must take the backward step and directly reach the middle of the circle from where light issues forth. So, this echoes what he's saying here. Wisdom illuminates the inside of the circle. Inside the circle, the self vanishes. Neither existent nor non-existent. So, if you say it's not there, that's not true. If you say it is there, well that's not true either. It's neither true system.

[26:17]

If you say there is a self, that's not quite right. And if you say there's not a self, that's not quite right. It's neither a self nor not a self, and yet it's a self. And yet it's not a self. The self is not a self. A state? No, it's a fact. It's not a certain state. Because we have to aspire to that state. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, aspire to. Right. So that's a good point. If you aspire, you may stumble past. But if you don't aspire, nothing happens. And that's why it's described.

[27:23]

It's pointing at something. It's pointing at something. But don't hang on to the words. No, you can't. And I remember it. After every talk, she would say, there's no need to remember what I said. Because if you hang on to those words, you think you've got something. And that's why he always wanted us to sit down with him when he gave a talk. Because just sitting down and absorbing, it's like, and after the lecture, people say, what did he say? God, I don't remember. Nobody can remember what he said. Yeah. I remember that you and others have occasionally done that. When we were sitting Zazen, you held my hand for 10 minutes.

[28:23]

That was interesting. Yes. Well, Siddhartha used to talk during Zazen quite a bit. And I used to do that. And I have from time to time. I remember one time when I was in San Francisco and somebody complained about somebody was talking to us. If you're not used to it, it sounds funny. It seems strange because it's supposed to be quiet, but it's very common for the teacher to talk. Intimately conveying spiritual energy, it suddenly turns the mysterious pivot. When the mysterious pivot finds the opportunity to turn, the original light auspiciously appears. So, even though the light is always there, it doesn't always appear.

[29:27]

The mysterious pivot, you know, Parivrtti means turning. turning on the basis, a revolution on the basis. And this is called enlightenment seeing through delusion. The pivot turns. It's like a revolving door or something. And you open the door and there it is. but the door is usually closed. And it also refers to the difference between consciousness, vijnana, and wisdom. And it involves the four

[30:32]

the four levels of consciousness and the four levels of wisdom. Consciousness revolves and wisdom appears and takes the place of the consciousnesses. You no longer call them consciousness, you call them wisdom. The wisdom of the round mirror wisdom, the wisdom of equality, the wisdom of differentiation, and the wisdom of action. Those are basically what he's talking about, I believe. In other words, ego turns into wisdom, basically. When ego takes its rightful place in the hierarchy of consciousness, then it actually turns into wisdom.

[31:42]

So we have the saying, turn ignorance into wisdom. So that's the process. If there is a process of the turning, The practice is turning, actually. The practice is turning on its center. It makes me think of Hui Nong, who was asked to go back to the kitchen and turn the mill to grind the rice. And he's turning the mill and grinding the rice, which is what everybody, this is called practice, turning the mill and grinding the rice. And turning the raw material into flour that you can do something with. So practice is turning the mill,

[32:47]

and turning ego, ego gets ground down into wisdom. And we also say the practice of Sangha is that everyone is practicing together and all the rough edges become smoothed off. So, it's really important that all our rough edges come out. Otherwise, it takes longer for them to get knocked off. Sometimes, like a tough fight, you know. We have this kind of endless practice of knocking off the rough edges so that we work in a harmonious way together, And then when we grind out the rough edges of ego, the light has an opportunity to express itself.

[33:58]

So intimately conveying spiritual energy, it subtly turns the mysterious pivot. When the mysterious pivot finds the opportunity to turn, the original light auspiciously appears. When the mind's conditioning is not yet sprouted, how can words and images be distinguished? Who is it that can distinguish them? The mind's conditioning is not yet sprouted. that before you sprouted, just like the alaya was young, alaya consciousness has all the seeds. And when they're not activated by habit energy or by, you know, continuous turning of the wheel of conditioning, and before that happens, there's simply openness. So, when the mind's conditioning is not yet sprouted, when the seeds are not activated through our habit energy, how can words and images be distinguished?

[35:13]

Who is it that can distinguish them? Clearly understand and know by yourself. whole and inclusive with inherent insight, that is, intuition, it is not concerned with discriminating thought. When discriminating thought is not involved, it is like white reed flowers shining in the snow. So, white reed flowers shining in the snow, like, you know, they're there, the flowers are there, and the snow is there, but they're almost imperceptible. There's very little contrast. So, it's not like they're exactly the same. They're different, but they're also the same. That's the kind of feeling. It's like, there's not much difference between the flowers and the snow. But yes, the flower is the flower and the snow is the snow.

[36:16]

Yeah, so I wonder if, getting back to purity, if this is the purity of this direct perception without anything extra. No, purity is like the non... This is like purity. This is like an expression of purity. Yeah. So, one beam of light's gleam permeates the vastness. The gleam permeates through all directions. From the beginning, not covered or concealed, catching the opportunity to emerge and the transformation it flourishes. So, one beam of light's gleam permeates the vastness. The gleam permeates through all directions. This is like Zazen. sitting in the center of the circle of wonder, sitting in the center of the circle where light issues forth.

[37:24]

This is dasen. And this is light, whether one is aware or not. This is the light gleaming in all directions, not concealed. And catching the opportunity to emerge amid transformations, it flourishes. In other words, It's not limited to the sitting position. This is how you bring, how you extend this through all conditions. It's not limited to the cushion. It's activated through all conditions. And this is the fourth wisdom that I'm talking about. All of our activity is activated as wisdom, and not simply as egoistic activity. Following appropriately amid transformations, the pure bliss is unchanged.

[38:31]

In other words, conditions don't affect that blissful truth. The sky encompasses steals it. Every moment without deficiency, in the achievements without deficiency, inside and outside are interfused. So, this is kind of like the white, the flower and the outside. Where's the outside and where's the inside? Because even though we talk about outside and inside, in actuality, there's no absolute outside or inside. So all dominance transcends their limits. All gates are wide open. Through the open gates are the byways of playful wandering.

[39:33]

Dropping off senses and sense objects is like the flowers of our gazing and listening falling away. Gazing and listening are only distant conditions of thousands of hands and eyes. That's a complex statement. All dharmas transcend their limits. All gates are wide open. In other words, dharmas are here, all things, but our feelings, emotions, thoughts, are all dharmas. And so they transcend all conditions. that they transcend their limits and there's no gate that confines them. Through the open gates are the byways of a playful wandering, dropping off senses and sense objects. Senses and sense objects. If you want to discern something through consciousness, there has to be an object and a sense.

[40:36]

Right? This is basic Buddhism. Dropping off senses and sense objects is like the flowers that are gazing and listening, falling away. Skyflowers. Skyflowers is a technical term meaning dreams. Flowers in the sky. Skyflowers. Delusive dreams. Delusional dreams. So dropping off senses and sense objects is like the flowers of our gazing and listening falling away. Gazing and listening are only distant conditions of thousands of hands and eyes. Thousands of hands and eyes, I believe, is a reference to the Buddha of a thousand hands and eyes, Avalokiteshvara of a thousand hands and eyes, and each hand, each eye is a way of helping beings.

[41:44]

So, in other words, delusions drop away and the motivation for the delusions becomes the motivation for healthy people. Then he says, others die from being too busy, but I maintain continuity. In the wonder of continuity are no traces of subtle identifications. Continuity, we talked about that, continuous practice. The continuous practice of now. In other words, You know, we may think of continuous practice as something that's going on and on and on in a certain line, but it's simply being present moment by moment, right now.

[42:58]

So there's nothing ever but now. Being in that space where it's just now. The continuity of now, now, now, now. That's called samadhi, the ever-renewed present moment. Within purity is bliss. Within silence is illumination. The house of silent illumination is the hall of pure bliss. Dwelling in peace and forgetting hardship, I would say forgetting unnecessary hardship. Families are not necessary. We all have some hardship. But maybe it doesn't mean forgetting hardship. Forgetting that something is hard or easy, actually.

[44:03]

Is something hard or is it easy? Sometimes something easy is hard. Sometimes something hard is easy. But if we're just in the moment, I mean, if we are really present, we're just doing something, you know? If you're just doing something, someone else may look at you and say, boy, that looks really hard. But to you it's not hard, because you're totally at one with what you're doing. So, let go of adornment and become genuine. So, to get to the essence, we let go of adornment. We take off our jewels, all those things that enhance us.

[45:14]

I remember when, reading later on in this book, which I didn't read to you, Leylous Lerion, the French resistance fighter, you know, who was about 19 years old, he was in the concentration camp finally. And he said, in the concentration camp, you have to let go of all identity in order to survive. you cannot be anybody. If you're anybody, if you're any vestige of being anybody, you'll die. You just have to let go of every vestige. If you, the courageous are the first to go. It's terrible, you know, but when you think about it, but The only way to survive is to be nobody. And all these people who have identities, the rich and the poor and the grand and the ordinary and so forth, it's all the same.

[46:33]

This is where you learn to be the great equality, the great equalizer. So, let go of adornments and become genuine. The motto for becoming genuine is, nothing is gained by speaking. The goodness of Vimalakirti enters the gate of non-duality. And this is very famous, as you know. Vimalakirti's thundering silence is entering the gate of non-duality. But we shouldn't be stopped there. If you get stuck there, it's worse than being stuck in duality. So, but we have to understand what he's saying.

[47:35]

Great. The great big goodness of Himalaya Kirti enters the gate of non-duality. And there's wonderful go on about that in the book of record. I don't know if I have a time for a question or not. That would be nice. Do you have a question? You have time for one or two questions. Okay. You said ego turns into wisdom. Ego is a transformative... Yeah, I did say that. What happens to ego? Well, ego is not real. Ego is a false sense of self.

[48:39]

So, when it disappears, there's only reality. So ego does have a place. Ego, ego, a sense of self-consciousness built on how we relate to the world. So when self-consciousness is ground down, so to speak, then it becomes Buddha-consciousness. So self-consciousness, we have both self-consciousness and Buddha-consciousness within us. So when self-consciousness takes on the task of motivating practice,

[49:54]

It becomes dissolved. It's like sugar in your coffee becomes dissolved. So it no longer has an identity as ego. But the energy is absorbed into your Buddha nature instead of your ego nature. So we become Buddha-centric instead of ego-centric. So our life revolves around our Buddha nature rather than around our ego. I thought that was a pretty good explanation myself. If it's only now, [...] what's the role of memory? Memory. To remember something. as accurately as possible, but it's a reconstruction.

[51:15]

Memory is a reconstruction of an event. Even though it doesn't seem like it, because automatically you remember. You don't have the experience of reconstructing necessarily. Sometimes in the distant past you have to reconstruct. You know, but, well, I'm going to ruin it now, you know. It seems like you're not reconstructing it, but you are. But is there a purpose? Well, yeah, otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. I mean, is there a benefit? The present activity is influenced by the past activity. It's like this is the head of the pin, right? I mean, you have to have the whole pin in order to have the head of the pin. But the head of the pen is where 10,000 Buddhas are dancing around in the moment. This is where it's happening. But the past has conditioned the events of the present.

[52:19]

And the events of the present are conditioning what will become the present, which we call the future. It will no longer be the future, because it can be the present. So the future is just an idea about what the future present will be. It doesn't exist as the future. It's just an idea, because we think that there's continuity. And we experience continuity, but at some point, no more continuity. So, the present is because our thinking about the future and our experience of the past. But all is right here. There's nothing that's not right here. Can you step into the past? In a way, you step into the past, you know, by remembering. You step into the past, but you step into the past in the present

[53:22]

your thinking is in the present. Your experience of the past is in the present. Your experience of the past is not in the past. You couldn't have experienced the past, I mean, memory of it, in the past when it happened. So, it's all memory. I mean, it's all, it's a picture. Our experience of the past is a picture. And of course, our experience of the present is a picture too. And so we try to get beyond the picture. This is what darshan is. To get beyond the picture. Because we translate our experience into a picture. And, you know, all the things we invent are images of ourself. The movie theater, you know, the movie is a picture of our mind, the way it works. And we can't invent something, I don't think, that is not a picture of the way our mind works.

[54:30]

That's why our pictures are limited. Because they're limited to the way our mind works. So if we want to experience the unlimited, we have to let go of everything. That's called Zatlan, but it's boring. We create as much activity as we can in order to interest ourselves. There's an old saying that the nectar of the gods tastes like nothing at all to an ordinary person. Because an ordinary person needs something more tangible, more exciting and interesting. I mean, there's nothing against that. It's just the way it is. And people go, what's the sense of

[55:32]

Why do we need to understand ultimate reality? If you don't need to understand it, do something else. I can't say why. I can hardly say how. But in the end, how do I do this? How can I make this happen? What's next? Why did this happen? How come that happened? How do I take care of this moment? And taking care of this moment determines what happens in the next moment. That's why it's so important to take care of this moment. Because this moment determines, just like the past, determines what's happening now. And what we do now determines. So we have an opportunity. This is called how we change our karma. We have an opportunity on this moment, which is every moment, to go in a direction that's different than what is impelled by the past.

[56:40]

This is called getting off the wheel. Basic Buddhism. And so, it's so important what we do now, because we may have a choice in every moment. We may think, well I don't have a choice because I have compulsion. It's true, you know, it's hard to get beyond compulsion. but it's possible. So grinding down the ego, that's not what's going on. This is the term. That's not going to help. But that pivot, that mysterious pivot, that's really a great use of words. I think grinding away is going to not help anything. Well, you know, that's because you have an image in your mind of what grinding away means. Yeah. Yeah, so just let go of that image. You don't have to think of it that way.

[57:44]

Absorb. You can think of it as absorption. It doesn't hurt so much. Right? Think of it any way you want. That's just one way of expressing it, the way I express it. You can express it in your own way. Absorption. That pivot isn't just extended. Anyway, so I just wanted to say that those white flowers in the snow, actually they just shine forth. Yeah. They don't get lost. They don't get blurred or confused with the snow. No, they don't. So I think we know if we had one or two questions. Thank you.

[58:32]

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