I don't know. It's the last class. Maybe they're all home studying for the final. I guess we didn't get that much. Right. You know, the thing about this class is it counts. You don't get to take it for pass-fail. Okay. This is my practice. Let's start by reading the Four Noble Truths. The Noble Truths of Dukkha. This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truths of Dukkha. Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, sickness is dukkha, death is dukkha, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are dukkha.

[01:10]

Association with the unloved or unpleasant condition is dukkha. Separation from the beloved or pleasant condition is dukkha. Not to get what one wants is dukkha. In brief, the five aggregates of attachment are dukkha. the noble truth of the origin of dukkha. This, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the origin of dukkha. It is craving which produces rebirth, bound up with pleasure and greed. It finds delight in this and that. In other words, craving for sense pleasures, craving for existence or becoming, and craving for nonexistence or self-annihilation. the noble truth of the cessation of dukkha. This, O Bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the cessation of dukkha. It is the complete cessation of dukkha, giving up, renouncing, relinquishing, detaching from craving, the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of dukkha.

[02:18]

This, O Bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha. It is simply the noble eightfold path. namely right understanding or view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right awareness, and right concentration. So one thing, the word noble is usually attached to all of these truths and it's interesting what that word means the Pali word noble is ariya and it has an interesting it has an interesting it breaks down into an interesting thought it means noble or ariya

[03:23]

in Pali means to go, which is ya, away from one's enemies, which is ari. So that's a really interesting derivation of the word noble. go away from one's energies. That's what gets translated. Enemies. Sorry, not energies. Enemies. Thank you. So, in this context, I think it means constantly turning away from what is unwholesome or what is the defilements or the places where we're stuck. and by implication, if you go away from them, then you're turning towards what is wholesome, what tends towards the fulfillment of your life.

[04:28]

The other morning, as I was getting up, I was also thinking about in a sort of similar way about cessation and how in Zen we always have these when we posit a negative then we also put forward a positive or when we posit a positive then we go like no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue and so the emphasis is particularly in Theravada and early Buddhism, is in this kind of renunciate path, that cessation is about a kind of stopping. And that's true. But it also seems to me that in the way that these things get turned often turned inside out, that the turning inside out of cessation is a kind of looking at your life with a sense of creativity, that each moment you have an opportunity to create something, create something selfless, but create something new.

[05:59]

And so cessation is not about kind of obliterating your personality or cutting off from all desires, but actually living your life in a fully creative, fully alive way. A couple of things come to mind from Suzuki Roshi. One is, when Zen is Zen, you are you. The other is that the purpose of ascent practice is to be completely yourself. So that's the creative side, which is not to say that there isn't a necessary renunciation or relinquishment, but that it can be framed positively, that cessation

[07:05]

is great joy and lightness and frees you to look at things and look at relationships in a creative way. So I just wanted to, that just sort of came to me in bed and I wanted to share that thought with you so it wasn't just this kind of the notion of cessation. I think there's a temptation to see it sort of grimly. And this is not about being grim, it's about being free. And I think we're afraid, we're often afraid that really to let go of self-claiming, well, it's to let go, that means letting go of everything that we know, because that's all we know.

[08:09]

We're aware of our clinging. So to think that there is some other really creative and helpful way to live that's pleasant in a different in a different manner uh i think that's what that's what the cessation creation means to me so i just wanted to share that thought so let's go back to the eightfold path which is this is a way that you can actually live uh And it's a way that you can live that points you towards freedom and actually living that way is being free. To whatever extent we can continue that way, keep going that way even when we fall off.

[09:20]

So the path again breaks down into these three areas. Sila, or conduct, which is the steps, the elements of right speech, right action, and right livelihood. We'll talk about them today. Samadhi, or concentration, or meditation, which is right effort, right awareness, or mindfulness, and right concentration, or meditation. We'll talk about that today. Then we talked last week about the prajna aspect, right? Understanding, review and right thought or aspiration or intention. And as I said, you can think of them as prajna representing the head. and Sila representing the trunk or your body, and Samadhi representing the heart.

[10:28]

And obviously, to be a human being, all these parts have to be functioning together. You can't separate them out. And that's why this path is not a path you know it's not like you go from this step to this step to this step uh it's just uh what's constantly arising and naturally arising it's a natural it's a natural way to live uh and as i was saying also it's it's a path of of integrity you know the integrity of uh body heart and mind that they're all integrated as one you know into one person and so all these elements are integrated but thinking of them as practices um you realize that various ones of them apply they apply in in mundane matters

[11:38]

Well, it's like... brushing your teeth would involve, for some of us, right intention, right action, and right effort. You know, I mean, I know this from trying to get Alexander to brush his teeth. You have to constantly place before him the right thought or intention. And then he has to, you got to get him in the bathroom so he can do this action, this wholesome action, with the right effort. You know, the way it's just like brushing your teeth is just like sitting zazen. You can cut all these corners. And I do sometimes.

[12:47]

But what's the point? What's the point? What are you saving? By not systematically brushing the front teeth, brushing the back teeth, brushing the left side, the right side, up, down. So this is a way that you can see the Noble Eightfold Path applying there. Or you can also see it in these absolutely geopolitical issues. How do we conduct ourselves among nations? What's our trade policy? What's our view of interdependence or our blindness to interdependence that allows us, say, to profit from labors of countries across the world or to see someone as an implacable enemy and demonize them or whatever.

[13:55]

So, it really applies across the board. The more you think about it and use it as... Think about these elements, you can use them as actually a kind of template for looking at your life in practice. And I think that this path And the Four Noble Truths, they are tools that are sufficient to guide us in our lives and in our Zen practice and Buddhist practice. I really encourage you to keep coming back to them, think about them, and use them in different ways. They're never old-fashioned or out of date. So... Is there any significance to the order in which they appear?

[14:58]

Well, you know, I haven't found... I mean, I haven't found any real commentary on that. It's very interesting. In a lot of the commentaries, in fact, they tend to present them in a somewhat hierarchical, rising order of conduct, and then concentration, and then wisdom. That's what I think the Watadama does, and also Lady Sayadaw, which is very interesting. That's just, I don't know, that's just logic or something. I don't find it particularly useful.

[16:00]

I think it's more challenging to me to think about it in the way it's presented. The Buddha discovered this, and it makes sense in a way, because the Buddha discovered it from just his insight into reality, and this was this was the first thing he taught and he was explaining his insight. So it comes from the insight is the view and the thought and then out of that comes, you could say out of that conduct in a way flows from that, but it's also true that that the view, and for us very much, that the view and the thought also flow from the conduct and from our meditation. That if we're working on our effort, if we're working on our awareness and we're working on our concentration, then the fruit of that is wisdom.

[17:02]

There's no particular sequence that, particularly in Zen, there's no particular sequence that these arise out of. They're just like, uh-huh. They happen when conditions are appropriate. Do you have any thought about the order? No, I think it makes sense to think of them as aspects, each of which can be important at any given time. or draw our attention to different aspects of our lives. Yeah, I mean, I think that each of them is... they're all wholesome. And that's... that's, I think, the point. It's just they're all a wholesome way of living, whether it's using your mind or your words or your body. What's the relationship between these and the Paramitas?

[18:08]

They kind of overlap. There's a number of systems that, these lists that overlap. I suspect that the Paramitas are, I think they're a pre-Buddhist system. You know, you find Paramis, I think in Hinduism, And, you know, Buddhism borrowed a lot. But, I haven't seen, I mean, I think this is pretty original. But there are other, like, factors of enlightenment and the Parmitas, they overlap in a lot of ways. They're just different, they're different meditational tools. So it's kind of like whatever works. If this system resonates for you, then use it. OK, so we talked, we talked yesterday, last week about right understanding.

[19:13]

And just to remind you, we talked about it in basically two ways. One, that the right view, well, first of all, that all views are wrong. But the view that is useful is that one is the owner of one's karma. And the other way is just that right understanding means an understanding of the Four Noble Truths, that everything that is subject to arising is also subject to ceasing. And then we talked about right thought or right aspiration or intention, which is the desire, well, it's the intention not to be caught in desire or clinging and to renounce what is unwholesome and to embrace what is wholesome.

[20:25]

and we talked about these pairs, renunciation being paired with generosity, non-harming being paired with loving-kindness, non-violence paired with compassion, those being kind of the positive, it's like cessation and creation, it's like the positive turning of a kind of kind of negative formulation and also said that for in Mahayana the right thought or intention is the four bodhisattva vows to save all beings. So any questions before we go on to these last six? Okay, an hour, so that means 10 minutes of peace.

[21:32]

So, we've moved from the prajna component to sila, or precepts, or conduct. And the first one is right speech. And I think it's there first, because it leads directly out of thought. Our words come out of our thoughts and they lead into our actions. And in a way, I was reading, I have this book that a friend told me and i meant to to bring it uh it's actually a commentary it's a jewish commentary and it's a book that's called it's called guard your tongue and it's it's a commentary on very uh traditional jewish teachings but it's so close to this and it it delineates as uh as the jewish commentaries in certain ways they're like they're like the indian

[22:49]

almost legalistic ways of saying, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, this is unwholesome, it leads to this. And what it was saying in the first chapter was that more damage has been done with words than with any conceivable weapon. because it's usually the words that lead to the use of weapons. So, we have to be incredibly careful. It has the words that we use, the way that we use language, and sometimes language is no more than a grunt or a very telescoped expression. They have a really powerful impact. So this is also

[23:55]

You've all been to the Bodhisattva ceremony. In this conduct section, it covers the precepts. But speech is the only one that sort of stands by itself. So in the most basic way, in the sutras, what the Buddha says is, Right speech means essentially no lying, no slander or sort of tale-telling on people, no rude or impolite or harsh speech, and also means no idle talk, just kind of talk you do. It's not... It's... Help me out.

[25:03]

Idle talk. It's not conversation so much. That's not idle talk. That's actually about relationship. But it's... Gossip? Gossip. Compulsive talk. You know, when you're talking out of a kind of nervousness or talking just to fill up a space. I think that's what they mean by idle talk. Also included is, well, actually, abstinence from useless chatter, or idle talk. refers to such plays and novels as contain no worthy goals and no reference to good conduct.

[26:05]

Such matters do not inspire those who read or listen to them, though they may have transient entertainment value. Daytime television novels. I'm thinking about this idea that comes out of thought and looks to our actions and how, for me, I think about speech and even action. This doesn't sort of deal with the impulsivity. At least for me, it's not like I... When I get into road rage, let's say, it's not something that I notice and think about. It's like something happens fast and I'm there. Right. I mean, so, you know, so the rest... I can be aware when, whoops, I'm gossiping or, you know, but the harshness for me, I flip into it and I don't, you know, and I'm not sure, it seems to me that it's some unconscious motivation.

[27:08]

I'm curious how you can become, how one can, how an impulsive person, I'm not going to characterize myself entirely that way, can become more conscious of what leads up to that, because it's not a conscious process. Right. Well, what comes to mind, and I hesitate to say this to you as somebody who is a therapist, but I keep thinking of, what comes to mind immediately is Freud's dictum, where it is, there shall ego be. I know, that's why I hesitated to say it. It's very out of fashion. Well, I don't care if it's out of fashion, but I don't think that way. But, I mean, I think that's actually a very similar process. Well, what do you mean? I mean, so tell me what you mean by that. What I mean by that is that one learns to what that means to me is that one learns self-centeredness about it well that also but I wasn't so much thinking of that I'm most thinking about just in terms of think of ego not in terms of ego in an unhealthy way but ego as consciousness as awareness you know in other words it ego is something that you can you can see

[28:32]

and uh you can be the boss of whereas it is something that bosses you it pushes you around it just just comes up and you don't have any control it's like impulsiveness you know so uh this is where in order to practice right speech then you need to be you need to bring other elements of this eightfold path to bear on it so that elements don't stand alone so you have to have right intention and you have to have right effort and those would be seems to me those would be the elements that you would bring to bear on that and sounds abstract no no actually i'm remembering peter carpenteri once saying you know when I was much worse about road rage, and I was driving fast a lot, and he said he made the decision to drive slowly all the time.

[29:35]

So, I can see there is some intention about what kinds of situations you, or what level of agitation you allow yourself to function under, and seeing that that contributes to the impulsiveness or something like that. I remember, you know, I made a decision at a certain point, this was a long while ago, but I had to make a conscious decision never to give the finger to somebody who did something stupid or dangerous to me while I was driving. Well, I had to make a decision too when some crazy guy pulled me off the road. Right. So I just made that decision, which means sometimes I have to kind of swallow that rage or I have to pull off the road myself and eat it. But there is a way when I think about that example, that somehow once I made it, I don't really even have the impulse.

[30:40]

I mean, it's a very, it has to be day from hell plus traffic jam. Something pushes you over the edge. It doesn't have to be like too many factors that once in a lifetime or once in every ten years occur. So there is something about the decision. So you already have a model. I do have a model. For how to do it. That's why these are, that's why I say these are naturally arising. But that is somehow much easier than some other things. That's true. I don't think you can stop the impulse, but the thing is to notice it as quickly as you can. Right. So awareness is another factor. Right, that's right. And then not acting. Right, that's right. Awareness is another factor. Not acting. Right. I wanted to say something in a slightly different direction about using words, which is that words are closely tied to concepts, so words are sort of a way of dividing up reality. You mentioned words being dangerous, maybe more dangerous than weapons, just because people can get trapped in these ideas.

[31:50]

start to see the world in terms of, you know, these categories. Right. Well, remember the five skandhas? Form, feeling, perceptions, formations, consciousness. Words are formations. And what we were talking about that earlier is that by the time you get, by the time something reaches the level of a formation, you're caught. You know, so you're born. you're born again. It's interesting, the turning of speech in the Buddhist example is noble silence. There's this concept of noble silence and you'll find it in the sutras often. you know, the Buddha is asked some very challenging question that somebody, usually somebody thinks, I've got him, you know, he's not going to be able to wiggle his way out of this one with the right words, you know, and in that moment he'll just, he'll just observe noble silence, because there's nothing

[33:23]

helpful that he can do beyond just being there. So, silence is the other side, that turning of speech. I want to just read you... Can I ask a question? Yeah, yeah. Did I miss... I think I just made a big disconnect, but you didn't just say that Did you just say that not speaking is preferable to speaking? No. I just said that sometimes not speaking is preferable to speaking. But you have to know why you're not speaking. Not speaking is not out of intimidation. That's why it's called noble silence. It's upright silence. It's not a silence that shrinks away from conflict, but a silence that sits right in the middle.

[34:30]

And it's hard to do. By the time it gets to words, you're caught and you're reborn. By the time you have the words. Yeah, but that doesn't apply to every word. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. No, it just applies to... The harsh words. Well, it applies to unwholesome words. It applies to words that... Or thoughtless words. That are about... They're words about self-cleaning. Okay. This thought I'd read you this and then I want to go on. Also included under this heading are the 32 types of vulgar talk which are spiritually unbeneficial and obstruct the noble fruits of stream winning etc and also rebirth in the higher planes. They are as follows. Get this down. Talk about rulers, criminals, ministers of states, armies, dangers, battles, food, drink, clothing, dwellings, adornments, perfumes, relatives, vehicles, villages, towns, cities, provinces, women or men, heroes, streets, baths, relations who have died, this and that, the origin of the world, the origin of the ocean, eternity views, annihilation views, worldly loss, worldly gain, self-indulgence and self-mortification.

[36:18]

I'm just assuming there's a note here. What's left? I don't know. It's a vehicle. Vehicles. It said vehicles. Anyway, that's the weather. No, it doesn't say sports in the weather. Anyway, I'm not sure what the source of that is from some commentarial thing, but this is a Burmese approach to Eightfold Path. I thought it's fairly comprehensive. What do you make of that, really? What I make of that is that almost all of those subjects are, they're like fertile ground for self-views. Who doesn't have an opinion about their relatives? What about streets?

[37:21]

I didn't write this. Well, I know, but it's like... Well, streets, you know, it's like, there's good streets and there's bad streets. Oh, I see, okay. And the bad neighborhood. Right. Okay. You know, I mean, they're all... It's not a bad neighborhood. All of those things are just, and they're certainly not encyclopedic, you could get much broader, they're all areas that we have opinions about. Picking and choosing. Right. So really it's not about the subject matter, it's about... It's about our internal process. It's about our consciousness. Right. So, right action. Right action is, it's put out, first of all, one, right action means to avoid doing what is unwholesome and to stop doing it if it's already come up.

[38:31]

to support actions, doing actions that are wholesome and continue doing them if they've come up. And this right action includes the four other fundamental precepts, include the precept of not killing, not stealing, not using intoxicants and not misusing sexuality. So, those are four of the five basic precepts, the fifth being right speech. And, Asan Tomedo writes, the impulse to help someone is skillful dhamma, or right action. If you see someone fall over on the floor in a faint, a skillful dhamma goes through your mind. help this person, and you go to help them recover from their fainting spell.

[39:37]

If you do it with an empty mind, which is, I think, that's our natural instinct. If you do it with an empty mind, not of any personal desire for gain, but just out of compassion, and because it's the right thing to do, then it's simply a skillful Dhamma. It's simply right action. So I don't think this is, the principle is fairly simple and straightforward. The question for ourselves about any of our actions, whether this is helpful, whether it's not helpful, wholesome, unwholesome, whether it's clouded by a self-view or attachment, that's where the challenge is. Somebody, Ikenoshi was telling a story once, somebody came to him who started practicing at the Honlulu Diamond Sangha and came quite regularly for a couple of weeks and finally had his first dokusan.

[40:51]

with Akinroshi. And they were talking, and Akinroshi, in his first docusentary, Akinroshi always asks, you know, tell me something about yourself, what do you do? And this guy owned a liquor store. And actually, this goes under White Livelihood, but I'm telling it anyway. You can transpose it. And the guy asked him, well, I feel a pull between these two things, Zazen practice and owning a liquor store. And he said, well, I would bet that in six months you will either stop coming to Zazen or you will be finding a way to have another business. And unfortunately he stopped going to Zaza.

[42:02]

So I'm not sure there's an awful lot more to say about right action but I leave it open to some questions. You have anything you want to ask. I just had this thought, there's this man that I work in the county psych hospital, and there's a man there today who was admitted because he was suicidal, which is a lot on my unit. And he worked, I guess I can confidently tell you it doesn't really apply because you wouldn't have anybody to know who he was. He worked at Lawrence Livermore Lab, and he was also an alcoholic, and he'd been a year ago at this program, where he said he had become aware that he really was in conflict about working at Lawrence Livermore Lab.

[43:09]

He wasn't really a religious man, but he felt that it was politically incorrect. And now, but he worked there for 23 years, and he had six years before he could retire, It was hard for him to imagine that giving up that job could increase his well-being. So there he was, stuck with that. So here he was, things had gotten worse. He had come to this recognition, but he had no way, I guess particularly without a spiritual practice or I don't know what, to act on that. And his accustomedness to the money that he made, which was actually the only thing, because somehow his status had kind of diminished, and he had an assignment that was elusive, and he had started drinking again. I'm not sure what my question was, but it was sort of striking, because I thought, wow, this is a real sort of a practice dilemma, really.

[44:21]

And here's this man without a practice. But then I guess, in a sense, what I see all the time is that crisis becomes a practice for me. Some people become more religious in that context, but also many people, it just, you know, it shakes things up. You know, they almost killed themselves, or their partner almost left them, or whatever, or something that shakes things up enough that... Well, I'm not sure what the relevance of all this was, except it's working for me. Well, is it okay if we move into right livelihood? Right livelihood means one doesn't work at something that brings harm to other beings. And the first thing on the list traditionally is the making and selling of weapons.

[45:22]

Then it's intoxicants. gambling, butchering. Being a butcher. Yeah, that's what it means. I think we can examine that a little more because I think there's more complexity to it. But that's literally what it means, killing animals. And those people who did that In a lot of societies in Asia, those are very low caste people, low class people. In Japan, they're kind of outcast. In India, I don't think they're... I think they have a caste, actually, because you wouldn't eat food that was prepared by non-caste people. But in America, it's a respected profession. To the business of making weapons. and it's brought them right to the precipice.

[46:25]

They really need some help with that. Right off the bat you said that white livelihood meant having an occupation that didn't cause harm and I'm wondering if That's the same as, it sort of sounds like, it doesn't sound the same as saying, doing something beneficial. Right, but that's the way, that's the way this, most Buddhism, most of the sutras are framed. They're framed in the abstention from harm, the abstention of evil, or the abstention from clinging, rather than something positive. It's just that's very conventional.

[47:32]

So that's the way all these commentaries I've been reading put it. Actually, the interesting thing to look at sometimes, and we're not going to have time, my friend Santikaro Bhikkhu, has a piece in here based on the teaching of his teacher, Buddhadasa, in Thailand, and he puts forward the... I'll read you what these things are. The noble 12-fold social path, which is right religion, right education, right leadership, right organization and government, right communication, right culture, right sexuality and family, right economics, right ecology, right play. and right monitoring or mindfulness, right? Sangha, community.

[48:38]

So, that's just a different, that's a different system. That's a more, a very positive, sort of dominant society vision. I'm just trying to, you know, translate that into a lay setting and a modern day setting. Well, I think, yeah, we have to do that. And in a modern day setting, I think it's very complicated. I would be loathe to, if given the fact that I still eat animals, I would have to hold myself as involved in an unwholesome activity as the person I'm paying to cut up those animals. To me, in a Mahayana view, that's a false distinction.

[49:40]

That's a distinction of self and other. And it's interesting. In Theravada, you know, monks go out begging for food. And they actually go out and do this every day. I've done it. It's really amazing and quite wonderful. But they accept anything that's put in the bowl. They're kind of bound. They're supposed to accept that. And, you know, often people put in a meat or fish curry, chicken curry, something like that. It depends on the country. But very rarely are those culture is strictly vegetarian. And so the way, the Vinaya, the rules for monks are written, you accept whatever is given, but you're not allowed to accept food that has been, meat that has been killed for your sake.

[50:45]

In other words, if somebody said, I'm going to cook a chicken for the monks, you know, then you're not, if you know that, you're not supposed to accept it. So, they make this kind of, I think of it as a kind of dualistic distinction, frankly. Whereas, the fix that we're in is, well, if we're going to eat that, we're all involved in it. And this is what I keep coming back to. I've said this a lot. If we're going to drive around in our cars, then we're all involved in an unwholesome activity. And also, we are supporting a system that is dependent upon the weapons that get us the cheap prices for gasoline. So, it's very complex. And in that way, in the Mahayana view, there's no room for us to stand outside that circle.

[51:55]

And so it's very challenging. Because if you don't have the power, it can really, it can make things very difficult for your family. Well, that's right. And so, I mean, there are many ways in which we contribute to things that we really want Well, we can't help that. I mean, in a way, we can't help it, but we can really try to, just like Ellen was saying about, you know, these unconscious impulses that come up, we can try to make it conscious to see, so that we can actually make choices about the choices, and if we're doing something that, in a way, We can learn to grieve about the choices that we're involved in. We could grieve about the fact that the situation we're in seems to demand that we have a car and that we drive it.

[53:09]

Or that we have to recycle because we don't have a better way to deal with it. Right, we have to recycle, you know, these gazillion plastic bottles and containers, you know. We're not asking for these plastic bottles. On the other hand, we're not demanding that they stop packaging the stuff this way. Or we're not just drinking a glass of water, you know, but we're having a Coke. We have to be conscious of, it's like we say in the meal chain, where do things come from? Innumerable labors brought us this food. What are those labors? Where were they? What are we asking of people? How do we acknowledge it? But there's a positive side to this too, which is like, for example, we all have to have

[54:11]

Right, right. That's what I mean by bringing to awareness. So you make choices about how you use the things. Well, I think the little by little is actually, for me, the most important part. It's like, you know, you don't stop driving your car or you, you know, because that's what often gets me confused is that it just seems so huge that I can't even think about it. But if I remember the little by little, it's like, oh, I can walk there instead of drive. And I do. And so I am contributing something. Right. That may not, in a structural way, there's no saying what that, it may or may not have impact. Right. But in a personal way, it's at least what it is, is bringing your choices to to the realm of awareness, which is in... That's why Khanda leads into this next section of the Eightfold Path, the three parts that relate to samadhi or meditation, or you could say the restlessness of your mind.

[55:42]

That's the way to think about it. So I want to move to right effort, right awareness, and right concentration. And so those are the Samadhi elements, but I think thinking of them as they are the practices that allow you to really face the restlessness of each of our minds. I like that way of thinking about it. So the first one is right effort. Again, right effort is just avoiding what's unwholesome and cultivating what's wholesome. And the effort that we make, you could think of it in terms of meditation. You know, we have this intention, go back to right intention, to sit upright and follow our breath.

[56:55]

That's our intention. But we need right effort actually to be able to do it. And right effort is like the reigning in of our mind. It can actually describe it. It's like your mind should have an automatic pilot. like on a plane or a boat. So what the pilots, what it does, and I remember this from my grandfather's boat, it's like, when you veer off course, the automatic pilot would just return you to the course. Go up this way, the wheel swings back that way. Go up this way, the wheel swings back that way. So just, but, that's very nice, but it ain't automatic. We actually have to do it. Something has to make that effort. And the effort is constantly to return ourselves to the intention.

[58:01]

Does that make some sense? So, it applies in your zazen, in your meditation, just in really coming back to the intention and really adjusting your posture and settling your breath, really experiencing your breath. And then, in the same way that we talked about the unity of brushing your teeth and geopolitics, it also, right effort applies in the larger space of your life. You know, how do you want to live your life? If you want to live it wholesomely, then you have to be constantly reining yourself in, constantly bringing yourself back to the intention. If you find yourself doing something that you can see is unwholesome or destructive, then you bring yourself back to something wholesome or you stop doing it.

[59:12]

But it means also, right effort means doing, we talk about this a lot, doing what's right in front of you, just attending to one thing at a time, fully. And when that's complete, doing the next thing. It's the same as not having a single thought about the future, but just being present. And there, I think it's like, I advise you to just watch Mel, watch how he does things, because he's really good at that. And it's a real, it's a very natural thing for him. I mean, he just is really staying with what's present, and he doesn't get pulled too far off from it. So I think that's some of what right effort or right diligence means.

[60:24]

Well, I like the thing that you said. I think it was when we were talking about cutting corners in one of the lectures. The idea of, you know, we don't notice when we go off track until we notice. Right. And it's that moment of deciding, well, you know, I'd like to get a couple more items on my shelf before I come back. Right. You know, that to me is the crux there. That's, that's, that's... It's okay. Yeah. It doesn't matter how long you were off, but as soon as you realize, can you really come back or can you give up that goody that you were working with, you know? Right. And... I get confused with that, because there's that thing about not killing. And to me, that seems like killing. I'm on my shopping list, and I have to kill it. It's not killing. I know. It's just stopping. It's stopping something that's... It's stopping an unwholesome... It's stopping the restlessness of your mind.

[61:29]

So... There's nothing to do with killing. No. The turning in that can also be interesting. You know, it's like, well, I'm now undirected, or maybe even exhausted, or something like that. Nevertheless, it's time. I think you weren't, there was one class where we talked about this a bit. You know, not all desires are negative. I mean there's the thought of, there's kind of raising the thought of enlightenment, and the desire to, you know, it's not like a desire in the form of clinging, but the wish, this again, this is right aspiration, the wish to practice what's wholesome. But it's very subtle.

[62:32]

It is subtle. As to practice what's wholesome, because that's really the That's right. I usually, I often think, you know, you can build castles of ego on the head of a pin. You know, it really doesn't take much to do it. We're much better at that than at just really doing something just for doing it. But the thing that I really believe is that we can do that. You can practice that way. You can practice in a way that is selfless and beneficial, but you have to do that by actually accepting the clinging part of yourself, seeing that and seeing through it, seeing it again and again and again until it just gets old.

[63:37]

you know, and just sort of just drop away. And that happens. So, but it happens, you know, in this case it happens through right effort. And then the next step is right awareness or mindfulness. And that is traditionally known, and I'm not going to go into this, but you all had copies of the Satipatthana Sutta. Sometimes we should study that. You know, it traditionally means, right awareness means mindfulness in contemplating your body, your feelings, your mind, and your mind objects in meditation. But I think in a simpler way, it means controlling the object of your meditation.

[64:47]

So, you have the intention to sit upright and follow your breath, enter your breath deeply. And then you make the effort to come back to it or to stay there. And then the awareness is really staying, is staying with it. You know, the awareness is what begins to, is just using your mind, seeing your breath and seeing your posture with your mind. holding it as the object of your meditation. Does that make some sense? It's like holding, okay, so you have an intention to do something, but that's just an idea.

[65:48]

And then you make an effort, and say your effort is just to hold a pearl, a huge pearl, in front of you and looking at it. And that's right. Right awareness is the act of the looking. It's actually the act of meditation. Make sense? Awareness is active? Yes, awareness is active. Yeah, it's an active. And that'd be as minimal as just showing up. No. It's what you do once you show up. Yeah. It's the action, it's actually the action that you take in meditation or the action that you take in your work, say.

[66:56]

The awareness that you bring to in exchange with someone, what's going on here. It may not be so much you put it, you don't have to necessarily put it in words, it's active without necessarily constantly framing it in concepts. So it's like, I hate to say this, it's like, think not thinking. Dogen, as Dogen puts it. It's just holding something in a very wide, with us, holding something in a very wide way. But it might be, in other forms of meditation, holding things in a very narrow way. And actually, the effort that you would make is to put everything else aside. When we focus on our breath, it's usually not like a single pointed, very finely sharpened focus.

[68:00]

It's like we keep our mind there, we feel our breath, but we also keep a receptivity. Keeping that receptivity is also active in some way. It's basically just controlling your mind in relation to the object of your meditation. And this is work. This is a work we all have to do. And then the final... In that instant of letting go, it's active.

[69:03]

I have tried, I have actively to do that. And that's part of the awareness, that's part of, that's where effort and awareness come together. You know, I become, I'm aware That's true. It's not just the object of your meditation. I think that's good. The awareness is your awareness of what you're doing, which would include, if I'm drifting, your awareness of the drifting, and then you set it aside. Or if you don't set it aside, you should be aware that you're drifting. So it's just, it's the process of, the active process of, and reflection on your, on what's going on in your mind. So it's actually not just, I mean here, again, classically, it's, it's this point of, of focus in meditation.

[70:06]

But in our practice, we don't even exclude the drifting. as a subject for awareness, but we don't stay there. You know, it's like you have an idea. Zubar, she said, if you have an idea or a thought, you meet at the door, but you don't invite it in for tea. And then you go back to your room and you have tea by yourself. So the last step on this path is right concentration or meditation. And this is the fruit of the effort of the intention. The effort and the awareness is this kind of concentration. This is classically known as samadhi, or shamatha, and it's concentration.

[71:26]

And it leads to insight, or vipassana, or view. So it comes back, it leads directly back around to the top of the Eightfold Path. What concentration, again, classically tends to mean is, there are all of these, if you read the sutras, you read these again and again, they talk about the meditative absorptions. There are different stages of meditation, but we don't practice it. Actually, very few people practice these absorptions anymore. They are practiced by a couple people where you actually go step by step and each one is characterized by a certain kind of state of mind and sort of a feeling tone until you reach the ninth level which is just cessation.

[72:34]

We don't practice... Zen is a practice of no steps or stages. So, out of our effort and awareness, if anybody's sat along Sashin, you know there's something that happens to your mind. And that something, you know, that kind of clear, light state, or even a very focused, pained state, that's the path, the step of concentration. And if you stay with that, with effort and with intention, then it leads back around to right view, and it leads to a real sense of intimacy and reality. I always, well, when I first started practicing, and I felt like I didn't have very much time, and Mel would say, I can't even come here, and I have to take care of my daughter, and he'd say, well, then just practice in your life, and so, you know, try to breathe in your life, and try to be focused, and be present, and so forth.

[73:58]

And it always seems like Sashin's, the reason that that happened, take care of your kids. I know, at least for me, the longer the period of time where you just let go of those kinds of things that your mind orient to, you know, just sitting in the morning or the afternoon, or even one day, I guess. So, I mean, it seems like the ultimate goal of these things is not just when we're meditating, but when we're living our life, right? Right. He was being nice to you. He was giving you, in a typical male fashion, a very wide field. So that you could find your way in. Which you did. You do. But... No, but I still... I agree with that. But that wasn't really my... My point was more that I... My experience still is that the reason that you... that I

[75:07]

can let go of so much in the Sashin is because I'm not having to do... I don't have those thoughts in my mind because I'm not going about doing those things. Right, but the function of Sashin is so that when you are doing those things you'll be able to do them freely. the function of Sashin, of the intensity of the concentration, effort, awareness, is that over, in our case, over a long period of time, it has a real effect on your life. But it's really about living your life, ultimately, and that's where you have to do it. But I think it's very hard to live your life freely without benefit, at least in this tradition, of this kind of concentration.

[76:12]

So you do it and then it has some more wide-ranging or deeper effect that transforms your life and gradually you come to see that. The metaphor is we walk, it's like we're walking in the fog and After a long walk, we noticed that our clothes are soaked. There's this book that I wrote a piece for, and it's a tribute to Kapilo Roshi, who wrote Three Pillars of Zen. 30 years after the publication of Three Pillars of Zen. And most of the people who wrote it are his students. And the interesting thing is, his students, they all, there was a real push to have strong awakenings or enlightenment experiences or realizations. And they all did. Because that's the system that was offered. That was what the mind training did. They had it. But the interesting thing

[77:13]

to me, is that to a person, they were all saying, well, I had this transformative experience, and in fact, many of them worked through the whole system, this curriculum of koan study that we don't do at all. There's a way that you do it. And they work, you know, it's like they did all their koans, and then they found, oh, but I still have my life that I have to figure out how to live. But what they were grateful for was that even though this stuff didn't seem immediately relevant, it flowed through their life in a way that changed it. It didn't mean they didn't suffer or have pain, but it meant they were able to meet that pain with some sense of spaciousness. And that's how effort, our right conduct, our effort, awareness, and concentration lead back around to right view, which is seeing things just as they are, and that leads back into, you know, to right thought or right intention, which is to live that way and to share it with others.

[78:31]

So it comes back around that way and, you know, when it does, At that very moment, at that very instant, a joyous cry extended as far as the Brahma realm. Ten thousand world systems quaked, tottered and trembled violently. A radiant light, surpassing the radiance of the Devas, appeared in the world. Then the Buddha said, Friends, Kandana has indeed understood. Friends, Kandana has indeed understood. That's the conclusion of that sutta. When this was taught, and when the Buddha showed how it was practiced, the whole universe rejoiced. And that's something we can all experience.

[79:36]

It's right at the end. I think I took that one from a different... So it's close to nine. Are there any last questions or comments? Tonight was really helpful. It kind of came together. Well, we covered a lot of ground tonight. Well, I just want to thank you. I really, really enjoyed doing this. I've learned a lot. I learned a lot studying and also learned a lot. The questions were good. Are you planning to do more of these kinds of things? I will. You know, I'm probably not going to do more than one a year or so, but I want to do... I think I want to concentrate on sort of basic Buddhism because

[80:39]

like buddhism 101 what with this buddha buddhism this is about as buddhism 101 as you get i think you know like oh god what else is there out there oh this is doing a class on zen introduction introduction to zen i think that that might be the next class i think it is i think it starts in june and i think he what raul is going to do in that class is he's going to uh touch on uh the stories and the teachings of the major Zen ancestors. All of this is important in just being well-rounded students. But in a lot of places where they study, a lot of Zen centers, they actually don't study Buddhism. you know, if you're doing koan work, you're not likely to study. You'll just sort of study these koans and work with them. You won't be studying basic Buddhism. I think it's really important. When I first came here, the first lectures I heard Mel, he was talking about the factors of enlightenment and hindrances, all these very classical

[81:51]

Caravata, or early Buddhist systems and lists. I think I might do a class on the Paramitas. That's another thing I'm doing next. But I don't know yet. So, thank you very much. Thank you all.

[82:10]

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