I was at Berkeley High before social media. Well, as most of you know, we're in the middle of our Aspects of Practice period, the one-month period of increased study and possibly increased attendance. And it's been going... You know, the attendance has been a little on the low side, but I think that sustaining the theme of studying the Paramitas, which is what our subject is, has been good.

[01:13]

And I found the lectures and the classes have been very on the ball. So I think it's going well. I'm a little, I'm actually relieved that Sojin's not here today. If you were here a couple of Mondays ago, you can understand that. So you know we're studying the Paramitas and just for you those of you who haven't been here so much the Paramitas. Paramita means crossing over or going beyond and the six Paramitas are giving or generosity, morality or discipline, patience, energy and

[02:16]

or some other one for energy, effort, meditation and wisdom. So today I'm going to talk about wisdom which Sanskrit word is prajna. Actually it's pronounced more like prajna we all say Prajna and I actually like the sound of Prajna better so I'll say Prajna but just we should just say for the record that it's actually pronounced more like because I can't do it exactly more like Prajna. And the you know Buddhism has lots of lists of qualities and noble realizations of different qualities of our personality and what we can do as humans but the qualities of the Paramitas have the particular quality of transcendence which is not some kind of glorious you know going to some ethereal place necessarily but moving beyond what our boundaries are or what our apparent boundaries are

[03:37]

or what are apparent restrictions, learning or studying or moving to not be so confined by what appears to be our limitations. And one way you could look at it is that we're going beyond, we're expanding, getting bigger But another way, you know, if you just think about in terms of size, that would be misleading, I think. It could also be seen as, in a way, not exactly getting smaller, but you could see it as though that we're already just fine, and that because we've covered up that fineness, we have this limitation of not being able to just recognize what we are. So rather than expanding and getting really big you could imagine it as letting go of what's hindering us or covering us up.

[04:47]

Both of those are just images that are you know very partial but I think it's a mistake to think of us getting really big in the sense that we usually think of big So I'd also like you to consider what you think wisdom is. We use all these words in lecture and study, but I think it's really part of being present and part of mindfulness to not just take our words for granted and not take language for granted. So wisdom, you know, that's a big word, and all cultures and all religions seem to have that word in one form or another. So when we talk about wisdom in Buddhism we should think about what do we really mean or how do you understand that word in Buddhism.

[05:49]

If I think about wisdom that's just the word in English not so much from what I've learned in Buddhism but just you give that word to me My first response would be, well as somebody who has a lot of life experience, who has a really good judgment, who's accumulated a kind of something, some quality that is smart and has good judgment, see it's a big picture. and they've done this through, I'm not sure how they've done this, but probably through a lot of living, a lot of life experience, a lot of learning, studying, and influences from others. And I don't know how you think of the word, but I think in this culture, the way that people would think about wisdom is connected with some kind of accumulation of experience that results in a wise outlook, which I think is true, but I think in Buddhism that

[07:16]

There's that aspect in Buddhism as well, there's an accumulation of knowledge and practice and experience, but also it's really important is that there is a letting go quality, that wisdom is actually in Buddhism very much connected with letting go and the emphasis is more on the letting go than it is on the accumulating. So letting go of our biases, letting go of what we're attached to, which is just Buddha's second truth, that second noble truth that we are ... because we cling and are attached to things pervasively, we become unhappy because we can't let go. So wisdom in Buddhism has to do with letting go, not so much with accumulating.

[08:20]

And in a sense this is what Zazen is and I think this is why I like this practice is just to be able to sit quietly and just let go of all the stuff that I'm usually pursuing or at least some of the stuff so the question is so I don't know if you see wisdom like that or not The word Prajna is as I said is what we use for wisdom Sanskrit word and if you in reading about Prajna and doing some preparation for the talk I realized that that Prajna and wisdom and Buddhism is not just one there's a certain overriding energy to that but

[09:42]

frequency that there's I don't even know if you call them levels but there are aspects of prajna it's not just prajna just one thing there's an overriding energy to it but it's not just one particular thing so prajna could be as simple as just an inquisitive kind of mind wanting to understand how something works has that aspect of see how things actually are. Basically I think most people would agree that wisdom is seeing things as they actually are, seeing clearly. So wanting to just understand how some little machine works for instance could be an aspect of prajna, just to inquire, to want to learn something. doubt, doubting, wanting to understand what's really true and what's not and having some doubt about what maybe the status quo is, is also part of Prajna.

[10:54]

It can easily, it can veer into a kind of obsessive doubt or skeptical doubt which is can become neurotic, but you know healthy doubt which has an is also aspect of wisdom. I don't know what's true, I would like to find out. Mindfulness is also aspect of prajna, just being willing to pay attention. How can we possibly know, see things as they are unless we're willing to pay attention? we're totally wrapped up in our drama and our personal story and our personal drama all the time, how can we see what's actually happening in front of us as it's happening? So mindfulness is also part of Prajna.

[11:56]

There is an aspect of maybe the most important aspect that we emphasize in Zen practice is emptiness or shunyata in Sanskrit an emptiness of some of an own being you know some intrinsic core reference point that's at the bottom of everything some particular origin for instance, origin that's independent. So far we can't locate any independent origin in ourselves or in phenomena, but we want there to be one, we want to have some feeling of something that's secure that we can locate. even if we don't think about it in that way, I think emotionally, at least I find it true in myself, that I want to have something to keep, something that I can really count on, that I can get my hands on.

[13:08]

So you know, you can talk about it like, Trankpa Rinpoche talks about it like pulling the rug out from under us, that prajna is actually whatever we want to stand on as being something that makes us secure and well just to say that something that makes us feel secure whatever we want to stand on we put that rug just gets pulled away there's really nothing to stand on and that's what the Four Noble Truths are all about. You could say we could stand on the Noble Eightfold Path, but as long as there's a sense of attachment, of holding and clinging, there's a problem. So Prajna is also just wherever we notice that we're standing on something, could be a relationship, it could be practice, it could be our self-image, it could be our job, it could be our family, whatever it is, to be able to let that rug be pulled out from under us or acknowledge that that's a part of our life, that we can't always be standing on this particular rug and that it's okay if it's pulled out, is prajna.

[14:42]

actually that's a kind of can be a daily practice it doesn't need to be particularly dramatic or a big deal. If I think about my work life all day long you know I'm concerned about my self-image and people's relationship to me and it's all how am I doing? Am I doing well? Am I doing poorly? I put a lot of juice energy into but I'm also very invested with my image of myself in this job, so that's the kind of rug that I stand on, you know, my image of me which is my ego in my work situation and all day long just being willing to just recognize that, in a way recognize that it's not It's just realizing that, yes, I'm standing on this rug and it's not really necessary.

[15:48]

And also just two more possibilities for practicing the Paramitas and practicing Prajnaparamita is one is just being open-minded, just having an open mind. which is being present, which is living at the moment, and minimizing our agenda. I think, to me, this is really the most powerful aspect of prajna, of wisdom, just having an open mind. Suzuki Roshi called it soft mind, a mind that just is ready just to accept whatever comes without having some fixed point of view that we're getting behind all the time. And another way, kind of the other side of that kind of practice for the Paramitas, in other words, the open side is just to, if you're feeling, if we're

[17:05]

feeling stingy in terms of the paramita, dana paramita of giving or generosity, if we're feeling stingy we just notice that we're feeling stingy, we're just open to, yes I am really stingy, you know, rather than I should be really generous. No, I'm stingy and that's just the way it is, but I really perceive that that's what's happening and I'm interested in this as a reality, this is a fact. So I'm interested in tasting this, just tasting what this stinginess actually is. I don't just want to do this blindly. If I am going to be stingy, I want to do it with some awareness. The other side of that is that we can make some effort to be generous, and even if we don't feel generous, we try to be generous anyway. even if we don't feel ... it's hard if you don't feel energetic to try to be energetic, but we could try to be energetic, just go run around the block.

[18:12]

So that's the other side of just being open would be trying something, even though you don't really feel like it, try it anyway, see what that feels like. So you know we have these on the altar we have these several figures that are all represent two of them in particular represent wisdom or prajna and they're kind of interesting this is Manjushri excuse me if I drop it would be terrible this is Manjushri and Manjushri is the in Zen Manjushri is kind of I don't know if you'd say the patron saint but Manjushri is very important to Zen practice and Manjushri you know there are different images of Manjushri according to what country they come from and what era and so forth traditionally Manjushri in one hand I think it's right hand has a sword

[19:24]

which is the sword of cutting through ignorance, wisdom sword, double-edged wisdom sword cuts through ignorance and in Zen particular emphasis is on cutting through dualism and the other hand Manjushri holds something which represents knowledge or the teachings, the conventional teachings, especially Prajnaparamita as the teachings, the wisdom literature. This particular Manjushri does not have, you see we're sort of on the gentle side, we got rid of the stick, you know we don't use a stick so much anymore, and this Manjushri doesn't have a sword, this Manjushri just I think it is in a teaching And the other hand, Alan did some research on this this morning, and this other hand Manjushri is holding a kutsu, which is what Alan and Sojin carry, their teaching staff.

[20:28]

But this would generally represent knowledge in traditional iconography. And then, so we have knowledge on one hand, which has some dualistic aspect of here is me and here's what I know and then you have the sword which is cutting through that whole division of me and what I know and just a sort of ignorance in general and then you have Manjushri's writing on a lion and the lion is a confidence power of our practice And so Manjushri is a fairly fierce character, especially Tibetan Manjushris. You know, this sword swinging, this sword riding this fierce lion. But Manjushri, the name Manjushri means gentle glory.

[21:33]

So actually, Manjushri is actually gentle. So even though there's a fierce quality, there's also a very gentle quality, which I would associate with being open, open quality. So Manjushri is the masculine principle and then we have Prajnaparamita who is the feminine principle of wisdom and this figure in the middle is one that Rebecca did which is Prajnaparamita And again, this is not the conventional Prajnaparamita, this is Rebecca's evocativeness, evocation of Prajnaparamita. But traditionally, the feminine principle, Prajnaparamita in terms of an image, actually one-ups Manjushri. Because she has four arms,

[22:37]

and one arm has the same kind of sword that Manjushri does the other arm holds the same kind of wisdom teachings knowledge that Manjushri does but she's got two more and these other two are just sitting in mudra doing meditation doing zazen cutting through delusion, not only is she aware of the teachings and respectful of the teachings, but also she's just sitting. So, you know, you can see it on these three different levels.

[23:46]

It's just a way, a kind of a scheme for understanding or just a different way of looking at wisdom, understanding wisdom. So on one hand, we have the teachings, which are the sutras and all the various structure of Buddhism, which is so precise and this is what we would call knowledge and it seems necessary although knowledge is dualistic you could see it as like a Dharma gate that we start out with the teachings presented to us in a conceptual way and here's me here's the teachings and here's the way it all is and this is right and this is wrong and there's eight of these and 16 of those and this is why this works and this is why that works

[24:46]

And then we have to take it beyond that, this is what a paramita is, take it beyond the conceptual ideational aspect of it and actualizing it into being what it is that we've been presented with as an idea or a structure. So if we don't do that we're just hanging out at the gate, it's a pretty good gate, we can just hang out there for a whole lifetime and just do reading and studying and thinking and it would have some effect I think, it actually influences us, but until we actually ... this is why I think we've named this period embodying the Paramitas, unless we actually inhabit somehow and it's not even a good way to say it, but we just have to do it. So the knowledge that we've learned in our brain we have to actually do and you could say what we do with our body.

[25:55]

We do with the body and our brain and everything we've got and it's that transformation of some kind of a conceptual recognition into actually this is what we do that is the transcendent aspect of it. knowledge but I should not be snobby about knowledge and you know Zen amongst all the schools of Buddhism tends to downplay conventional learning nevertheless so as long as I've known Sojin he's been doing tremendous amount of reading every day and Dogen was a consummate scholar although he downplayed it he was and he knew a tremendous then what gets to be more fun is the sword, Manjushri's sword, which is cutting through delusion. And this is where Zen practice really ... this is where the koans come in.

[26:58]

Koans are ... they can be irritating to me, you know, to not to be able to say, what are you talking about? So why it's so hard for me to understand it is because there's this sword there is cutting through my whole way of thinking. My whole thinking process is being cut somehow. It doesn't quite work. I have to figure out how to find some different approach. Here's an example. This is not exactly a koan but it's a asked Joshu what is meditation and the master said it is not meditation the monk said why is it not meditation and the master said it's alive it's alive So the monk wants to make meditation as a subject, something that we can look at, and it's okay to do this, I mean we can talk about it like that, but if we really want to understand meditation or Zazen, we can't make it into an object.

[28:16]

So that's what Joshu is saying, it's not a subject, it's not an object, it's not something which we can put out here and look at. We can do it for purposes of discussion, but if you want to actually experience it, just be alive. And another example. Actually, I think I'll shorten it and let that one go. And then, so that's the slicing aspect of wisdom. And finally, which is Prajnaparamita's just sitting, what she represents in just sitting is, you could say it's Buddha nature, you could say resting in Buddha nature. It's hard to put words to it.

[29:24]

But here's a good poem. Dogen's teacher, Rui Jing, created this poem. It's a very, really famous poem. And I've always liked it quite a lot. And I don't know poetry. But this one I like a lot. This is called The Wind Bell. And this goes, the whole body, like a mouth, hanging in emptiness. not asking whether the breeze be from south or north east or west for all alike preach the prajna teaching tingling tingling tingling i'll read it once more the whole body like a mouth hanging in emptiness not asking whether the breeze be from south or north east or west for all alike preached prajna tingling tingling tingling and then after this poem um rujing has a little commentary where he says the entire body is prajna

[30:47]

The entirety of others is prajna. The entirety of the self is prajna. East, west, south or north, the entire realm is prajna. So this is just sitting. and it's just sitting in this just open mind. Whichever way the wind blows, that's okay. So I'll stop there. Do you have any comments? I thought your talk was really helpful and supportive of my practice.

[31:51]

And just a couple of comments. A rug that I sometimes like to stand on and really feels good is the image of Eve of the Drafts, when I was a little girl. Sometimes that's just as helpful to me to put away a work rug or something. Do you want to stay with that? That's from Zen mind, beginner's mind, but some people may not know what you're referring to. I think I can. I just remember the first time that your surgeon described each of us as the analogy of all of us being a waterfowl, greater than, less than, and wonderful in a waterfall. Then the other thing was stinginess. because I like to be by myself. So it was helpful to me to just think, that's what's happening, and just try to sit with them.

[32:58]

Yeah, yeah, that's mindfulness. Mindfulness isn't looking for the just exactly... Mindfulness doesn't discriminate between, oh, I like it. I mean, you take what's there. That's why you can trust it. Mouth is something which can take anything in. Everything, you know, we take something in through our mouth, so our whole self is like a mouth we'll just take in. We're taking in, we're not pushing away or sealing off. It can just move through us. But it's scary. How was that? Well, you know, Sogyal has been careful not to... he doesn't not recommend it.

[34:15]

He doesn't say, don't study. It's just not emphasized so much. So... you know, usually it's not so extreme, it's just a matter of emphasis, just the emphasis is on direct experience and working with the teacher and sitting and just being really mindful of your every moment, that's where the emphasis is. But I don't usually, I mean there are extreme cases where teachers in the past, you know, who it was, burned the plates for the Blue Cliff Records. They'll burn books sometimes because if they feel like it's becoming too study-oriented, then they'll be in extreme reaction and just sort of try to get people to drop it. The contrast between teachers who do a tremendous amount of studying, though, and the de-emphasis on it is interesting.

[35:18]

Maybe somebody who has lots of studying would like to say something about that. Alan? I just want to go back, let me indulge myself just for a second, if I haven't been already.

[37:10]

There's one story, this whole notion of pulling a rug out from under us. There's a wonderful story, the Sri Punjab's Hindu guru, the non-dualistic Hindu guru who died maybe 20 years ago and I think Alexandra met him in India at one point. He had a good friend who was a Christian minister living in India, I think he was European, and the minister was really devoted and really devout Christian. really passionate about his whole life was his practice but Sri Poonja would have all these various dramatic experiences and visions and be visited by deities and all kinds of colorful experiences which he didn't make a big deal about but he just you know that's part of his life and he would relate them to this friend and his friend was becoming more and more frustrated because he never had these kinds of experiences and

[38:14]

He'd been diligently practicing Christianity and really trying hard, and he didn't have these kinds of experiences. And Sri Poonja just seemingly was just not doing much, just sitting around and having all these wonderful experiences. So Krishna said, why am I so blocked? Why can't I experience the profundity of what you're experiencing? And Sri Poonja said, well, it's really simple. All you have to do is take your Bible and throw it in the Ganges. And there'll be no problem. Well, he couldn't do it. He just could not do it, you know. It's interesting. I was thinking, what if somebody told you to throw your raksha out the window? You're driving along and you say, I'm just really frustrated, I'm not making any progress in practice whatsoever. Okay, take your raksha, throw it out the window and we'll just keep on driving, okay? becoming mindful of these intimates, and then you could try to be generous, or try to act generous, even if you don't feel generous.

[39:35]

I think we all know that that is useful sometimes, but I just wanted to, I just remembered as you were saying that, something that happened in my life, when I was living in Cleveland, doing part of my training, and I was doing a We had to, every time we did anything, and that's how life is now in the clinic. Every time you do anything, prescribing medication, you have to fill out a million pieces of paper and write it in different times and different forms and all that stuff. And everyone hates doing that. And somehow, I didn't really plan this. This is, I think, why it worked as much as it did. Just on the way to the clinic one day, I said to myself, Gee, I hope there's a lot of paperwork to do. And I just kind of kept that, you know, and it really went so much better.

[40:38]

Now, I can't just plan to do that. It doesn't work as well if I say, as a device, you know, I'm going to... It just happened as I was on my way to work that that thought came up and I was able to keep it or I did Yeah, I understand, I understand that. Greg? Well, on that note, and also going back to the question of study, and thinking about the open mouth, I think, you know, the way we learn, or you said accumulate, or absorb wisdom, And, you know, our whole body and mind is an open mouth. So, we need to keep it as open as possible.

[41:42]

So, keeping it as open as possible is including study as well. Because we never know, or it's openly a mystery, how we're becoming wise, or who we are. It's happening all the time. that moment when you realize that the paperwork is going to help, it seems to me is consistent with the idea of being in the open mouth. Yes, yeah. So it's true, you know, so Manjushri is, not in this particular one, but is holding the teachings in one hand. One thing that the open mouth image evokes for me, though, also is, you know, sitting out what comes in. So I don't know if there's a sense there of knowing your own mind and knowing your own way and not just following or just... I mean one thing that appeals to me about Buddhist practice is that I can sit with my own self and my own thoughts and I can sort of

[43:06]

I don't know how to articulate it, but it's not about someone telling me how to live my life. It's about me figuring out how to authentically live my life, and take the teachings and sort of digest them. So, that's something that just came up when you answered Sue's question about taking everything, and I thought, well, the mouth can also spit out. Decide what isn't. Yeah, I didn't think about that. It's true. Of course, it's just the mouth there, you know. There's no brain and no stomach. So I don't know what you make of that. Yes, the empty gates. Maybe just one more. One of the appellations for Prajnaparamita is that she is the mother of all Buddhas.

[44:24]

And how death has seen that and manifested in statues in that. Okay, thank you.

[45:02]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ