I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Okay, so, is anybody here who wasn't here last time? Well, let me just repeat the page numbers, just for everybody, and for Karen. to this exactly, but just to divide the readings up. This week, we're going to look at pages 41 to 76. Next time, 76 to 101. Then we skip a couple weeks in our last meeting. We'll do the rest of it, 101 to 123. So I have a few more, just a few minutes of more sort of general remarks that I was thinking about last time that I didn't, points that I didn't bring out last time that I wanted to mention this time again.

[01:05]

And then we'll go right to the text where we left off last time. First of all, I wanted to mention, and I forgot to mention, how people would, in the past, have practiced with this sutra. And there are three main practices, and I think Cleary discusses this in the introduction to Volume 1, I don't think it's in here. First is the practice of recitation, which We sort of do in our practice in that we recite sutras every day. We recite the Heart Sutra and so on. But we don't usually have the practice of reciting a lengthy sutra all at once.

[02:07]

I mean, our main practice is sitting meditation, so we don't do that. But there are many groups that do that now. textual recitation instead of meditation or as a meditation. So I think that there were monasteries that probably recited this sutra in its entirety every year. They probably had a practice of starting at a certain time of the year. They would probably start at the beginning and recite so many hours a day until they finished it and saw recitation itself of textual recitation as a as a practice, which is a little different. Our service is kind of like a liturgy, a repeated set liturgy. Text recitation is something a little bit different. So that practice would have been done with the sutra. A second kind of practice that would have been done with it is the practice of visualization.

[03:08]

So that some of the scenes in the sutras would have been abstracted And there would have been created, based on some of the scenes in the sutras, literal visualization practices that a student would do. Practicing every day in a certain way, visualizing, particularly all those passages that have to do with offerings and emanations of light coming from the Buddha's head and all that stuff, would have been something that practitioners would have used in visualization practice. And as a sort of a sub-point of that, they would have created artworks that were to be used in the visualization practices. And a lot of the more fabulous Tibetan thangkas and so on, when I look at those things, I think they're very beautiful and I see some detail, but I don't really see what visualization practices would be done with that thangka. And also, where was the textual reference to that particular depiction? So, I think that's sort of a sub-point of visualization.

[04:13]

And the third one is in a more simple way, simply for inspiration and study as we're doing it. So we're sort of practicing the recitation, but only as a little bit less matter, we're not really devoting ourselves to that. So I wanted to mention that. Also, Did I talk about inconceivability and omniscience last time? Charles, you may remember from the last class. I think it was in book one. Book one, yeah, I talked about that a lot. So I wanted to mention it in here just briefly, not go into it exhaustively. Probably the main teaching of this sutra is the inconceivability of the path.

[05:13]

mentioned over and over and over again. And inconceivability is taken in its literal sense that the path of the Buddhas cannot be apprehended by the conceptual mind. So that all of our ordinary thinking and concepts don't touch it. And therefore that's where the whole issue of inner penetration comes up. And why there's so many scenes depicted which defy or ordinary notions of space and time, because space and time are the two conceptions that we have that most condition our whole way of thinking. So the sutra is saying the real practice, the real path, is literally inconceivable. So if we overlay our practice with the concepts that we have of space and time and self and others and so on, On to the practice we'll be making a basic misconception of what Buddhism is about. In fact, what it's about is understanding that our conceptions are conceptions.

[06:18]

That we do have conceptualization in our lives and in our practice and in our living, but that this conceptualization is merely conceptualization. It does not touch the actual reality of our being. So over and over again the sutra is discussing this. the inconceivability of the Bodhisattva's practice. Another point related here is that the Bodhisattva in these ten stages is aiming for omniscience. The goal of the ten stages of the Bodhisattva practice is likewise an inconceivable goal. which is to achieve what's called technically omniscience in the sutra. And omniscience means specifically to have perfect knowledge in three modes.

[07:24]

The first one is perfect knowledge of emptiness. To actually see clearly both intellectually and conceptually, and beyond intellectual and conceptual knowledge, that nothing whatsoever has a separate or substantial existence. Everything is just a transformation of consciousness. Many, many descriptions, many ways of talking about this. One of the popular ones in this sutra is that things have no origination. They have no real existence. So this emptiness is very important. This is the first stage of the omniscience of the Bodhisattvas. And it is this emptiness, this understanding of the non-origination of things and the non-separation of things and the flowing together of things that enables the Bodhisattva to have infinite energy

[08:34]

in working with beings, because there are no beings there. Saving beings, however we manifest consciousness in a moment, is part of the process of saving beings, since there's no separation between one thing and another. And also that things have no origination enables the bodhisattvas to practice tireless service for beings without getting discouraged. See, because even though nothing works, it doesn't matter, because it already is fixed. So this is a very important point, and it's all, I don't know if you can understand what I mean, maybe it seems like you can, but these two things, compassion and tireless, enthusiastic compassion without discouragement has to do with an appreciation for the insubstantiality of things and the non-origination of things. So that's the first mode of omniscience. The second is perfect knowledge of the path, because one recognizes that the only kind of real help

[09:41]

fundamentally that there is for beings is for beings to awaken. So we want to awaken ourselves and we want to aid others in that process because that's, when you really come down to it, that's the only kind of help that really satisfies. Because if we give someone, we may certainly satisfy someone's desires, the Bodhisattva path encourages us to do that, but only so that we can help the person to achieve the way. Just to think that that's enough, we can only be encouraging people in their following. So we have to understand the path well enough to know what beings need and how to really understand Buddhism so we can help everybody. So that's the second kind of omniscience, knowledge of the path. And the third is knowledge of causality. So here we not only understand how the teaching unfolds in different ways of manifesting it for beings, but also we understand how things come to be, how things fit together, so that we can perfectly suit our actions to the occasion.

[10:47]

So this is what omniscience means for bodhisattvas. And notice the whole thing. has to do with how bodhisattvas can act for the benefit of beings. So that's what omniscience is all about. It's not about being all powerful and knowing the details of things for the sake of knowing the details of things. It's about what do you need to do in order to actually be helpful? What attitude do you need to have and what kind of, so to speak, technology do you need to have in order to be really helpful? So I wanted to mention about that. I wanted to bring out is the fact that the imagery of this sutra is very much involved with the concept, not the concept, but the metaphor of light. If you've noticed, There are some, in Book One and other places, the imagery of light is even more pronounced.

[11:51]

But in this one, we see here the stages that we've been reading about this week, the stage of refulgence and the stage of the blazing. And in many places, light is emanating from here and there and so on. So I want to refer, there are many ways of thinking about this, but I want to refer you to something that we all know really well, the Sandokai. which also, taking from this sutra, also discusses in one of its lines, light and darkness. Right in darkness there is light, but don't see it as light. Right in light there is darkness, but don't confront it as darkness. So, the world of light, which is the world that this sutra is emphasizing, is the world of the multiplicity of things. The incredible appearance of so many myriad beings and forms of existence in a minute point everywhere in the universe.

[13:03]

This sutra is about fullness everywhere, differentiation. Of course, it over and over again makes the point that the real nature of that fullness is non-fullness, non-origination, quiescence. But yet it's talking about and emphasizing this fullness. The side of darkness is the side of emphasizing emptiness, emphasizing quiescence, emphasizing the non-existence of anything. And these are just two modes, two approaches in Buddhist thought and in Buddhist practice. And the Sandokai talks about how These two approaches are very much interrelated. One can't really have one side without the other side, but they're two different modes. So if you read the Prajnaparamita Sutras that emphasize emptiness directly and specifically and without going into the realm of light, they're quite different. They're not full of so much imagery. They have some, but they're much more philosophical.

[14:03]

They're much more analytical. They're much more about the defeat the direct defeat of our concepts and of our life of differentiation. Whereas this sutra is not analytical, it's more metaphorical, poetic, and it encourages us in our visionary differentiating habit. Both sides also bring up the other side. but one emphasizes one side more than the other. So you can look as a kind of a theme as you read along for instances where light is mentioned, imagery of light is emphasized. So those are just some general stuff I wanted to bring up that I think I forgot to mention last time when I was introducing the text. So if I remember, Well, maybe, does anybody have any questions or stuff they want to, yeah?

[15:06]

When I read this I just, I'm completely overwhelmed because it's so different from You know, people in the Hindu culture were blown away by this, or they were used to all these jewels and parasols and stuff. I don't really know. My guess is that they were more used to it. My guess is that this is probably the zenith of that kind of approach to culture and religion in the Hindu-Buddhist world, but that this kind of stuff is kind of typical and not as

[16:29]

far out to them as it would be to us. Well, I don't know. I mean, I don't know that that's true. As far as I can tell, I think the Chinese got that from Indian sutras. Because I think that if you study Chinese poetry, it doesn't have supernatural imagery.

[17:34]

It's very down to earth. And I mean, I would say that Zen, is a more characteristic development of Chinese culture. I mean, the Chinese certainly got into this sutra, and maybe they wrote it, like you're pointing out. Maybe they wrote a lot of it. But in the end, the school of Chinese Buddhism that emerged was one that emphasized the down-to-earth, poetic, but very more of a simple poetic style. But I don't know. I mean, I shouldn't. That's my impression. But there is also that aspect of Chinese culture that is very ornamental and ornate and so on. But definitely the Indians, I mean, you know, there are sutras that are clearly original Sanskrit sutras that are pretty ornamental and far out and so on. Definitely in Indian development, Tantrism is always that way. I find that when you talk this way and talk about a cultural manifestation, you end up saying, yes, it's true, the Chinese, their literary style is very down to earth and simple.

[18:48]

And it's also true that their literary style is very ornate and complex. I mean, you can look at American letters, and you can say, well, Hemingway is a typical American writer. He writes very simple, straightforward prose. And then you look at somebody else like, I don't know who, Henry Miller, who's all over the place. So it's real hard to say a culture is this way or that way. It has a lot of elements in it. So I don't know. Yeah? I was going to ask, I'm not so aware, but I remember your point of your class last year You mentioned that you could only read small amounts at a time. Anyway, I seem to remember that. And I'm finding that the case. I mean, you can't keep up with the reading. I can only read. And also, it feels very idealized. These are not regular people. I don't remember what I said last year, but I can read 50-60 pages of this in a week and enjoy it. What I can't do is do that all year long.

[19:51]

So what I've done the last three years is devote a certain part of the year to it, and then you really feel like... What I've done the last couple of years is, after reading this, study the Pali Canon, which is much simpler and more down-to-earth than this. So I enjoy it, but it's a little heady. Someone wants to balance it with some other kind of practice or some other kind of material. But I find it really quite wonderful to spend... I usually do about 12 weeks. In the last three years I've spent 12 weeks. I find those 12 weeks to be really... Because this section of the sutra that I'm reading that week becomes... It really kind of takes over my life and becomes a real theme for everything that happens. And I find it quite wonderful to always have it in my mind. But yeah, I know it's... I'm not surprised that we can't read it all each week.

[21:14]

Well, if there are no more comments, I want to just back up a little bit to... talked about the stage of refulgence much. That's the third stage, right? Refulgence. So I want to go back, starting there, and I'll just sort of meander through. And feel free to make comments or questions as you go along. I'm trying to avoid the idea that I have to get through everything here at the beginning to end. If we don't get through it all, it's kind of So, in the stage of refulgence, I'm looking at page 33 here. In the stage of refulgence, the enlightening being examines impermanence, the conditionality of things, painfulness, impurity, unreliability, and so on.

[22:37]

And they also recognize the inconceivability of enlightened knowledge. And they, at the same breath, arouse their energy thinking, I should rescue and liberate these beings. Then on page 34, there's this passage. about two-thirds of the way down the page in the biggest paragraph, or halfway through that, it occurs to these enlightened beings, the means to do this, to save all beings, is nowhere else but in the realm of knowledge of unobstructed liberation. And the knowledge of unobstructed liberation is nowhere else but in awareness of all things as they are. And awareness of all things as they are is nowhere else but in transcendent knowledge of the unconditioned and unproduced. And that light of knowledge is nowhere else but in contemplation by the analytic intellect skilled in meditation.

[23:50]

And that contemplation by the analytic intellect skilled in meditation is nowhere else but in skill in learning." So this is not characteristic of our school of Buddhism, but it just goes to show you Here's a way, here's a path that starts with study and learning. Study, sutra study and learning, and goes from that to analytic skill. So there's some link between analytic skill and inconceivable... Right. That's right. in this method. I think the Zen style is a totally different method. But in this method, yeah, there's definitely like the Galupa school of Tibetan Buddhism is a school that comes to mind following exactly this pattern where they actually have a big emphasis on sutra study and intellectual power and analysis, actually analyzing intellectually

[24:58]

phenomena and understanding emptiness intellectually before they apply that intellectual understanding to their meditation practice. So it's a whole different approach. I just wanted to point that out. That's how they do it. So starting with study, analysis, applying that analysis to meditation practice, seeing things as they are through the meditation practice, and a knowledge of unobstructed liberation. Now, on the bottom of page 35, it concludes this whole business about understanding impermanence and analysis and so on. It says, it is by realization and practice of the teaching through appropriate methods that these doctrines of the Buddha are to be followed. They cannot be clarified just by talk.

[26:00]

So we might start with talk and learning, but it takes more than that. And then the sutra goes into a long part here in the next two paragraphs about the practice of the eight jhanas. On the bottom of page 35, this is a very shorthand, just the way the Heart Sutra is a shorthand notation of a whole lot of Buddhist teaching that the reader presumably already has studied. Here on page 35, it goes through the four of jhanas in the form realm, and on the top of page 36, the four jhanas in the formless realm. And these are technical meditation practices that are about not about insight, but they're about deepening and stabilizing the mind. And it's kind of a little course that the disciples would go through to deepen and stabilize the mind.

[27:02]

So basically, to kind of give you a gloss on it, the first four jhanas in the four realms involve some degree of discursive thinking, so you have experiences. There's a gradual deepening of the mind, the mind becomes more and more refined, until finally you move through a kind of degrees of pleasure in the meditation practice to a kind of equanimous mind, which is not moved one way or the other, and very little discursive thinking, very little thinking at all, very little sense of, this is happening now. And then, that gets refined even further through four more stages in which there is far less thinking and self-awareness

[28:14]

Until finally, the final jhana is called neither perception or non-perception, where it's no longer relevant to say whether or not anything is happening in the jhana practice. It goes through nothingness, one jhana is called the concentration of nothingness, and the concentration of consciousness only, and the concentration of space, and then finally neither perception or non-perception. So in this stage, the third stage, the Bodhisattva goes through all these practices by way of deepening the mind. And then, because of these practices, they attain fabulous trance states. For instance, they roam throughout the cosmos to all worlds in space. They travel sitting through the sky like birds.

[29:18]

They emerge from and sink into the earth unhindered as though in water. So these are all these magical powers that they can do because of their deep meditation trance practices. And they walk on water as earth. They produce smoke and flames like a great bonfire and emit water from their bodies like great clouds. By which torrents this world system set ablaze is annihilated. Even the sun and moon here, powerful and mighty, they take in hand and extend their power even up to the heaven of Purana and so on. Vagabond stuff. And they see many Buddhas and so forth. So, on page 38, for them, among the four means of salvation, beneficial action is paramount. Remember we talked about the four modes of action of the Bodhisattva.

[30:24]

This list of four appears in other sutras, and Dogen writes about it. Remember I referred you to the Muni Nidudra, Dogen's little chapter on the Bodhisattva's four methods of guidance, which is one of my favorites. They are giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and cooperation or identity action. And the first four stages of the ten, each one is associated with one of those four practices, and this one is associated with the third beneficial action. And of the ten paramitas, the one that's emphasized in this third stage is the paramita of patience or tolerance, which is very interesting since the main practice that's given is the practice of meditation, and yet of the ten paramitas. It's not meditation that is considered important here, but patience. So, that's interesting, right?

[31:30]

Because later on, you'll see, when we come to the, I think it's in the as the practice emphasized, it's a much more active situation. This makes it clear that in Buddhism, meditation is not about the calming of the mind and the attainment of trance states. It's about an active production of insight and the ability to work with the mind. So the path of meditation is actually an active path. It's actually the path of being able to literally be aware of and creative with mental states. That's actually what the practice of meditation is about.

[32:34]

We do need to have quiet sitting and focusing the mind strongly at a point. But that's not actually what we mean by meditation practice. So, it's a fine point, but I think you see what I'm getting at. So, for instance, to me, Zazen is not about calming the mind, or making the mind one-pointed, without thought. It's more about having the ability in your whole life to actually have some relationship to your mental states all the time. Somebody could conceivably sit very quietly in Zazen without ever a thought stirring, and be a big boob once they get up from the cushion, have no awareness of their mental states and how to work with them, and be spinning their wheels in habitual ways of doing their life.

[33:41]

This would be someone who had developed, we could say, they had a strong practice of patience and concentration, but they weren't really activating real meditation practice because they hadn't learned how to work with mental states. Now this happens in the next stage, I think. Yeah, in the stage of blazing. In this stage of blazing, which is more light still than effulgence, having deepened the mind, created the preconditions, the bodhisattvas begin now actively to work with mind.

[34:52]

So on page 41 at the bottom begins a list of practices that we are going to be dealing with in this fourth stage of blazing. It begins with mindfulness practice. The bottom of page 41 is essentially a summary of the Mindfulness Sutra. Again, you have to appreciate that you would be studying this sutra as a seasoned monk who had previously studied thoroughly and practiced thoroughly the Mindfulness Sutra. Then you would see the Mindfulness Sutra now recapitulated in this sutra as being a piece of this big bodhisattva path. So it's kind of neat. I really appreciate this. It puts it all together and shows how it all works together.

[36:01]

So in the fourth stage, the Bodhisattva practitioner begins with mindfulness practice and the entire Mindfulness Sutra with mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of mental states, and mindfulness of objects of mind. All of those are mentioned here. Then in the first paragraph on the top of 42, the four right efforts are mentioned. With awareness now we actually begin to grapple with mind and deal with it. So the four right efforts are, first of all, one sees the difference between wholesome and unwholesome mental states. So you can tell, oh, this is the presence of an unwholesome mental state. This kind of mental state is going to lead to trouble. Here's what a wholesome mental state feels like.

[37:04]

This kind of mental state is going to lead to positive things in my life. So the four right efforts are, when there isn't any unwholesome mental state, one makes the effort to prevent one from coming. That's the first right effort. So when the mind is wholesome and things are going really well, one is taking care to keep it that way. But the second right effort is when one notices unwholesome mental states, because they do arise. When they do arise in the mind, one makes the effort not to encourage them. So one says, oh yes, this is an unwholesome mental state. Now I know what to do. so that this mental state will not keep coming back moment after moment. It will die its natural death because I'm not going to encourage it. The third right effort is understanding what a wholesome mental state is and doing what one can to bring one about.

[38:08]

So, you know, that's a lot of things that we do in practice. You can say, you know, maybe you have the experience, you know, that if you come to zazen and you go to service and you do things like that, you know, that this tends to promote wholesome mental states. So you do those things so that you can bring about wholesome mental states. And the last right effort is when there are wholesome mental states in the mind, one does things to encourage them to continue and new ones to come. So that's kind of interesting. So, of course, Our whole concept of our mind that we inherit from our civilization and culture is the opposite of this. We think, I am so-and-so, and this is how I'm thinking, and that's the way it is. Period. We don't think, oh, I'm going to work with this. This is something I deal with and work with and try to creatively look and see what I can do. We just take it as a given. But actually, the whole point of Buddhism is that none of this is given.

[39:17]

We have a choice. We can either be skillful with our lives and our mental states, or we can not even recognize that we do have a choice. So that's the four right efforts. Then, after the four right efforts comes the four mystical powers, which are the power of faith or will, the power of energy or vigor, the power of thinking or right attention, and the power of contemplation or investigation or exploration. Then next we have the five faculties. These are all, again, things that would have been studied and mastered. The method of teaching in the old days was all these lists of the five faculties and the four mystical powers and what would happen is you would go to lecture and the teacher would talk about the five faculties which you would have memorized and you would rattle off like your own name.

[40:18]

And you would have heard hundreds of Dharma talks about the five faculties. And there would have been five points about each faculty that they would have repeated. And sometimes a very original teacher would have a new way of putting it. Or they might even have six points instead of five. And you were very familiar with it. And here they would appear again in the Upatamsa Sutra. Faculty of Faith, the first one. Energy is the second one. Recollection is the third one, or mindfulness. Concentration is the fourth one, and wisdom is the fifth one. So they would say things like faith and energy are the active faculties. We have to have, as a practical matter, we must have faith in the teaching of the Buddha and believe in it and try to carry it out. If we don't do that and we're griping about it all the time, obviously we can't get anywhere. So remember that.

[41:20]

And then you have the energy to listen to the teaching and make an effort all the time to carry it out. But those two things can get you too excited. So to balance those two things out, you have to have the faculties of meditation and wisdom. Meditation settles you. slows you down. Wisdom is a kind of development of insight that comes out of that meditation practice. And these two are balancing for faith and energy. And then in the middle is recollection or mindfulness, so that you observe what's going on, and you balance, and you keep track of what you're doing in your practice. So those five faculties are very, very important. But notice it uses the formula for each one, that these faculties are based on detachment, based on dispassion, based on extinction, given to relinquishment.

[42:21]

And for each one of the faculties discussed, this formula is repeated. This is so that we don't get too excited about any of these faculties and think that, oh, this is it. The faculty of faith is it. We also have to recognize that all these faculties are fundamentally non-existent, not real, and that if we attach to them, they turn into their opposites, they turn into defilements and problems. So the student who takes faith too literally, gets too excited about it, and gets attached to it, faith becomes a problem. Faith then becomes narrow-mindedness, intolerance, etc. And it's the same with the energy, it becomes out of control if you take it seriously and objectify it. So that's why they give this formula, which is to say, don't objectify any of these five faculties. Then, the next list is the five powers.

[43:26]

And the five powers you see is exactly the same list as the five faculties. But the reason why they're different things is because the five faculties, when perfected, become like, it's as if we were to develop new organs. Now we have eyes, ears, nose. When we really develop the five faculties, we now have Faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom are actual things that we can use the same way we use our eyes and ears. When you think about this, it's very profound. It's really profound. For us, words like faith and energy are sort of vague, nice words, you know what I mean, like faith, good things, we like those things. But they're not palpable things, you know, that we can say, oh, there's faith. We can look at our minds and say, there's faith. That's not faith.

[44:27]

There's energy. We don't see it that way. They're vague. All kind of spiritual words for us are kind of squishy, vague words. But here it's saying that at this point, these things actually become identifiable powers that you can actually use That's kind of an interesting and important thing to think about. Why is it that Western thinkers have been trying to understand what mind is for a long time and have just come up with a few vague theories? Why don't they just go to some Buddhist teachers and ask them? I would have just guessed anyway.

[45:31]

Well, because they didn't have faith in Buddhism. They didn't think that it would... I mean, why would they? Why would they do that? I mean, you and I might think that they should do that, but it never occurred to them to do that. These crackpot, strange people from far away, what do they know? Well, Jung was very influenced by Buddhism. That's true, but he didn't say, oh, here's the answer. But he realized these guys had been working on it with a great deal of energy and effort for 2,000 years or longer. Well, it seems like in some psychological quarters at the moment, you find that there is that sort of sense that the whole kind of schools of therapy, I think that, I don't know if it's an explicit or an implicit assumption that, you know, the wisdom of the Orient does have a viable and instructive map of mind that we can use

[46:34]

for psychological, western psychological studies. I think many psychologists would say that. Some, but all these guys writing books are very famous for saying the mind is really just some computer that you don't quite understand, and has hardware, has software, and that's what it really is. Even the Japanese don't use it in their therapy. They have Marita therapy, which is very behaviorally oriented, They don't turn to the wisdom of their elders either. It's like we have to reinvent everything with each generation, whatever somebody thought of before that's old. Yeah, it's an interesting cultural phenomenon with the Japanese, in that for forward-looking Japanese, Western things are the real stuff, you know. I don't think Eastern rites were really that known and available in Europe. until I think around the 19th century. I forget who it was who translated to German. And I think, I think Schopenhauer was one of the first to become really aware of, you know, the ancient Eastern writings.

[47:45]

But, so I mean, I think it's understandable. People tend to be more aware of their own tradition, what was familiar from, you know, 2,000 years. And so it was new to the West. And so it's taken a while. Yeah, and there were several important thinkers in the 19th century who were influenced by Buddhist and Hindu writings. But even those things that were translated into English and European languages were translated very imperfectly, and there was a very tiny amount that was translated. they were getting a kind of spirit from it, but they really weren't seeing the range of it. They had no idea of the level of sophistication and how much there was, how systematic it all was. And even now, I mean, we don't have, I mean, there's been a whole lot more translated, but it's still by no means, even now, what we know of Buddhism is, and Buddhist thought is just some spotlights here and there.

[48:46]

The whole territory So, anyway. So, then the Eightfold Path is given. So, to sum it all up, a whole lot of, in this stage, the fourth stage, the stage of the blazing, a whole lot of practices are given designed to help the bodhisattva more fully work with mental states. And then it concludes with, furthermore, all this is due to concern for all beings, due to the support of carrying out past vows, due to being led by great compassion, due to realization of great kindness. Always that motivation is behind all these practices. In the main of the ten paramitas, the paramita here is vigor, energy, to work with mind.

[49:57]

Now, following up on this issue of meditation, it's the fifth stage, the stage called difficult to conquer, in which are brought about in this stage, what teachings are associated with the practice of meditation in this stage. And on page 49, by means of the awareness effected by this knowledge of truths, and that refers to the previous paragraph where it talks about they know the conventional truth and they know the ultimate truth.

[51:06]

They know the truth of structure, the truth of substance, the truth of becoming and so on. They see how things are put together. By means of the awareness affected by this knowledge of truths They know in truth that all that is conditioned is void, unreal, delusive, deceptive, fooling the ignorant. They become all the more compassionate toward beings and the light of great goodwill shines forth." So this is a realization of emptiness. So in this fifth stage, the stage associated with meditation practice, the Bodhisattva sees, having gone through focusing the mind in meditation. Remember all the way back to the beginning. Entering the path, seeing the teaching, purifying oneself through morality practices, deepening the mind through meditation, actively working on the mind with myriad practices of how to create wholesomeness and get rid of unwholesomeness, and then

[52:16]

Next, seeing the nature of things, the structure of things, the voidness of things. At this point, all of that together, we can practice real meditation. Precepts, active practices, insight. Now another really interesting thing about the fifth stage is on page 51, this first large paragraph. The Enlightened Beings thus engage in the development of sentient beings with minds continually following Buddha knowledge, engaged in unregressing goodness, intent on the search for Supreme Truth, practice whatever in the world would benefit sentient beings, such as

[53:25]

writing, teaching, mathematics, sciences of various realms or elements, medical sciences, prevention of consumption, epilepsy and possession, warding off poisons, zombies and witchcraft, song and dance, all of which is totally prohibited by the rules of the Vinaya, drama, music, storytelling and entertainment. The construction of villages, cities, parks, canals, reservoirs, ponds, abounding in lotuses, groves, producing flowers, fruits and medicines, the discovery of gold, jewels, and other precious substances. Methods of pointing out the signs of the sun, moon, planets, stars, constellations, movements of the earth, omens, dreams, and so on. They actually engage in all these things for the benefit of beings. Marvin, did we see this someplace before? This is mentioned in other places in the sutra, but in terms of the ten stages, I don't think so. I think the fifth stage is the one in which this is most prominently mentioned.

[54:29]

There's a lot of overlap. I mean, you'll see there's one hilarious part, you know, where they ask about this particular, in the seventh stage, they say, is this particular stage special in this regard? And they say, well, all the stages are special in this regard, but this one especially is. So there's a lot of overlap. They don't want to say that stages are exclusive. They are all sort of overlaid on top of each other. But in terms of the ten stages, this is the one where the Bodhisattva, having achieved insight, you see the connection. When you see, you need to practice restraint and discipline when you don't understand the nature of things. Because if you run around, you know, selling fortunes and teaching mathematics, you'll become confused. But once you understand how things are, then you can go teach mathematics and tell fortunes, and do all kinds of things, because you won't get pulled off by these other activities. At this point, seeing how things actually are, you can use all this stuff for the benefit of beings.

[55:33]

So, until we're all fifth stage Bodhisattvas, we have to watch out what we do. When we are fifth stage Bodhisattvas, we can do anything that needs doing, see? We won't get out of line. It's very interesting, They're not exactly your social welfare agency either. They do not pull out the arrows of pride and views that you do not accept. They're just swimming around. No, but that's us. The Bodhisattva is looking at the poor. No, no, the Bodhisattva thinks that. Look at these poor people. The Bodhisattva looks at the beings and sees how pitiful we all are and so feels that he should or she should participate and help us out. So anyway, and this is one of the, I mean, you know, in the Pali sutras you would never read anything like this.

[56:43]

Never. Because, you know, it's very clear, there's morality and it means this. But with this sutra and the whole notion of emptiness, we have some flexibility in our understanding of what morality is and how it's used in various stages of the path. So it is possible to do a variety of things, not to live the life of a pure monk in this stage. So I think that's important to point out. And this is also the stage of meditation, the stage where meditation practice is emphasized the most. Now, one thing I want to mention about this stage is that it's mentioned several times here. For example, on page 49, that first big paragraph ends with, when it talks about how they know all these different truths, that paragraph ends with, This is, however, on the basis of the power of knowledge in the process of application, not by ultimate exhaustive knowledge.

[57:53]

So what they're saying here is, Keep in mind that even at the fifth stage, there's a limitation here. And then they have various ways of saying it, but what the sutra is saying is, this is really great, and there's great knowledge and accomplishment here, but it's not as much as we're going to see in the eighth, ninth, and tenth stages. The seventh stage is a kind of pivotal stage. In the seventh stage, The Bodhisattva achieves nirvana, and there's a kind of sense of completion in the effort. And then the eighth, ninth, and tenth stages are kind of in a way automatic, pilot. There's no effort involved in the eighth, ninth, and tenth stages. But in all the stages before that, including this one, even though we sort of already understand everything, we actually don't. And we're still, there's a limitation

[58:57]

in our understanding. We haven't really thoroughly seen the truth of emptiness. We have to some extent, but not thoroughly. It's a little vague, because in a sense, even at the beginning stage, we're finished. So they don't want to say, well, this is not so good. They want to say there are all good stages, and everything is realized in each stage, but more in this one. So, the sixth stage is the stage of presence. And here again, on the bottom of 56. But this is only by penetrating conformative tolerance. They have not yet attained the tolerance of the non-origination of things. That's the same kind of statement about the sixth stage.

[60:01]

Conformative tolerance means tolerance that conforms to the teaching, so it's accurate and true, but they have not yet attained the full experience of the non-origination of things. Now in this stage, the stage of presence, what's emphasized here is, now remember, in the fourth stage, No, third stage. In the fourth stage, what was emphasized was the active practices of working with mind. Fifth stage, insight and emptiness. In this stage now, we get this wonderful section that we can't go into in detail, but I want to commend you to it, starting on page 57. 57, 58, 59, and 60 is this incredible virtuoso performance of discussion of causality, traditional formula of the 12-fold chain of causality, viewed from 10 different points of view, 10 different takes on the 12-fold chain, 10 different modes of understanding

[61:30]

how things come to be in detail. So, emptiness is to see the insubstantiality of things, but the detail of that is to see how... So, to understand emptiness is to see that everything is a process, nothing is substantial. So then, we don't get attached to anything because we see that everything is fluid. But then the next question is, but exactly how is it know that they are nothing but transformations, but how, what is the mechanism by which that transformation works? What are the rules of it? What is the logic of it? And in this stage we see that. And, you know, the 12-fold chain, how karmic formations leads to the sense organs grasping a world, how immediately when the sense organs and the mental faculty grasps the world, there is contact and clinging and grasping and rattling the cage, which closes the door even harder on us, and more suffering, which leads to old age and death and sickness and lots of intensified suffering, the residue of which propels us into another such

[62:54]

And so, it goes through ten ways of looking at the process, all the way up to the reversal of it. So, like I say, I spent a lot of time on these pages, and it would be... Page 60, the second paragraph from the bottom, is a summary of the ten ways which proceed. Enlightened beings contemplate interdependent origination. which is the term given for the process of transformation. They contemplate interdependent origination in these ten patterns, forwards and backwards. So they go through the process both forwards and backwards. In terms of the interconnection of the elements of becoming, in terms of being all together in one mind, seeing the whole process as being consciousness only, in terms of differentiation of one's own actions, in terms of inseparability, in terms of the procession of the three courses of affliction, action and suffering, in terms of the connection of past, present and future, in terms of the accumulation of three kinds of suffering, in terms of production by causes, in terms of attachment to origination and annihilation, and in terms of contemplation of becoming and annihilation.

[64:19]

So, anyway, in short, they really study the process from a number of points of view, and they really understand how it works. And that's the work of this stage, yeah. The name of this stage, Presence, is interesting, and one doesn't know... where it came exactly from translation. But I wonder if you could comment on the name of the stage, Presence, and the work that is the understanding of suffering, the understanding of causality, how that has to do with Presence. Well, I think in a way these names are pretty apt, you know. The blazing, for instance, being associated with all those active, vigorous practices of really getting out there and working with mind, seems to me to fit. And the next stage, difficult to conquer, associated with insight into emptiness,

[65:32]

seems to fit in that seeing emptiness is sometimes called the armor of the Bodhisattva. At this point there's a kind of sense of fearlessness and invincibility that comes with really understanding the insubstantiality of things, because there's nothing So it's very hard to knock us over at that point. And then, doesn't it make sense that next, when we really understand the details of the process, how it really works, not only the way things are, but how they work in detail, we are fully present. we are fully present with the detail and the process of our lives in the life all around us. For me, somehow, it really seems to fit. So, I think that's right.

[66:37]

To be fully present, to be fully aware, we really do have to see how life goes on, how it works. then we have so much more opens up, right? We have so much more ability to be there, particularly with others, because we see others' manifestations no longer see those manifestations as threats to us, as their problem, or something like that. We see this is how, yes, this is how the way this person is manifesting their life is how life is, how it works. I can really be present there without any waves, because I'm not threatened, I'm not confused. It just makes sense. I'm fully there. So does that, to me, it makes sense? Am I communicating? Yeah, yeah. Where are we?

[67:46]

The sixth stage here, I'm about age 60 or so. I just did the summary. Yeah, the summary of the ten ways of looking at the Twelvefold Chain of Foundation. So I think we should stop and have our little service. So suppose we begin with our service on page 66 with Far Going, the seventh stage, and we can begin there in our discussion next time. We'll begin in page 66 after the verses.

[70:58]

The gods and goddesses, having offered their splendid song, became silent in rapture, all gazing at Buddha. His disassembly is calm, they said, as they might convene. Tell us the features of the seventh stage, or what the first is. The Enlightened Being, by whom they wish to settle, and the Enlightened Beings, who have thoroughly fulfilled the course of the Sixth Stage, come to the Seventh Stage. They gain access to the Seventh Stage by means of ten kinds of special undertakings and paths, which are accomplished by skilled means, transcending wisdom and knowledge. What are these ten? They develop a mind well-trained and focus on emptiness, blindness, and wishlessness. Yet they collect great provisions of virtue and knowledge. They enter into selflessness, absence of meaning, absence of soul, absence of human visuality, and absence of personality in all things.

[72:03]

Yet they do not give up the production of affordable measurables to measure their kindness, compassion, joy, and humility. They perform transcendent practices to increase their wisdom and faith. Yet they do not cling to anything. They become detached from everything in the world, yet they produce the greatest annoyance for the little world. They become ultimately calm and tranquil due to the removal of the violence and delusions, yet they are taken for granted by the extinction of the claims and delusions of lust, hatred, delusion or opulence. They realize the non-duality of essence of being and non-being, all things being by delusions, They have cultivated the perception that all lands and paths are equal to space, yet they undertake the adornment of Buddha lands.

[73:04]

They abide by the nature of all Buddhas as being fundamentally and essentially the owner of the body, yet they undertake the production of the adornments of the marks of distinction and the oceans of the physical body of Buddha. In a single instance they enter Buddha's awareness of the past, whereas in the future, yet they enter into distinctions of various experiences of stages of emancipation by discernment of the eight lines. By these ten kinds of special understanding of the path, accomplished by still beings with wisdom and knowledge, uniting beings to be in this stage by virtue of the manifestation of the darkness of the ultimate debate. The infinite realization of knowledge of Buddhism, the unlimited amount of self-communication, the Buddhist immeasurable awareness of the past, present, and future, the infinite differences in eating and drinking, the infinite variety of manifestations of the material body of Buddhism, the infinite variety of mental dispositions and factors,

[74:41]

The Buddha's infinite following of the progress of knowledge, the infinite variety of applications of the Way of Emancipation and the vehicle of listening, the infinite manifestations of the teachings of the Path of the Buddhists, the infinite consummation of the attainment of the vehicle of the infinite teachings of ways of ingressing to the profound knowledge of the Buddhas, the infinite application of enlightened beings to the conduct of the enlightened beings, and the Buddhas infinite teachings and religions of the sacred religion. In regards to the enlightened beings, spiritualists, Buddhists, those who have realized the essence, the perpetrator of life in one's own tradition, do not become deluded in hundreds of millions of billions of trillions of eons, and may excel at all of these superior Buddhisms, fulfilled of effortlessly, without being taught, without false discrimination. Thus, with the perspicacious mystic knowledge, continuous application, relieving skill and ancient wisdom, the Vedic knowledge establishes these special undertakings on the path by unshakable validation.

[76:03]

While undertaking the accomplishments of the path, they do not leave it for a moment, even while walking, standing, sitting, reclining, and even sleeping, they are devoted to the accomplishment of knowledge. They are free from all distractions, they maintain proper conduct, and they keep in mind such thoughts by the inspiration of which they collectively explore the ten transcendent ways of enlightened beings. However, in that way the enlightened beings never take each thought, let it vibrate with passion to the point where it will never put it off any more than a mile. giving to beings of their own groups of goodness, by lovelessness, and giving to living beings with compassion, with ego, obscenity, blood, and violence, is their transcendent generosity. The extinguishing and the burning of all volitions is their transcendent discipline. Tolerance toward all beings without kindness and compassion is their transcendent forbearance. sharing the titles and undertaking all ultimately good practices as their transcendent leader, receiving the Lord's unconditional knowledge of how to practice His transcendent meditation.

[77:12]

Tolerance is the basis of essential non-origination of all things as their transcendent wisdom. The accomplishment of unlimited knowledge is their transcendent skill and means. The realization and the penetration of knowledge of the ultimate undertaking is their transcendent environment. Thus, suffering therefat is to be cut off by any holdings or condemnings of beings which desecrate their ascended power. The accomplishment of knowledge of all things, as they are, is to be accepted and accomplished. Thus, as condemning things in certain ways, it is to be blinded in being. are all the elements of enlightenment fulfilled moment to moment only by enlightening beings in the 7th stage or in all 10 stages.

[78:21]

Diamond Matrix said, all the elements of enlightenment are fulfilled moment to moment by enlightening beings. and it succeeds with the practice of knowledge and mystic knowledge. Now in the first stage of enlightening beings, the elements of enlightenment are fulfilled in the enlightening beings, moment to moment, by focus on all that. And in the second, by the removal of mental defilements. And in the third, by increasing commitment and attainment to the illumination of the teachings. And in the fourth, by entering into the path. And in the fifth, by going along with worldly occupations. In the sixth, by entering into the door of the teaching of profundity, in its seventh stage, all elements of enlightenment are fulfilled moment to moment by the establishment of all qualities of Buddhahood. What is the reason for this?

[79:24]

All the elements of effort to evoke knowledge that are accomplished by enlightening beings in the first two seven stages are accomplished by effort beginning in the eighth stage and on up to the one hundredth. If it is difficult to cross over the gap between these two worlds, except by the great power of higher knowledge, in the same way it is hard to cross over the gap between the lawyer and the pure practice of the one-minded beings. And it is impossible to do so except by the empowerment of great gods, skilled healings, The number of stages of lightening, all of lightening beams, practices should be considered free from the blemishes of afflictions due to the dominance of seditations and enlightenment.

[80:29]

But because of being even with the path that it points to their station, up to the seventh stage, again having all practices, there has to be an extent of deletion. It is like a chain wiring around an elephant, recognizing people's afflictions of suffering, poverty, without itself being there till they are alive. Yet it is not thus far totally gone beyond the human condition. Then it is born in the Brahman heaven, a hyper-liquid human body, and descends to the Brahman palace, where little effort goes around looking at the universe. In the same way, from the first stage, enlightening beings, now coming from the vehicle of their transcendental ways, coursed through all the worlds, are recognizing miracles as illustrations, but are not affected by them because of being on the right path. But thus far, it cannot be said that they have completely gone beyond the ideals of saving all beings.

[81:32]

Having given up their practices, and then upon a time when we really were only able on the lightning beams, traveling around all worlds, they were recognized as equals, as what they all were believing in. But they are not affected by those ideals, having only the transcendental world-world connections. Yet the lightning beams in this seventh stage have mostly Why? Because they do not act out any instructions. They cannot necessarily do it perfectly. Because it's like speaking to a dog, and they find a way completely different. in a sudden stage, knocking out the physical, verbal, and mental action that is real and intact.

[82:36]

And then again, beyond all matters, forces of action that are meant to secure life by the mind, and continue to act in accordance with virtuous paths of conduct recognized by the mind. Also, if ever worldly arts and crafts and businesses All of the meditations, concentrations, and trainings, mystic knowledges, and liberations become present to them, in terms of obligation, but not yet as mature accomplishments. In this seventh stage, inviting beings to attain an inviting concentration called Perfect Consciousness Attainment, one called Careful Consideration of Meaning, one called Preliminary intellect, one called Store of differentiation of meanings, one called Ascertainment of all means, one called Ascertainment of the meanings of things as they are,

[84:03]

One uncaught firmly accepts the truth. One uncaught door of knowledge and mystic power. One uncaught purification and impermanence of the non-known realm. One uncaught grave to the enlightened, and a concentration caught door of existence and nirvana, concealing various meanings. In this way, beginning with these, fulfilling the ways of interest and direct mystic knowledge, and by the power of great compassion, they both go on the stage of solicitousness and individual validity, and in countering this stage of contemplation with wisdom and knowledge, the ultimate actions of our human beings in the seventh stage are carried on without specific mark. physical, verbal, and mental actions of humanity beings in the first stage beyond our access to the spheres of individual existence.

[85:19]

And I would majorly say that they are, but that is because of the magnitude of their attempts to focus on the Buddha way, not by their own conscious contemplation, but in the second stage of humanity beings they've become considerable, because the realization should be contemplated And as it goes, the Lord showed the king not to use God as his only intellectual power. Then he realized that he had gone beyond the works of all the ministers because of his only intellectual power. And so he began to sell all the listeners to the individuals who would listen to him. And so his name expired, because he was a very insensitive and insubordination. None of the others had somehow legislation on their part or more than others. but by the mighty beings of the seventh stage go beyond all listeners and individual limits, by establishing their existence in the eminence of their own experiential knowledge.

[86:27]

Furthermore, by the mighty beings of the seventh stage attain profound and unattainable We want a deliberation in the Senate. that there is such a thing as conceivable physical, verbal, and mental actions. It is a marvel how the mind can be inspired and involved in a reality without actually experiencing the condition. Just as a person with a good knowledge of the characteristics of the waters of the ocean, educated, wise, and intelligent, with a consideration for an element at every point,

[87:31]

When on a porous ship, the ocean becomes familiar with the winds and currents and is associated with highly ocean waters. In the same way, when my immunity is in the seventh stage, the vacuum of the ocean of consciousness and the great wave vehicle on board the vessel of the ship is sent into a haze, a void in the sphere of ultimate reality, a limitless existence, yet it does not experience extinction, and I am not affected by the ills

[87:58]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ