is for. Come down to the feeling of the observer, the observing consciousness, simply present with the hearing, and then let go of that and let there be only sound and nothing else but sound.

[02:30]

So this is a very sensitive and beautiful practice, I think. Very intimate feeling. The sense of hearing is an intimate sense. So, I recommend that you, in your Zazen practice, that you experiment with this, if you like. This yoga of listening. And then, if you get into it, you'll find that you can also, at any time, practice it on walking, standing, just suddenly withdraw attention from what you were doing or thinking about and listen again and drop into that place and cultivate this listening with the purpose of turning the mind around as the sutra recommends. Now I want to, before I go to the text, say a word about This is the... Did we chant?

[03:43]

We did. Oh, I forgot. So, about the five skandhas and the eight consciousnesses that we talked about a little bit last time. Because this is really an important thing. Now, I explained the best I could last time about the five skandhas and why the analysis of mind and experience into the five skandhas was proposed. But notice two things about that. First of all, it assumes already an inside and an outside. It implies already an inside and an outside. It doesn't really account for the felt sense that we have of an observer, an observing consciousness. It just simply says there is no observing consciousness, it's included in the skandhas. And also the model of the skandhas is really a model of the ordinary conscious experience that we all can point to and be aware of.

[04:53]

Perception, feeling, emotion, and so forth. The purpose of the skanda meditation is to say that we're grasping at a self. There isn't really any self there. There's myriad of experiences arising and passing away, making up our life. There's no self there, so be liberated. Don't grasp at a self. Then, the emptiness teachings in Buddhism basically said, It's not, the problem is not grasping at a self. The problem is grasping. So if you analyze experience into five skandhas and you stop grasping at a self and you grasp at the five skandhas and you believe in the kind of final

[05:54]

reality of experience, any kind of experience, whether it's experience of no-self or of self, then there's still grasping, and then with grasping, suffering, and so on. So, the emptiness teachings say there is no actual, real entity or experience of any kind. Everything is empty. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind, all empty. So that's really the truth. And that's really good news. But it's a philosophy. That's an assertion. It's a philosophical yoga to see the world in that way. But ultimately it's an intellectual exercise. So then comes along the Yogacaras who say, now we need a method of cultivation. that will get us beyond grasping. We like emptiness philosophy and we agree with it, but it doesn't give us what we need to actually overcome the grasping that we now understand we need to overcome.

[07:07]

So it's in the interest of this cultivation of overcoming grasping that the eight consciousnesses are proposed. So the eight consciousnesses include the first five of the sense organs in their objects. So in this system there is no outside, there's only consciousness. transformations of consciousness, and what we call mind and matter are all included in the eight. So the first five are the consciousness associated with the five kinds of sense experience. Touch consciousness, sight consciousness, hearing consciousness, smelling consciousness, tasting consciousness. Every time the organ and the object meet, there's a chemical reaction, consciousness in relation to that occurrence arises, and there are five kinds of consciousnesses in that regard.

[08:15]

Then, the mind, the mental consciousness, takes the raw data from the five senses, which is cacophonous and confusing. You know, without your mentation to organize the confusing impressions of the world, the world is bewildering, but we organize it into up there's a person, there's a pillar, there's floorboards, there's a ceiling, and so forth. That's the mind that does that. That's the sixth consciousness, the organizing consciousness. Then the seventh consciousness in the eight consciousness systems is called Manas, and this is actually the observing consciousness. So in this system, There is a place for the observing consciousness. It actually has a pivotal place. In the other system, its existence is denied. In this system, it's admitted. Yes, there is an experience of an observing consciousness.

[09:18]

Yes, it's true that it's fundamentally, as the other system said, it's fundamentally a projection, but it's a very deep-rooted projection and a useful one. Because the seventh consciousness takes what the six consciousnesses have produced and mediates between them and the material of our conscious lives in an eighth consciousness, which is called the alaya consciousness or the storehouse consciousness, which is something much bigger than our conscious experience. It seems as if everything that ever occurs in our experience, every moment of perception and thought, remains embedded in consciousness. Even though we forget most of it and it's not available to us in our conscious mind, all of our experience, they liken it to seeds that are planted in the alaya consciousness.

[10:26]

And when the conditions for the seeds to sprout come to be, then we have a conscious experience. But everything is stored there. But not only that is stored there, but also everything that in our whole environment, our culture, our world, the universe. So the ally of consciousness is bigger than our individual consciousness. It's the, you could say, the compendium of all content of the world. Psychological, mythical, physical, is all included in alaya. Everything really is actually a projection and manifestation organized according to causes and conditions that work through the organs, the other six consciousnesses, to produce our particular world. So the self-consciousness, the observing self, is mediating between the two and carrying whatever information and activations are needed between the two consciousnesses.

[11:38]

So this is why when we meditate on listening and really quiet the mind, when we let go of the activity aspect of our consciousness, the doing, the desiring, the needing, the incompletion, the sense of grasping and groping, and really just get down to the nub of the observing self, we are then very close to the eighth consciousness, this vast consciousness. In the five skandhas, this is a world of space and time. Space-time concepts arise as a result of the operation of the five skandhas, with the outer world and the inner world and the relationship between them. In the alaya consciousness, space-time is a detail, it doesn't exist even, because this consciousness is beyond any separation between object and observer. So there's no question of space and time. And the sutras, some of the extravagance of not only this sutra, but other Mahayana sutras, I think, comes from the fact that they're products of, and in reference to, the eighth consciousness.

[12:54]

They're not really, the area of conscious experience and sort of sense of self that we're working with is included, but it's a much bigger space than that. So when the mind is really quiet and only the observing consciousness is there and becomes more and more quiet, we then are in a position to be able to appreciate, recognize, and work with the Eighth Consciousness. Now the Eighth Consciousness, they say, that's the place where the turning has to take place. There's a returning within the Eighth Consciousness. when we see, when the mind becomes utterly quiet and separation is let go of, total letting go, then the eighth consciousness is set to turn around. So it has this double possibility. The way they put it in the text is the eighth consciousness is capable of going down

[13:57]

when there's a shadow of grasping and separation in the midst of the 8th consciousness it goes down toward suffering and separation but when the mind is turned around the 8th consciousness goes up toward awakening and the bright awakening that we read about last week is manifested everywhere when the 8th consciousness is turned around so that's the work of enlightenment, is to turn that around and stop ourselves from reaching down and instead reach up. It's the same consciousness, but it's turned in the right direction now instead of the wrong direction. And then we had last time the image of the two moons. Remember the pressing the finger on the eye, looking at the moon, and seeing two moons. And the eighth consciousness is the second moon. And the first six consciousnesses are the moon reflected in the water. So that's why they say it's the eighth consciousness, because the eighth consciousness is not the same as awakening, because awakening is beyond all images, beyond all experience.

[15:09]

It's not the same as, and yet it's not really different from. So there's a little thing in the Sutra which says, well, the two moons are not the same moon, and yet they're really not different moons, are they? They're really both the same moon. But they appear to be different ones. So they're the same and they're kind of not the same. So it's as if the purified alaya consciousness really is awakening, but it's not quite the same thing as awakening. It's kind of paradoxical. Because if we say it's awakening, then right away there's a shadow of grasping. And as soon as then, down it goes. So, an ordinary experience is the moon reflected in the water, a pale and small version based on the actual moon, but quite different in brightness and in power and in size. There's a wonderful, I'll just conclude this little introduction to the eight consciousnesses, because it's a background, you know, for what will follow, with the very wonderful little description of what kinds of wisdom arise within each of the eight consciousnesses when the consciousness is turned around.

[16:32]

When that happens, the alaya consciousness, which formerly was a kind of grab bag of confusion, like the unconscious, becomes, when transformed, they call it the perfect mirror awareness. So that each thing, like in a mirror, is perfectly reflected as it is. Another term for this in Buddhism is suchness. things without, absolutely devoid of any projections of desire or confusion. Things just are in their sort of pristine gorgeousness. And everything that is, I mean, it's an amazing quality for a thing to have, don't you think? That it is. I mean, it's amazing that something is. This is already, basically this is enlightenment, that something is. It's because it also, it is by virtue of the fact that it simultaneously is not, because it exists in time.

[17:44]

And this quality is shining, brilliant quality, and when it's actually seen for what it is, it's perfect mirror awareness, rather than, oh that's annoying, get that car out of here, you know, what's this person, so forth. I want this, I don't want that. No, it's just, wow, that's really, everything appearing just as it is. So the seventh consciousness, which is ego, right? We might say an elaboration of the second consciousness, a very crude sort of elaboration of the second consciousness is what we would call ego. An extremely crude elaboration is like the neurotic ego. It has a very crude perversion of the seventh consciousness. But when the seventh consciousness is totally turned around, it becomes the wisdom of equality. It's very interesting. The transformed ego becomes love because it's through the observing self that we're able to make contact with the world and see the wisdom of equality shows each thing as absolutely equal

[19:00]

in importance and value and beauty to each and every other thing. So that's interesting, huh? Ego. So we think we should get rid of ego. It's not about getting rid of ego. It's about turning ego around till it becomes a vehicle of loving-kindness and appreciation of each thing equally. Then the sixth consciousness becomes the wisdom of differentiation. seeing each thing's uniqueness. The mirror opposite. The Seventh Consciousness sees each thing's sameness and equality. The Sixth Consciousness, because without the wisdom of differentiation, we'd be kind of like blithering idiots, you know, love bugs. We'd have to have differentiation. So the Sixth Consciousness becomes clarity of discrimination. which operates in beautiful harmony with the second consciousness, purified, which has now become the wisdom of love or equality.

[20:11]

And then the first five consciousnesses transform into the wisdom of activity. So that based on clear distinctions in love and clear seeing, we act on behalf of beings. So this is the sort of map of consciousness of the Eight Consciousness School. And it reminds me of a poem somewhere. Because I think that this is not something as esoteric as it may seem at first. Because I think that we have experiences all the time, maybe not all the time, but from time to time, that point to this. When we find ourselves, especially, I think this is why we love nature so much, maybe I've said this before, but I think sometimes when we're in nature, or not just nature, sometimes in a moment of looking into the face of someone that we love, our child or our beloved,

[21:27]

you know, sometimes you actually totally see that person or completely see a cloud without desire and confusion. Just there it is. And then I think this is a kind of echo in our hearts of the eighth consciousness turned and purified, the perfect mirror awareness. So this poem reminds me of that. It's called By a Stream. The murmur of clear water on stones in a gully deep in a tall forest. Ferns brighten in the sun on the banks. The stacked, ungraspable shape of leaves, lancet-like, sword-like, heart-like, shovel-like, notched, serrated, saw-toothed. Who will express it? And the flowers. whitish umbles, deep blue chalices, bright yellow stars, roselets, clusters, to sit and to watch the bustle of bumblebees, the flight of dragonflies, the takeoff of a flight catcher in the tangle of twigs, the hurry of the black beetle.

[22:49]

It seems that I hear the voice of a demiurge which says, either speechless rocks as on the first day of creation or life whose condition is death and this beauty which elates you. It's a poem of Czeslaw Milosz, a local guy from Berkeley. So, you know, you see this beauty, you try to describe it, but it's indescribable. It's the condition of life to be able to see beauty. Life, which is also the condition of death, because that which is is also is not, but what makes it be is. So, just to make it clear that this is not something really abstract or philosophical or some sort of high and irrelevant contemplation.

[24:05]

So, okay, let's back to the sutra. Now, we have a little show and tell now in the sutra, a little demonstration. I'll pretend that I'm Buddha and you could be Rahula. Okay? I don't know your name. What? No, not you. What's your name? What? Gregory. Okay. I'll be the Buddha and Gregory will be Rahula. Okay, then the Buddha instructed Rahula to strike the bell once. And he asked Ananda, did you hear that? Ananda and the members of the Great Assembly all said, we heard it. The bell ceased to sound and the Buddha again asked Ananda, do you hear it now?

[25:15]

Ananda and the members of the Great Assembly all said, we do not hear it. You don't either, right? Then he asked for Hula to strike the bell once again. Do you hear it now? And they all said, we hear it. The Buddha asked Ananda, what do you hear and what do you not hear? Ananda and the members of the Great Assembly all said to the Buddha, when the bell is rung, we hear it. Once the sound of the bell ceases, so that even its echo fades away, we do not hear it. The Buddha then asked Rahula to strike the bell again. And he asked Ananda,

[26:21]

Is there sound now?" And Ananda and the others said, there is sound. After a short time, the sound ceased and the Buddha again asked, is there a sound now? And Ananda and the Great Assembly said, no, there is no sound. After a moment, Rahula again struck the bell. And the Buddha again asked, is there sound now? Ananda and the Great Assembly said together, there is sound. I'm reading this from the sutra, I'm not making this up. I couldn't make this up. The Buddha then asked Ananda, what is meant by sound and what is meant by no sound?

[27:28]

You can imagine him sitting there thinking, what is he talking about? He said, I think that when the bell strikes with sound, once the sound ceases and even the echo fades away, there is said to be no sound. That's what. The Buddha said to Ananda and the Great Assembly, Why are you inconsistent in what you say? The Great Assembly and Ananda then asked the Buddha, In what way have you been inconsistent? The Buddha said, When I asked you if it was your hearing, you said it was your hearing. Then, when I asked you if it was sound, you said it was sound. I can't ascertain from your answers if it is hearing or if it is sound. How can you not say this is not inconsistent? How can you not say this is inconsistent, I mean? Ananda, when the sound is gone without an echo, you say there is no hearing.

[28:36]

If there were really no hearing, the hearing nature would be extinguished. It would be gone. It would be like dead wood. If that were so, then when the bell was struck again, how could you hear it? If the hearing nature was gone. What you want to be there or not there is the defiling object of sound. But could the hearing nature be there or not be there depending on your perception of its being there or not? Because plenty of things are there, but we don't perceive them. It's because we don't know we're hearing, or that hearing exists. We shouldn't say, therefore, that it doesn't exist. If the hearing could really not be there, what would perceive that it was not? Salananda, sounds that you hear are what are subject to production and extinction, not your hearing. The arising and cessation of sounds cause your hearing nature to be as if there or not there.

[29:46]

You are so upside down that you mistake sound for hearing. No wonder you are so confused that you take what is everlasting for what is annihilated. The hearing is everlasting, the consciousness of hearing, because it's one of the eight consciousnesses. It's not something that is born when sound is born and dies when sound dies, or is born when we're born and dies when we die. It's eternal, everlasting. Ultimately, you cannot say there is no hearing nature apart from movement and stillness and from destruction, obstruction and penetration. And then he gives some other examples of a person who hears in their sleep. You hear something in your sleep and in your dreams somebody's pounding wood and they hear it as a drum. So even though they're unconscious, the sense of hearing still operates in their sleep.

[30:52]

So the sense of hearing is actually there even in an unconscious time. Even when your body is gone and your light and life move on, he concludes, how could this nature ever leave you? So, although, you see, on the level of grasping and separation, we don't experience the profundity of the consciousness that must be arising in the midst of every act of perception. We're only focused on the object and the organ. Buddha is saying that, yes, the object disappears, the organ disappears. This is actually virtually the mirror story for the story of the King Prasenajit that we talked about before.

[31:56]

In that case, the organ is sight, And what's talked about is the organ itself, the king's body, not the object. In this case, the organ is sound, and what's being discussed is not the body of the ear, but the sound itself. So both the organ and the sound, yes, they pass away, they're impermanent. But the consciousness that actually gives rise to the experience of hearing or seeing or any of our human experiences, including thought and emotion, is actually an eternal brightness that is the actual source of our lives. So even when your life is gone, this nature never leaves you. But because living beings from time without beginning have pursued forms and sounds and have followed their thoughts as they turn and flow, turn around and around by pursuing objects, They still are not enlightened to the purity, wonder and permanence of their own nature.

[32:59]

They do not accord with what is eternal but chase after things which are subject to production and extinction. Because of this they are born again and again and become mixed with defilement as they flow and turn." So the alternative to that is to see through that. and to settle oneself deeply in the experience of consciousness and recognize that that is at least as truly, and in fact more truly, our identity than the organ and the objects that we're pursuing. You know, madly not recognizing that there are no objects and organs to pursue. they're already where they need to be. So this discussion goes on for some time. And next, sort of the punchline of this is that various things happen and Ananda again doesn't understand and asks for further teaching.

[34:19]

And then the Buddha rubbed the crown of Ananda's head with his Jambunada purple golden bright hand. The gesture of affection and intimacy. And when he did this, instantaneously all the Buddha lands in the ten directions quaked in six ways, which frequently happens in the Sutras. When the Buddha does something, it often causes the San Francisco earthquake. And then both, as numerous as five fine notes of dust, each dwelling in their respective world emitted a precious light from the crown of their heads. All these, you picture this, all these worlds suddenly come into view everywhere. And in this world, there are all these Buddhas in there, a beam of light is emitted from the heads of all these Buddhas.

[35:23]

At one and the same time, their light went from their own countries, where they were here and there, down into the Jada Grove, and zapped and anointed the crown of the head of the Buddha, who was sitting there, talking the Sutra. And all in that great assembly obtained what they never had before. And then, everywhere in the Great Assembly, heard the Buddha, all these Buddhas, as numerous as fine notes of dust throughout the ten directions, speak to Ananda with different mouths, but in a single voice, which was the voice of Shakyamuni Buddha. It's impressive, huh? See that, make a movie out of that. It'll be good. What? Yeah, Stokasan. Yeah, that's Stokasan, right? Go read Ananda. You wish to recognize your innate ignorance that causes you to turn on the wheel.

[36:25]

The origin of the knot of birth and death is simply your six sense organs and nothing else. That is the origin of all suffering in this life. You also want to understand unsurpassed bodhi, so that you can quickly realize bliss, liberation, tranquility and wonderful permanence. It too is your six sense organs and nothing else. So now we're getting down to the nub of this. The same six sense organs are the cause of all of our suffering and the cause of ultimate awakening and liberation and purity and eternity. So, one has to go into this question of the six sense organs and how we can... What's the nuts and bolts here of turning them around?

[37:40]

How are we going to do this? So this ordinary world, I mean, just to repeat the obvious, belabor the obvious here, but it's really important, this ordinary world that is accessible to us through our senses is the ultimate world, the perfected world, the eternal world. It's strange for Buddhist texts to be speaking like this, but this is what it says. And somehow we have to learn how to turn it around so that we can see that, understand that. So the Buddha is now going to explain. In order to do this he has another little show-and-tell but I didn't bring my props for this so you'll have to just imagine this. The Buddha holds up a beautiful flowered cloth and he then makes a knot in the cloth and then he makes a second knot

[38:40]

and a third knot, and a fourth knot, and a fifth knot, and a sixth knot in this beautiful flowing cloth. And he says to Ananda, you carefully consider this and you will see that the substance of the cloth is the same. It is the six knots that make the difference. And he points out that every knot is unique. The number one knot is not the number two knot. The number two knot is not the number three knot. And yet they're all just knots in one substance. He says, if on this day I were to untie all these knots, so that no knots remain.

[39:41]

There will be no this and no that. In other words, there will be no this and that. If these knots, it's only because there are these knots in the cloth that there is a this and a that. Once I untie those knots, There will even be less something called one. How much less can there be six? So how do you untie the cloth? So then the Buddha takes one of the knots and pulls it on the left. And he says, is that untying the knot? Of course, it's making it tighter. Not untying the knot. He pulls it on the right. Is that? You can imagine two little parts. Take that yellow herb and mix it with chandani incense

[40:45]

I hear that with all this stuff. so that the insect birds are drawn in a range between the clouds, only birds sleeping in water. You should have various images of different Buddhas.

[43:49]

It tells you which ones and where they should be. What? following the previous week and the second month.

[45:09]

In the second week, direct your intent by making goings-back-to-the-box. The blind should never be cut off from it. It must be in the second week. During the third week, you hold the Buddha's mantra, Wo Dao La, for 12 hours On the seventh day of the third week, after all this, the Buddha of the ten directions will appear simultaneously. And you can bet they will. You know, he's going to be doing all this bowing, chanting, and bowing, and then on the seventh day, right on schedule, BAM!

[46:35]

And so then, under all these guys... So now, for it.

[48:30]

And that is Well, I think that it's really the truth. That the burden of hearing is the best avenue.

[49:31]

Because someone hearing is very intimate in a sense. It's less, it's more subtle. But it seems like...

[50:38]

doing this practice of listening. It might be a decision. And it's great. It's really profound. It's easily, you can easily quiet the mind that contains the practice of listening. It's just a period of itself, a long duration of itself. would be there, but then something would happen to cause it to come up.

[52:46]

in this. You better like it. purified of prejudice.

[54:38]

And awakening is beyond conflict. Does that make sense to you? Mm-hmm.

[56:00]

One of the two ones. I would be, the figure would be Darwin. is one of those two moons. Is it the same or different from the other moon? Well, it's really the same moon, but it's also different. It appears different. It appears to be a second moon, but really there is no second moon.

[57:59]

So that's the relationship between the alaya consciousness and awakening. The alaya turned alaya consciousness and awakening is that it's the same and different But the reason is that as soon as you, this is the whole point, as soon as you conceptualize something, just grasp it. So if you say, oh, I'm seeing purified images of the world, that's enlightenment.

[59:04]

As soon as you say that, you're grasping enlightenment. You can't even grasp it like that. Yeah. Right.

[61:08]

Yeah, that's what I was saying in the beginning, although I get a slightly different such practice.

[62:32]

But, you know, there's a lot of debate between schools. Yogachara has the fault of always coming dangerously close to positing an eternal entity, which is, you know, eternal essence, which is itself. Bye. Yeah, there must be.

[65:11]

I guess when you really get into it, but I don't know. No. Do you have one more? These are numbers.

[66:16]

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