As you can see, I have a whole panoply of books here. So as we progress in this case, we chakka case on mentions a number of Buddhist practices. So I'm going to explain what those practices are, or at least what they are theoretically in Buddhism, because this is also an educational class in Buddhism, hopefully. So we may not get too far in the case today, but I think you'll find the other information All right.

[01:01]

Interesting. So whichever book you have, either cook or. You can follow along and you're welcome to ask questions as we go. And we'll look at my page here. Mishaka. The Japanese is Mishaka. Mishaka is more Indian. So this is Mishaka. Mishaka is the fifth Indian ancestor. The 6th Indian ancestor.

[02:03]

The 5th Indian ancestor is Daitaka. His teacher, so to speak. So it says here the 6th patriarch means the 6th, not the 6th patriarch we usually talk about, which is Huidong in China, but the 6th patriarch in India. So the 6th ancestor in India was Michaka. Once, one time, the fifth ancestor, Daitaka, said to him, the Buddha said, practicing wizardry and studying the small is like being dragged with a rope. You yourself should know that if you leave the small stream and immediately come to the great ocean, you will realize the birthless. main case as treated as a colon.

[03:13]

And the rest of it, of course, is the exposition of the main case. So the next section is called the circumstances in which the proceedings took place. This is not unusual in. It's in, I think, Japanese and probably Chinese way of expressing something is presenting the thing itself first and then going through and opening it up and revealing it. OK, so here are the circumstances. The master, that is Mishaka, was from central India and was the leader of 8,000 wizards. Just picture 8,000 wizards.

[04:16]

Viziers. The word wizard is like vizier. Viz is like seeing. Viz, visibility. Ventana, or viewing. So wizards, that's probably a good word. Sears actually could be Sears. But anyway, they're not Buddhists. So although they are Sears and Viziers and so forth, they're they're all, you know, Following the wrong track. This is very common in these stories that the one who becomes the ancestor, the next instance is the leader of a whole bunch of wizards.

[05:20]

So he tells my guardian, I believe, was there. leader of a whole bunch of wizards before he became the ancestor. So one day, while leading his followers, he respectfully paid reverence to Daitaka, or Durtaka. He said, in former lives, we were both born in the Brahma heavens. I met the wizard Asita and received the way of the wizard from him. So there is an Asita who, when Shakyamuni was born, there was a wizard called Asita who came and told people this is a marvelous child.

[06:27]

But this is a different Asita. So what happens, I met the wizard Asita and received the way of the wizard from him. You met a disciple of Buddhism who possessed the ten powers and learned to practice meditation. After that, our karmic paths separated and six aeons had passed since we went our own ways. So, you may not believe this, It's up to you. You don't have to believe it as a fact. Just, all you have to do is accept it as a story. Meaning, you know, there's an expression that we are all here because of our karmic connections in the past.

[07:32]

We're all here because of our karmic connections and our past lives. You don't have to believe that. You don't have to believe it literally. But if you don't believe it literally, you can understand it. There's something about... Wouldn't it be wonderful if you just think about it, you know? If we had this connection through many, many lives and here we are in this particular life sitting here together discussing the Dharma. I think that would be very interesting. But we do have this karmic connection somehow that we're all here. That's very wonderful. And we all have this karmic connection because of Shakyamuni Buddha. If it wasn't for Shakyamuni Buddha, we wouldn't be here.

[08:35]

We'd be doing something else. And if it wasn't for our ancestors, we'd be doing something else. And if it wasn't for Suzuki Roshi, we wouldn't be here. We'd be doing something else. So, there's something about affinities. This is about affinities, and it's kind of a story that, you know, it's not like you believe it literally, but it's about It illustrates affinity in a very deep way. Long, long time ago. From the ancient past. So, I'm going to get to the end of this circumstances before I start explaining the ten powers. So, after that, our karmic paths separated, and six aeons have passed since we went our own ways.

[09:38]

The venerable Daitaka said, so many aeons apart is true, not a lie. Now you must abandon the false to come to the true and thus enter the Buddha vehicle." So he's trying to persuade Gitchaka. So the master, Daitaka Michaka, said, in former times, the wizard Asita made a prediction, saying, after six eons, you will meet a fellow student and realize the fruit of purity, which is arhatship. Isn't meeting you my destiny? I ask the priest to be compassionate now and liberate me. So the venerable Daitaka gave him the complete monastic precepts. and made him a monk. The other wizards felt proud of themselves at first, but then the Venerable Daitaka exerted great supernatural powers, and as a result, they all aroused the thought of enlightenment and simultaneously became monks.

[10:53]

8,000 wizards became monks. It was right at the time when they decided to become monks and follow him that the Venerable said, practicing wizardry and studying the first paragraph. And the Master Vajraka heard it and was enlightened. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the ten, what are the ten powers. There are two sets of ten powers. The old Theravada ten powers, and then there's the Mahayana ten powers. The Theravada ten powers are fairly simple, and we're kind of like the basis for the Mahayana ten powers.

[12:01]

The ten powers of Mahayana are called Bhumis, which means lands, the ten lands. It doesn't fit quite, but are realms, actually. So there are ten practices, graduated practices, which lead to enlightenment. Suzuki Roshi talked about them a bit, but he always said This is called step ladder practice. You practice, you know, this is the basis, and then you add another one, and then you add another practice, and another practice. This is very close to Tibetan practice. If you're Tibetan, you'd like to practice the ten bhumis. In Zen, we don't practice any kind of progressive practices. We remain dummies all throughout our practice.

[13:10]

But we don't practice progressive practices to gain something. This is what's called non-gaining mind. That's basically what non-gaining mind means. It means you don't do various practices to get something, to get in stages. You know, all schools are built on stages and stages of practice, right? That's what makes Zen kind of unique, in that we don't base our practice on stages. Because Zen practice is simply to reveal what is there. So there's nothing to be gained and nothing to lose. do with the ten boonies. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them, but just kind of, you know, go through them so that you get some feeling for what these ten practices are.

[14:22]

The thing about it is that, you know, we don't ignore these practices. And there'd be other practices like the six powers of the arhats. which also I'll do, and also the eight jhanas, which are also levels of practice. And all of those levels, and that's wrong. It's just that they're all included in our practice, called zazen and chikantata. So when you hear these practices, you say, oh, yeah, that sounds like what we do. So we may think that we may not. I would predict that. So each of the ten stages that the Bodhisattva must go through to attain Buddhahood, the individual stages are not described in the texts in an entirely consistent manner.

[15:54]

So the following exposition is based on such and such. So here they are. One is the Land of Joy. In this stage, the Bodhisattva is full of joy on having entered the path of Buddhahood. He has aroused the thought of enlightenment and taken the Bodhisattva vow. He especially cultivates the virtue of generosity and is free from egotistical thoughts and the wish for karmic merit. No merit. This is Bodhidharma's famous talk. Here the Bodhisattva recognizes the emptiness of the ego and of all dharmas. So all atman and dharmas are all void of a self. So this is very plain Zen, actually, Buddhism. So, number two is the land of purity. Here the Bodhisattva perfects his discipline and is free from lapses and practices dhyana and samadhi.

[17:00]

Dhyana is meditation and samadhi is oneness with body, mind and universe. So the third one is called the land of radiance. The Bodhisattva gains insight into the impermanence of existence and develops the virtue of patience, kshanti. So this is kind of following in a way the six paramitas. The first one is generosity, the second one is patience. So, in varying difficulties and inactivity, helping all sentient beings toward liberation, she has cut off the three roots of unwholesomeness, greed, hate, and delusion. And the attainment in this stage is made possible through ten qualities known collectively as

[18:08]

undertaking a firm resolve, which include determination, satiety with worldly life, and passionlessness. The Bodhisattva achieves the four absorptions and the four stages of formlessness and acquires the first five of the six supernatural powers. This third one contains these practices. The Bodhisattva achieves the four absorptions. and the four stages of formlessness. This is called the jhanas. I'm sure you've heard of the jhanas. They're practices which were pre-Buddhist. And they are all pretty much gaining practices. The first ones are the form meditations. And the second four are the formless meditations. And the first five are the six supernatural powers.

[19:16]

So I'm going to explain both of those through Suzuki Roshi's explanation. So the fourth one is called the blazing land. The Bodhisattva burns remaining false conceptions and develops wisdom and practices the virtue of exertion, which is virya, and perfects the 37 requisites of enlightenment. So the 37 requisites of enlightenment are called the 37 lens of enlightenment sometimes. And they contain 37 basic meditation practices of Buddhism. We haven't looked at those. some of those meditation practices like the Eightfold Path and stuff like that. So number five is the land extremely difficult to conquer.

[20:19]

In this stage the Bodhisattva absorbs herself in meditation in order to achieve an intuitive grasp of the truth. Thus, he understands the four noble truths and the two truths. He has cleared away doubt and uncertainty and knows what is a proper way and what is not. He works further on the perfection of the 37 requisites of enlightenment. And then there is the land and view of wisdom. In this stage, the Bodhisattva recognizes that all dharmas are free from the characteristics arising manifoldness and the distinction between existence and non-existence, and attains insight into conditioned arising, pratītyasamutpāda, transcends discriminating thought in the perfection of the virtue of wisdom, and comprehends nothingness. Maybe it means comprehends emptiness, but it could be nothingness actually.

[21:22]

So that is, the far-reaching land, by now the Bodhisattva has gained knowledge and skillful means which enables that person to lead any being on the way to enlightenment in accordance with that being's abilities. This stage marks the transition to another level of existence, that of a transcendent Bodhisattva, one who can manifest herself in any conceivable form after passing through this stage, falling back into lower levels of existence, In other words, this is the land of no return. You'd better be careful what you want, because there's a stage where there's no return. Then A is the immovable land. In this stage, the Bodhisattva can no longer be disturbed by anything, since He has received the prophecy of when and where he will attain Buddhahood.

[22:29]

It sounds like the Lotus Sutra. He gains the ability to transfer his merit to other beings and renounces the accumulation of further karmic treasures. There is a term, which I'm trying to remember, which applies to transference of merit. Is that true? In our echo, we say, may the merit of this practice pervade. In our translation, the translation says, may this merit. And I'm thinking, well, what is this merit? So I said, the merit of this chanting, or the merit of this practice. It could be either one or both. So, nine is the land of good thoughts.

[23:30]

The wisdom of the Bodhisattva is complete. She possesses the ten powers, the six supernatural powers, the four certainties, the eight liberations, and the dharanis. He knows the nature of all dharmas and expounds the teachings. And number ten is the land of dharma clouds, all understandings, jhana. immeasurable virtue are realized. The Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya of the Bodhisattva is fully developed. He sits surrounded by countless Bodhisattvas on a lotus in Tushita Heaven. His Buddhahood is confirmed by all the Buddhists and this stage is known by the name of the Abhisheka I think that the Tibetans have something like that. Bodhisattvas of this bhumi are, for example, Maitreya and Manjushri. So, in other words, you kind of reach the celestial realm, you know, where it's passed beyond the personal, into celestial bliss or something.

[24:44]

So, these are the ten bhumis. These are the ten powers. Now, if you look at the text, the text says, I met the wizard Asta and received the will of the wizard from him. This is just a top paragraph for circumstances. You met a disciple of Buddhism who possessed the ten powers and learned to practice meditation. So he met somebody who had possessed all these ten powers. This is it. Daitaka met Bodhisattva who possessed the ten powers, and Nishaka took the other road.

[25:52]

So you learn to practice meditation. After that, our karmic paths separate. OK. Do you have any questions about anything so far? Yes. Sorry. Did Vishaka lose his wizardry powers upon taking the path of... We don't know that. But it's possible. I would think, what I would think is that on taking the precepts, the Buddhist precepts, He turns everything over to Buddha. Wizardry is certainly dualistic. Yeah, so he turns everything over to Buddha and then Buddha either keeps it or gives it back. That's interesting. When you go to Tassajara or a monastery to practice, you leave everything behind.

[27:00]

People say, well, can I draw? Can I do my art? Or can I do my poetry or play my music? No. Leave your instruments at home. No drawing. All of that. You just do the Dharma. And then, at some point, after maturity, oh yes, here's your guitar. Here's your artwork. Why don't you do your poetry? So, after you give everything up, something may come back to you, but you're not counting on it. Your music may be helpful in your dharma, because in one of those boonies, one of the higher boonies, you come back into the world and use whatever means necessary to

[28:04]

free people. And one may be through poetry, one may be through art, one may be through music, or finance. Rarely. But that would be great. If financiers were all Bodhisattvas, if bankers were all Bodhisattvas, that would be, you know, wonderful, but... What? The IRS. The IRS. Tax people. I understand that. I'm just trying to see what else that could be. So, yeah, I think he gave up being a wizard. He didn't have to be a wizard because being a a monk surpassed being a wizard.

[29:06]

So here's the Taisho, and actually Keizan will address that question, I think, in the Taisho. So here's the Taisho. But before I go to the Taisho, there was a bit of wizardry And there's always been, there's so many different spiritual practices in India. Magicians are about a dozen, you know, in India. And when the Indian monks went to China, they kind of dazzled the Chinese with their magical powers. And that was one way that the Chinese were like, wow, you know, these guys.

[30:15]

So that was a kind of skillful means, because they were above the magic powers, but they used the magic powers to attract people. Okay, so even if you, here's the picture, even if you study wizardry, and learn to prolong your life, or command the marvelous use of supernatural powers, you can only really perceive 80,000 aeons into the past, and 80,000 aeons into the future. But when we do this things will come, that's quite a feat. In other words, what does that amount to? So what? What if you can't see 3,000 aeons into the past and 80,000 aeons into the future? What about now?

[31:17]

What about now? But you cannot recombine everything before or after that. So even if you cultivate a meditative trance at this stage of neither perception nor non-perception, and enter the trances of no mind or thought, you will unfortunately be born in a celestial realm of no perception and become a celestial being with long life. Even when you get rid of the corporeal body, you still will have the functioning of karmic consciousness, thus you will not be able to meet a Buddha or comprehend the way. And when the results of karmic consciousness are exhausted, you will fall into the avicciel. This is like being bound and dragged with a rope, as it says in the beginning, and in the end there is no liberation. So this is a jam-packed paragraph.

[32:21]

It's really loaded with stuff. And after reading this, I'm just realizing. my own connection to what I'm going to talk about. So what I'm going to talk about is the jhanas and the six powers and karma. Those three subjects. And I've chosen Suzuki Roshi's commentary on The service, back in 70 or something like that, 69, 70, Suzuki Roshi gave a series of talks on our service, you know, what is the meaning of our service. And I edited that and published it somewhere, but I can't find my editing.

[33:25]

It came out in the newsletter a little bit, but not completely. A long time ago, back in the 70s. So that's why I'm going to use his commentary. We're talking about it. We have various echoes for each. E-K-O. Dedication. In the Japanese style, there's three of them. The second one, he and I translated, but Dick Baker didn't like to use it, so he threw it out, and I use it, and it's the one that's about the arhats.

[34:30]

It's that kind of long echo that we use. Do you? What is it? I'm trying to remember. Well, it's here. Yes, it's Saturday morning. Yes, we do it on Saturday morning. The six powers of the Arhats may be always with us in their unceasing effort to read the Buddha's way forever. That's what we are. Whatever it is that we do do it. And so we use it at those particular times because I didn't want to throw it out. I think it's really a good echo. And what it does is honors the Arhats. There are 500 Arhats and there are 16 Arhats. So the 16 Arhats are the ones that were closest to Buddha. Buddha had 16 arhats.

[35:38]

Each one had a particular quality. And the 500 arhats were their followers. So the 16 arhats and their followers are the 500 arhats. And so the Bodhisattva ideal took over from the arhat ideal. The arhat ideal had a problem in that the arhats left the world and separated Nirvana from Samsara and totally left the world, so to speak, and were only interested, according to legend, in their own salvation. And Pratyekabuddhas were Buddhas who were those who actually had achieved a level of Buddhahood, but they were not Bodhisattvas because they weren't interested in propounding the Dharma or helping other people.

[36:40]

So those are the Pachakabuddhas and the Arhats which are usually talked about demeaningly, but we appreciate the Arhats. So that then appreciates the Arhats practice and so that we have that in our ego. So Suzuki Roshi would say, We are Hinayana. We have a Hinayana practice with Mahayana mind. So, we don't denigrate the Hinayana. It's not that Hinayana is not a denigration. It's simply a narrower path. Mahayana is a wider path. So we have both a narrow path and a wider path. We include the Arhats. Why do we re-appreciate them? Their effort, and their sincerity, and their... Their effort, their dedication, their sincerity, their... Perseverance?

[37:56]

Perseverance, yeah. All the wonderful qualities, except for... The Bodhisattva steps back from the final leaping and stays back in the world to, you know, be of help to people. Are you ready to respond to that contrast? OK, so he talks about the eight jhanas.

[39:08]

The eight jhanas were pretty much neglected for centuries, but recently in America, some Theravada type, be compassionate. Practitioners have been trying to resurrect the eight jhanas and practice the eight jhanas. In all of these lists, you recognize in each one of them some parts of your own practice, right? There's no need to think of it as step by step. But somehow you can see how these practices are already within your own practice. But it's like if you want to talk about something, you make a diagram. And so people kind of talk themselves into using the diagram as a process.

[40:16]

But the diagram really isn't a process. It's simply a way of talking about something. in a systematic way. I'm talking about something that is not systematic in a systematic way. So the eight jhanas have a systematic progression. But you can recognize all of them in your jhanta. Is this the same word as we pronounce it? No, sthula and jhana. J, jhana is. G-H-A-N-A. Dhyana is D-Y. Dhyana is meditation. Jhana is related. Because we are meditation. But Dhyana, I think, is Sanskrit. And Jhana is probably Pali for the same thing. Another word question.

[41:19]

I'm getting Dhyana. mixed up with a very similar sounding word that means charity and generosity. What's that? Donna. That's Donna. Okay, as opposed to Dianna. As opposed to Dianna and Gianna. Okay. Although they're not opposed, they're just different. So, eight kinds of meditation. He just segues into this, so I have to find a place where I can just start it. So eight kinds of meditation to free one from attachment and to free one from everything, eventually. So as I explained last night, we don't need that. In the first stage, the first jhana, you have no anger or you have no drowsiness. Because you are not angry and your mind is very calm, you can think clearly. And you have physical joy and spiritual joy and concentration.

[42:20]

So in the first stage you have clear thinking, which can be contemplation as a teaching, dharma, or you can observe things clearly. This is the thinking mind, and there is physical joy and mental joy and concentration. So these are all kind of wonderful qualities, right? Cool. But, in the second stage, this is just the beginner, in the second stage you don't think. So your mind is more clear because you don't even think. There are no waves in your mind. So physically and mentally or emotionally you have a kind of joy free from emotional disturbance or thinking faculty. And you have good concentration so you have there inner purity of mind free from thinking. And you have physical joy or mental joy and concentration. In this stage, the power you will have is to see all things.

[43:23]

In order to get this kind of power, the primitive Buddhists practice various practices, such as putting a skeleton in front of them and concentrating on it. This is like the graveyard practices. The early Buddhists used to go into the carnal ground, which was probably very open in India at that time. And that's where they would meditate. They would meditate on the decomposition of the body, the color of the decomposition, the various stages of decomposition, the bones, and analytically go through the whole process of decomposition. So concentration is focused meditation? Well, yeah. Well, concentration is one of the constituents of meditation.

[44:25]

Right, and this is the way it's being used here. Well, you know, you contemplate. So, contemplate the skeleton. Don't take it too literally. You can't take the whole thing. He's just using skeletons as an example. You notice the bluish color and the reddish color and the yellowish color. You go through a whole litany. There is a prescribed way, because the Buddhists always prescribe to everything. But it's simply you go in there and you look around. Are these meditations written down? Yes, you can find it in the books. Tendon? Carnal. Carnal ground meditation. Carnal ground meditation. Charnel. Charnel, yeah, charnel.

[45:25]

Or carnate meat. Yeah, meat. I don't know any further than that. Okay. So, you know, such as putting a skeleton. in front of them and concentrating on it. So even if a beautiful lady appeared in front of them, because they're monks, right? They're not nuns. If there is a nun, a beautiful man, or if it's a gay person, it's whatever. Just an example. So don't get, you know, just an example. In that way, so even if a beautiful lady appeared in front, And that way, he became free of the objective world. The what world? Objective world. So, there's a story in one of the sutras about this monk who was fairly newly ordained.

[46:34]

And, you know, he was hip to all this. So one day he saw this beautiful woman, and she came over and started talking to him. And while she was talking to him, he looked at her teeth. And when he looked at her teeth, he traced, well, what's behind the teeth? And then, what's behind that? And he went through the whole litany of the 365 bones and the juices and everything, you know, in real life, the emptiness of... It's reminding me of the graveyard scene in Hamlet, where he says, go to, I haven't got it verbatim, but go to my lady and tell her though she paint an inch thick, still she will come to this. Yeah, like that. So in that way they become free from the objective world.

[47:37]

You will laugh, but actually they did it. Sometimes they sat in front of a fire or in front of water. Or sometimes they contemplated our physical being, observing our physical body as a bag of nasty things. That's very common in that particular ancient practices, to see the body as a stinking bag of bones. So this is mostly a practice for men maybe. A woman looks very beautiful, but inside a woman it's nasty. containing five organs and many things. They practiced that way. And in that way, they wanted to be free from the objective world. So, you know, if you were a monk, you could look at a woman, but you could not sit beside her. You could not be alone with a woman when you were talking to her. You had to have somebody with you. So a good monk didn't have lust?

[48:42]

Well, yeah, of course he has, but he's trying to control it. Right. Never succeed? But there is a stage where you don't have less. We haven't got to that stage yet, but we're getting there. I'm bothered by their having to make a value judgment that the body, I'm not talking about women, but the body is nasty. in order to see that it's temporary and not real. I think it's too bad that they have to do that. Yeah. OK. You know, there are probably various reasons for that. And I think you have to realize that there are men, and young men and older men, educated and uneducated and really uneducated.

[49:47]

I mean, those days, 1,500 years, 2,500 years ago. The conditions? No. And it's, you know, when there's a massacre, one day after the massacre, it's stinky. So that's what he's talking about. Sure. I mean, you know. Surgeons put on a mask when they do their work. But in the second stage, they changed their way. Not to contemplate on objective beings, but to contemplate inward. In other words, not contemplating out there, but to contemplate inward. They directed their concentration inward. And by inward contemplation, they could take themselves I'm sorry, make himself sure that we are not permanent anymore.

[50:47]

So they look inside to see the impermanence. So it is foolish to attach to ourselves. If it is foolish to be attached to ourselves, it may be more foolish to be attached to something outside. Right? So if he himself is not worth being attached to, then outside people are also even more not worth being attached to. So in that way, They wanted to be free from outward objects. So their practice was the power of practice to see all things as impure and thereby remove their lust or desires. So it's a kind of, you know, anti-activity in order to see the worthlessness of being attracted to something that would arouse your lust. The second power is to remove attachment to external phenomena. Those powers will be gained in the first and second stages of practice.

[51:51]

So that's the second Umi. The third stage is the power of not having desires arise, even if phenomena look beautiful. After attaining detachment from themselves and from the outer world, the Arhat wanted to be quite sure that he had the power of detachment. So to test his power, he tried to see something beautiful and if he became attached to it or not. They tried. They opened their eyes and saw some beautiful lady to see if they were attached to her again or not. And if they were not attached to beautiful things, then they really had the power of detachment. And that way they tested themselves. That is the third they obtained more power of detachment until they obtained arhatship. So, you know, one of the tests about arhats was whether or not they still had desire. And that was one of the big questions that was controversial in that time, just after Buddha passed away and they had these conferences.

[53:04]

And, you know, they had two conferences after Shakyamuni passed away. And the first one was maybe some 20 years, I don't know. I don't know how far from Shakyamuni it was, but they brought all their hearts together, so to speak, and asked, well, what did he really, what can we agree on that we all heard him say? And Ananda was the one, his cousin, who what's famous for is his memory because he remembered everything the Buddha said that he heard and he was by his side all the time when they made a sutra the sutra opens thus have I heard so but Ananda was not an arhat he was not enlightened so it wouldn't let him into the council and so Mahakasyapa He became enlightened under Mahakasyapa, who was Buddhist, you know, next in line.

[54:11]

And there is a koan about this in the Lukliff record, either Nomaikana or Lukliff record, about Ananda. And I'll talk about that later. So it is described in this way, but if you take this description literally, it doesn't make much sense, as in all Buddhism. But later, in the formless world, he doesn't talk about the fourth jhana somehow. He talks about the first three, but the first three are form, meditations on form, on outer and inner. And they say that Shakyamuni passed away in the fourth jhana. But he doesn't describe the fourth jhana. He goes on to the fifth one.

[55:13]

So it is described in this way. But if you take this description literally, OK. But later in the formless world, that is the next four, or formless jhanas, when they attain the world of formlessness, The powers obtained by their practice was to contemplate the boundless space of form. They contemplated the limitless consciousness of ourselves. That is a more inward practice. So their practice became wider and wider, and until their practice came to the area of void, I think void is okay, emptiness, but I think void is good here, was to contemplate the boundlessness of space. And the fifth stage was to contemplate the limitless world of consciousness inwardly.

[56:15]

The sixth stage is to contemplate non-substantiality. There is nothing, nothingness, complete voidness, nothingness. And the seventh stage is to contemplate the stage beyond thought. The seventh one is to contemplate on non-substantiality in terms of substance. And non-substantiality is a kind of idea, isn't it? So to go beyond the idea of non-substantiality is the seventh one. And the last one is, which is the same as the third one, to obtain mitsujinjo, is to have no karmic activity. cessation of all karmic activity. For a long time they practiced Zazen literally in this way. This is a kind of psychological analysis.

[57:19]

But actual practice cannot be like this, actually. You can analyze your practice in that way in four or eight stages of practice. Or practice of form world, or practice of non-form world, But actual practice cannot be like that. So more and more Buddhists started to put more emphasis on actual practice without analyzing practice, without being involved in these kinds of stages. But if you carefully understand these kinds of stages and the interpretation of the stages, as I explained, there is a very important key in the actual practice. But if you miss that point, you will be easily caught by it, step by step. practice. At first you may say there are three steps, but in each step there is three steps, and in each of the three steps there are three steps, if you carefully analyze it.

[58:21]

So at the least we have 81 steps or more, 81 or 241 stages. We shouldn't be caught by this kind of interpretation, but we should have eyes to see what it actually means, and the people carefully set up this kind of teaching, and we have a great amount of commentary on these step-letter-like practices, so that it cannot be step-letter practice. We should understand this point. So, Bokken Zenji did not ignore this kind of practice, and this kind of commentary, and this kind of step-letter practice, but he put more emphasis on everyday practice, such as the kind of practice Isan and Kyotsan practiced. when Kyo-san brought his teacher water and a towel and a cup of tea. That's another story. This is called Not magic, but... Miracle?

[59:42]

No, no. Maybe a miraculous practice, yeah. There's something called a miraculous practice. Hauling water and chopping wood. That's the Zen miracle. Carrying water and chopping wood. So, in this story, I-san, Master I-san, a very famous master in China, and Kyo-gen and Kyo-zan. Kyo-gen was the monk who, when he was sleeping, The stone hit the bamboo and his mind opened up. That's Kyogen. And Kyozan. So Kyogen and Kyozan were two of Nisan's disciples.

[60:44]

And Nisan was taking a nap. It was kind of hot like today, you know. And he was taking a nap. And Kyogen walked by and the door was open and he looked in and... And Isan kind of woke up, you know, and Kyogen said, well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. And Isan said, oh, it's okay, you know. He said, I wonder, what do you think I need or want, actually? Kind of in between needing and wanting. And Kyogen went downstairs and he got a towel. a dry towel, and he came up and he put the towel on his son's head, you know, and kind of wiped his face with it, you know, to refresh him. That's what I used to do in Suzuki Roshi at Tasahara.

[61:47]

We'd walk around in 105 degree heat, and he was dying, and I'd put this wet towel on his head to cool him up. That's a really great thing to do. Then Kyogen came by and he looked in at both of them and he said, oh Kyogen, Kyozan, what do you think I want, need? And Kyozan went downstairs and made boiled water and I made tea and brought it up and the three of them had tea. It was called Exercising the Magical Powers. It's intuition. The magic of power here is intuition. Going beyond, like what am I thinking? Going beyond the thought directly to the thing. You have this kind of communication with your dog.

[62:49]

It's called magical powers with humans. I was thinking of something else before that. But what do you think? So this, you know, there is a I guess this word said that the data is. there was a king and he had a retainer, a servant. And when the king wanted something, he would say, when he wanted three things, when he wanted salt, a chalice, I guess a drink, and a horse.

[63:58]

So, when he would say sandava, the servant would go and get either salt, a chalice, or horse for him. But he didn't say, I want a horse or salt. He said, say, sandava. And the servant wouldn't know what he meant without him having to say what he meant. So Dogen's fascicle called Sandava, Sandava, Sandava, has this story. Nissan, Kyosan, and Kyogen to illustrate Sendata. How much longer do we have? Three or four minutes? Eight more minutes. Oh, eight. OK. Well, that's a long time. So, I'm going to read this paragraph.

[65:09]

Even if you study wizardry and learn to prolong your life, or command a marvelous use of spiritual powers, you can only be perceived 80,000 years into the past and 80,000 years into the future. But you cannot scrutinize anything before or after that. Even if you cultivate the meditative trances of the stages of neither perception nor non-perception. Those are the top stages of the formless jhanas. And enter the trances of no mind or no thought. Those are the four stages of formless samadhi. You will unfortunately be born in the celestial realms of no perception and become a celestial being with long life. In other words, you can reach these stages, but that's where you get hooked. It's like being in heaven, you know.

[66:14]

Oh, damn. What did you say? I said, oh, damn. Yes. I mean, what's the matter with that? Because that's the place to get stuck. So in Buddhism, you shouldn't get stuck anywhere. That's why this is so tempting. You know, so tempting and seductive. Because heaven is really a seductive thing, right? And so, you're just going to get stuck. And this is one of the criticisms that Buddhism has about the jhanas. Is that yes, you can attain the highest jhana, but you still have to come down because it's all dependent on karma. Even though the last one is to be free from karma, Wait, I don't understand that exactly. This all depends on karma? What is it? Well, because you're still seeking something.

[67:18]

So you're creating karma? When we're seeking something, there's karma. Because seeking something is a volitional action. And volitional action is called karma. So you do receive the fruit of the karmic actions. And for the people who practiced the jhanas, they felt that the highest jhana was the place to be. Just like in the Lotus Sutra, one of the chapters of the Lotus Sutra, Buddha is And the arhats are thinking, we have all reached nirvana. Final nirvana. And Buddha's saying, you haven't. There's still more to go. And they got really disgusted. And they walked out. Because, you know.

[68:21]

And also, you know, Buddha, according to the Lotus Sutra, right, story, is that There's this magic city, this wonderful place that you should aspire to. But it was just a ploy to get them to have something to look forward to. Then you'd say, I'm sorry, but it's not really the end. Well, I'm thinking, the minute we use words like magical city, wonderful heaven, it posits desire. That's right. So, is using desire, you know, if you say, I will eliminate all desire, have you? No. Has anybody? No. So if you say, I'm going to not have any desire, that's just an idea. So, we use our desire.

[69:24]

Instead of saying, eliminate our desire, we use our desire without being used by it. That's the difference. Being beyond desire is not being used by desire, but using desire in a beneficial way. So, I always talk about way-seeking mind is to use desire to practice the Dharma, rather than being used by desire to practice unwholesome ways. Because, ultimately, they are seductions. I'm thinking that I understood you to say that the Arhats, the first three levels or something, they were trying to eliminate desire.

[70:25]

The first four jhanas. Okay, I mean, and everything is disgusting and so on. That's right. But isn't that contradictory to the idea of... Well, here's the thing. This is why, you know, this is the big controversy that split the Mahayana from the Hinayana. That the Hinayana wants to eliminate in order to attain purity. to eliminate impurity. Isn't that logical? It is, but there's a certain logic to that. It is. But it's a pluralistic logic. What it sounds like to me is that's what gives Buddhism the name of nihilistic to people who... Well, that's right, because they... You know, when the scholars started

[71:25]

studying Buddhism in the 19th century, they only paid attention to the Hinayana. They didn't know that Mahayana existed. So anyway, the Hinayana way is, that's why it's called Hinayana, because it's a small vehicle, a small-minded vehicle, which is dualistic. You eliminate samsara in order to have nirvana. So Mahayana practice's understanding is to find the purity within the impurity. to not eliminate the impurity, not to try to separate things, but to find a middle way. Because what we call impure also has a pure side. You know, garbage stinks, but it's the best thing you can use for... Right? It has its own virtue, but it's comparative value.

[72:33]

Well, could you finish the Arhat story so they all walked out? Yeah. Did they all die Pacheco Buddhists? Well, I don't know. The story doesn't tell you that, as far as I know. But we revere them today, or at least their spirit. Well, don't revere them. You appreciate their effort. Which is very generous. Love thy neighbor. Where did that go? You know? We hate our neighbor. Some neighbors. You know, it's like, it's like, um, uh, uh, this great appreciation for the effort of the Aarhus, even though they stopped short. And so actually they are an example of sincere practice. And all those who practice Buddhism, whether we agree with them or not, we appreciate them.

[73:44]

So there are 12 schools of Buddhism which approach the Dharma from 12 different aspects. And you could say, well, we're right and they're wrong, which happens a lot. But actually, each one and understanding. And we would hope that all the Buddhist schools would finally meet someplace in Tushita Heaven. Deep appreciation. So we don't denigrate any school of Buddhism, even the Arhats. The Arhats set the stage for further advancement. You don't denigrate the caveman. You don't have any primitive beliefs. You appreciate them. So it looks like it's the end, huh?

[74:46]

Okay. So, is this okay with you?

[74:50]

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