This morning I want to talk about the third, the breath, along with the third foundation of mindfulness, which is citta, or the mind itself, mind consciousness. Mind here means states of mind or states of consciousness. You know, the fourth foundation of mindfulness is objects of mind. All the dharmas, anything which is an object of mind. According to Buddhist understanding, mind does not exist apart from its objects.

[01:05]

So when we talk of mind, speak of mind, we also have to consider that mind or consciousness appears along with the object of mind. And so here, mind is divided into two parts. One is consciousness, and the other is mind's objects, objects of mind, and awareness and observation. But here, in the observation of mind, we can observe mind through states of mind. I want to read you a little bit from the sutra. I haven't read, I haven't opened the book yet, even though I bring it every day.

[02:10]

But today I want to read a little bit. First of all, it's not so long. Sutra is actually quite short. So I'll read you the 16 methods of breathing. And then how mindfulness of breathing relates to the four foundations of mindfulness, which is also quite brief. And I'll start from the beginning with the body. It says, this is Buddha speaking, he says,

[03:24]

The method of being fully aware of breathing, if developed and practiced continuously, will have great rewards and bring great advantages. It will lead to success in practicing the four foundations of mindfulness. If the method of the four foundations of mindfulness is developed and practiced continuously, it will lead to success in the practice of the seven factors of awakening, or enlightenment. The seven factors of awakening, if developed and practiced continuously, will give rise to understanding and liberation of the mind. So liberation of the mind is the goal. What is the way to develop and practice continuously the method of full awareness of breathing so that the practice will be rewarding and offer great benefit? It is like this, because the practitioner goes into the forest, or to the foot of a tree, or to any deserted place, and sits stably in the lotus position, holding the body quite straight.

[04:32]

Breathing in, one knows that one is breathing in, and breathing out, one knows that one is breathing out. And the first of the sixteen not methods, but practices, is breathing in a long breath, one knows I am breathing in a long breath. Breathing out a long breath, one knows I am breathing out a long breath. Two, breathing in a short breath, one knows I am breathing in a short breath. Breathing out a short breath, one knows I am breathing out a short breath. Three, I am breathing in and I'm aware of the whole body. I am breathing out and I'm aware of the whole body. Four. I am breathing in and making the whole body calm and at peace. I am breathing out and making the whole body calm and at peace.

[05:36]

This is how one practices. These are the first four. ways, and these apply to the body, the body and the breath. The next four apply to the feelings. Five, I am breathing in and feeling joyful. I am breathing in, out, and feeling joyful. I am, six, I am breathing in and feeling happy. I am breathing out and feeling happy. Seven, I am breathing in and am aware of the activities of the mind in me. I am breathing out and am aware of the activities of the mind in me. Eight, I am breathing in and making the activities of the mind in me calm and at peace. I am breathing out and making the activities of the mind in me calm and at peace.

[06:40]

Mind here refers to feelings in the mind. 9. At 9, 10, 11, and 12 are the next four, which are directed toward mind and mind consciousness. 9. I am breathing in and I'm aware of the mind. This is my mind. I am breathing out and I'm aware of my mind. 10. I am breathing in and making my mind happy and at peace. I am breathing out and making my mind happy and at peace. Eleven. I am breathing in and concentrating my mind. I am breathing out and concentrating my mind. Twelve. I am breathing in and liberating my mind. I am breathing out and liberating my mind. And the next four are

[07:41]

directed toward mind objects or dharmas. 13. I am breathing in and observing the impermanent nature of all dharmas. I am breathing out and observing and am observing the impermanent nature of all dharmas. 14. I am breathing in and observing the fading of all dharmas. I am breathing out and observing the fading of all dharmas. 15, I am breathing in and contemplating liberation. I am breathing out and contemplating liberation. 16, the last one, I am breathing in and contemplating letting go. I am breathing out and contemplating letting go. One practices like this. And then, the full awareness of breathing, if developed and practiced continuously according to these instructions, will be rewarding and of great benefit.

[08:52]

And the next section, in what way does one develop and continuously practice the full awareness of breathing in order to succeed in the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness? One. When the practitioner breathes in or breathes out a long or a short breath, aware of the breath, or the whole body, or aware that one is making the whole body calm and at peace, one abides peacefully in the observation of the body, in the body, persevering, fully awake, clearly understanding one's state, gone beyond all attachment and aversion to this life. In this case, breathing in and breathing out with full awareness belong to the first foundation of mindfulness, namely the body. Two, when the practitioner breathes in or out with the awareness of joy or happiness or awareness of the activities of the mind,

[09:58]

When the practitioner breathes in and out in order to make the activities of the mind calm and at peace, at that time one abides peacefully in the observation of the feelings in the feelings, persevering, fully awake, clearly understanding one's state, gone beyond all attachment and aversion to this life. This exercise of breathing with awareness belongs to the second foundation of mindfulness, namely the feelings. When the practitioner breathes in or breathes out with the awareness of the mind, or to make the mind calm and at peace, to collect the mind in concentration, or to free and liberate the mind, at that time one abides peacefully in the observation of the mind, in the mind, persevering, fully awake, clearly understanding one's state, gone beyond all attachment and aversion to this life. Without full awareness of breathing, there can be no development of meditative stability and understanding.

[11:02]

Four, when the practitioner breathes in or breathes out and contemplates the essential impermanence or the essential fading of all dharmas or liberation or letting go, At that time, one abides peacefully in the awareness of the objects of mind, in the objects of the mind, persevering, fully awake, clearly understanding one's state, gone beyond all attachment and aversion to this life. The practice of full awareness of breathing, if developed and practiced continuously, will lead to the perfect accomplishment of the four foundations of mindfulness, You notice that at the end, the sutra always says, clearly understanding one's state, you've gone beyond all attachment and aversion to this life. This is the goal of practice, the non-dual freedom.

[12:14]

with and from this life. These 16 practices, of course, are not step-by-step practices, even though they seem to be presented in a step-by-step way, and you can even see them in a step-by-step way, and it's even helpful to analyze in a step-by-step way. But when we're practicing, you know, we practice it all together. When we're sitting with the body and the breath and the mind in unity, with the arising of feelings, and awareness of feelings, in the feelings, and awareness of mental states, consciousness, and aware of mind objects.

[13:18]

We do this all at once. But the Sutra really opens it out for us and helps us to see in a very clear analytical way what we're doing. Very nice. And Nat Han, in his commentary, says, mind, the term citta, or mind, includes all psychological phenomena, such as feelings, perceptions, thoughts, reasoning, and so forth, along with their objects. does not refer to a single psychological subject, always unchangeable and identical in nature.

[14:29]

Mind is a river of psychological phenomena which are always changing, being born and passing away. In this river, the arising, duration and cessation of any phenomenon is always linked with the arising, duration and cessation of all other phenomena. To know how to identify psychological phenomena as they arise and develop is an important part of meditation practice. The activities of our mind, often unstable and agitated, are like a torrent of water rushing over the rocks. In traditional Buddhist literature, mind is often compared to a monkey, which is always swinging from branch to branch, or a horse galloping. Once our mind is able to identify what is happening, we will be able to see it clearly and make it calm, and we can feel peace and joy in its stillness. The mind, as I said, arises, or consciousness, citta, arises with its object.

[15:44]

So for the eye, eye consciousness to arise, there has to be an eye, which is a mechanism for seeing. And consciousness is awareness. And then there has to be an object. The eye sees something. So without something to see, there is no consciousness of seeing. We can close our eyes and think about something that we've seen, but that's consciousness of the mind on the mind, not consciousness of seeing, because it's a memory or an imagination. So to be able to see something very clearly, without imagination, is just to let seeing see.

[16:52]

And in zazen, to allow the objects of mind to appear, or states of consciousness to appear, and just see them as they are, without imagination, without coloring, is to just see something very clearly. as it is. People say, you Zen students discourage imagination, which is true. We don't discourage imagination, but in order to see something clearly, you have to get out of imagination. You have to get beyond imagination. and mental creativity. Imagination and mental creativity are wonderful human traits.

[18:00]

But in order to see something clearly as it is, we have to have the clear, non-discriminating eye, which just sees just hears, just smells, just tastes, just feels, just recognizes. People think that in zazen, we're just wasting our time if we're not using our imagination. Maybe so. Or amusing ourselves in some way.

[19:03]

So if we want to use the mind for imagination, in an imaginative way, sitting zazen will look like a great waste of time. So, to continue, when we hear, in order to have consciousness through any one of the six senses, there has to be an object, an organ of perception, and consciousness arising to bring it into awareness, to bring the object into awareness. So the consciousness, the organ, and the object are one subjective piece

[20:14]

we think that the objects are outside of ourself. And so we say, we think of ourself as an entity separate from everything around us. This is called egocentricity, meaning to create an imaginative false sense of self, which is surrounded by objects. And the purpose of Zazen, or Buddhism, is to be able to see ourself as we really are, as part of everything. One piece, or lots of little pieces, uncountable pieces, of everything.

[21:17]

So in zazen, we have a continuous stream of psychological states or mental states conscious states of mind, which are changing more rapidly than you can think. The smallest moment of time is a new state of mind, and our states of mind are changing more rapidly than we can count. So, to allow a state of mind to appear, and to see it clearly in our mind, in consciousness, and to let it go, is to watch the arising and falling, rising, duration, changing, and disappearing of mental states, one after the other.

[22:40]

And It's interesting the way the Sutra describes this process of attention. It says, when the practitioner breathes in or breathes out with the awareness of the mind, this is the first stage, is awareness of the mind. To just be aware of mental state. with just bare awareness. No judgment, no discrimination, no imagination, just bare awareness of the mental state. Or to make the mind calm and at peace. So breathing out, breathing in, breathing out, one allows the mind to settle. the mind will settle if there's no discrimination.

[23:48]

The mind will settle through concentration and awareness. The mind will be settled. If there's nothing to agitate the mind, the mind will settle. And to collect the mind in concentration means to really focus on the subject, which is no longer an object for the object to become the subject. The mind is the subject of the mind, in this case. The mind is the object of the mind. So the mind is the subject and the object. So they're subject and object, but they're one subjective entity.

[24:50]

This is the non-duality of this duality. And to free and liberate the mind. When the mind is at peace, settled, without the duality of subject and object, without trying to escape, and without aversion or grasping, as the sutra says, just letting be, then the mind is liberated. So with this kind of attitude he sits us in, just to let mental state appear, to be with it, to let it change, to let it disappear, without being bothered, without being upset by anything in the world.

[26:10]

This is meditative stability. In the Mahayana model of consciousness, there are the first six consciousnesses which correspond to the six senses. as I enumerated, eye, ear, nose, tongue, taste, smell, eye, ear, nose, eye, ear, nose, taste, feeling, and mind. Discriminating mind is the sixth sense. The first five consciousnesses are aware of the objects of the senses.

[27:23]

The sixth consciousness, which is mano vijnana, or discriminating vijnana, means discrimination. It's Consciousness means consciousness, but discriminating consciousness. And consciousness or discrimination means to set one thing apart from another. So thinking mind, imagination, so forth, and the mind which discriminates between the senses that says, this is something seen, this is something heard, this is something smelled, tasted, touched. This discriminating mind is the sixth consciousness. It's the thinking mind which sets apart one thing from another and distinguishes one thing from another.

[28:37]

Then there's the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness. The eighth consciousness is called the alaya-vijnana. There are many different theories about using this model. I'm not going to get into the various theories, but the alaya-vijnana is called the storehouse consciousness. and it stores all the memory or seeds of good and bad actions. And in its purity, it's sometimes called the ninth consciousness, Anmora consciousness, which is like Buddha nature or the substratum of consciousness. It's not different from the eighth consciousness, but it's purified, non-dual eighth consciousness.

[29:50]

In Buddhism, purity, or in Mahayana Buddhism, or in Zen, purity means non-duality. When we talk about something in its pure sense, about the purity of life or actions. We're talking about its non-duality or the oneness or the unity of life. So pure activity is non-dual activity. Anyway, which means the unity of subject and object. The seventh consciousness, which is in between the sixth and the eighth, is called manas.

[30:58]

And this manas consciousness delivers messages back and forth between the eighth and the sixth consciousnesses. Remember, the sixth consciousness is the discriminating, thinking, imaginative, conceptual consciousness. And the eighth is the storehouse. where the memory and the seeds of action are stored. And when the seeds sprout, when there's some action, some karmic action, in time, and in the right time, the seeds of all of our actions and memory sprout and create new activity based on the patterns that we have been following. This is the activity of the eighth consciousness, to store these seeds, kind of like a big computer or something.

[32:06]

And the seventh consciousness goes back and forth relaying messages between the sixth and the eighth. But what happens is that the messenger, because it carries so much information, thinks that it's the boss. The seventh consciousness is a kind of deluded imposter. And it's called the ego. So the seventh consciousness is called ego consciousness or false sense of self. which, since it has all this information, kind of takes the place of the boss and begins to give us the sense of separateness and individuality.

[33:25]

Now, but when the Seventh Consciousness is doing its job, then the whole organism is working together in its true sense with reality. But Seventh Consciousness keeps insinuating itself and relating all the rest to it as the center. So that's called self-centeredness. But when the seventh consciousness does its job right, it doesn't have any special personality. It has personality, but It's taking its rightful place in the working of the mechanism, the organism.

[34:37]

So, you know, we always hear, get rid of ego, get rid of ego. But you can't get rid of ego. Ego needs to take its rightful place. When ego is doing its right work, then it has a place. Ego allows us to move and operate in the world. It gives us a sense of self, individuality. But when ego is usurping the position of Buddha nature, then we... it gives us a false sense of who we are.

[35:40]

So to observe the mind and to allow the mind to work freely in balance with everything. Our senses and consciousness are boundless. There's no limit to ourself. But ego, when it takes this position, this central position, the Seventh Consciousness taking this position limits and narrows our consciousness.

[36:56]

It doesn't let it flow freely. And so we have a very limited understanding of ourself, even though we think we have a big one. The bigger the ego, the bigger, the more the seventh consciousness takes over, the less connected we are to our full life. Because it fills up that space. So when we can reduce ego to its proper function, we can operate in the world, in the universe, and find our place in the universe. Everybody's looking for their place in the universe. And so we're looking for security.

[37:56]

Everybody's looking for some kind of security, so we hold on to one thing or another. Everybody's holding on to something. But when we have this religious security, when the ego takes its rightful place, then everywhere you are is the right place. Whatever you're doing is the right thing. because there's no limitation. But when ego takes over, when the seventh consciousness becomes really big, our world becomes very limited, very limited. And we think, washing the dishes is beneath me.

[39:00]

Sweeping the floor is beneath me. Opening my heart is beneath me. So we really clutch and hang on to thoughts, feelings, emotions, mind objects, because we see everything as outside of us. When ego takes its rightful place, when the eighth consciousness, seventh consciousness is just doing its work, and doesn't take over the throne of Buddha nature, everything is our self. We have no self.

[40:07]

That sense of self is gone. There's no self. So this is the purpose of Zazen. To find true harmony with the universe, with life. and to see how everything is unstable, changing, and let it change. Stability is inside. We're always trying to create a stable world around us, but as we create a stable world around us, it's always crumbling at the same time.

[41:15]

As they say, there's not a speck of dust to stand on. So we have to find our way moment by moment. This is what zazen is. Zazen is moment to moment we find our way. If you think that you're going into the next moment with what you had this moment, you have big trouble. Right now I feel wonderful, but the next moment it's going to change. As soon as you say, oh, this is great, it's going to change. You can't say anything. Don't say anything. Don't evaluate, evaluate anything. Everything is the same.

[42:18]

A pleasant feeling comes. It's just a pleasant feeling. A painful feeling comes. It's just a painful feeling. Don't make it into something. Just be with everything as it is. See it clearly. So Suzuki Roshi used to say, Zazen is just living your life moment by moment. That's Zen practice, just living your life moment by moment. And in each moment is a complete life. A complete lifetime on each moment.

[43:24]

A complete time of life. There's a koan, you know. Joshu, a monk came up to Master Joshu and he said, Does a baby have the sixth consciousness? Sixth consciousness is discriminating consciousness. Does a baby have the sixth consciousness? Joshu said, it's like throwing a ball on a swiftly flowing stream. And then the monk went to another teacher, his name I can't remember, he said, asked the same thing.

[44:28]

And the monk said, moment by moment, non-stop flow. This moment by moment in Japanese is nen. Nen has the meaning of this particular moment of consciousness. this mind right now, this conscious now moment. You know, in the Enmei Juku Kanon Kyo Sutra, it's like, nen, nen. This is the sutra of just this now moment of consciousness. Nen, nen, nen. It's constantly running throughout that sutra. And the sutra means something like this moment is, this moment of now awareness is Buddha, is Dharma, is Sangha, is life, endless life, non-stop flow.

[45:46]

You can't grasp it or keep it or And if you think about what is now, how can you get hold of now? At any one moment we say, now. But the now of this moment, or of that moment, is gone. Past and future come together like this, right? Past and future, where's now? in there, squeezed in that line. But every moment we can say this. Always, always is now. But we say one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock. That's the time of now. but there's also the timelessness of now.

[46:50]

So, two sides. One is the time of now, and the other is the timelessness of now. And both are one together. You can't separate them. So each moment of the time is now is also the moment of the timelessness of now, which is great activity within stillness and great stillness within activity. We should discover this in zazen. bring this forth in our zazen. This is our nature. This is a natural order of mind, as it says in the sutra, in the meal chant.

[47:56]

The natural order of mind. As Buddha says, just find the norm. And Joshu says everyday life is the way. So, in our effort, let our mind flow freely, but don't let it run away with you.

[48:59]

By observing the mind in the mind, And not being attached to anything. Not being attached to birth or death. Letting everything come and go freely. No resistance or no aversion or grasping. our mind will be quite free and ego will have its rightful place in our life and be happy. Ego will be satisfied and happy when it's quite small and content.

[50:08]

Thank you.

[50:11]

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