As you can see, I have a whole panoply of books here. So, as we progress in this case, vichaka, Kesan 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 interesting.

[01:02]

So, whichever book you have, either Cook or Ndana, you can follow along and you're welcome to ask questions as we go. And, um, I'm going to look at my page here. Vichaka. The Japanese is vichaka. Vichaka is more Indian. So this is vichaka. Vichaka is the fifth Indian ancestor. The sixth Indian ancestor. The fifth Indian ancestor is Daitaka, his teacher, so to speak.

[02:10]

So it says here, the sixth patriarch, he means the sixth, not the sixth patriarch we usually talk about, which is Huidong in China, but the sixth patriarch in India. So the sixth ancestor in India was vichaka. 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. Hearing this, the master experienced awakening. So this is the case, main case, as treated as a koan. And the rest of it, of course, is the exposition of the main case.

[03:19]

So the next section is called the circumstances in which the preceding took place. This is not unusual in X. And 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, vichaka, was from central India and was the leader of eight thousand wizards. Just picture eight thousand wizards. Wizard is like vizier. This is like seeing.

[04:24]

This is visibility. Ventana, or viewing. So wizards. That's probably a good word. Seers actually could be seers. But anyway, they're not Buddhists. So although they are seers and viziers and so forth. They're they miss that. They're all following the wrong track. This is very common in these stories that becomes the ancestor. The next instance is the leader of a whole bunch of wizards. So eight thousand.

[05:31]

Well, my guardian, I believe, was the 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 you see 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. But this is a different Asita. So I met the wizard Asita and received the way of the wizard from him.

[06:38]

You met a disciple of Buddhism who possessed the ten powers and learned to practice meditation. After that, our karma parted ways. Our karmic paths separated. And six eons 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 we have to do is accept it as a story. The word meaning, you know, there's an expression that we are all here because of our karmic connections in the past. We're all here because of our karmic connections in our past lives. You don't have to believe that.

[07:40]

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, 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. So 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. We'd be doing something else. And if it wasn't for our ancestors, we'd be doing something else.

[08:42]

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. A long, long time ago, you know, 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 learned our own ways. The Venerable Daitaka said, so many aeons apart is true, not a lie.

[09:45]

Now you must abandon the false to come to the true, and thus enter the Buddha vehicle. So he's trying to persuade Michaka to practice the Dharma. So the master Michaka said, In former times, the wizard Asita made a prediction, saying, Isn't leaving 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.

[10:51]

Eight thousand wizards became monks. It was right at the time when they decided to become monks and follow him that the Venerable said, which is what is said in the first paragraph. And the master Michaka heard it and was enlightened. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what are the ten powers. There are two sets of ten powers. There's 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 the 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 you add another practice, and another practice. This is very close to Tibetan practices. The Tibetans really 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-meaning mind. That's basically what non-meaning 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 of study, stages of practice. 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. So, I have the Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion, which deals with the ten Bhumis. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them, but just kind of, you know, go through them,

[14:16]

so that you get some feeling for what these ten practices are. 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 deal with, and also the eight Jhanas, which are also levels of practice. And all of those levels, they're not wrong, it's just that they're all included in our practice, called Zazen and Chikantatha. So, when you hear these practices, you say, oh, yeah, that sounds like what we do. Well, we may think that, or we may not. I won't predict that. So, each of the ten stages that the Bodhisattva must go through to attain Buddhahood,

[15:48]

the individual stages are not described in the texts in an entirely consistent manner. 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.

[16:49]

Here, the Bodhisattva perfects his discipline and is free from lapses and practices dhyana and samadhi. 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 in activity, helping all sentient beings toward liberation,

[17:53]

she has cut off the three roots of unwholesomeness, greed, hate and delusion. And the attainment at this stage is made possible through ten qualities known collectively as 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. So, 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.

[18:58]

The first ones are the form meditations and the second four are the formless meditations. And the first five are the six supernatural powers. 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.

[19:59]

We haven't looked at those, but you know some of those meditation practices like the Eightfold Path and stuff like that. So, number five is the land extremely difficult to conquer. In this stage, the Bodhisattva absorbs herself in meditation in order to achieve an intuitive grasp of the truth. Thus, she 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's the land in 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, pratitya-samutpada,

[21:06]

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. And then, seven 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 is no longer possible. 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.

[22:09]

Then, eight 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. 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. What is that term? In our echo, we say, where does merit in this practice pervade? In our translation, the translation says, may this merit.

[23:14]

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. The wisdom of the Bodhisattva is complete. She possesses the ten powers, the six supernatural powers, the four certainties, the eight liberations, and the dharamis. He knows the nature of all dharmas and expounds the teachings. And number ten is the land of dharma clouds. All understanding, jhana, and 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.

[24:16]

His Buddhahood is confirmed by all the Buddhas, and this stage is known by the name of the Abhisheka Bhumi. I think that the Tibetans have something like that. Bodhisattvas of this Bhumi are, for example, Maitreya and Maitreya. So, in other words, he kind of reached the celestial realm, you know, where it's passed beyond the personal, into celestial bliss. So, these are the ten Bhumis. These are the ten powers. Right. Now, if you look at the text, the text says, I met the wizard Asta, and received the wisdom of the wizard from him. This is just a top paragraph for circumstances.

[25:19]

You met a disciple of Buddhism who possessed the ten powers, and learned to practice meditation. So, this is, you met somebody who possessed all these ten powers. This is it. One Daitaka met a Bodhisattva who possessed the ten powers, and Nishaka took the other road. Right. So, you learned to practice meditation. After that, our karmic paths separated. Okay. Do you have any questions about anything so far? Yes. Yeah, sorry. Did Nishaka 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,

[26:22]

on taking the precepts, the Buddhist precepts, he turns everything over to Buddha. Wizardry is certainly dualistic. Well, yeah. So, he turns over his wizardry 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. People say, what can I draw? Can I do my art, or can I do my poetry, or play my music? 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,

[27:24]

here's your artwork, now you can 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 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 wonderful.

[28:29]

The IRS. What? The IRS. Tax people. I understand that. I'm just trying to see what else that could stand for. Okay. So, yeah, I think he gave up being a wizard. He didn't have to be a wizard, because being a monk surpassed being a wizard. So, here's the Taisho. Actually, Keizan will address that question, I think. The Taisho. So, here's the Taisho. Before I go to the Taisho,

[29:29]

there was a bit of wizardry in Buddhism. And there's always been, there's so many different spiritual practices in India. Magicians are about a dozen, you know, in the fourth heaven. And when the Indian, many of the Indian monks went to China, they kind of dazzled the Chinese with their magical powers. And that was one way that they, the Chinese were like, wow, you know, these guys. That was a kind of skillful means. Because they were above the magic powers, but they used the magic powers to attract people. Okay.

[30:35]

So, even if you, here's the Taisho. 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 you see the things that come, that's quite a, quite a feat. But you think, you can only do that. What does that amount to? In other words, what does that amount to? So what? What if you can see 80,000 aeons into the past, and 80,000 aeons into the future? What about now? What about now? So, but you cannot recognize everything before or after that. So even if you cultivate the meditative trances at the stage of neither perception nor non-perception,

[31:37]

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 Advichiyel. 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. It's really loaded with stuff. And after reading this, I'm just realizing, you know, my own connection to what I'm going to... more connection to what I'm going to talk about. So what I'm going to talk about is

[32:43]

the jhanas and the six powers in 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. What is the meaning of our service? And I edited that and published it somewhere. But I can't find my editing. 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. I was talking about it.

[33:48]

We have various echoes. For each sutra, we have an echo, which is the dedication. E-K-O, the dedication. And 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. It's the one that's about the arhats. It's that kind of long echo that we use. What is it? I'm trying to remember. Well, it's here. Saturday morning. Yes, we do it on Saturday morning. The six powers of the arhats may be always with us

[35:05]

in our unceasing effort to read Buddha's way forever. Yeah, whatever it is. But 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, according to the history. Buddha had 16 arhats. 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's 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

[36:08]

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. So those are the Pratyekabuddhas and the arhats which are usually talked about demeaningly, but we appreciate the arhats. So that then appreciates the arhats' practice. And so we have that in our echo. So Shizuki Yoshi would say, we are Hinayana, we have a Hinayana practice with Mahayana mind.

[37:09]

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 appreciate them? Because of their effort, and their sincerity, and their... their effort, their dedication, their sincerity, their perseverance. Perseverance. All the wonderful qualities. Except for... the Bodhisattva steps back from the final

[38:10]

meeting and stays back in the world to, you know, be of help to people. You're ready to follow that contrast? Okay, take a minute to change your position or whatever. Okay, so... so, he talks about the eight jhanas. The eight jhanas were pretty much neglected

[39:16]

for centuries. But recently, in America, some Theravadin type vipassana practitioners have been trying to resurrect the eight jhanas and practice the eight jhanas. But, you know, in all of these lists, you recognize in each one some parts of your own practice. So, 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 got... talk themselves into using the diagram as a process. But the diagram really isn't a process.

[40:19]

It's simply a way of talking about something in a systematic way. 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 jhasa. Is this the same word as we pronounce it? No. Jhana is jhana. J jhana is G-H-A-N-A Dhyana is D-Y Dhyana is meditation. Jhana is related. Because they are meditations. But, Dhyana I think is Sanskrit. And Jhana is probably Pali. For the same thing. Another word question. I'm getting Dhyana

[41:21]

mixed up with a very similar sounding word that means charity and generosity. What's that? Dhyana. As opposed to Dhyana. As opposed to Dhyana and Jhana. 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 So, in the first stage

[42:22]

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. Concentration is one of the constituents of meditation.

[44:24]

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 you just use the skeleton as an example. You know you notice the bluish color and the reddish color and the yellowish color you know you go through a whole litany there is a prescribed prescribed way because the Buddhists always prescribe to everything but it's simply you go in there and you you know look around. I think meditation is written down Yes, you can find it in the book. It's in the books. Carnal. Carnal ground meditation. Carnal ground meditation. Charnel. Charnel, yeah. Charnel.

[45:26]

What carnate means. Yeah, neat. What do you think I'm doing? Okay. So, you know such as putting a skeleton in front of them and concentrating on it so even if a beautiful lady appears in front of them because they're monks, right they're not nuns if if there is a nun a beautiful man or if it's a gay person whatever just an example so don't get you know just an example in that way alright so even if a beautiful lady appeared in front of them they would say oh, this is a skeleton in that way they became free of the objective world The what world? Objective world. So, there's a story in one of the sutras

[46:27]

about this monk who was nearly fairly nearly ordained and you know he was hip to Elvis and so one day he saw this beautiful woman and she came over and she 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 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 yeah It's reminding me of the graveyard scene in Hamlet where he says go to I haven't got it verbatim but go to go to my lady and tell her though she paint an inch thick still she will come to this

[47:29]

yeah like that so in that way they become free from the objective world 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 you know um so this is mostly a practice for men maybe a woman looks very beautiful but inside a woman is 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 not you could look at a woman

[48:30]

but you could not sit beside her you could not be alone with a woman you couldn't talk to her you had to have somebody with you so a good monk didn't have lust well yeah of course he had lust but he was trying to control it right did he ever succeed but there is a there is a stage where you don't have lust 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 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 okay you know there are probably

[49:30]

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 and in those days 1500 years 2500 years ago the conditions you know and it's you know when there's a massacre one day after the massacre it's stinky so that's what you're talking about sure I mean but you know surgeons put on a mask when they when they do their work okay so but in the second stage they change their way not to contemplate on objective beings but to contemplate inward in other words not contemplate

[50:31]

out there but to contemplate inward then you're lucky that it's concentration inward and by inward contemplation they can take themselves I'm sorry make themselves sure that we are not permanent anymore 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

[51:32]

see the worthlessness of being attracted to something that would arouse your lust so the second power is to remove attachment to external phenomena phenomena those powers will be gained in the first and second stages of practice so that's the second stage it will be 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 he tried he 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

[52:33]

and that way they tested themselves that is the third stage and in that way in each stage they obtained more power of detachment until they attained arhatship so you know one of the tests of 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 after Buddha passed away and they had these conferences 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 the arhats together so to speak and asked what did he really what can we agree on that we all heard and say and Ananda was the one his cousin who was famous for

[53:37]

is his memory because he remembered everything the Buddha said that he heard and he was by his side all the time when you read 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 Buddha's you know next in line and there is a koan about this in the book of record you didn't know my koan in the book of record about Ananda and I'll talk about that later so it is described in this way but if you take this description

[54:38]

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 you know 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 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 attained the world of formlessness their powers obtained by their practice via let me say was to contemplate

[55:38]

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 ok emptiness but I think void is good here that is the fifth stage the fourth stage ok the fourth stage was to contemplate the boundlessness of space and the fifth stage was to contemplate the limitless world of consciousness inwardly 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

[56:39]

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 met-su-jin-jo 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 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

[57:40]

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 we call it step ladder practice there's no end to step ladder 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 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

[58:41]

of commentary on these step ladder like practices so that it cannot be step ladder practice we should understand this point so Dogen Zenji did not ignore this kind of practice and this kind of commentary and this kind of step ladder practice but he put more emphasis on everyday practice such as the kind of practice Isan and Kiyosan practiced when Kiyosan 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]

miracle no maybe a miraculous practice something called miraculous practice hauling water and chopping wood that's Zen miracle carrying water and chopping wood so in this story Isan Master Isan very famous master in China and Kiyogin and Kiyosan Kiyogin was the the monk who when he was sleeping stone hit the bamboo and his mind opened up that's Kiyogin and Kiyosan so Kiyogin and Kiyosan

[60:42]

were two of Isan's disciples and Isan was taking a nap it was kind of hot like today you know and he was taking a nap and Kiyogin walked by and saw the door was open and he looked in and Isan kind of woke up you know and Kiyogin said well I'm sorry I didn't mean to disturb you and Isan said oh it's ok you know he said I wonder what do you think I need or want actually kind of in between needing and wanting and Kiyogin went downstairs and he got a towel and cooled it off a dry towel and he came up and he put the cool towel on Isan's head and kind of wiped his face

[61:43]

with it you know to refresh him that's what I used to do in Suzuki Roshi at Tasahara we'd walk around in 105 degree heat and he was dying and I put this wet towel on his head to cool him off that's a really great thing to do so then Kiyogin came by and he looked in at both of them and he said oh Kiyogin Kiyozan what do you think I want need and Kiyozan went downstairs and made boiled water and I made tea and brought it up and the three of them had tea this is called exercising the magical powers intuition magical power is intuition going beyond like what am I thinking you know going beyond the thought

[62:43]

directly to say you know you have this kind of communication with your dog it's called magical powers with humans I was thinking of something else before that but what do you think I need so oh yeah this you know there is a I have to think of this word sadapa sadapa is um there was a king and he had a retainer you know

[63:43]

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 so when he would say sadapa 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 sadapa and the servant would know what he meant without him having to say what he meant so Dogan's classical called sadapa sadapa sadapa is has this story of Isan Kyosan and Kyogen to illustrate sadapa how much longer do we have?

[64:52]

8 more minutes 3 or 4 minutes 8 more minutes well 8 ok well that's a long time ok so I'm going to read this paragraph 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 recognize anything before or after that even if you cultivate the meditative trances of the stages of either perception or non-perception those are the the top stages of the formless jhanas and enter the trances of no mind or no thought those are also those are the four stages of

[65:54]

formless samadhi you will unfortunately be born in the celestial realms of non-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 oh damn what did you say? I said oh damn yes I mean what's the matter with that? because that's a 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

[66:58]

dependent on karma even though the last one is to be free from karma wait I don't understand that exactly which is this all depends on karma? what is that? well because you still you're still seeking something so you're creating karma? when you'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 practice 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 talking to 500 arhats

[67:59]

and the arhats are thinking we have all reached nirvana final nirvana and buddha is saying you haven't there's still more to go and they got really disgusted and they walked out because you know and also you know buddha according to the lotus sutra story is that the magic city there's this magic city this wonderful place you know you should aspire to but it was just the ploy to get them to you know have something to look forward to but then he'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's it posits desire yes

[69:01]

that's right so he's 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 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 unwholesome ways

[70:03]

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 the first four jhanas ok I mean and everything is disgusting and so on but isn't that what 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 is that the Hinayana wants to eliminate in order to to attain purity to eliminate impurity

[71:03]

isn't that logical? it is but there's a certain logic to that it is but it's a dualistic 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 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 small minded vehicle which is dualistic you eliminate samsara in order to have Nirvana so Mahayana practice understanding is to find the purity within the impurity to not eliminate the impurity

[72:05]

not to try to separate things but to find the 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 certainly it has it's own virtue but it's comparative value stinks yes well could you finish the Arhat story so they all walked out yeah did they all die Pacheco Buddhists or I don't know the story doesn't tell you that but we revere them today or at least their spirit don't revere them you appreciate their effort which is very very generous Hinayana like love thy neighbor

[73:06]

where does that go you know we hate our neighbor someday you know it's like it's like there's great appreciation for the effort of the Arhats even though they stopped short and so actually they are an example of sincere practice and all those who practice Buddhism whether they whether we agree with them or not we appreciate them 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 you know happens a lot but actually each one is practicing from their own perspective and understanding and we would hope that

[74:06]

all the Buddhist schools would finally you know 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 know we don't denigrate the caveman primitive beliefs we appreciate them so it looks like it's the end ok so is this ok with you? ad lib

[74:52]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ