I spoke about the meaning of the term karma and the term dharma, karma and dharma, and how karma is about the dharmas and dharma is about karma and the dharmas. Dharma with a capital D means the law or the way things really are and Dharma with a small d means the various constituents of our psychic and physical embodiment. Dharmas also means everything, everything is a Dharma in a general way but specifically in the dharmas are the psychic and physical constituents.

[01:03]

So today I want to talk about specific dharmas. Karma means volitional action. there are many actions in the world or events which affect us but they're not necessarily karmic actions. Karmic action is something that's caused by ourself. So what we're interested in is how we create our own good or bad states. How we create good states of mind and beneficial actions, then those wholesome or good states of mind and beneficial actions return to ourself.

[02:06]

And when we create unwholesome or bad or evil actions, volitional actions, then the result of those actions returns to ourself in some way. we may or may not recognize the way that the fruit of this karma returns. Also, karma has an effect, our karma has an effect on other people. So my evil actions, although they trap me, my evil actions also affect other people, so we're constantly being affected by all of each other's actions and so we have to be very careful how we act, because the result of karma is called retribution.

[03:12]

People say sometimes, well if in Buddhism you don't have a judgmental God then you can just do whatever you want, but that's not so, because the law of karma is the retribution. We don't need to have a Supreme Being meeting out meets out judgment through the medium of karma. So rather than supplicating the Supreme Being we simply pay attention to our actions and we accept the results of our actions and then So today, last time I did specify what the 51 dharmas that are wholesome and unwholesome, but I didn't talk about them.

[04:47]

There are 11 wholesome dharmas that we talk about and then there are six fundamental afflictions and 20 derivative afflictions and two intermediate grade afflictions and four unfixed afflictions. So these are all well thought out and categorized. But it would take too much time here to go through them all. So I'm going to talk about the 11 wholesome dharmas. The first one is called faith. Faith is the first wholesome dharma that's considered. And without faith, there's really no focal point.

[06:03]

Faith is a foundation for whatever we do. If we have faith in money, then we become a corporate giant, you know, and put all of our effort into making money as a security. But sooner or later we realize that money is not security. Money is a kind of false security, and securities are a false security. So, whatever road we run up against, whatever road we take, sooner or later we realize that there's something missing. So, over the history of the human race, people have invented or created ideas of deity.

[07:09]

and the deity is what we have faith in because the deity represents our deepest, most accurate foundation for not only existence but the afterlife so-called, our continuous existence. People have always had the belief in a of some kind, that this earthly life is not the end, but simply one mode of existence. And Buddhists have that understanding as well. But the way they understand it is different than other religions. So the law of cause and effect, which is karma, is a way of understanding not just how the events of this life play themselves out, but how the effect of various causes in our life continue after this event called

[08:32]

theories about it, but nobody knows for sure, so I don't want to spout theories. But we should think about the law of cause and effect, and we say that a beginningless series of causes and effects is continually going on into an So where do the causes and effects stop and where did they begin? We can't say that we appeared for no reason on this earth and that our appearance, it didn't just begin with the sperm and the egg. There's some cause before the sperm and the egg. and there's some cause before that.

[09:39]

So causes and conditions are endlessly going on, but what we know is only what we can see in this particular existence. So this is the extended view of the law of cause and effect, or karma, in Buddhism. So faith is a very important aspect for Buddhists. We must have faith in Buddha nature. And Buddha nature is our true nature, whatever that is. It's the nature, it's the essence of all existence. the interdependent nature of all existence. Sooner or later, we have to come around to this understanding.

[10:44]

Otherwise, we find ourselves isolated. So this is why Buddhists have the understanding of no-self. When we truly understand the no-selfness of the self, we realize that the whole universe is our true self. So this is what our practice is directed toward and where it comes from. So when we sit zazen, We sit Zazen with faith in our Buddha nature. If we don't have faith in Buddha nature, then even though we sit Zazen, we don't know what we're doing. People say, after 10 years, I've been sitting Zazen for 10 years, but I really don't know what I'm doing.

[11:49]

It's true. But for some reason, they're sitting Zazen for 10 years. So there's some faith even though it's not acknowledged. So it's important to think about this. Faith is the opposite of doubt. So everybody likes to have their doubt because doubt keeps you from being trapped in faith. That's very good. So we should be thankful for our doubt, but we should practice with our doubt as well as practicing with our faith so that you can resolve the doubt. Skepticism is a kind of doubt, but skepticism stands outside

[12:55]

and say, you guys are doing this, you know. But until you put yourself in there with your doubt, you never can resolve it. You can't resolve it by just observing. There are many people who like to just observe, for 20 years they'll observe and criticize without putting themselves, jumping into the pool. you have to jump into the pool even if you don't know how to swim and then you begin thrashing around and you learn how to swim. So the next wholesome dharma is called viriya. but it is translated in various ways, vigor or diligence.

[14:00]

I like to use the term enthusiastic activity, enthusiastic effort. Sometimes people say, well, what do I get out of this? What do I get out of zazen? What do I get out of practice? Well, the only thing you get out of it is what you put into it. It's not a matter of getting something. There's nothing there. There's no there there. What you get, what practice does is bring your spirit out. That's all there is. Practice brings out your total strong spirit and it's difficult enough if you really engage that it will take whatever it is that you have to give and more.

[15:11]

That's really all there is. That's what practice brings out your Buddha nature. There's nothing to get. And so when you practice enthusiastically, you feel good. When you hold back, you don't feel so good. When you have, you know, well, I'll give this much, but I won't give any more, you know, I'll keep some of it in my pocket. Well, that's tough luck for you. So what you get is what you give and the reward is already there but you have to bring it up and so it's called generosity, generosity of spirit. Enthusiastic effort, might as well make I don't know, we want to preserve something.

[16:21]

Well yes, the thing is that what brings us to practice is our ego and then what we don't realize is that we're bringing this ego that is motivating us to practice is actually leading itself to the chopping block and we sense that. kill my ego. So anyway, so then there are two dharmas that are related to each other. We talked about this last time called shame and remorse and you know in the psychological climate of the present we don't like to use the word shame because it has a lot of but actually it's very important dharma.

[17:22]

There's another translation for it which is called conscience. It's like you did something wrong and you acknowledge it. But what we like to think these days is, well, because of all the repression I've gone through in my life, I don't want to feel ashamed for what I'm doing now. There is something to that. The pendulum swings in society. What we feel, society gets very loose, and then people get scared, and then society gets very tight. and the pendulum swings over. And then people don't like that because it's too tight. And then the pendulum swings back and everybody gets loose again, right? So it just goes back and forth, back and forth. So we're at the point now where people don't like to feel ashamed. But we do things that are shameful.

[18:31]

And we should acknowledge that. We should be able to acknowledge that. And remorse, the etymology of remorse is biting back, morse is like morsel comes from the word morsel which means to bite something and remorse is to bite back but it means like to reconsider feel sorry that you did something and to acknowledge that and to acknowledge that there's a public that one has to be accountable to. In our American way, we like to think that we're so independent that we don't have to be accountable.

[19:41]

You know, it comes from the top down. We don't have to be accountable. We just do what we want. So shame and remorse are called the guardians of the world, and although we don't like them, they're important. So we have some conscience about what we do. and we feel accountable and that we feel accountable if we're practicing members we feel accountable to the Sangha and to each other and that's important. Then there are the three good roots three good roots are absence of greed, absence of angry states, and absence of delusion, which is called by various names.

[20:53]

Absence of greed, it's interesting because these are three good roots but they're not expressed in the positive, lack of. So these three good roots are the basis of nirvana. If we say what is nirvana? The simple answer is absence of greed, absence of ill will and absence of delusion. If those three are absent then the conditions are set up for no self-centeredness. So when there's no self-centeredness the natural state is nirvana. It's not like nirvana is something to some ideal blissful state that we try to go after, it's simply the absence of delusions

[22:04]

So absence of greed is not grasping things that we don't need or attaching to things, attaching to our desires. Absence of ill will is not pushing things away. So ill-will is separating, right? Ill-will is you're there and I'm here, bam! It's separation. Greed is clinging and ill-will is pushing away or separating, making distinctions of good and bad, of righteous distinctions. And absence of delusion is also called absence of ignorance or stupidity or absence of understanding.

[23:16]

So these are three positive dharmas, but they're negative, they're absences. So the eighth one is called various things. It's called light ease or composure or non-rigidity. It's like the looseness, you know, the ease and looseness of It's the opposite of being uptight or the opposite of clinging. Clinging to ourself makes us rigid. In Zazen, it's exemplified. People will sit in Zazen being very rigid like

[24:29]

your body is composed of all these parts, I don't know how many, 300, you could analyze it into thousands of parts actually, millions of parts, and each one of those is independent, each one of those parts is independent even though they're all strung together and we call it the body and the mind, but it's composed of all And when all these independent parts are solidified into one piece, that's rigidity. So when you sit, we say sit like a mountain, but don't be a mountain. Mountains are always moving. Dogen says the mountains are walking. Mountains are organic and they're loose, even though they seem tight.

[25:34]

So even though the posture of Zazen looks rigid, it should be very loose. Your arms should be, all these parts are connected to each other, but they're all loose, flexible. So when you sit in Zazen, all the parts should be loose and flexible. You should feel that looseness and flexibility. And that gives you this sense of light ease. And then when you walk out into your daily life, you interrelate with everything with the same kind of light ease. So you don't get uptight when you meet conditions. You meet conditions with the same kind of light ease that you sit zazen. And then there's called non-laxness. Lax in this sense means not following the rules.

[26:39]

I mean, kind of goofing off, you know. Well, you know, I'll be late to Zazen every day. This happens. No matter how many times. people get into a kind of psychological rut, you know, this way. Laxness actually leads to psychological ruts, because once you goof off two or three times, then that becomes your habit. We fall into these habits without realizing it. And then we think, I used to do that, but I just can't get myself to do it anymore. So it's important to be mindful and keep your practice going continuously without being lax. And then the 10th one is called Upeksha.

[27:42]

Upeksha means, Upeka means equanimity. But in this book it's called Redunciation. But that's okay. Because equanimity, it's interesting, they're related. Equanimity is a kind of renunciation because it means that you treat everything equally. You treat both sides equally so that you have balance. And so what you renounce is self. Renunciation means letting go of self, basically, in Buddhism. when you let go of self then you naturally you find your natural balance because there's self is preference and when your preference is not weighted on one side or another you have natural balance and natural equanimity. So when you're sitting in zazen for example you let go of the tenseness in

[28:49]

and you depend on your equanimity. You depend on the balance. This is what gives you the feeling of lightness and ease. It's all connected, loosely. And then the last one is called non-harming, which means, of course, harmlessness. that you actually are a harmless person. You may have anger arising or you may have dissatisfaction arising or criticism arising in your mind but you don't act it out against people or against yourself. What do you do with it? That's the big question, what do I do with it?

[29:53]

When I really want to smack this one, do I smack myself or do I hit the pillow? Well, you have to cultivate goodwill. There's no easy answer as to when, if you're an angry person, why am I an angry person? well there are a lot of things to be angry about you know I mean millions of things to be angry about but there's a disposition which is called angry disposition and there is a disposition called loving-kindness disposition so you cultivate the disposition that is beneficial which is called loving-kindness disposition so And then when angry dharmas arise, you swallow the angry dharma and it becomes transformed and you produce a loving-kindness dharma.

[31:12]

That's how you change your karma. You transform your karma into to fit with your disposition to be consistent with your disposition so you're not creating ill will in the world even though ill will is coming into you so there's something coming in which causes you to feel ill will or retaliation or righteousness you know but you transform there's a little mechanism down here which is called the transformer and then you produce a wholesome dharma, wholesome karma, dharma. But you have to work at that, that has to be your life work.

[32:18]

You can't just suddenly, you know, get rid of your anger if you don't practice it. So you know people want something for nothing, but the ability to produce wholesome dharmas from unwholesome dharmas takes work. Does that mean you can use your willpower and have the intention of feeling loving-kindness instead of the anger or whatever you're feeling? Yes. Yeah. You can. Because that's your disposition and so when you let go of the anger the anger is a a reaction.

[33:24]

So reaction means that whatever it is that you feel caused your anger is controlling you, even though you may not feel that way, but it is because it's producing the angry state in you or it's a cause for producing the angry state responding comes from you is that which is coming from you rather than what you're attaching to that's coming at you. So this is your basis and even though you may feel compromised in some way by not reacting angrily you feel secure or have faith in your ability to stand on your goodwill.

[34:32]

That's responding and then the other person can respond to that. So that's the only way to break down the barriers If you ever read the Dharmapada, Buddha says something like, anger will never bring peace. The only thing that will bring peace is peaceful actions. But anger is useful. All emotions are useful. but attachment is not useful. Attachment is the problem. So anger will arise, you know, all kinds of states will arise, but we can use those states. If you're standing on goodwill, you can use anger, but you're not caught by the anger.

[35:39]

Is that what your question was about? So, we love our anger. We don't want to give it up, you know. Yeah. Thank you for this talk. I want to ask you, so if you are caught in the anger and you find that you do react rather than come from a pleasant response, how do you shift that? When you first notice that, oh my God, I've gotten caught in this anger, What is your recommendation in the moment to let it go completely or to try to fix it or to just be with that? Well, you say, well, what is another response? What is another way to approach this? You have to answer that question.

[36:45]

You can ask that question. I know that I'm caught by this and there's no end to my anger and it's not going to help and it's not doing any good and it's just making things worse. What else can I do? Just ask yourself that question. And when you say, I don't know what to do, what else can I do? So you say, I don't know, then something will come up to fill that gap. I don't know is the best. This is what Bodhidharma said, right? I don't know. So I don't know is the fundamental place. And then when you acknowledge I don't know, you have to have the faith to realize that something will come up. I think I remember you saying that Suzuki Roshi said it's good to break a rule every once in a while.

[37:48]

Yeah. What's the difference between that attitude and laxness? Well, the problem with, you know, we should not be rule-bound. even though we have rules we should not be rules are not something to bind you so some people get caught on scruples so scrupulous you know so rigid in rules that those people should break the rules sometimes you know so there's always a balance balance is very important somebody you know just can't do it and you know it's always they should knuckle down and follow the rules, but somebody who just stinks of rules, they should relax a little bit, break some rules, walk diagonally across the Zendo instead of

[38:48]

As a matter of fact, Suzuki Roshi did that. I remember I was shocked because there are all of these patterns, you know, the Zendo patterns, and I was so used to walking, you know, these patterns, and one day he just walked diagonally across and I thought, wow! And I remember when I was his Jisha, He always takes off his robes very carefully and folds them up, and he just dropped them on the floor. So yes, you should break the rules sometimes, but there should be some meaning in it, some penance. Yes, the sixth patriarch in his platform sutra says, you know, repentance is important.

[40:05]

We should acknowledge our fault or transgression or whatever it is there's no need to beat ourselves or to continually criticize ourselves. Simply turn and go the other way. Repentance means to turn around and go the other way. So it means to become whole again. So you've done then you come back to being whole again, that's what it's about and then continuing and just realizing you don't want to do that again, that's repentance. and Dogen says, ask the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to help you and then you just simply turn around and go in the right direction.

[41:17]

In other words, just get on board again. You fall off, you acknowledge and you keep going. So it should be a help and not something to shame you, although if you feel shame that's good, it's okay. There are too many people asking questions and I have to quit on time because we're having Sasheen today and we have to watch our schedule. So I can't go on asking questions, answering questions. Thank you.

[41:55]

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