So, the subject of our study is the true nature of self and dharma. What I have chosen for our text a little book that was printed by, what's your name for it? Gold Mountain, the Gold Mountain Monastery. It's called the Hundred Dharmas, the Shastra on the Door to Understanding the Hundred Dharmas by Vasubandhu Bodhisattva with a commentary of Tripitaka Master Hua.

[01:25]

So I want to talk about who is Vasubandhu and who is Master Hua. Master Hua was a Chinese teacher. You probably know about him. When I was first studying, first came into a study with Suzuki Hiroshi at Sokoji on Bush Street, Master Hua had a temple around the corner on Sutter Street, Sutter and Nakuma. Sakoji was on Bush Laguna. And I had been studying with maybe six months or something like that. And there were a few of us who somebody said, you know, there's a Chinese guy in the corner.

[02:27]

Tolan was his name at that time. We should ask him if he would give us a Sashin. I didn't know what Sashin was. At that time, I hadn't sat Sashin with... I don't think I had sat Sashin at Sapoji. And, you know, we were all very novitiates. So, one of us asked Todan if he would do Sashin. And he said, yes. So the four of us did Sashin. at his place on Sutter Street. And we didn't know what to expect exactly, but we all sat down in the morning and did sashimi, and it was really crazy because we never sat that long. once in a while. And he was waiting for one of us to have enlightenment.

[03:31]

And we all did it. And I remember during the breaks, we would go out in the alleyway and laugh, smoke a cigarette, because he built up all his energies. potent energy, you know, and so when we went outside, we just all burst out, you know, so he shouldn't have kept us inside, but he was a very interesting guy. At lunchtime, there were all these Chinese ladies bustling around in the kitchen while we were sitting, and they made this huge feast every day. and make Chinese wonderful meals. And we'd all talk and laugh and everything while we were eating, you know. So it was a different kind of sashimi than the one that we were used to, or, you know, that we're now used to. And I remember he had a, he opened his, you know,

[04:41]

He showed us where he had burned his beans. There's a big scar on his chest where he burned his beans. Chinese, you know, have this, Buddhists have this kind of aesthetic practice of burning just that, you know, like when you were ordained, they take a punk and burn little holes in your skin on the top of your head. And some people have two or three, some people have four or five, depending on their degree of devotion. That's really common in Chinese Buddhism when you're ordained. And sometimes I'll say that there was a tradition of cutting off a little bit of your finger as well as a sign of devotion. They had these kinds of practices which, fortunately, we don't have in our practice. We just have sitting all day long without moving.

[05:47]

So, that was Master Wah. And then he moved to this little street in the Mission, but it's big. He called it the Gold Mountain Monastery. It was a big warehouse, and that was the first big monastery in front of Soda Street. Then they moved to the city of 10,000 Buddhas, which was this big mental hospital complex. So that's where they have their place now. Master Hua, he did a lot of lecturing, and Edward Kwanze, who was a great translator, would come down and work with him too, and he'd work with his students. And I remember when he was, oh, he was also in Chinatown for a while, and translating Cixian.

[06:57]

And his students would all be sitting down below, studying Chinese. And he'd be sitting up on his seat, and then he talks. And then they would all discuss. Chinese students, a lot of them, they would know Chinese, and they would discuss the meaning of the translations and how to do that. And his method of translation was to always have a committee that translates, and not just one person, so that you get a variety. and agree on what the meaning of the translation is. So that was his method. He died several years ago. So, Vasubandhu, Vasubandhu, one of our ancestors in the lineage, Vasubandhu, Vasubandhu, Vasubandhu Daya Vishaw, was one of three brothers. two brothers, Asanga, his older brother Asanga, was a wonderful Mahayana philosopher, so to speak, practitioner.

[08:08]

And Vasubandhu was what we call a Himayana, for lack of a better word. practitioner. And they were both, all three of them were very intelligent, but the younger one was too forward and wounded, too young to participate with the other two. So, Vasubandhu was really very critical of the Mahayana. And he wrote the Abhidharmakosha, which was a work on Abhidhamma, which is a classic, but it's in the Hinayana tradition. And so his brother Asanga asked him, he said, he was clever, he said, you know what I'd like to do is to have you read to me these Mahayana sutras. And so Vasubandhu started reading the Mahayana sutras to his brother Asanga.

[09:12]

And then Vasubandhu, at the end, he realized the Mahayana and became a Mahayana practitioner and scholar. So this Shastra, the door to understanding the hundred dharmas, It seems to have been his first Mahayana work. There's some controversy like, is this Hinayana Mahayana? It's sort of in the middle, Kodizai Mahayana, because it's his kind of transitional work from Hinayana to Mahayana. Now in the olden days, Buddhism, after Buddha, There were 18 schools that we count of Buddhism which all had different viewpoints about the Dharma.

[10:16]

And so what made them individual schools was the fact that they had different viewpoints. But most of the schools had studied what they called the Abhidharma. The Abhidharma means the higher Dharma study. So they would classify all the dharmas. And I gave you a couple of examples. I gave you an example of the Sarvāstivādan 75 dharmas and the Theravāda 84 dharmas to compare with Vasudeva's 100 dharmas. That's not it. You see, it's 85 and 75. That's the 85. The 85 is the one vertical sheet, and the 75 is the one horizontal sheet.

[11:20]

82. [...] There's one. There's four. OK. We're not going to study that. We're just going to look at it. I just want you to look at it and see what those dharmas look like. And it's on two sides.

[12:20]

So most of those dharmas are... What are dharmas? You can say everything that we experience is a dharma. Both root of dharmas are dharmas of form. And then there are mental dharmas, chakras, which are dharmas of mentality. So, mental and physical dharmas are what we're concerned with. We're not really concerned so much with the world of dharmas. That's also a concern, but what the dharmas did was to concentrate on the psychophysical dharmas of a human being. And that's what the lists are.

[13:27]

And so the dharma is a thing. the things that are manifested as psychological and physical. And that's what the links are. There's all those physical and psychological constituents that actually constitute a non-self. We can look at all these dharmas that are manifested by our mind, because all of them are manifestations of mind, according to this understanding, this model. They constructed this as a model of human consciousness, because even the form dharmas are mental.

[14:34]

That's why we say there's no different... there's no... form and mental are not two different things. Body and mind are not two different things, even though we kind of separate them as body and mind. But when there's no body, there's no mind. And when there's no mind, there's no body. It's really one piece. So if you look at the seventy five dollars, it's easier to feel less. It begins on the left hand side with four dollars. eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, form, sound, smell, taste, etc. and so forth. Those are the dharmas of form. And then it has mind dharma, number two, called citta.

[15:43]

You see that? Starting from the left. Citta is a generic term for mind. So you can apply it to any aspect of mind. a term that covers the mind in all of its aspects. But you notice that there's only that one designation for kita, for mind. And then, as you go on, it has the general functions, which are perceptions, ideas, will, touch, wish, intellect, remembrance, attention, decision, concentration. And then B, it has general functions, belief, energy, indifference, shame, bashfulness, non-greediness, non-malevolence, non-injury, incompetence, etc. You can see these are all dramas that are present in our daily life, right? And then it has functions, general functions, of defilement, ignorance, idleness, indolence, unbelief, low-mindedness, high-mindedness, and then general functions of evil, shamelessness, non-bashfulness, and then minor functions of defilement, anger, concealment, parsimony, angry, affliction, injury, enmity, deceit, prejudice, arrogance.

[17:10]

And then there are the indeterminate functions like repentance, drowsiness, reflection, investigation, covetousness, hatred, pride, and doubt. And then there are the elements which you need a substantial form or mental form. They're kind of indiscriminate, like acquisition, non-acquisition, communion, which is similar. thoughtless ecstasy, annihilation, or trans life, birth, stability, decay, impermanence, name, sentence, and so forth. And then the negative, what negative means, It says non-created.

[18:21]

Not created. Like space and extinction during the election and extinction to the lack of a productive cause. These are like causeless dharmas. Okay, so I just wanted to show you as an example. So now, I want to start with Professor Branko. And, I don't know, we put this book online.

[19:34]

Right? We didn't send it out yet. Oh. It's a link. What? We didn't send the link out, the link that Alan Oh, I thought we did. No, we sent it to the... we must have forgotten. We sent it to the... was it the priest group? Yes, the priest group. The priest group had it. Oh. It didn't occur to any of us to send it. Oh, I thought I should have sent it. Anyway, it occurred to me. It's all online. This whole book is on... the text is on... Yeah, but I thought that we sent it out. Yeah, you're right. OK, sorry about that. You just have to listen OK. So this is called the Shastra of the Door to Understanding the Hundred Dharmas. So Shastra, it means a commentary.

[20:43]

And it's a commentary which has the meaning of for discussion. This commentary is the commentary of Vasubandhu on the Buddha's words that, as the world honored when it said, all dharmas have no self. What are all dharmas and what is not by having a self? So these are the Buddha's words. that Vasubandhu is talking about in his Shastra. And then Master Hua is commenting on what Vasubandhu means. OK? And it's translated by, of course, Master Hua and his cohorts. So this is the opening statement.

[21:48]

As the World Honored One has said, all dharmas have no self. What are all dharmas? And what is meant by having no self? So all dharmas may be generally grouped into five categories. One is mind dharmas. These are the dharmas that we use for consciousness. And then there are dharmas which are interactive with the mind. These are thoughts and good and bad thoughts and activities. And then there are the three dharmas of form, like eyes, ears, nose, hands, and feet.

[22:50]

And then there are dharmas that are not interacting with the mind, and unconditioned dharmas. So the dharmas that I'm going to talk about, you won't find them there, because I'm talking about them now. Yeah, that's just for, that's not these dharmas. What makes this different than the ones I've shown you The Vasubandhu introduced are the dharmas of consciousness, which you don't have. But you have them as a diagram. And the diagram is this. And I've talked about them quite a bit, although you may not remember. These are called the eight consciousnesses, the eight aspects of consciousness.

[23:52]

So consciousness, the model of consciousness which Vasubandhu presents in his hundred distinct from the other dharma formats. What makes it a Mahayana text is that the dharmas of consciousness are just a model of the dharmas of consciousness. So what I want to emphasize in our study is these dharmas of consciousness and the dharmas that are interactive with consciousness and the formless dharmas. The other dharmas are not as important.

[25:02]

So So they are in this sequence, the five-fold sequence, because the first are supreme. The first meaning the dharmas of mind, the eight mental dharmas of consciousness, which I'll expound soon. The second interact with the first, and the third are shadows manifest by the previous two, And the fourth are the positions in which the previous three are not found. And the last are revealed by the previous four. The last ones are the formless dharmas which are like the result of meditation, basically. The formless dharmas are the dharmas that are associated with meditation. So the first nine dharmas include, in general, eight.

[26:16]

Actually, specifically eight. In general, eight. Rather specific. So, the first five of the mind dharmas, starting at the bottom. Unconsciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, and body consciousness, or touch. So these are like... I just thought about this when I was sitting this morning. It's like a tree. Like the roots of the tree are these doorways of consciousness. The eye is a doorway, the ear is a doorway, the nose is a doorway, and then we suck up the nutrients from the earth through these doorways.

[27:18]

These doorways are only operative in an earthly way. What we hear, what we see, what we feel, what we smell, and so forth. So these are the doorways to consciousness. As Huxley says, the doorways of consciousness are these five senses. So these five senses are dharmas. But in order to manifest as consciousness, it needs another dharma called mind, consciousness, which is called... There are two names. One is Manas and the other is Mano. In Vijnana, there are certain terms that we should understand that are Sanskrit.

[28:23]

I'm not going to burden you with all these Sanskrit terms because that may be not so good. Certain terms we should understand. Vijnana means consciousness. So the sixth one, mind consciousness, is called Mano-Vijnana. In order to distinguish it from Manas-Vijnana. Manas is the seventh consciousness. Seventh level of consciousness. So the sixth one is mind consciousness, Manu Vijnana, which distinguishes between the areas of sense. So Manu Vijnana, when the eye perceives something, And the perceiver is the subject, called consciousness.

[29:34]

So there are two divisions. One is called the smooth division, and the other is called the object division. And what's in between them is the organ. So in order to see something, there has to be the eye. We call it the book. It's not a book, but we call it the book. And then there has to be something that sees or something that creates the action that consciousness sees. Consciousness sees. The eye doesn't see. The eye is simply a transporter or an organ that connects subject and object. And then mind consciousness, Mano Vijnana, says, something is seen.

[30:39]

The book is seen. Mano Vijnana doesn't say, I see the book. Mano Vijnana says, the book is seen. We never say, I, in this subject, because I indicates a self. So there's only seeing, consciousness seeing. This is why consciousness takes the place of a self. But we simply, we have this tendency to want to sum it all up. by saying a self. I, me, I, me and mine are three selves. So, mind consciousness does not designate an I. It simply registers and thinks.

[31:51]

It does think, but the thinking mind is not yet self-centered. The self-centered consciousness is called manas. That's the seventh consciousness. The consciousness that thinks and cogitates. The one that's thinking all the time. And what we call myself. I'm thinking. But thinking is just happening. So... the mind consciousness is connected with non-ness consciousness or self-consciousness. And when mind consciousness perceives seeing or hearing or touching or whatever registers and thinks and cognates it

[32:57]

Manas consciousness says, oh that's a book. I know that's a book. And doesn't get any further. So, alaya consciousness, the eighth consciousness, is called the storehouse. The storehouse of all the impressions that we've ever had in our life, and from beginningless time. we tend to think of a lifespan. Buddha says, when you think in terms of a lifespan, that's ignorance. When you think in terms of a self, that's ignorance. When you think in terms of a person, that's ignorance. So, the alaya, vijjana, and manas, both, are from beginningless time, is collecting seeds from, you know, forever.

[34:11]

So, these seeds have been posited in the Alaya Vijnana. And then, when we, the seeds are the seeds of all our actions, all our thoughts, all our feelings, that Everything that ever happens in our mind and our actions. So this is the bank of memory. Yeah. How personalized do you see this? Alaya, do you see it like a collected unconscious? Do you see it like a big basement with some kind of flimsy partitions? Not Freud, but Jung kind of. He thought maybe the life of Jano was supposed to be collective unconscious.

[35:12]

What do you think? I don't know. Could be. I think what I'm getting at is, just for clarification, is so far we've been talking about these senses and consciousness, we're talking about Well, it could be, but that's not the way, you know, possibly so. But it could also just be all of our stuff, which is vastly not the Eagle things and so on, just the whole accumulation of jillions of things that have ever happened. Well, there's two aspects. So this is where we get into, there's a big book called the Chengui Shunlun that is a compendium of commentaries on Vasubandhu's thirty stanzas, the Trimsikas, which I'm going to talk about later.

[36:33]

And there are all these arguments about, you know, even in detail. So, everybody has an opinion. So, let's, you know, tons of opinions. And the whole thing is about the opinions on each aspect. So, but there are two aspects that seem to be agreeable, is that there are the old seeds and new seeds. So, you know, when we're born, we seem to have certain tendencies. Each one of us has our own independent, individual tendencies. And some of us easily do, you know, go one way and some go another way. And why is that, you know? Where do these tendencies come from? There are inherent tendencies and tendencies which are not inherent.

[37:42]

When the seeds are watered, it's called perfuming. So when we do something, an act, and that act perfumes And then when we act again, that act fumigates, or perfumes, a seed, which opens up the seed. And so then we have habit energy, because we keep doing the same thing over again. So, you can see how obsessively we are doing the same thing over and over. Even though we want to change, it's hard to change, because the habit energy endless round and the whole purpose is to see into how this happens so that we can have some insight into how to stop this habit energy from dominating our lives. So the new seeds are the seeds that are created from our particular life, during our particular life.

[38:56]

The old seeds are all that we've inherited genetically, culturally, linguistically. That was pretty much our question. He started saying that the alliance does not begin at birth. So the old seeds are what's inherited through the coitus. Can any of the seeds exist independently of all other factors? Meaning How can they be just personal when any, I'm positing that any scene that gets laid down gets laid down in the face of other factors, some cultural, some historical, some interpersonal, some dependent on many different things. Well, you know, every act is interdependent with other acts.

[39:58]

Exactly. But the scene is the scene. In other words, when you have an apple, it's not an orange. But that apple wouldn't exist if the bird had picked up the seed, flown off, deposited it in fertile ground where a tree could grow. But it's still an apple. Those are the conditions that are conducive to making the apple sprout. And it drops off the tree and then you can smell it too. It smells great, you know, when it's ripe. So, and it drops its seed, but it always comes up as an apple. So seeds don't interact. this time, how all that comes about.

[41:13]

It's too complex. This may be related to Andrea's question. Let's say a person has a tendency to be nice. That tendency Or compassionate action, warmness, whatever. And in our practice place, we try to cultivate those aspects. Good seeds, let's say. So when we encounter someone whose seeds have not been either perfumed, we still feel that there's a potential. for those seeds to come forward, even though they don't seem to be present in this current incarnation. Yes. So the seeds are kind of... Latent. They're latent, but they're still seeded separate.

[42:15]

Yes. Well, they're all separate. Every seed is separate. The seed is a seed. I don't know how it would be different. How would you treat it differently? We don't want to cultivate certain good seeds and not nourish or encourage so-called bad seeds. Yet we have to accept that all these seeds make up us. We have the potentialities for them. Some people, if those seeds say, in this lifetime, are not nourished. If, say, like the seed of hill oil is not nourished, then it atrophies. And can atrophy. And also, through practice, the seeds can... The alaya, according to Vasubandhu, the alaya

[43:22]

When you reach the stage of a hardship, the alaya ceases to function. It's not producing good or bad seeds. So one is free. That's called freedom. Bodhisattva doesn't go there. Bodhisattva stays in the world of seeds, of alaya. So the sense of bodhisattva is still accountable. Yeah, and Bodhisattvas have to be very careful because they stay in order to encourage other people. But when you say seed, it's a metaphor. Yeah, of course. a nice guy, and you're not, and I keep saying nice things, and then you, the seed occurs in you, and it may come forward in you, is kind of what you're saying, right? It's not that the seeds, these seeds don't necessarily all exist inside us, or do they?

[44:31]

All the seeds. The Hawaiian is called There's no place where you can find it in a bind, for one thing. And morally, it's neither good nor bad. It's totally indifferent. It's simply a place where it's the bank, and it's not corrupt. It's the seed bank. But it holds all the seeds of good karma and bad karma. So if you're, you know, if there's a guy, somebody has ill will against you, and you have good will toward this person, is that what you're saying?

[45:33]

What am I saying? Well, I guess what I'm saying is, well, one thing I wanted to get clear was that it's Yeah, but you know, in some ways you're saying not only the alaya is open to any kind of seed, you're open to become almost anything. So you're like a blank slate. Not a blank slate. You have tendencies, but you have... When you say you have tendencies, you're saying you're possessing a you. There are these tendencies. And they're held as potentialities, right?

[46:39]

You can call them potentialities if you want to, but they're called seeds, right? So they're called seeds. And when you think about what does a seed look like, it can be a seed without your conceptual vision of what a seed looks like, right? So, I think seed is okay. But potentialities, I think it's also, because that's what a seed is. It's a potentiality. They found seeds in There have been seeds found in pyramids that the scientist or the investigator has sprouted after 3,000 years. That's pretty amazing. So, is it possible to set intentions to burn what we would consider bad karmic seeds?

[47:43]

I almost got what you said. Burn... I've heard the saying... Oh, burn up? Yeah, to kind of set intentions to burn one's karmic seed or negative karmic seeds in the consciousness. Oh, that's kind of metaphorical. Burn... I suppose so. I really do have to know, can I do more like what? Well maybe if like I have a habit that I'm tired of, that I can see is hurtful, so I set an intention that, and I renounce practicing like a intention. but then there seems to be that aspect of interaction and entangled karma within groups or family so that my ignorance keeps me from knowing so I'm wondering if it's wishful thinking that we can break karma?

[48:50]

or is it actually possible? I think that you can reform It's interesting, if you go to reform school called jail, and they put you on the rock pile, and you study rocks all day, that's burning up your karma. Because it's reform. They used to call it reform school. But now they call it something else. So remorse is a dharma. One of the wholesome dharmas is remorse.

[49:51]

So that's all I want to talk about for the moment. So I think we should talk about the dharmas that are interactive with the mind. In fact, the dharmas that are interacting with the mind, which we call wholesome and unwholesome, are... First I want to say that dharmas are... What's wrong with dharmas? What's the problem? The problem with dharmas is that they're ego builders. So we associate these dharmas with, as, myself. And we build a self on, we build a self, we construct a self of the dharmas, out of the dharmas.

[51:02]

So there are good dharmas and wholesome dharmas, rather than good, I think. And then there are afflictive dharmas. So the eleven wholesome dharmas here are, the first one is faith. And the second one is vigor or effort. The third one is shame. The fourth is remorse. So shame and remorse kind of go together. Shooting is like conscience. And remorse is actually called integrity. Because if you feel remorseful for your actions, then that's actually an act of integrity.

[52:07]

You know, when you see these criminals, sometimes, who shoot people indiscriminately, and they have no remorse. So somewhere deep down there is remorse but they don't have the integrity to bring it forth. So remorse is an act of integrity because it's facing yourself as you are. And then absence of greed, absence of In all the Dharma lists, these three, absence of greed, absence of anger, and absence of stupidity is positive. But absence of greed, of course, is generosity or control, self-control.

[53:13]

And absence of anger is It's hard to deal with. He calls it stupidity, but it's usually called delusion. Is that a moha? Yeah, a moha. committee did, same text, same commentary, they translated it as foolishness. I haven't seen that. It's the same one, but just very little meaning. Yeah, that's good, foolishness. It's also called ignorance. So absence of greed, absence of anger, absence of stupidity are conditions for nirvana.

[54:20]

If those three are totally absent, then they are conditions for nirvana. Because there is nothing holding us. When they use the word ignorance or stupidity or foolishness, is that specifically related to seeing you know, kind of that there is no self, or is it just general ignorance? It's belief in a self. But that's sort of specifically belief. Yes, specifically it's belief in that. And seeing things, as Kanji says, seeing things as they're not. So those are the absences, the absence of the three poisons. The absences of the three poisons, yes. So then, light ease, which means composure, which is an attribute of meditation, and non-laxness, which is called effort,

[55:39]

which means not clinging to a self. Renunciation really means letting go of self-belief. There are four things, but I'll introduce those later. And then Man Harming, Ahimsa, which is like Gandhi's example. So those are the eleven wholesome dharmas that are mentioned here. And then the six fundamental afflictions are greed, anger, and delusion. Those are the opposites, right? And then arrogance or conceit and doubt.

[56:46]

Doubt is meaning skepticism. Doubt can actually be wholesome. So some of these, you know, although they are generally in these categories, they're not really fixed. Doubt is really important because it's the counter to faith which is faith wants to go and doubt wants to hold back. Skepticism is more what is meant. Skeptical doubt is the doubt that's intransigent. But is it specifically about the teachings of the Buddha? Yeah, the skepticism. Yeah, I think it's specifically about the Dharma. About cynicism.

[57:48]

Yeah, cynicism is an aspect of that, yeah. So, then there are minor, there are derivatives of those major fundamental afflictions, right? and then there are derivatives of those afflictions. So greed, anger, stupidity, arrogance, doubt, which is cynicism. But cynicism is different, a little bit different, because it's more like insincerity. Which is, you'll see down here, I think, on a deceit. So improper views means not understanding the Dharma or

[58:58]

Views is an unwholesome term in the Dharma. Holding views means having an incomplete understanding. Because views are mostly partial. Partiality. So then there are 20 derivative afflictions from those basic ones. So, anger, there's wrath, which is really strong anger, and then there's hatred, and then there's rage. So I think we've all experienced those three at one time or another. We're all three together. There's also aspects of fury and enmity.

[60:08]

And then there's covering, which is concealing, not being open. And then there's deceit, which is like false kindness or dishonesty. or duplicity, maybe, and then flattery, which is to gain favor by complimenting. And conceit, which is thinking more of yourself than you are. Thinking of yourself as worse. Holding yourself above others.

[61:13]

And harmony, in one way or another, is And then, of course, there's jealousy and envy and stinginess, which is withholding. And then there are two, which is called lack of shame and lack of remorse, which are the opposites of shame and remorse. Lack of shame could be your self-righteousness. No concern for the feelings of others. Lack of remorse can be, yeah, for society. No feeling for society or other people. And then there are eight major grade afflictions. Lack of faith, which is like not having a focal point.

[62:20]

Faith means having a focal point. Something that you are following. Often we lead, but we don't know what we're following. We have to be following as well as leading. This is an interesting point. When we're just leading, We don't necessarily know where we're going, but following and leading at the same time is what we call riding the wave and following the wave. So you're always at the crest of movement, so you know where you're going. But this is also tied in with faith and doubt.

[63:26]

Faith wants to lead, but it has to go somewhere. And doubt actually helps you because it's just, don't go there, don't go there, go this way. So doubt is really important because it's the balancing point for faith. But skepticism is standing outside and throwing rocks. That's different. So, lack of shame and remorse, and the eight major great afflictions, lack of faith, not having a focal point, laziness and laxness and torpor are three connected, related You know, black laziness is indolent and an energy blocker. And blackness is not following the rules.

[64:30]

You know, I want to get up in the morning, but I can't quite do it. Or being late. So these three are not able to move. Laxness is like not being mindful. Laziness is like, oh well. And torpor is not being able to move. And then there are the three opposites. One is restlessness, distraction, and improper knowledge. It's interesting, his commentary on torpor relevant for maybe some of us. This is the affliction of wanting to nod off during the sutra lectures. In fact, it does not matter what one is doing with this affliction.

[65:33]

One wants to fall asleep in the process. Reading the sutra, one wants to fall asleep. Going to the Buddha is what one wants to nod off. While translating sutras, one has the urge to sleep. Thank you. And then there's restlessness, which is not being able to settle. Walking back and forth, can't make up your mind. So it's a kind of lack of control in a way. Well, distraction is more of a lack of control. is just allowing yourself to be carried off by whatever comes along. And improper knowledge is like sticking to Dharma, maybe. Sticking to something literally.

[66:38]

This is a really important point. In Zen, you never You never stick to something literally. Everything that you read, you should not read it literally. This is where people get hung up. But he said there that everything has to be interpreted according to your... and if you can't interpret it, people seize on, oh, here's this little bit of knowledge, and that reminds me of this other little bit, which I will say, so it's kind of a knowledge-oriented distraction, where you're just going for bits of information.

[67:51]

You just get carried away. That's right. I agree. So then there is restless distraction, improperness, scatteredness, which means you just can't get it together. You just can't get your mind together. You can't focus. There's no way to focus. So it's mainly the four unfixed dharmas. One is sleep, one is regret, one is examination, and one is investigation. So, sleep here means more like sleepiness, or too much sleep, don't yawn, or Not getting enough.

[68:54]

What does it mean by unfixed? Well, it means that it's not good or bad or right or wrong. In other words, like sleep is okay. Sleep is sleep. Sleep is sleep. Regret is... Something about what you didn't do, right? Something that you didn't do. And examination is like Zungon calls Master. Zungon. Yes, Master. Are you there? Yes, Master. Don't be fooled by anything. Yes, master. So he's answering him. He's asking and answering himself. And so investigations are steady or discursive thinking.

[69:57]

So then there are the form garments, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, sounds, smells, flavors, objects of touch, etc. But what I'm understanding by it's unfixed is that they can go either way. Sleep is fine, but if you're sleepy, regret is useful, but if you're stuck in it, you wallow in it, and it's a hindrance. The same thing with investigation. If you're caught in perseveration, in a cycle of investigation, then you're out of the moment. But each of these is also a positive. In his commentary, he speaks to what Diane was asking of that.

[70:57]

He says, that is what I was talking about when I advised you before, that you could now eat more afflictions. Previously, you did not know. But now, when you get angry, you could wonder whether you should be using wrath or hatred. Before, you did not understand there were so many afflictions to choose from. And now you know it is greatly expanded. But you have this choice. And the thing about it, once these are laid out, you have some choice about whether you want to use an affliction or whether you have Right. So you don't have a choice when the affliction arises. Right. But you do have a choice about what you do about the affliction. Right. So you eat it. I think that's what Diane was adding. You didn't read the rest of the paragraph. I did read the rest of the paragraph. But you can't... you can... anyway... You can eat it and take it as food or you can eat it and shit it out.

[72:04]

You know? Anyway. So, just showing it up, kind of reacting, and eating it. Is it responding? I just say this is my interpretation, not his. Well, that would be letting it go. You can ingest it. When it comes up, you can chew on it, and then let it go. That's the hardest thing for a lot of people, to let it go. Because we think, it's hanging on to me, but actually we're hanging on to it, right? So, what happens if we let it go? If we let it go, then we feel, well, I'm not being loyal to my feelings. I think this is a big, good question. I'm not being loyal to my feelings if I let it go. That's why we obsess upon things.

[73:06]

Because if I do, I'll not be loyal. If I don't think about my friend's problem all the time, and let it go, then I'll be disloyal to my friend. So we have to hang on to that. But actually it's not so, because you can let it go, but it's still there. But you're not attached to it. The other way is, that you digest your anger, you eat your anger, but it becomes transformed. If you're a Zen student, your anger becomes transformed into kindness, or sympathy, or whatever. Understanding. Is it vigor? Well, vigor is the motivational thing. Anger is energy and then it's like, well, how are you going to do that?

[74:16]

How are you going to funnel it or put it to turning a wheel or digging a hole? That's right. You can either turn the wheel or dig a hole. So you have the ability to use that energy in various ways. I used to talk about this, it's like if you imagine a boiler, big boiler, and then there's a fire under the boiler, and when the fire turns way up, a lot of energy comes up, right? And then there are these pipes coming off of the boiler, and one pipe is anger, jealousy, love, sex, whatever, all of these ways of expressing that energy which is built up because of the fire.

[75:28]

And there's also on top a relief valve. When unwholesome dharmas are dominating, then the relief valve is like... You press the relief valve to let go of the pressure. But there's also the transforming... The brains inside can redirect the energy. So if I'm really pissed off at somebody, I can direct the energy toward understanding. Why is this happening? What am I contributing to this? We always blame the other person. What am I contributing to this? This is only happening because I'm contributing something, just the way I look. I don't like your looks. Well, it's not my fault, is it? Well, it's not a fault, but that's your contribution.

[76:29]

So, you have to understand, you know, if we turn our anger and ill will over everything to wholesome dharma of one kind or another, basically understanding, trying to understand how this is happening, then we're no longer standing on anger or being pushed around by it, but we're residing in a wholesome dharma. So that's called transformation. And transformations are really an important part of this whole thing. It's kind of interesting, but speaking of dynasties, the brain, when I was younger and could play full court basketball, I would play two hours straight. I would go into a pickup games, feeling upset about something. By the time I was finished, it was all gone. Exactly. It's kind of interesting what's going on physiologically.

[77:40]

Oh yeah. And so these dharmas arise. And what is this? They arise and their only support is the way we feed them. Because they only arise for a moment. Every dharma only arises for one kasana. A kasana is just a short moment. that just burned up, I wasn't bothered afterwards. Yes, sure, that kind of activity is a transformative activity. So when you have these collisions, And you don't know what to do. Take a walk. Go running. Get outside. Do something. And then when the dog, his nose is warm, you know that there's something wrong with the dog.

[78:43]

Because the nose is supposed to be cold and wet. So when the dog's nose is warm, just take him for a walk. And then he comes back and his nose is wet and cold again. And it's the same. We have that same ability to go swimming. completes the thought of that field, which is related to what you're saying. He said, this will suffice to introduce these 20 derivative afflictions to you. Now that you know about them, I hope you will give rise to more afflictions to the point where you will eat your fill of afflictions and not have to eat food. Then if you were a famine, you would not die of hunger because you would have lots of afflictions. But I think it's really engaging with them, eating them, like digesting them, rather than letting them mold or rot in your system.

[79:49]

Well, that's right. Dealing with them. Because the more we cover, like covering, is one of the afflictions. The more we covered, the more moldy we get. That's why, in the olden days, they had the twice-monthly patimoka, the monks' patimoka ceremony, where each monk would talk about sometimes in little groups, and sometimes in a whole group, would confess to each other their transgressions so that they can unburden themselves. We have what we call Ryogafusatsu, which is Bodhisattva Ceremony, which is an abbreviated confession ceremony.

[80:58]

and renewing our vows. They did that twice a month, but they did it more specific. Like if a monk said, well, you know, I did this, depending on what the transcription was, you might be removed from the Sangha or given a certain kind of punishment. And we only have a month. We can go until... I don't know about the cooking. We'd have to go and do the cooking, but you think you can do it? No. We should probably stop. But what do we do until then? Until service. So there's that period, and then there's service. Yeah. At 10 to 12. Bernstein. So this is my plan here was to have a little.

[82:15]

And so as we go along, we get more specific.

[82:19]

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