Well, Peter and his child said he's worked out several of those animals in meditation and found it really the best time for life. It in a way goes along, I guess, with what I was saying last night about also the sixth patriarch, that if you understand that meditation is to make your mind blank or empty, you will make your mind blank and empty. And then you won't particularly get any information from your being about what to do today, or what to write about, or what to say.

[01:14]

You make yourself you know, somewhat dysfunctional, so to speak. By trying to make your mind blank, then pretty soon it's done. Now you don't know what to write, what to say, what to do, how to talk, how to act. Because nothing's coming out for you, because you've told your being, just be quiet now. You've told yourself that. And actually we're, you know, your body will listen to you up to a point. Sometimes somebody will get mad and say, I won't. So in fact, the The fact that you can think about and work out the intricacies of a novel is the fact of your mind being quiet.

[02:22]

And actually, the rest of the time, one's mind is not quiet enough to figure out the novel. It's too busy with other things. And it may not even be that... So partly we're interested in, you know, how does our awareness work, how does our mind work? And it may not even be that we, in that sense, that we consciously decide, oh, today when I sit, I'm going to figure out my novel. Like, so part of, part of what's interesting is when, in other words, for this particular school of Zen, and not all schools of Zen are, it's like, we like this, but part of what's interesting for this school of, where does your mind tend to go when you're not focusing on something?

[03:38]

And that's, that's kind of interesting is to where we tend to go, what tends to draw our attention when we're not occupied. So sometimes that may be the novel, sometimes it may be memories or emotions or particular thought patterns. we will have rather, we tend to have some particular thing or the other way this goes. So this is kind of interesting to find out. And then it doesn't mean that we necessarily need to keep going now or that, you know, it's what we should be doing. Not like we should be working at a government station or we should be thinking about it. but there is this kind of space where you'll see what happens and what takes our attention.

[04:55]

I found it very useful for when I was cooking to figure out menus, and it wasn't like I was trying to figure out menus, or I said, I'm going to figure out my menus now. And when I worked on rock walls, then I would sit and kind of fit rocks in the glue. I spend a fair amount of my time sitting during this retreat thinking, what am I going to talk about? What's going on here? Is there something that I need to bring up? And then there's some, and then there'll be some space as well, with no particular off-focus. And the way our, you know, the way our awareness loops is just, it's, I mean, I know it's not straightforward exactly,

[06:11]

It's not necessarily so useful to say, here's the program to yourself and then see if you can get that program to happen. It's kind of our idea of happiness in some ways. You dream up what to do and then you do it. And for the more one, you know, is studying Zen, it's rather than dreaming up what to do, you know, let's, well, it's a different kind of dreaming up what to do. My example of it often is the If you're cooking, the difference between dreaming up what to do and then you think, well, this would be good, and then you have to go looking for the ingredients, and then you follow the recipe, and eventually something comes out. But we're actually trying to dream up what to do with the ingredients we have.

[07:18]

So we want to look in the larder, look in the attic, or look in the garden and the refrigerator and what's around and dream up what to do with the ingredients that are coming up in our life. And then we don't have any particular recipe for it, but because we're feeling the ingredients, sensing out what's there, then we come up with what to do with those ingredients. So we spend too much of our time dreaming of things to do which don't have to do with the ingredients, and then I don't actually have this. But we can embark on some programs, one thing or another, and it turns out that it's not the recipe for us. Is this good, Jim?

[08:25]

The things that we're studying how to trust, finding out how to trust, are experience. So if it occurs to us to be working on a novel, then at some point we trust, well, this is important. so our you know this is about and we're creating meditation in that sense and how to practice we're studying you know to give ourselves um one of the expressions that is traditional in soto zen is uh do um informal to do okay i guess it's We're doing formal practice, but within formal mind.

[09:50]

So just because it's formal practice doesn't mean we need to put our mind into some form. It's formal practice, but our mind actually can do this formal practice in a variety of ways, an infinite way. So also, for instance, we may have some idea in meditation that it's serious or it's spiritual, but it's just like walking on the beach. Why would we treat this as I put my mind in some kind of spiritual place? So they're also the kind of sense of everyday mind is the way of a straightforward mind, ordinary mind, this kind of things.

[10:53]

So, um, In that sense, you know, we're finding out how to have some freedom. All of our life, there will be some form. Each moment of life has some form. In this case, it's the form of sitting, but if you're standing and talking to somebody, there's the form of standing and talking. So is there a limitation to how that should be done? And you tell yourself how it's supposed to happen. And then, you know, we can often do that, and then pretty soon we're trying to work out the whole dialogue ahead of time to make sure it's okay to have that dialogue. And then, of course, the other person doesn't know they're lying. When you actually start to talk to them, So it's not actually possible to program ahead.

[12:20]

I can't control our life that way. So we're studying how to, we're allowing ourselves some freedom. How to respond and how to be in any particular situation. Maybe when you're talking to your person, uh someone they're working out there now they don't know but in the meantime you're talking Good minute.

[13:20]

A few years ago at Tassajara, I met, I gave somebody a guest in the ride out of Tassajara, and while we were driving over the Tassajara road, I asked him, well, how was your week here at Tassajara? And he said, oh, it was so hard. You know, what was so hard? Well, I just couldn't empty my mind. I just couldn't make my mind blank. Okay, and what, why were you trying to do that? What were you thinking? That you were trying to make their mind blank. Well, that's what you're supposed to do. A while later, I was asked, well, where are you going? He said, well, I'm going to Greenwich. Oh. And do they know you're coming? Well, actually, I was supposed to be there two or three days ago. Oh. So did they know you were coming today?

[15:59]

Did you call them to let you know you'd be late? I didn't think of that. It turned out he'd been probably busy making his mind blind for years. And not thinking of So it hadn't occurred to him to call Greenhouse. I didn't think of that. Well, you know, I'm going to the city center tonight and possibly, you know, you can stay there on the way. Oh, well, I didn't think about calling you on. It was interesting. But this is what happens. We set up some plan, and this is what I need to do or should do. And then the other alternative is to end up burning myself.

[17:02]

And, of course, one of the ways that meditation works is we end up, we do, the first things we do when, you know, as soon as there's some difficulty or challenge or problem, we'll do the things that have gotten us through up till now. You know, so if you're one kind of person, you know, the thing that you do is you can get depressed. It's worked up until now. Or you can get angry. Or you can be sad. You can get mad that things are like that. You can be disappointed. You can do all these various things that in the past, if you were depressed and someone said, oh, what's wrong? Can I help you? Can I do something for you? Is there anything, you know, so people responded to it. You know, we've all learned what, for ourselves, what people responded to and what's gotten us through.

[18:33]

And one of the things about meditation is, of course, then the things that we've relied on up until now to get us through don't work. So this is one of the ways in which I was mentioning last night that problems are important because there will be some problem that whatever, all the things that we use, that things are now, to get us through don't work. And then at some point, there's no help. Nothing gets us through. It doesn't get us through and we're just where we are doing what we do, and being the way that we are. And we're coming up with a new way of being because the old ways don't work. Nothing works. So it's rather important at some point to have this kind of difficulty that nothing, no strategy or

[19:42]

way of coping everything that you've had up until now is working. And then you'll, I mean, then, I don't know, and sometimes, you know, for a session or retreat like this, you know, it often takes, sometimes it's the first day, but usually about the third day, so today is the third day for some of us. The third day, sometimes nothing works. You know, I just go on anyway. It doesn't work. You can't make it the way that you're used to making it. You can't establish or create the mind that you wanted to establish or create or do a way of being that you wanted to have. You can't do it under the circumstances of sitting at yoga and not talking. You just can't do it. So at some point, okay, well, I can't do that. I'll be in my new life.

[20:44]

Here I am. Yeah. The novel I'm working on, I'll work on the novel. If it's just exactly being with the sensations in my knee or my hips, I'll do that. And this is, as I mentioned last night, you know, to settle bags, unpack the settled bags, you know, things, our baggage and everything that we've been carrying, you know, it will spill out. And we can be with our life in a much more simple fashion. Thank you.

[21:49]

So we're going to do service next. You can keep your, you know, we'll use our rectangular cushions for bowing on and keep your cushions nearby so that when we go to chant, we'll sit down and we'll go to chant. Yeah, because he brought us to the airport. He gave us a high-five from the world, you know. So, we're doing it now. We're doing it. Thank you.

[23:25]

Thank you. Thank you.

[24:54]

vid-vistam yad-vistam art-sutra-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va-va Hello, this is Harold Lee, and our MCN was saved from all suffering news. Our report performed is not different from what it is that it is, and not different from what it was. That which is born is emptiness, that which is emptiness born, the same is true of innate perception, formation, consciousness, oh, how it could come. The unarmed are marked with emptiness, they do not appear nor disappear, are not chained nor pure. Not degrees nor degrees, therefore no identity, no form, no feeling, no perception, no formation, no consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object or...

[26:30]

Rebel lies until no realm of mind touches news, no ignorance, and also no extinction of it until the old age and death, and also no extinction of it. Suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, also no attainment with anything to attain a bodhisattva defender. Vajna Paravita and the hind is no hindrance, without any hindrance, no gives and gives. Hark! A very perverted view, one drowsy nirvana in the three worlds. All buddhas depend on Vajna Paravita and attain unsurpassably perfect enlightenment. Therefore, though, the Prajnaparavika is the great transcendent mantra, is the great life mantra, is the utmost mantra, the great mantra which is able to relieve all suffering and is true, not also complying the Prajnaparavika mantra.

[27:45]

Proclaim the mantra that says, godly, godly, are the godly, are the godly, [...] godly. With the true virtue of this way, all the light is directing me to time. All the people decide my way.

[28:23]

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