WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Here is one of a series of talks by spiritual 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:06.480 leader Lola McDowell Lee, spanning two decades 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:10.380 from the early 70s through the 90s. Lola was 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:13.599 a Zen Roshi, whose Rinzai lineage included Dr. 00:00:13.820 --> 00:00:17.440 Henry Plutov and renowned Zen master Shigetsu 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:21.039 Sasaki. Lola was a religious scholar as well 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:24.280 as an ordained Christian minister. While the 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:27.039 talks are focused mainly on Zen and Buddhism, 00:00:27.339 --> 00:00:30.820 Lola drew on many spiritual traditions, including 00:00:30.820 --> 00:00:35.240 those of Jesus, Plato, Lao Tzu, the Hindu Vedas, 00:00:35.679 --> 00:01:00.619 Meister Eckhart, and Gurdjieff. We are what we 00:01:00.619 --> 00:01:06.739 think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. 00:01:08.219 --> 00:01:12.920 With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:15.939 act with an impure mind and trouble will follow 00:01:15.939 --> 00:01:18.840 you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:28.260 cart. We are what we think. All that we are arises 00:01:28.260 --> 00:01:32.340 with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make 00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:36.900 the world. Speak or act with a pure mind and 00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:41.859 happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakable. 00:01:47.219 --> 00:01:51.019 Look how he abused me and beat me. How he threw 00:01:51.019 --> 00:01:54.200 me down and robbed me. Live with such thoughts 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:58.400 and you live in hate. Look how he abused me and 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:01.579 beat me, how he threw me down and robbed me. 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:07.980 Abandon such thoughts and live in love. In this 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:13.759 world, hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:19.960 dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible. 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:26.599 You too shall pass away knowing this. How can 00:02:26.599 --> 00:02:32.360 you quarrel? How easily the wind overturns a 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:37.699 frail tree. Seek happiness in the senses, indulge 00:02:37.699 --> 00:02:42.860 in food and sleep, and you too will be uprooted. 00:02:44.379 --> 00:02:49.020 The wind cannot overturn a mountain. Temptation 00:02:49.020 --> 00:02:53.319 cannot touch the man who is awake, strong and 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:57.199 humble, who masters himself. and minds the law. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:02.020 If a man's thoughts are muddy, if he is reckless 00:03:02.020 --> 00:03:05.759 and full of deceit, how can he wear the yellow 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:12.360 robe? Whoever is master of his own nature, bright, 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:19.180 clear, and true, he may indeed wear the yellow 00:03:19.180 --> 00:03:25.780 robe. The deluded Imagining trivial things to 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:30.419 be vital to life, follow their vain fancies and 00:03:30.419 --> 00:03:34.599 never attain the highest knowledge. But the wise, 00:03:35.180 --> 00:03:38.780 knowing what is trivial and what is vital, set 00:03:38.780 --> 00:03:42.020 their thoughts on the supreme goal and attain 00:03:42.020 --> 00:03:47.439 the highest knowledge. As rain seeps through 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:51.960 an ill -thatched hut, passion will creep through 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:57.080 an untrained mind. As rain cannot seep through 00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:01.099 a well -fetched hut, passion cannot seep through 00:04:01.099 --> 00:04:09.159 a well -trained mind. Hmm? Yeah, that's the beginning. 00:04:13.259 --> 00:04:22.860 Now this, after the Shakyamuni Buddha. passed 00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:28.199 away. They began to write down what he had taught. 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:36.220 They wrote it on palm leaves. And there is today 00:04:36.220 --> 00:04:39.560 a group of people, a school, I guess you could 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:44.439 call it, for lack of a better word. They still 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:47.319 have a lot of old palm leaves with things written 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:56.170 on them. And so there is one for everybody. That's 00:04:56.170 --> 00:05:02.410 right. Tony knows. And if there's not one for 00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:06.389 you, you don't belong to that group. So you're 00:05:06.389 --> 00:05:12.750 not one of the chosen. And what is on this palm 00:05:12.750 --> 00:05:16.209 leaf for you then will tell you all about you. 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:25.360 Boy, is it a trap. Anyway, but palm leaves, you 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:27.000 see, they're supposed to be so old, they're still 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.779 writing on palm leaves. One wears out, they write 00:05:31.779 --> 00:05:35.060 it on a new one. The palm leaves are all there. 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:43.920 Anyway, the sangha, you know, the group of monks 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:52.180 and nuns after he passed away had a, Big get 00:05:52.180 --> 00:05:56.699 -together. And of course, even though they were 00:05:56.699 --> 00:05:59.939 of the upper echelon, some of these men, you 00:05:59.939 --> 00:06:04.180 know, why they still each had their own opinion. 00:06:08.019 --> 00:06:12.000 And so lots of conflict. My way is right. Oh, 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.879 no, no, no. My way is right. No, no, no, no. 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:19.459 My way is right. So finally, they divided themselves. 00:06:19.870 --> 00:06:23.750 into two groups. You know, one is called the 00:06:23.750 --> 00:06:27.329 Hinayana, or the Theravadan, or the small vehicle, 00:06:27.430 --> 00:06:30.569 and the other is the Mahayana, the great vehicle. 00:06:32.089 --> 00:06:36.350 The Hinayana, or the small vehicle, they settled 00:06:36.350 --> 00:06:41.009 around Burma and Thailand and Sri Lanka. And 00:06:41.009 --> 00:06:44.709 you know, Buddha used to go to Sri Lanka occasionally, 00:06:44.750 --> 00:06:49.430 and that's where he gave the Lankavatarasutra. 00:06:50.029 --> 00:06:53.689 It was one time when he was visiting there. And 00:06:53.689 --> 00:06:56.829 in this Hinayana, in this particular section 00:06:56.829 --> 00:06:59.930 of the world, the language that they use and 00:06:59.930 --> 00:07:03.170 the language that the Buddhist teachings are 00:07:03.170 --> 00:07:06.389 written in the Hinayana thing is called Pali, 00:07:06.529 --> 00:07:11.170 P -A -L -I, Pali, which is a kind of a descendant 00:07:11.170 --> 00:07:15.730 of the Sanskrit. So in Sanskrit, you know the 00:07:15.730 --> 00:07:22.720 word Dharma. In Pali, it becomes Dhamma. And 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:29.040 in Sanskrit, the word karma becomes kama. And 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:34.860 the nirvana becomes nibbana. So when you read 00:07:34.860 --> 00:07:38.379 this type of writing where they don't translate 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:41.560 these words, you know that this is from the Theravadan 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:47.399 sect of Buddhism, okay, a small bit. Now, the 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:51.959 actual scriptures of Buddhism, Orthodox Buddhism, 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:56.079 are divided into three sections. And each one 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:59.639 of these sections is called a basket. It's a 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:02.879 basket that holds the teaching of a particular 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:06.560 kind. And this is called a pataka. So sometimes 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:09.839 you see books written, and they will say the 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:12.500 tri -pataka of Buddhism, the three baskets of 00:08:12.500 --> 00:08:16.920 Buddhism. Tri -pataka, three baskets. And now 00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:24.120 the sutra, pataka, or basket, as a group of discourses 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:28.779 or lectures, I guess we can say, the talks that 00:08:28.779 --> 00:08:33.720 were given by the Buddha or one of his direct 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:37.279 disciples. I mean, you see with the 1 ,500 monks 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:39.820 that he had there, and not every one of them 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:45.759 could be a direct disciple. So let's say he had 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:49.980 50 around him. That's a big bunch. And then each 00:08:49.980 --> 00:08:52.700 one of these 50 would have so many students, 00:08:52.700 --> 00:09:01.559 and then down the line, you see. So direct, Maka 00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:07.200 Shapa was his direct student, and we would say 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:16.240 Sariputra was, Ananda was. And the basket of 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:20.059 discipline, the second basket, is called the 00:09:20.059 --> 00:09:25.860 Vinyana, not Vinyana, Vinaya, Vinaya Pitaka. 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:30.299 These are the rules of the Sangha. It's sort 00:09:30.299 --> 00:09:32.360 of like when we have Sashin you follow certain 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:36.379 rules, the rules of the discipline. Okay, and 00:09:36.379 --> 00:09:44.580 the Abhidharma, Pitaka, it has been called the 00:09:44.580 --> 00:09:48.750 basket of metaphysics. What it is, is all the 00:09:48.750 --> 00:09:52.169 works that have followed and come from them, 00:09:52.549 --> 00:09:56.850 which analyze the philosophy behind the teaching. 00:09:57.090 --> 00:10:00.990 You see, Buddha would say something, and then 00:10:00.990 --> 00:10:03.509 people would take that and say, well he means 00:10:03.509 --> 00:10:06.009 this, and he means this, and he means this, and 00:10:06.009 --> 00:10:08.350 they would build up a whole philosophy about 00:10:08.350 --> 00:10:13.909 what he meant when he said one thing. So now 00:10:13.909 --> 00:10:16.610 this is the third basket, the abhidharma basket. 00:10:20.210 --> 00:10:24.889 Now this particular dharma, what they call this 00:10:24.889 --> 00:10:29.230 basket, is not really considered a sutra. A sutra 00:10:29.230 --> 00:10:32.710 is a thread that leads you back to the source. 00:10:33.669 --> 00:10:37.649 It is not considered actually a sutra, but it 00:10:37.649 --> 00:10:42.600 is included in the basket of discourses. the 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:51.419 Sutra Pataka. And you'll see why. Now most of 00:10:51.419 --> 00:10:58.019 these Sutras, these talks that have been preserved 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:01.720 in the Kali Kanan were mostly for the monks and 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:03.899 for the nuns. I mean you read some of them and 00:11:03.899 --> 00:11:08.240 you think, I can't do that. But the Dhammapada 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:12.350 is meant for everyone. It's for the lay student. 00:11:13.070 --> 00:11:21.669 And it has about 426 verses, which are supposed 00:11:21.669 --> 00:11:27.950 to be read and reflected upon and meditated upon. 00:11:28.190 --> 00:11:31.009 You take a phrase and you meditate about it like 00:11:31.009 --> 00:11:37.110 a con. And the meditation in bypassing here. 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:41.600 In orthodox Buddhism is called the vipassana 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:45.860 method, which is the effortless effort meditation. 00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:50.080 It is the simple sitting and observing what is 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:53.500 going on from top to bottom. And this is out 00:11:53.500 --> 00:11:57.639 of the samsara yoga thing. It is a very successful 00:11:57.639 --> 00:12:07.030 method. Simply observing. What rises? simply 00:12:07.030 --> 00:12:11.009 observing what rises. You have got nothing to 00:12:11.009 --> 00:12:13.309 do with it. It's quite volitional. It does it 00:12:13.309 --> 00:12:17.230 all of its own, sitting observing what rises. 00:12:20.549 --> 00:12:23.250 You bring nothing to the fore. You're not thinking. 00:12:23.409 --> 00:12:25.610 You're simply observing. You're watching. You're 00:12:25.610 --> 00:12:30.409 the witness. You simply let it rise. You observe 00:12:30.409 --> 00:12:33.149 what is going on and you make no judgment because 00:12:33.149 --> 00:12:35.379 the minute you make judgment upon it, You're 00:12:35.379 --> 00:12:37.740 in the picture and you're supposed to stay out 00:12:37.740 --> 00:12:43.240 of the picture. Effortless effort, meditation, 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:49.080 vipassana, excellent. So anyway, together with 00:12:49.080 --> 00:12:54.620 the four noble truths and the eightfold noble 00:12:54.620 --> 00:13:01.440 path, we have this method and then we have these 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:07.720 three things for transforming our lives. And 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:11.940 right off, in the first chapter of these twin 00:13:11.940 --> 00:13:16.700 verses, it gives the direction, the cue. You 00:13:16.700 --> 00:13:22.480 go this way. What is presented, you see, is this 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:28.279 pair of possibilities of human conduct. We have 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:31.820 a negative, so -called negative possibility, 00:13:32.360 --> 00:13:36.080 the catering to ourselves. the catering to our 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:44.659 conditioned personal ego desires. And then comes 00:13:44.659 --> 00:13:48.740 the positive possibility, which seems somehow 00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:56.899 to run contrary to our personal nature. So the 00:13:56.899 --> 00:14:00.899 negative possibility, this is accomplished without 00:14:00.899 --> 00:14:03.679 much strain. It doesn't take any effort really, 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:06.759 you know. get out there and say, well, this is 00:14:06.759 --> 00:14:09.360 fine, it's the ego, so what, you know, but this 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:14.500 is what I want, what I want. You know, not much 00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:20.019 string. And it can even be satisfying for a while, 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:23.799 temporarily, you know, this ego satisfaction. 00:14:24.340 --> 00:14:27.740 Sure. You'd be surprised how many people are 00:14:27.740 --> 00:14:29.740 out there doing their thing with the music and 00:14:29.740 --> 00:14:31.620 all that, you know, the guitars and, you know, 00:14:31.620 --> 00:14:35.019 they finally get to play on stage. Wowie, boy, 00:14:35.019 --> 00:14:38.940 they've made the world. That's ego satisfaction. 00:14:40.299 --> 00:14:44.899 Now this, what we call a positive possibility, 00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:51.080 seemingly goes against the conditioning of our 00:14:51.080 --> 00:14:59.600 pleasure principle. And to make this switch, 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:04.179 you know, to the other possibility takes a lot 00:15:04.179 --> 00:15:07.940 of effort, takes a great deal of effort. It is 00:15:07.940 --> 00:15:11.519 to some as if they're choosing pain instead of 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:14.419 pleasure. And yet I think they'd be surprised 00:15:14.419 --> 00:15:17.399 in just trying to choose pleasure all the time, 00:15:17.539 --> 00:15:21.960 how much pain they cause for themselves. But 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:26.320 we have these two possibilities. And each and 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:33.000 every one of us, all of us, we are given. Again, 00:15:33.019 --> 00:15:36.899 and again, and again, and again, the opportunity 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:39.700 to make the choice, whether you're going to choose 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:44.799 the negative or the positive. Today, sometime 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:49.720 today, I will venture to say within an hour after 00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:53.960 you leave here, you will probably have an opportunity 00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:57.840 to choose the negative easy way or the positive 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:04.379 difficult way. First of all, you're here. So 00:16:04.379 --> 00:16:09.659 you made a choice already today. You chose the 00:16:09.659 --> 00:16:13.919 positive difficult instead of the negative easy. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:21.659 Sure, it's easier to stay in bed. Okay, now watch 00:16:21.659 --> 00:16:25.840 for the next opportunity. Just watch for it. 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:28.600 I mean, you can go do what you want to anyway. 00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:31.360 But just watch and know that this is what you've 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:35.879 done. Just to know what you're doing instead 00:16:35.879 --> 00:16:39.740 of running around in a blind fog. Yeah. So then 00:16:39.740 --> 00:16:44.799 you watch what you're doing, how you're doing, 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:51.159 and why. No judging. Just what you're doing, 00:16:52.159 --> 00:17:06.700 why you do it, and how you do it. Diverged in 00:17:06.700 --> 00:17:13.720 a wood. And I, I took the one less traveled by. 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:19.960 And that has made all the difference. That's 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:26.339 Robert Frost, huh? I took the one less traveled 00:17:26.339 --> 00:17:35.880 by. And it has made all the difference. You know, 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:39.460 and there's this little story, I think, a little 00:17:39.460 --> 00:17:42.799 anecdote, I think everybody knows. This certain 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:47.940 man became very successful, head of a company 00:17:47.940 --> 00:17:52.680 and multimillionaire and while he was still quite 00:17:52.680 --> 00:18:03.099 young, I mean like 30. And so one day a man asked 00:18:03.099 --> 00:18:07.940 for an interview. which he gave him. And in the 00:18:07.940 --> 00:18:14.180 thing was, he asked him, you know, what do you 00:18:14.180 --> 00:18:20.579 think contributed most to your success? And the 00:18:20.579 --> 00:18:25.779 man answered right away, hard work. So this other 00:18:25.779 --> 00:18:28.740 fellow stood there for a while and he stood there 00:18:28.740 --> 00:18:32.339 and the silence got kind of long and finally 00:18:32.339 --> 00:18:44.049 he said, what's the second? You see, this is 00:18:44.049 --> 00:18:52.450 our problem. Isn't it? Yeah, this is our problem. 00:18:58.190 --> 00:19:02.730 See, I took the one less traveled by. Not just 00:19:02.730 --> 00:19:14.539 going along. Easy does it, huh? Hard work. Meditation 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:17.960 now. Meditation is the training of the mind. 00:19:20.700 --> 00:19:25.759 To be able to concentrate the mind. To be able 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:33.180 to make the mind one -pointed at will. That's 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:35.740 a very difficult discipline. I mean, now are 00:19:35.740 --> 00:19:42.880 you all one -pointed? Right? All... Are you one 00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:48.460 -pointed? You're laughing. You're not one -pointed. 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:57.099 Difficult. Hard work. And now this man, the Buddha, 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.859 whom we call the Buddha, he had taken such pains 00:20:01.859 --> 00:20:09.079 to communicate... his meanings to people. He 00:20:09.079 --> 00:20:13.839 took such pains with it, and yet most of these 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:17.019 people to whom he was talking would probably 00:20:17.019 --> 00:20:22.160 never have the time, nor the means, nor the desire 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:26.599 to practice meditation. And yet he gave and he 00:20:26.599 --> 00:20:32.450 gave and he gave, 49 years worth, he gave. It 00:20:32.450 --> 00:20:36.150 has been said that he was an incorrigible optimist. 00:20:36.690 --> 00:20:39.029 And there's somewhere, there's something that 00:20:39.029 --> 00:20:42.829 he supposedly said, I am confident with the highest 00:20:42.829 --> 00:20:49.769 of confidence. He felt sure that he could go 00:20:49.769 --> 00:20:53.490 anywhere in India and find the needle in the 00:20:53.490 --> 00:20:58.549 haystack. That person who would come up to him 00:20:58.549 --> 00:21:02.890 after the sermon and say, I want to know more. 00:21:03.150 --> 00:21:06.670 I want to know more about how to prevent hostile 00:21:06.670 --> 00:21:10.630 thoughts from rising and taking over. Please 00:21:10.630 --> 00:21:15.609 teach me. The needle in the haystack, huh? But 00:21:15.609 --> 00:21:18.230 anyway, it's just, you know, hope lies in the 00:21:18.230 --> 00:21:28.650 heart eternal. Oh, God. Now, Buddhism. All of 00:21:28.650 --> 00:21:32.940 Buddhism. the Orthodox Buddhists, and all of 00:21:32.940 --> 00:21:39.740 the sects, and I, Kagan, Abhidhammasaka, which 00:21:39.740 --> 00:21:45.940 is the Kagan, all of Zen, all the sects, they 00:21:45.940 --> 00:21:51.500 all revolve around one point, which is the enlightenment 00:21:51.500 --> 00:21:58.869 experience. Enlightenment experience. Now enlightenment 00:21:58.869 --> 00:22:04.890 is bodhi, B -O -D -H -I, bodhi. And the word 00:22:04.890 --> 00:22:09.150 bodhi and the word buddha come from the same 00:22:09.150 --> 00:22:13.529 root word in Sanskrit, buddha, B -U -D -H, buddha. 00:22:14.490 --> 00:22:23.349 Which means to wake, to become aware of. So... 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:32.920 One is supposed to become awakened from a life 00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:41.599 of relativity and from conditioning to the unconditioned 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:45.660 life. Unconditioned life. And that unconditioned 00:22:45.660 --> 00:22:49.720 life includes, you know, this non -attachment, 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:53.339 non -discrimination, non -identification, non 00:22:53.339 --> 00:22:57.059 -judgment, non -ego, and so on, and on, and so 00:22:57.059 --> 00:23:00.240 on, et cetera. Yeah, I'm gonna learn another 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:06.220 language here one of these days. His teaching, 00:23:06.359 --> 00:23:10.839 the Buddhist teaching, based on his enlightenment, 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:18.180 and his purpose to direct every one of us, to 00:23:18.180 --> 00:23:23.099 this very same enlightenment, the samyak sambodhi, 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:33.740 the perfect state which knows no equal. Now, 00:23:33.740 --> 00:23:38.339 as so at the very beginning, the very first, 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:46.180 the importance is stressed. We must realize what 00:23:46.180 --> 00:23:53.700 we believe. We must know what we believe. We 00:23:53.700 --> 00:23:56.759 must know what we believe and we must know that 00:23:56.759 --> 00:24:04.619 we act on what we believe. We must know how we 00:24:04.619 --> 00:24:10.519 think. We must know that our thinking does not 00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:14.119 stand outside of ourselves, away from ourselves. 00:24:16.619 --> 00:24:19.440 What we think and what we feel in a religious 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:29.019 manner is not out there. So that what all of 00:24:29.019 --> 00:24:39.359 this is about concerns us personally. So he urged 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:44.859 his followers to value their personal experiences. 00:24:46.670 --> 00:24:51.829 to value them, not to rely on some other authority, 00:24:52.170 --> 00:24:56.589 because it is not out there. You rely on your 00:24:56.589 --> 00:25:02.329 own authority. And so each one of us, because 00:25:02.329 --> 00:25:07.089 it is a personal experience, and we must rely 00:25:07.089 --> 00:25:12.369 on something in ourselves, each of us, he said, 00:25:13.390 --> 00:25:18.930 to exert yourself for your own Emancipation. 00:25:22.390 --> 00:25:28.049 By oneself indeed is evil done from the sutras. 00:25:28.509 --> 00:25:34.069 By oneself is one injured. By oneself is evil 00:25:34.069 --> 00:25:42.710 left undone. By oneself is one purified. So purity 00:25:42.710 --> 00:25:46.410 and impurity of course belongs to oneself. No 00:25:46.410 --> 00:25:52.390 one purifies another. You all scoop up your own 00:25:52.390 --> 00:25:59.269 water out of the stream. If there is to be an 00:25:59.269 --> 00:26:02.829 awakening, you are the one that must wake up. 00:26:05.710 --> 00:26:08.809 You have to eat your own food, you have to drink 00:26:08.809 --> 00:26:11.750 your own water, you have to sleep for yourself, 00:26:11.789 --> 00:26:13.809 you have to go to the bathroom for yourself. 00:26:14.450 --> 00:26:18.339 Also, You cannot employ someone else to go to 00:26:18.339 --> 00:26:22.880 heaven or hell for you. You've got to go for 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:27.240 yourself. It's a personal experience. Enlightenment 00:26:27.240 --> 00:26:40.000 is a personal experience. Now this man, Gautama, 00:26:40.660 --> 00:26:47.579 Shoptamuni, from the tribe, He went to the forest, 00:26:47.579 --> 00:26:50.900 you know, and he sat with these teachers for 00:26:50.900 --> 00:26:54.839 a number of years, and he had his experiences, 00:26:54.980 --> 00:27:03.160 and he was a man of... Well, people said of him, 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:06.559 you know, the man, the shining one. You know, 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:10.920 he had such an aura about him. You know, all 00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:15.059 this tranquility and this peace that was with 00:27:15.059 --> 00:27:22.599 him. and so on. And here was his teacher. And 00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:28.720 yet he of himself had a great doubt. So and he 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:32.380 had all these years of discipline in these forests, 00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:35.519 you know, and during which time he became an 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:39.079 aesthetic. He was starving. He had a few grains 00:27:39.079 --> 00:27:42.759 of rice to eat every day. And then he saw the 00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:47.519 folly of this. Then it was, you know, erroneous. 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:50.779 Because if you're that weak, you know, from starving, 00:27:51.640 --> 00:27:54.799 nothing is going to happen to you anyway. Your 00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:58.819 body can't stand it. So then he decided he would 00:27:58.819 --> 00:28:01.119 sit on his own. And he did. And as a legend goes, 00:28:01.119 --> 00:28:03.539 he went and sat under this Bodhi tree, this wake 00:28:03.539 --> 00:28:08.900 -up tree. Bodhi tree. And something, while he 00:28:08.900 --> 00:28:11.339 was sitting there, something happened to him. 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:15.240 And there's all kinds of stories about the things 00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:18.079 in the Mara came and tempted him and the snake. 00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:22.240 There's a big storm and here we were sitting 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:25.420 in this meditation and the snake that wound itself 00:28:25.420 --> 00:28:30.779 around him to protect him. But something happened 00:28:30.779 --> 00:28:33.740 to him sitting under this tree. Something that 00:28:33.740 --> 00:28:39.660 was most fundamental. Something that was ultimate. 00:28:42.059 --> 00:28:46.819 and it set all his doubts at rest, this experience 00:28:46.819 --> 00:28:50.500 he had. It settled not only his intellectual 00:28:50.500 --> 00:28:56.380 doubts, but his spiritual anguish. And some people 00:28:56.380 --> 00:29:01.140 do have spiritual anguish. It's not just confined 00:29:01.140 --> 00:29:04.799 to Buddhism. There was St. John of the Cross, 00:29:04.839 --> 00:29:08.039 and of course we have in a similar manner the 00:29:08.039 --> 00:29:14.990 Book of Job and his struggles. We could put it 00:29:14.990 --> 00:29:22.190 in that context. Anyway, this man whom we now 00:29:22.190 --> 00:29:26.609 call the Buddha, his enlightenment was of such 00:29:26.609 --> 00:29:33.109 stature, such depth, you know, that 49 years 00:29:33.109 --> 00:29:38.710 of teaching did not exhaust it, had not reached 00:29:38.710 --> 00:29:40.890 the depths or the heights of it yet when he died. 00:29:42.759 --> 00:29:48.680 and then after him came Nagarjuna, Asvagosha, 00:29:49.180 --> 00:29:54.480 Vasa Bandhu and Asanga and a lot more. Kamurojiva 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:58.119 who went to China also. They all delved into 00:29:58.119 --> 00:30:00.900 this teaching that this man had left behind and 00:30:00.900 --> 00:30:03.759 they absorbed it and they became enlightened 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:07.440 and then they further developed aspects, particular 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:11.839 aspects of it for others. Quite something, huh? 00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:20.920 And little Ananda, little Ananda, who was the 00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:24.599 Buddha's cousin and who was his attendant for 00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:29.940 many years and he had this great memory, he couldn't 00:30:29.940 --> 00:30:33.660 enter the realm of his teacher. You know, he 00:30:33.660 --> 00:30:37.880 was still, try as he would, he couldn't quite 00:30:37.880 --> 00:30:43.480 attain. And after the Buddha's death, Mahakashapa, 00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:48.960 became the great patriarch. And according to 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:54.799 the tradition, this convocation took place, or 00:30:54.799 --> 00:30:58.299 this division, all this disagreement took place. 00:30:58.680 --> 00:31:05.380 And Ananda was not allowed to attend. He was 00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:09.099 not allowed to take part in it in any way. Even 00:31:09.099 --> 00:31:10.700 though he had been this close to the Buddha, 00:31:11.619 --> 00:31:13.819 And he had this wonderful memory. Mahakashapa 00:31:13.819 --> 00:31:16.140 wouldn't let him go. He wouldn't let him come 00:31:16.140 --> 00:31:20.680 to any good. So, you know, when this big gnoll 00:31:20.680 --> 00:31:25.180 came to him, grieving, you know, he went out 00:31:25.180 --> 00:31:28.000 into the forest and he stumbled around the forest 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:30.960 all night. And toward the morning in his stumbling, 00:31:31.140 --> 00:31:33.140 he stumbled over the roots of a tree and he fell 00:31:33.140 --> 00:31:37.859 down. And all of a sudden he was enlightened. 00:31:44.460 --> 00:31:49.400 He realized the truth. And then as the story 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:55.000 goes, he ran back to Mahakashapa and he knocked 00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.339 on the door and he says, I have attained. I have 00:31:57.339 --> 00:32:01.720 attained. Open the door. I have attained. So 00:32:01.720 --> 00:32:06.039 Mahakashapa says, well, come on in. The door 00:32:06.039 --> 00:32:11.019 is locked. The door is locked. Ananda, why don't 00:32:11.019 --> 00:32:22.190 you then come in through the keyhole? That's 00:32:22.190 --> 00:32:30.329 the story. Ananda was the third Buddha, Mahakashapa, 00:32:30.410 --> 00:32:34.789 and then comes Ananda in the lineage. So he must 00:32:34.789 --> 00:32:39.089 have come in through the keyhole, huh? He must 00:32:39.089 --> 00:32:51.430 have. If one really sits down, and is together 00:32:51.430 --> 00:32:55.869 with himself and reads some of the words of the 00:32:55.869 --> 00:33:00.250 Buddha. You know, you can see that they, these 00:33:00.250 --> 00:33:04.789 words come out of this great eternal silence 00:33:04.789 --> 00:33:10.329 so that you should read them in silence. You 00:33:10.329 --> 00:33:14.549 should receive these words in silence. So then 00:33:14.549 --> 00:33:17.569 you could experience, you know, their purity. 00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:20.920 They're their crystal clearness, so direct to 00:33:20.920 --> 00:33:23.740 the point for all the talking around and around. 00:33:24.859 --> 00:33:27.079 Now intellectually, you know, we understand a 00:33:27.079 --> 00:33:29.819 lot of words, Sid. You know, simple words. You 00:33:29.819 --> 00:33:32.720 know, simple words they are, a lot of them. But 00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:37.440 their simplicity evidently is a problem. Jesus' 00:33:37.460 --> 00:33:43.420 words were simple. Birds have their nests and 00:33:43.420 --> 00:33:46.400 foxes have their holes, but the son of man hath 00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:50.240 nowhere to lay his head. Very simple, very well 00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:57.099 put. We want to make something else out of it. 00:33:58.500 --> 00:34:04.119 We're very complex. To understand simplicity, 00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:09.139 we must become simple at heart. Simple in the 00:34:09.139 --> 00:34:12.780 heart. And we read words sometimes and they're 00:34:12.780 --> 00:34:16.900 called moral precepts. Moral precepts. And they 00:34:16.900 --> 00:34:21.019 convey similar ideas to what I read this morning 00:34:21.019 --> 00:34:24.659 from the Dhammapada. And we skip over it very 00:34:24.659 --> 00:34:26.920 blithely, but I already know this. I shouldn't 00:34:26.920 --> 00:34:30.099 lie, I shouldn't steal, and so on. I shouldn't 00:34:30.099 --> 00:34:33.039 drink. That's almost on the top of the list as 00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:48.360 far as Buddha was concerned. If you did know, 00:34:48.739 --> 00:34:52.179 really know, you wouldn't skip over them. Each 00:34:52.179 --> 00:34:55.519 phrase would become maybe like an essence to 00:34:55.519 --> 00:34:59.820 be savored. Like a turn of a phrase. Sometimes 00:34:59.820 --> 00:35:02.119 you know a phrase sticks in the mind because 00:35:02.119 --> 00:35:08.119 you like it so. Or you savor some food that you 00:35:08.119 --> 00:35:16.760 thoroughly enjoy. So some of these. Simple little 00:35:16.760 --> 00:35:26.300 phrases. And I found a copy, I was telling Roslyn, 00:35:26.360 --> 00:35:29.960 of the Philokalia. And they have something very 00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:36.280 similar in that old book. It's old fashioned 00:35:36.280 --> 00:35:40.239 language. You know this, but if you have read 00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:44.869 the Pilgrim, there's a Pilgrim on the way. the 00:35:44.869 --> 00:35:47.710 way of the pilgrim, you know, his wandering around 00:35:47.710 --> 00:35:54.369 Russia, his devotion, and reading his book, and 00:35:54.369 --> 00:35:57.289 of course he became, you can read it right in 00:35:57.289 --> 00:36:00.050 the lines, he doesn't ever say it, he keeps himself 00:36:00.050 --> 00:36:03.389 so humble all the time, but oh you should, it 00:36:03.389 --> 00:36:06.530 comes right out of the pages, it leaps at you, 00:36:07.170 --> 00:36:10.010 you know, and it says in there, in this little 00:36:10.010 --> 00:36:13.289 book, almost right at the beginning, if you find 00:36:13.289 --> 00:36:19.920 yourself hating your fellow men and resist this 00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:27.000 hatred. And you see that it grows weak and withdraws. 00:36:27.420 --> 00:36:31.719 Do not rejoice in your heart, for this withdrawal 00:36:31.719 --> 00:36:46.260 is a trick of the evil spirits. Which is usually 00:36:46.260 --> 00:36:48.619 the opposite of what we think, huh? I'll fight 00:36:48.619 --> 00:36:52.340 it and I'll fight it until I whip it. And when 00:36:52.340 --> 00:36:55.780 it begins to withdraw, ha ha, I've conquered. 00:37:06.300 --> 00:37:13.179 Now this Dhammapada, the Dharma, the Dhamma. 00:37:14.469 --> 00:37:18.730 existence itself in which there is no hierarchy, 00:37:20.050 --> 00:37:23.050 no hierarchy. There's nothing small and there's 00:37:23.050 --> 00:37:28.010 nothing great. The brightest star and the smallest 00:37:28.010 --> 00:37:33.309 blade of grass exist in this universe as equals. 00:37:38.110 --> 00:37:45.449 The Dhamma also means justice. equality and virtue. 00:37:47.150 --> 00:37:50.030 We may have our ideas of what is right and what 00:37:50.030 --> 00:37:52.929 is wrong, but when you look at existence without 00:37:52.929 --> 00:37:56.429 any prejudice, with no prejudice you look out 00:37:56.429 --> 00:38:02.730 there nothing is wrong. Nothing is wrong. Looking 00:38:02.730 --> 00:38:05.710 at existence, birth is right, death is right, 00:38:05.829 --> 00:38:08.269 beauty is right, ugliness is right. Nothing is 00:38:08.269 --> 00:38:16.019 wrong. way of looking at the world is very partial. 00:38:20.739 --> 00:38:23.920 We are like a person who is hiding behind the 00:38:23.920 --> 00:38:28.739 door and he's looking at the scene through a 00:38:28.739 --> 00:38:36.000 keyhole. Through the keyhole one sees things. 00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:42.519 One sees movement. One sees people, and cars, 00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:47.280 and horses, and dogs, and cats, and so on. One 00:38:47.280 --> 00:38:49.320 moment they're here, the next moment they're 00:38:49.320 --> 00:38:54.639 not. One moment not here, next moment here, and 00:38:54.639 --> 00:38:58.460 the next moment gone. This is how we ordinarily 00:38:58.460 --> 00:39:01.500 look at existence. We have a future, we have 00:39:01.500 --> 00:39:04.900 a present, and we have a past. All seen through 00:39:04.900 --> 00:39:11.530 this keyhole. And we should drop this keyhole 00:39:11.530 --> 00:39:20.550 vision. If you could see the hole, everything 00:39:20.550 --> 00:39:25.070 is as it should be. Everything is right. Nothing 00:39:25.070 --> 00:39:32.590 is wrong. That's one way of looking at this word, 00:39:32.949 --> 00:39:38.900 domino. It also can mean God. which word we have 00:39:38.900 --> 00:39:43.119 made altogether too personal. So we avoid kind 00:39:43.119 --> 00:39:47.340 of the use of it because we have been brought 00:39:47.340 --> 00:39:50.000 up with this, God is a personal father to whom 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.280 we can ask all kinds of things, requests to be 00:39:54.280 --> 00:40:01.940 made to make my life easier. Dhamma can mean 00:40:01.940 --> 00:40:07.320 discipline. The one who wants to know the truth 00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:09.900 disciplines himself. It depends on how much you 00:40:09.900 --> 00:40:11.639 want to know the truth as to how hard you will 00:40:11.639 --> 00:40:15.420 discipline yourself. Discipline means the capacity 00:40:15.420 --> 00:40:27.360 to learn. So it is being here. Here. That is 00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:34.320 being available to learning. Being receptive. 00:40:34.510 --> 00:40:40.969 to learning. Not everybody is. One must be ready 00:40:40.969 --> 00:40:45.349 to drop beliefs and prejudices. One must be willing 00:40:45.349 --> 00:40:48.969 to set the thinking aside and to look into this 00:40:48.969 --> 00:40:53.250 matter, this matter, huh? This matter being religion, 00:40:53.630 --> 00:41:00.190 this matter, this road, this matter without any 00:41:00.190 --> 00:41:06.639 a priori conception. And the more you sit, the 00:41:06.639 --> 00:41:10.059 more you realize, oh my God, I don't believe 00:41:10.059 --> 00:41:18.639 that. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Difficult to 00:41:18.639 --> 00:41:23.519 find out what you do believe and what your prejudices 00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:25.960 are. You don't have any idea how shocked I was 00:41:25.960 --> 00:41:31.179 to find out I was arrogant. Being a German, I'm 00:41:31.179 --> 00:41:34.340 arrogant. All of a sudden, this is brought to 00:41:34.340 --> 00:41:44.360 my attention. I'm not either. Dharma or Dhamma 00:41:44.360 --> 00:41:51.900 also means the ultimate truth. When the thinking 00:41:51.900 --> 00:41:54.980 disappears, all of a sudden you can really hold 00:41:54.980 --> 00:41:57.840 this focus and there's no thinking in the picture. 00:41:59.019 --> 00:42:10.099 When the ego disappears, what remains? It's a 00:42:10.099 --> 00:42:12.719 little difficult, you know, we're so hooked on 00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:16.019 this thinking, but if your thinking disappears, 00:42:16.679 --> 00:42:22.619 how are you going to think the truth? You can't. 00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:26.900 You cannot. And your thinking has got to be set 00:42:26.900 --> 00:42:31.079 aside in order to perceive the truth. But now, 00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:33.300 what are you going to do with it when you can't 00:42:33.300 --> 00:42:37.940 think? The truth is us and us and us and us. 00:42:38.380 --> 00:42:42.840 That's what we say to ourselves, huh? You can't 00:42:42.840 --> 00:42:47.179 do that. You can't think and have the truth. 00:42:48.039 --> 00:42:51.179 The same instance, huh? Afterwards you can think 00:42:51.179 --> 00:42:56.239 about it, but hmm. When the thinking and the 00:42:56.239 --> 00:43:00.719 ego for one split second is missing, what remains? 00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:10.260 Certainly something. Or how could you even know 00:43:10.260 --> 00:43:13.780 that you had an experience? Something remains, 00:43:14.420 --> 00:43:20.619 huh? And of course to call it something isn't 00:43:20.619 --> 00:43:23.860 quite correct. So the Buddha called it nothing. 00:43:30.260 --> 00:43:33.690 Well, you know, it's kind of like a seed. In 00:43:33.690 --> 00:43:38.429 the autumn, the seed drops to the ground. And 00:43:38.429 --> 00:43:41.110 then it's in the wintertime, you know, there's 00:43:41.110 --> 00:43:47.650 rain and sleet and hail and snow maybe, you know, 00:43:47.730 --> 00:43:50.630 and the little seed is driven into the soil. 00:43:51.650 --> 00:43:55.849 So now it's under the ground. And then comes 00:43:55.849 --> 00:44:00.150 the spring, and there's this warm sunshine, and 00:44:00.150 --> 00:44:04.079 maybe there's some more rain. And the outer coating 00:44:04.079 --> 00:44:09.760 of the seed becomes loose and finally it drops 00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:14.420 away and it rots, it disintegrates. So now we 00:44:14.420 --> 00:44:22.860 have the kernel of the seed left. And with this 00:44:22.860 --> 00:44:27.159 kernel of the seed there is more water and more 00:44:27.159 --> 00:44:33.420 warmth and it too begins to disintegrate. so 00:44:33.420 --> 00:44:40.679 that nothing is left except the essence. Out 00:44:40.679 --> 00:44:46.860 of this disintegration comes again another tree 00:44:46.860 --> 00:44:57.400 because the tree was in the seed. The whole of 00:44:57.400 --> 00:45:01.699 the tree, every twig, every branch, All the flowers, 00:45:01.900 --> 00:45:05.039 all the leaves, all the fruit was in the seed. 00:45:06.619 --> 00:45:11.079 Did you see it? If you took it apart, would you 00:45:11.079 --> 00:45:21.460 see it? No way. You see nothing. You dissect 00:45:21.460 --> 00:45:25.440 that seed and you see nothing, but it's there. 00:45:26.300 --> 00:45:31.530 Isn't that incredible? It's such a mystery. But 00:45:31.530 --> 00:45:34.469 you can experience that and this is of course 00:45:34.469 --> 00:45:39.469 the thing that we are going through. Okay, so 00:45:39.469 --> 00:45:42.570 much now for the Dhamma. What about the Pada? 00:45:44.449 --> 00:45:50.909 Which means a path. It means a way to go. In 00:45:50.909 --> 00:45:54.849 religion, there are certain questions and they 00:45:54.849 --> 00:46:02.429 are related to what and how. Now the what cannot 00:46:02.429 --> 00:46:06.309 be talked about. Actually can't. It can't be 00:46:06.309 --> 00:46:12.989 described. I mean if you say the word God, this 00:46:12.989 --> 00:46:15.809 is not God. If you say the word truth, this is 00:46:15.809 --> 00:46:18.889 not truth. I mean it's not simply a play on words 00:46:18.889 --> 00:46:22.030 and things like that. You cannot. It's what. 00:46:23.289 --> 00:46:25.789 I mean so somebody says it's something and somebody 00:46:25.789 --> 00:46:28.050 else says it's nothing and somebody else says 00:46:28.050 --> 00:46:35.800 it's an essence. and the what. But the how, that's 00:46:35.800 --> 00:46:39.539 a little different. How shall I go about finding 00:46:39.539 --> 00:46:42.780 myself, this true self that I've heard so much 00:46:42.780 --> 00:46:46.139 about? Well, what path am I going to follow for 00:46:46.139 --> 00:46:51.059 it? Now this can sort of be indicated, you know. 00:46:51.320 --> 00:46:54.800 Another person can tell you of the way they traveled, 00:46:55.519 --> 00:46:58.579 how they went up the mountain. How they went 00:46:58.579 --> 00:47:01.460 through this very arduous climb and they were 00:47:01.460 --> 00:47:03.739 tired and they were hungry and they were thirsty. 00:47:04.659 --> 00:47:12.079 This is hard work. After this hard work that 00:47:12.079 --> 00:47:17.659 they put in on themselves, the what happens on 00:47:17.659 --> 00:47:26.909 the peak? You know, Moses, they tell of Moses 00:47:26.909 --> 00:47:31.789 going up Mount Sinai, you know, and he was confronted 00:47:31.789 --> 00:47:34.630 with the God who gave him some tablets with the 00:47:34.630 --> 00:47:37.449 moral precepts called commandments. They never 00:47:37.449 --> 00:47:40.610 called them the law and the commandments. I wonder 00:47:40.610 --> 00:47:46.449 what really happened. They say that, you know, 00:47:46.510 --> 00:47:51.909 Moses, there is a theory around and about that 00:47:51.909 --> 00:47:56.389 Moses, was a relative of the Pharaoh. He was 00:47:56.389 --> 00:48:01.829 eye -ranking in the hierarchy. And that he did 00:48:01.829 --> 00:48:08.110 lead these people out into the desert. But out 00:48:08.110 --> 00:48:14.769 there they killed him. And one of the men that 00:48:14.769 --> 00:48:17.090 were in the group took over. And he's the one 00:48:17.090 --> 00:48:21.170 that really went up the mountain. That's the 00:48:21.170 --> 00:48:30.400 theory that's out now. Poor Moses. Anyway, this 00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:35.039 search for truth. And if one has this passionate 00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:37.800 search for truth, it gives you a foundation. 00:48:38.800 --> 00:48:40.880 You stand on a foundation. It's kind of like 00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:43.599 standing on cement in yourself. You know, a good 00:48:43.599 --> 00:48:47.780 foundation. That's Pada. See, it's the foot. 00:48:47.840 --> 00:48:51.599 It's the step. So, you know, because we all know 00:48:51.599 --> 00:48:57.840 we have to move from where we are now to become 00:48:57.840 --> 00:48:59.659 part of the process. I mean, not that we're not, 00:48:59.679 --> 00:49:01.559 we are part of the process, but our thinking 00:49:01.559 --> 00:49:06.380 keeps us out of it, away from it, huh? You can't 00:49:06.380 --> 00:49:10.019 just remain a little pool all by yourself, isolated 00:49:10.019 --> 00:49:12.780 and so on. You know, because it is said only 00:49:12.780 --> 00:49:16.280 rivers reach the ocean and it's the ocean that 00:49:16.280 --> 00:49:20.119 you want. A pool goes nowhere. It just sits in 00:49:20.119 --> 00:49:22.460 itself and finally gets smelly and it's got a 00:49:22.460 --> 00:49:24.920 bunch of twigs and it leaves and they all settle 00:49:24.920 --> 00:49:27.320 and then finally become stagnant. Is that what 00:49:27.320 --> 00:49:30.380 you want to do? I don't think so. So one learns 00:49:30.380 --> 00:49:35.820 a flow, you know, be alive, become a river, you 00:49:35.820 --> 00:49:40.900 know, a river of life. There is a river of life. 00:49:43.099 --> 00:49:45.239 We should be flowing with it. We're not just 00:49:45.239 --> 00:49:47.280 supposed to sit on the banks of it and wait. 00:49:54.380 --> 00:49:56.840 Don't just be a piece of driftwood. You know, 00:49:56.840 --> 00:49:58.860 then you're at the mercy of the wind and the 00:49:58.860 --> 00:50:01.699 water and all what else. So you're not knowing 00:50:01.699 --> 00:50:04.880 where you're going and not knowing who you are. 00:50:07.340 --> 00:50:17.340 Go to the river. Dhammapada. The way to the Dharma. 00:50:19.699 --> 00:50:24.900 The way to the ultimate truth. Right? We are 00:50:24.900 --> 00:50:27.260 what we think that's what it starts out with 00:50:27.260 --> 00:50:31.000 we are what we think all that we are rises with 00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:34.639 our thoughts Thoughts rise they come and they 00:50:34.639 --> 00:50:39.019 go and we pick and choose We like this. We don't 00:50:39.019 --> 00:50:43.960 like that. You know who picks and chooses You 00:50:43.960 --> 00:50:46.019 ever watch it you ever watch this process in 00:50:46.019 --> 00:50:50.980 yourself Observing and you know that without 00:50:50.980 --> 00:50:56.920 thoughts we don't know ourselves Thoughts are 00:50:56.920 --> 00:50:59.739 objective to our being something in here being 00:50:59.739 --> 00:51:03.380 subjective and it is when this objective is in 00:51:03.380 --> 00:51:07.840 here these thoughts That we begin to know and 00:51:07.840 --> 00:51:11.760 I'm in here If there's no objective, there's 00:51:11.760 --> 00:51:14.699 no subjective we never know I'm in here like 00:51:14.699 --> 00:51:16.760 my kitty will never know she's in there that 00:51:16.760 --> 00:51:22.300 she's a kitty cat We need something to bounce 00:51:22.300 --> 00:51:25.340 on And this is of course one of the stories out 00:51:25.340 --> 00:51:39.159 of India, you know. What's his name? 10 ,000 00:51:39.159 --> 00:51:42.139 names and I can't think of one. Anyway, they're 00:51:42.139 --> 00:51:45.739 the Indian god who created the world, you know. 00:51:50.019 --> 00:51:57.099 He's in heaven. He has everything. And he's lonesome. 00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:07.940 So he creates this lila and he bumps up against 00:52:07.940 --> 00:52:20.230 that. And now that becomes the world. Yeah. He 00:52:20.230 --> 00:52:23.389 ought to know quite a bit about himself by now. 00:52:25.469 --> 00:52:30.989 So also we call this an energy world. And the 00:52:30.989 --> 00:52:35.489 energy world is a world that science investigates. 00:52:36.309 --> 00:52:40.809 And it is this energy that impinges upon us, 00:52:41.389 --> 00:52:44.289 on the body, on the eyes, and the ears, and the 00:52:44.289 --> 00:52:48.050 mouth, and the tongue, and the nose, and so on. 00:52:49.079 --> 00:52:53.900 The energy impinges on our sense receptors. And 00:52:53.900 --> 00:53:01.960 because of the sense data, these impingements 00:53:01.960 --> 00:53:05.519 and the pictures that come about in the psyche, 00:53:06.179 --> 00:53:11.420 because of these energy impingements, we have 00:53:11.420 --> 00:53:15.980 an interpretation of the world which is called 00:53:15.980 --> 00:53:22.170 an appearance. That's what we have got through 00:53:22.170 --> 00:53:28.949 our senses, an interpretation. And it's our interpretation. 00:53:29.670 --> 00:53:32.449 Everybody can say this is my interpretation, 00:53:32.969 --> 00:53:35.309 because that's the only interpretation that it 00:53:35.309 --> 00:53:41.730 can be, is yours, mine. All that we are rises 00:53:41.730 --> 00:53:47.869 with our thoughts. All that we are rises with 00:53:47.869 --> 00:53:58.619 our thoughts. Before the thought, what is? It's 00:53:58.619 --> 00:54:00.619 like saying, you know, before the world began, 00:54:00.619 --> 00:54:04.019 you know, who are you? It's a very basic fundamental 00:54:04.019 --> 00:54:13.219 thing. And so you sit with this. Do you expect 00:54:13.219 --> 00:54:23.510 a verbal answer? Before the thought, there cannot 00:54:23.510 --> 00:54:28.530 be a verbal answer. You'll be thinking right 00:54:28.530 --> 00:54:35.769 away again. Before the thought, you cannot say, 00:54:36.010 --> 00:54:39.969 I am a Catholic, I'm a Protestant, I am a Jew, 00:54:40.449 --> 00:54:45.449 I'm a Hindu, I'm a Sufi, and whatever else you 00:54:45.449 --> 00:54:49.000 want to put in that category. None of the above 00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:52.219 can you say. You're not any of these. You are 00:54:52.219 --> 00:55:00.059 not any of these. It takes thought to recognize 00:55:00.059 --> 00:55:07.699 the fact that I'm a Sufi. Before the thought. 00:55:08.179 --> 00:55:11.599 Before the thought the Bible disappears, the 00:55:11.599 --> 00:55:15.000 Gita disappears, the Quran disappears, the Dhammapada 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:20.940 disappears. All the Zen writings disappear, you 00:55:20.940 --> 00:55:24.500 know, because there aren't any words. And then 00:55:24.500 --> 00:55:29.860 what is your name? You cannot say. Because this 00:55:29.860 --> 00:55:34.880 is before thought. What country? What race? Nothing. 00:55:36.260 --> 00:55:41.739 Before the thought, you know, what are you? Before 00:55:41.739 --> 00:55:50.280 the thought. We are what we think. All that we 00:55:50.280 --> 00:55:53.900 are rises from our thoughts. With our thoughts 00:55:53.900 --> 00:55:59.860 we make the world. So then we decide, well, you 00:55:59.860 --> 00:56:02.739 know, I don't much like the world that I see 00:56:02.739 --> 00:56:05.079 and so I'm going to do some of this meditation 00:56:05.079 --> 00:56:10.159 business. The practice thereof. Meditation practice. 00:56:10.599 --> 00:56:12.760 And it takes a great deal of practice, I may 00:56:12.760 --> 00:56:17.619 say. to allow the mind to stop churning this 00:56:17.619 --> 00:56:21.380 activity. It's frenzied almost at times. And 00:56:21.380 --> 00:56:23.840 of course when you sit for a while it's going 00:56:23.840 --> 00:56:26.519 to get worse because now all of a sudden you're 00:56:26.519 --> 00:56:29.579 paying attention to it. It makes it seem worse. 00:56:32.500 --> 00:56:35.099 But meditation is about dropping the thinking, 00:56:35.860 --> 00:56:40.199 ignoring the thinking, and learning to hold a 00:56:40.199 --> 00:56:45.739 one -pointed concentration. That is being mindful. 00:56:48.039 --> 00:56:51.960 Finding the space before the thought. Moving 00:56:51.960 --> 00:56:55.860 into another aspect of consciousness. It's called 00:56:55.860 --> 00:56:58.639 sometimes no mind. That's as good as nothing. 00:56:59.840 --> 00:57:04.079 And in this no mind state we discover many, many, 00:57:04.079 --> 00:57:08.619 many wonderful things. No mind is like no classification. 00:57:09.250 --> 00:57:12.409 No mind is the same as no judgment. No mind is 00:57:12.409 --> 00:57:15.070 the same as non -discrimination. No mind is no 00:57:15.070 --> 00:57:18.269 identification. No mind is no ego. No ego, no 00:57:18.269 --> 00:57:29.030 self. Who are you? Now the moving from the thinking 00:57:29.030 --> 00:57:32.869 mind to this non -ego mind or no mind is a step 00:57:32.869 --> 00:57:36.789 and this is the pada. It is this shift, you know. 00:57:37.130 --> 00:57:40.690 the shift of what you usually think you are to 00:57:40.690 --> 00:57:48.230 not what you think you are. What you are in spiritual 00:57:48.230 --> 00:57:52.510 fact as opposed to empirical fact. It's pure 00:57:52.510 --> 00:57:57.050 mind. Impure mind is a mind that is conditioned. 00:57:57.550 --> 00:58:01.989 It doesn't mean it's dirty. It's conditioned. 00:58:02.630 --> 00:58:07.019 What you believe, your thoughts. A pure mind 00:58:07.019 --> 00:58:13.260 is an unconditioned mind. Look how he abused 00:58:13.260 --> 00:58:16.699 me and beat me, how he threw me down and robbed 00:58:16.699 --> 00:58:22.780 me. Abandon such thoughts and live in love. He 00:58:22.780 --> 00:58:30.260 robbed me. He took away my good name. He lied 00:58:30.260 --> 00:58:34.800 about me. He threw me down, down into the cellar. 00:58:34.809 --> 00:58:38.530 way down in the cellar. You going to stay there? 00:58:41.849 --> 00:58:45.050 So just have your moment of anger. Something 00:58:45.050 --> 00:58:49.889 has gone awry, but let it be a clean anger. Sharp 00:58:49.889 --> 00:58:54.369 and short. It's not going to do you any harm. 00:58:54.849 --> 00:58:57.949 You can let it go. And it goes with some people, 00:58:58.170 --> 00:59:03.300 like it rises and goes with other people. You 00:59:03.300 --> 00:59:06.260 see, that's where the problem comes in. Harboring 00:59:06.260 --> 00:59:10.800 it and holding it and hating it and desiring 00:59:10.800 --> 00:59:16.760 revenge. Now you're making your world what it 00:59:16.760 --> 00:59:20.760 is. And it will take you over, as this book said, 00:59:21.019 --> 00:59:22.860 like evil spirits. These are the evil spirits. 00:59:24.780 --> 00:59:29.699 Be angry and abandon it. And then you can live 00:59:29.699 --> 00:59:54.820 in love. If you find Lola's talks valuable, more 00:59:54.820 --> 00:59:56.480 will be posted in weeks to come.