SokukoJi Buddhist Temple Monastery

This has been called the five dharmas in the Lankavatara Sutra. The five dharmas are just one thing. It’s going to look like a path until it doesn’t. Even without the 4th dharma of buddha knowledge, you can awaken to muchness. https://youtu.be/IYHFKj6x6tI

Think deeply comes from Dogen’s Shobogenzo in the fascicle, “Flowers in the Sky.” Receive thoughts without manipulating and interpreting them. If you think deeply there’s no thinker. Allow the self to fall away from the greediness of an imaginary self. https://youtu.be/9EsX40wIQBU

Your emotions are always there. When something happens to trigger our emotions we may think something or someone caused it. This is untrue. Cause and effect are much more complicated than that. Don’t torture others by blaming them. https://youtu.be/QByjiVDODb0

Buddha’s first teaching was suffering. If you’re alive, you’re going to suffer. Even when nothing seems to be wrong, we’re worried about what might be coming just around corner. Most people do not know they are suffering because they’re successful in the relative area of covering it up. https://youtu.be/ykwbYVOhzYI

https://youtu.be/OUep2HD6Ies

https://youtu.be/Gi7k4iePRkk

Anytime anything occurs, if you have any thoughts about it at all, it’s more than likely a cover-up. Rather than see what is there we fight with it, or we blame. It’s about being aware or this, not stopping or fixing it. It seems to take a lot of sitting meditation in order to see this clearly. https://youtu.be/_aea6TrHwzA

Anytime anything occurs, if you have any thoughts about it at all, it’s more than likely a cover-up. Rather than see what is there we fight with it, or we blame. It’s about being aware or this, not stopping or fixing it. It seems to take a lot of sitting meditation in order to see this clearly. https://youtu.be/453_2g1Iyi8

This is an image to help us see what we have been doing. We’re constantly participating in everything, commenting on whatever shows up, reifying, justifying, and validating ego, reinforcing the reality of whatever is happening in our mind stream. You don’t need to conclude anything. https://youtu.be/GV_AoCSo5Ro

“The mirage of duality” is a line from the Sadhana of Mahamudra by Trungpa Rinpoche. The apparent multiplicity of everything is the mirage. When you believe the illusion is true, it’s called delusion. It’s not about correcting that. https://youtu.be/RbfuYEEc2Ps

We automatically receive all kinds of things: smells, touch, memories, thoughts, emotions. When something shows up we grasp at it. This creates a grasper and the illusion of a person, an identity. If you’re constantly producing out of the illusion you are fueling that part of consciousness that thinks there’s a self. You don’t need to get rid of it; you just need to see that it’s unreal. https://y...

When your perception of what is right in front of you is completely free of the debris of your conceptions, preconceptions, opinions, ideas and junkyard dog conclusions, this is immaculate perception; no one is perceiving, nothing is perceived. https://youtu.be/wn0y2Ww-Iao

Enlightenment or realization is seeing the truth and no longer being deluded by anything. It has no substance; you can’t find it. You have to see if for yourself with your awareness. https://youtu.be/NyD8E0kIeGg

First, listen. If you’re having difficulty communicating, use the 90/10 rule; Listen 90% of the time and talk 10%. Wait for the period. Receive what is being triggered in your mind stream. https://youtu.be/IWns0Yl6w0Q

This is the only way most of the world can continue on a spiritual path. Even in a non-theistic tradition, we set up an authority. It’s possible to practice without this authority. https://youtu.be/XxUBMcFoxMQ

The model of the 6 realms is a traditional Buddhist teaching about states of mind. Each realm is characterized by one of the three poisons and describes the way we are working with them. Bodhisattvas are said to appear in every realm in order to save beings. https://youtu.be/Qr1iLddzLuE

We attach ourselves to a standard when we don’t want to see what something really is. We need standards, but they need to be observed with respect. You may stick to it 90% of the time, but If you always just go to the standard you are ignoring the open dimension of your mind. https://youtu.be/BMYPTaDHIRY

People are controlled by their beliefs. These are positions the ego takes up in order to avoid looking into the darkness, the unknown. It’s hard to see if you're believing something because it shows up as an opinion. Just look at that and receive the discomfort without covering it up. https://youtu.be/7hoOaWAcpRc

We make little short stories about everything. Be aware that you’re doing that. We’re not trying to not have stories; it’s always about awareness, not about controlling things. Observe what’s coming or going and what’s hanging around. https://youtu.be/s9vA4pPezbI

When anger arises in your mind stream, don’t stop it, don’t explain it, and don’t blame anyone for it including yourself. This just gets us deeper into the circularity of samsara.. Anger is dependently arisen and is not generated by a person. If you think it is, you’ll go in circles. https://youtu.be/KoT2ENAK0KQ

The three poisons are passion, aggression and ignorance. The hardest one to identify and not jump to conclusions about is ignorance. The very nature of it is to not look, not to see it. Without instruction it’s very difficult not to mistake it for some kind of samadhi. https://youtu.be/LEwn_qKWGro

Buddha means awakened one. What is the nature of that? Buddha Nature does not come and go; it’s ineffable. Over time, through watching what is appearing and disappearing, you can change your allegiance over to the awareness of just what is dependently arising. https://youtu.be/nFAk5uz8Gbo

Receive without producing is saying the same thing. I want to encourage you to receive the thoughts. If you can, don’t express and don’t add. You may have to put a lunge line on that pony of your thoughts so that you can see the way you continue to take what arises and use it as a credential or proof of something else. https://youtu.be/kNNQb1Hc_aI

Kleshas may appear to increase because you’ve been covering them up. Now that you’re practicing meditation and studying the buddha’s dharma, the cover-ups aren’t working quite so well. If it shows up in your mind, it is yours. Don’t fight with that. https://youtu.be/XbVK3xWYbww

Whatever is arising in the mind stream at any given moment is dependently arisen. That means there’s no real thinker there. We may try to ignore what’s arising or shove down our emotions. In order to see that you’re even doing such a thing, just be aware. https://youtu.be/i0MJ_uRY1Ao