SokukoJi Buddhist Temple Monastery

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Traceless means it leaves no tracks; there’s no result. Without credentials is another way of saying it. How would you know you had attained realization? You won’t know in the conventional sense. Realization has no status. https://youtu.be/QjCq1NAW4fI

The rest of the world is trying to get results without respect for what’s showing up in the mind stream or the life stream. Put your energy into intending to see what this is. https://youtu.be/IdBoIFa4AKo

Something happens and we immediately abandon that for who did it. The ego mind will settle for anything. It reifies that part of the consciousness that has shrunk down into the size of a coconut and is looking for causation so we can have some feeling of control. All you have to do is observe this. https://youtu.be/V4ZEez-e9Gk

This is a reference to Suzuki Roshi’s book, “Zen Mind, Beginners’s Mind.” We don’t have to orient toward some kind of result or gaining idea. It seems necessary to return to that original intention to see the truth, over and over. https://youtu.be/EG39nKpCE9w

This is a way of talking about perception clear of all the detritus and debris that the ego throws up and supports in order to continue to create an oligarch who worries, judges, and controls everything. Immaculate perception is just receiving. https://youtu.be/CanbpCtfmXs

It’s not about putting a stop to thoughts. When thoughts are not used and abused, then they tend to soften up and we just perceive what’s in front of us: color, taste, smells, touch, feeling, and even thoughts. https://youtu.be/ZUnM3gOrYOM

A true student of the dharma is on receive all the time. This is why it’s so important to return to the vow. It takes time to do this. https://youtu.be/5yQcLvhYcgg

Start with yourself. Be gentle, but very attentive to everything that’s happening in the mind stream. Don’t accept anything, don’t reject anything and don’t shut down, ignore or distract yourself from anything. Take a look at the difficult time you give yourself. https://youtu.be/UA3Ep4pu1Iw

I often say the three C’s are communicate, cooperate and collaborate. The first C is communicate. The way I describe that is 90/10: Listen 90% of the time and talk 10%. If you do the first three C’s, then you have community. https://youtu.be/Ds_Qn_w-pOM

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This is a direct instruction from the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche: keep sitting. If you’re looking at your mind and watching without objecting, agreeing, or shutting down you begin to see the fundamental nature of confusion in your own mind. It’s not ‘out there’ - that’s a projection. https://youtu.be/jnGcElKcaXw

Don’t maintain anything. You can return to the vow using a few simple words. Of the sixteen precepts, the main one to look at and return to is the last pure precept: Be With All Things. https://youtu.be/wWuef6JyzAQ

The Ninth prohibitory precept of No Being Angry is about giving up our expectations on each moment and bowing to the richness of how things really are. https://youtu.be/RPDiIHCaeZA

We are always projecting out onto something what we think it is based on our prejudice. Thinking we are not prejudiced is the very nature of prejudice. Pay attention to what’s coming through the door or down the street. Picking and choosing works well in the relative world. Wanting this and not wanting that is not particularly important or helpful on the spiritual path. Just receive. The absence o...

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The conventional idea of sanity is a basic stability that isn’t lost in the disorganization or chaos. Some people have a natural ability to do that. They are probably not on this particular spiritual path, which is extremely complicated and is going to take some work. Sanity is already the case - you don’t have to become sane, just be responsible for your own confusion. Through awareness practice,...

We’re all crazy in some way. We’re confused and have conflicting emotions. The idea here is to see if we can’t ruin that by finding some way to go into the incredibly elaborate structure of insanity, its bulwarks, stand-ins, and ways of keeping your wisdom mind from awakening. You’re already awake; you just need to uncover that. Look at the craziness. You can’t train your mind unless you are holdi...

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When you’re working with a radical, simple meditation process or even in your everyday life, the idea is to touch on whatever’s arising. Don’t maintain it, just observe. It’s not a demand, it’s just very simple. That way you’re acknowledging what’s arising but you’re not adding a story to it. Don’t shut it out with anger or acceptance. This is the practice of awareness, the path of the buddhas. Wh...

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So far, we are free - kind of. But, if you believe, disbelieve or ignore your thought patterns, you’re not free; you’re in a prison of your own making - hopes for this, fear of that - it’s a set up. The “selfie” I’m talking about is the seventh consciousness. It’s not easy to understand. It’s the aspect of consciousness called the klesha mind, also known as klisto-mano-vijñāna. This is that part o...