SokukoJi Buddhist Temple Monastery

Questions from sangha include how to keep going on the path, and, "What is perception without a self?" Consciousness masquerades as a self. https://youtu.be/tlnizqfwkBU

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You don’t have to stop your thoughts, but you do have to relate to them clearly and sanely. A teaching that might help you do that is alternating sense awareness practice (ASAP). This is about including, in particular the five sense fields of touch, sight, hearing, smelling and tasting. https://youtu.be/qEF6622JtCU

The projecting part is thinking things occur because of our interpretation of the situation. We conclude without really looking beyond our thoughts about it. Only awareness sees beyond thought. Thought is trapped by thought. https://youtu.be/G3ruIm_Uqz0

These are opinions or structures we use to protect self-centeredness and to reify and reinforce that we are someone going somewhere and doing something, which is also ego. The impulse is to stop it. Just try to be aware of what’s happening rather than trying to control it. https://youtu.be/qhw3tZVIa1k

Something happens and instead of just receiving what that is, we comment on it: thinking, judging, concluding. Rarely do we receive something as it is, unless it’s so intense, we can’t help but receive it. It’s not about getting rid of anything; it’s about awareness. https://youtu.be/vc8g21FbGjI

A reading from the Majima Nikaya, the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, speaks about the bondage and shackles of of theorizing. The Buddha said, “It does not lead to nirvana; This is the danger I perceive in these views, which makes me discard them all.“ https://youtu.be/1QTfjFiqwPI

Empty of Other is a third turning teaching. The otherness is what confuses the self-centeredness and gives the illusion that you have some say so about things. That doesn’t mean there isn’t something here, but it’s not a centralized entity, a ‘me’ with some kind of credential. Bodies come and go - you don’t go anywhere. https://youtu.be/Q8K3pgIDnew

It’s very important to just observe. We never can look at what something actually is. We add on things; what that is and, and almost imperceptibly, the person who is looking at it. We create an individual over and over again. Not only is what it looking at is unreal but that which is being looked at or observed is unreal. https://youtu.be/0OJvaOL0xxY

A subject that comes up with students that there is often misunderstanding about is therapy, and how it relates to meditation. There are many ways to get into the structure of the way in which you’re confusing yourself. A good therapist will meet you, “where you’re at.” https://youtu.be/w1Ngynkd8VA

Observe the Confusion. If you try to fix it, change it or cover it up, you’ll miss what it actually is because you’re running away from what you think it is. It is not separate from you and also not the same as you. If you see confusion clearly, this is wisdom. https://youtu.be/OwFGbmqFOtY

Concepts rule when you grasp onto your thoughts and ideas and the emotional dynamics that are reinforced by that structure. Just watch the movement that arises around any particular story. https://youtu.be/DtlqaY-_wDI

I’m not trying to convert you to Buddhism. You can just meditate without doing that. If you don’t meditate, you are at the mercy of your passion, aggression, and ignorance, your self deception. If you know about it, it starts to come apart. If you don’t know about it, it will run your life. https://youtu.be/Pi4856vHXDg

The vow to be with all things, or to save all beings, is the third of the three pure precepts. This means putting others before yourself and it is very hard to do. Don’t disrespect people’s confusion by correcting them. Anything that arises, give it the benefit of the doubt. https://youtu.be/Wy6DsSHM2yQ

Just observe. Everything is fluctuating and changing so much that if you try to maintain a standard or a rule, everything crystallizes into something that has no oxygen and doesn’t breathe or move with everything else that is dependently arisen. Don’t maintain, just return. https://youtu.be/N6lIJ78-7K0

This illusion is speaking to you. There’s no way I can lie to you and no way I can tell you the truth; YOU have to see it. The very nature of illusion is to grasp at relative truth, duality. There is no solid character that is substantial. Anytime you grasp at something you take all of its light away. https://youtu.be/xXpRhl3mVyg

If you want to be an educator, practice meeting people ‘where they are at.’ Every single person is completely unique. Sokuzan talks about the teachers who responded to what was showing up in his mind stream rather than some authority about what was being taught. You don’t have to know, you don’t have to understand, you have to see what this is. https://youtu.be/jopNBULBy_M

Sokuzan talks about his relationship to his teachers, and how the relationship to a teacher might show up for you. An insightful teacher will know who they are teaching. The student is one who understands what it means to be a student. It’s important to be genuine, honest and sincere with each other. https://youtu.be/RBlUPlDhi7A

There has to be a sky in order to have clouds. There has to be a foundation, and here it starts with Shikantaza. It’s not the importance of what arises in the sense fields, it is the space in which it occurs. See what arises in that fundamental space without doing anything with it. https://youtu.be/-ok8yGbVKCU

If you think everything around you is real, you’ll continue to torture yourself with the illusion that you’re deluded by. You don’t have to get rid of the illusion; just see that it’s not real. It won’t be a conclusion. If you see through the illusion, you’ll just see yourself. https://youtu.be/6noqk256RZI

Even though the landslides are inescapable we fight against them anyway. One of the the landslides is the one in your mind that started before you were born. The source is unfindable. Your job as someone who is a meditator on a spiritual path is to observe that movement in your mind stream and see that there is no solid singularity anywhere. https://youtu.be/RXvZWRfsa3E

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The poem from the Shobogenzo chapter ‘Flowers in the Sky’ was written by Zhang Zhuo upon his enlightenment. It begins, “Radiant light serenely illuminates the sands of the Ganges.” Talking about the mind of awakening is very difficult. The poem ends: “Nirvana and birth-and-death are both flowers in the sky.” https://youtu.be/34xQxJYoR1k

The five dharmas are a good way to introduce looking at this. Things appear, we are compelled to name them, then we interpret, analyze, and stir things up. These three dharmas are in everyone’s lives. The spiritual path of buddha knowledge and suchness is understanding and seeing the illusion. https://youtu.be/5Y71iRIwjeQ

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