Sokukoji Buddhist Temple Monastery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYA0FYrokMM

“Hum, Hum, Hum. Whatever occurs in the realm of the mind such as thoughts of the five poisons, one should neither lead nor follow. Just let it remain in its true state and reach the liberation of Dharmakaya.” This quote from the Sadhana of Mahamudra is a direct way of pointing at “just precisely this,“ the practice of Shikantaza. The relative experience of the true state comes and goes. Let it remain. Whatever arises in the mind stream is the buddha – don’t believe that, but don’t ignore it either. Just observe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owl0ixznL0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmIDtjYvYXE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKnKC1s-QiU

Everything means something and yet everything means exactly what the words are. When the Buddha was challenged by Mara, he touched the earth in the sparsa mudra, saying the, “The earth is my witness.” The foot is the earth in motion. Return to your original, fundamental situation – your body/mind complex. Keep it very basic, minimal, radical. Sit down, hold still and watch what moves – for everyone it’s a little different. Don’t miss what shows up for what you think about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mff16WOzELs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yQbHtWq_OA&t=22s

The three existential aspects are the nature of being in the dynamic we call the human realm of desire. It is another way of talking about the three marks of existence. The basic suffering is discontent, wanting things to be different. Impermanence is the existential aspect that all compounded things will go away. It won’t last. See how each of these aspects shows up in your life. The awareness path is about seeing this, not about making it go away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHIPUP-51-E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSpc9BcigqA

See the impulse before it gets its hooks into you and takes you on a journey to do this or that. Any kind of directionality, including stopping, moving away or moving towards is ignorance. It’s sometimes called prejudice because we don’t see what we’re ignoring. There’s an impulse, then another impulse – they get layered up very quickly out of hope for something better and fear of something worse. It’s not about stopping it. Just watch it. See the impulse quality of the mind rather than reacting to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78hLTdDDD2Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmt46ZQDnhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TAa61OL_2k

Sometimes our real questions are hiding in the gnarled up tree branches, covering up what we really want to know. A strong question elicits a strong response. How can we know what we don’t know, what we are unsure of? Not being sure on the mundane path is a difficulty. On the spiritual path, feeling like you don’t know is the open space that has the quality of being respectful. Wisdom mind is not separate from that. Don’t escape the open dimension into some kind of relative knowledge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C6deZE4_J8

Less is better. When I say reduce the production, I mean everything, especially language. It’s not so much about control; you can’t really control your thoughts. As you’re talking to someone, notice the space between the words. Start by expanding the space first. Even though you know what you’re about to say, give it a little more room. The spaciousness will help you to see how much you’re producing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPhRzAHSZvA

When training the mind, the idea is to get some depth rather than wandering around on the surface. Most of the world is on the surface; that’s materialism. It appears you can control it. We don’t see what’s moving, only what we think is moving. Depth needs to appear surface. Just look at the surface. That’s where the laminations are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQLYdCedwNE

We put ourselves into the corral of either-or. I say don’t give me either-or questions unless you’re really clear about the need to do it that way. Im not doing away with that aspect of consciousness; the tendency to be selective is very seductive. Don’t take a position or reject the one that arises right in front of you. The conclusion is just a sidetrack. Stop looking for proof of things; this is the very circularity of samsara. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaQEv7Afv4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VaifzTZHZ8

When the six sense fields are cooperating with the five skandhas, it creates an illusion so real that we believe it. It’s an astonishing synchronization. The basic difficulty here is the 7th consciousness, the mind bully or paranoid aspect that believes there is someone in control. At some point, the boundary between what feels like meditation and what feels like post-meditation vanishes. You won’t even know if that happens. See the way you keep discriminating, trying to find an access point to what this is about. You don’t need to know the access point. Find out what it is that you do need to know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vncn1lwPF28

Hard discipline is about hierarchy and chain of command, like the military. Some monasteries also have strict forms that are about control and manipulation under the pretense of training your mind. Softer forms are about understanding the nature of form and awareness of the form. The fundamental understanding comes from observing the form, not obeying it. Soft discipline makes use of the forms to observe the way the person learns. The gradation into the spiritual path is where you begin to transcend this relative situation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-QP73Kdvwk

We train our minds to help us understand the thought patterns that operate out of impulse and desire, controlled by causes and conditions. You have to see it yourself. Start at the surface; sit down, hold still, and watch what you cannot prevent from moving. Look more and more deeply into whatever is arising and the space within which it occurs. It’s not a deeper training, particularly – that’s relative. The actual depth won’t seem like relative depth. We have to use words like suchness to even talk about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtNTw8AjTSk&t=23s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYhqwN4tFpA