Sokukoji Buddhist Temple Monastery

When we laugh aliens, we can see our preconceptions, our ideas and opinions. There are different levels or layers of consciousness. When you are sitting down and training your mind, you are entering those dimensions of your mind that you can’t actually access with your thinking process, although thinking may come along with it. What is this? Find out. Don’t believe and don’t disbelieve what anyone tells you. To observe and see what’s arising could be called the last frontier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74j3komg5nA

Because of our activity all day long, simple actions seem to work smoothly, like picking up a glass of water and taking a drink – total control. This is how the illusion of control keeps getting reinforced. The illusory quality shows up when we can’t get the results we want. Look more closely at control, at creating an outcome based on the assumption that we know what’s happening. The underlying misunderstanding is that there is someone and something else. By making that assumption, we ignore dependent origination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jXozqewKHI

Of the three jewels, the sangha may be the most important. Without it, nothing happens. From the time of the historical Buddha, there have been many changes as it moved to other countries from the cultural context in which it was nurtured, and it is still changing. In our community, The Order of Immediate Light, the first tenet is, "Consciousness Always Finds Its Own Form." It is something you can explain in a couple of sentences, and it can never be explained. Not two. ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpAyfPDmteo

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When observing that which seems to be wrong or off kilter, you may say, “This shouldn’t be happening,” or, “Why this is happening?” These comments actually cover up your reception; cover up your awareness of what is occurring in any given situation. As you’re watching your mind stream, I encourage you to observe the imbalance. The basic ignorance is that of ignoring the open dimension in which this is occurring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG_CgsK64UQ

The 90/10 rule is to listen 90% of the time and talk 10%. Something you can do right away is to receive any spontaneously produced reaction you have to anything or anybody that shows up in your mind stream. Instead of constantly producing something about everything, just receive it "as it is." You’ll know you’re receiving it "as it is," if you don’t have any idea exactly what you’re receiving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vw_n3N3cIc&t=1s

The conventional way we are living is very linear. We buy into anything that’s arising, coming and going, moving this way and that. The very simple and radical form of meditation practice called shikantaza can help us to see our attachment to this very subtle area. First, look at the upsizing quality and observe the way we add on to everything that happens. By doing this, eventually it will run out of steam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD_5ey9et4k

Ego gets its identity from different sources that tend to propel us along. Anytime you assert anything, look at the connection between that and that which is feeding off it. This is the self-centeredness, where ego gets its payoff. When it comes in the form of strong beliefs, opinions and concepts, just watch. This is the sitting practice of meditation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkB6CiWRDuo

First, it is your civic duty to vote to participate in your community and culture, even though you may feel unsupported by its form, structure and shortcomings. You are not on a mountaintop in ancient China. You are here right now. Participate! Second, it is your civic duty to protect the health of your sangha, your family and community which includes the entire humanity of the world. Third, it is your civic duty to put the welfare of others at least equal with your own and perhaps even before your own. Fourth, it is your civic duty to train your mind so the lack of training or confusion in your mind, your hidden bias and prejudice, are exposed. That way, any fear-based convictions, ideas, opinions and false understandings are not spread out into the world as facts thereby adding to the rampant confusion that shows up everywhere in this material realm we call samsara. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig5skjqNshA

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What is the deep activity of consciousness that looks for support from leaders or groups that strengthen our positionality? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1trx05Z-lg&t=1s

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Sokuzan talks about how he related to his teachers, the dharma and the sangha in the decades of his practice and how he encourages students to relate with the Three Jewels now in the SokukoJi community. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6NobqMGG0E

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Let’s start on the inside. Start with yourself. Is there any abusing going on? Any lying going on? Is there? Find out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FheeUYM39Jk&t=247s

“Samadhi” is pointing to the condition when he, she or they are not separate from anything. This will not necessarily register in one’s relative consciousness as, “Oh, I finally made it into samadhi!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS5BwRlNFP8

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There are very small layers and aspects that make up the apparent “me." ”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkDecf6UN2Q