Suddenly something just starts to get hold of us and draws our attention away from what we were intending to do. Just feel it, receive it, be it, and don’t accept it, reject it or ignore it; that’s the path. Just keep returning and observing. When the emotions get stirred up, just receive that. https://youtu.be/lFiT4mbcTTI

There’s a natural boundary between any two things. There are the boundaries we set up to protect our property, and boundaries based on fear. It is about being aware of them, not about believing, judging or concluding. This is why we sit down and gaze at the wall, to see the delusions that are the walls of the mind. https://youtu.be/Qx7KND0tv_M

The first wake up is to see how you are being controlled by everything; your beliefs, your culture, your ideas. The second wake up is to the possibly of seeing who you really are and what all this is. https://youtu.be/TDNg86mcpa4

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

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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 of choice becomes choiceless. It will be replaced by dependent origination. If you get a little bit of clarity around your insanity, you’ll know what to do. https://youtu.be/6NfaOMQMjHs

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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, look at the craziness. When the emotion comes up and causes waves in your mind stream, watch it come and go, and watch how there is something happening other than the surface of the cover up. https://youtu.be/srRBlzvyVL0

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 holding still. This is aligning yourself with the natural equilibrium of the mind. Sit down, hold still and begin to look at the coverups. It has to be seen completely, thoroughly and consistently. https://youtu.be/EzN6YORjdy8

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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. Whatever shows up, meet it where it’s at. If you look at anything long enough it will turn into a mirror. https://youtu.be/ANnIWmR4dl4

#Sokukoji #Sokuzan #Buddhist #Buddhism #Zen #Talk #Sermon #Battlecreek #Michigan #Dharma #awareness #meditation #shikantaza #mindfulness #suffering #dharmatalk #Youtube https://youtu.be/p4RRIIT00gc

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 of the mind that says yes, no or I don’t care. When something happens, the self-centeredness is a knee-jerk reaction. The ability to be aware of it is where you start. This awareness of the grasping at self might take some relaxing of the mind stream. https://youtu.be/Asft_h7BB7Y

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This teaching comes out of the Tiantai, or Tendai tradition, which came to Japan around the ninth century. It is similar to Zen Buddhism. The four moments are: forethought, immanent arising, actual arising and passing away. This is about seeing the actual coming and going of things, much more stark, much more vivid, and empty of a self and empty of an other. You probably won’t be able to tune into these instructions unless you have a lot of sitting meditation under your belt. Not being able to do this is awareness; it’s not about accomplishing anything. It’s a concept that’s pointing at something that is not about thought. You can see this. https://youtu.be/vmOHQmf7LTY

There are sixteen vows, but the basic vow is to be with all things. Whatever arises in your life stream, don’t object to it, don’t agree with it and certainly don’t ignore it. Those are the three poisons. It’s incredibly simple, yet impossible to accomplish. The vow to save all beings, to put others before yourself begins with seeing how selfish you are. It’s about being aware of that, not about stopping it or covering it up with ideas. This is why we have the vow, the offerings, and retuning to the buddha, the dharma and the sangha over and over and over. It feels useless. Accomplishing is the relative language of ego. If it looks like you’re getting somewhere, you’re probably in a rest area. This is a transcendent path. https://youtu.be/issyJRZ4YaY

Taking no position requires you to notice the way you move spontaneously from what shows up to a position about it. This is what you need to see. It’s not something you need to figure out, change or modify. Don’t accept anything. You can actually function just fine without a center, without a me. We get our identity from our descriptions of what we like and don’t like. It doesn’t mean that somebody who commits a crime isn’t wrong, it’s the grasping at right or wrong that is a big misunderstanding. We are all the product of dependent origination. Seeing this is done through an awareness practice. https://youtu.be/ktMJB5VT7Lg

Something triggers us and we have an intense emotional reaction. This is totally appropriate: It’s called dependent origination. The emotion is just a feeling and it doesn’t belong to anyone. We differentiate and divide things up in such a way that we take ownership and add on that it shouldn’t be there. We want things to be different than they are, which is the first noble truth. Whatever arises in your mind stream needs to be there. Don’t do anything with it. It looks like a straight line but it’s a circle and it’s called samsara. https://youtu.be/WWSWnwVkvAc

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Notice how when something shows up you go to belief, disbelief or distraction. It’s very difficult to use relative concepts to see over time what that’s pointing to beyond the words. It’s not logical or reasonable. The ego mind will use that to turn you around because it wants you in that carnival. It’s terrified of the open space, of not knowing. With each person this will have its own kind of chemistry or texture. It will be very personal to you. Notice the way you believe or attach to something before you’ve even investigated it. Of course, it’s about being aware of that. https://youtu.be/edtHLuvjEr4

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I recommend 90/10: Listen 90 precent of the time; talk, express, or produce 10 percent. This is very difficult to do, but if you take that attitude, you may be able to do 50/50. Register more than just the auditory. Look at the color of the clothing, their body posture, the space around them. Receive what’s going on in your own body, the gravity that’s holding you there. This can’t be separated from what someone is saying to you. You don’t have to name it or look for meaning. It’s about including what’s showing up in all the sense fields, including the mind. This is the practice of receiving. https://youtu.be/onfYM7BXf1U

When you’re in conversation with someone, you can change the structure a little bit by receiving 90% of the time. Listen, receive. The idea with “90/10” is to move from producing to receiving what’s arising. Don’t add anything. You’ll be surprised at how much difficulty this can clear up. It will take awhile, perhaps quite awhile, before you can actually receive what’s right in front of you. See if you can notice the way you add on to things. Shikantaza will help train your mind to do that. https://youtu.be/wK9Dze1weHY

It might look very logical or reasonable when someone says something that we go into some kind of rotation in the mind where we try to figure things out. The phrases in our speech show us that we are not really looking at this. I’m not saying you can’t squeeze some relative happiness out of samsara. As a way of working with the tendency to be seduced into figuring it out, turn your awareness to everything that’s arising in consciousness. See the asymmetry of the mind. You don’t need to correct it, just see it. https://youtu.be/hnaHeEHU6vg

Sometimes fixing is all you can do. This works in the area of relative truth, such as a flat tire. Your mind stream is not like that. The desire to fix overrides the ability to see what it actually is. We need to know what’s fundamentally going on. If you’re a meditator, you can work with your your anxiety or emotional state by way of observing that without going down into it, which could be a trap for the thinking mind looking for results. Just look at what’s actually happening. https://youtu.be/Ml-NpARe4Yw

These three links on the chain of existence are a difficult area. The feeling arises and there’s a wish to have more of it, to get rid of it or to ignore it. Any feeling that arises is going to have a positive, negative or neutral aspect to it. If we don’t like it, we want to go to something else. Blame is one way we do this. Don’t abandon the feeling. When there are internal conflicting emotions, just be aware of the feeling. Your emotions are none of your business; Your karma is nothing personal.

The Palm And The Fist - 07.06.22 by Sokuzan - sokukoji.org/donate by Sokuzan