I guess, I think our schedule will need a little fine-tuning because it's particular to this place and particular to how long it takes us to walk between buildings and so forth. We're building a monastic building practice place really thoroughly in the stream of this tradition. thoroughly in the stream of this tradition, is. If there's no other word I can come up with.

[01:03]

But at the same time, we're doing something very particular. It depends on the vision of Ikkyo Atmar Roshi and his genius for getting things done and it also depends on Anita she says why because she's showing us you can practice you know Until the day you die. And I'm trying to show you the same thing. Yeah, I mean, not that you're anywhere near that point, but... And you're not as near as I am. But if we're going to be not a monastic... a lay monastic practice, a lay monastery, it has to be a practice place for all of us as long as we want to practice.

[02:21]

I mean, one reason we have to build ideally the raised platforms is because pretty soon some of us can't bend down all the way to serve. Anyway, we have to adjust the schedule and our construction to... this particular situation and us who are practicing here yeah I think it's a great work we're doing the whole Sangha has done and is continuing to do yeah okay 3AB.

[03:40]

Okay. Now, in saying that, I'm trying to teach you the concept of a sign, S-I-G-N, in Buddhism. A sign as a dimension of practice. I mean, if we imagine maybe, which we have here, examples of a stream flowing down a mountain. It's flowing down because of gravity, you know, and because of water flows. But we can say it also is flowing because of its karma. This and that, it happened to it up the mountain. But at the moment it flows past us, it's just water. So the concept of a sign in Buddhism tells you something a lot about, in fact, how the mind is understood in Buddhism.

[05:13]

Now we're talking about there are no essences. All right. Everything's interdependent and there's no essences. There are conditions, but not essences. Okay, that means if we take that thoroughly, that your mind has no essence. Even to the extent that it's true that there's genetic dispositions and so forth, it's still more wisely viewed as having no essence. Of course, those of you who are therapists here and there are a few.

[06:18]

You may say, people come into my office with a lot of essences. Well, they just think they're essences. They're not. And that gives you a job to say, hey, there's no essences. Let's see what we can do here. Now, if you view it wisely as free of essence, then you can decide to do something with the water.

[07:19]

You can put a water wheel in it and create power and grind grain and the oats we had this morning. Or you can direct it this way and that way. Make it flow more deeply, etc. In Crestone we also have a stream that comes past us which we... direct into our water system and so forth. So we drink it. So a sign is like putting a water wheel or a diversion in the flow of the mind. And because there's no inherent nature, because there's no essence,

[08:36]

You're free to do this. You have a choice of what you put in the water, how you direct the water. And much of the teachings of Buddhism are about how you direct the water. Purifying it, lifting it up into the air, and so on. Whatever. Anyway, metaphorically, the mind is understood something like this. Okay. So, 3AB. No, I chose that for the alliteration. Three and B. Yeah.

[10:04]

Everything isn't perfect. Three A, B, and of course A, B, C, you know, there's a progression there. So mantras and dharanis are designed so that they're easy to remember. For an English speaker and those of you who are learning English from me, poor fellows, I'm sorry, This is my three attentional breaths. I spoke in the practice period already about a pause of three attentional breaths. Now a sign is defined in Buddhism as an object of attention, a basis of recognition, a trigger of samadhi.

[11:16]

Okay, so you can use a sign, and part of the reason the concept of a sign is used and is discussed much in the Prajnaparamita Sutra in 8,000 lines, Because the sign itself has no particular own being or character. So it has no meaning. It just has... You can sort of remember it maybe. So practice then is to choose what signs you put in the flow of the mind. You're always in the flow of immediacy.

[12:40]

What are you going to do about it? You can do something about it called wisdom. The past is gone. Now we have this present memory, deronic memory The use of the facility of memory to put something in the flow of mind. So you find some opportunities to notice on a transition that you decide 3AB. But you can create any sign you want for this 3 attentional breath.

[13:43]

take the opportunity when there's some kind of shift or a transition. For example, again in the 8,000 lines. It says something like, the Bodhisattva views all conditioned things as calmly quiet and isolate. Not insulated, isolated. We have this discussion quite a bit because We insulate buildings and you isolate buildings. And we don't want to insulate conditioned things, but we do want to isolate them from own beings. No, you don't have to worry about that.

[15:11]

You only have one word, I'm sorry. Yeah, we do. Okay. So say that you take this as, hey, maybe this is true. Your Bodhisattvas do it, maybe I could. To view all conditioned things as calmly quiet and isolated. And then it goes on to say, and the Bodhisattva does not take that as a mark of a wholesome root. which is characteristic of the thinking of the Diamond Sutra which we read together during practice period that the Bodhisattva

[16:13]

You don't view it as a wholesome. So to addition things, So, let's say Hey, you say, okay, someday that is just a zombie, but...

[17:41]

You say, oh, it doesn't happen to me. I'm viewing conditioned. Um. [...] Three eights. Three eights. Three eights. Every time you do this, you add to it. You [...] add to it. That is something you have something or that is something or, you know, own being. You noticed you've added something. then you notice that you have done something.

[18:56]

You have done something. This is a good moment to... You can also be present enough in the careful attention to notice that what you've observed is correct, to notice that what you've said or heard is correct, to notice that what you've said or heard is correct, And what can you do? The Trin8000 line says, Dann sagt das Supra in 8000 Zeilen.

[20:04]

You turn off over a curtain of fire where your parents lay down. Der Erleuchtung anheimgibst. If you turn off over a curtain of fire where your parents lay down. The feeling implicit for a moment. Implicit for a moment. Erleuchtung anheimgibst. Eventually circumstances join in a way. that can cause you to realize enlightenment. You can't put your way to it, but you can create the knowledge. In my conditions of mind, it's the conditions of mind in which circumstances come the way that nature stands.

[21:04]

Ah, okay. Perfect. It's not just that I don't have to think that way anymore. [...] I decided today, I just always trying to de-notice-say-thing as completely as I can. Sometimes completely means say enough about all that's possible. Say that it'll be available to you the rest of your life. Let's say, yeah. I can't, but I enjoy it. I think that motivates me.

[22:15]

Okay. But I said today I'll just one little thing. So I decided on a BB. BB. means to get it mixed up, right? Possibly, right? The MA board. Cheating board. The MA board. And the three-legged board is also a symbol. It doesn't have to be a memory. It has to be a memory. You know, put it down here and next to the tsunami and eat off it.

[23:19]

Because it's a sign, it's a pause. which is center. And it's non-graspable. We try not to step on it, et cetera. Speaking about Atmar and Yesterday, Mahakavi and others who helped with the electrical wire. I should mention Paul, who did most of these boards and did our beautiful altar. Did the altar in about 15 minutes? No. What, two or three, a few days? A week, wow.

[24:20]

It just appeared out of, there was a big board and an altar appeared out of it. And of course the Ino who brought all her years of arduous training and Crestone here. And what we're doing here depends on all of each of us. It's very particular to the people doing it and the circumstances. So there's the mob board. which we made as an eating board.

[25:22]

But now we can begin to see it's a sign as well as simply an eating board that makes serving and eating more easier. And when we step over the Ma board into Samadhi land, That's not Disneyland, by the way. Zapuland. Yeah, then we sit down. And we create a posture which allows Samadhi to appear. It might not. I mean, it probably doesn't most of the time. But you're creating the conditions for it. You fine-tune your posture a bit. It helps to lift from the top of the spine and lift from the top of the head above the spine and lift from the breastbone so when I sit down I lift these three

[26:47]

At least before I fall asleep. I mean, no. That's in the second period. And you lift your elbows a little bit. You could feel a small egg under your arm. Yeah, then you, as much as possible, relax your shoulders, relax down through your body. So you're creating a posture which really... Non-dreaming deep sleep, the genetic condition of non-dreaming deep sleep can flow into this posture.

[28:05]

And mental and physical stillness can settle into the bodily mind. Then you add the concept. Maybe we can say the intent, but not the intention. Cast a native sense of intent. Anyway, intention is something you keep trying to do. Intent is just something you hold. And your intent is a concept, but intent is don't move. Until Evelyn rings the bell or Marie or somebody.

[29:08]

And if you Do that repeatedly? Maybe all conditioned things will more and more be viewed quietly, calmly quiet and isolated. And in the craft of Buddhism this would be called a content of enlightenment. Which increases the possibility of enlightenment. I hope that's enough for a short lecture.

[30:20]

Thank you very much.

[30:21]

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