Subtitles
I had a very funny notion earlier today 00:00:00
I had a very funny notion earlier today that I would read up a little bit on 00:00:03
what I'm gonna talk to you about and I 00:00:11
started in this book got laughing 00:00:15
because it doesn't really amount to 00:00:19
anything at all it's all words about 00:00:21
words and they were debating as to 00:00:25
whether it was true that the such a 00:00:29
thing as causality or that there isn't 00:00:32
whether the cause of the effect of the 00:00:34
same event or different events and they 00:00:37
decided that they couldn't be the same 00:00:39
because that would reduce the whole 00:00:41
world who were just a watch of 00:00:42
undifferentiated goo on the other hand 00:00:46
they decided they couldn't be completely 00:00:47
different because they'd have no 00:00:48
connection with each other and so the 00:00:52
whole argument fizzled and you have to 00:00:56
realize that - what an enormous extent 00:00:59
we are all utterly bewitched by words 00:01:02
and our trying all our lives long to 00:01:06
solve problems which only words create 00:01:10
because the human being has got himself 00:01:14
into a very funny bine having developed 00:01:17
words which are enormous ly useful 00:01:19
obviously we at the same time pay a 00:01:22
price for him and we are simultaneously 00:01:29
you see helped and bewitched by words 00:01:31
and so you could say that being under 00:01:34
maya under illusion is also being 00:01:37
spellbound and enchanted because we when 00:01:42
you lay a spell you do it by spelling 00:01:42
you see you you you you make a magic with words when a stage magician does 00:01:51
some extraordinary feat in front of you 00:01:59
he always accompanies it with patter and 00:02:02
his talk his line is to distract your 00:02:06
attention from what he's actually doing 00:02:07
and so by getting you enchanted with 00:02:10
words you don't know this what's going 00:02:12
on 00:02:13
in the same way when people hypnotize 00:02:14
you it's very difficult to hypnotize a 00:02:17
person without talking to them but very 00:02:19
easy if you talk and you can hypnotize 00:02:22
people in all kinds of ways that don't 00:02:24
involve the standard routines that is to 00:02:29
say the standard routines are making 00:02:31
people stare at a bright object or at 00:02:34
some revolving disk or tricks of this 00:02:36
kind but you can induce hypnosis just 00:02:40
with words and they don't even know 00:02:42
they're being hypnotized so in a way 00:02:54
then it is all philosophical problems 00:02:57
and all religious problems are problems 00:03:00
of language because if you don't use 00:03:04
words you don't have any problems that's 00:03:09
the most extraordinary thing you think 00:03:11
you see that you've got words to help 00:03:12
you solve your problems 00:03:15
so that you can communicate with each 00:03:17
other about things and help each other 00:03:19
out and so on that's true it does to a 00:03:21
certain extent words to solve practical 00:03:23
problems like please pass me the salt 00:03:25
and would you would light the fire for 00:03:28
me and let's go for a walk or shall we 00:03:32
go hunting today etc all these things 00:03:34
can be solved by words but then when you 00:03:39
start really getting deeply involved in 00:03:42
words what you do is this are you assign 00:03:45
words to various aspects of experience 00:03:51
but the thing is that you wouldn't know 00:03:53
what an aspect was unless you had words 00:03:56
the world is it's true we say it's 00:04:01
differentiated because we see different 00:04:05
shapes different colors and different 00:04:08
motions and we assign words to these 00:04:15
differentiations and so come to believe 00:04:18
that the differentiations in the world 00:04:20
are really different but actually 00:04:26
when you see a cloud it's true the cloud 00:04:29
is got lots of bumps on it now the 00:04:33
question arises then how many bumps does 00:04:36
a cloud have on it and are these bumps 00:04:39
the same as the cloud or different from 00:04:40
the town well that's an asinine question 00:04:44
because it's only a question about how 00:04:46
you're good to define it it isn't the 00:04:48
question about the cloud and so in 00:04:53
exactly the same way as a cloud is 00:04:55
constantly moving and changing or what 00:04:57
some cigarette smoke in the air this is 00:05:00
a lovely weaving pattern watch it in a 00:05:01
beam of sunlight below and it's 00:05:03
intricate like a marvelous Moorish 00:05:06
arabesque but is each line of smoke a 00:05:09
thing is it a separate event now you see 00:05:16
the Buddhists look at the world as a 00:05:18
weaving of smoke that everything is in a 00:05:22
state of flux or flow and so the 00:05:25
differentiation of things cannot hold 00:05:30
except as a purely abstract and 00:05:32
intellectual construct but the power of 00:05:36
these words is such that they can alter 00:05:40
your feelings and you notice this in 00:05:45
early childhood their children become 00:05:48
completely fascinated with words and 00:05:50
they squabble more about words and about 00:05:53
anything also children become fascinated 00:05:57
by adults sense of time a child goes 00:06:02
through a very strange development 00:06:05
because on the one hand a child has an 00:06:08
enormous capacity for living in the 00:06:09
present for getting completely lost in 00:06:17
say throwing pebbles into the water and 00:06:19
watching the the waves or making funny 00:06:23
noises and just making them not making 00:06:25
them and make animosity in front of them 00:06:26
their own making faces but the moment 00:06:30
children get involved with their parents 00:06:33
and their parents 00:06:35
system which the children don't 00:06:37
understand 00:06:38
parents playing what happens you see it 00:06:40
adults play games and they don't let the 00:06:43
children in on the rules they say you 00:06:47
are not old enough to understand this 00:06:49
yet and they're not frank about it 00:06:51
because they're not to clear themselves 00:06:53
so children are constantly obfuscated by 00:06:56
our rules but also fascinated so then 00:06:59
the time thing really gets children 00:07:03
because they're taught though all the 00:07:05
adults are busy looking forward to 00:07:07
something see so there are great 00:07:10
occasions like Christmas Easter 00:07:15
Thanksgiving fourth of July the 00:07:17
fireworks you see and your birthday 00:07:20
and that's a special occasion so 00:07:23
children forget this feeling that 00:07:26
they're like the calendar to cut out all 00:07:28
the intervening days and they just can't 00:07:32
wait till the next event comes up and so 00:07:36
they want our Christmas and then BOOM 00:07:39
birthday then boom Easter see a boom for 00:07:42
luck oh they were like that to see they 00:07:46
just can't wait and this is because you 00:07:50
see they are showing their bewitchment 00:07:53
then also another thing children do is 00:07:55
calling each other names they get very 00:07:58
very head up because somebody says to 00:08:01
Johnny you're S&C and you call me a 00:08:03
and that's just terrible I am NOT 00:08:06
a or I am NOT if he's learned to 00:08:11
identify himself as a boy and somebody 00:08:13
says he's ago there's a real fight about 00:08:15
that because they are terribly 00:08:17
particular that the right word should 00:08:18
apply to the right thing and I am NOT 00:08:20
what you tell me on because the whole 00:08:22
education of a child is really telling 00:08:25
them who year all the teachers all the 00:08:29
adults all the other children are 00:08:31
constantly telling each other they are 00:08:32
and the last we believe it 00:08:32
and so you come not to know who you are at all you come to believe that your 00:08:40
what everybody tells you you you you you 00:08:45
are and so this is gets very funny 00:08:50
indeed because we are what are all at 00:08:53
once telling each other that we are 00:08:55
unique see you're different from me and 00:08:57
you're the only thing like you in the 00:08:58
world but at the same time we're saying 00:09:01
to each other but you ought to be just 00:09:03
like me 00:09:03
because after all if you're not really like me you're so far out you're not 00:09:09
human and so the more we tell each other 00:09:15
that we are like each other the less 00:09:17
point there is in talking to each other 00:09:19
because after all if you're just the 00:09:21
same as I am 00:09:22
we've got nothing to talk about I can't 00:09:24
learn anything from you because there 00:09:26
you're just like me 00:09:29
then on the other hand if you if you are 00:09:32
really are different for me then I can 00:09:33
find out something I never knew before 00:09:34
that I told you who you were in the 00:09:36
first place and you tell me who I was 00:09:40
so we're making each other up so long as 00:09:46
they mad that is to say as we lived in 00:09:49
that domain of words and defining who 00:09:52
and what we are now look at this whole 00:09:57
thing this this is that this is the 00:09:58
situation Maya then is to a very large 00:10:03
extent a verbal creation you notice cats 00:10:07
and dogs they don't have a religion as 00:10:10
far as anyone can see they don't go to 00:10:13
church they don't have big philosophical 00:10:16
problems and we say there for that 00:10:18
reason uncivilized but they're not 00:10:22
really uncivilized they have other 00:10:24
things they do which are just as 00:10:26
complicated but they don't have this 00:10:28
hang-up with words words are magic you 00:10:33
see in the beginning was the word 00:10:33
by the word of the Lord where the heavens made and all the hosts of them 00:10:39
by the breath of his mouth fall into the 00:10:43
Bible and that means that not that the 00:10:47
real world that you are looking at now 00:10:51
this wasn't created by words but the 00:10:56
world of separate things separate people 00:11:01
separate events that was created by 00:11:04
words now I hope this is I've said this 00:11:09
to some of you before but have you been 00:11:10
to earlier seminar that this is 00:11:12
absolutely fundamental for understanding 00:11:14
what the Buddhist Mahayana doctrine of 00:11:17
emptiness is Shunyata you see in 00:11:21
sanskrit Shunya means void and the 00:11:28
suffix taw means nests so voidness and 00:11:33
all the world is called sunyata and that 00:11:39
word doesn't mean that really there 00:11:45
isn't anything but it means there isn't 00:11:49
anything it is saying that the world 00:11:53
does not consist of distinct things or 00:11:56
distinct events scenes are nouns and 00:12:00
events are verbs and if you pick up any 00:12:07
available and handleable piece of nature 00:12:07
the idea that this is a thing is just an idea because you see this that i am 00:12:16
touching is not an idea and it's not a 00:12:25
thing because you can ask immediately 00:12:28
well how many things is it well that 00:12:31
depends on how you divide it you can say 00:12:33
well it has a top and a bottom that 00:12:35
makes two then this cardboard covered 00:12:38
with paper and that makes four but then 00:12:41
what about all the letters printed on it 00:12:43
they are also things aren't they what 00:12:46
about the constituent molecules the 00:12:48
distinctive electrons 00:12:50
that proved themselves to be there upon 00:12:53
physical analysis how many things is it 00:12:55
it's as many things as you can figure 00:12:57
because you see a thing is a unit of 00:13:01
thought a thing is a think in English 00:13:04
thing and think are alike in German ding 00:13:07
and denken in Latin raised means thing 00:13:10
and Rea or means to think to reify we 00:13:13
use even in English means to signify 00:13:16
when you say for example 00:13:16
[Music] 00:13:23
the lightning flashed now actually the flash is the same as the lightning 00:13:37
so you reify a thing called lightning which does something called flashing and 00:13:48
so you create a ghost and remove one of 00:14:00
the great Chinese masters Lin Jie lived 00:14:04
in the Tong dynasty about 800 ad said 00:14:08
that his work as a Buddhist teacher was 00:14:09
to beat the ghosts out of you 00:14:12
to exorcise you to in other words 00:14:16
disenchant 00:14:17
and so one comes to understand that the 00:14:22
there are in nature no things 00:14:26
and no events so this is the sunyata 00:14:31
doctrine things and events have only a 00:14:36
verbal reality and that is a thing that 00:14:41
is as powerful for a person who's an 00:14:43
intellectual as for a person who's not 00:14:44
an intellectual it isn't just that this 00:14:47
is a problem from which a brainy people 00:14:49
suffer all human beings suffer from it 00:14:52
because even the less brainy people are 00:14:55
just as subject to verbal enchantment 00:14:58
and to spellbinding and the magic of 00:15:01
words as the very intellectual people a 00:15:04
child that will sometimes escape from 00:15:06
this as in the story of the Emperor's 00:15:08
New Clothes 00:15:10
when it is the child who notices that 00:15:12
the adults are deceiving themselves with 00:15:15
words 00:15:15
so then Sunita is at the assertion that actually speaking 00:15:27
the real world which we will call in our way of talking the physical world or the 00:15:36
natural world or even the material world 00:15:43
contains no things and no events that 00:15:48
things and events are purely abstract 00:15:50
creations now it's interesting you see 00:15:56
that when we talk tried to designate the 00:15:59
real world will you say the word 00:16:02
material and then people get terribly 00:16:09
confused by this because we we use the 00:16:14
word material has opposed meanings 00:16:18
within it like the word responsible if 00:16:23
you say to someone you are responsible 00:16:26
this is at one moment telling them that 00:16:29
you're free and able to make decisions 00:16:32
on your own but at the same time telling 00:16:35
the person that you're better decide 00:16:36
according to law because you'll be held 00:16:41
responsible if you make the wrong 00:16:42
decision it's telling them all in the 00:16:44
same breath that they're free and bound 00:16:47
and of course this goes back to the 00:16:50
original double bind that when society 00:16:52
tells the child that it is a free agent 00:16:55
in other words you are responsible the 00:16:59
child is unable to resist this 00:17:02
definition because a social influence on 00:17:07
another person especially a child is 00:17:09
completely strong and irresistible so 00:17:12
the child is thereby compelled to 00:17:15
believe that it's free now I'm not 00:17:19
saying whether you are or are not free 00:17:21
this is not the point you may be you may 00:17:24
not be but to be told that you must be 00:17:30
free is a contradiction and that's the 00:17:34
situation every child is put in 00:17:36
so on the authority of society you are 00:17:40
told the term in a way you're 00:17:44
independent of society and you must 00:17:47
believe that you are because that we 00:17:49
told you so 00:17:49
so when in the same way we use the word responsible and it has a double-take in 00:17:57
it so does the word material when many 00:18:05
people use the word material they think 00:18:07
they mean what you can touch and see and 00:18:13
so on that is to say the real world but 00:18:19
then there are another kind of people 00:18:20
who want to say that the material world 00:18:22
is an illusion and that the spiritual 00:18:24
world is the only world that's real even 00:18:27
inside Judaism and Christianity God is 00:18:30
spirit whatever that is and God created 00:18:34
the material world so the material world 00:18:36
is real but a lower kind of reality than 00:18:38
spiritual reality sin Thomas Aquinas 00:18:41
would define the material world as 00:18:43
having contingent being as distinct from 00:18:46
necessary being necessary being is being 00:18:49
that is being that exists of itself it 00:18:53
has what's called hacia t.a.s e ity 00:18:58
which means it exists of itself 00:19:00
Buddhists use the words for bhava or own 00:19:04
being for this same a Christian 00:19:10
theological word and so but when you you 00:19:19
start thinking what do you mean by the 00:19:21
material world 00:19:21
the word material is related to the word liar because matter is from the sanskrit 00:19:28
root matr 00:19:37
month which is the same root from which 00:19:40
Maya comes and Maya originally from the 00:19:45
root matter means to measure it's a word 00:19:48
that's used in laying out the 00:19:50
foundations of a building in other words 00:19:55
marking off an area you meter it so the 00:20:01
material world has a dual sense you see 00:20:05
it means on the one hand the world that 00:20:07
is actually here the real world but it 00:20:10
also means the world as measured now the 00:20:13
world as measured is the way you figure 00:20:15
it not the way things are so you see the 00:20:21
duplicity in the idea of material and it 00:20:24
works both ways and so you say - about 00:20:27
something does it matter that means is 00:20:32
it substantial enough to worry about or 00:20:34
is it just a ghost if it doesn't matter 00:20:36
then its spirit ah you know this 00:20:41
Christian science joke what is matter 00:20:44
never mind 00:20:46
what is mine no matter 00:20:48
[Laughter] 00:20:48
so we say mind out use your mind I mind whether this happens or not but that's 00:21:00
the same thing as saying it matters 00:21:05
whether it happens or not and language 00:21:10
is so exciting when you start to analyze 00:21:13
it in this way because it reveals or all 00:21:16
all the jokes that are in it and so you 00:21:22
you discover then lot of many many words 00:21:25
many fundamental ideas are full of 00:21:28
duplicity for example in the word cleave 00:21:34
in English means to separate and to 00:21:38
cling to the word soccer in Latin means 00:21:44
sacred and accursed the word out was in 00:21:48
Latin means high and deep and in 00:21:53
Egyptian ancient Egyptian they use words 00:21:55
like strong weak that's how we would 00:21:59
have to translate it but you will find 00:22:02
again and again that these are just a 00:22:04
few I mentioned there are ever so many 00:22:06
words that have this double taken them 00:22:09
and mean both of a pair of opposites and 00:22:13
so the word material is one of the very 00:22:16
best examples of this so when the 00:22:24
Buddhist says them that the nature of 00:22:26
the world is Shunyata he is not saying 00:22:30
that if you were truly enlightened your 00:22:36
state of consciousness would be blank 00:22:36
and therefore that there would be no colors no shapes no outlines no any kind 00:22:45
of goings-on although there have been 00:22:55
Buddhists who did make that 00:22:57
misinterpretation if you read for 00:23:01
example the Sutra of the sixth patriarch 00:23:05
this is a Chinese Buddhist text 00:23:05
recording the sermons of a great teacher who lived about 700 AD this was his sort 00:23:12
of flourishing time he died in 713 00:23:19
his major concern is combating the prevalent idea among many of his 00:23:31
contemporaries that enlightenment 00:23:36
consisted in having a blank mind 00:23:36
they practice the way of meditation that I was talking about yesterday when we 00:23:45
were discussing Samadhi as voidness of 00:23:53
consciousness and they tried to stop 00:23:58
their sense processes altogether you can 00:24:02
approximate that you see by 00:24:04
concentrating on a very very restricted 00:24:04
sense field per se you can start counting your breathing or you can focus 00:24:15
your eyes on the little light on the tip 00:24:21
of an incense stick or on a spot or 00:24:25
anything there's a Buddhist text you 00:24:29
know that describes this and when it 00:24:32
says or on anything the commentator has 00:24:35
made a footnote and says underneath but 00:24:37
not any wicked thing you know clergy are 00:24:43
the same the world over then when you 00:24:52
concentrate on this small point and 00:24:55
you've got your mind 00:24:56
absolutely closed on this then the idea 00:24:58
is to knock away the point and there's 00:25:02
nothing at all that you are not 00:25:05
conscious of any differentiation you 00:25:07
keep your eyes closed your ears plugged 00:25:10
and try to turn off everything else 00:25:13
see now this man the sixth patriarch 00:25:17
Raymond said that is not Buddhism at all 00:25:21
that is a way to become a stone Buddha 00:25:23
and you might just as well be a lump of 00:25:26
wood or a piece of rock the real meaning 00:25:31
of emptiness he said is like space 00:25:34
because space contains all the universe 00:25:38
but isn't stained by it 00:25:42
in other words you cannot knock a nail 00:25:44
into space but you can have a nail in 00:25:47
space so he said in the same way that 00:25:50
the space is great so the capacity of 00:25:54
your mind or your original consciousness 00:25:56
is likewise great whereas if you exclude 00:25:59
everything you make it small so what is 00:26:06
negated in the idea of emptiness of 00:26:08
Shunyata is not the world that we call 00:26:13
the physical world 00:26:14
what is negated is concepts about it you 00:26:22
say there is no conceptual framework in 00:26:27
which you can pin this world down 00:26:30
because you see the human being uses his 00:26:34
conceptual framework to try to cling to 00:26:38
his existence and he will try to cling 00:26:42
to his existence when he has been fooled 00:26:45
into thinking that non-existence could 00:26:49
overcome existence 00:26:49
now in existentialism as it's set forward by people like Vince Vaughn and 00:26:57
Rallo May and so on they are they keep 00:27:04
saying you are not an authentic human 00:27:06
being unless your interest because the 00:27:11
moment you realize that you exist and 00:27:14
this is indeed self-consciousness this 00:27:17
is coming to be aware of life 00:27:19
appreciating life I exist and isn't that 00:27:21
extraordinary 00:27:22
then you at the same time to come aware 00:27:25
that you have the possibility of not 00:27:27
existing the is as soon as you realize 00:27:32
that you're alive you know you could be 00:27:35
dead 00:27:35
and so this comes with what co ships equal time binding by realizing time by 00:27:43
being able to predict the future you see 00:27:52
other people die and you know you will 00:27:54
die maybe animals don't worry about that 00:28:00
we don't know apparently they live more 00:28:03
in the present and work on the 00:28:08
assumption that they're immortal until 00:28:10
they're not which is a very good 00:28:12
assumption and but we predict you see so 00:28:20
that the sensation of being implies 00:28:23
non-being but we don't see through this 00:28:27
all the way we think that non being will 00:28:29
swallow being so that there will whereas 00:28:33
the zone' none being exists for a short 00:28:35
time non being could go on forever but 00:28:39
we don't realize that non being is as 00:28:43
much dependent on being as being is uh 00:28:45
not being 00:28:46
this is relativity and Shunyata also 00:28:52
besides meaning emptiness means 00:28:54
relativity it means that when you say in 00:29:01
medomak of philosophy this is called 00:29:04
muhammad uh that Nagarjuna invented this 00:29:09
is what the subject of the seminar just 00:29:10
in case anyone's forgotten medomak 00:29:14
amines the philosophy of the middle way 00:29:17
and the middle way resource to 00:29:25
what is in common between all 00:29:27
opposition's but can't be stated because 00:29:32
when you talk you can only talk about 00:29:34
opposites since all words are labels on 00:29:38
pigeonholes called classes so when you 00:29:42
say does it exist or does it not exist 00:29:45
is it in the category of existence like 00:29:48
a horn or the category of non-existence 00:29:51
like the horns of a rabbit or the child 00:29:55
of a barren woman or of the eunuchs 00:29:58
beard you know they have all these 00:29:59
ancient metaphors that come from the 00:30:02
Upanishads that go through all Buddhist 00:30:06
literature the horns of the air there is 00:30:10
incidentally a bar in a place called Van 00:30:13
Horn in Texas they didn't close to El 00:30:16
Paso where there is a stuffed Jackrabbit 00:30:19
with horns on behind the bar ever driven 00:30:25
through that I always get some postcards 00:30:27
out at the center my various Buddhist 00:30:29
friends but anyway the point is in in 00:30:38
saying that Sunita means relativity 00:30:40
saying that everything that we call a 00:30:43
thing 00:30:43
[Applause] 00:30:46
or an event has no sob hava which means no only being necessary Edward Konza 00:30:55
translates it because it doesn't exist 00:31:00
by itself it only exists in relation to 00:31:05
everything else so in other words you 00:31:09
don't know 00:31:10
that there is a material object unless 00:31:17
you see it in a space so the space and 00:31:22
the object support each other mutually 00:31:25
you wouldn't know the space was there as 00:31:28
the object was there so although you 00:31:34
think about things as if they existed 00:31:39
independently 00:31:39
that's because you're bewitched but when you go into it more deeply you realize 00:31:48
of course nothing can exist by itself 00:31:53
everything goes with everything else but 00:31:57
this is above all true of you if you say 00:32:02
I am a thing I am an event this is 00:32:06
because you've made the mistake of 00:32:08
identifying your actual reality with 00:32:14
your idea of yourself which is only a 00:32:17
symbol and so we are panicked going back 00:32:24
to the way the child is brought up by 00:32:26
our ideas of ourself people say you are 00:32:29
this you are that you are the other 00:32:31
thing now you as a winner 00:32:35
hooray you're the loser say that's awful 00:32:42
but actually you're neither 00:32:42
to say to somebody you know you're going to go on living 00:32:53
hooray put off dying for another few 00:32:56
years 00:32:57
great they say no you must die at once 00:33:00
oh that's terrible 00:33:02
this is no different 00:33:02
because all you're going to get gained with more time is more anxiety longer to 00:33:11
worry about what's your objection to 00:33:20
dying no it's just an idea that's what 00:33:25
gives us trouble 00:33:25
oh it hurts well what about that pain this is the thing this is very largely 00:33:35
educated when as a child you have pains 00:33:45
your mother said to you oh you poor 00:33:47
darling 00:33:48
and you think about yourself oh my poor 00:33:51
dog to see when you throw up you vomit 00:33:54
she says ugh when you go to the toilet 00:33:58
and you make smells she says but you 00:34:01
know you like that smell originally it 00:34:03
was great especially your own but you 00:34:09
were taught not to like it and then when 00:34:11
people were around you your friends and 00:34:14
relatives and old people and they 00:34:16
started to get sick and died you watched 00:34:18
everybody worry about them and then you 00:34:21
learn to worry 00:34:23
so all this conditioning is put into you 00:34:27
that it's great to go on living 00:34:30
it's terrible to stop living you see all 00:34:34
this is is learned well actually there 00:34:37
is no problem fact the stop implies 00:34:42
start just to start implies stop don't 00:34:46
you realize that done anything that 00:34:48
happened once can happen again where 00:34:52
were you before you were born do any 00:34:56
recollections and suddenly you hear you 00:35:00
were alright where do you go when you're 00:35:03
dead same place you were before you were 00:35:05
born where else is there to be can you 00:35:10
experience nothing for ever and ever 00:35:10
so you see the nature of being is not just dealing the nature of being is 00:35:20
being non being and this there is only 00:35:28
words this is why in the Buddhist 00:35:30
doctrine they say it is neither being 00:35:32
known on being nobody can say what it is 00:35:36
you can only show it that's why in Zen 00:35:40
when you ask what is the ultimate nature 00:35:42
of Buddhism the master does this or he 00:35:49
may just say haha now this is no 00:35:52
symbolism attached to this he's not 00:35:54
saying the ultimate nature of Buddhism 00:35:56
is since um where are the symbolized by 00:35:58
a matchbook box or that a matchbox is a 00:36:04
manifestation of the universal energy 00:36:06
field see all that is taught the point 00:36:11
is get to this so it is called not only 00:36:18
showing ATAR which means voidness or 00:36:21
relativity is called tah-tah-tah-tah 00:36:25
tah-tah we translate such news and 00:36:27
Takata is simply that miss when a child 00:36:31
first starts talking it says that the 00:36:34
first thing a child says da da da and in 00:36:37
our culture we say it's calling its 00:36:39
father and we say Dada 00:36:42
unless it says ma first and then it 00:36:44
means mama 00:36:45
but the child is actually saying da 00:36:49
which is our word that 00:36:49
see that so Tata puck is that miss its there you see what you can't talk about 00:37:03
so then the real nature of Samadhi or in 00:37:08
in meditation is to learn to be aware 00:37:13
without using words and that you find 00:37:20
that of course you're hypnotized by 00:37:21
words and they keep running in your head 00:37:23
automatically and you believe them but 00:37:28
the the the art of practicing say zazen 00:37:33
is to learn not to exclude anything from 00:37:38
your senses 00:37:39
let all sights and sounds and smells and 00:37:43
feelings come to you but don't call them 00:37:46
anything stop naming them because after 00:37:52
all if you keep talking and thinking all 00:37:57
the time do you realize you have nothing 00:37:58
to think about except thoughts 00:38:01
supposing I never stop talking some of 00:38:04
you only know me in the talking scene 00:38:05
and I think that I talk all the time I 00:38:08
don't I occasionally listen to other 00:38:11
people talk and read what other people 00:38:14
have to say that gives me something to 00:38:15
talk about we're now thinking is a kind 00:38:19
of talking thinking is subvocal talking 00:38:22
now if I think all the time I don't have 00:38:25
anything to think about except solves so 00:38:30
to have something to think about 00:38:31
you must stop thinking some of the time 00:38:34
just as you must stop talking some of 00:38:37
the time to know what other people have 00:38:38
to say so meditation is the art of 00:38:42
stopping thinking for the time being 00:38:45
that's the first stage of it there's a 00:38:48
second stage I'll explain in a moment 00:38:51
but the first stage is to learn how to 00:38:54
suspend thought 00:38:56
and you can do that by thinking about 00:38:59
nonsense that's why those chants that 00:39:03
they sing that I play to you don't mean 00:39:05
anything at all and they are for the 00:39:08
purpose of stopping thinking because the 00:39:11
easiest way to do it is instead of 00:39:13
trying to stop thinking is to look at 00:39:16
your thoughts as meaningless words 00:39:19
that's when it's funny you know you get 00:39:22
a funny feeling by taking the word yes 00:39:24
from saying it several times you think 00:39:27
well that's a strange noise that we use 00:39:29
yes yes yes yes and so by this way you 00:39:35
tease yourself out of thought and you 00:39:37
get into the no thought state then when 00:39:41
you are in the no thought state and you 00:39:43
are simply observing the world without 00:39:47
commentary you will realize that there 00:39:50
are no problems in the world there is no 00:39:53
time likewise there is no eternity 00:39:57
there is no this and likewise there is 00:39:59
no that because this and that are purely 00:40:01
verbal creations so if you want to say 00:40:04
anything at all you just call it such 00:40:06
anise 00:40:07
[Music] 00:40:09
now then when you can do this you'll 00:40:12
discover that you can go a stage further 00:40:14
that you can go on thinking that 00:40:17
fundamentally preserve an attitude of 00:40:19
not thinking it wouldn't be you aren't 00:40:23
under the limitation as if to say to 00:40:25
yourself well you mustn't think that 00:40:26
would be naughty that would be the wrong 00:40:28
non-buddhists ik thing to do you can 00:40:32
perfectly well think and conduct all 00:40:35
kinds of practical business and live a 00:40:41
complete human life but once you've 00:40:44
learned the secret of what's called 00:40:46
motion in zen no mind or void mind you 00:40:53
can go on because you are no longer 00:40:54
fooled by your thoughts so we had a 00:41:00
marvelous discussion in Japan with a Zen 00:41:03
master he was saying the whole he was 00:41:11
explaining just as I've explained to you 00:41:13
[Music] 00:41:15
all about meditation being non thinking 00:41:15
and then he said you know it's the same way as the Japanese carpenters they 00:41:25
build without a plan 00:41:28
and so in the same way you don't need a conceptual framework to live your life 00:41:36
so I asked him a question I said I think 00:41:49
he got the point that the interpreter 00:41:51
was functioning because later we had 00:41:54
another conversation in which he made 00:41:57
the most beautiful little thing when he 00:42:02
said we were discussing all the people 00:42:04
who were translating the various texts 00:42:06
of Zen Buddhism into English and he said 00:42:08
this is a waste of time there's no need 00:42:12
to translate all this stuff because he 00:42:15
said if he really understands there and 00:42:17
you could use any book you can use the 00:42:19
dictionary the Bible or Alice in 00:42:22
Wonderland he said after all the sound 00:42:25
of the rain needs no translation 00:42:25
so when once a monk asked the Zen master how do you get into the path see all 00:42:37
I've been talking is theory 00:42:42
now she'll ask me how do you practice it 00:42:44
and he replied do you hear the street 00:42:49
said yes said that is the way to enter 00:42:49
this is KPFK Los Angeles we have just heard Alan Watts with part three of the 00:43:06
four-part seminar solid emptiness 00:43:10