The Heart Of The Buddha's Teaching - Episode 7

Welcome back.

I will introduce myself briefly as always.

My name is Sara Sati and this is Book Club and this first installment of Book Club we are working with the book The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh.

I'll show it.

Many of you who are here or people who have been joining and watching have been joining since the beginning.

I believe we are on episode 7.

We're making our way through the book and we're going to continue with the teachings today.

If you were with me last week,

Last week we began the teachings that are now deeper than what we have typically been reading about so far.

So last week's teachings take us a little bit deeper into the teachings of the Buddha and if you remember the teachings from last week the teachings were on the two truths.

The two truths being absolute truth and relative truth.

I think it's important just to recap a little bit.

The first section of the book where we dealt with the four noble truths and the second section of the book where we dealt with the Noble Eightfold Path.

These are all relative truth teachings and they're usually the way that we are drawn into the Buddhist teachings.

We learn about Buddhism from a relative level.

We learn how it can alleviate our relative problems like suffering,

Fear,

Anxiety,

These kinds of things.

Then from those teachings typically we're enticed and we want to go a little bit deeper and that's when we're invited to start exploring the absolute truth teachings.

So last week we talked a little bit about the absolute and relative truth and the difference there.

Then the next chapter we read was on the three Dharma seals.

If you remember Thich Nhat Hanh,

I think I said this last week,

This is the time of the 10,

000 fake Buddhas.

There are many teachings in the world but not all of them have the long-standing testing that has happened with Buddhist teachings to show us that they actually have efficacy,

That they are valuable for ourselves and our lives and they're absent of the ego of a teacher teaching from the relative level.

So Thich Nhat Hanh talks to us about the three Dharma seals and we should be looking inside of every teaching that we take for these three Dharma seals.

These are impermanence,

Non-self and nirvana.

So we talked about those a little bit last week.

Hopefully you had a chance to do the homework last week.

If not I encourage you to go back and do the homework.

As we all know by now the teachings of the Buddha are meant to be studied at first and in order for us to really get value from them we have to practice them.

So the homework is every week an opportunity for you to take these teachings and apply them in your life so that you can understand them on a deeper level than just the cognitive level so that you can begin to understand them from that wellspring that lives inside.

Today I'm going to read from chapter 19 and chapter 20.

Without further ado we'll begin with chapter 19 the three doors of liberation.

Reminder,

Relax,

Enjoy listening,

Enjoy hearing words,

Enjoy the tone and the sound and don't worry so much about what you do or don't understand what does or doesn't make its way into your ear consciousness.

Instead allow yourself to just relax enough and trust enough that the important teachings and messages are going to make their way into your ears and down from there to your heart.

The three doors of liberation.

The three Dharma seals,

So this is the chapter from last week,

Are the keys we can use to enter the three doors of liberation and these are emptiness,

Signlessness and aimlessness.

All schools of Buddhism accept the teaching of the three doors of liberation.

These three doors are sometimes called the three concentrations.

When we enter these doors we dwell in concentration and are liberated from fear,

Confusion and sadness.

The first door of liberation is emptiness,

Sunyata.

Emptiness always means empty of something.

A cup is empty of water,

A bowl is empty of soup.

We are empty of a separate independent self.

We cannot be by ourselves alone.

We can only inter-be with everything else in the cosmos.

The practice is to nourish the insight into emptiness all day long.

Wherever we go we touch the nature of emptiness in everything that we contact.

We look deeply at the table,

The blue sky,

Our friend,

The mountain,

The river,

Our anger and our happiness and we see that these are all empty of a separate self.

When we touch these things deeply we see the inter-being and inter-penetrating nature of all that is.

Emptiness does not mean non-existence,

It means interdependent co-rising,

Impermanence and non-self.

When we first hear about emptiness we feel a little frightened but after practicing for a while we see that things do exist only in a different way than we thought.

Emptiness is the middle way between existent and non-existent.

The beautiful flower does not become empty when it fades and dies.

It is already empty in its essence.

Looking deeply we see that the flower is made of non flower elements,

Light,

Space,

Clouds,

Earth and consciousness.

It is empty of a separate independent self.

In the Diamond Sutra we are taught that a human being is not independent of other species so to protect humans we have to protect the non-human species.

If we pollute the water and air,

The vegetables and minerals,

We destroy ourselves.

We have to learn to see ourselves in things that we thought were outside of ourselves in order to dissolve false boundaries.

In Vietnam we say that if one horse is sick all the horses in the stable will refuse to eat.

Our happiness and suffering are the happiness and suffering of others.

When we act based on non-self our actions will be in accord with reality and we will know what to do and what not to do.

When we maintain awareness that we are all linked to each other this is the concentration on emptiness.

Reality goes beyond notions of being and non-being.

To say that the flower exists is not exactly correct but to say that it does not exist is also not correct.

True emptiness is called wondrous being because it goes beyond existence and non-existence.

When we eat we need to practice the door of liberation called emptiness.

I am this food,

This food is me.

One day in Canada I was eating lunch with the sangha and a student looked up at me and said I am nourishing you.

He was practicing the concentration on emptiness.

Every time we look at our plate of food we can contemplate the impermanent non-self nature of food.

This is deep practice because it can help us see interdependent co-arising.

The one who eats and the food that is eaten are both by nature empty.

That is why the communication between them is perfect.

When we practice walking meditation in a relaxed peaceful way it is the same.

We step not just for ourselves but for the whole world.

When we look at others we see how their happiness and suffering are linked to our happiness and suffering.

Peace begins with me.

Everyone we cherish will someday get sick and die.

If we do not practice the meditation on emptiness when it happens we will be overwhelmed.

The concentration on emptiness is a way of staying in touch with life as it is but it has to be practiced and not just talked about.

We observe our body and see all the causes and conditions that have brought it to be.

Our parents,

Our country,

The air and even future generations.

We go beyond time and space,

Me and mine,

And taste true liberation.

If we only study emptiness as a philosophy it will not be a door of liberation.

Emptiness is a door of liberation when we penetrate it deeply and we realize interdependent co-arising and the interbeing nature of everything that is.

The second door of liberation is signlessness.

Ani Mita.

Sign here means an appearance or the object of our perception.

When we see something a sign or image appears to us and that is what is meant by Lakshana.

If water for example is in a square container its sign is squareness.

If in a round container its sign is roundness.

When we open the freezer and take out some ice the sign of that water is solid.

Chemists call water H2O.

The snow on the mountain and the stream rising from the kettle are also H2O.

Whether H2O is round or square,

Liquid or gases or solid depends on circumstances.

Signs are instruments for our use but they are not absolute truth and they can mislead us.

The Diamond Sutra says,

Wherever there is a sign there is deception.

Illusion.

Perceptions often tell us as much about the perceiver as the object of perception.

Appearances can deceive.

Practicing the concentration on signlessness is necessary for us to free ourselves.

Until we can break through the signs we cannot touch reality.

As long as we are caught by signs,

Round,

Square,

Solid,

Liquid,

Gas we will suffer.

Nothing can be described in terms of just one sign.

But without signs we feel anxious.

Our fear and attachment come from our being caught in signs.

Until we touch the signless nature of things we will continue to be afraid and to suffer.

Before we can touch H2O we have to let go of signs like squareness,

Roundness,

Hardness,

Heaviness,

Lightness,

Up and down.

Water is in itself neither square nor round nor solid.

When we free ourselves from signs we can enter the heart of reality but until we can see the ocean in the sky we are still caught by signs.

The greatest relief is when we break through the barriers of sign and touch the world of signlessness.

This is nirvana.

Where should we look to find the world of no signs?

Right here in the world of signs.

If we throw away the water there's no way for us to touch the suchness of water.

We touch the water when we break through the signs of the water and see its true nature of interbeing.

There are three phases.

Water,

Not water,

True water.

True water is the suchness of water.

Its ground of being is free from birth and death.

When we can touch that we will not be afraid of anything.

If you see the signlessness of signs you see the tatagata.

This is a sentence from the Diamond Sutra.

Tatagata means the wondrous nature of reality.

To see the wondrous nature of water you need to look beyond the sign of the water and see it is made of non-water elements.

If you think that water is only water,

That it cannot be the Sun,

The Earth,

Or the flower,

You are not correct.

When you can see that the water is the Sun,

The Earth,

And the flower,

That just by looking at the Sun or the Earth you can see the water,

This is the signlessness of signs.

An organic gardener who looks at a banana peel,

Dead leaves,

Or rotting branches can see flowers,

Fruit,

And vegetables in them.

She's able to see the non-self nature of flowers,

Fruit,

And garbage.

When she can apply this insight to all other spheres she will realize complete awakening.

Politicians,

Economists,

And educators need to practice signlessness.

We put many young men in jail but if we meditate on signlessness we will discover where their violence comes from.

What is our society like?

How are our families organized?

What is taught at our schools?

Why should we lay all the blame at the feet of the young people?

Why can't we acknowledge our own co-responsibility?

Young people harm themselves and others because life has no meaning for them.

If we continue to live the way we do and organize society the way we do,

We will continue to produce so many thousands of young people who will need to be imprisoned.

Signlessness is not just an idea.

When we look deeply into our children we see all the elements that have produced them.

They are the way they are because our culture,

Economy,

Society,

And we ourselves are the way that we are.

We can't simply blame our children when things go wrong.

Many causes and conditions have contributed.

When we know how to transform ourselves and our society our children will transform also.

Our children learn reading,

Writing,

Math,

Science,

And other subjects in school that can help them earn a living.

But very few school programs teach young people how to live,

How to deal with anger,

How to reconcile conflicts,

How to breathe,

Smile,

And transform internal formations.

There needs to be a revolution in education.

We must encourage schools to train our students in the art of living in peace and harmony.

It isn't easy to learn to read,

Write,

Or solve math problems,

But children manage to do it.

Learning how to breathe,

Smile,

And transform anger can also be difficult,

But I have seen many young people succeed.

If we teach children properly,

By the time they are around 12,

They will know how to live harmoniously with others.

When we go beyond signs we enter the world of no fear and no blame.

We can see the flower,

The water,

And our child beyond time and space.

We know that our ancestors are present in us right here and right now.

We see that the Buddha,

Jesus,

And all of our other spiritual ancestors have not died.

The Buddha can not be confined to 2,

600 years ago.

The flower cannot be limited to its brief manifestation.

Everything manifests by means of signs.

If we get caught by the signs,

We become afraid of losing that particular manifestation.

When an eight-year-old boy who had lived at Plum Village suddenly died,

I asked his father to be fully aware of the presence of his son in the air he was breathing and in the blades of grass beneath his feet and he was able to do this.

When a well-known Vietnamese meditation teacher passed away,

His disciple wrote this poem.

Dharma brothers,

Do not be attached to the sign.

The mountains and rivers around us are our teacher.

The Diamond Sutra enumerates four signs,

Self,

Person,

Living being,

And lifespan.

We get caught in the sign self because we think there are things that are not self.

But when we look deeply,

We see that there is no separate independent self and we become free of the sign of self.

We see that to protect ourselves,

We have to protect everything that is not ourselves.

We get caught in the sign person.

We separate humans from animals,

Trees,

And rocks and feel that non-humans,

The fish,

The cows,

The vegetation,

The earth,

The air,

And the seas are there for our exploitation.

Other species also hunt for food,

But not in such an exploitative way.

When we look deeply at our own species,

We can see the non-human elements in it.

And when we look deeply at the animal,

Vegetal,

And mineral realms,

We see the human element in them.

When we practice the concentration on signlessness,

We live in harmony with all other species.

The third sign is living being.

We think that sentient beings are different from insentient beings,

But living or sentient beings are made of non-living or non-sentient species.

When we pollute the so-called non-living species,

Like the air or the rivers,

We pollute living beings as well.

If we look deeply into the interbeing of living and non-living beings,

We will stop acting this way.

The fourth sign is lifespan,

The period of time between our birth and our death.

We think we are alive for a specific period of time that has a beginning and an end,

But when we look deeply,

We see that we have never been born and we will never die and our fear dissolves.

With mindfulness,

Concentration,

And the three Dharma seals,

We can unlock the door of liberation called signlessness and obtain the greatest relief.

The third door of liberation is aimlessness,

A pranahita.

There is nothing to do,

Nothing to realize,

No program,

No agenda.

This is the Buddhist teaching about eschatology.

Does the rose have to do something?

No.

The purpose of a rose is to be a rose.

Your purpose is to be yourself.

You don't have to run anywhere to become someone else.

You are wonderful just as you are.

This teaching of the Buddha allows us to enjoy ourselves,

The blue sky,

And everything that is refreshing and healing in the present moment.

There is no need to put anything in front of us and run after it.

We are already having everything we are looking for,

Everything we want to become.

We are already a Buddha,

So why not just take the hand of another Buddha and practice walking meditation?

This is the teaching of the Avatamsaka Sutra.

Be yourself.

Life is precious as it is.

All the elements for your happiness are already here.

There is no need to run,

Strive,

Search,

Or struggle.

Just be.

Just being in the moment in this place is the deepest practice of meditation.

Most people cannot believe that just walking as though you have nowhere to go is enough.

They think that striving and competing are normal and necessary.

Try practicing aimlessness for just five minutes and you will see how happy you are during those five minutes.

The Heart Sutra says that there is nothing to attain.

We meditate not to attain enlightenment because enlightenment is already in us.

We don't have to search anywhere.

We don't need a purpose or a goal.

We don't practice in order to obtain some high position.

In aimlessness,

We see that we do not lack anything,

That we already are what we want to become,

And our striving just comes to a halt.

We are at peace in the present moment.

Just seeing the sunlight streaming through our window or hearing the sound of the rain,

We don't have to run after anything.

We can enjoy every moment.

People talk about entering nirvana,

But we are already there.

Aimlessness and nirvana are one.

This is a gata.

Waking up this morning,

I smile.

24 brand-new hours are before me.

I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with the eyes of love.

These 24 hours are a precious gift.

A gift we can only receive fully when we have opened the third door of liberation,

Aimlessness.

If we think that we have 24 hours to achieve a certain purpose,

Today will become a means to attain an end.

The moment of chopping wood and carrying water is the moment of happiness.

We do not need to wait for these chores to be done to be happy.

To have happiness in this moment is the spirit of aimlessness.

Otherwise,

We will run in circles for the rest of our life.

We have everything we need to make the present moment the happiest in our life,

Even if we have a cold or a headache.

We don't have to wait until we get over our cold to be happy.

Having a cold is a part of life.

Someone asked me,

Aren't you worried about the state of the world?

I allowed myself to breathe and then I said,

What is most important is not to allow your anxiety about what happens in the world fill your heart.

If your heart is filled with anxiety,

You will get sick and you will not be able to help.

This is such an important statement right now in the world.

I'll read it again.

What is most important is not to allow your anxiety about what happens in the world fill your heart.

If your heart is filled with anxiety,

You will get sick and you will not be able to help.

There are wars big and small in many places and that can cause us to lose our peace.

Anxiety is the illness of our age.

We worry about ourselves,

Our family,

Our friends,

Our work,

And the state of the world.

If we allow worry to fill our hearts,

Sooner or later we will get sick.

Yes,

There is tremendous suffering all over the world,

But knowing the need,

This need not paralyze us.

If we practice mindful breathing,

Mindful walking,

Mindful sitting,

And working in mindfulness,

We try our best to help and we can have peace in our heart.

Worrying does not accomplish anything.

Even if you worry 20 times more,

It will not change the situation of the world.

In fact,

Your anxiety will only make things worse.

Even though things are not as we would like,

We can still be content knowing we are trying our best and will continue to do so.

If we don't know how to breathe,

Smile,

And live every moment of our life deeply,

We will never be able to help anyone.

I am happy in the present moment.

I do not ask for anything else.

I do not expect any additional happiness or conditions that will bring about more happiness.

The most important practice is aimlessness,

Not running after things,

Not grasping.

We who have been fortunate enough to encounter the practice of mindfulness have a responsibility to bring peace and joy into our own lives,

Even though not everything in our body,

Mind,

Or environment is exactly as we would like.

Without happiness,

We cannot be a refuge for others.

Ask yourself,

What am I waiting for to make me happy?

Why am I not happy right now?

My only desire is to help you see this.

How can we bring the practice of mindfulness to the widest spectrum of society?

How can we give birth to the greatest number of people who are happy and who know how to teach the art of mindful living to others?

The number of people who create violence is very great,

While the number of people who know how to breathe and create happiness is very small.

Every day gives us a wonderful opportunity to be happy ourselves and to become a place of refuge for others.

We don't need to become anything else.

We don't need to perform some particular act.

We only need to be happy in the present moment,

And we can be of service to those we love and to our whole society.

Aimlessness is stopping and realizing the happiness that is already available.

If someone asks us how long he has to practice in order to be happy,

We can tell him that he can be happy right now.

The practice of a pranihita,

Aimlessness,

Is the practice of freedom.

So this chapter is expanding on the three Dharma seals.

It's essentially saying the three Dharma seals act as keys to the three doors of liberation.

If we go back to the two truths,

We can recognize that these are about absolute truth.

These teachings are about absolute truth,

And these teachings offer us practices to begin to understand absolute truth.

Because while it is important in the preliminary stages to understand relative truth,

To understand the nature of suffering,

To be able to look at suffering deeply,

To understand the Noble Eightfold Path,

And to start walking it,

Right livelihood,

Right speech,

Right action,

Right concentration,

All of these things,

That's a preliminary stage.

Then we need to,

If we really want to relieve the suffering of the world,

And I believe if you're here right now,

Most of you do,

Most of you have a desire not only to relieve your own pain,

But to help and love others.

When we start to understand absolute truth,

And this understanding comes from practicing,

Then we recognize that how we take care of ourselves is how we take care of others.

How we take care of ourselves is how we take care of our children.

How we learn to manage our own anger,

How we learn to manage our own emotions,

How we begin to understand deeper and deeper levels of reality,

That is how we then see the world around us understanding.

So we are a living example of the entire cosmos,

And when we see ourselves in this interconnected way,

Then we are,

There's no effort,

There's no effort,

There's no trying.

We just naturally extend compassion to the man on the street corner who's homeless with no teeth.

We don't look away in fear,

We don't withhold our wallets with fear,

We open our hearts with joy.

That just comes naturally when we understand these truths,

And it's that natural ease of compassion and love that changes the planet.

So it's very important.

So the three doors of liberation,

I'll just remind you,

Are emptiness,

Signlessness,

And aimlessness.

Aimlessness is our homework this week.

I want to just clarify these concepts briefly because I think Thich Nhat Hanh does a beautiful job clarifying,

But then also he kind of winds in some stories,

And so it can take away,

I think,

From the direct understanding of the teaching itself.

So just to clarify,

Emptiness is not what we think it is.

It's not the same as an empty room walking in and there being nothing there,

And it's also not not the same as that.

So it's not that he's saying,

The Buddha is saying,

Spaciousness and emptiness are the same,

And that's something that I want to clarify.

What the Buddha's teaching on emptiness is saying is that there is nothing substantial about anything.

That everything is merely an aggregate,

A combination of things,

Non-thing elements that make up a thing.

So you walk into an empty room,

For instance,

And you think,

I'm in an empty room,

But actually you're in an aggregate of the space in the room,

The floor,

The wood,

The beams,

The nails,

The screws,

The insulation,

The plaster,

The ceiling,

The windows,

The sun shining in.

You cannot extract those things and still maintain the concept of room,

And that's the same for all things.

And so we don't just want to say,

Oh yeah,

I get it,

Everything's empty of a substantial self,

A substantial sense,

And that's really what it is.

It's empty of substance.

You can't hold it because the minute you try to hold it,

It crumbles and falls apart.

The table,

You say it's a table,

But then you take away the leg.

Is it still a table?

Well,

It is a table,

But then you take all the legs away and now it's just a top of something,

A piece of wood.

Where did the table go?

A person is the same way.

A person is made of non-self elements and that's what makes up the self,

And this is the concept of emptiness.

And we really want to practice this every moment of our day,

And one way to do that is just to recognize when you're looking at something mentally,

Take a few moments in your mind and see the non-thing elements of it,

The non- substantial elements.

So you look at a flower and you try to see the sunlight and you try to see the water and you do that again and again and you see that there's no flower that stands alone by itself.

There's no person that you love that stands alone by themselves.

This teaching and practice eventually settles deep in our being and we recognize this interconnected nature.

When we recognize the interconnected nature,

We lose blame and that's because we recognize responsibility.

So that's very important.

Signlessness,

I feel like,

Is a more challenging concept,

But for simplification purposes,

I want to call it conceptlessness.

When we look out,

We immediately see a concept,

An aggregate of things,

And we have a value that we've applied to that concept.

This is a good room or this is a bad room,

This is an ugly room or this is an open room or this is a clean room or this is a dirty room.

And signlessness is the ability to see things as they are without applying these concepts to them.

And this is it.

I really feel like the three Dharma seals and the three doors of liberation are essentially the exact same things.

And I think I talked about this very early on.

The Buddha gave like 84,

000 teachings because everybody's mind sees things a little bit differently and understands things a little bit differently.

So these are ways to understand reality that may work better for you than another way.

So signlessness is just seeing things that are there without concept,

Dropping the concept.

Aimlessness,

While we recognize on the relative level that we need a job and that we need to pair bills and that we need to keep a roof over our head and feed our children or whatnot,

On the absolute level it's very true,

And actually there's some neuroscientific evidence that point to this,

That if we drop this striving,

This to-do list making,

We will do things all day long that are necessary and important for our survival.

We don't have to have this to-do list ongoing or this mind of striving or effortful action in order for life to unfold.

It will unfold for us and we just have to express basic trust in the fact that being alive is our job,

Being alive is enough,

And in that way we we create this sense of ease and relaxation in ourselves which is crucial to being able to go deeper,

That we're able to relax.

We talked about that early on.

Okay,

Chapter 20,

A little bit shorter chapter but I feel like a much harder chapter for understanding.

The three bodies of Buddha.

It is natural for human beings to want to personify qualities like love,

Freedom,

And understanding.

It was in the spirit that the Buddha came to be represented as having three bodies.

Dharmakaya,

The source of enlightenment and happiness.

Sambhogakaya,

The body of bliss or enjoyment.

And Nirmalakaya,

The historical embodiment of the Buddha viewed as one of the many transformation bodies sent forth by the Dharmakaya.

Kaya means body.

When he was about to pass away,

The Buddha told his disciples,

Dear friends,

My physical body will not be here tomorrow but my teaching body,

Dharmakaya,

Will always be with you.

Consider it to be the teacher who never leaves you.

Be islands unto yourself and take refuge in the Dharma.

Use the Dharma as your lamp,

Your island.

The Buddha meant that in order to have Nirvana available to us in every moment,

We have to practice the Dharma.

The way of understanding and love.

That is the birth of Dharmakaya,

The body of the teaching,

The body of the way,

The source of enlightenment and happiness.

The original meaning of Dharmakaya was quite simple.

The way to realize understanding and love.

The Dharmakaya is the embodiment of the Dharma,

Always shining,

Always enlightening everything.

Anything that can help us wake up is part of the Dharmakaya.

Trees,

Grass,

Birds,

Human beings and so on.

When I hear a bird sing,

If I return deeply to myself and breathe and smile,

That bird reveals the Buddha's Dharma body.

People who are awake can hear the Dharma being preached in a pebble,

A bamboo or the cry of a baby.

Anything can be the voice of the Dharma if you are awake.

Every morning when you open the window and see the light streaming in,

Know that it too is part of the Dharmakaya.

Visgata,

Opening the window.

I look out into the Dharmakaya.

How wondrous is life.

Attentive to each moment,

My mind is clear like a calm river.

The Living Dharma is not just a library of sutra books or audio or video cassettes of inspiring Dharma talks.

It is mindfulness manifesting in your daily lives.

When I see you walking mindfully in peace and joy,

A deep presence is also awakened in me.

When you walk like this,

The sun of the Dharmakaya and both of us shines brightly.

When you take good care of yourself,

Your brothers and your sisters,

I recognize the Living Dharma.

When you are really there,

The Dharmakaya is easy to touch.

Dharmakaya is expressed not only through words and actions but also through non-action.

Look at the tree in the garden,

An oak and an oak tree,

And that is all it has to do.

Every time we look at it,

We feel stable and confident.

It offers us air to breathe and shade to protect us during the summertime.

If an oak tree is less than an oak tree,

We will all be in trouble.

We can learn the Dharma from an oak tree so we can say that it is part of the Dharmakaya.

Each pebble,

Each leaf,

And each flower is preaching the Saab Dharma,

Pundarika Sutra.

The Buddha has his Dharma body and we,

Buddhas-to-be,

Must express the Dharma through our own Dharma bodies.

When someone says something challenging,

If we can smile and return to our breathing,

Our Dharma will be a living Dharma and others will be able to touch it.

Sometimes through non-action,

We can help more than if we do a lot,

Like a calm person on a small boat during a storm.

Just by being there,

We can change the situation.

The Dharma body is the Buddha that is everlasting.

Mahayana Buddhists later began to call the Dharmakaya Virochana,

The ontological Buddha,

The soul of the Buddha,

The spirit of the Buddha,

The true Buddha,

The ground of all being,

The ground of enlightenment.

Finally,

Dharmakaya became equivalent to suchness,

Nirvana,

And tatagata garbha.

This is a natural development,

But if we spend too much time talking about these things,

It will be less valuable than learning how to touch our own Dharma body through dwelling in peace and mindfulness.

When you touch the Dharmakaya,

You touch the Buddha.

The Buddha said very clearly that his Dharma body is even more important than his physical body.

For his Dharmakaya to continue,

The Buddha relies on us,

On our practice.

The Sambhogakaya is the Buddha's body of bliss,

Enjoyment,

Celebration,

Results,

Or rewards.

Because the Buddha practices deeply,

He experiences boundless peace,

Joy,

And happiness,

And Sambhogakaya is the fruit of his practice.

When we practice mindfulness,

We too can enjoy this fruit.

Breathing in and looking at the blue sky,

Drinking our tea in mindfulness,

We can feel happy just being alive.

This is our body of enjoyment.

Sambhogakaya.

I once read a story about a Christian man whose faith in God was not firm.

He was hunting in the jungles of Africa when he lost his way.

After some time,

Still lost,

He decided to pray for help.

But because his faith was weak,

He prayed weekly,

God,

If you exist,

Please come and save me now.

As soon as he finished speaking,

An African man appeared.

The man showed him the way to a village and he was saved.

But then he wrote in his diary,

I called upon God but only a Negro appeared.

In fact,

The man who saved him was God himself.

But because he was ignorant,

He failed to see that.

We can say that the man who saved him was the Sambhogakaya Buddha.

Buddha and God appear in many forms.

The Buddha is not only in the cloud.

He is in our hearts and in the hearts of many others.

Every time we touch something beautiful in harmony and peace,

We touch the Sambhogakaya Buddha.

This is called self enjoyment.

When we feel happy and peaceful,

Our happiness and peace radiate around us and others can enjoy it as well.

This is called the enjoyment of others of our body of bliss.

When we do this,

Many Sambhogakayas are born into the world.

Each of us has the capacity to bring joy to others and to help relieve them of their suffering.

If we know how to cultivate the seeds of awakening within ourselves,

Like the Dharmakaya,

The Sambhogakaya body of the Buddha is available if we know how to touch it.

Shakyamuni Buddha,

The historical Buddha in the Nirmalakaya,

Is the Nirmalakaya,

A beam of light sent into the world by the Sun of the Dharmakaya to help relieve the suffering of living beings.

Shakyamuni Buddha was a real human being and the Dharmakaya was embodied by his presence.

The living Buddha is still available to us as an embodiment,

As a ray of the Sun of the Dharmakaya.

If that ray is not apparent to you,

Don't worry.

There are many other rays or transformation bodies expounding the Dharma.

The trees,

The birds,

The violet bamboo,

And the yellow chrysanthemum.

Shakyamuni is just one of these transformation bodies.

You can be in touch with the Nirmalakaya through him or through any of these others.

Each of us has three bodies.

A Dharma body,

An enjoyment body,

And a physical body.

Please discover your own Dharma body,

Your own body of bliss,

And your own body of transformation.

These bodies are deep within you.

It is only a matter of discovery.

When you practice walking meditation and release some of your sorrow and your anger,

When you look deeply into things and shed some of your misperceptions,

Cravings,

And attachments,

You discover the body of the Dharma,

The body of bliss,

And the body of transformation within you.

When you touch these three bodies of yourself and of the Buddha,

You will suffer less.

The Dharmakaya,

Sambhogakaya,

And Nirmalakaya are available.

Allow yourself to be struck by the beams of light emanated by the Buddha and to be transformed.

When we know how to discover the seeds of enlightenment within ourselves,

We realize our capacity to transform many others as well.

The Buddha depends on us to live mindfully,

To enjoy the practice,

And to transform ourselves so we can share the body of the Dharma with many other living beings.

Okay,

So as I said,

I feel like these teachings on the three kaya's.

Trikaya is a more challenging teaching because it's much more abstract.

It's not quite as tangible.

So there is a way that I like to help myself understand and that is what I want to give to you.

Again,

It's about practicing and understanding eventually emerges.

This is the insight that comes from deep thinking or deep concentration.

So I invite you to think about these concepts in your meditation practice in a contemplative way.

Not ruminating,

Spinning,

Spinning,

But allowing the concept to settle inside of your mind as you really explore it.

But I'll tell you about,

I took some notes on it to help myself with clarity.

I'll tell you a little bit about how I understand it.

So actually I like to look at it.

Thich Nhat Hanh talks about it from the Dharmakaya to the Nirmalakaya.

So I actually like to go in the opposite direction from the Nirmalakaya to the Dharmakaya.

And I like to think about it in another metaphor of the sky.

So we can think about maybe the Nirmalakaya as the outer sky.

This is the form in which everything is embodied inside of.

So in order for manifestation to occur there has to be something that's manifested.

And that is the form of our bodies,

The body of the bird,

The body of the tree,

Something like that.

And inside of that form all that is true about bliss,

Joy,

And deeper enlightenment and the teachings,

The way,

Are embodied within that.

So I like to think of the Nirmalakaya like the outer sky.

This is the body.

And then the Sambhogakaya I like to think about the feeling that comes from inhabiting this body fully with mindfulness.

So there's this,

I rub my fingers together,

There's this like juicy bliss feeling when we really touch touch each moment fully.

We have this very tender experience.

It's hard to describe in words but we've all experienced it at some point or another looking at the sunset or the clouds or the night sky or being very close with a loved one.

And that feeling that emerges I like to imagine that's the inner sky.

It's like a layer.

So a layer just beneath the outer sky.

And this is the Sambhogakaya.

And then the Dharmakaya I like to imagine is the innermost sky.

And it's truly like an endless abyss.

And this is the power of the path,

The enlightenment,

The teachings of the way.

All of this which is really like if I do a visualization on it thinking about the outer sky,

The inner sky being the feeling.

So the Nirmalakaya,

The Sambhogakaya being the feeling generated.

And then the Dharmakaya it's inside of us and also it taps into an endless well that is connected to all other things.

So again these are challenging concepts because we're moving beyond relatives.

So now we're pushing our minds to think about the non-relative.

And this is in the absolute truth teachings.

And so it can be more challenging for the mind to wrap their heads around them.

But I encourage you to be sitting with these deeply in contemplation.

Now let's practice together.

So we'll do a brief meditation and then I will offer you some homework for the week ahead.

As I promised I'm offering some homework on aimlessness.

I really put a lot of thought into this.

I thought I shouldn't even maybe offer this homework because it's hard to do.

And I can imagine nobody will do it.

But I thought in that way I have to offer it anyways.

Because just planting the seed of doing it and then knowing that you could do it but not doing it may be enough to have a transformational experience.

And this would be the Nirmalakaya,

The transformation body,

The experience of it,

The feeling generated,

The Sambhogakaya.

And the fact that it can be generated,

That there is a source of deep knowing,

The Dharmakaya.

Let's sit together or lie down together.

You know you have to do what's right for you,

What's right for your own body.

Maybe lying down is right for you.

At some point sit.

If you can sit,

If you are not physically injured,

Sit.

Because part of the process of awakening is feeling the discomfort of life without aversion,

Without pushing away.

And sitting can be challenging and it can be uncomfortable and that can be a teacher for us.

That can be the Dharmakaya.

But if you cannot sit and if you are new to practicing then by all means lie down.

Whatever you choose to do,

Extend your spine,

Lengthen yourself,

Get longer,

Become more spacious and in that way create openness for the energy of the body and the mind to move freely inside of you.

Eyes opened or eyes closed.

Let the physical body,

The form of yourself soften,

Relax.

You can help yourself maybe by repeating,

Lying here or sitting here,

I'm safe.

Sitting here,

I'm safe.

I'm safe to let go.

And then from the very gross outer self,

The skin,

Begin to soften more and more deeply as you penetrate inwards to the muscles,

The soft tissues,

The sense organs,

The internal organs.

Let your mind rest for a few moments here in silence on the experience of yourself breathing.

No need to change anything.

No need to control the breath.

Just simply settle your mind onto it as though you're on a boat on a mostly calm ocean and allow yourself to be rocked gently by your own internal waves.

As you move into this more relaxed space,

I invite you to contemplate some questions I'll be asking.

You just hear the words and allow the mind to sit with them and there's no expectation of what should happen.

In this moment,

I'd like you to find yourself.

Where do you exist?

Are you your toes?

Is that where you exist?

If you lose your toes,

Will you lose yourself?

Are you your arms or your legs or your hair?

If you lose any of these pieces of you,

Will you have lost yourself?

If yes,

Where will you have gone?

If no,

Where are you?

If you can find yourself,

Is that also where your friend or your lover,

Your child,

Is that also where they are inside of themselves?

If you cannot find yourself,

Can you find your friend,

Your child,

Your lover?

Where are they?

If you take off an arm of the one that you love,

If they lose a leg,

They shave their head,

Do you lose them?

Do they go somewhere?

If they fall into a coma,

If they get very sick and cannot talk,

Where have they gone?

Gather up these ideas of self.

Gather up these ideas of others.

Maybe you can even imagine yourself packing these concepts into a backpack or a duffel bag.

Gather up these ideas.

Put them all into one place.

Take a deep,

Deep,

Deep,

Deep,

Deep breath in and on the exhale open your mouth and drop it.

Do it again.

See yourself gathering all of these ideas up,

Gathering all of these concepts up,

The concept of you,

The concept of others.

Gather them up,

Pick them up,

Take a big,

Big,

Big breath in,

Open your mouth and drop them.

Try to feel as though the outer form of your physical body melts away.

Slowly allow the idea of yourself to expand and merge with your surroundings.

Mingle this selfness with the air around you.

Breathe out and feel as though you expand to fill the entire room that you are in.

Now imagine the walls of that room crumble and fall.

Breathe out and imagine that you expand to fill the entire house or building or dwelling that you are in in this moment.

Breathe out and expand beyond the room.

Feel as though the house or dwelling that you are in crumbles.

Breathe out and expand to fill the street that you are on.

Breathe out and fill the town or the city that you live in.

Breathe out and fill the country.

Breathe out and fill the country.

Breathe out and fill the country.

Breathe out and expand to fill the entire planet earth.

Mingle,

Expand beyond your small self.

Feel the vibrational energy as you mingle this absence of a self with all other elements on the planet.

Breathe out and see yourself expand beyond the earth into outer space.

Stay here with your mind expanded and mingling and breathe deeply and fully as you let yourself feel this expanded and connected experience.

Where are you?

Breathe in and begin to collapse.

Breathe in and come back to yourself.

Come back to your country,

Your town,

Your street,

To your house,

To your room,

To your body.

Breathe in and come back.

Settle your mind in the space around your heart.

Breathe in and out of the space around your heart and just be.

Breathe in and out of the space around your heart.

Thank you for being here.

I'm gonna give you this homework.

I'm gonna give you this homework.

Remember it's about practicing so we want to practice contemplating these absolute truths and playing with them in our mind and letting them,

Yeah good I'm so glad you want homework,

And letting these truths settle.

You know the point of this book club is yes to read but of course you could just download the audiobook.

You know I think what happens is we often get books and then we read them and we then we put them away and we don't work with them.

We don't work with them and so that is actually the purpose of book club is to to read.

Yes okay I like to read and you like to hear hear people read and I also like to hear people read but it's then to put it into practice.

It's to have each week an opportunity to read.

Maybe you read it again on your own.

Every time you read it it gets deeper and in that way we're not just phoning it in.

You know it's not surface.

We're not just here practicing on a surface level to tell people we practice to take a photo of ourselves and say we practice.

We're practicing to truly transform ourselves.

We have to do this.

This is the most important work we can do on the planet.

We have to transform ourselves for the benefit of humanity and so little things like this are opportunities for us to do and work with that.

So let me give you some homework.

Like I said this is really a challenging homework assignment and I thought and I thought about it and I thought maybe nobody will will do it.

That's okay if you don't do it because because it's about sometimes just thinking about not doing it you know.

Grace the the I wasn't reading the meditation from a book I just was making the meditation up.

Thank you for asking that question.

That's what I do every week.

I give myself some guidelines for what I want to sit with you with.

What concepts I want to sit with you with and then I just have some notes for myself and I make up a practice.

So I don't have something to record so maybe I'll post this this the meditation separately.

I've had someone else asked me to do that from the practice from the reading so maybe I'll do that at some point here.

As I said the homework is about aimlessness because I think when we're talking about the three doors to liberation emptiness that's an easier one to grasp.

It's not that it's easy it's still challenging I think signlessness also when we think in terms of concepts that's also a less challenging one than aimlessness which I think it goes against our very our very nature to say our very developed socio cultural relative nature it goes against that to say that we have no purpose and that can turn quickly to depression.

I have no purpose but it really is yes a striving for nothing and that doesn't mean we won't do things.

It doesn't mean we won't do things so this week's homework is to practice aimlessness.

It's pretty easy.

Spend a day without any goal.

If you're a list person I can be a list person a to-do list person don't make a list you have to choose the day wisely because it has to be a day where you can you can do this you know a weekend day or a day that you have off work or something like that or don't have a lot of responsibilities.

Wake up without an alarm.

Do not make a list.

Do not make any plans for that day.

If a friend says oh let's make a plan say you know tomorrow I'm just gonna be aimless maybe we'll meet up and maybe we won't and this is all okay.

Wake up without an alarm.

Let your day unfold on its own.

I like this thinking be like the river that travels freely without a map or an itinerary so you don't have a time schedule you don't have a map of where you're going.

It's going to be very very challenging so again the idea is write the homework down your task over the next week is to practice aimlessness at some point.

Can I really trust myself that I will experience my day in its fullness if I allow myself to feel as though there's nothing I have to accomplish and and recognize what comes up for you.

Those bills need to be paid.

That laundry needs to be done.

That kitchen needs to be cleaned.

Whatever you know these are all projections of me onto you I'm sure but whatever those things are just allow yourself to experience that discomfort and be with it but I think what you'll actually find when you practice aimlessness and it's something that I've really put into my own life in practice is that joy ease and compassion naturally emerge.

I practice a life of I only do what I want to do and that doesn't translate to hyper selfishness.

It translates to giving meaningfully in ways that matter without expectation or ambition or striving so there's no like I got to get money or do a thing so that I have a special award or something like that it's just I do what feels good what moves through me naturally and that's what I invite you to do for one day.

Let the day unfold on its own.

Do what feels good what moves through you naturally no expectation no planning no striving and then write if it moves you write about the experience and what unfolded for you and that's the homework for this week it's pretty simple another way and I hope you have a beautiful Sunday thank you great