Dharma Talk, November 7, 2016: Keep Peace Along the Way

Good evening it's November 7, 2016 the day before the end of the world as we know it, or hopefully we have the world here tomorrow. In any case, I'm going to talk about kind of a recap of some of the things I've been talking about in here and in different chapters that I've gone to of Dharma Drum and trying to kind of put it all together. 
The thing that you have that is of great benefit is that you get to hear me all the time and so you get used to the vocabulary, you get used to the doctrine that I’m talking about. Where sometimes when I go, maybe there's a first-timer there that hasn't heard anything like what I'm saying, or the vocabulary, or the Sanskrit word, or any of that doctrine and makes it difficult for them to fathom it. But I think the skill is in trying to present it in a way that makes it useful for that person, even if they don't understand this “Deep Profound Dharma” that's very very simple.  
What drew me to Chan Buddhism was listening to Master Sheng Yen talking at UCLA. When he talked at UCLA, it was a very general crowd but yet the wisdom of what he was saying was very amazing. He had this ability to speak to a general audience and impart this incredible wisdom and make it look simple but it really isn't. He had to call upon his best use of the understanding of the everyday life of the laypeople to be able to do that. This is what I try to use in my presentations - is trying to make a connection with whatever the problems that you have, the issues that you face, the way that you see the world, so that I can I use those experiences that I have and kind of show you how I was able to begin to unstick myself from a lot of those situations. Not that I’ve completely unstuck myself but I can show you the manner on how to do that. 
So today we start with the idea that in our daily practice, we have to have this faith in mind; that we have the faith that in this world we understand how mind works and we understand that there is a pattern there that happens in accordance with causes and conditions. And when we have this faith, then in everything that we encounter we’re able to use this faith to be able to see the world from a different perspective. We use the basic premise of “causes and conditions never fail.” This is not hard for us to put into practice. We just simply have to have the faith that it's there; that things do not happen my happenstance and that they're not just simply random things that happen. They happen in accordance with this idea of causes and conditions - for whatever's happening, there was a previous cause or causes. Sometimes if you look at the Abhidharma, they talk about concomitant causes which means there are several causes that come in. They may be a major cause but there's always other ancillary causes that come up to bring forth a particular state of mind. 
When we talk about the idea of the state of mind, it just means in this moment – here. This is a state of mind; not in your head but all around you. Not inside, not outside, just in this moment! Just imagine, separate yourself from yourself in a moment and say “all of these people that are in this room right now, this room itself, the light, the temperature, all the things that are here is a state of mind. It is occurring because of causes and conditions. Because I teach regularly on Monday nights, I'm here. You come, you have an interest so there’s different things that come into play to bring you all here and for you to sit where you sit. So when you do that, you know precisely what is happening. You don't necessary need to know all of the causes that brought forth this moment. All you have to know is that there's causes that brought this forth. Why is that important that there are causes that brought forth this moment? Anybody know?
Student: It’s important to know that you can either change the pattern or the behavior. Like if you’re in a pattern and if you causes this, every time this causes that. If you’re mindful of what causes that, then maybe it’s not a compassionate thing and you will learn to be more compassionate. 
Gilbert: Okay, anybody else want to add to that? This is important! This is Chan in its simplest and in its deepest at the same time.
Student: Because causes and conditions never fail and it helps you understand that everything is impermanent.
Gilbert: Everything is impermanent and it’s changing. How is it that if we know the causes that that helps us in this moment. We don't have to know the specific causes but we know that this moment was brought together by causes. It's part of what Wendy has said already.
It is that in this moment, we're the molders of the next moment. That is an incredible, incredible revelation. It’s very simple, very obvious! If I start getting angry at you, or coming up and slapping you and say “This is Chan!” and of course you will say “I don’t really like that much Chan! (Laughs…) Can you give it to him?” (More laughs…) And then I slap him and he says “Thanks a lot!” so then we know this is causes and conditions. But if I speak of things that are of a helpful nature, of a harmonious nature that lifts up the environment, not bad! You have the moment, you have the ability to change the things that are going on around you in this environment, in your mind environment first. 
Student: So you want to use your wisdom to be able to get to the compassion?
Gilbert: What happens is and you’re following along essentially. It is wisdom to understand that causes and conditions bring forth this moment, and it is wisdom to apply that to the next moment through body, speech, and mind. So in body, speech, and mind, what you think, what you say, and what you do will have an impact. It can be positive you see. Because before, what we do is we don't aluminate that and the people that are always angry… I a person is always angry, in the next moment they’re going to be angry. And so when they’re angry like that, you know this person is always angry so everything affects him! You know if there's a sound, it affects him, and if there's something they don't like, a color, a person, whatever it is. They attach anger to anything that arises. It's habitual tendencies. But when we see that, we understand that person and we give them wide berths in some ways. And if we can help him, we help him. 
But in our own mind, we are aware of when anger arises. We don't have to accept it, we only need to illuminate it. When we illuminate it, we understand that it wasn't there a moment ago but now it is here. You can buy into it and then you can say a bunch of swearwords right after that and then you can sleep on the couch, okay or whatever else happens because of those things. And you go, “I shouldn’t have said that! I can't believe I said that!” you know, but you did! But later on, you begin to have this kind of 3-second delay before you say things. Sometimes you still say it and then you kick yourself for saying it. But later on you learn that you don't have to say it, so you can just understand that it is arising and then let go of it.
I was listening to one comedian and he was talking about that he was watching a very important football game on TV. (And for the women, any football game is probably important if your husband is watching or your boyfriend is watching it). So he was watching the football game and his wife comes up and stands in front of the TV and says “We’re going to go shopping for blinds today.” 
And he went “Are you crazy? This is an important game playing! Get away in front of the TV set! I can’t believe you’re even thinking about that! How stupid are you?”
And he says, “That's what I thought!” What I said was, “Okay dear, let’s go!” (Laughs…) 
So at least he's halfway there. He is still thinking it in mind but he’s not putting it in speech or conduct.
So this is how we start. We begin to see these things and we begin to see how they have an impact on our environment. And as we do that, then our environment changes. If we can maintain this kind of an approach, this is called “Walking or Talking in Chan, acting in Chan.” Every moment we're illuminating it and as long as you stay in this illuminated state, you're not going to make a mess out of the environment. And the environment again includes what arises in consciousness, and what arises out here, because there's no separation from inside and outside. This is all what you might say in some ways. From the Yogacara School, it says “This is consciousness only.” But when we look at it from the School of Madyamika, we recognize the idea of Two Truths here: an Apparent Reality, which we see things and say like okay they are governed by certain principles. And then we have this Actual Reality, which is mind itself, and all the things are happening in Apparent Reality are happening within Actual Absolute Reality. 
That is why it works that you can change it because everything is created by the mind. A foul thought will produce another foul thought; a good thought will produce another good thought. So when you begin to understand it in this way, then you will see. The first thing you do is you keep calm; you keep calm in whatever you're doing. You just try to rest in this present moment and then we use the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. Does anybody know what those are? I talk about them all the time. 
Student: Keep doing wholesome things, stop doing unwholesome things, don’t allow unwholesome things to arise, and you begin to do… (Barely audible)
Gilbert: Very close. Essentially it's that you maintain wholesome thoughts in the mind, you give rise to wholesome thoughts, you eliminate unwholesome thoughts from the mind, and you don't give rise to unwholesome thoughts. 
This is very much of an interesting thing because unwholesome thoughts are thoughts that like for instance, (and I'll be a little bit gross but for the purpose of understanding) if a person is to see a pile of poop, and see it in their mind, and smell it, that is not an unwholesome thought. It is that clinging to it in some way, or the disdain of it, and that which gives rise in the mind to that. Now that pile of poop could be somebody from a different color or different religion, a different speech pattern, whatever. And when we attach something to it, that's an unwholesome thought. It’s not the thought itself nor the person. The person doesn't do it. The poop is not an unwholesome thought. It is when we attach something to it. 
Wholesome thought on the other hand, is a thought that comes in the mind that’s functional. As I am talking to you right now, I have wholesome thoughts of talking in a sequential way to pass on certain Dharma, and I give rise to that. Now if I start thinking and saying “Wow Gilbert, you're really knocking it out of the park today!” Or “You're doing really really bad [you know], the people are falling asleep!” Those are unwholesome thoughts; they are the sticky thoughts. They don't have to be there. They’re not necessary for the presentation here. 
So the idea of wholesome and unwholesome has nothing to do with morality. It has to do with sticky thoughts. We use the wisdom [that Wendy was talking about] to illuminate the mind, to choose properly [through body, speech, and mind] what our next conduct is. We don’t necessarily have to filter them through some kind of moral screening. The mind understands that and puts forth the appropriate conduct [through body, speech, and mind], simply using wisdom. That's why the Four Foundations of Mindfulness are so critical because they are looking right directly into mind and seeing what's arising. 
Student: Those are the Four Exertions. The Four Mindfulness are mindfulness of breath, sensation …
Gilbert: That’s right in terms of that exertion. You're right! I call it mindfulness because that's the way I look at them. Those items are critical because if we have them and if we use the mind in the right way, this will bring forth an illumination of the mind. If we don't do that, the mind is clouded because we’re not able to discern the sticky thoughts - these thoughts that that come up that we perceive to be our self. And so when we don't see these sticky thoughts, then what happens is that the sticky thoughts, they hold on and we perceive that to be “us” thinking and simply because every time a thought arises in mind, something sticks to it. 
But if we reverse the viewpoint that we see things from so that we're no longer seeing it through this filter of the consciousness and habitual tendencies, this is where the confusion comes in. We cling to these sticky thoughts and perceive that there’s an ego, or personality, or life in being there. But if we use our awareness to see it, just simply aware of what's there, it no longer goes through the process of these sticky thoughts. In fact the sticky thoughts are seen. When we don't do that, we cannot see them. We are ignorant to the fact that that thought was not there before and that thought that which we think is “us” thinking, was not there. But when we're able to speed up the mind, not slow the mind down, but speed up the mind to see from whence the thought arises, then in that moment we’re able to see that thought was not there a moment ago and “Puff, it’s here!” 
In the beginning, we spot things as they are already in mind, in consciousness. But later on, we are able to see them as they are beginning to form and begin to move towards the center stage of attention and consciousness. The mind is capable of doing that and when it does, that spots it and goes, “Ah, there is an incoming thought and it's an incoming sticky thought.” And by illuminating it, what it does is that thought will dissipate. We do not have to cast it out of the mind. So as we’re walking around, talking with people, looking at the things that we have, what happens is that we end up being aware moment-to-moment-to-moment so we have to constantly keep ourselves awake. 
If we do this and it's really not that hard, we just have to remember to practice in this way, then we’re able to bring the mind to very quiet state. All those sticky thoughts that have an opinion about everything are no longer arising along with the other environmental thoughts. Whether the environment thoughts are your environment, your physical environment, or in consciousness itself, thoughts will arise and they will just dissipate. They came up, maybe you had the idea of you want an apple, and so the apple arises in the mind and one is aware that the apple arose in the mind because you saw it in the story and you wanted to buy it and it looks so juicy. You wanted to have it so “Voilà!” it appears in mind. And then at that point, if you see something saying “I want” [which is a sticky thought], that dissipates. The apple [on its own] dissipates because it's just echoes. That’s all they are – just echoes of things that have happened before that come up in the mind. 
The danger is not in the echoes. The danger is not in what people perceive to be the scattered mind. The harm is that we do not perceive that we are attaching to those thoughts, something that we can’t see. And when we don’t see that, it's like “I don't know why my mind is so scattered. I don't know why it's that way.” But with Chan, we understand that these things will be coming up habitually and so we’re very very clear about them. It's important for us, in terms of our practice in that way, is to practice in such a way that we stay awake. We just keep staying awake. 
What I’m saying to you in terms of your daily life is the same instruction for meditation. When you sit to meditate, you stay awake. It's easier when you meditate because you're not having so many rushes at the sensory gates that make it difficult for you to do. It would be like have you ever played a kid that plays video games all the time? You have no chance against them because the things move so quickly and they've become very adept at playing that game. So where we’re at as a beginner, when we start to practice meditation, we may have no chance against a scattered mind because the mind is so scattered and producing so many thoughts that we become seduced by it, or we give in to it. And that’s more likely - we give in when we start to meditate. We give in when we’re walking around and going “That person is mad! What can we do?” or you just go into automatic pilot, which is your habitual tendencies. But the positive thing here is that if you don't succumb to that, you can control the environment that you’re in. It’s subject to the laws of karma, but at least you can control it. You can control at least the aspects of your perception of the things that are happening and begin to mold the environment a little bit by a little bit into a positive environment. 
Part of what I want to talk about is what Wendy already talked about, which is impermanence. There's an impermanence that things are constantly changing. We understand that and we’re aware of it and we are aware that these changes can be very positive. By the idea of this impermanence, it means that if we keep moving it in a particular direction, it will change; that there's a positiveness there. Some people, they don't understand impermanence and that aspect of impermanence. They think that Shunyata, this emptiness, is just this useless void rather than understanding that it’s a means in terms of bringing about an uplifting of humanity, of changing things that you see around you. Because you understand how to use it in a very wise way, that’s important.
So when we see the things and we have something and we understand that there's a difficulty that we have in our life, it's impermanent. The things that bothered us two weeks ago, six months ago, they're gone. Maybe we have some new ones but the other ones maybe gone. Or the ones that are there, we begin to see those things in a different way. We begin to see things by taking measures that are necessary to improve our own environment and also the result in environment around us. So as we see that, it's clear. When I talk about the resultant environment, it means it's a result of what we’re putting into it. In this room you have a lot of people. If we are of like mind, then we can affect some incredible changes. But if we have somebody, a doubter, a skeptic, or somebody who it is very very negative, they can have a very negative effect on a group. You have to be very very careful that you're not one of those people that are doing that.
I can’t remember where I was, I think I was in Ohio and there was a person [after I lectured] that had a bunch of questions and they were very skeptical and they wanted to challenge me at that moment. But the manner in which they were talking and the way the negativity they were bringing was really affecting the group. So I just asked person to hold their thoughts until after we finished, and be aware, be mindful that the other people also have questions. I told him “I will talk to you unlimited after we finished.” Well, you know that pretty much finished that person and that person left. But we are mindful moment to moment what we're doing. If we lose our patience, if we say swearword. If we say a swearword, we’re going to say another one. If we think negatively of somebody, we’re going to think negatively of them again. So we have to be very very careful of how we think about people. It's very very powerful! Everything is created by the mind. So if we think in a negative way, we will say things and we would do things that are very negative. 
I remember when I was a young attorney and I was talking to somebody. At that point he was the manager of the office I was working as a legal aide and they said “Do you know so-and-so?” 
And I said “I know that person” and I said a bunch of negative things. 
And the person just looked at me and said, “Funny, he only had good things to say about you.” 
And I was so shamed. I remembered that! I remember that so much and that was something that kind of governed me to be very very careful about what I did. I really had a great shame about that and I realized that that was bad in terms of how I look at things and how people would perceive me, and how I could hurt other people, and how this discrimination in the mind was so poisonous. That helped me a lot. I cannot say that I’m free of that completely but I’m certainly not at the level of what I was when I was young attorney that’s so brash. It is in this way that we’re mindful moment-to-moment of what we’re putting into the environment. Chan is very simple. It's really simple; we just have to watch it. We have to watch what's coming out of our mouth, what our body language is, what we’re thinking. Anything we think can be very very powerful.
 I had once this one lady that I was talking to about these things. She was a teacher and there was an assistant principal that really did not like her at all. She would come in and audit her classes to see what she was teaching, for the purposes of trying to get the goods on this teacher.
And once the assistant principal left, the teacher thought, “I just wish she'd break her leg!” 
And in the next moment, you could hear “Aaargh!!!” And the lady tripped and fell and broke her leg. 
There was this kind of an instant karma but would you say that was happenstance, or was there causes and conditions at work there? You know there are many different kind of causes and conditions. I don’t think she has that kind of “Firestarter” power. But she at that moment, because everything was so strong and the karma could not hold back any longer, the lady broke her leg. Now, I don't want you to go out there and wish people to break their legs. What I want you to do is I want you to start forgiving people. I want you to help people. 
This is one of the hardest things that we do. For some people it's natural. But one of the hardest thing for some people is helping others without the expectation of getting anything back; just spontaneously helping someone, do something. No matter who it is, just try to help people without thinking that I'm getting something from it. You will be surprised how that changes you, how it defeats your ego. Because it's the ego that says “No, I’m not going to do that! Why should I do that?” you know. People go out of their way sometimes to help me and I will go out of my way to help other people. It’s just the way we are. Sometimes we think “I don't have the time for this! I don't have the time!” I don’t know if you've ever rationalized it in that way. We all have the time! Heck, that's what this world is all about! This world is about helping each other. And it's not “our time” you know. We say that we don’t have the time but we go “I wonder if that football game is better than this one!” You waste time all the time. 
We use our precious time on Earth for the right reasons. Wherever I'm at, I use my cell phone. What do I use my cell phone for? I’m constantly studying off my cell phone: Tathagatagarbha, such and such and such. I will sit there and I read. I'm just reading and reading. Why? Because I wasn't doing anything else. While I’m waiting, why should I just be thinking about bad thoughts, or impatient thoughts or whatever? I can use that time to read. Why do I read? Not because I want to become smarter but because it helps me. It helps me help other people. Not Bad! That's how we practice in this way. 
If you practice in this way, this is wisdom. The wisdom comes from watching what's happening in the present moment, being aware of what's arising in mind, understanding how mind works. It's very very simple; it's very simple. You don't need to have this realization of “Wow, that's it! That was the big movement that I was waiting for and I got the big ribbon for that!” It doesn't work that way. All it does is it just allows you to help other people. That is the big payoff with this. Some of you might go “Oh what a jiff!” (Laughs…) “You mean I’m going to practice and all I’m going to do is help people? “What a jiff! I can't believe that!” But what do you want? Do you want some kind of like “High-five” from the Buddha? “Good job!” you know. If the Buddha appears before you and wants to give you a “High-five,” then you need to start doing some mantras because I assure you it’s not the Buddha. (More laughs…)
The thing is that you have to see - the product of wisdom is compassion. That's what we have. But this compassion is so wonderful. It's so incredibly wonderful because by having compassion for others, we don't have the thought of our “self.” We don't think “OMG, this was so bad! This was a terrible week! This was terrible this, terrible that!” You have these things happening to you but you're too busy helping other people to be worried about those things. When you need to deal with them, you deal with them and so you spend the time dealing with them, and then you put them down. 
Today I had two major problems I had to deal with. I worked with both of them, I budgeted the time to do it and when they were done, I put them down and I’m here talking to you. And before I came, I was studying to put this together, and put together a few notes in terms of what we're were doing. And all this kind of opening intro. I haven't even gotten to what I was going talk to you about. (Laughs…)
So moment to moment, we have to keep staying awake and we’re carefully stepping in the present moment. And we are aware; I keep saying it body, speech, and mind because I want to ingrain it in you - what is arising in body, speech, and mind – what are you doing your body, what are you doing in your mind, what are you saying. There's a right moment for everything that you say; a right moment for everything that you do. You have to find it and use your wisdom to do those things. You have to be very very careful of that. 
As you practice, what you do is you keep peace along the way. You don't try to struggle with people, you don't try to make enemies. You try to make your enemies your friends. If it's difficult to do that, at least understand your enemy and forgive them. It's not easy! It's not an easy thing but it's a wonderful thing because at least you are not the enemy. Your “self” clinging to these thoughts are your enemy. But when you remove yourself from that, then you are this wonderful part of mind that is a solution.
So with a very short time I have left tonight, I want to start with a Chan poem that I talked about many many times before. Maybe, you will hear it in a different way. Each time you read a poem like this or hear a poem like this, you will find many different facets that you didn't see the first time, and how they're speaking to you, how they're speaking in terms of the Chan language in the doctrine that there’s this profound wisdom. So this poem, Faith in Mind says:
The Supreme Way is not difficult
Just avoid picking and choosing.
If you have neither aversion nor desire
You will thoroughly understand.  

This opening sentence of this poem says everything. This supreme way or attaining the way, it's not difficult. It isn’t difficult; we just don't pick and choose. We don't crave subject and object. We don't create good or bad. We see things very very clearly. In this way when they say “you will thoroughly understand” is that you will penetrate it through wisdom.
A hair’s breath difference is the gap between heaven and earth
If you want it to come forth, let there be no positive or negative.
So you’re in a state of equanimity. You see things clearly. You're aware that all the things around you are arising due to causes and conditions. Does it mean you can't laugh? No! Does it mean you can't cry? No! Everything is in its due time and due course, in the Middle Way. You can't always be laughing. You can't always be crying. There are moments for everything and you're clear about it. You're clear in terms of what you're doing.
For such comparisons are the sickness of the mind.
So when we see positive and negative: I like, I dislike, I want this, I don't want that, then we create this separation in mind in which habitual tendencies arise. That's what they're saying - that if you made a mistake and if you give rise to these kinds of vexations, it will drive a wedge through your practice. But little by little, you begin to perfect your practice in the present moment. It will change you. I guarantee you it will change you and it won't take long for you to change.
Without knowing the Great Mystery, quiet practice is useless.
Here the great mystery is mind itself, what it is that’s here. What they’re saying “without knowing,” at least in the beginning in terms of knowing, there is the idea of how mind works. So if we know how mind works, then we can sit and practice and this quiet practice of meditation is meaningful. But if we don't know how mind works, all we want to try to do is wipe our consciousness clean. That's useless; absolutely useless! Why? Because something else is going to come up in consciousness in the next moment due to habitual tendencies. Even if you were able to blank out the consciousness, that's just a dead Samadhi state. It's not of benefit to you because there's no wisdom there. There's no illumination of the mind. Illumination of the mind comes and the quietness comes from the mind seeing clearly what's arising moment to moment.
The great perfection is the same as vast space
Lacking nothing, nothing is extra.
 I think Red Pine in talking about the Heart Sutra said that “It isn't the space between us, but the lack of space between us that enables us to practice well.” That we understand there's no distance between you and I. We are all using the same mind, we are all within mind. And when we understand that, how can we not care for each other? When you do not feel that compassion, it's because you have not practiced enough, not developed enough wisdom to derive this compassion. This compassion is peace. It brings forth a great peace, not just into you but into others. This is our Mahayana practice. 
Due to picking up and discarding, you will not know it. 
Don’t chase condition.
This is a very important line here - don't chase the condition. Does anybody know what that means - don't chase the condition? 
Student: (Barely audible) 4436
Gilbert: And what’s the condition? Whatever comes up. Let's say a thought comes up “This would be a nice time for a beer” And then every moment is a nice time for a beer. (Laughs…) I was watching a program where a person said “I’ll drink to that!” And the other person said “You’ll drink to anything!” because they’re chasing the condition. 
So whatever it is, if we chase after these habitual tendencies, each time we give in to them, we lose. But if we are able to illuminate those conditions, then they get weaker because we begin to see that there is nothing but habitual tendencies. They are not us. We are not an alcoholic. We’ve been conditioned to become an alcoholic. We've been conditioned to become whatever we are: angry, or whatever. If we don't chase those things, if we see them for what they are, and we see what they represent [through body, speech, and mind], what had happened with those, then we can overcome it. But we cannot overcome it by just simply trying to suppress something. It will not work that way. We have to illuminate the mind to see - that craving is coming up again. It has nothing to do with me. It's just part of was echoing pattern that comes up. So it says:
Don't chase condition, nor abide in forbearing emptiness, nor abide in emptiness

So when we abide in emptiness, that's kind of a nihilistic way of looking at things where we say everything is empty. But we can’t see in that way because it does matter. It does matter! It's not something that we say “Ah, I see how mind works! Poof! I’m gone. One day you can be here but I could care less.” It's not in that way. So when we chase emptiness, then there's no meaning to life at all. But this “meaning to life” is trying to look into it to see how do we use this mind? It's like looking through binoculars from the wrong side - everything is at such a distance. It is difficult to see. But when we turn the binoculars the right way, then we see; “Ah, this is how it is! We could see very clearly!” Except when we turn the binoculars, what we do is we point them this way to see what is arising in mind. We are clear about it. We’re clear that that thought wasn't there a moment ago. That thought has nothing to do with me. This is knowing how mind works. This is the faith in mind. If we have this faith in mind, it will pay off.
In singular equanimity, the self is extinguished.

So this idea is where everything is equal and we see things. We don't have to say [you know] “I want, I don't want!” Everything is just perfectly in its place. This “self” will extinguish because you're not giving the “self” anything to thrive on. You cut out the condition. When you cut out the condition, the self goes away because the self is the one that chases the jelly doughnut. It chases the beer, chases the girls, chases the men, it chases anger. And when you cut all that conditioning out, the self cannot support any longer. There's no habitual tendencies to it bring forth. This is turning the mind's eye inward, illuminating the mind, and we have peace - that wonderful peace that you can share with others. 
Any questions?