Treasury of Light

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SF-00926
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Sesshin Lecture: light can't be seen - only reflections off objects; Koun Ejo's Treasury of Light Samadhi; myth of Phaeton and Helios - driving the sun chariot; Yunmen: What is everyone's light? The zendo, the kitchen; not believing anything we think

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male
guy going sorry as if i would give the talk today
i said oh
why are you doing he said
i i don't have anything else to say
and i kind of smiled inside
understanding what he meant and and knowing that he would probably say many more things
in the future
anyway
and
though
as i said the other night the buddha speech mujer is nothing needs to be said
but in that spirit
speech can
happen

handkerchief they are session
maybe nobody needs anymore
special enzymes in instruction
it's
ha
beyond that point
and
i know that usually by the fifth day of sashimi and i feel like anything anybody says here's our
is i am
happy to hear
it doesn't matter so much so
in the spirit of not talking about anything
i thought
speaking about light
because like is not really anything like it can't
be singing actually
and
i'm
closer inspection objects are actually can't be seen either only
very reflection of light off of objects
can be seen

colin ejido as g dogan ganges mean disciple
row an ode to the light com
the treasury of light samadi
colm yoder or za i

he says the zazen of our school is absorption in the treasury of light
where the treasury of light somebody
handed down from burning lamp
the and kira and shakyamuni buddha
keep on cara
is the twenty fourth
generation previous buddha before buddha
we say shakyamuni buddha was not the first broader and deeper and caio was the first that we have the name of who they are at one hundred thousand aeons ago
we still have his name though ah and his name is he burning lamp buddha the pine corridor and he was the one who gave shakyamuni buddha his prediction of
enlightenment being
filled with light
and shakyamuni buddha told this story of his prediction in a previous lifetime way way way back from the pine kind of buddha
and then the buddha just before shakyamuni buddha and one eon previously was cash up or buddha
casual boots you
and his name means
light drinker a drinker of light
so something about the light was
shining through all those aeons of previous borders
and then the light was transmitted from shakyamuni buddha
up to us
what is this light
they can't be seen
but without it
we can't get through the world

these a preferred the other day to gay
the myth of icarus who with ah wax wings tried to
fly up in touch the song but as he got closer the wings melted and he fell
trying to touch the light
and there's another greek myth of fe time and heel ios
that is very similar to the the story in the lotus sutra about the last son who is really the child of a king
harry can't understand that can't believe it hannah
today but it's in chapter two of the lotus sutra and i maybe deriving from this more ancient greek story
futon was the son of helio this year the most is the sun god
and i the friends of fate on you would tease him saying you couldn't be this son of a god
i guess they had heard rumors that he was the son of a garden and down
and phaeton had been told by his mother that is the son of the sun god
ba down cause of his friends teasing him and saying he couldn't be he started to doubt that and he would go back to his mother and she would reassure him that indeed he was the son of the great sun god helios but on he will just doubt it more and more
so eventually you know his mother said well why don't you go actually confirm this with your father himself going to go see on healing goes up in his celestial palace
so fate on
i did this
he
flew up to this celestial palace
about the clouds
and as he as he approached down his father he he couldn't get very close because the be the brightness was so intense he was dazzled by the the the rays emanating from
ah from his father's head
when his father saw him coming in he was his son so out of compassion he took off the
a crown of raise around his head so that his son could approach
and and he did confirm to rezone that data he was his father son god and and
out of great love and compassion for his son he he granted in any wish
and the sun
was exhilarated by this point on being up there in and being confirmed as the eye
as the son of the sun
so that wasn't enough for him he said can i own please if ah
dried your chariot of the sun for one day this was helios his job is to drive a chariot of the sun across the sky each day and i and his father said oh i don't think you should do that on this is this is really a joy
job for on this is my duty in this world is to try the sewing cross a year job is to be my son
but a
it takes a lot of training and to drive this chariot and
oh maybe you like something else
right of course it was too the and the sooner
you give us had had said he would grant him anywhere so he couldn't go back in his word
so he led to fate on
sit up on the chariot and hold the reins of the horses that it took the sun across the sky and on he
he quoted him with our sun burn cream
and
if you know that thirty factors something
but he kind of knew it wouldn't be enough and you wanted to give a little bit of instruction about how to drive the chariot but fate on was too impatient he was ready to go so he
topped up there and started driving across the sky and the horses could tell he was an inexperienced charioteer and they
as horses sometimes do on went kind of outta control and instead of going up into the across the art of this guy they started heading down towards the earth and basically the sun
was blazing and burning fe turn and totally out of control
and there is free time with the reins trying to control the great sun itself but
without having any idea how
and ah
and at this point the other gods
could see the disaster coming at the earth what is about to be on bergdahl by the sony and in fact there's a desert near this this area of greece that they can bet you goes that this this near accident actually cause there's a desert which was once a a shirt or greenland
but just before the sun hit the earth the the gods blasted apart but chariot and and down and fe tommy was blasted apart and hum
that's the end

so the story and a load of surgery has a happier ending
in you can read how
on the i think day on god's help down
the
they i think they'd climb back in the chariot and steered the horses skillfully back into orbit

so if we want to know with this light is
please be careful
and yet and the the for
thousands of years after that the sun continue to travel across the sky and everybody can appreciate the sun completely and use the sun and be used by the sun and
ah
often take the sun for granted because it's always there

and isn't that enough actually
to have the room filled with like right now
appreciating it
by rotana buddha the dharma kaja buddha
sometimes described as the universe itself
is a japanese daiichi great son buddha
and i think the sanskrit word means something like universally illuminating light buddha
this is the dharma higher

show a phone said to the assembly the buddha's of past present and future turn the wheel of dharma in flames of fire
and master you and then said when he heard this
saying or sway phone he said the flames of fire expound the dharma to the buddha's the buddha's sit there and listening
so the buddhas are
servants of
the flames and light

huh
light is what's expanding the dharma
the boot is sit there and listening
and maybe they speak to but
really it's the like
coming through them
how on another occasion your nan said to be assembly everybody has a light but when they look for it they don't see it it's obscure
what is everyone's like
hen as usual in these cases no one had any reply so you said on their behalf the zendo the buddha hall the kitchen the mountain gate
huh

what is everyone's light
that
when they look for they don't see you
the zendo
and the kitchen
walking through we can see
the bells and drums
due to the light reflecting off him

surrounded by white permeated by light
each person
seeing the bells and drums a little bit differently
because each one has
his or her own light
and yet it's not a matter of
just one's personal light
because
we can say would you ring the bell and someone else can go over to
well we referred to as the ballon ring it

but
when we look for
what the word bell refers to
looking more cozy
we see that though the word doesn't
stick to anything that's really call the bell
words just slide off the light
even the word light
doesn't come anywhere
near
what it refers to
it's very clumsy way of
describing the indescribable
huh
in his ode to tonight
hey joe says this is the light of the one vehicle in which ordinary and holy or non dual
a neither let's anything inside out nor let's anything outside in
outside the light there's no other practice no different teaching much less any object of knowledge

in this light
nothing can be discriminated into ordinary or holy
or anything else
and the light is strict in the sense that it doesn't let anything inside
of it out
and it doesn't let anything
outside it in
and no pleading with it will
convince it to give in
though it has no borders
it has no inside or outside

so if we say
this machine is holy

the word does not apply to the light of this machine and if we say it's ordinary it's just as a sheen
it's just
contrived human activity
that doesn't apply at all to the light of this machine

anything
anything i'm saying now doesn't apply to anything that i'm really talking about
even slightly
which maybe is why dagens and is he has nothing else to say

but we can play with words
as long as we don't believe them
if we had the slightest belief that this session is either ordinary or wholly
it ah
we will be able to enjoy this issue anymore
we think it's wholly we won't really thoroughly enjoy it
because then when
the server trips and spills the food everywhere we been very upset

similar the priests having a aside
i met this week to her
two
put into words how ah we practice meditation on such this
an first response in might get frightened by assignment
because the words such as
as
i kind of holy meaning
and we might be afraid of
ah having an ordinary response

but what if we don't
believe the words
of the assignment or of the answer
but he
play with words this is the realm of poetry
not believing in anything that we say or think
what would it be like for the next few days to not believe anything we think
different from not thinking anything

but really not believing it and that doesn't mean that everything is nonsense and then it doesn't matter what we do
where we're so conditioned so we're going to keep
doing what we do
and responding appropriately to situations moment by moment but
what have we
didn't really believe any of it
didn't believe that the thoughts actually apply to what's happening apply to delight
what if we're just servants to delight
and we let our thoughts be servants to delight
kuhn echo goes on to say reciting scriptures bowing every single step of the feet all are manifestations of the grey
eight function of the light
this is the other side of
yeah
not disparaging
thought and the convention a world
a bike
come see respecting and
living fully with in
the magical display of the light
when could say this session is delight or we could say this machine is a manifestation of the great function of the light
hey
two sides
the light of the session and we can't see and will never see and if we try to see would be blasted apart by all the gods
but the manifestation of the great function of the light
we can
dance in that
i know we can see the light we can trust the light

that's challenge to trust something can see the that we can't see can't perceive
can't know
have but it's not blind trust or blind faith either
where does this trust arise
not believing anything we think
and yet complete the honoring every thought
because every thought and matter how
karmacally ensnarl than
disturbia and painful is a manifestation of the great function of the light how much can we trust that
so obviously it's not a matter of doing anything particular

that the light of the assembly speech if you will

yes train

i am
i'm not steering the chariot

is the like you are like did you see what
set meister eckhart
something like that
i think someone else
geiger on
the
maybe i heard it to me remember
is the that they see both the way that i see what is the today someplace do
is the like that i see by the light that i am in the like that i am the light that i see by
is that what you're talking
neither inside nor outside
so we say i'm
turn the light around and shine back
and that is a i
a kind of taoists buddhist texts called secret of the golden flower people might know that's basically the
all about turn your light around and one thing air
that said in there is that turning the light around is not turning around
the light ah
to one's own individual light by turning around the light of all creation
turning around a vast like and and shining back
and this this inner light his
not other than
that fails
the room inconceivably
yes
what
the lie

all the same thing
but that's too short and answer probably for you

all the same thing my dear
what's that
the better to see you with
like we're making light of the sudden
the
right that
patient lighter
the luminous feathered wine

yes
i got out around
the other
i should
yeah and i think the way that are works between us all this is inconceivable because
it is dependent polarizing which is which can't be seen ah it's the way that the whole universe is working together interdependent lee
complete the affecting everything else it's the it's the totality of everything and says
and
yet it's the to to any idea about how the universe works together on inconceivably and to say
it dependent arising is when going this arises that comes to be
is those words
dark and the light
a bit
so if dependent arising is completely free of any anything we can say about it that any words we just slide off of it
is that on grasp ability of
the interdependent
mutually supportive universe
is the on grasp ability of it is that what such nice things
to say that such this would be the day on
the interdependent into working
gear wheels of the universe
would be
the to limited
but the on grasp ability of it
so to say be ungraspable interdependent universe in such notice i would say it's a little bit off whereas you say the on grass but build the t of the universe
ah
something closer to what we mean by todd tatar such this i would say at this time
so meditation on sexiness
maybe something like
opening to the on grasp ability of the light
which is kind of the other direction from time to touch the light in some way
yes
this saying that
that
when
here

you go
right

the language
yeah what
right on got to say on grasp ability of the light makes the lights seem like an object in grasp
her
what if we just say on grasp ability period
does that imply a subject and object
yeah
yeah yeah
i think it's true that when we when we say of
a pen and the the inconceivable universe is immediately polarized and split in an infinite ways
it's almost i go
a come just that one word of and like you know thousand mile brick wall immediately like shoots up from the ground
cross the the world

yeah it's nothing to do with light by
well nothing does
today's up to earn three days of sitting we will be sign not movie still tired
you say it louder
there's nothing to do with the guy
three days of sitting
removing sign
not movie still tired
he's the sign on the heart
moved out empty open her
does the room seemed lighter
because my imagination
yes

hmm
well again the easy answer would be the same thing
vita
i think that
opening to be
inconceivable like trusting that blake
ha
is
at the same time to opening that is love and compassion
it's the same opening
but to say that oh the light is i know if guy that it's love that would be
maybe darkening delight film to
but there
practice if we can say to practice
oh
opening
whatever that is
if i
the same practice
yes your time
talking about like seems like there's a
right
how
the people in one point
another type of life
and that was wondering
there's an all right so is it that one my right
that or object with that woman the like work but we can't either what are we what do we see
when might arise with objects whose i guess
what if there's no might
you know
i'm checking here
mean that and
here
so we could say that the that the physics physical white the can't be seeing is a metaphor for the spiritual light that can't be seen
but
maybe i don't know enough about the physics cheer around to to go into the realm of saying
because we can't see the one of them that they're not different
ha
the the realm of the inconceivable is simply around the inconceivable how may not be accurate but again this is their round where i'm
it's playing with words
none of this is actually accurate at all please don't believe any of it
when i guess i was nine this year
oh right
when one thing awry
not what right

there there's an inconceivable dependent core rising
and then
based on that we
we name it something and and that we can see it as an object so there aren't actually objects
independent co rising until our perception
labels them with a name and might even be a pre verbal name but like objectifies them and
sees them outside ourself and there an object where subject
yeah
and that's the realm of delusion and that's the be
the cause of all distress and they cause of our lack of love could say is actually on this delusion that there are objects

when necessary to eat breakfast
you can build a zendo and many everything
but going say for everything so that's why we a disparaging it with our on
without trying to stop thinking we can't stop thinking in a free curtain with the we couldn't function so just not believing not believing not taking a quite so seriously
being only way to put it just ah on if we're really if we're really getting upset about something see if we're like taking what we think very seriously
tv series so you may be and then or see if we're not taking it seriously enough and we're just like feel like i or anything whatever and then we don't really feel
engaged her alive either maybe but

just
enjoying the manifestation of the great function of wife and the form of thought
yes

and what keeps the stars in their place in mass and the space
because if it fell it wouldn't be gravity pulling it any direction
and
yeah at this point it's a shame
i often find it enjoyable to look at the stars and night and on
and
he's can gawk at the miracle of the universe
and also this is also good medicine for when like when our bodies really hurting and and our problems seem so i'm serious
to to remember the the physics rate of the the how the planets go around the sun and my good bad or a bit kind of thing and how and then as soon as like this little bit of the milky way i think that might be part of that that myth around fe time is when he was
exploded his body became the the milky way
so it's like this puny little session
is like you know
in vast time is like so much less than nothing
you know when they were one of the planets going to go out of orbit much less the sudden fall from the sky
and then at that time we
we'll look back on this machine and think wow
wow

yeah the
the miracle of the light
well
there's more miracle to experience
so we go back to sitting
i think at this point also it's it's own if we've been trying to
do some practice or something it's like guy
i would encourage us to these last few days just experience the the miracle of
being alive
and forget everything else
maybe it's come to that point anyway is nothing else works
yeah
no
i thought this that is
we're calling vast fish

yeah yeah
the same time as and sphere
yeah yeah the stones falling to be careful
it's hot
so i just wanted to to read just to close on the kind of and this kind of long as a of on kuhn edger absorption and the treasury of light on
for fine
he talks about the light in many ways and then this is kind of like he gets this is this kind of
i feel inspired conclusion
i humbly say to comrades who are true aspirants don't hold onto a single state or device don't rely on intellectual understanding don't keep what you've learned and meditation
cast your body and mind into the great treasury of light and never look back
don't seek enlightenment don't try to get rid of delusion don't be averse to thoughts arising don't fondly continue thoughts
just said
if you don't continue thoughts they cannot arise by themselves
just be like space like a massive fire just breathe naturally in and out and sit through everything without getting involved
even if eighty four thousand random thoughts arise and vanish if one doesn't get involved with them and thoroughly releases than each thought will be the light of this spiritual power of wisdom
this doesn't apply only to sitting each step is the walking of light each step not engaging and subjective thinking
twenty four hours a day being like someone who has utterly died there is no of yourself and no faults discrimination at all
nevertheless the breath going out in and the nature of hearing and feeling being without thinking or discrimination body and mind are one such notice in the unified light silently shining
therefore one responds when called
this is the light of one in such nurse of ordinary and holy delusion and enlightenment
though it is within activity it is not hindered by activity
florists flowers grasses and leaves people and animals large and small long and short square and round all manifest at once without any conscious discrimination or will
this is the proof that the light is not obstructed by activity
the empty luminosity shines by itself without exerting mental energy
without exerting mental energy
this light fundamentally has no abode
the buddha's appear in the world it does not appear in the world though buddha's enter nirvana it does not enter nirvana
when you are born the light isn't born and when you die the like doesn't disappear
it is not more and buddha's nor less in sentient beings it is not diluted when you're deluded it does not become enlightened when you awaken
it has no location no sign or name
it is the totality of everything
it cannot be grasped or abandoned or attained
while unattainable it is in effect throughout the entire being
from the highest heaven to the lowest hell it is just a does complete and clear the wonders the inconceivable spiritual light

the