His album titled Death and the Flower, it's KSEN in San Francisco. It's just before a quarter of eight in the morning in Box 303, Sausalito, California. That's M-E-A, Box 303, Sausalito. Now, part four of The World as Consciousness, Alan Watts. Just to bring everybody up to date, I was discussing this morning a logical problem which arises out of the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism called mind only. That is to say, the philosophy that the whole universe is a construct of the mind. And I had previously explained that this was not to be understood in the Western sense

[01:09]

of the word mind, where we have attributed to mind or to spirit a quality of a kind of gaseous, impalpable nature. The image of the mind used in Indian philosophy is the diamond. And the diamond is the hardest thing you can get and the most transparent. And so, people's basic attitudes to life, you see, are conditioned by the images they use. So if you use as your image of mind something tenuous, gaseous, it means you really don't think it's very important and therefore you can't possibly understand that it could be so effective. But if the basic image of mind that you use is a diamond, you have an entirely different view. So this school of thought then is saying, fundamental reality is the mind, is you, is

[02:17]

consciousness, and everything that you perceive exists in it and from it in just the same way that when you listen to the radio, all the sounds are on the diaphragm of the speaker, which is vibrating. Now then I examined this morning this logical problem. You cannot specify anything about an element of some kind that is common to everything. You can't really think about space. What is the shape of space becomes a meaningless question because we cannot stand outside space to see it contrasted with something else. Nevertheless the idea of space is not meaningless because we can see that the idea of space

[03:23]

is basic just as the mirror is basic to all the reflections in it, just as the eye and the optical nerves are basic to all visions and the ear is basic to all sounds. But when your eye is working properly, you don't see your eye, you see everything else. When your mind is working properly, you are unaware of it. It's only if there is some disease of the eye that you start seeing spots in the sky which are spots in your retina. Then the eye gets in the way of itself. You know the funny story about somebody sitting on the train next to another passenger and said excuse me but I hope the singing in my ear isn't annoying you. Because you see when you get singing in your ear, you're hearing your ear.

[04:25]

And so in the same way with clothes. I started out this morning talking about why I was wearing a kimono and I said this is the most comfortable form of dress for a man. And the whole point of a kimono is that you don't feel you've got any clothes on. Now some people don't know they are there unless they are tightly clasped by clothes. So they wear tight clothes because that presses in on you and says you're here. You see? Some people don't know they exist unless they're sitting on spikes. And that's why in Mexico and in India you will find people with a cult of suffering. The penitentes, the Christians, Indians who flog themselves and wear crowns of thorns and hang themselves on crucifixes. They do this because that tells them you really do exist. It gives them a richer sense of being.

[05:28]

So I'm only suggesting that, you know, it's a free world. It's a free country and you can have a sense of existence any way you like. But I personally prefer not to be fenced in and pressed and tightened up. I like the boundaries of my own skin. That's enough. So I put this on, not because I'm a Zen master, but because it's comfortable. So, it's, the point I was making is that although you cannot logically designate and describe a ground which is common to all kinds of figures and experiences,

[06:38]

like space is the ground for all bodies in space, nevertheless, if you rule it out, as with the logical positivists, and say all metaphysical discussions are meaningless, then you deprive life of a very, very important ingredient, which is the ingredient of the useless. The thing that is all important, but makes no difference. The mirror is all important to there being any reflections there, but it makes no difference to the reflections. And if it's a good mirror, it sure mustn't make a difference to them. In other words, if a mirror has a flaw in the glass, then it will distort the reflection. But if it's a good mirror, it has no flaw in it. It doesn't distort, but the fact that it is there is basic to its function.

[07:45]

So in the same way, by analogy, there has to be an element in all of our lives of total uselessness, that is to say of 100% goofing off. If we don't have that as basic to all our goofing on, that is to say our daily practical business, we're lost. We can do the... you see, what is practical is defined in terms of what promotes survival. Earning your living, getting enough to eat, providing for your children, etc., etc. That's practical, by definition. Fine. But there is no point in surviving, in bringing up children, in producing human beings and

[08:52]

enabling them to go on living. There's no point whatsoever in doing that, unless you can show these individuals who are surviving, that survival and existence itself is play. In other words, is a kind of glorious nonsense. That's the whole essence of being alive at all. Well now, I want to go on from this point, to show you something that is usually completely incomprehensible to Westerners, which is the structure of a Buddhist scripture. Of this very school we're talking about, the Mahayana Yogacara aspect.

[10:02]

And to try and understand a religious text that in its whole structure and idea is as totally different from the King James Bible as anything you could imagine. Now we are, you see, conditioned to think, when we say the word scripture, you think of the King James Bible. And this is a very elegant piece of late Elizabethan English, which was brought down by an angel from heaven in the year 1611. It's a phenomenal piece of work, because when you read the New Testament in Greek, it's in very bad Greek, as compared with the Greek of Plato. It's a backwoods document, slangy.

[11:06]

But it's very easy Greek. Plato's Greek is much more subtle and difficult to understand. But the English made, you see, an absolutely gorgeous translation. The people, the generation of the British that produced Marlowe and Shakespeare and Spencer produced this piece of literature. And so we compare every other scripture all over the world by comparison with the King James Bible. The authorized version, as the British call it. And so, when you compare that with a Buddhist Sutra, you say, oh dear me, this isn't the same thing at all. And very few scriptures of other peoples stand up to the King James Bible. You can find, yeah, Bill will bring you in some chairs, here you are, right behind you.

[12:12]

I suppose the only things that really stand up are the Bhagavad Gita and Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, for real sheer beauty of form and expression. But the Buddhist scriptures are a completely different kind of literature, with a different purpose in mind. And there are volumes and volumes and volumes of them, they go on endlessly. The Mahayana Canon is bigger than the Encyclopedia Britannica. It occupies shelves and shelves and shelves. And most of it is, from our standpoint, repetitious nonsense. And so, they know this too, in a way. And so they have revolving bookcases with all the volumes of the scriptures in.

[13:26]

And if you turn it round once, you acquire the same amount of merit as if you had read all the scriptures. So turn it round several times, and you keep moving up the merit, like a prayer wheel. See? The prayers, they're not really prayers in our sense, they're not beseechings. They are mantrams. Say Om Mani Padme Hum. This means, Om, Om is sound. You start saying A in the back of your throat, and M is at the lips. So in saying the word Om, you cover the whole range of sound. Mani Padme means the jewel in the lotus. Hum means hooray. I mean, dig that man, see, Hum. And so when you say this, you're not praying for something, you're simply uttering a sound which produces a certain kind of power, if you know how to use it. So when you revolve a prayer wheel, my friend Spiegelberg once asked a Tibetan monk, when

[14:36]

you revolve a prayer wheel, do you have to think some meditations at the same time to make it work? He said, no, you don't. It works by itself. Now, one of the most respected sutras of the Mahayana Buddhists is called the Satarma Pundarekha, which is the called, in short, the Lotus Sutra. Here it is. And, um, I want to show you how it starts. Thus have I heard, all sutras start with that. Same way the prophets in the Old Testament say, thus saith the Lord, it came to my ears,

[15:41]

I've got the sound, I've got the word, I'm with it, thus have I heard. Once upon a time, the Lord Buddha was staying at Rajagriha on the Ghrida Rakuta mountain with a numerous assemblage of monks, twelve hundred monks, all of them arhats, that is provisionary Buddhas, stainless, free from depravity, self-controlled, thoroughly emancipated in thought and knowledge, of noble breed, like unto great elephants, having done their task, done their duty, acquitted their charge, reached the goal, in whom the ties which bound them to existence were wholly destroyed, whose minds were thoroughly emancipated by perfect knowledge, who had reached the utmost perfection in subduing all their thoughts, who were possessed of the transcendent faculties, eminent disciples, such as the Venerable Agnata Kondinya, the Venerable Asvagit, the Venerable Vajpa, the Venerable Mahanaman, the Venerable

[16:46]

Bhadrika, the Venerable Mahakasyapa, the Venerable Kasyapa of Uruvilva, the Venerable Kasyapa of Nadi, the Venerable Kasyapa of Gaya, the Venerable Sariputra, the Venerable Mahamaudgalyana, the Venerable Mahakatyayana, the Venerable Aniruddha, the Venerable Revata, the Venerable Kafina, the Venerable Gavampati, the Venerable Pilindavasta, the Venerable Vakula, the Venerable Bharadvaja, the Venerable Mahakostila, the Venerable Nanda, alias Mahananda, the Venerable Upananda, the Venerable Sundarananda, the Venerable Purana Maitreya Niputra, the Venerable Subuti, the Venerable Rahula, and with them yet other disciples, as the Venerable Ananda, still under training, and 2,000 other monks, some of whom still under training, the others masters, with 6,000 nuns, having at their head Maha Pragapati and the nun Yasodhara,

[17:47]

the mother of Rahula, along with her train. Further, with 80,000 bodhisattvas, all unable to slide back, endowed with the spells of wisdom and supreme perfect enlightenment, firmly standing, who moved onward, the never deviating wheel of the law, who had propitiated many hundred thousands of buddhas, who under many hundred thousands of buddhas had planted the roots of goodness, had been intimate with many hundred thousands of buddhas, were in body and mind fully penetrated with the feeling of charity, able in communicating the wisdom of the buddhas, very wise, having reached the perfection of wisdom, renowned in many hundred thousands of worlds, having saved many hundred thousand myriads of kotis of beings, a koti is a Sanskrit number classification meaning umpteen, such as the bodhisattva,

[18:52]

the mahasattva Manjusri, as prince royal, the bodhisattvas, mahasattvas, avalokiteshvara, maha-sthamaprapada, sarva-vatanam, nityo-dyukta, aniksipradura, ratnapani, vaisyagayagra, prandana-sura, ratnakandra, ratnaprabha, purnakandra, maha-vikramin, trailoka, kavi-kramin, etc., etc., etc., with them were also the sixteen virtuous men, to begin with, padrapala to wit, badrapala ratnakaras, you know, I can go on just talking nonsense for ages, and don't forget that the Chinese and Japanese have no idea what this means, these are just sounds like they are to you, and anyway, even the Sanskrit people, it's like reading the beginning of

[19:56]

the gospel of Saint Luke, where you get that list of begats, you know, and so on, begats, so on, and so on, begats, so on, it's the same kind of thing. So, this describes, in other words, all the people, the bodhisattvas, it goes on to discuss, not only were there all these holy people there, but there was every kind of demon, and animals, and every sort of being in the whole universe, were gathered together, surrounding the Buddha, who was about to give a discourse. And you've seen this in painting, you've seen the enormous mandalas, where you've got a Buddha in the center, and then tiny beings, innumerable, all the way around, so that the thing looks

[20:59]

like some kind of flower, some kind of honeycomb, or cellular manifestation, ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch, you see? That's what it is, see, all this is a drawing, in symbolic terms, of the human brain, and the nervous system. Worked out this way. So finally, after this introduction, incidentally, this whole introduction is of the nature of a fanfare. That is to say, it's drawing attention by a certain kind of performance to something very important. So, you know how it is when you get on a radio program, they have a theme song which introduces the program. And if you listen very carefully, when a music is used as a theme song, it sounds completely

[22:05]

different than it does when used in a straight concert presentation. A theme song sounds slightly silly. Whereas, you know, if you get it in a concert presentation, then you really listen to it. But when it's used as a theme song, you know you're not supposed to listen to this. This is merely calling your attention to something coming that you're supposed to listen to. So, in the nature of a fanfare, this means a very important pronouncement is going to follow. The Japanese, incidentally, have got this on the brain. They've got a terrible way of preceding any public announcement with a xylophone thing. They go, pong pong ping pong [...] pong. Anone! They come up with some announcement. And this irritating thing goes through all department stores, trains, hotels, everywhere. There's

[23:10]

this thing that calls your attention. So does anone. You know, this is an expression in Japan which means, I say. And often if you speak to a person in Japanese and don't say anone first, they don't know you're talking. We have the same thing. I won't go into that at the moment. But that, all this that I've read so far is pong [...] pong. There's going to be an important announcement. And it describes everybody who's here listening. And at that moment, they're issued a ray from within the circle of hair between the eyebrows of the Lord Buddha. It extended over 1800,000 Buddha fields in the eastern quarter. So that all those Buddha fields appeared wholly illumined by its radiance, down to the great hell, Avici, and up to the limit of existence. Avici, incidentally,

[24:10]

is the worst place that there is. Avici is trouble going on forever and ever and ever. It is just the nastiest place. There is a limit to it. It's unlike the Christian hell, which has no limit. Avici does have a limit, but it takes so long, nobody can think about it. And the beings in any of the six states of existence became visible, all without exception. Likewise, the Lord's Buddhas, staying, living, and existing in those Buddha fields, became all visible, and the law, the Dharma preached by them, could be entirely heard by all beings. And the monks, nuns, lay devotees, male and female, yogins and students of yoga, those who had obtained the fruition, and those who had not, they too became visible. Now it's going to take a long time, many pages before we get to the point. Because, and the four

[25:13]

classes of the audience, monks, nuns, male and female lay devotees, numerous gods, serpent gods, goblins, Gandharvas, demons, Garudas, Kinnaras, great serpents, men and beings not human, on seeing the magnificence of this great miracle of the Lord Buddha, were struck with astonishment, amazement and curiosity, and thought, let us inquire why this magnificent miracle has been produced by the great power of the Lord. You see, here's the book. Takes about this far to get to the point. We'll delay this for a moment. This sutra is so venerated that there is a special sect of Buddhism in Japan called the Nichiren sect, because after the name of its founder, Nichiren, who found in this sutra the secret of life. That

[26:14]

this book is for them a magic. In other words, I shouldn't be bandying this around at all. I should place this on a silk cover, rich brocade, open it, and I shouldn't read it in this tone of voice at all. If I were, had proper respect for this text, I would, therefore said Lord Khandhara, Surya Pradipa, the Tathagata, etc., with a young prince, not yet having left home to embrace the ascetic life, had eight sons, the young princess Sumati, Anantamati, Ratnamati, Vishamati, etc. No? That would be the proper attitude. And so they have a thing, a formula, which they say, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, which means, Myo means wonderful, Renge, lotus, Kyo,

[27:21]

sutra. Namu means hail. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Hail to the Lotus Sutra. And when they have their devotions, and they want to say something corresponding to a Catholic saying the Hail Mary, they say, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Hail to the Lotus Sutra. And that is equivalent in merit to reading it once. They have all these wonderful shortcuts. All religion, incidentally, is an attempt to find a shortcut. Think that through. So, finally we get to the point. For the Buddha sees the triple world as it really is. It is not born, it dies not. It is not conceived, it springs not into existence. It moves not in a world,

[28:25]

it becomes not extinct. It is not real, nor unreal. It is not existing, nor non-existing. It is not such, nor otherwise, nor false. The Buddha sees the triple world, not as the ignorant, common people. He sees things always present to him. Indeed, to the Buddha in his position, no principles are concealed. In that respect, any word that the Buddha speaks is true, not false. But in order to produce the roots of goodness in the creatures who follow different pursuits and behave according to different notions, he reveals various doctrines with various fundamental principles. The Buddha then, young gentleman, does what he has to do. The Buddha, who so long ago was perfectly enlightened, is unlimited in the duration of his life. He is everlasting. Without being extinct, the Buddha makes a show of extinction on behalf of those who have to be educated. And even now, young gentleman, I have not accomplished

[29:29]

my ancient Bodhisattva course, you know what that means by now, and the measure of my lifetime is not full. Nay, young gentleman, I shall yet have twice as many hundred thousand millions of coties of eons before the measure of my lifetime be full. I announce final extinction, young gentleman, though myself, I do not become finally extinct. You see, final extinction is Max Muller in the 1890s translating Parinirvana. So what this says here in the, I don't think I have to repeat this to you, it's saying simply that the real world, what there is, escapes all possible categories of thinking. You can't pin it down.

[30:34]

And that for that very reason, it's you. Because the only thing you can't bite is your own teeth. And so the only thing you can't finally ever pin down is the pinner down, that's you. And that's why then the Buddha himself is described in the Sutra as only playing at coming into being, only playing at becoming extinct. Because the word Buddha here means simply what there is. Well, now that is what you might call the rational message of the Sutra. But at the same time, you see, as I've pointed out somewhat to your amusement, this little kernel of doctrine is surrounded with an elaborate setting like a frame.

[31:42]

For example, in the Christian world, there is an icon. And the icon is a picture of a saint or of Christ. And it is, first of all, the background of the picture is gold. And that means that the saint is living in the presence of God. God is symbolized by gold. Then they put jewels on the gold. Then they put curlicues and ornaments. Then they get this painting and they put it in a frame. And then the icon is so holy that somebody else puts a new frame around it, on top of the old one. Then another frame, until the whole thing is framed up with these gorgeous surroundings to enshrine that point, you see? There's a time, though, when the frame becomes much more important than the picture. Now, you may say, well, this is just a lot of nonsense. This is just

[32:45]

stupid, superstitious, religious people venerating something which is absolutely worthless, really. Only they are venerating it so much that they're making it seem important to themselves. And they kowtow and bow and have elaborate rituals. See, this is a thing in the United States where we have a thing against rituals. We don't really think that Catholics are people because they have these rituals. And we really don't approve of it, but they're Irish and funny or whatever. But we don't really approve because we don't see any use in a ritual. Of course, that's the whole point of a ritual. It is utterly useless. Only the only trouble is that most people who use rituals think that they're useful. They think that they're working magic with them. That by saying Hail Mary so many times, they actually achieve the same sort of result as you would by mixing a chemical formula

[33:56]

and producing a chemical result. You have to say the right words. And so in mixing up a chemical prescription, you have to follow the right order of the prescription. And then you get the magic. So these people are thinking if you say the mass or the prayers in the right order, then it'll be all right. However, those who were more knowing and less superstitious had an entirely different view of ritual, which was this, that going through rituals in church, reading sutras, was exactly the same thing as going to a dance. This is very clever of them. You think when you go to the dance,

[35:03]

you're going for entertainment. You see? And everybody says, well, you're only allowed to do that for a certain time because you're just goofing off. But of course, if you are a powerful priestly group and you are going to recite the sutras in the temple, this is serious. Nobody is going to stop the monks and nuns saying their prayers unless they're communists. You see? So they can sit there for hours going on one way and another. And those monks and nuns who aren't in the know are grinding it out. You know, they think that this is really work. But those who are in the know are going, you know, you know, and just they're swinging. And that's what all this is.

[36:09]

And all the embellishments that artists have made, all the curlicues, all the adornments, all the frames around frames around frames, it's the same game. It's simply like a flower. See, it begins with a center. We get back to an original image that I gave you the other day. The star and it multiplies leaves. Haven't you done this in a doodle? You know, you get to doodling while you're on the telephone conversation and you do leaves around the center. Then you think, well, I can fill in the spaces between those leaves with another row. That'll make twice as many leaves on the next row as there were on the first. But then I've gone out in space. So I've got room for again, leaves in the interstices between those. See? And you put that round while we go out again. And that's life.

[37:15]

Multiplication. And that's what all this is about. Only when you put it in a sutra, you're saying this is holy. This is very important. While I do this, don't you disturb me because I'm special. This is the holy book. By setting up that kind of atmosphere, nobody's going to interfere with you. You can get away with it. See? And that's how to be an expert in religion. Now you might say, well, that's not very, that's not playing fair.

[38:23]

That's a terrible thing to do. But that's what everybody is doing all the time. You're saying, for example, now don't just, don't be too familiar with me. So for example, I don't want someone to come up and pick my nose. See? Because stay off. I want a little province here of my own. I can pick my nose, but you can't pick that. And I don't want to be kissed by everyone. See? I don't mind so much women, but men isn't so good. So keep off, you see? Everybody has to delineate a sphere and say, now please keep out. Because it's by doing that that you are here at all. If you didn't, you would be a gelatinous mass that would be indistinguishable from everything else. So it is by saying this area is holy that you get a whole, W-H-O-L-E.

[39:31]

See? Don't, keep out, see? This is special. Now, that's one side. All through this seminar I've been showing you the two-sidedness of things. When I gave my autographed book to Dr. Suzuki and asked him to put a message in it, he wrote the Chinese characters which say, Buji-nin, a nothing special man. Buji in Japanese, Chinese, means no business. It also means no affectation. It means nothing particular stands out. What goes on but isn't noticed has this feeling, see?

[40:35]

And this is the supreme way of getting privacy. Watch how I'm playing the opposites with each other, see? If you really want to be in private, don't put up a big barrier that everybody can see. But be anonymous. Nothing special. No one will notice you, no one will bother you. And as a result of that you can get away with murder. You can be as individual as you like. And yet, you see, what you're achieving by this method is the same thing that is symbolized by putting the frames and the rings and the jewels, etc., round and round as a protective aura

[41:39]

to the thing you think holy. So, it's going both ways. So, the lesson of this is, in other words, that the private, the personal, the individual, is the same thing as the cosmic. The more private, the more public it is, because the more it draws attention to itself. The more public it is, that is to say, it doesn't draw any attention at all, the more private it is. And so it goes. And he who understands that private equals public, public equals private, one equals many, many equals one, play equals work, work equals play,

[42:42]

is a happy man, because he's not fighting the universe. We've heard part four of the lecture by the late Alan Watts, entitled The World as Consciousness. For a complete catalogue of the tapes of the lectures of the late Alan Watts, write MEA, box 303, Sausalito. That's MEA, box 303, Sausalito. And join us again at a moment's silence.

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So, so, so, so,

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so, so,

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