You Are This Light

You are this light. Pure Selfless Awareness. Everything that you need to be, you already are. You might not know it yet, but that's why we practice. Rely on the fact that you are here and wake up to your wise and compassionate true self-nature.

This lecture breaks down the Atta Dipa ("You are this light"), a set of phrases that summarizes Zen mindfulness practice.

Transcript

Today we're going to look at Oto Tipo,

You Are This Light.

It is an opening set of phrases used in our morning service that sets the framework for everything that we need to know about ourselves so that we can find freedom and joy in this life.

Before we break it down,

Let's just go through the whole thing once so we know kind of where we're going.

It starts a little bit like this we go.

Oto Tipo,

You are this light.

Pure selfless awareness.

Rely upon selfless awareness.

Do not rely upon concepts of self and other that appear.

Do not depend upon beliefs,

Sensations,

And emotions which rise and fall away.

Meditative awareness,

Clear intention,

Acting wisely,

Compassionately,

And skillfully are this practice.

Rely upon this only.

Rely upon this ceaselessly.

I am this light.

Pure selfless awareness.

I rely upon selfless awareness.

I do not rely upon concepts of self and other that appear.

I do not depend upon beliefs,

Sensations,

And emotions which arise and fall away.

Meditative awareness,

Clear intention,

Acting wisely,

Compassionately,

And skillfully are this practice.

I rely upon this only.

I rely upon this ceaselessly.

Okay,

So a lot there.

We only need to go through half of it though because I'm sure as you heard it repeats itself.

And there's a good reason for that which we'll get into at the appropriate time.

First off,

Let's just start with that opening phrase,

Oto Tipo.

Okay,

Oto Tipo represents the idea that you are this light.

You are an island unto yourselves.

What does that mean?

Well,

In our context,

It means that this light,

This island,

This entity of awareness and compassion and wisdom is already inside of you.

You are already everything that you need to be.

You contain everything inside of you to become enlightened and to live in true freedom and joy beyond comprehension.

Now that doesn't necessarily mean you've realized it yet.

That doesn't mean that you have really any idea what you're doing or that you're capable of having joy and freedom in this moment right now.

But it means that you have everything you need.

You don't need to look outside yourselves.

You don't need to develop new qualities.

You already are everything that you will ever be.

And this practice is about taking all of the layers off,

Taking all of our conditioning off so that what is left is what we are,

Our pure selfless awareness,

Our fundamental nature.

Okay,

And we call that budd nature,

Awakened nature.

And we are awakened to a truth,

Which is pretty exciting.

And that is that we are not separate from anything else.

And that's probably the single core teaching of this practice.

So we open up and we say,

You are this light,

Pure selfless awareness.

It's kind of a redundant statement.

Okay,

This light,

This pure selfless awareness is what you are.

You are pure.

And what we mean by this is that at your core,

You are that same fundamental,

Naked sentience of the baby you were when you were born.

Before life happened to you,

Before everything came in and conditioned us to react certain ways,

We were pure.

Every single one of us,

We were a clean slate.

And we can return to that clean slate.

Okay.

Selflessness in this context,

In the Rinzai Zen context,

Is pretty much the same thing.

When you're a baby,

If you've ever been around a newborn baby,

You realize that they don't know who they are.

They don't know who you are.

They are selfless.

Not in the sense that they are not selfish.

They look after their own needs.

Anyone who's had a baby who's hungry knows that a baby will not wait for you to feed them.

But they are selfless in that there is no separation between themselves and the rest of the world.

And they're just awareness.

They're pure,

Selfless awareness.

They are here.

When they are hungry,

They are hungry.

When they need to go to the bathroom,

They go to the bathroom.

When they want to be held,

They need to be held.

When they're tired,

They need to go to sleep.

They're just here.

And they're here each moment of each day,

All the time.

They are exactly as they will be.

And that is our fundamental nature.

That is sentience.

Okay.

That is who we are.

You are that pure,

Selfless awareness.

From that selfless awareness,

We have everything that we need to experience true freedom and joy beyond comprehension.

It's already inside you.

The next statement is rely upon selfless awareness.

So here we touch a little bit into a great faith,

Which we'll talk about more in just a moment.

But rely upon the fact that you are this pure,

Selfless awareness.

Okay.

You already have inside you complete,

Objective,

Reflectivity.

You are not a permanent entity who is conditioned to act a certain way.

Everything about you can change.

Everything about you can be reflected upon from a place of deeper wisdom and compassion.

And this is your pure nature.

So rely upon this.

It's okay.

You got this.

The next statement is do not rely upon concepts of self and other that appear.

What does that mean?

Well,

Put quite simply,

It points to the Zen teaching of emptiness.

Now there's not a lot that's simple about that if you don't already know it.

So let's go over that quickly.

Emptiness is the idea that nothing has its own permanent self nature.

Okay.

So what does that mean?

Right?

That means that everything relies upon other things for its existence.

Okay.

So when we see the world as a world of separation between self and other,

And here we don't necessarily just mean people,

We mean between ourselves and things,

Ourselves and our thoughts,

Ourselves and our senses,

Ourselves and our emotions.

So when we see these things as separate,

Then we open ourselves to all sorts of emotional struggles.

This is the source of suffering,

The separateness.

Okay.

And the source of this pain and trouble that we have in our lives is this separateness.

So what it's saying is that do not rely upon this concept that you are separate from the universe around you.

Because in fact,

We could take everything down to a fundamental level where we are all exactly equal.

And the way that I usually describe that is in terms of the four fundamental forces of physics.

I know it sounds fancy,

But basically what it means is that everything is made up of molecules.

Right?

Everything,

Every molecule is made up of atoms.

Every atom is made up of particles and every particle relates to each other through the four fundamental forces of physics.

And these four fundamental forces of physics emerge from an unknown origin.

So no matter what you're talking about,

All of these things are built up from those same building blocks.

This shows that there is a commonality in all matter.

Okay.

When we build that back up,

It means that everything can be interrelated through how it reacts to each other and how it is built up over time.

So emptiness is taking everything down to its basic level.

And then we have another teaching that is non self,

Which is kind of the opposite,

Which is building everything back up from its constituent parts into what we perceive it to be.

So for example,

Looking at the desk that I'm sitting in front of right now,

We will have stripped all of it down to its particles,

Okay,

Or to its forces of nature actually.

And then we will see that those combined together to create wood and plastic and glue and all sorts of different component parts.

Those component parts were then in turn assembled into this desk.

And that's again,

A very simple way of looking at those teachings.

So we'll look at both emptiness and non self on their own on a later date.

But the idea is that we are not separate from the universe around us and everything is made up of everything else.

So we don't want to rely on the illusion of separateness that our senses and our perceptions tell us.

We want to look past that into the truth that we are this pure selfless awareness.

And this pure selfless awareness is shared by all sentience.

And this practice is one of looking deeply into the true nature of this moment and reflecting upon it from that position of pure selfless awareness.

The next phrase is,

Do not depend upon beliefs,

Sensations and emotions which rise and fall away.

Okay,

If we are going to get through this life,

We have to have something that gives us a little bit more of a foundation than our normal fleeting perceptions.

So perceptions are all of our thoughts,

Emotions and then our five senses.

So our sight,

Hearing,

Taste,

Smell and touch.

These seven perceptions make up our world.

And we will find that they all change dramatically.

For example,

Just your taste buds.

Your taste buds have changed since you were a child.

Most kids don't like broccoli and brussels sprouts.

Most adults will eat brussels sprouts and broccoli anyway and some will even find out that they enjoy them.

Okay,

Just as an example.

Our perceptions,

Our senses,

Our thoughts and our emotions are actually all a physical response.

They are all a biochemical electrical reaction in our brain.

And what we do with that biochemical electrical reaction in our brain is the difference between being awake and enlightened and not.

That's the difference between experience,

Freedom and joy and not.

So once you understand these perceptions as fleeting,

As biochemical reactions to the world around us,

Then they start to lose some of their power.

And when you understand that they are subject to so many different things and are dependent on so many different things,

You learn not to depend on them because ultimately they're just information.

All of these perceptions are just providing information to pure selfless awareness,

And that pure selfless awareness can choose to act on it wisely and compassionately.

Which leads us into the next statement.

This is the big one.

Meditative awareness,

Clear intention,

Acting wisely,

Compassionately and skillfully are this practice.

One by one,

Let's go through that list because this is where it gets really important.

Meditative awareness is a process of being right here,

Right now,

Using all of your perceptions to see this moment exactly as it is.

This is why we do zazen.

Zazen helps train our mind so that we can bring ourselves to this moment.

Mindful movement,

Washing the dishes mindfully,

Walking mindfully,

Anything that you can do to bring yourself to this moment is meditative awareness.

Now a key here is to differentiate between meditative awareness and psychological absorption.

Meditative awareness is using all of our perceptions to be exactly in this moment.

Psychological absorption is losing ourselves in a task.

It means that we are relying on one or a couple of our senses to do something very specific to the exclusion of all other information being taken in at this moment.

So in fact we are not fully present.

So this practice is about meditative awareness,

Using all of our perceptions to be here now.

Then we have clear intention.

Clear intention is a composite word that indicates the four fundamental components of Rinzai Zen practice and actually all Buddhist practice.

Great doubt,

Great faith,

Great determination,

And we add one in our tradition of hollow bones called great passion.

Now quickly we're just going to say that great doubt is the belief that there is something more to this life.

There is a deeper truth to who we are as human beings in a way to live in freedom and joy.

Great faith is that there is a practice,

There is a teacher,

There is some answer out there to this great doubt.

It is not faith in the normal western sense of belief in something that you cannot experience.

It is faith that eventually you will experience something that will resolve your great doubt.

Great determination is the deciding factor.

It is the one that makes you sit there in zazen hour after hour or walk mindfully hour after hour or anything that you do to dedicate yourself to meditative awareness.

It is the promise to yourself that you are going to do whatever it takes to free yourself from this doubt.

And then lastly we have great passion.

Great passion is the relationship that we have with our practice.

We believe that this practice is very similar to a deep and meaningful relationship.

There are going to be days where it's really hard.

It's really hard to just sit there.

Ugh,

Who wants to do that?

I've got too much stuff to do,

Right?

But you love it anyway.

You decide that this is worth it.

Just like being with a partner,

There are things that drive you crazy.

You just can't,

Grrrrrrr.

But you know at the end of the day it's worth it.

And you have that passion for this process,

That passion for being with somebody,

That passion for finding your true self,

That passion to determine the resolution to your great doubt.

And so when we have clear intention we have a very positive relationship with this practice which is full of determination to resolve our doubt through faith in this practice.

And so we have clear intention.

And then we sum it all up again by saying acting wisely,

Compassionately,

And skillfully are this practice.

And what that again points to are the characteristics of budd nature.

So budd nature is wise in that it spontaneously knows what the right course of action is.

We know that we're doing the best that we can and we have a certain amount of wisdom and clarity that comes from seeing the world in this moment exactly as it is.

Seeing how we are all interconnected,

Right?

So the idea that there is no self and no other,

That in fact we are all the same,

We are all part of one universal life,

Gives us great compassion.

And this is fundamental compassion.

And through fundamental compassion we return to that selflessness where everyone is me.

And so I care about everyone.

Now that also means that in many ways I hold everyone to the same standard I hold myself.

But I understand when they don't quite get it right because I don't get it right too.

Compassion also means that we have to take compassion on ourselves.

It means that when I don't live up to my own expectations of being a great guy,

Of being awakened,

Then you know I need to look at that and I need to say,

Okay,

Your ego,

Self,

Your conditioning,

Your hysterical historical got the better of you this time.

You reacted in a way that wasn't consistent with wisdom and compassion.

And that's okay Dan because you're going to do better next time.

Because that moment is in the past,

The future has limitless potential,

And in this moment I can choose to act a different way.

So in each moment we can be wise and full of compassion.

Our past does not write our story for us and we are here now in meditative awareness with clear intention acting wisely and compassionately.

The combination of wisdom and compassion is called skillful means here summarized as skillfully.

So acting wisely,

Compassionately,

And skillfully means that not only do we act with wisdom and compassion we act with both.

Okay and that means that we do whatever we can to bring forth our own budd nature and to bring forth the budd nature of others.

So skillful means is a very engaging thing.

It is,

This is not a practice where we sit by ourselves and become fully enlightened and are super great gurus and then hide away.

Okay this is a practice where we take that out into the world and we share it with everyone that we meet and we use it to make the world a better place.

And that's kind of how you get into some of the other statements throughout this practice such as then all of our combined actions will create a new world of love and caring defended and ordered.

Right and that's in the awakened one's vow.

But anyway that's later on we'll talk about that more later.

The important thing to remember though is that wisdom and compassion combine into skillful means and skillful means are something that we use to bring ourselves to an understanding of that we use to bring ourselves to an enlightened state.

We wake up to our budd nature and then we also use that to encourage others to act with wisdom and compassion.

The last two statements are rely upon this only,

Rely upon this ceaselessly.

That's it okay.

This is the entire practice,

Meditative awareness,

Clear intention,

Acting wisely,

Compassionately,

And skillfully.

We do not rely upon concepts of self and other that appear.

We do not depend upon beliefs,

Sensations,

And emotions which rise and fall away.

We rely upon the fact that we are pure selfless awareness.

That's it.

If that's if there's only one thing that you ever learn it's learn those concepts and you've got it okay.

And so we've gone through when we've made these statements and we've summarized our practice but we've said it without the pronoun I.

Why is that?

Well there's something called a mind heart connection or we call it clear deep heart mind and the idea is that when I'm saying it the first time I'm saying it from my pure selfless awareness.

When I'm saying it the second time I'm letting my ego say it,

My conditioned person say it,

The one who thinks that I am Dan,

The one who makes that statement needs to get this stuff too.

So there needs to be a connection between that reactive animalistic survivalistic I am Dan ego and this booed nature of pure selfless awareness because as we grow things happen to us and the mind and the heart separate.

That's why we constantly have this internal dichotomy,

This internal war between what we think and what we feel and bringing them together is basically what this philosophy is all about.

It's about taking all of the knowledge that you gain all the experience that you have and getting the information out of it so that you can reflect upon it and with your booed nature with your wisdom and your compassion and act on it skillfully.

And we rely upon this only and we rely upon this ceaselessly every moment of every day.

This is what we're doing.

That's it.

Okay so when we say it the first time from pure selfless awareness deep within your heart.

Okay I don't know if you can hear it.

I'll do this one more time at the end so that we can see if we can hear it and then the second time with our ego self with our mind.

So once with the once with the heart once with the mind.

And then as you get this and as this summary kind of takes hold deep inside you.

Oh oh oh deep oh becomes kind of a chant.

It becomes your mantra.

So say you I don't know you're having a really frustrating moment with your toddler right.

You're trying to fold laundry and she's just ripping all the clothes out and you're about to scream at her because you just want to get it done.

Oh you're so tired.

Hold hold deep hold.

And you just take that that second to get back into this moment because in this moment you realize that she is a beautiful human being.

Being the only thing that she can be right now and that's a toddler.

She doesn't know any better.

She thinks she's helping you.

How beautiful is that?

How fun is that?

What a beautiful moment.

And so we rely upon our selfless awareness and we bring ourselves to this moment and we find true freedom and joy beyond comprehension.

So one more time with me let's go ahead and let's go all the way through the Oto Dipo and summarize this practice.

Oto Dipo you are this light.

Pure selfless awareness.

Rely upon selfless awareness.

Do not rely upon concepts of self another that appear.

Do not depend upon beliefs,

Sensations,

And emotions which arise and fall away.

Meditative awareness,

Clear intention,

Acting wisely,

Compassionately,

And skillfully are this practice.

Rely upon this only.

Rely upon this ceaselessly.

I am this light.

Pure selfless awareness.

I rely upon selfless awareness.

I do not rely upon concepts of self another that appear.

I do not depend upon beliefs,

Sensations,

And emotions which rise and fall away.

Meditative awareness,

Clear intention,

Acting wisely,

Compassionately,

And skillfully are this practice.

I rely upon this only.

I rely upon this ceaselessly.

Reviews

There's allot of useful truth in this talk. Thank you for your time

Right to the heart of the matter.
Excellent.

Very informative and clear. This will be nice to hear again, as the concepts will sink in a little more with each listen. Thanks Dan!

If everyone in the world chanted this, I sense that the earth would be a better place. Thank you!

This was such a charming explanation of a Buddhist teaching, that I found myself grinning ear to ear. Right on.

Thank you. Very clear. Helpful and timely.

So clear, so mind expanding, love thjis

This dude is the jam. He very succinctly describes everything in easy to understand terms, yet still communicates all the nuance he needs to in order to prevent miscommunication. Dope AF.

Absolutely wonderful! Thank you 🌞

Truly enjoyed your voice and your practice.
Namaste.

Thanks very interesting! Reminds me of a book that talked about how we are pure love and pure light.

Beautiful thank you

Interesting. Simple to grasp the concept.

Love the energy and the incredibly simple way you explain meditative awareness. I will listen again and again. Namaste💜

Loved the accessible nature of this. Very down to earth, and human. Thank you. 🙏🏽

Looking forward to more talks like this. Thank you!

Thank you, you bright up my day!

Articulates much of how I understand the path to response rather than reaction. I.e., "take self to zero" (Gandhi) ❤️🙏