Awakening

Awakening from the Chan/Zen perspective, and how it relates to other forms of realizations and insights. Recorded live with some background noise.

Transcript

So tonight's topic is awakening.

How many of you would like to be awakened?

Please raise your hand.

Yeah.

Awakening can be said to be to be the core of the Buddhist path.

There are small awakenings,

There are big awakenings,

There are gradual awakenings and sudden awakenings.

And there are insightful conceptual awakenings.

Very often I say this because insights are very often mixed up with personal experience and conceptual understanding.

So Buddhism recognizes that.

And there are non-conceptual direct awakenings.

So there's all these types.

There's also another type of division in Buddhism.

Intrinsic awakening,

Intrinsic enlightenment versus initial awakening,

Direct sudden initial awakening versus complete,

Thorough awakening.

So there are many ways to look at it.

And it's not all referring to the same thing.

What defines awakening?

Buddhism recognizes different types of awakening,

Different processes of awakening and different definitions of awakening.

So you may say that's why I say awakening lies at the core of the Buddhist path.

You may say the whole project of Buddhism,

Or Chö and Zen,

Is founded on awakening.

So awakening projects.

AP.

So what is awakening?

Traditionally,

The Romani Sanskrit word is bodhi.

Bodhi.

B-O-D-H-I.

This means awakening.

And this awakening is awakening to our true nature.

Awakening to our true nature.

And that insight to this true nature is called wisdom,

Or prajna.

P-R-A-J-N-A.

Prajna.

So it's quite specific when Buddhist text,

Or the Buddha,

Different lineage Chan masters,

When they talk about awakening,

Usually they are referring to this insight to bodhi.

Does that make sense?

Prajna is the particular type of insight.

We call it the wisdom of emptiness.

Into bodhi.

What is bodhi?

Bodhi refers to our true nature.

What is this true nature?

This true nature is that which is free,

That which has no obstructions,

Never has,

Never will be,

But also that which is concealed by vexations,

Emotional afflictions.

And vexations typically can be grouped under three big ones.

Greed or craving,

Aversion,

Anger,

And confusion,

Fundamental ignorance.

From these three manifest all other types of craving,

Such as jealousy,

Arrogance,

Suspicion,

Doubt,

Contempt,

Or self-disparagement,

Or lethargic mental state,

Hazy state.

They all manifest basically from greed,

Aversion,

Ignorance.

Greed and aversion can be understood as grasping,

Rejecting.

And these two mindsets infuse most of the time every aspect of our waking and sleeping life.

It manifests as grasping,

Rejecting,

But also manifests as repulsion,

Attraction,

Captivation,

Escapist mental state.

These two are intimately connected to this fundamental ignorance.

This fundamental ignorance is not low intelligence.

Buddhism,

Again,

Or Chan,

Zen,

Has a very specific definition to this fundamental ignorance,

Confusion.

It refers to the inability to see how things are,

How things actually are.

Now we know a lot of things.

We have learned quite a bit.

And our whole culture,

Right now our whole society,

World,

Is in what people call the information age.

So knowledge,

Information,

Intelligence pervades everything.

But still there is this fundamental ignorance.

So this ignorance is not referred to low intelligence.

It really doesn't refer to knowledge either,

Or lack thereof.

Because we have a lot of knowledge on everything that's out there in the material world.

The paradigm that we live in,

All the material things,

In our earth,

And also beyond.

We have a lot of knowledge.

So if it doesn't refer to fundamental ignorance,

Doesn't refer to low intelligence or knowledge,

Then why is it ignorance?

What does it refer to?

It refers to not seeing things as they are.

Primarily,

Things refers to.

.

.

The most important thing is who we are.

You may have an idea,

You may have learned and acquired,

Amassed all sorts of knowledge about who you are.

You may be in touch with your own feelings,

Knowing how you feel.

And on certain days when you don't feel right,

You don't feel like it's you,

You know the difference.

So not knowing who you are refers to something very,

Very fundamental.

A direct perception of.

.

.

Beneath the layer of knowledge,

Feelings,

Which are characterized by coming and going,

Constant flux,

Change,

Beneath all that,

Who is it that is,

For example,

Sitting here,

That is listening,

That is looking.

Who is aware?

Who is perceiving?

So Buddhism talks about Bodhi as this freedom,

This intrinsic freedom that's free from all of our ideas,

Our narratives about who we are,

How we feel,

What we think,

This seer,

This perceiver,

This witnesser is free from all of these.

This kind of freedom without obscuration,

Without constraint.

This freedom is also called liberation.

So the Buddha said that each and every sentient being is complete with this freedom.

The reason we don't feel free is because we are caught up with our own constructs,

Primarily our own vexations,

Emotional afflictions,

Our stories,

Our narratives about who we are,

About the world out there.

To the extent that most people,

99.

9% of the people,

They cannot truly distinguish between who they are and who they think they are.

They cannot truly distinguish between how things are versus how they think things are.

Most of the time,

People are caught in their own narratives of things,

Their own stories,

Their own life history.

It's not a cerebral kind of intellectual thing I'm talking about.

Because all the accumulated experiences,

Our feelings,

Our thoughts are backed up by life experiences.

Child-rearing processes and interpersonal relationships.

So that when you look at a photograph of an event,

The memories of that event,

Your personal experience of the event kind of floods your mind.

And you can recall that.

So it's not like we're fantasizing who we are and what we think our life is about.

There are life experiences,

Right?

Except these life experiences,

The way we have strung together these experiences,

These facts,

The way that we have strung together is of a particular way.

And the way that we have strung together a narrative about who we are,

That particular way that's you,

May not reflect how things actually are,

May not reflect how you actually are.

But we have taken our narratives about ourselves as ourselves.

Most people,

Even when you hear this,

You may understand this intellectually.

But how we actually behave,

Carry ourselves through daily life,

Is inescapable.

Some people may have a kind of low self-esteem,

So whenever they encounter some difficulties,

The first person they blame is themselves.

I can't do it.

I can't possibly do this.

Some people,

The way they string together their facts,

Their experiences,

They're the fighting type.

Whenever they encounter challenges,

Just,

Good,

Bring it on.

This is another opportunity for me to work through.

The same event can have different responses.

We not only do this for ourselves,

We do it for everyone around us,

Everything around us,

Every event in our life.

We have fixed notions.

I'll give you one example of the extent of our attachment to this narrative.

It's not really a conscious narrative.

It's deeply,

Deeply ingrained.

And it has a physiological component to it.

Because these events,

How we perceive events,

It's habitual.

So our body learns different physiological,

Muscular response to certain people,

To certain things.

Just like a piano player.

Good piano player,

Good piano player.

The muscle groups in their hands have already learned the musical notes.

They don't have to think about it.

When we encounter stress in our narrative,

Not necessarily how the event or the person,

Whether the person is actually the culprit of our stress or not.

When we see certain types of people,

When we find ourselves in certain situations,

The muscle groups of our body have already learned how to respond,

Fight or flight response.

Do you believe that?

Yeah.

And sometimes these responses are lodged in certain parts of the body.

So all of these things make it so much more real.

They make the reality that we have constructed so much more real because we actually feel it.

But that doesn't mean that the reality that you have constructed is actually what it is.

Can you understand what I'm saying?

One example.

People can have,

When they see one family member,

When they see that family member,

They can behave a certain way.

Maybe a sibling or a cousin or uncle or a father or a mother.

Their body automatically kicks into a particular mode.

And their minds automatically assume a particular role.

To a father,

You're a child.

To a sibling,

You're just another sibling.

The way you relate to them also,

It's almost automatic.

Do you see what I mean?

And all of us have family members that we don't get along with.

And we have a particular narrative about them.

Uncle Joe is just this way,

He's very stubborn,

And this and that and that.

So we take our constructs of Uncle Joe.

Every time we see Uncle Joe,

We have this filter through which we process Uncle Joe.

Is that Uncle Joe?

No.

Do you know what I mean?

So for example,

Another example,

Think of your mother now in your mind.

Or the meditation that we just did.

How many of you felt good?

Meditation?

Now think of your mother.

You see her in your mind's eye,

Very clear.

Now I'm going to ask you,

Is that image of your mother and all the association feelings that come up or memories and so on,

Is that your mother?

The mother in your mind,

Is that your mother?

How many of you think that's your mother?

Raise your hand.

Very good.

None of you.

You know it's a trick question,

Right?

I told you the answer.

Next time you see your mother,

If your mother's still around,

You will not be able to get rid of all the associated feelings and notions and ideas.

You can't see her fresh,

Free from your projection,

Your notions of her.

It's very hard.

It's very hard,

Very difficult.

Because this mechanism is not only psychological,

It's emotional.

And moreover,

It's physiological.

It's neurological.

Because your brain,

Every time it encounters something,

It floods with memories.

And these memories are kind of neurological synapses,

Forming a particular pattern of this person.

And it influences the sympathetic nervous system.

So it floods our body.

So what body means is to be free from that.

And truly see the other,

Or yourself,

Without these colored lenses,

These filtration.

That is awakening.

That is liberation.

So that's why it's called the unconditioned.

Because every experience you have,

Every notion you have,

Every narrative you have,

It's conditioned.

It's a product of causes and conditions.

Nirvana.

Liberation.

Nirvana is a different word for body.

It's unconditioned.

So when a person experiences,

Not intellectually,

Or insightfully,

I'll talk about that later too.

Like all of you now have this insight.

You understand intellectually what I'm talking about.

This is a kind of awakening that Buddhism recognizes.

It's called understanding awakening,

Or insightful conceptual awakening.

So you understand what awakening is.

That which is free from constructs.

That which is free from conditioning.

That which is nirvanic.

Not samsaric.

Samsara.

The ocean of suffering.

Fueled by narrative.

Poisons.

Vexations.

That's what fuels the cycle of samsara.

That which is free from that.

So that is understanding this,

Having an intellectual,

Good intellectual understanding.

That would be called insightful understanding awakening.

In Chinese it's called 解悟.

So personal direct experience of awakening is called in Chinese 开悟.

That's one term for it.

There are other terms.

So awakening to Bodhi has a very particular meaning.

Buddhism is quite distinct from other spiritual traditions.

The normal,

Ordinary usage of the term in English.

Awakening.

So if someone can say,

I had an awakening,

I suddenly remember this guy owes me 20 bucks from three years ago.

Suddenly remember.

Now that's not what Buddhism means by awakening.

Some people talk about spiritual revelation.

Some spiritual traditions also talk about this.

But they're quite different because awakening to our true nature,

Which is free,

Which is liberation itself.

Free from constructs.

It's different than anything that's conditioned.

Therefore,

The experiential awakening state is not knowledge.

That would be kind of conceptual awakening,

Insightful awakening.

It's not knowledge.

That still belong to conditions like the condition of my words in English.

The condition of you having studied English so you can understand my words and formulate some understanding to your neurological processes.

Meaning your hearing faculty is not flawed.

Process through your thalamus.

And the symbols you can actually register.

So all these conditions make it understandable.

That's understanding awakening.

But personal,

Insightful experiential awakening is unconditioned.

It's awakening to the unconditioned.

And therefore,

It is not knowledge.

It is not even an experience to be technical.

Meaning that it is not another product of our narratives.

Like some people or some other traditions,

They may consider a kind of bliss or infinite light.

Buddhism also talks about these different states.

They don't say these states are awakening,

But they,

Like all spiritual traditions,

When a person engages in practice,

They will experience these states.

Meditative states.

Infinite light,

Infinite bliss,

A feeling of liberation.

But they are feelings.

They are constructs.

They are experiences.

And that's like a person walking down the path from point A to point B.

And when they walk,

They see scenery on the side of the road.

Like when you drive here,

You see scenery.

The scenery are kind of like the byproduct of you driving.

If you don't drive,

You just look at a paper map.

No experience.

It's just a map.

But as soon as you get in a car,

As soon as you start driving,

All kinds of scenery will arise.

That's not on the map.

Right?

So the territory is not the actual map.

It looks totally different.

So when you engage in spiritual practice,

You will definitely have psychophysiological experiences that arise from meditation.

Feelings of bliss,

Feelings of liberation,

Openness.

Sometimes even side products of clairvoyance or being able to see very far.

All these are sensory side effects.

Or before you had your IQ was a little bit low or normal.

After you practice,

Suddenly you can memorize things.

You can memorize texts.

You read a book once,

You know the content.

It's almost like some part of your brain kind of just opened up before it was kind of foggy.

And then it's clear.

You feel burden kind of release from you.

And you can all these are kind of side effects.

They're not the Buddhist awakening.

And practitioners will have them.

They will have as long as they have other type of insightful revelations,

Understandings about themselves.

I'm sure many of you have had these experiences where you practice and suddenly through some catalysts,

You suddenly understand a phrase from the scripture.

A phrase from the scripture,

Buddhist scripture or otherwise.

Some kind of direct insight.

Or some problem that you have suddenly dissolves and you discover the answer.

How many of you have had this?

So these are kind of like,

You can say they're little awakenings in the non-Buddhist sense.

Non-Buddhist sense.

Some of you may have had blissful meditation states.

You sit and suddenly time goes by very quickly.

In fact,

Your sense of time vanish or your sense of body vanishes.

And then you got scared and you came back.

What was that?

Usually that happens in the beginning.

You discover that's not a big deal.

You can still continue to practice.

So all of these are kind of,

You can say they're little awakening experiences,

Non-Buddhist awakening experiences.

Sometimes we have inspirations.

Inspiration,

Artistic inspiration or a philosophical inspiration.

And you have some kind of revelatory understanding.

Suddenly you know what to do.

How many of you have this?

Have had this experience?

When I was in college in New York,

I majored in fine art.

I was a fine art before I got into the Buddhist studies and so on.

I'm an asthetism.

I was a fine arts major.

And I used to paint these huge paintings on canvas.

I made the stretchers.

I made the canvas,

The stretchers,

Stretched the canvas myself.

I used to just look at the canvas until inspiration comes.

Sometimes it takes a long time.

Sometimes I would prime it.

But usually before I prime the canvas,

I would look at it.

That first stroke is very important.

I used to do abstract paintings.

I used to have this kind of.

.

.

And when I have some idea,

When I'm stuck somewhere,

The problem will be in the back of my mind what to do with the next piece of art.

I used to often walk down the street and just see New York City.

Shadows,

Cast on buildings,

Garbage piles,

Busy streets.

All these become my arena and inspiration come.

Compositional inspiration,

The art,

Just how walking down the street,

The apartment complexes,

The trees,

The different things,

Compositionally,

When I see things,

I see them in kind of compositional wise.

And I would get inspiration.

And art is always poor.

All of our money just went to the materials.

Until I discovered more materials.

Walking down the street,

I see tar,

Asphalt.

I'll say,

That's a great paint material.

I used to buy gallons of tar.

I used tar to mix with white pigment to create grain and this series of things.

Wax,

I bought like 200,

300 pounds of wax,

Went to the factory,

Melt them.

Do you know what encaustic painting is?

The masters,

They mix the.

.

.

Encaustic means oil paint mixed with wax.

That's what that means.

So I used to buy like 200,

300 pounds slabs of wax.

It's a lot cheaper that way as opposed to buying it in art store in Canal Street.

Pearl paint,

Oh my gosh,

Little tiny piece of wax.

A lot of money.

Let's go to the factory,

Melt them,

Double boiler,

Mix pigment.

Until one day I just decided,

I'm going to just put the floor out of wax in my studio.

So I just created a fake floor by wood and I melted,

Poured,

Melted,

Poured 300 pounds of wax mixed with white pigment,

Not mixed well so that the transparency of the wax has these swirls of white paint in them.

Look at clouds and I carved a lotus flower right in the middle and I watered it every day.

So a lot of people come to my studio and naturally they just,

I reproduced this piece as a graduating piece for School of Visual Arts in our Soho gallery.

So they gave me the studio,

The gallery.

So I built a fake wall where only one person can enter at a time.

As soon as they enter,

They see another wall and the wall,

I've stenciled the Heart Sutra.

Heart Sutra is about emptiness and form.

Artis,

Regular Joe Schmo,

Whoever walks in Soho,

They have no idea what this is,

But they saw some emptiness and form.

They saw,

They looked around,

They saw that wax lotus flower with watered canals.

You know what they did?

They automatically took out their shoes,

They went to the center and sat down.

No instructions needed.

They became part of my art.

So artists have a lot of these inspirations,

You know.

That's not awakening,

What we're talking about here.

So philosophers have inspirations,

Artists have inspirations.

The awakening of our natural liberation,

Our intrinsic freedom.

The analogy I give is,

It's like this room.

This room is originally spacious,

It's open.

We're the one putting up walls,

Putting furniture in here.

I used to say furnitures.

We're the one carving up this space.

We're putting stuff here.

We put stuff here.

The stuff that we put are like impressions in our mind.

The filters,

The constructs.

And we trip over them ourselves.

We put clutter in this room and we trip over them.

And we blame other people.

But this room,

Whether it is cluttered,

Filled with garbage,

Or it's empty,

It doesn't affect the nature of the space.

Do you understand?

The nature of the space is originally,

Intrinsically,

Even amidst clutter.

It's free.

It's open.

That's the nature of space.

It's just like water,

The nature of water is wetness.

That's the true nature.

So no matter how much constructs we create,

Narratives about who we are,

And sometimes they can be quite devastating,

Quite limiting to our full potential.

If a person has a narrative,

Self-image of,

I can't do this,

I can't do that,

I was child abused,

I was traumatized,

I'm limited in this.

You see how limiting that can be for the full potential of the space,

Which is infinite possibilities.

With space,

We can rearrange the walls,

The furniture,

In infinite ways.

You see?

But we can't because our attachment to our fixations,

Our rigidity,

We're attached to the furniture,

We're attached to the wall.

That's why when the Buddha,

The analogy that he gave when he became the Buddha,

He says,

The house has collapsed,

The architect no more,

Free.

Who is the one who's constantly building stuff,

Constructing the walls,

Putting up barriers between this and that,

You and me,

Stories that we create?

Who's the architect?

Self-attachment.

That's the biggest culprit.

From the self,

Only through the self,

Can a person have greed,

Aversion,

Jealousy,

Anger,

Arrogance.

You see?

All these states are self-referential.

They can't exist by itself.

The biggest culprit is this self-grasping.

It can turn anything into objects of its own perpetuation,

Own attachment,

Even spiritual practices.

Even spiritual practices.

So,

The prajna,

The wisdom of emptiness that I talked about,

The insight,

Why is it called empty?

Because only through the wisdom of emptiness can you realize that this self,

Namely this architect that's constantly building narratives about you and me,

Him,

It,

The situation,

Constantly running this monologue,

It's false.

It doesn't exist.

It exists on a conventional level.

It doesn't help you navigate through daily life,

Go to work,

Go to family.

But this architect,

This architect itself is a product of causes and conditions.

And therefore,

It's empty.

It doesn't have a fixed,

Separate,

Independent existence.

It doesn't have,

Let me repeat,

It doesn't have a fixed,

Separate,

Independent existence.

Meaning,

It exists only interdependently,

Only through connections and only through change.

But that's not how the way we function.

We function on the assumption that it is fixed,

It is separate,

It is permanent,

Independent.

That's how we function.

Your Uncle Joe,

Uncle Joe is just like that.

That's a fixed notion.

Me,

I just happen to be this way.

I can't do it.

That's a fixed notion.

But the reality is you're constantly changing.

You're constantly changing.

You have infinite potential.

You see?

So if you examine,

Very simple homework,

If you examine when you have vexations,

When you have vexations,

Greed,

Aversion,

Jealousy,

Anger,

Arrogance,

Suspicion,

Whatever mental state you have,

In that moment,

If you can remember,

Examine yourself.

You will see something that runs through all of your vexations,

Something in common,

Like an undercurrent,

Underlying commonality to all of your vexations.

You know what that is?

You have taken something to be fixed,

Separate,

And independent.

Examine it.

Most of the time,

It's the culprit,

Right?

This person,

Separate,

It's out there.

He is the culprit of my unhappiness.

Or this situation is the problem in my life,

Fixed,

Separate from you,

Independent.

And conversely,

You have also taken yourself because you see the other.

You have taken yourself.

You want this moment to be other than what it is.

So you already have idea of what you think is happiness,

Grasping,

And you don't like this rejection.

You see?

The poisons of the mind are already complete in that moment,

Greed,

Aversion,

And they stem from ignorance.

Not low intelligence,

But unable to see the continual wonderful flow of events,

Ever changing,

Ever giving rise to possibilities.

Right?

In the retreat,

I said,

Guaguru is nowhere to be found,

Either in Samsara or Nirvana.

Everyone is living out their own dream of Guaguru.

Right?

Guaguru is just like a tube,

If you want to say it.

Bring the water of Buddha Dharma from one stream,

And just bring it from this stream to the other stream,

Where people are thirsty.

The tube has nothing.

Right?

The only thing that Guaguru needs to do is to make sure the tube doesn't have gunk in it,

Doesn't have a ring of dirt in it.

Then that's not so good.

Then whatever good water goes through that,

It's like the water becomes soil,

You see?

So Guaguru has to be without vexations.

That's Guaguru's practice.

As for how you receive the water,

Your benefit,

It's your merit.

This is the practice.

This is the realization of the whole Buddhist project,

To be free from the gunk,

To be free from the poison,

The dirt,

So that we are able to be of some service to those around us.

The practice of selflessness,

To be free from our own narratives.

So Guaguru doesn't live in anyone's dream.

Guaguru doesn't even live in his dream.

Does Guaguru have dreams?

Yes.

Does he buy into the dreams,

The constructs,

The narratives,

The vexations?

No.

He doesn't do that.

And this is the way Guaguru teaches.

The very first step in practice is to be able to actually distinguish what is your construct of reality versus reality.

Most people cannot distinguish that.

They think they have a self-disparaging narrative,

They become more sad,

Depressed.

They're going to take medication.

And they have a kind of vengeful self-narrative.

They're going to get back at the person who harmed them in their life.

Don't live in anyone else's dream.

Don't live in your dream.

You're originally free.

It's not to say that the dreams themselves are problematic.

It's not.

Just like the Buddha Dharma that flows in this pipe to other people,

Or all the knowledge you have learned as a scientist,

As a corporate worker,

As a retired person,

As a mother,

As a father,

All the wisdom that you've learned,

You acquired,

Even your trauma,

Even your negative experiences,

Filter out the fixations,

The rigidity,

The narrative,

The attachments,

And these experiences will become your resources to help people.

Everything becomes your resources for Buddha Dharma.

This is life Dharma.

And you free yourself from the poisons of the mind.

Greed,

Hatred,

Ignorance,

Jealousy,

Arrogance,

Suspicion,

And all the subsequent vexations out there that we proliferate,

We allow to flourish.

Does that make sense?

So you become the space.

You become the openness.

I'm not saying wars are unneeded,

Like red light,

Green light.

Who needs traffic lights?

Who needs policemen?

I'm not talking about that.

We need civil police.

We need policemen.

We need law.

We need all that.

But we're no longer used by them.

You may be politically left or politically right.

That's your narrative.

Or green party,

Whatever you uphold previously in a fixed way,

Understand that reality is more porous than that.

Ideologies are more fluid.

Politically left,

Right,

Sometimes conceal what actually needs to be done.

If we hold onto one particular view,

Any view,

A view of ourselves or our political views,

Be free.

Be free.

And see what needs to be done.

This is against the grain.

Against the whole samsara wants us to be.

Teachers are to be.

Relations are to be.

Either you're left or you're right or you're middle.

What is good or what is bad?

The person dressed this way is bad.

The person dressed this way is good.

What is beauty?

What's ugly?

All these conditions,

These narratives,

Propaganda,

We create propaganda for ourselves.

And society does that too.

Then we buy into them.

We don't develop our own critical view about them.

We buy into them,

Then we're skewed.

And then based on that narrative,

We judge other people.

Then there can only be opposition.

And there can only be suffering.

Sooner or later,

Suffering comes around when there's attachment.

So being free on an individual level,

On a family level,

On a social level,

That's the great vehicle.

Mahayana,

In which Chan or Zen belongs.

Salvation of all.

This means socially,

Communally.

Have the skill to be free.

We begin with ourselves.

We don't go on strike with the picket porters and other people.

You may do that,

But you have to work on yourself too.

Work on yourself.

So the meditation practice that we do is not about getting to a positive,

Blissful state of mind.

That comes as a side product.

So you just start walking the path,

Driving down the path,

You will see sceneries.

That's not what the point of practice is about.

The point is to be free.

To realize that the path that you're on,

That you're driving,

Actually no path.

Sure,

One part of the road is paved,

Another one is grass and trees,

But actually you can drive anywhere.

Metaphorically speaking,

Don't start driving someone's lawn or someone's house.

Metaphorically speaking,

The roads are free.

The borders,

The boundaries that we create between this nation and that nation,

This is the border of Canada,

This is Mexico,

It doesn't exist.

It doesn't exist in the ultimate sense.

It only exists in the conventional sense.

Ultimate sense.

It doesn't exist.

Yet,

When people don't see the ultimate,

Only see the conditioned,

The conventional,

Then what happens?

Then people get angry about borders.

You cross this border,

You cross that border,

This is my house,

My property,

My nation.

Or you have something good in your property,

I want to get some.

So I tell you,

Try to convince you,

That's not really your property,

It's actually my property.

So I'm going to go in there and get the oil that I want.

Whatever narrative they come up with,

They're all stuck with their own fixations.

That's the cause of suffering.

Attachment to what?

Something independent,

Separate,

Permanent.

Do you see what I'm saying?

So the Buddhist path is a path of freedom.

It's a path of Bodhi.

Intrinsic freedom.

Our Nirvanic nature.

We need conventional wisdom,

Conventional truths,

Claims,

Standards,

But we're not conditioned by them.

It's all good.

Understanding this is called insightful understanding awakening.

Personally realizing it,

That liberating freedom,

That is experiential awakening.

Another way to say it is understanding intrinsic awakening.

The threefold types of awakening that I mentioned earlier,

Intrinsic awakening,

Initial experiential awakening,

And complete awakening.

So all of you now have the correct view of this intrinsic awakening through conceptual understanding.

And the reason why we practice is to experience the initial experiential awakening.

There's not some light,

Some bliss,

You know,

Spacious,

Or melodic,

Or the body disappears.

Not that,

It's actually really grounded for the first time without filtration.

Experiencing oneself and the world without any coloration.

That's Buddhist awakening.

That is liberating.

Usually it's experienced as tremendous,

Earth-shattering,

Because all that you have ever known about yourself,

False notions,

Right?

Self-disparaging ideas,

Or self-boosting notions,

Self-aggrandizing,

It's actually just an illusion.

So things that you know,

It just completely falls apart.

And for the first time you see things without self-referentiality.

So you can experience as kind of earth-shattering,

Like a thousand pound burden lifted suddenly.

Subsequent ones,

Again and again,

The self actually reformulates and congeals,

And attachments through old habits come together again.

So we have to experience it again and again and again and again.

You know,

Subsequent ones may not be so earth-shattering,

Or it could be.

Sometimes people are slipping through the self-restate again.

Until we reach the third one.

So,

Original awakening,

Conceptual understanding,

Experiential awakening,

Or initial awakening,

And complete awakening,

Which is Buddhahood,

Full Buddhahood.

Thorough awakening,

Which self-attachment does not come back.

For small insights and glimpses into selflessness,

The truth of selflessness,

Of freedom.

After some time the self can come back,

Self-attachment come back.

So complete awakening would be like,

It doesn't come back anymore.

So the analogy is like,

Standing at the bottom of the well,

Looking at the sky.

You never know there is a sky,

Because all you care about is just the bottom of the well,

Things flowing around,

Companion frogs,

Flying,

Jumping.

This is all you see,

You never actually looked up.

So the initial awakening can be like,

Suddenly looking up and seeing the sky.

But your perception of the sky is round,

That shape,

Limited.

But did you see the sky?

Yeah,

You see the sky.

Sometimes the glimpses are so small,

It's like looking through the sky through a straw.

Did you see the sky?

You did.

You can't say you didn't see the sky.

But through a straw,

No power whatsoever to actually transform the way you habitually engage in vexations and interaction with people,

Projecting onto other people with your stories and so on.

You still do it,

You're not too transformative,

Like seeing the sky through a straw.

Subsequent enlightenment is like beginning to climb out of the well,

Until you're completely out of the well.

Now all different scenarios,

Has a person seen the sky?

Yes.

But the experience is very different,

Through a straw,

Or just looking up the big round sky,

Or outside the well,

Completely different,

And becoming the sky.

So the intensity can vary,

But essentially the taste of liberation is the same.

The sky,

The openness.

Does that make sense?

I'm just trying to explain through analogies.

And so what do we do?

We practice with this correct view.

What correct view?

We are originally free.

The correct view is don't buy into our own construct,

The narrative about things.

And I'll give you a shortcut.

Would you like to know?

Raise your hand if you want to know the shortcut.

The shortcut is,

Where you save power,

Is where you gain power in practice.

What does that mean?

All of our lives we've been striving,

Grasping,

Rejecting,

Which is the manifestation of greed and hatred.

All of our lives we've been striving for this,

Striving for this.

Don't give an ounce of energy to this grasping and rejecting mind.

Don't waste any energy to that.

So that's where you save power.

So when you're sitting,

You have a lot of wandering thoughts.

What happens?

You don't like it.

You hate it.

Other people are sitting so good.

Why are they not moving?

I'm always moving.

So grasping,

Rejecting,

All these things come up.

What do we do?

As soon as you discover this is self-referential grasping.

I want this.

I don't want that.

I like it.

I don't like it.

I wish this to be other than what it is.

All these habitual patterns of thinking,

That's precisely where your path is.

That's precisely where vexations are.

What do we do?

Smile.

Old friend is here again.

Goodbye.

Don't give even an ounce.

Don't even try to like,

I should go back to the method,

Let go.

That's effort.

Even telling yourself to let go is effort.

And I said,

Save power is where you gain power,

Right?

Soon as you discover,

Go back to the method.

You don't even need words.

Hey,

Hello.

Go back to the method.

Don't get involved.

Because once you get involved,

This will happen.

And five minutes later,

I've been talking to myself.

Just go back to the method.

That's where you waste energy.

You waste energy.

That's where you lose power.

That's a losing path.

Genuine Chan practice.

Soon as you discover,

Let them dissolve.

Because they actually do dissolve.

Everything is impermanent.

Thoughts,

They actually liberate themselves without you doing anything to them.

Go.

You're the one saying,

Hey,

Gotta let go.

I gotta let go.

Let go of what?

Let go of this.

Why can't I let go?

And all this wasting effort.

Thoughts,

Negative thoughts,

They actually let go of themselves.

So that's where you save power.

Smile.

Because you have correct view.

Why?

Originally awakened.

You're the space.

A thought comes,

That's like putting up a wall.

Another wall.

Just recognize the spaciousness.

Nothing obstructs you.

Go back to the method.

It's not doing nothing.

Sleeping,

That's another wall.

I don't need to practice.

It's just originally free.

That won't do either.

So you do have to practice.

So you become acquainted.

You become used to not following the monologue,

The narrative,

The stories.

That's where you save power.

And that's where precisely you don't feed your vexations.

Now,

I don't mean to say,

I want to clarify,

I don't mean you go around all day with no thinking,

No thoughts.

No.

I'm a researcher.

I work at FSU,

A lot of thinking.

But when I think about something,

I just think about that.

Anything that's not related to that thing or random thoughts,

Wandering thoughts,

Go back to your thinking.

When I do research,

When you engage with whatever task at hand that you're doing,

Be 110% with it.

If you need to plan about the future,

Be 110% plan about the future.

As soon as you discover in the process of planning,

You're beginning to mixing tones of emotions,

Of grasping and rejecting and resentment and self-disparaging.

Immediately see that and don't feed it.

That's a wandering thought.

Does that make sense?

That's where you save power.

And if you do this,

You're going to practice this because you've been living your life 20,

30,

40,

50 years just letting the monkey go.

Letting the mind rain,

Whatever it wants to do.

So it has a habit.

And like I said,

There's a physiological component to it.

So when you think about certain negative things,

Your body will kick into this mode.

It's really hard.

That's why we have to practice.

Bring yourself in alignment with your fundamental freedom,

Your original awakened state by disciplining,

Engaging practice.

Don't feed the poisons of the mind.

First,

You have to distinguish it.

Expose it.

Understand and embrace.

This is part of you.

It has a history.

You have a history.

There's a reason why you behave in a certain way.

You don't need to go through a psychoanalysis to understand why,

But just know this is part of you.

This is your path.

This is what you have to work with.

This is your Buddha Dharma.

You see?

Understand,

Embrace it.

And then work with it by taking down the house.

Architect,

No more.

Don't follow that habit of building,

Constructing,

Putting up walls and fences and obstructions and so on.

Like the Buddha said.

You see?

The architect,

No more.

Things that need to be done,

You still do.

Carry out your job.

Help other people.

Make yourself available.

Selflessly.

In action.

Live your life.

As for the architect,

For the monkey mind,

It constantly tries to do this.

Let it dissolve by itself.

Don't feed into it.

That's your greatest strength.

Save power.

That's where you gain power.

Infinite power.

Your potential as a human being.

That's the practice.

Make sense?

Okay.

Congratulations.

You're all enlightened.

Yay,

Let's celebrate.

Let's go drink wine.

No.

No.

No.

That clouds the brain.

It kills brain cells.

Do it moderately at least.

See?

So free yourself from this habit,

Craving,

Grasping,

Rejecting,

And see things clearly,

Wakefully.

And what you will see is you are connected to everything,

This freedom.

You are inseparable.

And you are dynamic.

In other words,

Impermanent.

So emptiness means not vacuity,

Buddhist emptiness.

It means interconnectedness.

It means connections.

It means dynamic impermanence.

It means freedom.

That is the way of the Buddha Dharma practice.

Naturally,

We help those around us.

Naturally,

Everyone,

We are all connected.

Naturally,

We offer ourselves.

Take the left hand helping the right.

Natural.

The left hand doesn't get in an argument.

Hey,

You're right.

I'm left.

We belong to the same body.

Any questions?

All right.

Take the news,

The gospel that you're already awakened,

And celebrate,

And engage in practice.

It's from what you know and what you actually do,

These two in alignment.

So you live an awakened life.

So you can also,

Let's dedicate this talk and you hearing this talk to someone in your life.

So we dedicate the merit,

The energy,

The positive vibe we have to someone that needs help.

Okay,

Join our palms.

Think of that person.

May he be safe.

May he be healthy,

Joyful,

And free.

Thank you.

Reviews

The recording isn’t mint condition, but trust me, it’s worth putting up with. The message here is lovely. The house has collapsed. The architect, no more. Free.

Thank you - this helped me a lot to recognize “walls” and mental constructions and I felt them crumbling as I listened. I will incorporate this in my life - thanks again for your guidance.

It’s difficult to put words on this feeling I have after this talk...”peace,” is as close as I can get. Thank you!

This talk really packs a lot in!
I’ve got to say that I just had chemo yesterday & am having a tough day (now it’s early morning again, so guess the days are stacking up). A bit irritable and can’t pin down why. Maybe just all those cells being destroyed is angst producing. Even with all of it — wow. I wish Virginia wasn’t so far from Florida. Your classes must be awesome.

I love your talks but this seems the be the second in which the sound levels fluctuate and I miss some concepts. Of what I am able to understand I would like you for constructing working definitions that provided much clarity. Thank you and I look forward to learning more. May you be well. May you be happy. 🙏🏾

Mind blown , simplistic yet moving I shall cultivate this on my hero’s journey

Um. Wow! Everything I needed to hear. Thank you.

I have known Guo Gu for nearly thirty years now and he is and always has been the real deal. He walks the walk. Listen well, and be free.

I am so glad I ignored the last review of the recording! It wasn’t as bad as I expected after that poor review. Mostly clear, just occasional skips. The overall talk was insightful and illuminating!

Excellent and very helpful talk. Thank you very much for sharing this!🙏

So much information. Very easy concepts to understand. Thank you!
<3

Will be listening again. Thank you.

Thank you for this talk. I've listened to it twice now and will most likely listen again soon. Very important wisdom here.

Excellent!! "Where you save power you gain power!!" Excellent talk

Grateful 🌺❤🌸🙏🏻

Very Helpful. The sound quality is spotty, so if that is difficult for you to work with while sitting, it might be wise for you to factor in That fact accordingly!

Amazing content. Def some challenges w the recording quality but if you can get yourself over that hump, this is so worth it.

Perfect beginning to this day. Blessings, bodhi, gratitude. 🙏🏼✨

This is the best interpretation of awakefullness I understand.