The 40 Tenets of Plum Village with Brother Phap Luu | Class #9

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

Testing, 1, 2,

testing, 1, 2. Can you hear me?

Good evening, dear Thay, dear sangha.

Today is the 19th of May
in the year 2021

and we're continuing to study

the 40 tenets of Plum Village's teaching.

Last week we talked about
the three doors of liberation.

Does anyone remember?

What's the first?

Your mind is going completely empty.

[Three Doors of Liberation]

Thay called the three doors of liberation
the heart of the Buddha's teaching.

So there we can find
everything we need to be free.

In Sanskrit, it's written 'vimokṣamukha'.

[vimokṣamukha]

'Moksha' is freedom,

and 'mukha' is the entrance way,
like the gate.

In English we say 'door'.

Maybe doorway would be more...
It's the way in.

Anyone?

Emptiness, sister ().

[1. emptiness]

It's not just for the purpose of knowledge
that we learn these three doors,

they are for the purpose of

training our mind, as a concentration.

So these are three kinds
of deep concentration.

In Buddhism when we talk about
concentration, we talk about it

as a something that we apply
and we maintain over time.

When we practice
to become aware of our breathing,

then we immediately learn
to follow our breathing.

So we learn to be aware of the breath
as it comes in through our nose,

it goes down into our lungs, and then
we continue to maintain that awareness

as the breath then is expelled
from our lungs up through our trachea

and coming out through our mouth or nose.

So already in the first few steps
of mindful breathing

we have a training on concentration.

Concentration
in terms of Buddhist practice

is not kind of wrinkling up your forehead
and forcing yourself to focus on something.

It's a kind of focus, but it's not
something that makes us suffer.

It's something that we train in
and we learn to maintain over time.

So in terms of entry way
to freedom, to liberation,

emptiness is only useful
as a concentration, not as a belief.

You could say, 'I became a Buddhist,
so I believe in emptiness.'

And then, that's it.

And what good is that?

What is helpful is that we learn
to look deeper into the nature of reality,

into all things, and
see that this body is empty.

These feelings are empty,
these perceptions are empty,

these mental formations are empty,
this consciousness is empty,

so that you free yourself from attachment

to the body, to feelings,
perceptions, and so forth.

You see, that is empty in what sense?

It's empty of a separate self.

So empty of the belief that
there's some kind of essence outside of

the non-it elements.

In the case of a flower, we know,
like we learned last week,

that a flower is made of
only non-flower elements,

like the sun, and the earth, and the rain.

The seed, the soil,
the temperature, the air,

all those things are contributing
to the manifestation of a flower,

and if you take any one of them out,
the flower cannot be there.

The same is true for us. If you
take away our mother or our father,

we cannot be here.

Through the concentration on emptiness, we
don't see ourselves as just an individual

we are a continuation of our ancestors,
our mother, and our father.

We are a continuation
of the food that we eat,

we are a continuation
of what we've learned

from our parents, from school,
from friends, from teachers,

from the collective society,
from the news, media.

And so with the practice in every moment
of the concentration on emptiness

then we take much more care
in how we consume things.

Because we know that,

we don't have the delusion that we are
just some separate self that is pure.

So if we watch that movie,
or we listen to that conversation,

and that is full of hatred,
watering seeds of jealousy and fear,

we know that, even we are a practitioner,
we can easily get carried away

by that energy of jealousy, and anger,
and fear, and craving.

I think many of us, we all have

a five-year-old child within us

that is looking out on the world
with eyes of wonder.

And that child is so pure,

so free from resentment,
or hatred, or prejudice.

And if we're not careful,

inside of ourselves we believe

that we're still that pure
five-year-old child

that is not racist, that is not sexist,

that is not bringing suffering
into the world.

And meanwhile, we continue to say things,
and do things, and consume things

which bring about suffering,
that bring about

the kind of views that divide,
that bring in,

this person with that skin color
is more important

than that person with that skin color,

or that person who practices
that religion is better than...

because that's my religion,
than someone else.

We behave like that,
but inside we think, no,

but I'm not a sexist person,
I'm not a racist person.

I'm not a religious bigot.

And yet, other people experience
a behavior like that.

And I deeply feel
that is true of most people.

They don't believe themselves
to be a bad person,

and yet they do things
which make people suffer.

And we can all se
in our own lives that behavior

that has caused ourselves
and others to suffer.

And we feel misunderstood.

It's because if we're not careful,

we're grasping onto this idea
of a separate self inside of us,

and we separate that self from
everything that we do in the world.

So the Buddhist practice is
to reunify those two things.

On the one hand,

we don't grasp on to the idea that
there is an essential me

that is separate from everything else.

And on the other hand,

we see that with that insight,
that concentration on emptiness,

everything that we think,
that we say, that we do,

has the possibility to bring happiness,

but also has a possibility
to bring harm and suffering.

So it is a very practical way
of looking at things.

We don't posit some mystical
other thing that is out there,

separate from
the lived experience of life.

And that is very helpful

in reconciling and harmonizing
our five skandhas.

We learned about the five skandhas

of body,

[1. body]

feelings,

[2. feelings]

perceptions,

[3. perceptions]

mental formations or emotions

[4. M. F.]

and consciousness.

[5. consciousness]

These are five things
that we tend to grasp onto.

We tend to think this body is me,
I am this body.

These feelings are me,
I am these feelings.

These perceptions are me,
I am these perceptions.

These emotions or these mental
formations are me,

I am these mental formations.

This consciousness is me,
I am this consciousness.

So then,

when there are pleasant feelings,
we are happy,

when there are other
unpleasant feelings, we are sad.

When the body is in good health,
it looks beautiful, we are happy.

When it's getting old, sick,

or we are injured or harmed,
we're not happy.

Our perceptions.
When people love us,

and we love ourselves, we're so happy!

When people hate us,
and they say we are horrible,

and we do cruel and unkind things,
we are sad.

So our happiness and well-being
are dependent on these things.

If we continue to grasp onto them.

So the training is to let go.

So we hurt our body,

okay, it's just a hurt body.

We don't add or subtract anything.

We just see it as it is.

We are feeling painful feelings?
It's okay! Pain is normal.

We can see
how painful feelings can be helpful.

If we didn't have pain as a child and we
put our hand next to the flame of the oven

we would not draw it away,
we would not know how to protect our body.

So pain is there to help us.

But if we think, 'I have painful feelings,
life is horrible.'

Then we suffer.

That is the teaching
of the second arrow.

The Buddha used the story of a man
who is shot in a battle

with an arrow.

When that arrow is pulled out,
if he is hit again in that same place,

then the pain is ten times
as bad as the first arrow.

So that second arrow is our thinking,

our grasping onto
these five things, five skandhas.

We are not -

Things don't go our way,
so we have unpleasant feelings

based in our perceptions about reality.

So the practice of the concentration
on emptiness is to let go and see

that this body is empty.

It is born due to causes and conditions,

and when certain conditions
are not sufficient,

it no longer manifests in the same way.

Last week we looked at the eight negations
from the teacher Nagarjuna,

and Thay also refers
to another line in that text.

It's verse 18

in the 24th chapter of the
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā,

The Treatise on the Middle Way.

Dependent origination

[Dependent origination]

we declare,

or we see to be emptiness,

[we declare to be emptiness,]

It is

conventional designation;

[It is conventional designation;]

just this

is the Middle Way.

[just this is the Middle Way.]

In the Discourse given
to Mahakatyayana,

there is a famous line
the Buddha taught

about the danger of being caught in
extreme views,

views of being and views of non-being.

There are views that

I want to be this, or I am this,

and there are the views that say,
I am not this.

And both of those are extreme views.

That is why Thay updated
Shakespeare in Hamlet and said,

'To be or not to be
that is not the question.'

So we don't get caught in the idea
of being, on the one hand,

and we don't get caught
in the idea of non-being.

We don't get caught in the idea,
I am a happy person.

We don't get caught in the idea,
that I am a depressed person.

We don't get caught in the idea
that I am a good person,

or the idea that I am a bad person,

or the idea that
I'm an intelligent person.

In a moment,
we may say something intelligent.

but then we get caught
in this extreme that

that means I'm an intelligent person.

I can't ever do something dumb,
or unintelligent.

And the same is true for non-being.

We say, I am not a bad person,
I am not a -

I'm not a slow runner,
I am not a loser.

I'm just using things
that come to my mind,

things that we can tell ourselves
day in and day out.

I'm a good person, I'm a bad person,
I always succeed, I'm always failing.

These kind of things are just extremes.
That kind of thinking,

it turns out is not helpful at all
for understanding what is going on.

No matter how hard we believe that we
are something or that we aren't something,

the reality will always be
somewhere in between.

And that is the insight of the Middle Way,

not getting caught in extremes views
on being or non-being.

So the insight of impermanence
and non-self helps us

to touch that Middle Way.

Those are all
in the concentration on emptiness,

becoming free from the idea
of a separate self.

The insight of Nagarjuna is that

dependent origination itself is emptiness.

Free from those extremes
of being and non-being,

we see that things arise
due to causes and conditions.

So when the sun is present,

and the right quantity of rain,
and the seed in the soil, and the air,

then the flower can manifest.

There are sufficient conditions.

The seed doesn't think, 'Oh, I am not
a flower. I cannot possibly sprout.'

If it were caught in the extreme view,
'I am not a flower, I'm just a seed',

then transformation would not be possible.

It might happen,
but it would suffer, say, 'No!',

even as it is growing
to become a beautiful flower,

it still continues to believe,
'I'm not a flower.'

It's caught in the view of non-being.

And the same is true for being.

It says, 'I am a seed

I will never change.

I am a seed forever and ever.
Don't tell me that I will become a flower.'

Thay used to love to take a seed of corn
at the beginning of a 5 or 6 day retreat.

And he invited the children
to plant the seed of corn.

And in those 5 or 6 days,
the seed would sprout.

And you start to see the leaves
of the baby corn plant growing up.

Then at the end of the retreat, he would
hold up the plant of corn and say,

'My dear plant of corn,

do you believe that only a few days ago
you were just a seed of corn?'

And the plant would say,
'Dear Thay, dear sangha,

how can you say such a thing?
I'm not a seed, I'm a plant!'

It's caught in the -

If the plant of corn is caught
in the idea of non-being,

it cannot accept that it came
from causes and conditions.

That is the difficulty of extreme views
like being and non-being.

The Middle Way is

to let go of all those questions
of being and non-being,

and pierce directly the nature of reality,
which is dependent origination.

It means, this is, so that is.
This comes to be, so that comes to be.

[This is because that is,]

When this comes to be,

that comes to be.

[when this comes to be
that comes to be]

That is the simplest way to express it.

But as a concentration, it is something
we need to observe through our awareness.

A good athlete will know
to recognize how if I train,

I run every day,
then I am more confident in my body

to be able to run faster or farther.
I am more able to do it.

If I change my diet, if I eat in a healthy way,
if I drink enough water,

then I have enough conditions
to be able to run.

But if I don't drink water,
I don't eat the right foods,

and I don't train then when
I go out to run I feel so tired, so weak,

and I have a lot of difficulty.
And though I believe myself

that to be a good runner, and yet reality
is giving me a different message.

You see?

That is recognizing
the nature of causes and conditions.

As we learned many times already,

when there is the sun,
and the ocean water,

and the right conditions in the air,

the water can evaporate and move up
as humidity and become a cloud.

That is happening in every moment.

That is

because the water is not caught in
its belief that it is only ocean water.

It's able to let go of its view.

Of course, it doesn't have a view,

but we are, for the moment,

talking about the water having a view.

And it lets go of that view and
it can evaporate up and become a cloud.

So that is dependent origination,
which is emptiness.

That is the way we,

through looking at things deeply,

through our thinking, through our speech,
through our actions,

see that these are all empty
of the separate self.

That's an invitation for us
to take so much care

with every moment we have in this life.

It's so precious!

Every step.

Even when I'm walking down
to offer this class,

I really practice to be aware of my steps,
not to get too caught in the time,

'Am I going to arrive late?'

It's okay to be late,
but what's more important is

this is a legendary step.

It means,
am I bringing awareness to my step?

Am I really aware? Right here I don't
have to worry about coming to class.

Just enjoy this step,
enjoy the air, the flowers,

walking down seeing the beautiful valley
of Deer Park

is already enough.

It's already enough for happiness.
So that is nourishing my happiness.

So with mindfulness,

happiness comes to be.

Mindfulness is a source of happiness.

Stopping, being aware of
our body as we're seated,

or for standing,
whatever the position of our body,

we just come back
to the visceral sensation of the body.

And because we're practicing
the concentration on emptiness,

we free ourselves from being attached
to any part of the body.

We just see that
this body is just a phenomenon.

Actually, it's many phenomena manifesting,

millions and millions of cells
breathing, respiring.

In there we cannot find anything we can
call me, myself, or mine.

And yet,

there is this awareness going on.

It is a wondrous existence.

Oftentimes the concentration on
emptiness is called the wondrous existence.

So Nagarjuna,
I write down the name,

[Nāgārjuna]

the teacher from
around the 3rd century a.d

in India.

A very important Buddhist teacher

who helped us to look deeply
into some of the very...

stuck elements of the teaching
in the tradition as it had developed

for hundreds of years
since the life of the Buddha.

And he helped free us
from some of the sticky points.

Thay also gave teachings on this
master in 2002, 2003.

Hopefully soon
we will have a book in English.

There's a book in Vietnamese
but not yet in English

with Thay's teachings on Nagarjuna.

Maybe we can listen
to a sound of the bell.

(Bell)

(Bell)

The next part of the line,

'Dependent origination
we declare to be emptiness.

It means, 'it itself, emptiness itself
is conventional designation.'

This line helps us to
not make emptiness into

some grand concept, some higher,

like a God or something.

That is the ultimate.

Emptiness is just
the nature of things as they are.

It is... In the conventional world,
we see all the time

the empty nature of things.

That is what allows
transformation to take place,

allows the cloud to become the rain,
to become snow,

or to become rain or snow,
to become the river or snowpack,

and so forth, melting,
and going back into the ocean.

That is just the way of things.

Some areas of the Buddhist tradition
have made emptiness out

into be some high...

like a higher state of being.

Something to be attained.

And Thay and Nagarjuna is inviting us
to bring it back to the here and the now,

to what we can actually do

in our way of looking at things
in the present moment,

and not try to put it as
some kind of higher attainment out there.

It is just the nature of manifestation.

Actually, the word
is not easy to translate,

the word for that here we put as
conventional designation is 'prajñaptir'.

[prajñaptir]

It means
'that was just made to be known'.

So it is what we can perceive.

It means, directly in perception
we can see emptiness.

We don't have to think, 'The conventional
things of the world are just worldly,

names, form, smell, touch,
all these things.

But emptiness, ah!
That is the holy of holies!'

That is the tendency,

to make emptiness
into something other

than what is there in the world.

So Nagarjuna brings us back.

Emptiness itself is
in the very nature of worldly things.

It is not somewhere else.

So when we chant the Heart Sutra
and we say, 'This body itself is emptiness,

emptiness itself is this body.'

it is not to say this body is

something sacred
as opposed to something profane,

making a kind of dualism.

Because that was a tendency
within Buddhism,

to make emptiness into the sacred,

and to try to just

brush away all the worldly things
of the conventional world.

Thay has the beautiful poem or
the beautiful saying, 'No mud, no lotus'.

So you cannot have a lotus flower
without the mud.

It is thanks to all the muck, the dirt,
the profane nature of our daily existence.

Due to that nourishment,
the flower can grow.

And actually there is no...

there is no sacred and profane,

but everything can be seen as sacred

if we look deeply
with the concentration of emptiness.

That is the beauty of it.

Even the coyote poop on the path
when we walk in the mountain is sacred.

And the garbage is sacred.

Even there's something we can learn
from hatred, anger, violence, fear.

There's something there to learn from.
We don't ignore it or treat it as something

that just needs to be pushed away.

If we just get rid of
all the hatred and violence,

then we'll be happy.
There will be unending happiness.

We don't get caught
in that dualistic view.

That is a concern of Nagarjuna,
he wants us to see that

in the conventional world
we find emptiness.

In this body, there is emptiness.

Emptiness itself is this body,
it is not something separate,

something other than this body.

And, of course, when we recite that
in the Heart Sutra,

it is just a marker
for all of the five skandhas.

So we don't say,

feelings themselves are emptiness,
emptiness itself are these feelings;

perceptions are emptiness,
perceptions themselves are these feelings,

but that all means all the five skandhas,
not only the body, feelings, perceptions,

mental formation and consciousness
themselves are emptiness.

So don't go looking
somewhere else for emptiness.

That is what the concentration
on emptiness is inviting us to do.

But see the non-it elements
in everything that we observe.

Then we allow

the nature of dependent origination
to flower forth.

So the seed can become the plant of corn,

and we know it is not the same
as the plant of corn,

but it is not totally different either.

It is a continuation of the seed.

The plant is a continuation
of the seed of corn.

So that insight is the Middle Way.
That is our practice.

That is the way we train our mind
to become free from

dualistic ways of looking,like
being and non-being,

same and different,
coming and going,

and so forth.

Okay.

Then,

we learned about
the second door of liberation.

i should have brought cookies
to offer to anyone who can say

what is the second door of liberation.

I don't have any cookies.

Anyone?

Signlessness.

[2. signlessness]

So looking at conventional designation,

we don't get attached
to the outward form.

And we also don't get attached
to some idea about any essence either.

We know that there's the unconditioned
nature, as we've learned, in all things,

in all points of time and space

that transcends space and time,
but it has no quality, no form,

nothing that we can call,
that we can touch, feel.

There's no...

There's nothing there
that can be designated.

So by practicing the concentration
on signlessness,

we keep the awareness of the unconditioned
always present.

That is mindfulness.

By keeping awareness present,
not grasping,

we allow the unconditioned nature
to manifest in every moment.

And then amazing things happen!
Wonderful things manifest.

Just like the seed transforming itself
into a plant of corn.

It doesn't have ideas or concepts
about becoming a seed of corn.

And yet, when conditions are sufficient,

this beautiful blossom

of the leaves
of the plant of corn manifest.

So the same is true for us
in our practice as monastics.

We are aware that

we think, 'I'm just a young monk or nun,

and I only just begun
to study Thay's teaching.'

Yes, and then

we actually discount that

all the conditions
for Thay, our teacher to manifest,

all the conditions
for the Buddha to manifest

are there in every cell of our body.

The Buddha was a human being,
Thay is also a human being,

and if we train our mind

to be compassionate, to be understanding,
then we also

can manifest those qualities.

So it's just freeing ourselves
from grasping

our conventional way of looking at things,

and allowing transformation to take place,

allowing healing to take place.

Then we find ourselves joyful,

and we are not always being up and down,
up and down caught on our emotions,

because our feelings are
sometimes painful, sometimes pleasant.

Our body is
sometimes healthy, sometimes sick.

The body may be sick, healthy,
but we are still joyful.

We might have painful feelings,
pleasant feelings,

but our joyfulness is steady

when we're in touch
with the unconditioned nature.

That is a fruit!

That's how we know, because
our emotions become more steady,

and we're not so easily pulled away
by desire for food that we like,

or sexual desire,
or images and so forth

on the Internet or whatever.

We're not so easily pulled in
by advertising to buy this or that.

It's so important. I feel that is what Thay
transmitted to all of us as his students,

it was this deep confidence
that in each of us

is the possibility to flower like Thay,
to flower like the Buddha,

to be such a beautiful flower.

He doesn't want...
not even one of his students

would he accept that they leave
the monastic life.

It's very difficult.

Many people they felt, 'I cannot continue
to be a monk or a nun.'

And they would go to Thay
and they give Thay their sanghati,

in Thay gives it back.

I remember one sister telling me
that she went to Thay,

'Thay, I cannot be a nun anymore.'

And she gave to Thay
her formal monastic robe.

And then Thay gave it back to her.

Because he knows that in her
is the capacity to be a buddha.

And he will not accept that you just say,

'No, I know I have
the capacity to be a buddha,

but I think I'm going to
just be a human being.'

Thay said, 'No,
the Buddha is a human being.

What do you think the Buddha is?

If the Buddha is not a human being,
how could he -

How could we hear him teach?

How could he have
such a deep understanding

of the nature of human beings?

The Dharma the Buddha taught
is for human beings!

You can teach the Dharma
all you like to a squirrel,

but it will not understand
what you're talking about.

But if you are kind to this squirrel,
if you are friendly,

then the squirrel will be more at ease,
just like the squirrels here at Deer Park,

and the coyotes, and many of the animals.
They are more calm, more peaceful,

because they feel like,

'These human beings here they are somehow

not so violent, not so unfriendly.'

But try as you like to try to teach them
about the concentration on emptiness,

you won't get very far.

So the Buddha is a human being.

He's teaching the Dharma for human beings.

It's to help us in particular.

So how can you have the idea that,
'I cannot get that understanding.'

The Buddha gave every,

every kind of

deep intention, aspiration in his life

in order to help us to learn the Dharma,

but we are like,

like Thay said, like a

a young man, a destitute man
who has a jewel

sewn into the fabric of our jacket

and we don't know.

We are living in the street,
we don't have food to eat.

We're starving,
we feel totally forgotten by society,

but inside,

sewn into the fabric of our jacket
there is a jewel.

And that jewel is priceless.

If we only knew that we had that jewel,

we could sell it and be the richest man.

And yet, we keep wandering,

wandering around with that jewel
sewn into the fabric of our jacket.

I don't know, I might have
a jewel like that in this jacket,

because sister ()
she sewed this jacket for me.

And I don't know,
I could maybe have some jewel in there!

This is our sacred inheritance
as human beings.

It is so fortunate to be born
a human being!

And we have that jewel,
the buddha nature,

awakening in every cell of our body.

We just need to realize it and
practice the Dharma,

and then it will manifest.

The Dharma gives us the conditions,
sufficient conditions,

in order for us
to manifest as a buddha.

The Dharma gives us sufficient conditions
to manifest as a buddha.

That's an amazing statement!

If you just realize that,

then you become
the wealthiest person on earth.

And you actually can receive
your sacred inheritance.

That is a Thay's poem, Inheritance,

a very beautiful poem in the
Please Call Me by My True names.

Stop wandering around
like a destitute child.

Come back and claim your heritage.
You can enjoy your happiness

and offer it to everyone.

That is your sacred inheritance.

Such a beautiful poem!

So the concentration on signlessness
helps us to touch that sacred inheritance,

to no longer just get caught in just,

'I am this man,

born in this place
to this mother and father,

and i have to go get a job, and work,

and have a house, and a car,
and a family, and kids.

And then, hopefully, I can squeeze
a little bit of happiness out of that,

all those things that I get and the family

and then, I will die a happy man.

And that is it,

that is the story
that we create for ourselves.

And yet, in the course of trying to
realize that story to make it be,

we suffer so much.

Our children are not grateful,

maybe they get caught in addiction

to drugs, to sex.
Maybe they...

they yell at us, complain.

Maybe we cannot get along with our partner

and we wish, even we wish maybe
that they would die

just to leave us alone
so we could be free.

And yet still we cherish that story in us

of a happy life.

That is a deep, deep suffering.

We have to look at that story
that we are telling ourselves

with the eyes of signlessness.

And by doing it we let go and we learn how
to dwell happily in the present moment.

We already have enough conditions
to be happy in the present moment.

And the beautiful thing about that is

that if you master it,

if you learn how to be happy
in the present moment wherever you are,

whenever, then wherever you go, whenever,
you can be happy in the future!

So if you get good at dwelling happily
in the present moment...

because it's the kind of skill
that we develop.

It's a training.

That's why with walking meditation,
with each step we touch happiness.

We don't think, ‘Oh, if I just practice
walking meditation for 20 years,

then one day I will be happy’,
But with each step you arrive.

At home, at home.

So that's a training. If you can do that,

then you get a moment of happiness,

and then you have
another moment of happiness,

and then you have
another moment of happiness.

And then when difficult emotions come,

when you hear someone
say something about you,

you hear news that full of actions,
full of violence and hatred,

and you feel overwhelmed
by anger, or fear,

you have a practice. You remember
that practice of coming back to your step.

'I remember when I did walking meditation.

at that moment I could touch
happiness in the present moment.

What if I practice that right now?'

And you stand up, and you breathe in,
and you take one step.

And breathe out and take another step.

And slowly if you continue
your concentration on mindful walking,

you may notice that there are spaces

in which your anger and your fear
are no longer there.

As a practitioner you learn
how to grow those spaces.

That's something I like to do.

If I’m ever overwhelmed with anger
in a moment

and I keep feeding that anger
with my thinking

about that person
that did that horrible thing,

then I look carefully for spaces in
between the feeling of anger manifesting,

when there's just a neutral feeling.

And I see, rather than continuing
to feed the anger with my thinking,

what if I can just grow
those neutral spaces?

Because it's so unpleasant to be angry.

It's a very painful feeling to be angry.

So when there's that painful feeling,
a neutral feeling seems very attractive.

I might wish to be like blissfully happy
and have very blissful pleasant feelings,

but just having a neutral feeling
would be good enough

when I’m very very angry,
because it's so painful.

So I learned, as a young practitioner,
to look for those spaces

where, 'Oh gosh!

A moment ago I just felt so much anger
towards that person for that thing they did,

but in this moment, in this one second,
I’m not feeling angry.

What if I see what created that?

What conditions in terms of dependent
origination, causes and conditions?

What allowed that space to be there?'

Well, I see,
‘Ah, in that moment I wasn't continuing

to get caught in my thinking

about what happened, what she did to me,
what she said about me.

So, what if I stop my thinking

and put all my attention
on my step and my breathing?'

And then, that neutral feeling
grows wider and wider.

And if you do that with concentration,

you might find in a few minutes
your anger has disappeared.

And that is not just by chance.
That is because you are practicing,

you are putting into practice
the concentration on signlessness.

You're not getting caught in
your thinking about reality,

but you come back to
the lived experience of reality.

You don't get caught in the qualities,

or the smell, the sound,
anything, the outward form,

but rather you leave an open space
for a new possibility to arise.

That is a concentration on signlessness.

The third is...

You remember?

Aimlessness.

[3. aimlessness]

So you don't put something out there.

This is a very joyful door of liberation.

You see in what way -

We have this

from our ancestors, a tendency
to want to track down our prey,

like a hunter.

Happiness can be a kind of prey

that we try to hunt down our whole life.

And we know that if we have
the right weapons, if we have the right -

a good team of hunters,

then we can track down happiness,

and shoot it to the ground
with our bow, or with our spear.

So we use that ancestral tendency to hunt,
whether as an individual, or as a group,

and to try to attain

a diploma,

to be a wealthy person, to be admired,
famous, to have lots of sex,

lots of good food,
a beautiful house,

or even just happiness itself.
We just want to be happy.

But we're unable to touch happiness
in the present moment,

to dwell happily in the present moment.

So we just have an idea about happiness.
And that idea grows in our head.

But it's not certain that
that idea has very much to do

with the reality of being happy.

In fact, it might be
the biggest obstacle to our happiness.

You think if you just had that car,
or if you're -

if everyone in your family
would just be silent,

or be friendly to one another,
then that would be bliss.

But then, that thing happens
and yet you're still not happy.

You still feel depression,
you feel unsatisfied.

So if we are a practitioner,
and usually if we became a monastic,

we already had that insight.

Whether it was in one of our relationships
where we felt in love,

and we thought, ‘This is true love,
I can be with this person forever!’

And yet somehow,

we find ourselves unhappy
in that relationship.

Then, at some point,

before we thought, 'If I could only
be with that person! That would be -

My whole life will be bliss!
Blissfully happy!'

But then we are with that person,
we have everything we wanted,

and yet suddenly that person
looks like a monster to us.

And it seems like that person
that we wanted so much in the past

has become the source
of all of our unhappiness.

And that is a lived reality
for many people,

because they are caught
in the sign of that person.

They think that -

They're in love with the image of
their partner, and not with the reality,

the slobbering, smelly farting,

messy reality of a human body,

that complains when we don't do the things,
correctly, that we are supposed to do,

that judges, and all these things.

So as practitioners, as monastics,
we make that decision

to come back to ourselves,
to come to the monastery

to look deeply in our heart,

and understand
the nature of this suffering,

rather than getting caught
in an idea about happiness.

That is the practice of aimlessness.

So aimlessness doesn't mean
we don't have a path.

It means we don't get caught
in what is at the end of the path,

but every step is joy,
every step is freedom.

That is a concentration on aimlessness.

Then, no matter where you go,

you can be happy,

because your happiness
is not dependent on where you are.

So it's a kind of -

The three doors of liberation
are so freeing,

because they're not dependent on a place,
they're not dependent on the time,

they're not dependent on

having some material object,
or some title or recognition.

So the Buddha transmitted deeply
this essential teaching

to help us to
become free from our suffering,

when we still find ourselves
grasping after worldly attainments,

we always have
that concentration on aimlessness.

And then, we can be free.

So it's a wonderful,

very tasty concentration,
the concentration on aimlessness.

Can I let go of what I’m aiming to do,
and just touch joy in the present moment?

Touch freedom in every moment?

Okay. So that's just a little review

of the three doors of liberation

from last week,

going a little bit more deeply into it.

That brings us to the ninth tenet.

[9.]

The three Dharma seals,

[The Three Dharma Seals]

the three Dharma seals are impermanence,

no self,

and nirvana.

[are impermanence, no self and nirvāṇa.]

If we want, we can have
4 or 5 Dharma seals,

[If we want, we can have
four or five Dharma Seals,]

as long as they have nirvana

as one of them.

[as long as they include nirvāṇa
as one of them.]

So the -

it's not a -

It is not necessarily the Buddha
which put numbered lists of things

in the teaching,
but over time the community,

as a way of remembering aspects of
the Dharma which helped them to practice,

began to make lists.

And one of those lists
that came up was a list

that could be called The Signs
of the Dharma, or The Seal,

seal in the sense like the emperor's seal.

He has a sign,
maybe carved in wood or another material.

And they put the hot wax
on the envelope to be sealed.

Then they press it into the hot wax so that
when the person receives it they know,

'This is the sign of the emperor.'

So how can we tell
that our teaching is the Dharma?

We can tell by the seal,
by the quality, the sign.

One of those signs is impermanence.

Any teaching that is a true Dharma
always has the teaching of impermanence.

So if we continue to hold on to an idea of
permanence, then that is not the Dharma.

That is still some kind of grasping
at an extreme view.

So the view of permanence
is a kind of extreme view,

like the permanence of being,
or the permanence of non-being.

Those are views of permanence.

Something lasts forever
that can never change.

It goes against everything that
we experience in life. Everything changes.

Even we know that the most stable particles
in the universe, like a proton,

eventually decays, although it lasts
for billions and billions of years.

And yet, it still is of the nature
of to be impermanent.

How much more so our body,
our feelings, our perceptions.

Most of us are not caught
getting grasping at protons,

but we do get caught grasping at our body,
at our feelings, and the other skandhas.

So, the Buddhist teaching
is very practical.

It's not saying,

'Don't get attached to protons',

but it's saying, what are those things
that we tend to get most attached to?

Well, it is a certain configuration of
protons, this body, or these feelings.

So for practical purposes,
we learn to let go of them,

because we know they're impermanent,

and any attempt to grasp at them
will always fail.

Because the thing
that we set out to grasp at,

by the time we try to grasp it,
it has already changed.

And as we continue to try to hold on to it
it is changing in real time,

as well as our energy of grasping
it is also changing.

So everything, the grasping

and the grasper, and the thing we grasp,
are empty and impermanent.

They are not separate.
There's not a separate self.

So that is one sign that we can tell,
‘This is the Dharma’,

if we see that it is a teaching
that includes impermanence.

Then, the second Dharma seal, no self.

So the concentration on emptiness
helps us to touch, to recognize

the no self nature of all things.

So the three doors of liberation
can help us to see the Dharma in things,

seeing the signless nature, not getting
caught in the qualities of things,

we touch the impermanence of things.

The Dharma seals are related
to the three doors of liberation.

So I think we understand this teaching
already very deeply

from the concentration on emptiness.

‘No self’ here means no separate self.

Things are only made of non it elements.

And the third Dharma seal, nirvana.

This is

essential.
And this is a teaching of Plum Village.

If we don't have -

If there were no unconditioned, then
what could all condition things go back to?

If there were no unconditioned,
as the Buddha said,

there would be no freedom,
there would be no -

How could -?

Without the unconditioned,

how could we touch the uncreat -

How could freedom be possible?

So the insight of the Buddha
is that freedom is possible.

That touching the unconditioned
is possible.

And that is a nature, that is a sign,
that is a true Dharma teaching.

Without that, then it is a -

it can just be like

materialist,

a materialistic way of
looking at the world.

We just think -
we just see signs, we have perceptions.

And that is it, there's nothing more.

We don't see the nature of causes
and conditions always transforming,

always changing, always free
from a separate self.

Then, freeing ourselves
from attachment to all those things,

touching the unconditioned nature
of nirvana,

that is one of the Dharma seals.
And we cannot remove that.

That is Thay's insight.

There are other-

In different traditions, we have other
configurations of the three Dharma seals.

When we look in, for example,
in the tradition of the Pali canon,

usually these three are, include -

They do not include nirvana,
but have suffering.

Because suffering is a noble truth.

There is a discourse,
many discourses actually,

where the Buddha
said to his monks, he said,

‘Are things in the world
permanent or impermanent?’

And they said, ‘Impermanent.’

Then he asked them,

‘Are impermanent things

suffering or not suffering?
And they said, 'They are suffering.'

Thay's insight into that teaching is that

it is not things themselves
because they are impermanent

that makes them suffering,

but it is our grasping at those things,
and believing them to be permanent

that makes us suffer.

So a misunderstanding of the teaching
is to think that all things,

because they are impermanent,
they are suffering.

But it is not because they are impermanent
that we suffer,

it is because we grasp at them,

and believe them to be permanent
that we suffer.

So we need to have that understanding,

that deeper way of looking into
the nature of things.

Otherwise we think that all material things
are causing us to suffer.

And we feel that this body itself
is impermanent, it is suffering.

And we can get caught in
a nihilistic view of the world.

We can get caught in the view that,

I just want to destroy this body
because it is impermanent,

it is just suffering!
I want to become free!

There were monks in the time of the Buddha
who had that kind of wrong view. They thought,

‘By killing myself, I will become free
from the suffering nature of this body.’

That is a very wrong view.

So this teaching of the Dharma seals
as impermanence, no self and nirvana

is a very skillful way. We have to see
the nature of nirvana in this very body.

Yes, there is suffering,
but not only suffering.

There is the possibility of happiness

and freedom.

There's an unconditioned nature.

So Thay is very insistent he says,

if we want, we can have
4 or 5 Dharma seals.

If you want, you can add suffering in there,
because suffering is a great teacher.

Without the mud, there is no lotus.

And we can learn from our suffering.

Of course, that is a deep,
important teaching of the Dharma.

But we cannot have
the three Dharma seals without nirvana.

That is the insight of
Plum Village teaching,

and a contribution
to the Buddhist tradition.

In the link, in the description
of this video for the class today,

I put a link to the Channa Sutta,
a sutra from the Samyukta Agama,

from early Buddhist texts, just as well as
in the Pali canon tradition.

So Thay in his last
10 or 15 years of teaching

dedicated a lot of his energy
to translating the early Buddhist texts

from the Samyutta,
from the Agamas in Chinese.

This was one of the texts that Thay,
in the Chinese,

and this was one of the texts that
Thay added to our Chanting Book.

The next time we update the Chanting Book,
the Channa Sutta, the Chana Sutra,

I encourage you all to study it.

I encourage you all to study it.

In there Thay saw

the presence in a very early text

of these three Dharma seals of
impermanence, no self and nirvana.

So I encourage you all to read that.
I put a link to the translation online.

Thank you so much for your practice.

An announcement
for everyone joining us online.

Next week here at Deer Park we'll have
a Wake Up retreat for young people online,

so we'll be focusing on
doing that retreat.

Then, after that there will be
a break of a few weeks.

So please, look for the next class

of the 40 tenets sometime
in the second half of June.

So we'll have a few weeks
of break from class.

Okay, we can finish
with three sounds of the bell.

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)