The 40 Tenets of Plum Village with Brother Phap Luu | Class #1

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

(Bell)

Dear respected Thay,
dear brothers and sisters,

where did the sheets end up?

So,

welcome, sisters.

Can everyone hear clearly?

No?

Is that better?

Testing, 1, 2, 3.

It is clear?

Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.

Not yet?

Louder? Okay.
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.

Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.

Yes? Okay.

So, dear respected Thay,

(inaudible)

In 2006, 2007,

Thay had spent time going into

a text called The wheel
of the Different School's Commentary.

It discusses the different tenets
of the early schools of Buddhism.

This is in India,

around the time of the Common Era.

The beginning of the Common Era.

There are around -

We do not know exactly how many
schools of Buddhism there were.

Is that okay?

But what we have recorded is that there
are at least 18 schools of mainstream,

we call 'mainstream' now,
schools of Buddhism.

Some of them,

they got their name mainly

just because of the geographic region
in which they were.

Some of them, perhaps,
because of some teacher.

And some of them because of
a certain doctrine that they held to,

like the Sarvāstivāda.

For example, they believed
that all phenomena exist

not only in the present, but also
in the future, as well as in the past.

So the school became known
as the Sarvāstivāda,

'sarva asti' means 'it always exists'.

whether in the present,
or the future, or the past.

There is a school called the Pudgalavāda,
which is the school that says

that although we don't have a self
in the five skandhas,

yet there is something that
can be called a personality, or a person.

So there are different schools of Buddhism

that we will not go into
in too much detail here.

But after that teaching, Thay went into
the different schools of Buddhism.

Then, he pointed the arrow
back towards Plum Village,

towards ourselves,

and asked, what are the teachings
that we have learned

over the years in Plum Village

by looking deeply into
these early schools of Buddhism

as well as from the benefit of
the development of the Mahāyāna

as it spread through monasteries in India,

and then was brought to China,
and later to Tibet as well,

and all of East Asia.

So, by looking at early Buddhism,
through the lens of the Mahāyāna,

get a deeper insight into how we practice
in the Plum Village tradition

in the present moment.

In addition to benefiting from the wisdom
and insight of Mahāyāna teachings,

we can also benefit from

the study of science,
especially in the West.

So by looking into the nature of reality,

and understanding Physics,
understanding Biology,

understanding the science
of the mind, Psychology,

we can also get insight.

Thay is very clear that in our tradition
of Buddhism we are not dogmatic.

If there is some insight that we can get
whether through our own practice,

or whether through an insight
from the study of science,

or whatever else,
if that helps us to be free,

and to transform our suffering,

then we can incorporate that
into the Plum Village tradition.

So we are also flexible.

We don't come at it from a dogmatic
point of view, like, this is the way,

and that is the right way,
and it cannot change.

But what we should rather focus on is
whether or not it helps us to be free.

Whether that teaching helps us
to transform our suffering.

So Thay then went ahead and taught these
40 tenets over the next couple of years.

But especially in the year of 2006
to 2007, that Winter Retreat.

Then it was published as a book,
I think in 2013, finally in Vietnamese.

2014.

The book in Vietnamese is called
Looking at Vulture's Peak.

Plum Village Looks at Vulture's Peak.

The book before it, which was about
looking at the schools of Buddhism,

was called The Path to Vulture's Peak.

And this volume,
which is Plum Village's insight,

is called
Plum Village Looks at Vulture's Peak.

Vulture's Peak

is a mountain in Rajagaha or Rajagriha,

in India.

And it is only

I don't know exactly,

but you can walk in a day or two
from Bodh Gaya to Rajagaha.

It is -

Now it is called Rajgir.

We went there with Thay in 2008,

and that was a place where
the Buddha loved to climb the mountain

just like here, at Deer Park,
we like to go up to Escondido rock,

or the Breakfast rock, and sit
in the morning, and enjoy the sunrise,

and drink tea,

and eat a light breakfast.

Also the Buddha enjoyed
going up the Vulture's Peak

to watch the sunrise, or the sunset .

And in 2008 we got to go with Thay

up onto Vulture's Peak,

and spend the whole day.

Thay invited the whole delegation
that was traveling

in Thay's last trip to India.

He said, "Even if you need
to go to the bathroom,

you can do it in the bushes".

Because there is no toilet

at the Vulture's Peak.

It is very wild.

So we walked up before sunrise with Thay,

you can sit there on one side
of the top of the mountain

you can sit, and look out,
and see the sun rising in the East.

Then, on the other side, you can sit
in the afternoon, and watch the sunset.

Thay brought a hammock,

and set up the hammock,
and just spent the whole day there.

I remember sister ()
was singing to Thay that day.

She was attending Thay.

So, Thay really wanted us to go
and enjoy Vulture's Peak

in the way that the Buddha
enjoyed being on Vulture's Peak.

We also performed the transmission
of the Five Mindfulness Trainings,

and the 14 Mindfulness Trainings
on the top of Vulture's Peak.

And Thay shaved our head again.

A little bit, not the whole thing.

We went up and Thay

ran the razor over.

If we wanted to, Thay would do that

to renew our aspiration.

So Vulture's Peak has a very deep
significance in the Buddhist tradition

as an aspiration of
the highest teachings of the Buddha.

Many of the sutras were taught there.

It was set away

from some of the other teaching areas
of the Buddha, like the Bamboo Grove,

which are more nearby the town.

So the Vulture's Peak,
to go up there to hear the Buddha,

you have to bring your food
and go for the day.

It is not a short trip.

My own insight from that experience is

that it is a place where the Buddha
liked to go for refuge.

Of course, he took refuge in nirvana,
in the unconditioned,

but I think he also liked to just go up

and enjoy the mountain
just like we do here.

So by calling the book on the 40 tenets
Plum Village Looking at Vulture's Peak,

it means, actually,

when we, as Thay's continuation,

as part of the Plum Village tradition,

when we look at Vulture's Peak,
it means we look at the Buddha,

the place the Buddha
enjoyed being and teaching,

in our heart, what do we see?
What kind of teachings do we see?

And Thay produced these 40 tenets.

So, one brother mentioned to me,
could we continue to learn the 40 tenets?

Because we started it a few years ago,
I think we had 3 or 4 classes.

Brother () was not yet a monk.

I said, "Sure,
I will be happy to continue".

And really the spirit is
that we do it together.

It is nourishing for me as well as for
all of us to look into these teachings.

So I printed them out.

Everyone has a copy?

Also I promise to speak slowly
for the sisters so they can learn English.

Because they will also be giving
English Dharma talks very soon.

So they need to learn.

I apologize if I -

I promise to speak clearly and slowly.

Because we have experts
in the English language here as well.

So I will try to share for everyone.

Maybe we can listen
to the sound of the bell.

(Bell)

(Bell)

The first tenet.

Space is not an unconditioned dharma.

[1. Space is not an unconditioned dharma]

In the Buddhist teachings, we use
the word 'dharma' in various ways.

In this sense it means 'phenomena'
or 'phenomenon', in singular.

So anything is a dharma,
this pen is a dharma.

Electricity, light, is a dharma.

Anything that manifests,
that causes some kind of perception,

whether we perceive it or not,

is a dharma.

Whether we perceive it through the eye,
the ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind.

These are all dharmas.

In many schools of Buddhism,

we accept very easily that, for example,
this table is conditioned.

If I take it apart,

or if I take a hammer and I smash it,

it can break.

Even the plastic over time can break down,
although it takes a long time for plastic

to break down, but it is also impermanent.

So all the elements that
make up this table are impermanent.

It has come about due to conditions,

and it is subject to falling apart
for those conditions,

to disassociate themselves,
to become something else.

It is easy for us to accept that
the water in the cup of tea

is also a conditioned phenomenon.

We know that now
it manifests as liquid water,

but if we lower the temperature,
it can freeze into ice and become solid.

And if we boil it,
then it can turn into water vapor,

and go into the air, and become a cloud.

So, the water is also conditioned.

We can go back even farther

and look at
the components of water as H2O.

And we know that the very earliest stars,

some of which still we can detect in the -

even some of them in the Milky Way,
in our neighborhood galaxy,

are low metallic stars.
They don't even have elements like oxygen.

Only mainly hydrogen and helium.

They are from very early on,
the oldest stars in the universe.

They were formed before
the heavier elements, like oxygen,

were even composed.

We know that
even the oxygen is conditioned.

And even the hydrogen,

the simplest atom,

just one proton, one electron,
is also a conditioned element,

that we can separate
that electron from the proton

and have the electron go spinning off,
and just have a proton.

And even now we go deeper into the proton,

we know that protons
have not always existed.

Through the science we can see

that in the early milliseconds
of the Big Bang,

there was not even protons yet.

So all we can see.

Actually, even the constituent elements
of water are conditioned.

So this is not
for the purpose of knowledge,

but it is for the purpose of deep looking,

to see that everything is impermanent.

The Buddha said just moments before

he went into parinirvana,

that all things are conditioned,

all things are impermanent,
all conditioned things are impermanent.

And strive diligently in your practice.

So, that theme of impermanence
is always there as a concentration

to help us to see

that this body is not me,
these feelings are not me,

these perceptions are not me,
and then we are free.

We don't feel caught
in our attachments anymore,

because we know that
it is useless to be attached.

Actually, we cannot grab onto things
because they are always changing.

When the early teachers,
the continuation of the Buddha,

started to look at all these teachings,

they started to divide them up
into things that are conditioned

and things that are unconditioned.

Because the Buddha said many times that,

for example, nirvana is unconditioned.

He said, if it were not
for the unconditioned nature of dharma,

there would not be freedom
from the condition.

And that is what our practice is,

the core of our practice is
how to become free from the conditioning.

Because the conditioned things, we try
to grab onto them as being permanent,

and that contributes to
so much of the suffering

that we experience in our lives.

But they found that
not only was nirvana unconditioned,

but they also looked and they said,

that the space in which things manifest -

So, not the cup, and not the water,
but the space in which the cup manifests,

that is also unconditioned,
it is an unconditional phenomena.

So Thay through his deep looking,

as well as with the insights
we have from science,

we know that actually space
is also a conditioned phenomenon.

So there are different ways to look at it.

One way is to look at it from the point of
view of conventional designation.

So space in the sense of
something that we call space

is obviously conditioned, right?

Because it is just a designation.

We describe it as something
that is the absence of -

It is the container
within which things manifest.

But anything that we point to

as being something,

is something that's occupying space,
and not space itself.

Space itself
is just a conventional designation

to describe the container, you might say,

in which things are placed.

That bell is not occupying the same space
as where I am standing.

You know right away that I am not
in the bell, and the bell is not in me.

We are not
mutually obstructing each other.

Space is a word we use
as a conventional designation

to describe this situation that I am not

occupying the same space as the bell.

Or if we were walking around,

I like to do the exercise

where we are like atoms,
and we go, we walk around,

and sometimes when we get very hot,
we walk very quickly,

and when we are cold we slow down.

Has anyone ever done that?
It is very fun.

And you become very mindful
of people walking around you.

Or if you have ever been to Grand
Central Station in New York City,

has anyone ever been to Grand Central?

You notice that there are many entrances
and there are many exits.

So when people are walking through it,
the way the building is designed,

somebody who is over here
is going over there,

or they are going over here and somebody
who came in over here is going over there,

so in the middle people have to
mesh with each other.

And yet, somehow it all happens magically
without people bumping into one another.

And that is because
they have a sense of space.

This is a proprioception sense of
how much space the body occupies.

We have a natural sense of mindfulness,
even if we don't practice mindfulness.

We actually can -

We are also heard animals, as human beings,
we are very sensitive to moving in the herd

in a way that we don't
bump into each other.

In that sense it is very clear that space
is a conditioned dharma,

it is just a conventional designation,
a way of describing

the fact that we do not mutually obstruct
one another in the same space.

Thay likes to use the image
of a flower arrangement,

like the flowers that -

I think I don't know
which sister arranges the flowers.

Each flower occupies its space, we don't
try to just bunch them all together

so they look crowded,

but we know how to arrange the flowers

in a way that each contribute their beauty

but they are not obstructing one another.

That is another image of space.

So clearly we can see that that is
a conditioned dharma, the sense of space.

But with the insight of the relativity,

we also know that at a deeper level,
at a physical level,

what we call space
is actually also conditioned.

If we think of space as -

Again, this is just an image.

We have a very massive body.

Of course, space is

three-dimensional.

We can go up, down, we can go across.

We can go length, height, and width,
in three directions.

But in order to conceptualize space,
here we just draw it

as a two-dimensional plane,

because it is hard to draw
in three dimensions.

You have a massive body
like the sun, or a star.

but actually any body,
even the tiniest atom,

because of the force of gravity,

and I don't know
if I will be able to draw this,

it will start to

to bend.

It is almost like

if you have a piece of cloth and
you put a ball in it, a metal ball,

and it distorts the piece of cloth.

The gravity is actually pulling,

is actually actually distorting
the very fabric of space.

What they call space-time continuum.

Now we have discovered that
there are actually even waves

in that space-time continuum
called gravitational waves.

Recently they have built two sensors,
I think one of them is near Seattle,

and the other one
is somewhere in the deep south.

They have to be in an l shape.

Five years ago, four years ago,

they actually detected
the first gravitational wave.

That means that there is
a really massive body,

that there is a ripple
of gravitational force,

like a supernova,

where suddenly
a very massive body explodes

and the mass that is distorting
the space-time continuum

is ejected often
millions of miles in every direction.

So that causes an actual ripple

to pass through the continuum of space.

And we can detect it now

when that happens.

I don't know, I forget
the details how they do it.

I remember that you need to have two
sensors in different points on the Earth,

and then compare the results.

and then through doing that,

you can detect this ripple which is
passing through the fabric of space.

So, obviously, if space
has waves going through it,

just like water, that we learned
is conditioned,

then we know that
space is also conditioned.

Thay also invites us

to look into the relationship
between space and time.

Which we also learn from the Avatamsaka
Sutra but also from Einstein.

The insight that actually
space and time are both

the manifestation of the same thing.

They are not separate.

So, as we move through time,

time is one way of describing movement
through the same continuum

that we speak of as moving through space.

So, we now

look at time as actually
a fourth dimension,

already from 100 years ago, from Einstein.

So the time itself is also conditioned.

We only experience this present moment,

and what we think of as the future
is just a present moment which is -

Because of our memory,
and the continuity of consciousness,

we experience always moving
as if we were moving forward.

And especially we have clocks,

and they start going around, and they
seem to be progressing in a linear way,

a circular way, but a linear way

from the past into the future.

But actually all we really have
is the present moment.

That is all there really is.

And then, memories about the past,
impressions that we have had

that stay in consciousness.

And whatever is in the future is just
the functioning of our nervous system,

an anticipation based on the conditions
that we have observed,

we observe in the present moment
and what we have observed in the past.

We try to predict
what will happen in the future.

So, it is actually not there.

So, this whole concept
of time is actually,

when we look deeply, it is conditioned in,

is based on our consciousness.

What we talk about as time
is also a conventional designation,

and it is also a conditioned dharma.

This is the insight of the first tenet,

that we can no longer naively talk about
space as being an unconditioned dharma.

It is also conditioned.

It manifests together with -

Yes, that is the next one.

The brother asks how does space
relate to consciousness.

Let me just fill in the rest of the tenet.

Space manifests

together

with

time,

matter,

and consciousness.

[It manifests together with time,
matter, and consciousness]

We can look at time
from the perspective of consciousness.

We can also look at space
from the perspective of consciousness.

The concentration
on impermanence, for example,

is what helps us to be free
from attachment to

ideas about time.

And the insight of non-self is the insight
which helps us to be free from

ideas and attachment in our consciousness
with regards to space.

So time as a conditioned dharma.

When we suffer because, for example,

we wish that we were at that time
when we were very young,

some moment when we just felt so happy,

we were so free, we had no -

We were with our family maybe,

not all of us maybe were happy in our
family, but you can see one moment when -

I always look back to my childhood
growing up in my house,

and it would maybe be a summer day,
and we were on a river, a kind of lake.

It just seemed like everything
was so wonderful!

It is nice outside,
they could go swimming,

beautiful nature all around the forest.

And I know that there were times
before I learned meditation,

and even when I learned meditation,
when I would wish to go back to that time

where everything seemed very happy
and joyful, when I was suffering.

So there was an attachment to time,

there was an attachment
to my memory of time past,

and without the antidote,

without the way of becoming free
from attachment to time

as a conditioned dharma, I suffer.

But with the concentration
on impermanence, then I become free.

So time is linked
to the practice of impermanence.

[impermanence]

We could say that
concentration on impermanence

is how we touch the unconditioned in time.

So we become free from
the conditioned aspects of time.

And we will see that in the second tenet,

because already
when we get to the second tenet,

we see that Thay says, "In the historical
dimension, all dharmas are conditioned,

but in the ultimate dimension,
all dharmas are unconditioned."

So even we are saying now,
the space is not an unconditioned dharma,

but in the sense of the ultimate,

all the dharmas are unconditioned.

Q.: You did a really good job
of describing conditioned.

Conditioned phenomena are things
that could be broken down.

Can you talk a little more about
and define the unconditioned,

and give some examples?

Okay, but let me finish
with this question first.

The brother asked to go into
describe with examples the unconditioned.

Okay, but I will continue with the -

So, in terms of space,

[space]

we talk about non-self.

[non-self]

It means that there is nothing essential,

that all things are empty
of a separate self.

So the teaching on non-self
is not a teaching on negation.

It does not mean that we -

that what we perceive is not real,
is non-existent,

but it means that
there is nothing permanent,

there is nothing
that can be by itself alone

anywhere in space,

whether in ourselves,
or in another person,

or some higher being,
like God, or something.

Anything we imagine.

Some place where things suddenly
are permanent, like a heaven,

where it is eternal.

But actually, everywhere in space
has the quality

of being empty of a separate self.

And that is not for the purpose
of just declaring,

of taking a philosophical stance,

or declaring

an objective nature of things,
but it is for the purpose of practice.

It is for the purpose of being free
from attachment.

Normally we think, if I could only go to -

I don't know, Disneyland!

If I could only go -
Now we are in the pandemic,

some of us would just, "If I could only
go out to a restaurant,

and enjoy my favorite Indian food",
or, "If I could only

go to see my family", or whatever it is.

We are not happy where we are,
and we want to go somewhere else.

And if we think, "If we are there,
we will be happy",

That is an attachment to a sense of place,
a sense of place in space.

"Here I suffer. If I go over there,
I will be happy."

There is a sense of suffering
that comes about from

our body. Our body occupies a space.

And we look at our body
and we think, "I am too fat,

I am too short, I am too skinny".

And we suffer because of

the form of our body
that it takes in space.

Then, when we look
with the eyes of non-self,

we see that everything in the body
is just a manifestation of conditions,

It is also conditioned, and it is also
something we don't need to suffer about,

because we know that it is impermanent,
and that it will not always be like this.

Now the body is there,
and then it will disappear,

but if we are not attached,
we don't need to suffer about it.

We talk about
what is an unconditioned dharma.

What I do in my own practice is to notice

that anything that I can perceive,

that gives rise to a perception,
is already conditioned.

If it has some quality,

some color, some sound,
some smell, even some concept,

then it is already conditioned.

This is a very subtle part
of meditation practice,

because there are parts in us,
there are feelings in us,

and sometimes we might
label that feeling and say,

"That is nirvana,
that is the unconditioned."

And then you actually are
mistakenly labeling

something that is conditioned
as something that is unconditioned.

A certain feeling.

So there are many times
when the Buddha could not,

he could not put a word
to describe nirvana.

He could not put a color.

Every word he felt was insufficient.

Even nirvana is insufficient
to describe the unconditioned.

Even the unconditioned is insufficient.

Because to understand the unconditioned,

we only have the conditioned as an example
with which to understand the unconditioned

so every example
will ultimately be inadequate,

because it is not something
that can be expressed in words,

it is not something that can be located
in space, or can be located in time.

Is that clear?

Any example will ultimately fail,
because the unconditioned -

because any example
will finally be conditioned.

But an example that Thay
likes to use just to illustrate it,

and again it is just a model.

Like when I drew this fabric of the
space-time continuum, it is just a model.

Actually, science proceeds
using images and models

of an atom, of the solar system,
that we can comprehend,

but that's only a concept.

It is only a model
to help us to grasp a deeper reality

which we ultimately we cannot model,

Because it is there
in the fabric of reality,

it is not something that you can
just make a model of.

But Thay uses the example
of the wave and the water.

We will keep coming back to that.

We can think of a wave
that is going over the ocean,

like here in the beach.

And each wave is going up,
and going down.

So it is like the phenomena
that we experience.

That brother is sitting there.

He is a manifestation.

He is like a wave
on the surface of reality.

And so is that brother.

And so are the flowers on the altar,
so is the light in this room,

everything that we can perceive
is a manifestation,

like the waves on the water.

We suffer because we, as a wave,

as we perceive other waves,
other things, other phenomena,

and we also look in ourselves,
and we see we are composite,

we are made up of all kinds of different
phenomena manifesting at the same time.

that all of these are changing.
are always subject to birth and death.

So it seems like
there is no safe place anywhere.

Because if the body is not safe, if I get
attached to my body looking like this,

or my hands looking like this,
or feelings being like this,

or perceptions being like they are,

then I will suffer
when they are no longer like that.

Just like the wave when it goes down,

maybe when it is up it looks down
in the trough in between the waves,

and it fears what it will be like
if it goes down like that.

And it wants to stay up at the top
of the crest of the wave forever.

So when we are happy,
when our life is going very well,

then we are like that,
we are up high, everything is great.

And then, some suffering comes.

It is in our nature, in the wave,
to then go down also.

And then we look back.

If we don't know this insight
of impermanence,

that our nature is to go up, and down,
to be born and to die,

then we suffer.

So the way that Thay proposes

for the wave to practice
to be free from that suffering

is to see that its nature is water.

Whether it is up, whether it is down,
it is still water,

it is the ground
of its very manifestation.

Maybe we already start to go
into the second tenet.

It is not here yet in the second.

But we can talk about,

we can talk about in that sense that

that the unconditioned
is the ground of the conditioned.

Is that clear?

I mean, I know the brother knows already.

You are giving me a hard time.

No, I am joking.

This has really helped me to understand.

Because I find that metaphor of
the wave in the water very, very helpful.

It is not for the purpose of
just having a philosophy.

It is an image. Actually,
Thay did not come up with that image.

It is a very old one
in the Buddhist tradition

of understanding the unconditioned.

Because these are all just images
that we are trying to use

to bring us in the direction
of understanding,

of touching, or realizing
the unconditioned.

When finally, it is not something
that you can grasp on to.

Ultimately, it defies any kind of
word or designation.

Any kind of model.

So, you can get rid of the wave in the
water idea, because, again, any metaphor -

You can say, "But you just told me that
water is a conditioned dharma,

and now you are saying
that water is unconditioned!"

But then you miss the point,
because it is a metaphor,

and if we take the metaphor
is to help us to see the dharma,

it is not for the purpose of
describing absolute reality.

This is very fundamental to
any way of studying these 40 tenets

or understanding Thay's teaching,

that the purpose of the teaching
is not to describe reality.

A lot of what we do in what you might call

the scientific materialist
approach to understanding

is to try to create
a description of reality.

Words are describing as closely as
possible the actual situation of reality,

but from the point of view
of practice, we know that

that can never be realized,

because words themselves are just
metaphors, they are just models.

We cannot possibly use words
to describe reality,

it cannot happen.

A lot of the suffering
comes about in scientific discoveries

when we use words to describe something,

but actually we find out
that they are inadequate.

So it actually contributes to ignorance.

As scientists and also as practitioners
we have to be able to

be free, not to get caught in those traps
that are created by the words.

Just when we're sitting in the morning,
following our breath,

not having our mind dwell anywhere,

that is already a deep realization.

And you don't need to practice for
many lifetimes to touch that,

you can quiet your mind, and you can
touch this at any moment.

That is Thay's invitation to us,
that nirvana is in the here and now.

Don't put it somewhere else,
in space or time.

In the Buddhist tradition we have been
caught in that trap for many centuries,

saying that, "Oh! In the time of
the Buddha, there were many Awakened Ones,

there were many arhats, perfected ones,

but now we are in the time of
the semblance Dharma or whatever,

the ending age of the Dharma,
we can no longer touch nirvana.

That was something that happened
long ago in the past, in time,

and if we want to touch nirvana actually
we have to practice for many lifetimes,

and die, and be reborn, and die,

and perfect our practice,

and finally sometime long into
the future, we will touch nirvana."

Thay is saying, that is a very wrong
understanding of the Buddhist teaching.

That is like, "I am just going to
enjoy my life as a monk,

I just have a nice nice room,
nice bed, nice food,

and I will just quietly practice
to touch nirvana

maybe in 20 lifetimes or 100 lifetimes."

And then, the monks and nuns,
we become very lazy.

Well, I think the monks become lazy,
the nuns practice very diligently.

But the monks become very -

That kind of thinking

can make us very relaxed, very lazy.

It is not that practice
should be very hard,

But rather we should we should have
the bodhicitta, the mind of awakening,

to see that it is possible not to suffer,

it is possible to be free from suffering.

We do not have to continue to follow
our conditioned thinking.

We have to see that consciousness is also

contributing to space and time,

that there is no understanding of time
that is possible without consciousness.

And that is something that

I think only now

some scientists
are beginning to understand.

When we go deeply into neuroscience

and the science of the mind,
we see that, actually,

just like in quantum physics

we want to locate the subatomic particle

at the same time
that we know its velocity.

But actually by knowing its location,

by observing its location,

by being the one whose consciousness

is perceiving that subatomic particle,

already we can no longer know
what its velocity is.

And that works.

That is part of the reason
we have computers,

we have all kinds of technology

which is dependent on
this understanding of quantum mechanics.

And it doesn't seem to jive with at all
with a classical understanding of science,

like the Newtonian understanding,

where physical objects occupy a space,
and they have a velocity,

and those things can both be known.

The insight is that, actually,
the observer is -

The aspect of observation
changes the observed.

And in the same way, space and time,

at a quantum level,
are dependent on consciousness.

The consciousness of the observer
is affecting what is observed.

That is an insight already for many
centuries in the Buddhist tradition,

that, ultimately, the subject
depends on the object.

They are conditioned.

You cannot have a subject by itself alone
without the object.

They co-arise with one another.

And when the subject just disappears,
it no longer manifests,

then the object also no longer is there.

We can only talk about time and space

with a sense of awareness of space
and awareness of time.

So in that way, they are conditioned.

Thay says, it manifests together with
time, matter, and consciousness.

Matter is not separate from the space.

The old understanding Thay is updating
in the Buddhist tradition

is that matter is conditioned,
but space is unconditioned.

And Thay says, no,
space is also conditioned,

it manifests together with matter,
time and consciousness.

We cannot separate them out.
They inter-are .

That is the teaching of the Avatamsaka
Sutra, of the one is in the all

and the all is in the one.

So, by looking and understanding
the nature of quantum mechanics,

the nature of subatomic particles,
then we understand

how it is that the sun continues
to generate heat and light.

Before that, we didn't know, we thought,
"Well it is just burning some fuel."

Back in the 19th century,

one scientist predicted that the sun has
only been around for, I can't remember,

something like

million years or something, or even less,
like tens of thousands of years.

And that it will probably run out of fuel
in, I don't know,

ten hundreds of thousands
of years in the future.

That was because they didn't understand
at a sub-atomic level.

It took actually looking into the very
tiniest particles, like electrons,

and shooting them through slits,

and understanding how they function,

before we could understand how is it that
the sun is generating all this energy.

And that is a very concrete
manifestation of the insight of

the one is in the all
and all is in the one.

By looking into the smallest things,
we actually see

the largest things like a star,
or the nature of the Big Bang.

Now we can look and study
the redshift in the light

that is traveling through the universe,

And know that the universe is moving
outwards, and by that we can determine

that at some point it was
everything in one singularity.

And we don't know
what happened before then.

Now many more scientists are saying
that actually that is not -

We cannot call that a beginning.

They are getting closer
to the insight of Buddhism,

which is that all this is happening
since beginningless time.

And even the Big Bang, the singularity,
we cannot call that a beginning,

but we cannot see,
we are not able to see past that,

so we say, "Well
that must be the beginning."

But that is only the lack of our
understanding, the lack of our perception.

That is the limit, because we are limited
in our capacity to perceive.

So I hope this helps.

I think there could be more in this,

but this is how I practice
with this tenet.

And how I understand what Thay
is transmitting through it.

It is 8:40. I don't know
if there are any other questions

about anything.

Or if I covered the questions
that were asked sufficiently.

Kenley told me a few years ago,

"When you give talks, you need to
leave time for questions at the end".

So I said, "Okay, I will train myself".

Or we can reflect on it, and next week,
if there is something that is not clear,

or something that -
Maybe you get a new insight as well

from some some part of this, then please,

bring it to the next class
and we can look into it.

So maybe I will stop there
just with the first tenet.

And please, if you can bring
this sheet to the class next week,

so I don't have to
keep printing off copies.

And if there are any other sisters
who are interested, please let them know.

Was it announced in Clarity? No.

Kind of. Okay.

And do the sisters have a copy of -

Yes, you have. Okay.
So, it is good to read over it.

I am sorry that
we don't have the English one yet.

I am trying to be -

Because I know that
we are working on the book,

sister Lang Nghiem is working on the book.

I will see if we can have something also
for the English speakers to look into.

Thank you so much for coming.

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