The Field of Suchness

0:00:00 Thank you. We have tried to practice looking deeply into the nature of the flower and of the garbage. And we know that flower and garbage they are of organic nature.

0:01:08 And flower can be transformed into garbage, and garbage can be transformed back into flower. and we can see the nature of inter-being between flower and garbage. The nature of inter-being is there, deep in the flower and also deep in the garbage. It would be good if we learn to look at all pairs of opposites in such a way. Wherever there is a pair of opposites, we should learn how to look at them in the same way. Suppose we talk about going from New York to Boston.

0:02:08 New York is at one end and Boston at the other end. New York is not Boston, Boston is the New York. But if you look deeply, we can see that Boston contains New York, and New York contains Boston. It is like the right and the left that we talked about yesterday. If there is no right, there would be no left. "Right" is the foundation to establish the left. And it is an illusion to remove the left in order to retain only the right.

0:03:03 On our way from New York to Boston, Every inch contains New York and Boston. Every inch. On the way from New York to Boston, we never left, we never left New York. Even if it arrived in Boston, New York is still there. Because if you turn around, you see that Boston begins to be like already in New York.

0:04:06 When we talk about enlightenment or delusion, it's the same. One end, we think that it's delusion. The other end, we think it is enlightenment. And we think that enlightenment and delusion exclude each other. But delusion is like New York, and enlightenment is like Boston. Perfect enlightenment, perfect enlightenment is made only of non-perfect enlightenment. That is a sentence I wrote for the forward to a book written by Zen Master Shang Yang who lives and teaches in New York City.

0:05:10 And I also offer the example of New York and Boston. I said that every inch of the road contains both New York and Boston. If you turn to this direction, it is New York. If you turn to this direction, it is Boston. That is why every inch of the road contains both New York and Boston. Enlightenment and delusion are like that. It is there in every minute of our daily life. More than that, enlightenment is made of a substance called delusion.

0:06:00 Peace and happiness are made of elements that are not peace and happiness. So the afflictions, the pain, the suffering in us play a very important part in bringing up our peace, our joy, our happiness. So running from one in order to seek for another is an attitude that is not correct. When the Buddha spoke about the Four Noble Truths in his First Dhammata, he mentioned Dukkha, ill-being, suffering as the first Noble Truth.

0:07:00 We have to recognize that ill-being is there. We have to embrace our ill-being. we have to recognize it, to look deeply into it. Because when we do that, we begin to see the nature of our ill being. And when we are able to see the nature of our ill being, and then we can see the way out of ill-being. But if we run away from ill-being, we have no chance in order to look deeply and to discover the path that leads us out of ill-being.

0:07:54 That is why the first truth, the first noble truth is called a holy truth. People may ask the question as: "What is so holy about suffering?" "What is so holy about ill-being?" It is holy because thanks to it that it can find out the way to enlightenment and emancipation. So suffering has a role to play. suffering, ill-being, has a role to play. And if you know that happiness, well-being must be found right in the heart of suffering, you will not try to run away anymore.

0:08:54 A meditation teacher in Vietnam who lived in the 13th century, he always urged his students to work diligently in order to find the world of no birth and no death. And one of his students asked a teacher: where we can find the reality of no birth and no death. And he said, smiling, it is right there in the world of birth and death. We have learned that Alaya, Alaya Vishnana, the store of consciousness, maintains all kinds of seats within herself.

0:09:49 Positive seeds and negative seeds. There is the seed of delusion in Alayya. There is also a seed of enlightenment within Alayya. In Mahayana Buddhism, it is mentioned that the matrix, the womb of the Tathagata, the Buddha, is there in Alaya Vishnallam. So the Buddha is there in our Alaya in the form of a seed.

0:10:40 and it is possible for us to touch the seed called Tathagata Gava, the matrix of Buddha within ourselves. The 50 verses, the Vietnamese version is very easy to memorize. because each verse has 20 words, exactly 20 words. Each line has 5 words. And there are rhymes, that is why it's so easy to memorize. I hope that you have the time to do the same with the English version.

0:11:40 And as you begin to read the first few verses, you have found that it's not difficult or simple: "Mind is a field in which every kind of seed is sown." This mind field can also be called all the seeds. In Vietnamese, it is like this, mind is a fuel in which every kind of seat is maintained, sown and maintained.

0:12:36 This mind-fuel can also be called all the seeds, or the totality of the seeds. All the seeds, "sahvabhijakka". It is interesting to notice that the word "mind-fuel" here It is used, our mind, our consciousness is like a fuel, the soil, the garden. And because the soil, the garden, always maintain the seeds and all the seeds are still there intact. We need only the rain in order for the seeds to have a chance to sprout and to grow.

0:13:35 How our mind consciousness is like a gardener, and Alaya consciousness, store consciousness, is like the garden. Our mind, as a gardener, tries to entrust into the Earth some of the seeds. And we have faith in the Earth. That is why we have entrusted to the Earth some of the seeds we consider to be important.

0:14:30 The gardener knows that it is the soil that will bring about flowers and fruits, and the gardener cannot fabricate the flowers, the fruits. The gardener has to trust the garden to do so. So Alaya Vishnana has the power to maintain, to nourish and to bring forth what we expect to have. In the practice of meditation, we trust our Alaya Vishnana, we trust our soul consciousness. We plant the seed in the soil of our consciousness and we continue to trust and we continue to water the seed.

0:15:28 And one day, the seed will sprout, a plant will come out and the flowers and the fruit will be brought to us. As we have seen, one function of alaya is to stall. It is possible that we use the word "holding". Alaya is holding everything together. The holder is like the earth.

0:16:13 The earth is holding everything together. The earth has the capacity of transporting and holding everything to heaven. When we speak of consciousness, we tend to think in terms of discerning, perceiving, discriminating, imagining, thinking. But holding, preserving, maintaining is also functions of consciousness. So holding, holding together, holding everything together, that is the function of Alayyad. The second verse: There are infinite varieties of seeds, seeds of samsara, nirpana, delusion and enlightenment, seeds of suffering and happiness, seeds of perceptions, names and words.

0:17:28 Samsara is the vicious circle creating suffering, creating delusion. And we are caught in the will of samsara. We cannot get out of samsara because we don't know how to handle the seed of delusion, the seed of suffering. And because we don't know how to handle and to transform them, we are going to transmit them to our children and grandchildren, and they continue to suffer like us. But if we know how to look deeply into the nature of Samson, How to get the insight will be able to transform samsara into nirvana.

0:18:28 It is like transforming the garbage back into flower. The seed of delusion is there in us. The seed of enlightenment is there in us. We don't need to get it from another person including the Buddha, our teacher. We already have all kinds of seeds. We only need to go back to ourselves and recognize the seed and touch it and water it every day. Seeds of suffering and happiness, Seeds of perceptions, names and words.

0:19:26 This is the word describing the object of our perception. Also, the mark, the appearance, when we look at this marker, we perceive its appearance, the color, the form, and so on, this is the mark, the object of our perceptions. And the word of perception is like this, with a lower part meaning mind or spirit, mind.

0:20:30 this is the mark, the appearance and this is the perception of the mark. So in Alaya, we have a multitude of ideas, of notions. And these are the objects of our perceptions. Suppose yesterday I saw a squarrel, I perceived the squarrel, and the image of the squarrel is a seed that has been planted in my consciousness.

0:21:48 If last year I visited the city of Moscow, So the city of Moscow was the object of my perception and it has been absorbed and planted in my Alaya, Vishnambha, store consciousness as a seed. And as I have six senses organs: eyes, nose, tongue, ears, body, and mind. There are six kinds of objects of perceptions.

0:22:38 And they are all there in my store consciousness as the marks of my perceptions. My alaya, my small consciousness maintain all these kind of offsets. And whenever I need, I can bring them out in order to review, to re-examine them again. Seats of perceptions of names and words in my store consciousness, there are also names and words.

0:23:33 They are there in the form of seeds. and Alayah, store consciousness, maintain all of them. And in order for everything to be preserved, nothing is lost. Seeds that manifest as body and mind, as realms of beings, as stages and worlds, are all in our consciousness.

0:24:17 That is why it is called "Store Consciousness". The word Vishnakti is a very important word. It means representation, information, manifestation.

0:25:19 Before it is manifested, we may think that it is not there. Only after it has manifested itself that we begin to perceive it. Suppose when we look at our hand, we do not see that our hand has the capacity to write or to draw. But the moment when I hold a brush and begin to write, to do calligraphy, you see the capacity of doing calligraphy manifested and you perceive it as existing just because it has had a chance to manifest.

0:26:17 But if... before I do that, before my hand begins to perform calligraphy, you cannot see it and you might think that it is not existing. When conditions are sufficient, things manifest themselves and we term them as existing. When conditions are not sufficient, things do not manifest themselves and we believe that they are not existing. That is a sentence in the Sutra "To be given to the dying person." Vishnapti means "manifestation." And as it has manifested, we believe that they exist.

0:27:26 it manifests itself as body. It manifested itself as mind. And you begin to believe that our body is, our mind is. But in fact, it is only manifestation. Vijnati means manifestation and in Sanskrit, every time you have the prefix V, it is about discerning, discerning, perceiving, discriminating.

0:28:26 It is about consciousness. So, reality manifests itself as body, as mind, and as the environment. Reality manifests itself as a subject and object of consciousness. "The reality manifests itself as the known, the knower and the known, but the perceiver and the perceived." That is why in the word Vishnakti, there is the prefix "vi".

0:29:41 No of you, no of you. This is pronounced in Vietnamese as "bio" and "biot". "Bio" means to manifest. "To manifest" and "biot" means to discern, to conceive, to discern.

0:30:40 To discriminate between object and subject. And this is to manifest. And these tools are to translate the word visnati, will build. "Seats that manifest as body and mind, as realms of beings, as stages and worlds." Realms of beings, there are 18.

0:31:36 Here I have my eyes, my ears, my nose, my tongue, my body, and my mind. Here are the objects of my eyes: form, sound, Smell, taste, touch, idea. And here is eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, Body Consciousness and Mind Consciousness.

0:32:38 There are six sense organs, there are six objects of the sense organs. There are six kinds of consciousness that manifest when the organ and the object come together and these are called the 18 realms of beings. And everything can be found, can be touched in these 18 realms of beings. And the 18 realms of beings are manifestations from store consciousness.

0:33:32 Seeds. Seeds that manifest as stages. These are 10 stages that a Bodhisattva would go through in order to get full enlightenment. the world of form, the world of design, the world of form and the world of non-form.

0:34:44 This is in Vietnamese Thập Địa, this is in Vietnamese Tam Giới, the Three Worlds, the realm of desire, where there is a lot of suffering. And if we are able to practice looking deeply into the nature of the desire, we get emancipated and we begin to build more firmly in the realm of forms.

0:35:44 the realms of the gods. And if you practice looking more deeply, we can reduce our attachment to forms and we dwell more in the realm of no forms. And these three realms are there in the here and the now. And you can touch all of them in this present moment. So the 18 realms of beings, the 10 stages of a Bodhisattva, and the three worlds, design, form and non-forms, they are all manifestations of store consciousness.

0:36:41 Some seeds are innate, some were handed down from our ancestors, some were sown while we were still in the womb, others were sown when we were children. There are seeds that are already there when we were born. They have been transmitted by our ancestors, our parents. There are seeds that are always there, like the seed of enlightenment, the seed of delusion, the seed of samsara, the seed of nirvana, and so on.

0:37:39 When we were still in the womb of our mother, seeds continue to be planted into us. When someone is pregnant, she is aware that a new being is there within her. And she knows that everything she eats, everything she drinks, everything she does, everything she listens, she sees can have an effect on the little being that is there within her.

0:38:39 That is why she is very careful. She knows that she must be very careful. Because everything she sees, everything she experiences will become a seed within the infant, the baby, to be born. That is why a future mother has to practice. She has to practice mindfulness so that she can refrain from planting the negative seeds in her baby. She tries only to plant the root seeds into her baby.

0:39:33 Walking, standing, she is mindful. And her husband has to do all his best in order to support his wife. We know that we don't begin to teach our child after his birth. He already has to begin taking care of our child and teach our child the moment when we know that our child has been conceived. So both the future father and the future mother have to practice mindfulness.

0:40:21 Mindfulness of walking, of sitting and so on. And if the future of father and mother make each other suffer, the child within suffer also. They say that there are babies who are too soft. They call it in French "les bébés mou", "les enfants mou". Left alone in the room, they can play, they can be very active. But as soon as they hear the door open and someone step in, they become very sad, they become very inactive.

0:41:09 Because they are afraid, afraid of adults. Because when they were in the womb, adults have made them suffer so much. That is why they are not comfortable in the presence of adults, including father and mother. And that is why we have to be very careful when we know that a baby has been conceived. And even after the baby was born, is born, we have to be very careful.

0:41:53 The baby is not able to understand our conversation yet. But if the atmosphere in the house is heavy, the baby will feel it, the baby continues to suffer. And we know there are young boys and girls who could not bear the heavy atmosphere in the family when the father and the mother make each other suffer. Sometimes they have to take refuge in the toilet or in the bathroom in order not to witness the conflict between mother and father.

0:42:47 In the old times, the house is built in a large garden. And every time things like that happen, the little boy or the little girl would be able to run away into the garden and to take refuge. But now, as we live in a small apartment, there is no way for the children to escape. So many of them just lock themselves in their room or in a bathroom for not to see and to hear the things that that would, that create wounds within the heart. They don't have an aunt, an uncle to go to.

0:43:34 And that is why they continue to suffer when they grow up. And the father and mother may be too busy to pay attention to the fact that we are creating seeds of unhappiness in our child. The fifth verse: "Whether from our family or friends, from our society, our education, All seeds are, by nature, both individual and collective. Here we have another pair of opposites, individual and collective, and we should be able to transcend that idea of collective and individual.

0:44:43 In the manifestation, in the manifested world, we discern that the things that are collective and the things that are individual. The sun, the sun in the sky, is thought to be something collective and we equally share the sun. and the backyard of my house is thought to be individual. I am the only person who enjoys the backyard of my house.

0:45:33 So one is individual and one is collective. But if you look more deeply, you see that what we call collective is not entirely collective. The same sound. Yes. But we live in different countries. We live in different states. We got different kind of weather. So there is the individual in the collective and there is the collective in the individual. The constitution, the law... ...describe it as something collective.

0:46:25 Everybody can enjoy the same constitution, the same set of law. But there are people who know how to profit and there are those who don't know how to profit and to protect themselves. So, the collective and the individual, they inter-are. Let us talk about the birth, a birth where 50 people sit. The birth is something collective.

0:47:18 And to 50 people, and I have my own body, which is individual. And as I continue to look at other people, I can see their body, their eyes, their face, their clothes, everything. So even if that person wears a pair of glasses that belong to him, but if I can already see that pair of glasses, So the pair of glass, although belonging to him, but also I can see, I can perceive it.

0:48:12 And that person is not me, but because of the fact that I can see him, I can see her, I share, I also share, I can also share his presence. So what that person thinks to be an individual thing, it has the collective nature in it. And there are things that I don't see, like the nervous system of the driver.

0:49:04 The physiological constitution of the driver, his optic nerves, I cannot see it. The driver's optic nerve seems to be something strictly individual. But since he is my driver, the quality of his optic nerve can determine my safety or not. So the optic nerve of the driver has something to do with me. Therefore it is not strictly individual. it is also collective in some extent.

0:49:49 So when we look deeply at anything around me or inside me, we can discover whether one thing is more collective or more individual. Nothing is absolutely collective and nothing is completely individual. Suppose there is a candle and the candle when lit begins to offer zone of light. Here the light is brighter, here it is less bright and here is more, is lesser. And suppose here we have another candle.

0:50:43 and we lit when we light the candle, it will offer its light like this. Of course, this is brighter than here, and brighter than here, and brighter than here. So the light emitted from this candle, it lights this candle, it shines on this candle, It allows people to see the candle well. But it also shines on the other candle and helps the other candle to be seen more clearly. The other candle has already its own light.

0:51:30 But now, when we analyze this zone, for instance, We can see the light here is a collective light coming from this candle and coming from this candle. And if it compares this zone with this zone, there is already a difference. So the degree of collectivity, individuality is different in each inch of space. The fact is that the collective contains the individual, the individual contains the collective, and if we continue to look, there is no absolute collectivity, there is no absolute individuality.

0:52:29 Our idea of collectivity and individuality are just ideas. Let us consider our brain, the brain inside of the school. Is it individual or collective? The way you think, the way you judge, the way you evaluate, the way you like, the way you hate. Look deeply into the nature of your liking, of your hating, of your ideas, of your appreciation, of your anger.

0:53:21 And you see that everything has the collective nature in it. And everything has also the individual nature in it. Look at the stock market, the rise and fall of the stock market. What is the elements that determine the rise and fall of these things? The collective and the individual. The collective is made of the individual and the individual is made of the collective. The Buddha said this is because that is so simple and yet so deep.

0:54:16 You might like to ask this question. Is my Alaya different from yours? There is an Alaya for everyone, collective Alaya Vishnana for everyone, or there is a separate Alaya for each person. It is very natural that you ask that question. We have said that there are pairs of opposites.

0:55:07 And when you see a pair of opposites manifesting, try always to look in the nature of inter-being. This, the other, is another pair of opposites, self and non-self, you and I, father and son. So we have had the opportunity to look into the nature of intervening of father and son. If the son can go back to himself, touch himself deeply, looking deeply into himself, he will find that he is the continuation of his father.

0:56:02 And even if he has suffered so much because of his father. He has hated his father. He has made a declaration that he doesn't want to have anything to do with his father. He will find out that he is the continuation of his father. He cannot take his father out of himself. How could he? He is the continuation of his father.

0:56:45 He is his father. So the wish not to have anything to do with the father is just an illusion. Because you are the continuation of your father. You are your father. There is one thing in you to be handled. That kind of anger, that kind of hatred that is born from your ignorance, from your delusion. Father and son are a pair of opposites. And if we look deeply into the nature of both father and son, we discover the nature of inter-being.

0:57:35 Self and non-self is another pair of opposites. We used to say that the self is made of non-self elements, and that statement may be very helpful. so that we could have a chance to look deeply, touching deeply the self. We will find that the self is made of nothing except non-self elements. Another idea inside and outside. You might like to ask: Where is our store consciousness?

0:58:27 Is it inside the body or outside the body? We have seen that each cell in our body possesses all the characteristics, all the elements, all the experiences, all the joy, all the suffering of many generations of ancestors with one self. Only of our body, we can make a replica of our self. And it is possible to say that halaya vijjana, our small consciousness, can be touched within each cell of our body, all the genes.

0:59:29 The genes in us, we can describe them as seeds, as bijas. Properties, they are the properties That handbag can be recognized, can be touched. The talents, the happiness, the suffering of all our ancestors can be recognized within each cell of our body. So it is possible for us to say that store consciousness can be found in each cell of our body. But we know also that the inside is made of the outside.

1:00:32 When we touch our body, we recognize the element of water, the element of heat, the element of air, and the element of earth in us. And we know that these four elements are outside of our body. If we continue to touch deeply, we realize that the sun is my second heart. My first heart seems to be inside of my body.

1:01:16 And I know if my first heart stops to function, I will die right away. But the sun is my second heart, it's shining on the sky. If the sun stops, I also die right away. So the sun, my heart, is the title of the book of mine. I have a heart outside of my body. Maybe my body is larger than this. My body is the whole cosmos. The other night I said a piece of bread we eat is the body of the cosmos. And each of us is also the body of the cosmos. We are not limited to our body.

1:02:07 And when we die, we don't die. Because we know that our body is not us. We are more than this body. So Alaya is... Where is Alaya? We can say that Alaya is in each cell of our body. And we can say also that Alaya is outside of our body. The idea of outside and inside is also a pair of opposites to be transcended. We are sitting here in a lotus position or half lotus position. We are confident that this direction is the direction of the above.

1:03:04 And this is the direction of the below. But other people who practice Sifting Meditation on the other side of the planet, They could not agree, they could not say that this is their "be" above, this is their "below". So the ideas of "below" and "abow" cannot be applied to the cosmos, because "below" and "abow" is also another pair of opposites. It would be very helpful if we train ourselves to look in that way. The above contains the below, the inside can be touched in the outside, the outside can be touched in the inside.

1:03:58 We are caught in ideas. And that is why it's difficult for us to touch the ultimate reality. As it continues, these things begin to appear more clearly. The sixth verse, the quality of our life depends on the quality of the seeds that lie deep in our consciousness.

1:04:59 It means that if we have the opportunity to help the positive seeds to grow, to develop, and then we have more joy, more happiness, we become more loving, more understanding. The seventh verse: "The function of the store consciousness is to receive, to maintain and make manifest in the world these seeds and the habit energies." Alaya, store consciousness, is like the ocean.

1:05:51 There are many rivers that flow into the ocean, and the ocean receives all the waters. So, there's store consciousness. It receives and maintains all the seeds. And then it has the power to help manifest in the world these seeds and their habit energies. If you want to make jasmine tea, you have to pick jasmine flowers.

1:06:55 And you keep the jasmine flowers together with the tea. you close, you rub and you close very carefully and you leave the jasmine flowers and the tea for many, many days, many nights. And after that, the tea will smell jasmine Because during these days, the tea continues to absorb the perfume of the jasmine blossoms into it.

1:07:40 The tea has a very strong capacity to absorb the other kind of perfumes and others. So Alaya is like that. Stored consciousness has the power to receive and to absorb. Suppose we learn a new sound. We hear the first line of the sound, and we are not able to sing it back yet. But if the other person repeats it twice or thrice, and then the word used here is "perfumation". The perfumation will take place.

1:08:29 It's like when you paint something, you paint the door, and the first stroke is not enough. You paint the second time and the third time. So perfumation is done like that. You learn, you learn, and you plant a seed by that way also. That is education. You read the child and then you repeat it and you repeat it again. And then the seed will be planted suddenly in the consciousness of the child. It's called perfumation. And there are positive habit energies.

1:09:23 a good indication is capable to train people to think in a positive way, to act in a positive way, to make understanding and loving-kindness two grounds for the person and the people around to benefit. But the store consciousness can also absorb the negative things very quickly. And it is regrettable to notice that in a society where our children are exposed, The negative things can be learned more quickly than the positive things.

1:10:23 If we send our children to a city, to another country, for them to learn, they will be exposed to good things and bad things. And the bad things they can learn very quickly. The good things, it takes time. That's time for a young person to appreciate Shakespeare. But to enjoy, to go to the bar and drink liquor, these kinds of things can be learned very quickly. There are negative habit energies that we have to recognize, that we have to embrace, we have to transform, and that there are positive habit energies that we have to learn to train ourselves in order to help.

1:11:27 Many of us have learned the good habit of sitting every day, to calm ourselves, to cultivate more stability, and solidity, and freedom. Many of us have got the habit of going back to our breathing and enjoy smiling every time we hear the bell. So these good habits are to be learned and to be developed. Because their bad habits always push us to do and to say things that can be very destructive. It can bring a lot of suffering and misery to ourselves and to other people. Now let us come to the 8th verse: "The manifestation of Alaya can be perceived as the field of things in themselves, as that of representations and of mere images, or included in the eating realms of being.

1:12:33 As far as perception is concerned, it is rare that we can reach the fuel of things in themselves. The few of things in themselves are sometimes called "sachness". A reality as it is.

1:13:27 Lettre en tant quetre. This flower, she is established in the realm of reality in itself. we ask the question whether we can reach its true nature, the realm of things in themselves.

1:14:17 This is a a question of the epistemological nature. Usually, we are sure that we can perceive the flower as it is, but in fact, we don't. Like when we fall in love, When you fall in love, we have, in our perception, we love the object of our perception.

1:15:05 We may not know that the object of our perception is not the reality in itself. Usually when we fall in love, we fall in love with the image we have of the other person. We cannot sleep, we cannot eat, we cannot do anything at all. Because that image that we love is so strong, permanent in us. and we have the impression that it is exactly the object of our love.

1:15:54 We don't know that we have created an image of the person we love, and we love that image. Later on, after we have got married, And we continue to live with him or with her for one or two years. We discover many things we have not discovered. And reality begins to show itself quite differently from the image we perceive in the beginning. And when anger and hatred have come to replace love, we continue to behave in such a way.

1:17:02 We continue to have an image of the other person that does not correspond to the realm of things in themselves. We might be driving the car, and she is sitting close to us. We might think of many things more exciting. We might even sing a little song, but we ignore completely the person who sits next to us because we have the impression that we know everything about her. There's nothing interesting anymore. We are caught in this kind of feeling, this kind of perceptions.

1:17:55 For the scientists, they are very careful. They know that they do not know enough. Even for a piece of dust, an electron, the scientist would be careful because the scientist is aware that you cannot know everything about a piece of dust. You continue to learn. Looking deeply into an electron, you find a lot of wonders.

1:18:41 And you bow your head, in awe, because you see the wonders of life that can be touched in a piece of dust. but here is a human being sitting next to you and you think that you know everything about him you are not able to touch the wonders of life because she is there also as the body of the cosmos What you reach, what is available to you, is the field of representations.

1:19:34 Tánh cảnh, the field of things in themselves. "Dới chất cảnh" "The field of representation" "Dọc ảnh cảnh" the field of mere image.

1:20:33 When I try to touch this flower, I may want very much to reach the field of suchness, the field of things in themselves. But because I am caught by the habit of seeing, of thinking, determined by the idea of self and non-self, inside and outside, This or that, beginning and end.

1:21:18 I can only touch the fields of representation. They are not the field of things in themselves. So even if I am awake, if I actually touch the object of my perception with my fingers, with my eyes, the things that appear to my perception is not suchness, it is only the fuel of representations. And when I close my eyes, I can still see the image of when I dream, when I sleep and I dream, This image can be reproduced in my dream and that is the field of new images.

1:22:27 When you walk on the street and if you see an elephant, that elephant belongs to the realm of representations. And when you go home and you go to sleep and you dream of that elephant, the image of the elephant is the image in the field of mere image. So all these kinds of objects of cognition, they are there in store consciousness as manifestation. Because all consciousness manifests itself in two realms: realm of suchness, things in themselves, realm of representations, and realms of mere images.

1:23:29 When I look at the bright light, This is the realm of representation. And if I close my eyes, I still see the bright that is an extension of the realms of representation. Even if I close my eyes, that impression which is so strong continues to be in me. That is an extension of the realms of representations. And hours later, when that has ended, I can visualize the lamp and now the image belongs to the realm of mere images.

1:24:27 And the object of my perception includes these three realms and they may be touched in the 18 realms of beings described above. According to the teaching, we are capable of reaching the field of things in themselves, the world of suchness. But because we have the use to think and to conceive in terms of in terms of discrimination, that is why we are not able to perceive things as they truly are.

1:25:29 The nature of our mind is obstructed. And that nature of our mind is called Paravikampa. It means the nature of construction. We build for ourselves a world full of illusions because of the way we use to perceive reality. That is why the practice is to correct that tendency to discriminate, to think in terms of duality in order for us to have a chance to look again, look in such a way that reality would have a chance to reveal itself.

1:26:46 If you have questions, please write them down. in your notebook. I know that in the beginning there must be a lot of questions. But as we continue on the third, fourth way, many questions will be answered by ourselves. I think the best kind of answer is the kind of answers given by ourselves and not by someone else. And maybe in the last few days, there are still other questions. A little bit complicated.

1:27:40 But you see that it's not as complicated as it might seem. I would like to follow, to continue with what I initiated, the night we first came together. When things are not to your liking, you used to react, because you are irritated, because So you suffer and you want to react by adopting a kind of behavior, or adapting a kind of speech that can cause more damage.

1:28:33 It will not help. We usually think that we need to be understood, we need to be loved. Understanding and love is what we all need. Everyone is claiming understanding and love because understanding and love bring us happiness, fulfillment. But the practice is not to claim understanding and love, but to practice understanding and love. The practice is not to complain that no one understands us and no one loves us.

1:29:24 The practice is actually trying to understand other people and trying to love other people. Yesterday, I said that a practitioner has the right to suffer but does not have the right not to practice. The world, the other person, is like a mirror. When you look into the mirror, and if you smile, the mirror will smile back right away. The other person is a mirror. If you look at the other person, and if you show yourself to be pleasant, and then the mirror will smile back to you right away.

1:30:23 When you have the sorrow within yourself, you have disappointment. It may be because the relationship with the other person has deteriorated. That person does not seem to be as loving as before. That person does not seem to be as close to you as before. That person seems to be aloof, cold. That person seems to have withdrawn from you. That person seems to have betrayed you.

1:31:08 And you suffer, and you adapt the attitude that if she withdraws from me, why do I have to make steps forward? I have to withdraw from him too, in order to show I don't really need you. If you don't need me, then I will need you. so you create more difficulty for you and for that person. There is a seed of loyalty in every one of us. And there is a seed of betrayal in every one of us.

1:31:54 And these seeds, they inter-are. And if you notice that the other person seems to betray us, we have to ask the question as "Why?" What has allowed the situation to manifest itself? When you feel that you are betrayed by the other person, You feel that the responsibility is totally on the other side. He's side, he betrayed you and you suffer.

1:32:42 And you don't know what to do. You feel that you are a victim of betrayal. And all you can do is to wait until the other person changes and comes back to you. That is not practice, that is a very passive attitude. If you look deeply into the situation, you may find out that you have allowed the seed of betrayal in him to be watered before. You have authorized that seed to be watered in the other person.

1:33:30 You do not live mindfully. Even you have helped water the seed of betrayal in him. You have lived in such a way that seems to be unpleasant to him. You have encouraged him to go into another direction. So you can begin to see your path of responsibility. And if you continue to adopt the attitude of withdrawal or punishment, and then the situation will be worse and worse.

1:34:19 It may be that the other person has made an attempt to come back to you. But because you have suffered so much, you don't want to accept that, you try to push him away. Because in you there is a tendency to punish. We know that the seed of loyalty is always there in us and is always there in the other person. If we know how to water that seed every day, the seed of loyalty will become strong and the other seed cannot do anything at all.

1:35:06 And if we do the opposite, not watering the seed of loyalty in the other person and allow the seed of betrayal to be watered in there, and then we will lose that person very soon. We have to see our part of responsibility and not to blame the other person. We have done something, we have behaved in such a way that has made the other person running away from us. and we continue to blame that the other person withdraw from us, betrays us, and so on. And if we continue to blame and to behave like that, the situation will get worse and worse.

1:35:55 To recognize our part of responsibility, and to recognize the fact that the other person has tried, has tried to make effort to come back to you is very important. Because if the other person, after some time trying and not seeing any effect, may be discouraged, may decide to withdraw totally. Because he also has his own limit. she also has her own limit. Therefore, it is very important that in order to restore a good relationship, we have to look into ourselves to see the nature of our sorrow, the nature of our suffering, and to see our part of responsibility in it.

1:36:57 Why the other person has behaved like that? We have to ask the question: "What part of responsibility I have in all of this?" And you will see, we will see what to do and what not to do in order to be able to restore the relationship.