There has to be a sky in order to have clouds. There has to be a foundation, and here it starts with Shikantaza. It’s not the importance of what arises in the sense fields, it is the space in which it occurs. See what arises in that fundamental space without doing anything with it.

https://youtu.be/-ok8yGbVKCU

If you think everything around you is real, you’ll continue to torture yourself with the illusion that you’re deluded by. You don’t have to get rid of the illusion; just see that it’s not real. It won’t be a conclusion. If you see through the illusion, you’ll just see yourself.

https://youtu.be/6noqk256RZI

Even though the landslides are inescapable we fight against them anyway. One of the the landslides is the one in your mind that started before you were born. The source is unfindable. Your job as someone who is a meditator on a spiritual path is to observe that movement in your mind stream and see that there is no solid singularity anywhere.

https://youtu.be/RXvZWRfsa3E

https://youtu.be/rTjvhkv5NRQ

The poem from the Shobogenzo chapter ‘Flowers in the Sky’ was written by Zhang Zhuo upon his enlightenment. It begins, “Radiant light serenely illuminates the sands of the Ganges.” Talking about the mind of awakening is very difficult. The poem ends: “Nirvana and birth-and-death are both flowers in the sky.”

https://youtu.be/34xQxJYoR1k

The five dharmas are a good way to introduce looking at this. Things appear, we are compelled to name them, then we interpret, analyze, and stir things up. These three dharmas are in everyone’s lives. The spiritual path of buddha knowledge and suchness is understanding and seeing the illusion.

https://youtu.be/5Y71iRIwjeQ

https://youtu.be/FxYJ6aov1kc

This has been called the five dharmas in the Lankavatara Sutra. The five dharmas are just one thing. It’s going to look like a path until it doesn’t. Even without the 4th dharma of buddha knowledge, you can awaken to muchness.

https://youtu.be/IYHFKj6x6tI

Think deeply comes from Dogen’s Shobogenzo in the fascicle, “Flowers in the Sky.” Receive thoughts without manipulating and interpreting them. If you think deeply there’s no thinker. Allow the self to fall away from the greediness of an imaginary self.

https://youtu.be/9EsX40wIQBU

Your emotions are always there. When something happens to trigger our emotions we may think something or someone caused it. This is untrue. Cause and effect are much more complicated than that. Don’t torture others by blaming them.

https://youtu.be/QByjiVDODb0