Lost Coin notes 12/11/07

*Administrative/Miscellaneous:*

Daniel's German students have proposed May 1st or 4th for his trip to Dusseldorf.  Anyone who would like to come, please check your calendars to see if one date works better for you than another.  Daniel can pick any date he wishes.

Joan has kindly offered her home studio for group sitting each Thursday (starting next week) from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.  See Rebecca's email for details.

Este (I'm not sure if I'm spelling that right--Eric?--is reopening in February.  It's the only place where you can get real, New York-style pizza.

Because Christmas falls on a Tuesday, we will meet that week on Wednesday, December 26th.

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When you're looking in a different space--one with no thoughts and no concepts--we think of it as "stopping thought."  This is like holding your breath.  But there's another, complete space available to your mind, one with nothing at all to do with conceptual thought.  Both places--both ideas--are true.

Daniel is reminded of a conversation between Carlos and Don Juan, in which Don Juan discusses the tonal and the nagual.  When you think about that open space with no thoughts, you've left it--you learn more from staying *in*that space.

The tonal is the person and life of the everyday.  The nagual is the unknown.

One day Don Juan and Carlos were sitting at a restaurant, and Carlos kept rearranging the stuff on the table, asking if each object was the nagual. Don Juan finally laughed and responded that the nagual is not on the table at all, it's not something you can know--you can only experience it.

Practice starts where concepts stop; that's the nagual.  The nagual is akin to the Absolute in Buddhism -- it's right in front of us, if we're open to it (versus our *thoughts* *about* what we're seeing).

Daniel asked us to talk about how our practice is affecting our lives.  Some of these were:

*fear and anxiety have dropped dramatically.  Daniel pointed out that "fear" and "anxiety" really aren't two different things--they're both just fear.

*courage to be open to new things

*being more authentic, more alive, more certain

*paying more attention to life

*accomplishing more goals -- record revenue and client base

*more honesty with herself when she senses or feels fear, and doesn't try to
fight it -- just acknowledges that she feels scared

*more open to love, more peaceful

*realizing that if you don't like what's happening, you can change it; greater sense of responsibility for her life

*Next week:*  Notice where you put your attention.  Attention is your lifeblood, the blood of your mind.  It can be external or internal.  Don't watch what you do, watch what you pay attention to.

*The week after that:*  Notice what you're getting back most often from other people.

Daniel talked about the ceremony last week where one of Genno Pages' students was made a Sensei.  He mentioned that he will likely teach more people in the future, and if we want his attention, take it while we can!

Daniel read from *The Gateless Gate*:  "The practice makes Mind its foundation, and No Gate is its Gate."  This is very profound.  But it's not to say that we know what "mind" means--it can be understood as God, or the Way, or the Absolute, etc.--it's whatever is inside you. He explained that in Chinese, the character *shin* (mind) encompasses the Western concepts of both mind *and* heart.  So the Heart Sutra doesn't just mean "heart" as it's understood in the West; it's also the Mind Sutra.

Regarding the "and No Gate is its Gate" passage, Daniel explained that the character for "gate" looks like a stick with a flag that goes to the outside; the characters for "no gate" look like two gates that are facing each other and open--that is the Gateless Gate.  Through the No Gate, what you see is *reality*.

If you get your self out of the way, you're already through the gate--and when you get through the gate, you're just here.  The only thing blocking us is our selves.

When you see that space, be completely open -- let the world as it is enter with no separation.

Daniel asked us to just be quiet and be where we are this week, and asked if we had any comments about that.  One person said that it made her very happy; she can't even think about the future, and bringing up the past is pointless, because it's already gone.

Daniel told a story about a scholar who had heard a teacher in the north say that all scholarly works are worthless, and everything can be learned by direct experience.  The student was offended and angry, and walked halfway across China to see Ryutan, the teacher.  ("Ryutan" means "dragon lake;" the dragon is a symbol of enlightenment.)

The student stopped at a tea shop near the temple, which was run by an old woman.  The student did not know that the old woman was a very advanced student of Ryutan.  He asked her for a snack.  (In Chinese, the characters are "light food," which is a play on words because onecharacter is the same as that in "enlightenment.")

The old lady asked, what was the stack of papers the student was carrying on his back?  He responded that he was a famous scholar, and she asked if he was an expert on the Diamond Sutra.  He replied that he was, and was so famous that he was known as "Diamond Shou."  The old lady said she would give him a snack if he could answer this question:  "Past mind is ungraspable.  Future mind is ungraspable.  Present mind is ungraspable too. With which mind will you take this snack?"

The student was so flummoxed he walked out, and had a tremendous kensho. The next morning he burned all his papers and danced around the fire.

You can't grasp the past or the future; when you let go, it's the Gateless Gate.

You have to learn to think like a farmer; take things very simply and openly.

We sat for a few minutes, and Daniel asked us to notice what we were paying attention to.  Most people were focusing on physical sensations or thinking about things they had to do.  Daniel pointed out that our attention is often on things that are far more mundane than we would think, and also asked if we'd ever thought about how often others' minds must be on such mundane things when we're talking with them.

What if we really had a handle on what we think?  Most of what we think is quite useless.

We spend so much time in the conceptual mind. What if we really realized that most of it is useless?  There's not much percentage in what goes mechanically through our minds.

The less we cogitate, the happier we are.

We will have another retreat, sometime around April.  Daniel would like everyone to come.  We bond more with people when we're with them but don't talk to them (or talk just a little).  Talking is not the best way to get close to other people.  Daniel wants us all to be close to each other, accept our differences, and love each other in spite of those differences--that's the Gateless Gate.
