Lost Coin Class Notes December 16 notes

February 21 will be the San Francisco retreat. The website is up so all events will be listed. Blog site is up also, thanks to Sterling. Tawni will be in charge of communications. www.lostcoindev.com

Clarifying what Lost Coin is all about. There are a number of parables in Christian, Buddhist and Muslim texts about the Lost Coin. It is equated with the true self. We've had it all along and we didn't know it was there.

Daniel wants to make Zen modern yet preserve it's elegance and depth of it's roots so that this information can be used to function in everyday life. The way we live life normally--we have a heads/tails existence, either good or bad, we spend our whole life going through it. We're forgetting what our existence is when we do this because we are no free. When this, then that. The story of our life. What do we do about what's heads and what's tails? Heads/tails; but what about the 3rd element? The Coin. We need to go deeply into our practice to discover this. An example is gravity: this idea was originally crazy because you couldn't see it, same with space, can't taste, touch see time either. Completely un-graspable. Buddhism is also un-graspable. Mind/Lost Coin/true self are just words for what we can't describe. It's like another dimension. Once the coin is deeply grasped it will change the whole way you feel about your life/self. Space and time can be acquired through research. Mind is researched, but not intellectually. That is our practice. Once it's clear that life is not just heads/tails, then you are free. You're the coin. In daily life you don't have to react automatically--develop consciousness over daily life. Our tool is consciousness, not analysis.

How do we become free? How do we stop chasing everything in the world until we are dead?? It's not going to get any better than this so stop chasing. Liberation is being one with what is. We can't become one with 8th century China--become one with your life as it is today. Practice for the development of self. Our time here, now, is the perfect place to find our lost coin because it is our only place.

Take a moment to imagine that you had no fear and no anxiety. How would life be? Free, fun, easy. Wouldn't this be enough to make life a terrific thing? The essential thing about fear is that it's coming and going. You don't come and go, you're just hidden. Simply consider that the nature of life is that we're going to get sick and die, everything changes; that's the way it is. Stop fighting it and then there's nothing to be afraid of. Anger and irritation are just thinking that it's someone else's fault. It's all about blame. We are the cause of our own emotions. Don't blame yourself either. Just don't blame. Imagine if you weren't afraid or blaming. It takes a tremendous amount of mental energy to be greedy and angry and maintain this mental facade. Most things that seed a solution don't come from thinking. Favor action, equilibrium, quietness. Scheming will not solve an problems. Why do we keep doing things in ways that don't work? Watch, notice what we do. Instead be free and enjoy your life. It doesn't get any better than this. It doesn't need to get any better than this. None of us is what we think we are. These are big emotional issues that we are discussing. Our group's model is really good for the world.

**Do an anger fast.**

Anger is unconscious and primitive; it is not skillful or awake. Choose anger or compassion. Be conscious of negativity. Anger is just a state of mind. If you can regard these things as just a passing state of mind then you are becoming a good practitioner. Maintain equanimity through practice. It causes suffering to want things to be different. Feeling sorry for ourselves is an underlying part to anger also. Look at all of this as a passing mental state.

As we sit and practice through the years, the more we see with our mind, the more ungraspable it becomes. It really is a shame to spend all of this time practicing to become more conscious and to find out who you are just to wind up being angry, greedy and stupid.? If you make your practice your life, you have nothing to worry about. It's just practice. Don't think it through. Learn to be a complete idiot. The tradition of monasticism has been varied through the centuries. In a monastery the point is saying my practice is my life. I don't want to know anything else. When we're practicing we're not going anywhere. Practice and your freedom are the same thing. Tie your practice to your freedom even though it's hard to make this your center and to not be fooled by all of the things people say.

Remember to take care of each other. Don't let it become a huge ego trip. It's ok that we have an ego, just make it a nice one.

