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Yesterday about emptiness, is this the basis of Zen Is this the basis of Zen would say that the Zen understanding of emptiness probably could be traced back to certainly the Prajma Paramita Sutras which talk quite a lot about emptiness.

So think it goes back to the Prajma Paramita Sutras.

dont know how much of Zen is actually looking at Nagarjuna and what he has to say.

Surely at least some of the early teachers were aware of him, would think.

But have to admit dont have that deep understanding of how the Zen doctrines evolve.

So maybe they do look more to this than know.

But know theyre really big on the Heart Sutra.

Whats the difference of the Gouenka body scan to this one Is it the same or Whats the difference between Gouenkas body scan and this one think Gouenka teaches this one and he teaches another, a number of other ways of doing it.

From what understand he does it in slices.

He does it quite rapidly down and up.

think he has four or five variations on this, as well as teaching this style as well.

think perhaps one that takes in more area with each scan as opposed to just part by part.

But Ive never sat a course with him.

This is just from what hear from students that have sat with him.

But as said Aya Kema studied with Robert Hover, who studied with Uba Kin and Gouenka studied with Uba Kin.

just noticed this morning that my concentration wasnt nearly as good as thought it was going to be for some reason.

It just reminded me that when go home Im going to be battling occasionally.

But experiencing bad concentration on certain days is that inevitable Are there ways for one to work with oneself on a day where its just not happening Yeah.

It certainly happens to me and to everyone that know.

You just have a day where your mind is all over the place.

Sometimes its pretty obvious why you have something happen in your life and its just on your mind and taking you away.

Its just like, whats wrong Things to do.

Thats probably the most important part.

suggest you get some sort of timer and then sit where you cannot see a clock.

Trust that you set your timer and just stay sitting.

Its not necessarily going to mean that after minutes it settles or after half an hour it settles or anything like that.

But just the intention to keep working with it is actually beneficial.

Second thing to remember is sometimes when your mind is all over the place its basically that youre taking out the garbage.

If you dont take out the garbage then it builds up.

Then you have a lot more to take out and youre distracted even longer.

Well, we have all this stuff in our heads that we need to think about.

but we just got to think about it.

If youre distracted it may be that youre thinking about things that you just really do need to think about.

It may not all be bad that all these distractions come up.

If you find certain practices more concentrating on others, mean youre sitting down and youre going to do the breathing but its just not working, then you might try switching to a body scan or switching to metta, something like that, possibly.

But you dont want to do a lot of switching.

If youre sitting down every day and switching off until you find the right thing and never sticking with it its not doing much good.

Then probably the most important thing, appreciate the use when its going well.

But yeah, Ive spent there have been times sit down to meditate and the bell goes off and its like,

oh yeah, was supposed to follow my breath.

Are there any other tools or things that one can use Well there are lots more.

Im not sure want to try and teach other methods.

Yeah, mean if you study with Samedo theres the sound of silence that he talks about.

Theres Tong Lin practice from the Tibetan tradition, which is a compassion practice.

Pretty much any practice that youve learned can probably be used somewhat skillfully.

But if youre really distracted, what we call an open awareness practice is probably not the best because youre just sort of spaced out and better something that has a bit more focus to it.

And just lastly because real concentration downstairs, while was practicing, would begin with my first breathing and then go to Mehta and get Sun Pitigra and back and forth.

Its certainly the case that if you go to a place where people have been practicing it leaves something in the atmosphere.

When went to India on pilgrimage, we flew from San Francisco to Bangkok at a night there.

Then we had a train ride overnight to Gaia.

Got off at in the morning and had to wait around until they opened up some place where we get breakfast at.

Then we got in taxis and we went to where it was two taxis and we went where we were to meet up and the other taxi wasnt there.

And you know it was like all this confusion and finally somebody from the other taxi comes and says,

oh we found a better place to stay.

So we moved to a different place.

And then finally we can go to the Mahabodhi Temple.

This temple built at the site where the Buddha got enlightened.

We walk in as all these people and we just sort of get off in a corner and sit down and Ive got all eight jhanas right there.

mean its been crazy hours, not the best for setting up meditation and boom just drop into the concentration and all eight jhanas are like, whoa.

So yeah, some place like that thats had just a lot of practice done and it leaves some sort of residue.

And we pick it up at least subconsciously.

Yeah, this may not have quite the amount of practice of the Mahabodhi Temple in Gaia but theres been a lot of practice done in this room for years or so.

its going to have energy in here.

And then you come in and there are people sitting quietly and so forth and that encourages you as well.

This karma is just one of the eight causes that make things happen.

Perhaps in the East where lay Buddhism is mostly about making merit getting good karma for your next incarnation.

Spiritual practice is left for the monks and people are like trying to build up their good karma.

This isnt what the Buddha was talking about.

Do your actions have consequences In the Buddhist time where they all afforded equal, similar importance all of the eight causes.

think karma again had a higher standing.

Remember we know this because a wanderer from some other tradition comes to the Buddha and wants to know or says to the Buddha, say everything is caused by karma and the Buddha says not so.

So yeah suspect at the time of the Buddha there well know at the time of the Buddha there were lots of views and opinions but suspect karma had a very high place amongst those who believed in it.

We need to recognize that our actions have consequences and act accordingly.

Mohan had been born into a family of street magicians.

They made their living by doing card tricks, coin tricks and so forth.

But Mohan he knew it was all fake, sleight of hand and he wanted to learn the real magic.

Whos the worlds greatest magician He figured if he was going to learn the real magic he was going to learn from the best.

And the word seemed to be that it was a magician who lived in Rajasthan.

But eventually Mohan had enough money to make the journey.

Now we could spend quite a lot of time outlining all the adventures he had on his trip.

And eventually he arrived in Rajasthan at the village of the worlds greatest magician.

He went to the market and he inquired about the worlds greatest magician and they told him,

oh yes, he lives in the big house on the far end of town.

And so Mohan walked through the village and he comes to the far end of town and sure enough theres this big two-story house, horse corral barn.

Oh, he gets a little worried.

Whats the worlds greatest magician going to think of him Just some poor street magician from Calcutta.

He gets this courage up and he knocks at the door.

And the door is open and theres a servant there that says, yes, may help you Ive come to see the worlds greatest magician.

In about a minute this somewhat old Indian man, short even by Indian standards comes.

And hes got this amazing twinkle in his eye.

And he says, yes, may help you Ive come to see the worlds greatest magician.

Oh, you have ho ho ho ho ho.

He takes him upstairs to this sitting room.

And the magician begins to ask Mohan, you know where youre from Are your parents still alive How many brothers and sisters do you have If youve been to Asia, you know the questions.

This goes on for several minutes.

And eventually the magician says to Mohan, so why did you come all this way to meet the worlds greatest magician want to learn the real magic.