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[Music] you in this episode I'm excited to be talking about and explaining to you the ten ox herding pictures of Zen which is a metaphor or a model with ten stages for the stages of awakening or enlightenment these ten ox herding pictures which we'll be talking about in great detail I'll be showing you the pictures and what they all mean this is a model that emerged a long time ago almost a thousand years ago it emerged in China before there was even Japanese Zen when it was known as Chinese Chun in the twelfth century so really really ancient and there are various versions of this model out there as you might imagine they've evolved and changed but I will be heavily relying on not just my own insights and ideas but a rare book called the lectures on the ten ox herding pictures and here is the book and this book is actually an out-of-print book it's very rare difficult to find I paid around $100 for this book and if you try to buy it now on Amazon or elsewhere you might see it for sale for several hundred dollars and it's a very small book as you can see here very thin it's only about a hundred and ten pages long but it's filled with timeless wisdom especially for those of us who are interested in non-duality and pursuing awakening so this wasn't actually written by Yamada mamon it was a speech that he gave this was a lecture that he gave to his Zen monk students so this is some of the most advanced wisdom because this wasn't just taught to regular people this was too serious monks who were in the Zen monastery with him doing these serious practices so these are of course his words but also they were translated by Victor según hoary so credit goes after him as well Yamada mamon is no longer alive he died in 1988 so it's precisely because this book is out of print and it's rather expensive and difficult to access that I wanted to do this in-depth video about the ten ox herding pictures where I will be quoting extensively some of the wisdom from this book in fact what I did is I just I took all the stuff that I underlined in this book as I read it and I'll be reading that to you here and this is just one of the books one of the gems you can find on my book list of over 200 different books so if you want more dad go check that out so what are these ten ox herding pictures this is a map in a certain sense it's sort of like spiral dynamics like spiral dynamics is a map of different stages that you evolve through and grow through well this is a map for the different spiritual stages or different stages of awakening that you go through and Zen is not the only tradition that has this kind of map so does Christianity you'll find maps for awakening there you'll find various maps in different forms of Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism and so forth the Sufis have their own Maps the Jews have their own maps of course basically every single religious tradition has their Maps because they all understand that you go through different stages of awakening it's not just one and you're done there's more to it than that and so that's where this model can be valuable is that it it helps you to see just how much more there is to it then you originally thought it keeps you humble it shows you that even after you've obtained your awakening there's still many stages beyond that that you probably weren't aware of and it also helps to point out the various traps along the way now this particular model has ten different stages but of course there's nothing special about this number ten various Christian models have five stages Tibetan models might have six sages or three stages Sufi models might have somewhere around there as well so I mean you can slice and dice the process in different ways you have to understand so there's nothing at all special about the number ten now I want to give you a warning here before we get into it this is a very advanced teaching don't let the simplicity of it deceive you it's a simple model but there's so much here and most people are not going to be ready for this wisdom because the highest wisdom requires that you be prepared and that you be at a certain ripe stage in your life where you are ready to get on the path which most people are not which is why with actualized org I have many other lesser teachings you see I cover a broad swath of different types of teachings from very advanced ones to very simple and newbie ones because not everyone is ready for the most advanced teachings so let's begin the first picture is searching for the Ox and the verse goes like this beating around the endless wild grass you seek and search the rivers broaden the mountains stretch on and the trails go even deeper your strength exhausted and spirit wearied no place allows you refuge the only sound evening cicadas shrilling in the maples every one of these images is gonna have a verse that goes along with it and then I will give my commentary and then I will also quote from the Zen master himself Yamada Malone so this is stage number one this is where most people are at this is before you really understand anything about the path this is you just stumbling around in life try to figure out what the hell is going on suffering and scratching your head and maybe you accidentally stumble into actualize that organ you see some of these videos and maybe you hear some people talking about enlightenment or awakening or non-duality and maybe you've heard about Eckhart Tolle or you've heard about meditation maybe you've smoked some weed and you've got a little hit of something but basically you're lost and you're clueless so what does the Zen master say about this stage he says quote there are people who lack the fire to bring light into their own future they lapse into wishful thinking hoping someone else will provide that light for them have nothing to do with this kind of thinking you must resolve to create that light yourself you must affirm the vow never to give up until you have become a Buddha and brought peace to this world all of your practice is in vain if you do not make the affirmation of the vow we are not saved by our Satori we are saved by our affirmation of the vow that we must attain Satori attain enlightenment end quote so this is very important a lot of newbies get it into their head that somehow the desire for awakening is wrong in and of itself because of course they hear the platitude that all all desire is wrong all seeking is bad and that you must end seeking and so of course in their foolishness they say well well that means I shouldn't even seek enlightenment that means I shouldn't even begin the path and this is the classic mistake that I like to refer to as burning your ship before you've used it to cross the river or the ocean or it's like destroying your car before you've reached your destination this is a very foolish move so you got to watch out the path begins with a serious desire for awakening now later and we'll get there in a few more pictures later you will need to let go of that desire but right now you need that desire and you need it in spades you need a lot of it you're really missing it so don't worry about seeking for enlightenment and how that's gonna trap you in some sort of spiritual ego that is the least of your problems right now because you are completely lost you are suffering you are clueless as to how to live life and what life is about you were operating completely under the conditioning of your culture and your society which has misled you and has and has addicted you in a various ways and has deluded you in various ways and now you're gonna have to fight through all of that he goes on to say quote when you first affirm the vow to attain enlightenment at that very moment there is already a splendid enlightenment end quote now of course that's not really true so don't misunderstand what he's saying here just by affirming that you want to become enlightened that's a very important step that's where the whole path begins but of course that in itself is not enlightenment enlightenment is something altogether enlightenment is the Ox you might wonder what is this ox why this metaphor of the Ox and what does it really stand for the Ox is enlightenment it's your true nature it's the absolute truth it's what you're seeking it's the answer to everything you've ever one wanted in life it's the answer to all of your suffering it's the answer to the purpose of life it's the answer to what is death it's the answer to what is reality it's the answer to what is God it is consciousness it is your true nature it is the awareness of God or absolute infinity or void or nothingness or emptiness or moksha or Nirvana or the big self or the no self so we have all these different words from all these different traditions eins oaf and that's from the Jewish tradition and then we have Allah from the from the Islamic addition we have Brahman from the Hindu tradition so you have all these different words they're all pointing to the Ox that's what you're trying to find now the Zen master goes on to say a quote with discriminative thinking you fall into the relative world you jump into making comparisons but discrimination only brings more discrimination which only brings more discrimination until finally you don't know what is what and quote and that's where you find yourself right now is in this discriminatory dualistic mode of looking at the world and it looks something like this quote I'm happy or I'm sad I win I lose that was good this was bad these are the flames of discrimination which blaze up around us like a conflagration plunging us into an all-consuming discrimination which traps us no matter which way we turn you think to yourself where do I find this thing called kensho and by kensho he also means Satori these words are synonymous and that's synonymous with awakening just so you understand the Zen vocabulary here and so he says in your impatience you may even start to think who even needs this kensho anyway I'll take my deluded self just as it is everyone experiences a time when he says I can't do it I failed at this time especially you must not think to give up and return to your lay life to the ordinary life of delusion so the this notion that I sometimes hear quite often when people hear about awakening or enlightenment sly Kali oh but but yeah all this all this seeking and searching all the spiritual questing I mean what's what's the big deal I don't want to get uh you know all hot and bothered about that um my life's not that bad what's the problem leo well you haven't suffer yet see you haven't suffered yet when you really suffer you're gonna then maybe come back and rethink that line of thought people trick themselves out of even beginning the journey you see that's the greatest trick the devil plays is to get you to believe that there's not even a reason to begin this journey because the devil will say something to you like well ah emptiness nothingness well who cares about this leo if i attain emptiness that sounds pretty bleak sounds pretty nihilistic why would anyone want to attain emptiness how's that gonna improve my life why would I want to end the ego leo I like being an ego I just want to like eat good food and chase girls and earn money what's wrong with that I think that'll work just fine that's your ignorance see that's the devil in you speaking that's the ego speaking you gotta be smarter than that not to fall for those tricks and lastly he says quote remember the saying a person of great talent is slow to mature a person of great characters develops slowly enduring great suffering along the way so this here is preparing you for the long trek ahead to catch this ox and sometimes people criticize me instead they'd say Oh leo why do you tell people that it takes thousands of hours why do you tell people that is it involves suffering and it's so difficult when Leo it's so easy it's here right now you're already enlightened look it's so simple it's so simple there's nothing hard about this it's to prepare you it's to prepare you this is a difficult journey now if you get lucky and it happens to come to you easily great but don't go in expecting that this is like a journey to clown to climb Mount Everest so you have to appreciate the significance of this journey that you're undertaking only then will you succeed because otherwise as a fool you just sort of rush in thinking that you can just run up the mountain and then you realize wait a minute I'm running out of breath and it's getting cold and I'm running out of food and I need water and I'm getting tired and my legs are hurting and there's the snowstorm coming and then what happens then you you run back and then you never try it again that's the foolish way to go about it the smart way to go about is to understand that this is something serious this is something valuable this is something that's worth your your careful attention and the investment of your time and your effort and it's worth a little bit of suffering and challenge and it's worth a couple thousand hours of work and the Zen master also says quote you will achieve nothing if you work on your Co on only when you happen to think of it and by cohn of course that's one particular technique of attaining awakening but he also here means meditation he means yoga he means self inquiry or any other spiritual process that you're using to attain your awakening so he says your efforts will result in nothing more than froth carried away in the stream but if you push on straight ahead single-mindedly without brake then there will be a time when suddenly your eye opens see so you got to be very consistent and persistent with this work now picture number two seeing the footprints the verse by the water and under the trees tracks thick and fast in the sweet grasses thick with growth did you see it or did you not but even in the depths of the deepest mountains how can it hide from others its snout turned towards the sky so this is a stage where many of you are at this is the stage where you've heard about meditation you've heard about awakening you've read a few books about it you watched some videos of Rupert spirit or Mooji or Eckhart Tolle or of myself talking about this stuff you've heard anecdotes you're a little bit excited about it you're interested in it you're studying your reading you're watching videos you're even doing some practices maybe you done 15 minutes of self-inquiry here and there maybe you've meditated 20 minutes here and there maybe you've done even a little psychedelic and you've got a little a little glimmer of something or maybe while you're meditating or doing your yoga you've got a little glimmer of something and you're like wait a minute what was that or maybe you were watching one of my episodes like the one about what is actuality or the one about what is perception and when I'm demonstrating something to you and I'm trying to point you towards the ox you get a little glimmer of it but then your ego kind of something clicks in your ego and your ego kind of freaks out your heart starts to pound and then you realize something weird is going on but then you only get a little like taste of it like a second or five seconds of it this is you seeing the footprints this is you starting to smell that wait a minute this locks this ox that I've heard about it's there actually is such a thing as an ox now I haven't seen it yet I only see the footprints and this is a very important stage because a lot of people again trick themselves out of even getting to this stage because this is where the skepticism and the rationalism comes in and these smart-aleck skeptics they start to say things to me like Oh leo why don't you prove prove awakening to me prove that this ox is real why should I believe you science doesn't know anything about this ox if it was true then all the scientists would be talking about it this kind of delusionary thinking here's what the Zen master has to say about this stage quote despite the fact that there are so many traces of the Ox everywhere still you haven't seen it this is because you are stuck in the weeds of self-delusion the thickets of self-delusion are choked with overgrowth it does not matter how much you seek how much you search always you are buried under a mountain of self-delusion choked with weeds of mistaken thinking with weeds of intellectualization end quote so that's their trap you're gonna fall into here is that there's gonna be this tendency to hear about non-duality and Awakening and enlightenment and rather than actually doing the practices rather than sitting down doing self inquiry you're just gonna read books and you're gonna watch a bunch of videos then you're gonna gather a bunch of theory and you're gonna build a philosophy of non-duality thinking that oh I'm already awake and look I've got it I figured it out I understand what's being talked about here and really what you're doing here is you're just deluding yourself you're building an imaginary ox you're not actually going out there to find the real wild ox in the wilderness you're just concocting some fantasy ox in your mind and thinking that that's what enlightenment is and that's very dangerous so watch out he also goes on to say quote sometimes you hear it said that Zen monks do not have to read books or to study where did this misleading idea start it's ridiculous to think that this could possibly be true we say Zen is a separate transmission outside of the scriptures but it is only because there is a teaching that there is something transmitted separate from it if we do not first study the sutras and ponder the records of the Ancients we will end up going off in the wrong direction altogether the ancient teachers engaged in all branches of scholarship and studied all there was to study and quote that's very important so again some of these new inviting folks say they like to criticize me say Oh leo but but what are you talking about reading books and studying non-duality all this is nonsense all you got to do is you just got to sit down and you just got a self inquire or even worse you're already enlightened well the Zen master disagrees and you have to understand that when I give advice I don't just give advice from my own experiences and opinions i ground my advice in hundreds of sources high-quality sources not just high-quality sources but some of the most high-quality sources ever ever in human history and one of these sources is the Zen master that I'm quoting to you right now see these people have decades of experience they're not dilettante their masters and these masters understand nuances of these paths that ordinary people and even most regular teachers don't understand so it's wise to listen to them he also says quote in the Lotus Sutra it has written that daily duties and attending to work is nothing other than true reality when we do business or farm or do temple work or engage in politics and economics all of this is Buddha Dharma if without studying the sutras you merely sit in zazen and get swell-headed because you've passed some Cohen's or even heaven forbid you have had Satori and received permission to teach you will become as n devil unquote and here I will refer you to my in-depth video about the topic of Zen delery calling called becoming a Zen devil go check that out it's a it's a very common phenomena people get a little bit of a of a taste of the Ox and then they think they've figured it all out and now they think they're ready to teach and they think that now they are immune to delusion and of course that's precisely when they become the most deluded they become a Sun Devil and this is why we read and we study and we listen to masters because they have decades of experience they understand all of the newbie traps they understand that the path is deeper than it first seems just because you've had one little glimpse of something doesn't mean that you've really attained it yet and there's still a lot of potential for abuse delusion creating cults of various kinds and misinterpreting whatever satoori you think you've had all of these are possibilities and I guarantee you that you will be deluded about non-duality if you do not read and do not study now of course here the Zen master was talking about reading reading the the scriptures and the sutras but now in modern times we expand that notion out so you're not going to be really reading that many sutras per se if you're following actualize that org but like you're gonna be reading lots of books on my book list for example about non-duality one of which of course is this book and there are many others that you will need to read besides this one in order to learn about all the pitfalls and traps of this awakening process and lastly he says about this picture if you've seen the tracks then do not throw down your staff in frustration and call it quits follow up the tracks until you have finally caught it so long as you not give up the affirmation of your vow so long as you do not break with this do not break your staff in frustration for certain you will be able to catch the Ox and code so sometimes people say olio but this awakening you make it sound like it's such a rare thing such a difficult thing what are my odds of awakening if I put in all these thousands of hours how do I know that I'll actually awaken and the answer is is that if you're serious and if you make this vow the way that he's telling you you should then it's not gonna be a matter of probability or chance you will awaken it's just a matter of how serious you are and when I say that the majority of people will never awaken 99% of people will never awaken well firstly that's because most of them never even begin this path at all they don't even know that such a thing is possible secondly it's because they deny and they resist they they actively are skeptical about this and so they never actually do any practices so that already eliminates 95% of people but then also the reason I say that is because they don't have that desire and that commitment that thirst for truth they don't have that they also don't study the various traps along the way so it's because of this that it's very easy to predict that most people will fail and that therefore the failure rate is like 99% but that doesn't matter to you because you're gonna be the serious one you're the what you're gonna be the one who has laser focus desire for the truth and you're gonna read all the material you need to read and study everything to learn about all the traps and then you will have a hundred percent chance of awakening as long as you're persistent in your committed now picture number three seeing the ox the verse in the trees Nightingale sing and sing again Sun warms the soft wind green willows lined the banks here there's nowhere left for it to hide its majestic head and horns no artist could draw so this is a very critical stage in the awakening process because here you see the ox for the first time in the flesh up until this point you've heard all sorts of stories you've heard all sorts of metaphors and allegories and you've seen all the pictures and and all these people talking wonderful things about it but here now you get a look at it and this is what I would call your first mystical experience it's almost like a really good comparison is that it's almost like having your first orgasm you discover this amazing new world the world of sexuality opens up to you for the first time and all the sudden use you realize oh oh so that's what all that sexual stuff was about that I didn't understand as a kid like why were people interested in kissing and hugging and and why were men chasing women and why were women chasing men and all of this romance stuff that I saw oh now it all makes sense see so this is what happens when you have your first mystical experience then all the sudden it's like oh [ __ ] oh my god this is amazing this is like a whole new a whole new gateway opened up a whole new world now I understand all of the all the spiritual mumbo-jumbo and all the hippies and all the people talking about oneness and this and God and divinity and and all the religions oh oh oh it wasn't just talk see it's actually something the Ox is a real thing it's not just footprints it's not just wishful thinking and also what happens is that when you catch glimpse of this ox you realize man we're gonna need a bigger boat I'm gonna need a bigger rope to catch this thing this thing is way larger than I ever imagined this thing is a [ __ ] monster it's a beast this changes everything this is nothing like what I imagined the Ox was like it's almost as though you were chasing this ox and you thought this ox was like a chihuahua sized creature and then you discover that this ox is actually a [ __ ] dragon a Tyrannosaurus Rex and you're gonna have to catch this thing and so that can be a little bit daunting usually what happens that when you catch sight of the Ox for the first time it's so astonishing and so powerful and it just hits you so out of the blue like a lightning bolt that it catches you completely unawares and you're not able to hold on to it for more than a few seconds it freaks you out it scares you it terrifies you it's awesome it's so awesome it's terrifying and then what happens that you recoil and you quickly get back into your old ego self and then you look around like where the Ox go because you only caught a little glimpse of it it's so magnificent you can't you can't stand to look it in the eyes it's so magnificent you're gonna have to develop yourself just to be able to look this thing in the eyes let's see what this end master has to say about this quote still you have not really caught the Ox you have just caught a glimpse from behind you still have seven more stages to go to catch the Ox and train it is no easy task but first you must catch you must catch sight of it and quote so this is a very important stage because once you do catch sight of it and it as you and also terrifies you at the same time now you can get really serious about this work because now you know it's real and now you're clamoring to get another look at it it's almost like seeing a rare bird lost in the rain forest and then you you catch sight of this bird just kind of flitting through the leaves and it's such a beautiful magnificent bird it's like I want to see it again but it took you years just to catch a glimpse of it the first time deep in the jungle well now you got to spend a few more years to catch another glimpse and that can be quite frustrating he goes on to say quote one could not capture in a picture the beauty of his horns their fine shape to attempt to draw them would be to make two things where there was one and quote and this is the whole problem of communicating the in communicable communicating non-duality how can you communicate the Ox when the very communication itself is a part of the Ox all language is dualistic all maps are never the territory and here were interested in getting to the territory itself the territory is the ox and the map is this this model that we're talking about these ten pictures and all of the teachings and all the scriptures and everything I've ever said in actualize that org that's the map and the territory is the Ox itself he goes on to say quote kensho or awakening achieve sitting on a zazen cushion is weak in action through contact with the outside world you must also grasp the life that throbs there the power that you have built up through Samadhi is smashed to pieces by the sounds of the outside world it is shattered by the sights of the outside world end quote so you see this whole awakening process is going to be more than you bargained for it's going to be more challenging than you initially thought initially you thought that hey I would just get my enlightenment BAM one day it will just happen and then it all be easy and downhill from there I wouldn't need to do any more work I would just be enlightened and I'd get to walk around and tell people how enlightened I am and I'd get to pride myself on how how awesome I am and how spiritual I am that's our initial newbie ideas of what awakening is like and then we discover that no no no this whole thing is gonna turn your life upside down and if you really want to embody the Ox that's gonna require a lot more than just catching a glimpse of it here and there he goes on to say quote salt in running water is not visible to the eye similarly the glue that is always mixed in the artist paint is not visible to the eye the eye sees only the colors blue or green or red in exactly the same way our Buddha nature has no shape or form all is the Ox if you are looking but cannot see the Ox that just means your mind is full of unnecessary thinking prejudice false knowledge and mistaken opinions and quote picture number four catching the Ox the verse with your last ounce of strength you take it but stubborn and strong it won't be broken now it's suddenly climbs on high ground then it descends to vanish deep into the mist this is a stage where you're trying to catch the Ox and own it for yourself this is you going beyond the initial first glimpses and starting to really embody awakening in your everyday life and also realizing how much more difficult it is to do that than you thought here's what the Zen master has to say quote just catching the Ox is not enough you must get a tight rope on it tame it and make it your own a mind of thoughts and attachments can't possibly fathom the spirit of the Ox that is called original face with your head full of thoughts of good and bad pretty and ugly even should you seek out the spirit of the Ox of Buddha nature there is no way that you would be able to recognize it if you saw it don't deceive yourself into thinking that you can feed it your desires and attachments your passions and self-delusions the Ox of fundamental wholeness will run away at the mere smell of them if there is even the slightest whiff of impurity the Ox won't touch the grass the Ox of fundamental wholeness detests even the smell of the actual it is strictly pure it hates the world of a desires and attachments passions and self delusions and it will trot right off to the mountains end quote so here is where you're in for the sort of rude awakening that in order to really catch this ox you're gonna have to completely surrender yourself turn your entire psyche inside out your egotism stands in the way of you catching the Ox and taming the Ox and so now you have to make a choice your devilish ego-self and your old depraved deluded life full of attachments and cravings and suffering and desire and addictions and hedonism or the ox you can't have both and you can't attain the ox so long as you have your fantasies about what spirituality is what religion is what God is what the what the Ox is what good and evil are what the devil is your various political ideologies and your your economic ideologies and capitalism and socialism and liberalism conservativism and all of this all of this junk all this fantasy all of this social programming this you have to discard if you want the Ox you cannot have the full ox and also maintain all of that nonsense that your ego was using to maintain its grip on reality see a lot of egos what they try to do with spirituality is they think that oh well I'm gonna catch this ox and then I'm gonna own this ox I'm gonna monopolize the sauce for myself and then I'll sell the ox and I'll make a bunch of money off the ox and then I'll have a bunch of sex using the ox and then I'm gonna look cool using the Ox I'm gonna get a bunch of Fame and status using the ox I'm gonna build a religion in my name using the ox and I'm gonna develop this cult using the ox and that won't work because all of that stuff is fantasy and the only reason you want to do any of that stuff is because you don't really have the Ox you haven't tamed the Ox you haven't fully realized what the Ox is because if you did the Ark's would irradiate and expunge blot out all of this egotistical craving within you all of these schemes and machinations and manipulations that you are trying to attain in the name of the ox and this is how all of the world's greatest evils happen all of the evils of religion happened this way is that rather than actually fully pursuing and surrendering to the Ox the religious person tries to turn the Ox into some kind of religious system but the Ox will not ever be turned into into any kind of system into any kind of picture or model or map because the Ox is the territory not the map and this is where people get caught in the trap of talking about the Ox theorizing about the Ox building a philosophical system about the Ox when they really aren't avoiding the very difficult thing which is letting go of all this surrendering all of that emptying yourself before the Ox only then will the Ox allow you to approach it closely enough so that you can tame it the Zen master goes on to say quote you have caught the [ __ ] you you may have caught the Ox but it is no easy matter to break it and finally to make it your own it is like killing a snake it's still twitching your mouth is going Moo but your tail is still twitching you are not completely dead yet so long as you do not first attain the great death the samadhi of Moo you will never catch the Ox end quote so Moo in Zen is just another name for the absolute for God for the Ox for infinite consciousness your true nature that's Moo the realization that all of reality is nothing that's Moo you see so even though maybe you've glimpsed Moo the question is have you fully dyed to it or is your ego still twitching and it's gonna come back to life like a zombie and now it's gonna turn into this sort of spiritual eyes zombie where now you of course you've got a little taste of awakening and you kind of know what it's like but your ego is still alive and kicking it's still on its last breath and so if you're not careful that ego will make all sorts of devilish work out of this glimpse of awakening that you've had and that can become very dangerous you might for example want to start a cult now based on your little bit of Awakening and in that cult though is gonna be fueled by all the cravings and attachments of your ego which you are still not willing to fully surrender in order to to truly awaken because if you were truly awake you would never start a cult because cults are falsehood and awakening is truth and there's also no need once you're awake to have admiration from others or to build any kind of pyramid structure with you on top you don't need social status you don't need Fame you don't need money you don't need sex none of these things aren't needed anymore because the ox has satisfied everything within you the Oxus made you complete but that's only once you fully tame the Ox at this stage you haven't done that yet so you still have various kinds of base needs the bottom tier of Maslow's pyramid of psychological needs food sex shelter survival and self esteem and need for love and all this you still have these even though you've had a little bit of Satori now picture number five is taming the Ox the verse not for a moment put down whip or rein unless the Ox wander back to dust and desire pull again and again till it's tame and gentle of itself it will follow without bridle or chain this is the stage where you get really serious about taming the Ox about embodying this enlightenment and let purify you so this is a stage where a lot of spiritual work and inner work is done a lot of spiritual purification happens and this can be a stage that can be quite challenging it can be quite grueling because you realize more and more just how much egotism and devilry there is within you that you need to surrender to fully tame this ox and so it's just this constant struggle of of self reflecting and finding more and more ignorance and devilry within yourself all of your selfishness all this has to go it's sort of like opening a garage and seeing just how much mess there is in the garage when you have to have the task of cleaning up the garage you didn't think it was that messy and how you see the severity of the task before you here's what the Zen master says about this stage quote well now you have finally caught the Ox but this ox will not do what you want it to do that's why you have to train it and make it your own this is what is otherwise known as post Satori practice kensho or awakening is our goal but without any follow-up tensho amounts to nothing you must tame that ox which you work so hard to catch for us training and practice continue right up until we die the most important chapter of the ten ox herding pictures is this one where you sit down and chew the cud of Satori fully appreciating its texture and quote and this is another place where a lot of people get tripped up especially if they follow some neo invitin teachings or teachers is they think that all okay now I've awoken I've had my Satori and now there's nothing more to do right this is what separates the noobs from the Masters the master is the one who has gone through this entire process of letting the awakening purify him of all his selfishness and that's usually a process that takes years and decades and of course that's why nobody wants to do it and that's why it's so rare and that's why masters are so valuable it's very easy to trick yourself into thinking that once you've had your Satori well that's it there's no more work to do leo what's the point of any other kind of work well then why do these Zen masters spend decades perfecting their Satori's because in practice they have to otherwise they're still gonna have cravings and desires and all sorts of low consciousness speeds and psychological hang-ups and shadow elements and all of these sorts of stuff and that's what separates a great teacher from a mediocre teacher is that the great teacher has worked all that stuff out and usually by that time he's 50 60 70 80 years old he's like a shriveled little man not some strapping young lad because it's taken him that long to really fully ripen and mature and to to train this ox the Zen master goes on to say quote you may search the world looking for truth but there is no truth in the world it arises from the heart mind when the heart mind that is looking is true then the world also is true when the heart mind that is looking is false then the world being looked at is also false what is it for you to always be true it is a matter of ridding yourself of thoughts the true state of being of the human person is no thought consciousness it is no mind consciousness the true nature of our heart mind is like a mirror spa is like a is a mirror like spotless condition unmarked ought the many unreal thoughts and ideas we have our images cast upon this mirror no matter how much you search there for truth there is no truth there our original nature is that condition like a spotless mirror we're fundamentally there is nothing so the key idea here is this notion of no-mind that is ultimately what you're moving towards not just an awakening that's hard enough but still rather easy what's really hard is no mind training your mind to completely shut off and not have any thoughts that's what you need if you want to become a master so take a look right now how many thoughts your mind is thinking every single mode of the day and imagine a condition where at some point in the future you will not have a single thought for hours you will be able to sit effortlessly with no thoughts that's what you're ultimately training towards that's what it means to finally tame the Ox at that point you've let the awakening fully penetrate your mind and rewire your entire psyche and how everything works and it's only then that you're able to see God and oneness and non duality everywhere all the time this is you working towards an abiding non-dual awareness unsullied by thoughts he goes on to say quote moment to moment no mind just advance down this path and you will be alright to maintain this consciousness to proceed in moment to moment mindfulness is what is meant by taming the Ox this post Satori training this is post Satori training only a person who has trained and attained Satori does this kind of post Satori training those who have not seen their own true nature who have not attained Satori or Awakening can do nothing but stir up more unreal thoughts when the Ox has been tamed though you do not use the whip or the line it will always follow you like a well-trained dog though you forget all about cones you will always be in no mind you will get so that you will always just be blank thinking of nothing you must train the Ox so that you will not lose kensho so that you will not lose Buddha nature it is truly a great pleasure when you know that you can always savor the world of no-mind in this way there is no pleasure as great as this it is not just a matter of one or two days spent training or taming the Ox it is not a matter of merely a five-day session a session is a Zen enlightenment intensive you must live in continuous concentration upon mindfulness so this is where the bulk of spiritual practice lies is in this constant never-ending mindfulness just grounding yourself over and over and over again into the present moment and as hard as that was during llamada mamonas time it's even harder today in the 21st century in the year 2018 because now we're in undated with social media cell phones computers advertisements Facebook magazines strange political news which is sensational and shocking and food which is designed to titillate all of your taste buds and to a dict you and various kinds of drugs and pills and substances which addictive berries kinds of businesses which addicted you so all of this is removing your natural ability to be mindful and present in the moment so you're gonna have to work extra hard these days in order to achieve this state of no-mind let's move on to the next picture number six riding the Ox home the verse riding high on your Ox leisurely you head for home trilling on a nomads flute you leave in the evening mist in each beat and verse your bow this feeling to a close companion what need to move your lips so this now is the stage where you have finally started to attain some serious embodiment of your awakening and you are now well on your way to becoming a master and at this point there's not much of a need even to talk about it anymore it's not some fantastical thing that you've attained it's starting to just become your ordinary way of life here's what the Zen master has to say about this quote having liberated yourself from the round of birth and decay you must once again return to the world of impermanence which is the ordinary world when one attains kensho then on returning to the original world of impermanence that world of impermanence becomes the world of reality so here this is my commentary so here what's happening is that you're bringing the non-duality back into the world of duality you're bringing the absolute back into the world of relativity you're bringing the mystical back into the mundane and you're fusing these things two things together to form a true non duality and he goes on to say to be right in the very middle of the ceaselessly churning just this is the Pure Land of serenity and Nirvana one who refuses to to return is not genuine in the everyday world of common sense flowers are red and willows are green but in zazen one destroys that world of common sense and enters a world where flowers are not red and willows are not green but then one must not stop at this point only when you have returned to the world of where flowers are red and willows are green has one really attained truth and quote so here is again where the true master is born is when all of these lofty mystical states and Samadhi experiences when those are all fused back into your everyday life and you can just walk and talk and cook your food and do your dishes and and take a shower and do your business in the world and engage in in economic activities engage in relationships and all of this still is infused with the non-duality because you've really tamed the Sox next he says quote as training the Ox proceeds unreal thoughts fade away the struggle between delusive passions and desire for enlightenment subsides both delusive passions and enlightenment fade away samsara and Nirvana fade away person and ox fade away Cohens and Zaza and fade away this is truly to be immersed in kensho here you have reached the pinnacle of life one who says I want this or I want that or I want to do this or I want to do that is still wandering around in life's path but when you have reached the peak there is no need to climb anymore no need to toil and sweat anymore you just gaze up at the sky or look down at the world below end quote so it's at this stage that many enlightened people will give the advice to newbies wrong lead at all well there's no longer anything to do there's no higher to climb there's no work to do and so then they give that advice to a newbie and then the newbie misinterprets that advice and thinks all well then there's no work for me to do but that's only from the vantage point of someone who's already done an enormous amount of work decades of work have gotten gone in to bring a person to the point where they can say oh I no longer need to do any work I no longer need to sit on a cushion and meditate I don't no longer need to do my yoga I no longer need to self inquire I no longer need to be mindful and to practice and to read books I no longer need that yes after you've exhausted all of that then you're good sort of like once you've launched the rocket into outer space and it's outside of the Earth's gravitational pull right yeah you don't need rocket fuel anymore after that point but when you're sitting on the earth and you're trying to get up into space you need a shitload of rocket fuel so make sure you understand that distinction he goes on to say quote those who still think about making money about making a name in society are wandering around at the halfway point you worry about neither seeking Satori nor about extinguishing delusive passions cutting off all thought there is no one in the world do you think either nice or nasty with the mind of no mind you meet everyone as if for the first time with that relaxed and expansive attitude you casually leave everything to the Ox so that wherever it goes you feel at home end quote the next picture is number 7 ox transcended the verse astride your Ox you've reached the hills of home with ox put away you two are at ease the sun's risen three pulls high yet still you're dreaming your whip and line hang idle under the thatched eaves this is the stage where you have now transcended the seeking of Awakening and enlightenment and this is the stage where some people could say well there's no such thing as enlightenment there's no such thing as the Ox yes because you realize that you were the Ox the entire time everything is the Ox this very moment right now right here that you're experiencing is the Ox so of course there's no hidden thing that you're gonna find all you're gonna find is the very present moment that's happening right now but what will happen is that it will get radically recontextualized and it will completely transform your life so don't make the mistake of thinking that well well Leo if there's nothing to find then it's just this present moment man that's kind of depressing what's the point of all this work if all I'm going to end up with it was just this present moment no you don't understand if you think that way that means you still haven't found the ox you don't realize what the present moment is you don't realize as significance the magnificence of this present moment it hasn't actually been recontextualized for you the recontextualization is a very real thing and it needs to happen that is the finding of the Ox that happened several pictures back but for many of you listening you haven't had that recontextualization yet so don't fall into the trap of thinking like oh well but the Ox will get transcended and all there will be is just this present moment all there will be able just to be the self Balea that I already got that no you don't you don't got that what you have right now is a bunch of delusion you have no idea how magnificent the ox is yet the Zen master has to say quote having completed the practice you get trapped by Satori you start saying things like I have had kensho I'm not your average monk I must have a bigger cushion and my tea must be serves in special utensils I have completed Zen practice so that means I can now drink I can do anything I want in this way Satori makes people into its servants and strips them of their freedom this is what is meant by the phrase fettered by the Buddha fettered by the Dharma this is why when you have attained Satori you must forget about Satori when you become a rich man you must forget about money if there is any distinction between the self that has awakened to the Dharma and the Dharma to which the self has awakened the awakening is not genuine the self and ox are one the ox pictured here is being used only as a symbol as a convenient teaching device and the search for the Ox represents the practice and discipline required in seeking the dharma end quote don't get confused by this word Dharma all this means is it just means it's it's the work of spiritual practice it's the path towards enlightenment and liberation it's basically what the Dharma is so the path and the ox and yourself are really all one in the same that's non duality so all these boundaries that you thought existed all these different categories and different objects all of them get realized as absolute unitive non-dual consciousness he goes on to say quote in order to catch a rabbit you must set a snare but the object is to catch a rabbit not to catch a snare when you have caught the rabbit you no longer need the snare the Ox is used in the same way as a means of achieving awakening to Buddha nature we created a snare called the Ox but once you have understood Buddha nature you no longer need the Ox and quote see and again sometimes people make the mistake of thinking well if I don't need these snare then that means a newbie doesn't need the snare either but no the newbie needs a snare because he hasn't caught the rabbit yet a hungry person needs the snare once your belly is full of rabbit you don't need the snare anymore so it's very easy for a person who's just stuffed himself full of rabbit to tell the hungry person ah don't worry about rabbit you don't need rabbit that's only from the point of view from a person whose belly is full from the hungry person's point of view from your point of view who's still trying to find the Ox it doesn't help that advice doesn't help you need to build a snare you need to glimpse this thing called an arse does that master goes on to say quote once a student came to me and asked what is the purpose of life when I replied to play he was disappointed just to play is that it he asked and went away once you have reached the last station at the end of the line there is nothing to seek all one does is play here to have things is fine not to have things is also fine to live is fine to die is also fine to be happy is fine to be sad is also fine if it rains that's fine if it shines that too is also fine every day is good every day is good end quote that is liberation that is unconditional happiness happiness which does not hinge on any kind of external circumstance again newbies sometimes make the mistake of thinking but leo if I'm gonna be happy under all circumstances whether I'm rich or poor or whether I have sex or not or whether my kids are healthy or not if I'm gonna be happy under all of those circumstances then what's the point but you see what you're setting up there is you're you're setting yourself up in a in a sort of rigged game where you can never win because by definition then if you're if you're rejecting unconditional happiness that means that you what you want is you want to be suffering half the time and of course that's exactly what you've got is a life that's half suffering and half good so what liberation means is precisely that you take yourself out of the equation of life you realize no self and then what you realize is that once you're dead once the self is dead and that is what we're talking about here we're talking about suicide in a sense not in the physical sense that you think that you're gonna harm your body but we're talking about the suicide of the notion of a cell or a you that's when awakening is that's what the discovery of the auxes but why is that so magnificent because once you're out of the equation then all there is to life once your dad in a sense is there's pure positivity everything is bonus everything is just sort of a cherry on top nothing can ruin your day because you're dead you're not attached to anything anymore you have nothing to defend anymore you're not trying to defend your life your body your self-image your social status your wealth or your notions of religion or family or politics or government or anything you're not you're not defending anything anymore because you surrendered everything so completely that now it's sort of like your nihilism has gone full circle and at the very end of nihilism is an inflection point where the nihilism then explodes into just infinity emptiness explodes into everythingness and once you're dead you realize that that's it that's the worst you've faced the worst thing that could possibly happen to you and you did it by your own hand it's sort of like you took a sword and you slit your own throat and at this point that's it there's no more problems every day that you get after that is just a good day everything is fine no matter what it is that is liberation and it's only from that place that now you can play and hear Yamada mamon says that the purpose of life is to play and I've said that in the past before because I've had that exact same realization when I've had my Satori's is that there is no purpose to life other than life itself being itself and then what do you do with the rest of your life after you realize that what do you do with the rest of your life after you've died you just bask in the beauty of it it's just pure beauty it's just pure magic it's all extra it's all bonus it's all heaven you're literally inside of because you have nothing more to lose because you've already voluntarily surrendered any attachments that you've had and ultimately your entire life that's not meant metaphorically that's meant literally you've literally surrendered your entire life by this point if you've gotten this far and now you can see why this is so difficult are you willing to lay your neck on the chopping block and surrender your whole life in order to attain heaven Nirvana and everlasting peace are you willing to make the radical transformation in your psyche to be happy unconditionally all the time under all circumstances no matter how bad or ugly you may have thought they were before such that you're happy no matter what if Nazis are taking over you're happy if terrorists are bombing the world you're happy if nuclear weapons are going off you're happy if there's millions of poor people starving and dying you're still happy most people would say no Lee I don't want to be happy under those conditions I would rather suffer I want to fight I want to create a good world and I want to help people and I want equality I want to save the polar bears and I can't be happy when there's global warming and I can't be happy when there's terrorism and I can't be happy when such and such a person as a president and I can't be happy in this country and I can't be happy under this condition and I can't be happy ever well there you go that's why you're not happy this is a very deeply counterintuitive move to surrender yourself to be happy under all conditions very very counterintuitive you're gonna have to hit hit your head against that wall over and over and over again until you realize realize the foolishness of the way you've been living your life and your insistent on your insistence on conditional happiness every fool insists on conditional happiness every fool can be conditionally happy when he has money and sack and healthy children and all this stuff but that's not gonna last even if you acquire all of that stuff it ain't gonna last you're gonna lose your good looks you're gonna lose your teeth you're gonna lose your health you're gonna lose your children you're gonna lose your dog and your cat and your wife and your husband will probably leave you at some point you'll get divorced and it'll be nasty and if you feel good and happy right now tomorrow you'll lose that if the economy is good right now tomorrow it won't be if violence and terrorism and genocide is under control right now next year it won't be the Zen master goes on to say quote to penetrate right through judgments of good and bad isn't that your original face isn't that Buddha nature when the clouds of good and bad have been swept completely away then isn't that the moon of reality shining there to think that the clouds represent bat and the moon represents good as a mistake the clouds represent both good and bad when the clouds of both good and bad have been swept away then a brilliance appears as eternal and unchanging as the gold which has been refined from the ore and quote again another very very counterintuitive move is made here by the master he surrenders all discriminatory thinking all judgment and all ideas and notions of good and bad most ordinary people think that if you did this then your life would go bad and you would attract all sorts of bad things into your life but they don't realize that good and bad are two sides of the same coin and at the same time as you're judging certain things good automatically that's bringing bad into your life by saying that's a good person the only meaning that word has is because there's some other bad person that you're pointing to a minute later that you're using as a foil to contrast the good and the bad and so of course you're going to love the good but you're gonna hate the bad and so that hatred is gonna permeate you you're gonna be afraid of those bad people or those bad circumstances so the counterintuitive move is to to get rid of the good and the bad and when you do that something very counterintuitive happens everything gets transformed into goodness with a capital G this is no longer good relative to your ego or to your personal desires this is good in the sense that the entire universe now is good all of reality now is good to you everything you don't discriminate any longer remember you've silenced your mind so now you're constantly in a state of no-mind so literally you no longer have thoughts of good and bad something happens in your life which before you would have called bad which most people think of as bad you think well it really is bad my dog got run over by a bus but that's really bad that's how you used to think now you don't even have a thought about it anymore and now that's peace that's happiness that's liberation now you can play that's quite radical most people if they were given an option to push a button and to transform their psyche into this mode of being they would probably not push that button of course not because the ego will say no no no no I want to judge I want to judge because Leo there really are good things and there really are bad things this is not relative this is not just a projection of the mind this is this is real my dog was really good and my dog dying is really bad so I'm not gonna push that button cuz I don't want to be happy if my dog dies I want to suffer and be miserable well you got it there you go that's your life that's your mode of being that's how 99% of people are by the way don't misunderstand me this is very difficult to achieve we're talking about some of the most advanced stages of human development right now and consciousness so if you're thinking to yourself well leo but this is all wishful thinking this is not possible I don't know any human beings my my friends my family members my boss my co-workers I don't know any people not even my prep professors and teachers who have this kind of motive of being who have this level of consciousness that's right that's why none of them are Zen masters at this point we're not just talking about a little awakening we're not just talking about some hippie who smoked some weed or does one or two psychedelics and thinks he's seen God we're not even talking about Zen monks who have spent 10 years practicing Zen and have had some Ataris but still are are kind of shaky on it we're now at the level of we're talking about Zen masters we're talking about people who are like one in a million extremely rare so yeah these are people who have completely surrendered their entire lives and transformed their entire psyches that's what taming the Ox was so at this point for them this is not wishful thinking this is their reality this can be your reality but only by undergoing a radical transformation with lots of work to get to this point would require thousands of hours of work 5,000 hours 10,000 hours 20,000 hours that's what we're talking about to get to this level just so you understand though don't create a limiting belief out of this but just so that you have a realistic idea of what it really takes in the same way that you came to me and you said Leo I want to become a brain surgeon what do I got to do I would tell you get ready for 10 years of grueling study and residency after residency after residency and cramming for tests after test after test and working in hospital after hospital after hospital for thousands of hours many many thousands of hours 10 years at least then you've got a shot at becoming a brain surgeon right that's not a limiting belief that's just the reality of what it takes to become a brain surgeon and to to fool yourself into thinking that you can become a brain surgeon by reading one book and watching a few YouTube videos and maybe operating once on a dead cat that you found on the side of the road and now you think you're a brain surgeon well you can see how that leads to all sorts of disaster and it does in spiritual circles it definitely leads to disaster this is where you get teachers and and so-called fake gurus and frauds who create all sorts of cults who lead people down bad roads who who run various kinds of scams and pyramid schemes and even though they might be trying to teach you spirituality they themselves are still deluded and they will teach it to you in the wrong ways and then maybe they will sexually abuse you molest you psychologically manipulate you or try to start a religion of their own use it to aggrandize their ego all the sorts of stuff that's what happens the Zen master goes on to say quote once you have separated out Satori from delusive passion then that Satori never gets mixed together again with delusive passion and quote but remember there here's my commentary about that don't expect that to happen without having done the work that will only be true once you're now at this stage seven that's the picture we're at here seven now once you're at stage seven after years and years of work now finally you've separated out your egoic delusions and devilry from Satori and now it will stay that way but it won't stay that way after your first taury after your first satorious things will get mixed back together and in fact that devilry within you will try to co-opt the Satori and use it for its devilish purposes now let's move on to picture number eight the ox and the self both transcended the verse whip in line you and the Ox all gone to emptiness into the blue sky for words too vast can a snowflake survive the fire of a flame pit attain this and truly be one with the Masters of the past so this is a very advanced stage this is where basically you transcend everything you surrender everything the Sufis might call this stage fauna al fauna the passing away of the passing away everything passes away the ox passes away all of your techniques pass away meditation pass away yoga methods pass away and even the self passes away and all of your ideas about non-duality pass away all effort passes away it's a complete emptiness which is why this picture is just a blank circle true emptiness of course don't mistake this for some kind of bleak nihilism it's the exact opposite of that because this emptiness goes full circle and if there's an inflection point where all that emptiness also spills out into infinity all of the form all of reality the entire present moment all of it is you you realize that you are God you also realize that everything that has ever happened has never really happened it might seem like some stuff is happening in the world and there's important stuff going on and evolution is happening and all of this but at this stage at stage number 8 you realize that none of the universe has ever even transpired none of it has happened it's all pure emptiness or mu pure nothingness this is a shocking and radical depth of non-duality way beyond a merely a little ordinary satoori way beyond even the the inside of no-self this is this is a complete radical nothingness very radical nothingness which is shocking and horrifying at the same time but also wondrous and magnificent and divine all at the same time sublime an utter mind [ __ ] you've been completely mind [ __ ] by this point in the journey here's what the master has to say about this quote there is no Satori or awakening no Dharma to be awakened to and no self awakened here Buddha nature stands completely and totally revealed this is the culmination of practice and the completion of the discipline it is in other words the perfect circle perfect roundness suggests vast emptiness it lacks nothing and has nothing in excess it is neither male nor female neither young nor old neither rich nor poor neither learn or unlearn it neither good nor bad it is the complete just so world of Satori and quote so here he's describing the ultimate depths and degrees of non-duality the realization that all distinctions collapse all boundaries all objects everything you can't even distinguish existence from non-existence anymore you can't distinguish life from death because none of it is real at this point you realize the origin and source of the entire universe where it came from and where it's going namely that it never really happened at this point you understand the answer to the question why is there something rather than nothing you've answered this question the master says quote those worldly feelings of needing a drink by which he means alcohol or desiring a pretty girl have long disappeared at this stage if you go around thinking I have had Satori I am enlightened this is not really Satori or enlightenment if you think I am pure mind then you have just muddied it it should not be recognizable by Tom Dick or Harry it's still not good enough if your consciousness is the kind that inspires awe gratitude and people that makes people talk about you if this is it it is just a disgraceful scene he's a living God a miracle has occurred if this is what is being said about you that's bad and an even uglier spectacle are those people who deceive others into saying such things both the whip and the line which you have used to train the arcs have become unnecessary cones have become unnecessary the person who was awakened and the dharma to which the person has awakened have all turned into emptiness all have swept away leaving not a speck of dust no matter what you are doing go straight into the samadhi of MU and die cleanly it is because you are still trying to hold back some breath that you fail you must throw your life away then there is no self that remains not even so much as the tip of a hair's worth of self remains not even the move that you have been working on remains there is nothing there is neither training hall nor zazen just an empty mirror honed and polished not even that remains end quote so he's talking about fauna al fauna the passing away of the passing away the complete extinguishing of the self at this point you were never born the idea that you are a biological creature who was ever born to a mother or father this idea has gone away and you do not think of yourself that way anymore there is no more self you've never even been born try to understand just how radical and freaky that is I'm being very literal now these are not just stories or metaphors try to actually imagine what it would be like to be alive but to no longer believe that you were ever born that's what this stage is like and finally the master concludes with this injunction you must push yourselves to the utmost and attain this state at least once that quote and now we come to picture number nine return to the source we're still not done notice we're still not done and that's why this model is powerful because many people would be tempted to think that this is the end I've already reached the end and yet there's still two more stages the verse you return to the origin went back to the source such wasted effort how much better to just be blind and deaf from inside your Hut you don't see outside your Hut let the streams just flow on and the flowers just bloom read honestly at this point I don't have a good personal understanding of of what this stage really is I'm gonna quote the master here in a second but personally you know I haven't attained all these ten stages I I've had various glimpses of these different stages and especially because I've used psychedelics very powerful psychedelics which of course are not really accounted for by this model it's a little bit hard to put my own progress into this simple linear sequence and so if you're gonna be using psychedelics don't expect all of your attainments to follow this simple ten step process so I still have a lot of work to do I still anticipate a decade or more work that I have to do to really fully embody and tame the ox I don't even consider myself to have really tamed the ox but also because I have access to these very powerful tools that I've discovered I have been able to see some of the ultimate deepest levels of what mysticism and spirituality and non-duality entails deeper then then Zen monks who have been at it for 20 years I've seen deeper that doesn't mean that I embody it deeper all the time it just means I've had those glimpses and the power of that there's sort of an upside and a downside of that the power of it the upside is that it lets you really see what this path is about and that makes you very motivated and it also helps you to understand various traps that exist and it also helps you to see just how much further there is to go how deep this thing goes and that so few people have actually gotten to the very end of it it allows you to see all that which otherwise would be unimaginable and virtually impossible only the most advanced practitioners one one in a million one in ten million will ever get this far even of those people who become enlightened only a small percentage will get this far so that's why it's that's a huge upside the downside is of course that you see the full potential of what you can be and how deep this goes but then of course your ability to embody it is is still very weak and that just shows you how much more work to do there is for you and of course that can feel very overwhelming it can be frustrating because you've seen these very deep glimpses but then you've still got all this grinding work to do obtaining the Ox and of course I know that the Ox is right here right now so there's nowhere for me to really go to tame the Ox I mean this is the Ox I am the Ox oh there is no Ox there is no self this is nothing this is Moo but um but it's it's one thing for me to just kind of say it or to be conscious of it now in the moment as I'm talking about it's another thing to be able to embody it throughout the entirety of your life under all circumstances that requires a lot more work on my part so also at this point it's good to tell you don't take these steps to linearly and to seriously this is a general guideline it's a map it's rough don't think that all well I haven't gotten to stage four yet and that means bla bla bla bla bla or it's like well I'm at Stage five but it seems like I didn't go through Stage four is that possible yeah there's some variations and of course if you're using unorthodox techniques maybe if you're doing some Kundalini Yoga or are you doing psychedelics or combination of all the above and and whatever you know you're spiritually gifted your path might be different so this is sort of an idealization of the bath model I'm am NOT the territory so here's what the Zen master has to stay about picture number nine that place where immaculate mind without thought is completely identical with the universe and all of its myriad things nothing other than this can be considered absolute ground returning to this place is what is meant by return to the source that's what this picture is in Zen what do we take as the fundamental nature of the universe it is ox and self both transcended here there is neither self nor ox only the one perfect circle within the pure immaculate heart mind in which there is nothing there is no distinction between self in the world there is no intellectual obstructions or problem about the fundamental nature of the universe its purpose or anything else all of your metaphysical questions have been answered when you have gained Satori then the world we live in just as it is is the Pure Land is heaven after Satori is the same as before Satori and quote and that is sort of the ultimate realization of non duality now I know that's the same thing I said in the previous picture as well so you might be wondering well Leo it seems like in every one of these pictures you're saying that the ox and the self it's all one so what's the difference between all these different pictures and all of this these different levels of oneness is it different degrees of the same thing or what are you talking about well this is where it's a little tricky is that yes there are sort of like different depths of realizing the oneness of everything at first maybe you realize that you are one with the whole universe and that's a big epic mindfuck and very revolutionary for you but then you realize wait a minute that still wasn't complete because I was leaving at other people I still there was a still subtle duality between yes I knew that I was the whole universe but I didn't fully realize that I'm also all people and so that duality breaks down and then maybe you know if you're if you're a Christian or you're a Buddhist there might still be a subtle duality for example you realize now that yes you're all people but there's a subtle duality between you and Christ or you and the Buddha because somehow in the back of your mind you were told that well the Buddha is this special enlightened being Christ is the special Saviour the one in the only prophet and all this but then you break that down and you realized wait a minute I am the Buddha I literally am Christ everybody is Christ to say that I'm the Buddha that I'm Christ is not some arrogant position or to say that I have some reincarnation of Christ it's just to realize that everything is one you always were Christ everybody is Christ there's nothing special about you the dog is Christ the dog is Buddha so there's sort of like a more fuller and fuller real as of the non-duality and then it gets embodied at a cellular level deeper and deeper and deeper within you such that your behaviors and your relationships to the world they become less and less dualistic the way that it normally is for people and more and more non-dual that's basically what all of these pictures are talking about in various degrees and then the master says quote in order to go back to the source you had to exert yourself to the utmost on the outset it looks as though you went to a lot of unnecessary trouble all that work for nothing this here now just as it is this very moment if this is your goal then you did not have to put yourself through such trials of searching for the Ox end quote and of course that's precisely correct and that's why people say that there's no there's nowhere to go there is no spiritual path because wherever you go you're already going one step too far beyond the truth beyond the present moment that's what makes it so tricky and difficult because our mind is used to going through some linear sequence to get somewhere that's easy for us even if it's a long sequence we can do that what our mind doesn't know how to do is how to be perfectly still and take the zeroth step you need to complete the journey where there are no steps how do you do that that's actually harder you might think well I'll just stand still and do nothing no that won't work see because by doing nothing what's gonna happen is you're just gonna go along with the currents of society Society will just carry you away and if you just sit and do nothing with it in practice what's gonna happen you're not gonna become enlightened what's gonna happen is that you're gonna become a slob living in your mother's basement eating Cheetos and playing video games and hanging out on all right forums bitching and moaning about how you can't have sex and how feminists are denying you and how white genocide is coming this is what's gonna happen to you or some version of that whatever your version of that is that's what's gonna happen to you if you do nothing if you don't take the path but if you take the path you're also wrong because you've already gone one step too far so what do you do it's a paradox you're stuck I recommend you take the path and then you'll realize how to sort of track your way backwards to nothing the greatest danger is doing nothing and getting swept away by the currents of society that's what happens to 99% of people who don't take the path and lastly we've gotten to stage 10 the end this is called re-entering the marketplace the verse with bare chests and feet you come to the market under dirt and ash your face breaks into laughs with no display of magic powers you make wizard Ruiz burst into flower so this is the ultimate this is a you complete the path so fully that you forget that you even ever took the path and you don't brag to anyone about it you don't even talk about it to anybody you are just a fully enlightened master and you are so ordinary now that you just completely blend in you're so humble that there's nothing special about us so ever there's not even an ounce of selfishness or ego left within you and so you don't go around flaunting your credentials or how many years you've spent on the cushion or you don't even talk about non-duality to people you just completely blend in you're completely ordinary such that what an ordinary person is talking to you on the street at the bar in the marketplace they wouldn't even know there's anything special about you and to me that is one of the ultimate marks of a true master is what I've seen from interacting I've interacted with various kinds of enlightened masters and teachers and wannabes and students and so forth seekers and what I've seen is that those who I think have the deepest mastery I've seen that they're the most humble there's a very very profound humility about them it's awe-inspiring it's amazing and you can't really see this as a newbie unless you've already gotten pretty high up the path you can't really see this humility you don't appreciate it yet because your ideas as a newbie of enlightenment are still like well I'm gonna become enlightened and then I'm gonna be special and I'm gonna be cool and I'm gonna sit there up on a pedestal in and lecture to people and talk to people and people will love me and all of this and then I'll think I'm the hotshot and I'll be one in a million I'll be that rare human being and I'll be the Buddha but all this is still ego in areas you don't realize yet that you're gonna completely lose yourself there's not going to be an ounce of self left within you and that is what's necessary to be able to demonstrate that humility that humility that I'm talking about it's the ultimate honest signal you can't fake it and that's one of the ways how I evaluate and judge enlightened teachers and masters I look at how how their humility is how they carry that and that's how I separate the the fakers from the real ones here's what the what the master has to say about this though you've attained this unexcelled realm of the absolute you forget about the elevated realm completely and instead clad and ragged robe return to the marketplace to settle among ordinary people the ideal is not to put on purple robes and to wear a gold picaud bra cod kesa and March in a procession of dignitaries with that sanctimonious I would not harm a flea look on your face of someone who has attained Satori instead you must throw away everything become completely naked melt completely in with ordinary people and live alongside everyone else covered in dust if you cannot quickly doff those robes and go live at the bottom of the social scale you are not a person of religion end quote and this is I think what was remarkable about Jesus and why he's such a powerful role model to this day 2,000 years later is that this is precisely what he did right when you're driving around in your Rolls Royces and you have a big following of people who worship you and give you sex and food and luxuries and you have your own community and all of this source of stuff you know nothing against Osho I think he was a legit enlightened master but there's still something about that that's just wrong they're still sort of like elitism about that that's still not quite right yet Mata Boulogne continues and says he needs no shirt he needs no title exposing his hairy chest down to his navel barefoot he walks the streets of town or heads for the outskirts since people will be nervous if he shows that he has attained Satori he does not reveal that he has mastered the discipline nor does he show any trace of learning he just laughs laughs like a great fool dobbed with dirt and covered with ashes that laughs how could you describe it he laughs so hard you think his jaw would fall off people who come into contact with that laughs returned to their original nature and awaken to their Buddhahood though he does not preach or lecture everyone who sees the old monks face is saved just by laughing and smiling he leads those who are rough and coarse at heart to discover the light in their lives he does not preach miracles he just laughs he just drinks with them he just sings with them when you have reached this highest awakened state where the world just as it is is the Pure Land is heaven were you yourself just as you are are the Buddha then you must throw away Satori and for the sake of those and suffering and distress descend to the bottom of society to the farthest corner of society and awaken everyone else to this Pure Land as well and that is the end of the path so now you know what you're in for yes it can be a little bit daunting it's a lot more than you bargained for or that you initially thought in a certain sense we have to sucker you into non-duality and enlightenment because if you were told all the trials and tribulations upfront of what this path entailed you would probably be scared off and you would just kind of go back to your old ways you would never even begin but by this point you're probably already in passed the point of no return you already know too much you can't really go back asleep after you've heard all of this after you've seen all the potential of what you can become now after you know how much suffering you create and how much of a devil you are how much of an ego you have now that you've been given all the answers to all the existential questions of what consciousness is what God is what enlightenment is what existence is why there's something rather than nothing what apps that infinity is what God is after you've been told all this what are you gonna say no are you gonna say no I'm just going to go back to eating Cheetos and and jerking off to porn and playing video games no this is what you've been born to do to awaken to realize Moo to get to the 10th picture that is the purpose of life so make your vowel go back to step number one and make your vow hone your desire and start following the footsteps and get excited about meeting the ox will you be wise enough to follow this advice you are extremely lucky to stumble upon this recording however you got here through whatever confluence of accidents and events somehow you ended up here and this you know deep down in your heart you know that this is exactly what you've been looking for this is your path you can feel that it's right for you you might be scared you might be confused you might not know all the details and how all of it will work out you might not know what this means for your family for your love life for your relationships for your finances for your business but none of that matters because the most important thing is knowing what the path is knowing what the highest priority thing is once you've got that trust that everything else will fall into place yes it will be difficult yes there will be fear yes there will be obstacles yes you won't know what to do yes you'll be confused yes there will be suffering the counterintuitive thing about the spiritual path is that it promised use the Liberty promises to you the liberation from all suffering and it will deliver upon that promise but only after a long trial of ever-increasing suffering and suffering and suffering and then one day that suffering will just drop to zero and so you need to be able to keep yourself motivated and encouraged and to console yourself while you're climbing up the mountain and you're going through all the trials and tribulations and obstacles and all the threshold guardians you got to keep consoling yourself that it's going to be worth it and how do you know that not by trusting me but by feeling into your heart your heart will tell you that this is the ultimate path for you to take and how will you know that's true because you'll be scared shitless of what this will mean for your life because you are laying your neck on the chopping block and if you want a little bit more insight about that go check out my episode called the ultimate hero's journey or I forget what I titled it the true hero's journey I think that's it yeah search for hero's journey and you will find my explanation of that and that will that will help to comfort you in your trial in your trials and tribulations as will this episode here there is an enormous amount of wisdom contained in this episode and in this book if you can find this book I definitely recommend buying it and reading it even if you pay $100 for it it's totally worth it but if you can't I have distilled the nuggets of it for you here the only question is will you be wise enough to follow this advice only about one in a million will be wise enough to follow this advice and an even smaller number and we'll be able to complete all ten of these pictures in their own life and to fully actualize their awakening so what I recommend is that if you're gonna be on this path you return to this episode here and you review the wisdom laid out by this Zen master maybe you reread that book if you have it once a year just to refresh yourself and to keep yourself on the straight and narrow path because you will be tempted to diverge in various ways and that's exactly the value of having a master in your life is that he keeps you on the straight and narrow path well luckily through modern technology we have the wisdom of this master here in this video here in this recording which you can play back to yourself anytime you want until you've made it all the way and then you throw it away you don't turn it into an ideology or a Dogma remember all of it you're gonna burn away throw away and that's the end I'm done here please click that like button for me and come check out my website actualize that org there you will find my blog the forum the life purpose course and the book list my book list if you're still on the fence about buying it it's very affordable but really what you get for it is you get a bunch of gems like this book many many more of these are on there books that will transform your whole life and I'm still adding more to it I've updated my book list at least five or six times since I've released it I try to update it about twice a year so make sure you check back there's probably more books there that you should check out and the books that I'm reading these days are the most powerful books the most wise books because I've read so many books at this point hundreds of books that uh most books the days if I try to read it I can't even finish it because it's just not a very high level of wisdom I already possess more wisdom than most of these books have but I still read because you never know when you've missed something I still got to keep myself humble and there's still great books that I find out there and so I'll still be adding more in the future and it's the ones that I add in the future that you really want to look out for because those the ones that are gonna really be juicy so check that out the updates that I do every year are free for those who've purchased the book list so it's a very very good value on that stay tuned in the future we may cover other models of awakening maybe we'll cover the Sufi model or the Christian model or some Jewish model you know I'm still researching these various models and as I find stuff that's valuable I'll put it out there for you and then by cross-referencing all these models then you get a really robust sense of what this path is like you