The Universe is Born and Dies With You 

Izzat so? I'll have to look again.

that is a very salient point!

I should've baked a cake.

the secrets of the universe all free anytime, anywhere. not a bad deal

It's probably because he doesn't peddle 'pop zen'. You have to kind of be past that point to appreciate Brad's take. I know a lot of people that want magic powers, everlasting bliss, etc. I usually don't send those people here, and the times that I do they have not been interested.

@@Bradtheartguy : Do you mean that the ones who were not interested was because Brad was at a kind of higher level they couldn’t reach?.

@@lorenacharlotte8383 Full disclosure, on an egoic level, that's often how I feel about it. Like " Wow I'm at a higher level than you.", but once I'm aware of that and can try and process past it, it's not about being at a higher level. It's just the way that we often find ourselves on this path is because we want something out of it. We want that new shiny thing called enlightenment that's finally going to make us happy. A lot of teachers imply that they're offering just that, or we perceive that that's what they're offering so we buy in. Brad doesn't really say that, and in some ways he openly denies it. That just puts some people off that still have a lot of illusions about what they're going to get out of this kind of work. In my experience anyways.

@@Bradtheartguy : Right. Thanks for clarifying. I can understand now what were you coming from. Yes in general any Zen Buddhist tradition cuts the chase straight away.

Thank you. Have I been writing that long???

Thank you!

Someone noticed the shirt! Hooray!

Could be!

That is how I have always taken it!

Mental Projection.

@@lorenacharlotte8383 what's this now?

@@mattrkelly : Just a thought based in my own mental projections when I read you.

@@lorenacharlotte8383 so when you read what I wrote you had a mental projection about mental projections?

@@lorenacharlotte8383 maybe you don't understand, I liked the Naht Hanh Rinzai Roku. I see your a Thay fan.

Thanks. I didn't know there was a name for it.

*Spelling lapsus: “plane reading” should be read as “plain reading”

I read a lot of books on planes! Understanding Our Mind isn't too difficult. I'm familiar with the language and can figure out some of TNH's special words like "interbeing" and "inter-are."

@@HardcoreZen : Yes the plane didn’t fly plain in the rain ☺️. I can read and understand now that book. It’s a really good book. But it might not do for you as it goes in similar lines as the Yocachara you recommended. The kind of language expression used by TNH is a bit childlike. Some of the activities during retreats are also a bit childlike like going back to the kindergarten. One day an Scholar asked him what was his teaching about and he answered back that he only teach breathing.

@@lorenacharlotte8383 As far as explanations of Yogacara Buddhism go, Understanding Our Mind is one of the clearest to understand. The verses are his own version of Vasubandhu's works Twenty Verses on Mind Only and Thirty Verses on Mind Only written in the fifth century, which are fundamental texts in the Yogacara school. This is what the 'key poems' at the beginning of each chapter are.

@@zenaudio108 : Well, to me absolutely Thich Nhat Hanh is always the best in clarity, depth, simplicity and remarkable skill transmitting directly to the non intelectual reality in all of us. Wouldn’t know how to explain it. However, not everybody has that kind of such a direct connection and because of that they can only see the flowery, simplistic, repetitive and very quickly brings boredom. In one of my last retreats with him and all the rest of participants, he told us not to publish all retreat dharma sessions because in order to get those teachings people needed to be with us receiving the dharma brought into practice straight away in order to be truly understood through oneself practice living experience. And he being able to correct any misinterpretations, answering any question... Having said all that, Brad was educated and trained in Japan in the Soto tradition. His Teacher Nishijima was also a very good Teacher in his own Soto tradition. In essence all teach the same. But the Scholar area comes in a different format and because of that it can be sometimes difficult to understand the lyirics from the tradition one was not trained into. In fact, found Brad very helpful through by his own personal experience and quotations by Soto great Masters in his videos. The Soto is a great tradition too. So Brad doesn’t need to go for the reading and study of that book because he has not had any connection with the book. He had a better connection with Yogachara book wrote by a Japanese.

Ha! Coffee!

In your opinion, wouldn't the thusness be the perception and sensation, the "simulation" itself? Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like you are dividing reality and experience into separate categories. As if there's our "simulation" on the one hand and then there's "reality" on the other. What is the simulation but reality itself? How can reality and the simulation be separate? Isn't it reality that's "doing" the simulation? You wrote a great comment and made me curious as to what you think about this.

@@mbettinar I think that’s probably right too. Even our delusional simulations of reality are reality.

@@Scott.Jones608 Robbie Robertson, "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", ....

thank you!

しかあればすなはち、一人うまるるをりに、山河 大地をみるに、この一人が、うまれざりつるさきよりありける山河大地のうへに、いまひとへかさね て、うまれいづるとみえず。 Here are my translation notes: しかあればすなはち(that being so)、一人(one person)うまるるをりに(while being born)、山河 大地(mountains, rivers & great earth - sanka daiichi)をみるに(while watching)、この一人が(this person)、うまれざりつるさきよ りありける(??)山河大地のうへに(on top of mountains, rivers & great earth)、いま(now)ひとへ(upon person)かさね て(pile up/superimpose)、うまれいづる(some inflection of born)とみえず(do not see)

@@HardcoreZen Here's my best guess: "Thus a person being born and seeing the universe, it does not appear to this person that having come out in birth, they have been added on to a universe which existed during the period before they were born." "arikeru" is just past tense of "aru". Lots of old tales begin: mukashi, otoko arikeri. "Long ago, there once was a man..." "hitoe kasaneru" just means to pile up, as in layers of clothes. hitoe is 単, not 人へ。

Now I see that Kentaro Ogura in comments below has translated it pretty much the same way!

@@HardcoreZen looks like Dôgen Kigen had no clue about what`s "really" going on, while "living in a world of wonders" (Simon says), but at least had some intuitions...

We're all alone, together :)

What an stupid comment to diminish one amongst the best Zen Buddhist Masters in the world known in Occident. Thich Nhat Hanh had many thousands of followers from all over the world.

I believe HH Dalai Lama says much the same. That does not mean that either His Holiness nor Thây are going to refuse to teach Buddhism to people who aren't born into Buddhist cultures. It see it more as a sign of their respect for other cultures and religions.

So, if Sawaki was off, did Dogen himself get it?

@@edgepixel8467 views shape is a person right or wrong ? its not that simple i take what is useful to me

@@osip7315 I try to do the same. I can’t discount Sawaki though. He seems to know a few things.

@@edgepixel8467 i don't discount anybody, people are uneven, that holds for dogen sawaki and brad in the end its only your own understanding that matters and progression is hard