Transcription
All right, happy Thursday. Thank you guys for coming. So, I uh I wanted to share a concept and I was looking for a to go with the concept and so I'll give you the first and then we will uh go from there. But this is from the gateless barrier. She's called the mum con author's name Muman. So gateless barrier means there is a barrier right between us and being awake being enlightened but it has no gate. So what is the gateless gate? Something to think about. Why is there a gate? Why is it why is there not a gate?
The case 29 is called neither the wind nor the flag. So the wind was flapping a temple flag. Two monks were arguing about it. Whenever it says two monks were arguing, usually what that means is that they're like arguing philosophically. You know, they're like in the world of like spiritual and philosophical argument. So one said the flag was moving, the other said the wind was moving, arguing back and forth. They could not come to they could come to no agreement. The sixth patriarch said, "It is neither the wind nor the flag that is moving. It is your mind that is moving." Two monks were struck with awe. Later commentaries will add, "It is neither the wind nor the flag nor your mind that is moving." But for now, we'll just stick with it's not the wind, it's not the flag, it's your mind.
So I wanted to talk a little bit about the concept of signal versus noise because I was been reflecting recently on u sort of how noisy the world is currently. I noticed that you know there's an acceleration of sort of forms of social media that people you know now you know people are now scrolling you know there's like Tik Tok and reels and Instagram and like threads and it's just like the next thing the next thing the next thing the next thing and the news is um sort of designed to activate your nervous system in terms of how things are presented you know a lot of discourse that you see in podcasts and reals and excerpts and television is all sort of fear-driven. And I'm not saying there aren't problems like there are, but there have always been problems, right? But I do think there's something different happening lately which is that there is an acceleration of distress and an amplification of sort of the noise. So you think about like bodhic sappa of compassion who hears the cries of the world right? Well, the cries of the world are more noticeable than they've ever been in in like large numbers. And so then even as a person of conscience, even as a person of vow, like how do we how do we cope with that, right? And there's been a sort of a flattening of the production of stimulating media. So, you know, I can use the current tools to like rapidly generate a tremendous amount of content. And so then it's like the world is literally a stage like everyone is a producer of content. Everyone's a guru, no one's a student, everyone's a expert, no one's a beginner. And so, you know, Zen asked the question like, "What's happening right now? What's happening right here? What's happening right here?" You know, in this 3x3 space like what's happening just walking. So, there's a lot of noise. And the noise is competing for attention. Right? I've heard the phrase attention economy. Right? Which is kind of a funny thing, right? There's a lot of uh coons where at some point a teacher will say, "Attention, attention." Right? But it's not the teacher that wants attention, right? I don't want you to don't look at me, right? Look at you. like attention.
So, you know, the reason I use the analogy signal versus noise, you know, I I feel like I'm so, you know, I'm only 50, but I feel old because I start talking about things like radios and, you know, it's like all of a sudden my voice should change. Like, back in my day, there was a radio, right? It's like but it's it's true like radios when you would dial them right you'd have signal and the signal would give you a station and there would be music or talking and then then between the stations was noise and it would go right and so you want to tune into the signal and you want to let the noise go by and I think more and more it's important for our survival in terms of our nervous systems that we let the noise go by and find signal.
So how do we do that? It's like well the first step you're already doing it right you're already practicing zazen right where you sit you know what is signal in the context of zen you know in the context of a practice that says let go of everything so like is signal nothing you know that doesn't seem quite right like if my baby cries do I say oh it's just noise. No, like you run and help it. So there's so there's definitely signal, right? But the dharma is about having the freedom to choose what you respond to as signal and what you don't, right? What you don't identify with, right? What you don't incorporate into yourself. So then you're not sort of shouting from the parapit at the opposite castle that's also shouting back. It's not about removing yourself from the world, right? It's about living in it. And so as things come into our awareness, we notice them, right? We notice that the flag is moving, right? Boy, is it? But it's not actually moving. The mind is moving. If you see that clearly in yourself and you see it clearly in others, right? When others are moving, it is their mind that is moving and you can stop and you can tune in and you can start to have some sort of awareness about what am I doing with my attention? Where is it leading me? Is it taking me to a beneficial place? Is it leading to a good outcome? Or is it dragging me under more and more I think you know human regulation like human self regulation is at the heart of this path just that I have all of these senses and that just like all of this information comes in and then I have all of these internal experiences that respond to whatever comes in you know whether it's people talking to me or life situate whatever comes in through the gates of my senses I respond and this is not about being stoic it's not about being flat right sometimes my response might be quite intense But do I get to sort of choose it? Do I get to choose to ride the wave of my response? Do I get to have any agency or am I just being carried away by my past karma? Right? And so that is the axis of identification. And so signal is when I'm not identified and I can clearly perceive reality. Noise is when I'm identified with things. And now I'm already going. Right? You can see this, right? You talk to someone and you say something they don't like and you see them like bristle right away. Like instantly, so fast you can't even, you know, they didn't have any thoughts. They're already annoyed with you. It happens to me, too, right? It happens to everyone. If it comes fast, it's probably noise, right? If it's But you can stop. You can notice that it's a different path. It's a separate journey. You know, signal compounds. Noise cancels out other noise. So all of the egos shouting at each other, they just drown each other out. Right? But steady presence compounds over time. you become more stable, more at peace, more compassionate because that's the other thing is that you know there's not this is not a meaningless exercise because at some point you want the agency to be of benefit to others, right? the ability to have agency to do something. And how will you know what to do if you're constantly being dragged around like, you know, an ox ring in the nose to the next thing that you know the pundits are shouting at you to do or that your past karma is shouting at you to do. You know, the thing that becomes obvious if you sit a lot is that most of what your mind does is noise. Which is why we learn to just let it go. Think of all the little things like I I make like a protein shake in the morning and I grabbed the wrong water bottle and it's like one with this hyper complicated like straw and like there's a little attachment and it's so then all the stuff got all in there, right? It's gross. And you know, I was trying to clean it and like wasn't able to take it apart. And my wife was like, man, I can't believe you used that one. I'm like, I know, right? You know, and she's like, oh, that's so annoying, you know, but it wasn't like, you know, how, you know, we didn't fight about it, but like but we could have. I mean, that that's the sort of thing that people fight about. Most of it is noise. It's very humbling to realize how much of it is noise. So being that receptive, open, present version of yourself that can respond spontaneously. It's where joy lives. It's where peace lives. It's mostly noise. If you learn how to let go of the noise, then the signal becomes really obvious, right? You see a look on a friend's face and you're like, "Are you okay?" Right? You cancel a meeting to talk with an employee because you realize like, "Oh, they're in a bad spot. I need to like help them through this right now. Someone in the checkout line this card is being declined because they're buying $17 worth of stuff and they only have $12 in their checking account and they need a ladle. So you grab the ladle and you scan it on your own stuff and you go here. I can afford to give you a $5 ladle. That's signal, right? You know what to do. You already know what to do. When we come back, the noise falls away. What's left is our enlightened nature spontaneously emerging, spontaneously benefiting others. That's the whole that's the whole game. So I encourage you sit attention attention. Good.