Vimalakirti

And you can really see it in the Lankavatara Sutra, which is also so much distinguishing the Mahayana from the Mahayana.

And think about Vimalakirti, right? Most of you may have read Joan's commentary on the Vimalakirti Sutra, which is really full of that contrast between the, what are they called, the Buddhas that are...

Yes.

The Pratyeka Buddhas.

And from a neurophysiological perspective, there's an optimal zone between tense and collapsed or tensed and, and drowsy, which I think I'm, I'm postulating corresponds to the equanimity that I've been speaking of and that we cultivate in our Zen practice.

This whole contemplation brought to my mind, uh, Vimalakirti, the greatly awakened householder bodhisattva, who's depicted as outwardly involved in myriad activities and relationships while continuously inwardly free.

It occurred to me that the spaciousness of equanimity is like Vimalakirti's room.

You know that 10-foot square room? For those of you not familiar with the, uh, Vimalakirti Sutra, there is a 10-squif-foot square room, um, in which...

or rather that accommodates, that Vimalakirti lives in and that accommodates 84,000 guests [laughing] bodhisattvas and gods and other disciples of the Buddha who've come to visit Vimalakirti.

In that room, that apparently small enclosed space, some very mysterious, unbounded, immeasurable space with no barriers Among Vimalakirti's guests were a wide variety of visitors with many different feelings about Vimalakirti.

And if we consider it, uh, this teaching symbolically, as I have, we could say that Vimalakirti's consciousness was totally unobstructed, like enabling him to engage in a wide variety of skillful means for the benefit of a variety of advanced but still suffering beings.

And that room represents his consciousness.