I vow to taste the truth of the target of his words. I'd like to speak briefly.

[01:04]

Mel suggested I speak briefly and then get to know everyone a little better. Can you hear me? Get to know everyone a little better with some dialogue, some questions. About my sense of... It could be called one way to practice or or what to do between zazen periods. I mentioned in San Francisco about three or four weeks ago, when Shakyamuni Buddha completed his first round, of training or preliminary training. Please raise your hand or something if it gets hard to hear.

[02:07]

He met right after that with five of his closest friends and told them his understanding of why someone might be drawn to practice and what to do. So these are traditionally known as the Four Holy Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. And the Four Holy Truths are a statement on the condition of things, or why someone may be, cannot avoid wanting to practice once they have this kind of feeling. And the first is, it's something like, it's more than if anything can go wrong, it will.

[03:16]

It's more like everything will go wrong. And the second is the explanation that this is, This is based on an inherent discrepancy between what's happening and what we would prefer or not prefer. And the third is it doesn't it's possible to minimize this discrepancy. It's possible to notice what it is we are trying to bring into the situation, or push out of the situation. And there is a method, or a way, it is possible to minimize this discrepancy, or at least to notice it.

[04:21]

And fourth is that this method is called Eightfold Path. Usually the Four Holy Truths are called suffering, cause of suffering or desire, the possibility of an end to suffering, and that it's the Eightfold Path. So the Eightfold Path then is essentially what to do. now that you've noticed that we have this problem. And probably most or many of you have read this list and it's usually the first word, it's eight pairs of words and the first word in each pair is usually translated right.

[05:40]

It's not exactly literal. It's sam, which is the same as the first character of sangha, or community of practitioners. And I think it's more literally complete or together with. So rather than, for example, one that's well known as right livelihood, more literally it's complete livelihood or together with. what your livelihood. So for today I'd like to say that the thread or theme running through these eight aspects of practice is to trust what occurs to you or to trust your experience as it's occurring. And we have lots of information sources in each moment.

[06:55]

If all of you were to fall asleep now, that would be... I should understand that that is probably something I should respond to. And also, if I start to get a stomach ache or something, I might want to talk about something else as well. So there's your body itself. If your eyeballs are burning or feel quite cool, it may be information how to proceed or how to not continue something you're doing. and your thoughts. If something occurs to you in the form of a thought, probably it's correct. Since it's all we have to go on, for it being part of a complex of what we have to go on,

[08:06]

It seems very useful anyway to trust it. And as you sit more sessions and so on, and get a sense of how you speak to yourself, how we speak to ourselves, it becomes clearer how to understand those sorts of suggestions that you're getting from your thoughts. So usually, yes means yes, to understand that it doesn't and in a certain context if it keeps coming up and you keep acting on a certain interest and you keep getting into trouble you may not want to read that instruction literally. So the reason I say the thread running through this eightfold path

[09:08]

is trust and particularly trusting your own experience is essentially, this is a list of aspects of experience for us to look at and so obviously the only way to find it useful is to is to believe the data that you're receiving and to act on it. So the Eightfold Path traditionally is complete understanding, thinking, speaking, activity, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration and meditation.

[10:14]

Recently, last month, I was in New York City, and I met a Vietnamese monk, an experienced Buddhist teacher named Thich Nhat Hanh. And his life, I think probably some or many of you have heard of him, He wrote several books on Zen practice and also on Vietnam. And he now lives in France. Anyway, he and I were walking on 85th Street. And he asked me what we study at Zen Center. And I told him something about the study program at Zen Center in San Francisco.

[11:45]

And he asked me if we do any memorization. And I told him that some of the study classes do and also that we chant the Heart Sutra every morning. And he asked me if I understand the Heart Sutra. And I said no. And he asked me if I thought he understands the Heart Sutra. And I realized that my first no, I could answer his second question, yes or no. It was quite a different context that he created So I answered that I... Well, first he asked me if... Yes, he said, do you understand the Heart Sutra?

[12:53]

And I said, no. And he said, do you think I understand it? And I said, this is not so important, what I said, because any of several responses would have been okay here. It was mostly being wiped out by his question. I believe I said, When I first said no, I thought that you did understand the Heart Sutra. Now I still think you understand the Heart Sutra, but I think so differently. So I don't know if this is clear, but it seemed to me he was explaining something like the Heart Sutra, or anything. It's not simply a yes or no response. If I had said yes, that would have been probably worse. But it wasn't likely that I would say that.

[14:01]

It's more some infinite realm or very immense realm and some bipolar response was very naive of me. And I didn't think about it much at all when he asked it, but he's been practicing about 35 years, and he's asking me if I understand the Heart Sutra. I'd better say no. I mean, there's no question. Anyway, when I said that, he said to me, when I said to him, I wasn't sure if he understood it, but I thought about it differently now. He told me, it's like a forest.

[15:03]

So just to tie this back into the eightfold scheme that we're talking about today, this could be an example of any of them, but in this case we could say it's an example of the first right understanding or complete understanding. And it's a very useful way to... It's a very useful large backdrop for me, this story. How to understand understanding. And thinking and speaking are just opportunities for us to... to observe ourselves and to get some sense of of how we're doing and to notice when we don't notice or when we haven't been noticing how we speak or what we're creating.

[16:30]

And the same of activity and livelihood is maybe an aspect of activity. and effort, and mindfulness, which is maybe another way to describe the thread that can run through all of these. They can actually be used any way you want. You can interrelate them on any kind of grid you want, whatever seems useful as a way to As I said, something maybe to do between periods of zazen, as well as during. And finally, concentration. So, I'd be very happy to take an all-suggestion at this point.

[17:48]

And if anyone wants to open some discussion, we can do so. Yes, incidentally, anything you want to talk about is okay with me. It doesn't have to be limited by anything I've said. I would like to ask, when he said that the Heart Sutra is like a forest, did he go on with that, or could you say something about your understanding of what he meant about that? That's all he said, and I didn't ask any further. But my take on it was, as I said, the... I thought about it, and I thought about whether to get into describing a forest literally, and how it relates.

[18:57]

But mostly it's... I think it's the feeling of infinite, or your understanding of something like that doesn't end. That's what I felt he was saying. That... that the heart suture is not something, you could say there are gradations or locations, but it's not something that can be described, and either you understand it or don't. I'm sure there may be an argument for the other side, but I think that would, I believe that was what he was showing me. Yes? Regarding trusting your body's message, I don't think there's a clear way, I think largely some opportunity for experimenting.

[20:21]

And you probably have a hunch whether it's one or the other, and so you might start with that. And even if your hunch is that it's your problem, Still, you can just take so many headaches. Just kind of pace yourself. There are technical terms. Mindfulness refers to a whole set of practices, which is paying attention to particular things.

[21:36]

And there's a body of literature developed which has a specific set of things that you might want to pay attention to. And then any number of variations can come from that. So the traditional set is a body and subsets are breathing and posture and so on. And body and then feelings, but it doesn't mean emotions, it means your take, whether it's positive or negative on something. As soon as it happens, first your experience of it and then your whether you like it or not, to notice that. And third is mind, and fourth is objects of mind. And the set phrase that one says to oneself doing this is, now I am standing up, now I am sitting down.

[22:46]

And actually as you're doing it, this is a, You're just aware that now you're breathing deeply or now you're breathing shallowly. You're not trying to set it up so that you breathe deeply more often. Just completely noticing or noting your experience. Now I am getting really angry. Now I feel pretty good. And it doesn't necessarily make you less angry. But perhaps in the long run. But it does diffuse it a little anyway. And you can say I, but you can also use some third-person description. Now the monk is getting angry, or now the fellow, or something. So mindfulness usually refers to that whole set of practices. And concentration usually refers to kind of a focused attention

[23:55]

There's some large number of concentrations described, but I think mostly they're talking about a kind of focused attention, which I don't know if you've been sitting a long time or you just came for Zazen instruction today, but maybe in Tzechin, week-long meditation, sometimes one gets an experience of being concentrated. So something more like that for concentration. And the mindfulness practices sometimes they're all you can do if you're something really overwhelming just happened to you and you just can't possibly keep it together. One thing you can notice is You might notice that you're breathing a shadow, or that you're walking, and just, you know, I'm now walking.

[25:11]

And sometimes in a pretty overwhelming situation, that's all you, you can take refuge in that anyway, as something to practice with. Well, I wish I knew you better. I might have had more to say, but thank you. I started practicing in Berkeley. My Dwight way is the first time I've been here, though. And it's a pleasure to be back. Thank you.

[26:10]

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