Sometimes I wonder what I'm trying to say to you. I feel uneasy when I talk in such a way that it implies There's something you don't have, enlightenment or something like that, or something any of us don't have.

[01:03]

Certainly, my looking at each of you, I can't see any reason why, for the most part anyway, small things, why any of you shouldn't be any different from what you are. But you seem to want to be different, or at least you want to practice Zen. So whether you're a new student or older student or someone so experienced in Buddhism it doesn't mean anything to say student even anymore. Still this Sashin which most of the people here are in a Sashin now is an opportunity to realize the oneness of your mind. It's not going to happen in the future, it's going to happen now.

[02:35]

While I... Of course, no, you're all practicing Buddhism, and quite seriously, to say the least. Why not let it go just at that? Isn't that enough? And I guess what I'm saying, yesterday and other times, is can we make that just slightly greater commitment which makes all the difference in the world? your life won't change much in its actual events but you'll give up many possibilities that we seem to need or we're terrified or afraid of boredom or conclusion or something ending

[04:18]

So some kind of cosmic trust is needed, that everything won't end. I don't know what work you'll give me to do, the six patriarchs said. Zen being a shortcut, you know, is... Has some...

[05:49]

of finality or preciseness or extremity in it. And the paramitas are perfect wisdom, perfect patience, perfect conduct. Because if your conduct is perfect, that's enlightenment. If your patience is perfect, if you can be patient completely patient under any circumstance that's enlightenment. So these six aspects which we can practice carried to their extremity are enlightenment. So we need in Zen some Conviction or some conclusion in extremity No matter what happens I'm going to sit and you can it's absolutely visible when someone has made that decision there each moment is the same but it Absolutely is clear the way they sit on the cushion Looks like you couldn't knock them over with

[07:20]

a boulder. Not that they sit so strongly, just that there's no alternative to what they're doing. Whenever we talk about Buddhism, the problems of language and sentences, etc., tend to weave a package, you know, which we get out of. and always in it, in any discussion, there are certain priorities. Yesterday I was giving some... there was implied some priority, like consciousness is a god, or consciousness is some high priority. So I wanted to talk today a little about consciousness.

[08:54]

Maybe we can say the first responsibility of anything is its own spot, the spot that you are. But the fact that you identify that spot as you grossly limits your responsibility at that spot. existence on that spot. As if a cloud tried to define itself at a particular moment. It can't. It's always changing and it's becoming more water or less water or more air or changing in relationship to everything. Sometimes it's over that, sometimes it's under the moon, sometimes it's

[10:05]

various places. And the problem itself is consciousness then because it's the consciousness of the boundaries of the cloud or the boundaries of your spot that cause you to make the mistake and identify that consciousness as you. from the point of view of Buddhism, our first error is in original sin, maybe, is in identifying what we are conscious of as us, as me. This is my hand. And then we get into, oh, I can see that over there, that should be mine too. so what we're conscious of we tend to identify with and want control over and so consciousness and control become closely identified and then you have a great deal of difficulty because what is outside your control or within and uncontrollable causes you a great deal of anxiety disease

[11:32]

So, the first practice, again, is to give up the idea of control, which means the practice of noticing your karma, and of giving. Giving is always denying the boundaries of control. When you give something, you give without any idea of giver, of receiver, of gift or reward. That's actually rather difficult to do. But you make that kind of effort. And whenever you have some notice that you do have an idea of giver, gift, etc., which is controlling the way you give and receive, you know that what we mean by shunyata or samadhi is not your state of mind. But if you can give up the sense of boundaries, of control, through your practice of zazen,

[13:08]

you'll see that consciousness includes everything. If you take away the graspability, then there is no difference between what you can grasp and what you can't grasp insofar as they're conscious. you are actively participating with things and aware discriminating awareness is another name for perfect wisdom or discriminating awareness arises from perfect wisdom but we don't say but it's not the discrimination of mine and yours So, consciousness then is almost, when you first experience it, maybe like a stream, and it's a stream on which everything floats by, everything comes up, all art and insight and affection,

[14:51]

Whatever you name, it comes by. Every actual original thought, any thought you've never thought before, any way you've never looked at something before. With this consciousness, too, your sense of depth perception is greatly increased. Things are not flat. You have, as we say, from picking up from one corner, you know all three. from one to no three is some phrase in Buddhism. You experience things from many points of view at once. And subject-object distinctions.

[15:53]

go away. At this point, this is where mantra practice comes in. Mantra practice is based on the identity of what you think and what is, but what you think and what is are not identical as long as you are subject to concurrent causes. So, on this stream, everything unique arises. And many of us actually enjoy the disparity between conscious and unconscious. It's a kind of adventure. But to the extent to which

[17:00]

the unconscious flows is the same we don't really need that distinction conscious and unconscious it's on one hand becoming more unconscious on the other hand becoming more conscious because if you give up what you can control you don't know what works will be given you to do, something will float by, appear actually out of your own creation. So the first physical practice when you sit is to follow your breathing or count your breathing. is something magnificent. It's what we start Buddhism with and it's our spirit. It's our mind. Breath is bodhicitta. The action, the activity of the thought of enlightenment is breath.

[18:28]

so when you start practicing zazen each time and especially in a sashin where you have some time to try to shake loose the plaster and the cobwebs and actually you should shake, you know, a little when you first sit down rocking is very good, you know it's not just to center yourself but actually rocking and going forward take your breath patterns out of their usual out of takes takes your breath out of its usual patterns and they can start afresh as if it was a first breath so you want to in a sense you want to get it together on your cushion and if it's not quite together shake it apart and get it back together let it come together so that you have a feeling of maybe almost being on top of or centered in your breathing and heartbeat and energy which will play about your body if you can shake it loose I don't mean start thrashing around on your cushion but inside some kind of get loose if you can get

[20:05]

right on top of it, so your breath and mind and heart and energy are one activity, one consciousness and you can stay with that for a seven day Sashin your life will be completely different if you can actually do it for one period or two periods it will make a big difference everything will be the same, not different but fused into something that we can't say, should not say. So you have some choice in the matter, partly the degree to which you take seriously what the Sixth Patriarch said. You know the Sixth Patriarch knew what he was talking about, I think most of you know.

[21:35]

And the degree to which you know, actually know, that's your own possibility to realize your own being as a field of blessedness in which wisdom naturally arises. And it's partly a matter of your choice to, willingness, willingness to give up the many impossibilities you entrance yourself with or reassure yourself one thing we don't want to do is put all our eggs in one basket but to practice Zen because it's a shortcut you have to put all your eggs in this basket, this moment without alternatives And sit as if you were riding the whole earth. And with each breath out, everything disappears, every dharma. And with each inhale, all the constituents of being disappear.

[23:14]

just breath just some changing cloud being that is centered as it knows its own real aliveness. So what I'm encouraging you to do is not to just practice Zen for the good feeling, the sense of well-being it gives you, but to make that final decision to practice Zen as if your life depended on it.

[24:30]

completely in this session, not some other session, even though you've done many sessions. This one is unique. This one is a real opportunity to become one with that being you actually are. So please try.

[25:19]

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