Is this cold weather or warm weather? It's cold. It's colder. Cold. OK. I have to get myself into your standard. Since you left the doors open, I thought it must be warm. Oh, yeah, it feels pretty warm in here, actually. Oh. No. Makes me feel hearty. I had a conversation with Yvonne Illich recently. We spent most of the afternoon together.

[01:33]

questioned me very intently about my feeling about nuclear genocide. And his own decision has been to be silent. Because he feels silence is the only response that... I don't know exactly if I understand what he means. actually. But it seems like he feels that silence is the only response to that which transcends language and culture. But it seems that he did, but I'm not sure. But certainly one understanding of silence is that time and there's no talking and so forth. And in Zen practice, we in Buddhism, silence is not understood to be whether you're speaking or not or whether there's sound or not.

[03:06]

but the silence within sound. Or that way of speaking, you could say, right speech, is that way of speaking which doesn't break the silence. Now, the emphasis in Zen is, and Mahayana Buddhism as a whole, a monk in the marketplace, and so forth, is on this silence, this activity which doesn't break silence. Although that's true, and that's the whole direction and emphasis of the teaching, still remains a fact, pretty much a fact. That practice works chemically, physically. When you actually can be silent, in that sense of without words,

[04:41]

nearly without words, nearly without form. By words, I mean form. Now, sometimes if we just emphasize practice as samadhi, it's hard to distinguish Buddhism from any other teaching. mostly Oriental teaching emphasizing Samadhi. We can concern ourselves with that point some other time. But practice does, again, come down to that stillness which allows mental physical internal factors to merge and external factors to merge. So somehow you want to bring yourself

[06:04]

to that point in your daily zazen. Every day is a chance. Every period of zazen is a chance. And here at Tassajara, it's your main opportunity in your life to see if you can stay with that throughout the day without disturbing the way you walk or move by yourself. So that feeling is walking. Not you are walking. That feeling is walking. Here we would have that conduct which doesn't disturb the silence in that sense. But I think practically We need the repeated experience. The concentration on the empty, the signless, and the wishless. I often define

[07:30]

You know, Tassahara probably done so here as the purpose of Tassahara Monastery is to make you unemployable. So we do have to keep Tassahara going. It's relatively simple. There are stories of teachers or monks who got so into this that I think we would call them spaced out. They forgot to dress. They went to the zendo in their underwear. In the middle of service would be over and they'd be still standing there half an hour later.

[08:33]

Now I'm not recommending, but that kind of engrossment or concentration. Please don't use this with all your space heroes. This is an excuse to be spaced out. You've got to practice in such a way that you find yourself independent of conflict again, ambivalence, distraction. And even, what, horizons of meaning. When I do the wisdom water,

[09:38]

Or we blow the conch, and so forth. These are understood as establishing boundaries. This is a very important idea in British practice, and I'll probably want to talk about it, perhaps, during sashimi. Whatever you do establishes boundaries. Things come into some relationship. Your breath reaches out and establishes boundaries. So in your practice, again, your Zazen practice, you establish a boundary where you can be completely at ease.

[10:40]

relaxed outside of the frameworks of union or conflict and buildings, distractions. I believe in Hasidic, one Hasidic teaching is no images, no paintings and so forth. And I feel that one of the dangerous aspects of our media reportage is not the reporting itself, that's perfectly natural, but reportage which implies it's the whole of it. or that state of mind which thinks that the meaning is found in the reporting of it. From that point of view we want to find again your relaxation outside images or any reporting.

[12:07]

Naruto has a poem. I don't know if I mentioned it to you. My own version of it is a chalked geometry. The third solitude, night of the ocean, opens doors and wings. A mysterious, the mysterious population trembles and welcomes the names of immortality. Homeland. Homeland. Something rose. Again, I think I use this phrase, mysterious population. Trembles and welcomes. There is some feeling like this of a mysterious population that merges in these internal and external factors that merge. When you find this

[13:49]

Zero relaxation outside. Any context. Just to sit. This is Shikantaza. It means faith, too. Faith in the flag spoken of. Faith in the unknown consequences of practice. Faith in unusual states of mind. Remember the five P's, one of them is unusual states of mind. Going crazy or this mind

[14:53]

Empty mind of practice. Emerging mind of practice. Adheres and sees everything inside. This practice is a family affair. In the Koans it often uses the phrase of family affairs. You're not finding the truth and rejecting what's not true. You're taking a taste of this practice, trusting the development of your conduct, trusting your developed conduct, trusting the concentration that arises from your conduct and dawning freedom from ambivalence.

[16:29]

family affair because when you're born, you don't say, oh, I don't know if I like these parents. I think I'll choose some other truth. It's given, given, these parents. So a baby must have faith in his or her parents. But they are his or her parents. Will be his or her parents. Facing unknown consequences of having the parents who died. puts poor children in a terribly vulnerable position. So now we can remake that decision with faith in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

[17:58]

Because we need that decision to make things work. Like leaving a great space between two buildings. If you think you can't do it, you better not do it. If you think you can, probably the feeling that you can will add one or two inches. The fit face that you give, that allows you to tell. Unless there's a great fire behind you. Maybe it will give you more push. And there is a great fire. Practice as if your heads were on fire.

[19:04]

Let your body find a way to let your body remind you of this practice. In the daytime, in the course of your activity, the way you walk, speak, should not be just a reminder but just an expression but also a reminder to you of this stillness we all live in. in which we see each other, find each other, know what we mean by each other, that is Buddha.

[20:33]

Anyway, this is the chance, this is the chance you have in your lifetime, a chance to find the stillness or profound ease which with such clarity with such stability, unshakable. The armor of the Bodhisattva is not tied up with form. So there is not any armor either, nothing even armor to shape. To find it with such clarity and stability, that the rest of your life, wherever you

[21:40]

R is an expression of this. Dharmakaya, the body. And the The way to do it is to bow to do it. The way to do a sashi is just to have your mind now in the body, not worried about it, not thinking about it, not even preparing about it, just settled on doing the sashi.

[22:41]

with each of you settled. The subtlety of your life will take care of the difference between, I'll do this issue, I'll do the practice, I'll do my life, and this family affair of yours. So just settle in yourself. You'll know what to do. I'll do it. I'll do this whole practice. I'll do this time that doesn't hurt. With the conviction that your past is gathered here,

[23:47]

and your future is gathered here. Thus our house is the past and opens into the future. So we should, you should, you and I should be getting ready in this way for the session just now. Almost ready for the session just now.

[24:51]

You heard the first hit of the bell just now. It'll be a long roll down for the next days. And the second hit will be in a couple of days. Like this, let the forces that you can't name, gather. Find out your actual capacity outside of what you think. Capacity of us human.

[25:54]

of Buddha beings in this age which seems to transcend anything any human or leader or institution can do. It seems beyond the problem, it seems beyond the stature of So we must find our capacity outside of how we think. Let the deep power of us human beings gather Let this deep capacity find expression in your daily life and in our sashi. Your and our sashi. Buddhas are not made in groups, but individual, one by one. Your individual sashi supported by everyone.

[27:24]

One by one, breath by breath, find the gathering of your deep energy and resolve. And take your relaxation and comfort level. Blow the conch and set wide paracetamol. Four-hour practice. Each breath, extend your paracetamol.

[28:30]

We are intention.

[29:16]

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