I'm glad to be here with you for Sashin. I'm glad you're here with us and those of you who aren't in the practice period, joining our practice period Sashin. The other day, a couple of days ago, I gave what I called a pep talk, getting ready for Sashin. Because I said we need some encouragement to change, to be open to changing the status quo, and we already have a status quo here of the practice period. And I said there's an undercurrent. through your satsang and services and chanting that begins to develop during practice period after you've made the change from daily life into this special kind of daily life called practice period.

[01:08]

And then under this we more or less pour our life into this new form of practice period and then under that there's this other current starting in maybe we could say our big self or formless self, or mind now seeking its own form, mind seeking mind. By the way, if I, since some of you, English is not your native tongue. If I use some word repeatedly that doesn't make sense, you can ask me, I don't mind. I like it. So, to let this undercurrent, this mind-seeking mind to surface, we create sashin.

[02:18]

But to allow this to surface in you like an artesian well, we might say, bubbling up when you sit still, we do have to sit still. This kind of practice, all of Buddhism really is rooted in still sitting. And we are still sitting after all these years. Sorry. Trying to, anyway. So the first practice of sesshin, the basis of sesshin, is still sitting, is stability in your sitting. And stable sitting is generally spoken about as the teaching of achieving calm, abiding mind.

[03:23]

the kind of term we can use, has been developed, calm abiding mind. Mind that abides in calmness. And the key to calm abiding mind is developing one-pointedness. So these are tools of Buddhist practice. And one of the… the overall theme I've been speaking about in practice period is how do we let our body guide our practice? What does it mean to guide our practice, to let our body guide our practice? How do we do that? What does it mean? So that's what I've been trying to speak about during this practice period as an overall theme.

[04:27]

And the Sashin I'm starting now with a theme that seems like a divergence or digression. What does it mean to hold tenets? Mahayana tenets, Zen tenets. Now among the words doctrine, dogma, tenets, I find tenets the most acceptable. Doctrine is more close to dogma, although doctrine just means to teach, to lead, like doctor. Dogma means more opinion or belief. But tenet just means what you hold onto, like tenacious or tendon or attention. or intend, it's the same holding on. Now if a person holding Theravadan tenets practices zazen, they'll end up to be a Theravadan practitioner.

[05:33]

If a person holds Mahayana tenets, and practices zazen, they'll turn out to be a Mahayana practitioner. This is interesting. It means that the tenets you hold shape your practice. Zazen is not the same if the tenets you hold are different. And it's important to know the tenets of basic practice to have an inventory of operative understandings. If you don't have an inventory of operative understandings, you're just willy-nilly practicing, you know, like a good soldier, you know, what you're supposed to do. But we're not trying to be monk soldiers. We're monk scientists, we're monk adventurers, monk explorers, monk-like at least, while you're here.

[06:43]

I want to say again for the new people here, there are many ways of being in the world. Chinese ways, German ways, Japanese ways, American ways, nomadic, Finlanders, and so forth. But there's a particular way called Buddhism that's not Chinese, not Japanese, not German, not American, etc., Your parents have taught you they need to teach you how to survive in the world. We're trying to teach you how to exist in the world. So this is a language, an ancient teaching, which has developed a way to exist in the world. So this mind-seeking mind, which you can, if you sit still enough, it may surface in you.

[08:16]

But you have to be quite open, and that openness requires strength. And zazen, of course, as you well know, You need the courage to be open to experiences that are non-shareable. Not that you don't share, but that aren't in the category of something you can share. This can be somewhat scary. Here we are practicing a practice that brings us closer to each other, that opens us to connectedness with each other and with the world, and yet it's rooted in experiences which seem unique and non-shareable. You have to have the courage of that non-shareability. And you have to be strong for that. If you want to keep your practice all in the realm of shareability, this is not. You're a nice guy, a nice person, but you need to open up all the doors to how we actually exist or might exist.

[09:37]

So Sushin is to give you refuge in a rather detailed schedule. everything's taken care of, and you can open, as I often say, in the security of sashi, these doors. And now I'm speaking not only about experiences that you can't share, but also about a way of being, what can I say, a knowing the world that does not fall into any of the official categories. I'm not trying to say you need some special experience. And I'm not saying you need to get strong in zazen, developing the ability to sit still so that you can have some special experience.

[10:47]

That's not what I mean. You may develop physical and emotional strength, which helps you go through suffering, but you didn't develop emotional and physical strength in order to suffer, or in order to suffer joy, or suffer suffering. There's an end in itself in developing emotional and physical strength, and there's an end value in itself in becoming more stable mentally and physically, and this more settled mentally and physically, and this is quite possible in satsang and the point of sasin practice. But any experience you have is enabled by other experiences. Any experience you have is doors to

[11:48]

adjoining rooms. Any experience has adjoining rooms. So whatever experience you have, it becomes related to other experiences. So you want to establish yourself in your sitting, establish yourself in your body, establish yourself in your mind. Now although this is, as I say, not in the category of Chinese, German, American, Finlandish, or whatever, we still have to find experiences, we still have to find Gates' tastes in our own experience.

[12:54]

So I've been thinking about the word install. And I've been thinking about this wonderful mountain we have up here, which can grab us so easily. Anytime, but especially at its more dramatic moments when the wind of snow or mist or clouds is swirling around it. Or when sometimes it's backlit by the eastern sun. on a scrim of clouds. We look and we don't want to pull our mind away. We don't want to pull our attention away. It holds us. At that moment that the mountain holds you, you are experiencing one-pointed. And not only are you experiencing one-pointedness, you're experiencing big self.

[14:05]

We could say big self, self that covers everything. For a moment, or maybe several moments, your time story, your past, present, future story is stopped. No, we're not talking about some kind of physics or something like that. We're talking about your experience, in your experience. you are released briefly from your time story, just held by the mountain. Now although the mountain enthralls us in this way, and that's one of the great reasons to practice here, because we have this mountain, And we have this fresh air, and we have this silence. His Holiness the Dalai Lama says that a mountain, clear air, silence.

[15:13]

And then he said at one point, and sitting facing the wall, Zen style. This is very good for developing practice. He used the word zazen. So we have good company here. But although it's the mountain, something outside us, which enthralled us, which held us, It's an inner experience. I mean, it's the mountain which induced the inner experience, but it's an inner experience, and as an inner experience, it's your possession. As an inner experience, it can also arise from inside. You don't need the mountain.

[16:14]

Any tree will do. Any other person. Mind itself will do. This kind of thing we have to know. And when you allow yourself to be installed, you don't look at the mountain to think about it. This is a really nice mountain. You just allow it to install itself in your mind and body. To install and enthrall yourself. And when you allow something to install itself in you, it begins to massage you. And in this sense the world is teaching you something about one-pointedness. You don't have to learn one-pointedness all from practicing zazen and concentrating your breath, etc. Sometimes you just have to let something enthrall you and know the experience.

[17:22]

Let what is installed in your seeing and hearing, smelling, feeling, massage you. I would say that all sightseeing, all sightseeing, sightseeing, is a seeking for one-pointedness. People go sightseeing to see something unique that enthralls them. And they'll travel. They'll go across. They'll travel and get on airplanes and they'll spend days in horrible plastic air to look at something. But that is right here. That which enthralls. Right here teaching us. Massaging us. Beauty means, I like the word beauty, it means to bless.

[18:47]

Beauty means to feel blessed by something. held by something and blessed by it. And beauty is something that also is this holds us for a moment. Beautiful object or person or something, stopped. And beauty means to bless and bless means to blossom. And to bless means to blossom and make sacred, to consecrate, to set aside so that it blossoms. So when you stop for a moment, now, every doesn't blossom, each blossoms. Every, every book means each and all. Each book means, uh, Each of one, not each and all.

[20:00]

Each and all doesn't blossom. Every doesn't blossom, each blossoms. So I spoke the other day about each moment continuity, not successive moment continuity or every moment continuity. This is boring, every moment continuity. That sounds dreadful. It's like being in a dentist office for an hour. Each moment, continuity. To each is to set aside. Sacred means to dedicate to a single purpose or to set aside. So when we look at the mountain, I mean, excuse me for sounding pretty schmaltzy, but it blesses us. It takes this huge mountain, one of the tallest mountains in the United States, before you feel blessed by something sometimes.

[21:04]

Any leaf will do. And to bless means to blossom, and it also comes from Greek, I think, meaning a single blade. Single blade of grass. Single blade of grass blesses us. But what mind is that? Non-Nakurecho in Japanese, Hui-chang, the disciple of the Sixth Patriarch. When he met the Sixth Patriarch, supposedly the Sixth Patriarch said, where are you coming from? Where do you come from? And he said, from Mount Sung. living in China, it sounds like a good answer, from Mount Sung.

[22:07]

And the Sixth Patriotic Guinean said, what is it that comes whence? What is it that comes in this manner? And Wei Chang said, whatever would be said would miss the mark. Get that mark? Whatever would be said would miss the mark. Now, some people feel that the whole koan tradition of turning phrases came out of this one story. What is it that comes? What is it? What is it that has come to Sashin? What is it that is listening to this talk? This big mind of what is it, we also need in practice not with any anxiety to answer.

[23:17]

Let the answer surface in you. The answers surface in you. Don't rush to mentally understand the question for some kind of psychological reassurance. Now, the more you allow each, instead of getting caught in every, the more you allow each, each, the more things will bless you and will blossom. I mean you see these tankas with various figures and they often have their fingers like this, and out of their fingers comes this thing and it turns into these wonderful flowers. This is the same idea, that that figure in the Tanka is manifesting that mind where everything blossoms.

[24:27]

And it's the same in our wonderful Kuan Yin, Kanon. As you all have noticed, she's standing on a lotus pod. She's holding a lotus embryo and bud. But where's the blossom? That's the same as the step. There's the lotus embryo. There's the lotus bud. There's the lotus seed pod. Where's the blossom? You have to have this each moment continuity. If there isn't a long unfolding each, you won't see this blossom. Now the road to this is one pointedness.

[25:35]

It's like a rope bridge. To discover this ability that mind and body rest on your sitting, rest on whatever is in front of it, rest on each. Nothing blossoms from every, only from each, and that each is the mind of one-pointedness. And we can learn it again from the world itself when we notice how our mind installs beauty. So I'd like us during Sushim to find that mind which installs beauty. That mind in which you feel things blossoming. Each, whatever, each thing blossoming. Blessing or blossoming.

[26:41]

This wisdom in simple words. It's up to you. You know, it doesn't require the mouth. It requires this patience, and skill of each moment, each moment continuity. And in this, you know, you can let your stillness of your body seek the stillness of mind, and the stillness of mind seek the stillness of body. And this will help you in your practice in coming to one-pointedness. and to just give yourself over, pour yourself over into the schedule. Don't think about things, just practice in this way and in your activity and in your sitting and chanting, this mind seeking mind will likely surface.

[27:58]

May our intention be equally penetrated.

[28:14]

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