We just chanted the Ehe Koso Hotsugamon. This can be translated as the verse arousing the vow by the high priest Ehe, the ancestor of the lineage of this temple, Ehe Dogen Dayo Sho, and almost every time that we recite this together, I'm struck by it in different ways. It's just like every time we chant before some of our other talks or some of our other classes, an unsurpassed, perfect, and penetrating Dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred

[01:05]

thousand million kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. But too, when I hear the assembly chanted, it often strikes me what a wonderful vow that is, to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. And in this verse, giving rise to this vow, this morning I was struck by reading and by hearing you chant that Buddhas and ancestors of old were as we, Buddhas and ancestors of old were like us, and we in the future shall be Buddhas and ancestors, and revering Buddhas

[02:21]

and ancestors, we are one Buddha and one ancestor. Over the years, many people have told me that they have come to this temple or the city center or Tassajara, and also when I travel around and meet people who come to retreats, they often tell me that they're not actually interested in enlightenment, they're not really aspiring to be Buddha. They just want a little bit more peace in their life, they just want to be a little bit more skillful in dealing with and caring for moment-by-moment experience.

[03:28]

They don't aspire to Buddhahood. That's honestly what they're trying to say. So in a way, I'm a little apologetic to offer the opportunity to chant something where you read the expression of a vow to attain the Buddha way, to become Buddha, to become not just a little bit more skillful, but fully skillful, fully realize your potential to be a peace worker in this world.

[04:32]

Although beings may not yet aspire to be Buddha, still, even those beings who do not aspire to be Buddha, still, the one great causal condition for the appearance of the Buddhas in the world is to open beings to Buddha's wisdom, to show beings Buddha's wisdom, to awaken beings to Buddha's wisdom, and to help beings enter into Buddha's wisdom. The Buddhas wish to do this for beings whether the beings wish the Buddhas to do this or

[05:49]

not. If you wish the Buddhas, if you invite the Buddhas, if you request the Buddhas to open you to the Buddha's wisdom, that is their wish. They share your wish. If you do not wish it, the Buddhas still wish to open you to the wisdom. Because Buddhas wish you and I to be completely free of suffering ourselves, and to be able to work to help others become free of suffering, and help others become free of suffering. That's what they wish. Out of their deep compassion for us, to share their wisdom, and to awaken us to it, by Dharma

[06:54]

teaching. Their wish to awaken beings to wisdom comes out of compassion, and the wisdom of the Buddha purifies compassion, which gives rise again to the wish to teach compassion. So round and round, wisdom which arises from compassion, purifies compassion, which gives rise to the wish to teach compassion, and round and round. In actual practice, there sometimes

[07:57]

seems to be a little bit of emphasis on compassion or wisdom. Sometimes it seems to be one aspect, the wisdom aspect or the compassion aspect may seem to be more salient. So in this Sashin, I hope that we all can be aware of whether we are practicing, whether we wish to practice wisdom and or compassion. During these talks, there will be talk, probably, but for the rest of the day, we don't have so much talking,

[09:18]

but our bodies are here together, and with our bodies are our minds, so our bodies and minds can be practicing compassion and wisdom. In the talks, the talks may be emphasizing wisdom, or they may be emphasizing compassion, but each of you can observe what seems to be most appropriate, what practice seems most appropriate moment by moment, what practice seems to be most appropriate to your heart, to where you are, mentally and physically, what practice seems to be most beneficial. Sometimes you may not be able to see it, but perhaps you can just quietly open to the question,

[10:37]

what is the most beneficial way for the practice to unfold? Now, what is the most beneficial way for the practice of the Buddha way to unfold? In this body and mind right now. What is the way for Buddha's wisdom and compassion to blossom in this body and mind right now? I may not know the answer to that question, but in the space and time of the question, the blossoming of the way may be possible.

[11:59]

And we may be able to witness it, and enact it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[13:36]

Thank you. This morning we chanted in morning service. Another teaching from the same ancestor, He He Dogen, and he gave some teachings for the practice, for the ceremony of sitting meditation. The ceremony of sitting meditation, which we have scheduled a number of those periods of ceremonial sitting for us to practice together. And he says, he wrote something like, for practicing this meditation, a quiet room is suitable.

[15:08]

So, a quiet room has been provided. Eat and drink moderately. We have moderate meals for you. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness. Stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. I can interpret this short instruction as a kind of practice of compassion.

[16:26]

A kind way for you to care for your body and mind. And a kind way for you to be with this group of people for the next seven days. If we can give up the operations of our mind, let go of our thinking, give up our discursive thought, this is a very kind way to live with the body and mind. And it comes to fruit as tranquility, and ease, and flexibility, and buoyancy, and so on.

[17:34]

This is a kind of compassion practice, which is sometimes called concentration, or meditation. So if you wish to practice this way, I think that is a very beneficial practice. If you wish to allow that practice to blossom through your body and mind, I think that's quite kind. It will benefit all of us who are practicing with you, and will help you. It will develop your compassion to practice this way. In practicing this way, in allowing this practice to thrive in your body and mind, through your body and mind,

[18:45]

I think also the practice of giving, the compassionate practice of giving, also will thrive. That you give your body and mind over to let this practice use you. To let the practice of concentration use your body and mind. It's also practicing the precepts, bodhisattva precepts. Eating and drinking moderately, not taking food that's not given. Just receiving the appropriate amount. It's also practicing patience, and it's also practicing diligence.

[19:49]

All these compassion practices are welcome in this room. To some extent. I don't know if all of you are welcoming all these practices, but I request that you and I consider whether we actually request these practices to be realized in our own body and mind, and whether we ask and request others to allow these practices to be realized in their body and mind. These practices of compassion. If you give your body and mind for this week, for these practices, I'm sure we will all be very grateful to you, and the Buddhas in ten directions will be grateful to you.

[20:51]

Is there the openness in your heart to these practices? And if there isn't, then we also have a practice which goes with the precepts, which we recited also at the beginning of this talk. A practice of confessing. If we feel any constriction, any resistance to being open to these practices. If we have any doubt or lack faith, then it would be good to open to these practices of compassion. And if we can confess this lack of faith or this resistance to these practices, that will melt away the root of the resistance. To spend the week working on these compassion practices, again, is welcome. Really welcome.

[22:01]

But then there is also the wisdom practices, which may be brought up in some of the things we will be chanting, and some of the things that are said during these morning talks. And the wisdom practices may not be appropriate for all of you to meditate on. So if you hear wisdom practices or wisdom teachings, and if you hear them, if you give yourself over to hearing the sounds of these words about wisdom, that may be all that's necessary. Just generously listen. You may not wish to think about them.

[23:14]

You may not wish to meditate on them. And that's fine. However, even though some of you, or perhaps most of you, may not find it appropriate to meditate on these wisdom teachings during this retreat, still, there are causes and conditions giving rise to the teaching of wisdom. In the recommendations for sitting meditation,

[24:24]

after giving instruction on how to practice compassion while sitting, after giving instruction for tranquility in sitting, then the Ancestor Dogen goes on to give more detailed instruction about how to compassionately care for your body at your sitting place. He says, at your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. He wants us to be comfortable. Have a nice seat. You may be sitting here for quite a while. It can be thick, it can be padded, it's okay. It doesn't have to be on rocks. And sit, he says, either in the full lotus or half lotus position. And he describes how to sit in those positions.

[25:27]

He was a busy young man. He didn't have time to mention that there's other positions you can sit in, which are a little bit more complicated to describe, because they are varied. Basically, please sit in a posture that's comfortable, that makes it most possible for you to sit upright, to sit in a way that's most alive for you, to sit in a way that you can live most completely. Please find that posture. Take your time through the week, moment by moment, to find the appropriate posture for you. This is what the ancestors want you to do. Have a nice, comfortable position for sitting. And then he gives some hints about how to look for your upright posture.

[26:36]

Like, it might be that your upright posture is not leaning to the right or leaning to the left, or forward and backward. And each of us can find out what is not forward or backward, what is balanced, what is upright, what is upright, moment by moment. What is this upright posture? That is an act of compassion. And looking for it is compassionate, too. Caring for the body, moment by moment, for the welfare of all beings. Everybody wants you to take good care of your body. If you're busy doing something else, the Buddhas will forgive you for wasting your time. But please, consider taking care of your body, taking care of your posture, moment by moment.

[27:39]

Be kind to your body, moment by moment. What is the kindest position? What is the kindest way to sit, moment by moment? What is the upright posture? So, the ancestor says, please find this upright posture. Once you have adjusted your posture, settle into a steady, immobile sitting position. You have compassionately positioned, you have compassionately sat upright. And now, he says, the wisdom teaching. He's told you how to sit upright. He's told you how to position your body, how to care for your body, moment by moment. He's told you how to care for your mind in a kind, calming way.

[28:46]

And now, he offers you a wisdom teaching. And he says, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Or what kind of thinking is thinking of not thinking? And he says, non-thinking. This is the essential art of Zazen. This is the essential art of the wisdom aspect of Zazen. Moment by moment, being kind in the situation of a body and mind arising and ceasing.

[29:50]

An impermanent body-mind. Caring for it, moment by moment. Learning how to be consistently careful of this body and mind. And when you are settled in this care, when you are upright and settled in this care, when you are unmoving in this kind care for the body, when you're ready, when you're calm and settled and ready to learn Buddhism, to learn Buddha's wisdom, then think of not thinking.

[30:51]

And how do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. The kind of thinking that Buddha does is non-thinking. And Buddha also thinks of not thinking. Although the instruction says, think of not thinking, actually we start learning how to think of not thinking, which means to think the way a Buddha thinks. We start that by practicing non-thinking. Once again, once you have settled into a steady, unmoving sitting position, once you are steady and unmoving in compassion,

[31:57]

then practice non-thinking. Non-thinking can also be translated as beyond thinking. You have used your thinking to settle into a steady, upright, unmoving sitting position. Now, listen to the teaching, that what is happening, that this body and mind, that every experience that is arising in this calm place, all things that are arising are beyond your thinking.

[33:02]

Enter the realm of non-thinking, enter the realm beyond your thinking, about what's happening. Things are happening, a body and mind are happening, and we think about it. In fact, we cannot get the body onto the cushion and take care of it without thinking about it. We cannot find the upright posture without thinking about it. Caring for it involves thinking about the body and mind, thinking about what's kind, what's appropriate. But this body and mind that we're caring for, moment by moment, has a character.

[34:14]

Of the way it's actually happening, and the way it's actually happening, is beyond what we think it is. It is beyond our dreaming of it. But we must dream of it in order to get it to Green Gulch in the first place, and get it into the room, and get it to our dream seat. And our actual seat is there too. But the actual seat, the actual body, is beyond your thinking. When you're ready, you can do that wisdom practice. Enter the realm beyond your thinking about your body and mind. Enter the realm of non-thinking, beyond thinking of what other people's body and minds are.

[35:20]

This practice of non-thinking is the fundamental practice of wisdom. It is the basis for the ultimate practice of wisdom, which is phrased as thinking of not-thinking. But we must be, first of all, grounded in compassion, and then do this basic wisdom practice of meditating on the teaching. But every experience has a character which is beyond our imagination of it. Every phenomena also has a character of being, yes, a being of having our dream images of it.

[36:29]

We already have that. That's what we generally assume is what's going on. The wisdom teaching at the beginning is to turn your attention to the teaching of what's happening, how things are actually happening are beyond your ideas, your thinking, your dreaming. If this practice is disorienting or reorienting too much, and you start to feel seasick, just let it go and go back to basic compassion practice until you feel ready to turn your attention again to the wisdom practice. In San Francisco, Suzuki Roshi's room used to have

[37:52]

a piece of calligraphy over the doorway to his room. It had two big characters. Each character was about a foot and a half square. And I asked him one day, what did those characters mean? And he took his hands and gestured as though he was holding a wheel. And he said, cloud driver. And there were two little characters off to the side, and I said, what do they mean? He said, non-thinking. So when you're practicing non-thinking, it's like you're a cloud driver. You're entering the realm beyond the graspable imaginations or images we have of things.

[39:06]

You're entering the dynamic, fluid, creative realm of dependent co-arising. And you're in there working with this material, but it's like herding cats or driving clouds. Your grasping mind doesn't apply. And in that realm, you start to go through a transition, a transformation of the way you relate beyond the basic compassion practice. And your view of things starts to be transformed. And then your behavior will be transformed, not just by trying to be kind and considerate, but your behavior will be transformed because your vision will start changing. So once again, throughout the day, caring for your body and mind,

[40:25]

which also includes caring for your bowls, caring for your cushion, caring for the brooms and mops, caring for the serving pots, caring for the earth, caring for each other, all these practices of compassion, moment by moment, giving yourself to them. And when you're ready to take the step into wisdom practices, then also listen to the teaching that all these things you're caring for, have a character beyond what you think they are. Have a character beyond what you think they are. You're letting go of your thoughts that this person's good or this person's bad. And you're remembering the teaching

[41:31]

that this person is beyond my thoughts of good and bad. The practice of myself, the practice of this person, and the practice of that person, are beyond my opinions. I remember that teaching. I remember that teaching. All beings are arising and ceasing in a way that's beyond my ideas of how they're arising and ceasing. Still, I do have ideas, I do have images of how they're arising and ceasing. I'm not escaping those. I'm caring for those, too. So this is an introduction to the practice of non-thinking,

[42:32]

the practice of beyond thinking, and the practice beyond thinking. This is how we approach our Buddha's wisdom. First, based on compassion. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them.

[43:37]

Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[44:03]

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