I love to taste the truth of God's entire collection of words. Now that Sashin is almost over, we'll be going back to our ordinary activity, so-called ordinary activity. Turning away from ordinary activity is one aspect of our practice, and turning toward ordinary, usual activity is the other aspect. And these two directions is the realm of practice.

[01:13]

So, seshin and ordinary activity. activity within stillness and stillness within activity. Sometimes we think there's... Before we understand our meaning and practice, we think that there are two different things. We think that sitting all day is different than working all day. Or we think that zazen is different than dancing. Or we think that priests are different than lay people.

[02:21]

Sometimes we think that we don't quite understand the difference between layperson's practice and priest's practice. We have a feeling that sometimes that priest's practice is sincere and layperson's practice is not. We think that's the difference. But if our practice is sincere, whether we're a priest or layperson, then our practice is just practice. And if our working life is sincere, and our sitting is sincere, then there's no difference between working life, worldly life, not worldly, but life in the world, zazen, sashin, priest, layperson.

[03:41]

There are distinctions. The distinctions exist, but the distinctions exist as distinctions of one practice, not different practices. Different parts of one practice, not different practices. If you understand the oneness of daily life and zazen, then whatever you do is zazen. Whatever you do is practice. If you don't understand the difference, or if you don't understand the sameness, then no matter, even if you sit zazen, it's still not zazen. No matter how much you sit zazen, it's still not practice.

[04:46]

just a kind of something that you do may be a waste of time. So if you think that zazen is one thing and your ordinary daily activity is something else, then you don't understand the meaning of practice. Both priests and laypeople live in this world. We all live in this world. So we're all subject to the same conditions in this world. But our attitude toward it makes the difference. our understanding and attitude and how we approach this world and its inhabitants is the difference between enlightened activity and deluded activity.

[06:19]

So, what we do, what will we do after we step out from the Sashin? What does it mean? And what will the Sashin mean to us after we've stepped out? What will it have been? And what will our life be when we're moving around? is important questions. Will you carry the stillness with you? And what does it mean to carry the stillness? Not to carry something with you. You can't carry something with you. But how will you know, how will you recognize the stillness that you had in Sashin.

[07:35]

What is that? Yesterday, I was talking about, when I read the Enmei Jukku Kannon Sutra, I was talking about in and end. Do you remember in and end? In means seed cause. And end is cooperating cause. In is like a seed. And N is like the water and the sun and the warmth of the ground. It is the cooperating cause that makes the seed actualize itself.

[08:44]

Without all these cooperating causes, what potential we have doesn't arise. doesn't manifest. So, in and n together is what we call karma. In, uh, n causes in to be what it is by rubbing up against it like, uh, Aladdin's lamp. you rub it and make a wish, and whatever you wish arises. We think that we're subject to all of the winds of the universe, but actually we rub the lamp and make a wish, and what we wish for comes into being.

[09:58]

We are where we are because of what we want. But interestingly enough, you know, we're all here together today. Isn't that interesting? That we're all here together today? Why is that? Somehow, we're all wrapped something the same way, and we ended up here. So, in-in, that interaction is called karma. Actually, it's called in-in. And ku, which was not in the sutra, ku is what we call emptiness, which allows in-in to be in-in, in-in.

[11:16]

It allows karma to work, what we call emptiness. The law of cause and effect. takes place within emptiness. And emptiness is the fact that nothing exists as itself. If something exists as itself, it means that it always has existed as itself and it will always continue to exist as itself. So since we don't see monuments of that kind around, we know that everything is what we call changing. So changing is the space, excuse me, in which everything changes is called emptiness.

[12:24]

But it's not really change. In some sense, it's change. We say this changes into that. But Nargajuna says firewood does not become ash. Firewood is just firewood and has its before and after. We say it changes. From our point of view, it changes. Firewood changes into ash. But from Nargajuna's point of view, Firewood is in the state of being firewood, as Dogen explains Nagarjuna's idea. Dogen says, firewood is in the state of being firewood, and it has its before and after. Ash is in the state of being ash, and it has its before and after. If you said to ash, do you know that you were once firewood? The ash would laugh at you. Someone commented on that and said, beans turns into tofu.

[13:40]

Soybeans, we make tofu from soybeans. But if you said to tofu, do you know that you were once beans, the tofu would laugh at you. You don't know what you're talking about. In a sense, that's true. Soybeans is soybeans and tofu is tofu. And cows, steers are steers and meat is meat. Steers, we say steers turn into meat. From our point of view, from our, the way we see things, steers turn into meat. But steers are steers and meat is meat. Meat is not, no longer steers. It's beef. Beef is not steers, it's just, it's beef. But we make the connection. There's some connection. But, you know, from Buddha's point of view, Buddha meaning, from the point of view of things as they are, it's a little different.

[14:53]

And when we read Buddhist literature, when we read Dogon, when we read sutras, they're always from Buddha's point of view, not from our point of view. So we get kind of, we fall asleep, you know. We read Dogon, a little too long, we fall asleep because we can't assimilate. You know, we can't believe it. We can't put those juxtapositions together in our mind. It's very hard to read certain sutras and certain passages of Dogon. But they're speaking from Buddha's side, not from our side. Not that it's different, but because it's hard for us to see from Buddha's side. We say, well, that can't be so. They're just talking in paradoxes.

[15:55]

So when we try to judge by our own standards, it all comes out as gibberish. But this idea of karma in-in, in-in, and emptiness, is very important for us. It's like form is emptiness and emptiness is form. It's like the Heart Sutra says, form is emptiness and emptiness is form. And it's not just an idea, it's what our life is about. It's about karma, how we exist in karma, how we exist in an ever-changing world in emptiness.

[17:05]

And the story of Hyakujo and the fox is about this. Most of us know something, have read the story of Hyakujo and the fox, Paichang. When Paichang was in his monastery, Yakujo was on Mount Yakujo. He used to give a talk. And every once in a while he would notice this guy way in the back, this old man way in the back, who'd come and listen to the talk. And one day After the lecture, the old man came up and he said, he revealed himself, he said, you know, I used to live on this mountain a long, long time ago, Kalpas ago, and I was the abbot. And one day, a monk came up and asked me, is a Zen master or is an enlightened person subject to the law of cause and effect?

[18:22]

And I said, no. Well, you know, in Buddhism, Buddha is always talked about as being free from karma. Is Buddha free from karma? Is a Buddha free from karma? If so, if Buddha is free from suffering, then he must be free from karma. because karma, karmic life, is the life of suffering. So Buddha, you know, we all hear Buddha is free from karma. If so, is an enlightened person free from karma? A very valid question. And the answer, well, no. I mean, he says, yes, Buddha is free from karma. An enlightened person is free from karma. Because of that answer, he was made to transmigrate for 500 lives as a fox.

[19:29]

So he came back and he asked the present Hyakujo, please tell me, please help me out. I'll ask you this question. No, Hyakujo said, well, ask me the question. He said, OK, is an enlightened person subject to the law of cause and effect? And Hyakujo said, an enlightened person cannot ignore the law of cause and effect. And at that point, the former Hyakujo was enlightened. And he said, Now I can get rid of my fox body. I'm going to go up on the mountain, and if you go up there tomorrow, you'll find this old fox pelt. Would you please give it a burial as a monk?"

[20:38]

The yaga just said, OK. So the next day he said to the head monk, tell the monks we're going to go up in the hill and have a funeral. And they couldn't understand who had died. They said, no, we're all still here. But, you know, they said, we'll just do what he says. So they went up on the hill, and there was this fox pelt. They said, this is it. So they dug a hole, buried the fox pelt, and they had a funeral. And the old man was very grateful. So the question is, is an enlightened person subject to the law of cause and effect? Is someone who understands ku subject to en-in?

[21:43]

If you understand emptiness, Do you still have the suffering of cause and effect? How do you get out of suffering is the question. So whether you're a monk or a layperson, whether you're sitting zazen or working every day or whatever you do, can you get out of the law of cause and effect? When you're sitting zazen, can you get out of the law of cause and effect? Are you subject to it or not? You can't ignore it.

[22:55]

We can't ignore it. If our legs hurt in zazen, this is cause and effect. Because we sit down and cross our legs, they hurt. Very simple. You can't get out of it. But at the same time, we live in emptiness. If we only lived in em, our life would be nothing but suffering. But because we also live in emptiness, we can escape from it. So, are we subject to or not subject to?

[24:05]

So, we're both subject to and not subject to. Usually, our usual way of thinking is either or. Because we think in terms of either or, we can't figure out what our life is about. And in our daily life, it's the same. We're both subject to and not subject to. Because we live in emptiness, we're not subject to the law of cause and effect. The monk was right. The former Hakyakujo was not wrong. when he said, no, we're not subject to the law of cause and effect if you're enlightened. That's right.

[25:08]

He wasn't wrong. But he wasn't complete either. The other side is, yes, we are subject to the law of cause and effect. On each moment, we have to pay attention. If we don't pay attention on each moment, the law of cause and effect will catch up with us. You can't avoid it. There's no way to avoid it. But if you're one with the law of cause and effect, then you live in emptiness. Because everything is momentary. If you understand this fact, you can sit comfortably in zazen Even if you understand it, you may not be comfortable in Zazen.

[26:09]

But when I say understand it, I don't mean understand it in your head, as an idea. We have to understand it with our whole body. But constantly letting go and accepting. Constantly letting go and constantly accepting. If you don't accept completely, and if you don't let go completely, then you're caught by cause and effect. The old man transmigrated for 500 lives until he realized, yes, we are subject to cause and effect.

[27:14]

He knew, no, we're not. He didn't know, yes, we are. So the same principle holds true whether we're sitting zazen or out in the world engaged in dynamic activity. So at one time, we're accepting everything.

[28:43]

And at the same time, we're creating everything. Our life is neither passive nor active. It must be both passive and active at the same time. This is what we mean by harmony. Passive is to live in emptiness, and active is to live in cause and effect. Passive and active, simultaneous. Stillness and activity, simultaneously. So it's what we call Dharma, or law.

[29:46]

It's not just something we make up. It's the law of the universe, the way things are, whether we like it or not. So Dogen says we should have a very healthy respect for cause and effect. Bodhidharma says we should have a very healthy respect for cause and effect. Don't ignore it. Pay attention. It's hard, you know. Hard to pay attention to what we're doing and be one with what we're doing. That's what we always say. Our practice is to be one with what we're doing. Doing and one. One is emptiness, and doing is cause and effect.

[30:52]

And with is cause and effect, and what is emptiness. But it's not sequential. It's at the same time. So if you try to see emptiness, you can't see it as an object. Don't try to grasp your enlightenment as an object. Don't think it's something you can see, as Dogen says. You see it in your activity. as your activity. So we should keep this in mind when we step out of sashi.

[32:31]

Even though the circumstances are different, our life is the same. So as circumstances change, but we remain the same. And that sameness is constantly changing. We remain the same, constantly changing. And when we were having tea, I said, if you want to sit well, you must be very, very still.

[33:48]

And I'm not Let your discomfort or the various things that irritate you move you. Don't be moved by various things that irritate you. how to keep your calm mind in the most trying situations. This is our practice. This is how we practice, moment after moment, to keep our calm mind in all the trying situations. If you can do that, then you can say, I'm practicing Zen. If you forget, or if it doesn't mean anything to you, then you're just wasting your time, maybe. So that's what we should remember, and that is our practice.

[35:04]

Thank you.

[35:28]

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