I guess I said so yesterday that I have some feeling of appreciation for your practice, this practice period. It's a little different than last practice period. Maybe it's a little too sleepy, easy, but it has some more penetrating, persistent feeling. Maybe I didn't say that yesterday, but it was in my mind to say it. I never know what I said. The practice has more the feeling of being continued without end. If you have the idea, I will practice for two months more or two years more, that kind of practice doesn't work at all. It's not a matter of when it ends or begins, but of your conviction. As I've said, practice is not like

[01:32]

anything you've ever done before. And your ideas or experience don't apply to this practice. even your experience of this practice doesn't apply to this practice. If you have some idea, my practice has been such and such and I've made progress and I'll continue it, that limits your practice to think that way. We don't need any idea of accomplishment or progress or dissatisfaction or satisfaction. Just keep bringing yourself back to the door of our practice. Entering the Zen door, entering your zazen. Before we come to the Zen door, being prepared to enter,

[03:05]

I'd like to be able to pull the whole zendo out from underneath you. And you'd still go on sitting. Pull the whole world out from underneath you. You'd still just go on. Without any idea about what you're doing. Something will present itself to do. And you won't know quite how you did it. Something arose to do it. This way we engage ourself with everything. Not just people. Not even just people. Sometimes I have the idea, well, a few of Zen Center students are practicing, but most will practice for a while and go somewhere else. And by and large that's been true in Zen Center. And I think that reflecting your own feelings

[05:03]

I treat you as if you were going to be practicing forever, but actually you convince me that you're not. I don't think we have to have such a careless idea, hoping for something better, or hoping to improve ourselves. Lonely. I don't think we have to feel we have to leave to make way for some new bunch of students to come. There's no reason we can't practice together for a long, long time. as Buddhist disciples, as monks. Numan Roshi felt that way about us. He just saw monks, lay monks or priest monks, male monks or female monks,

[06:39]

He just saw a long tradition of people like us practicing. He didn't say that some of you weren't practicing and some of you soon wouldn't be practicing. Just to continue without... I want to say without effort, but you don't understand what I mean when I say without effort. And when problems appear in our practice, not coming to the edge of the problem and saying, oh, this thing over here is a problem, what shall I do with it? But entering right into it, absorbing it, letting it go right by us, into the core, becoming one with it.

[07:42]

being the problem. Suzuki Goshi used to say we should be an obstacle of Buddha. Without being an obstacle of Buddha, you won't have any practice. You won't have any way to know your true self. You know, you only see the sunlight, really, when it shines on something. Something is the obstacle of the light. So all the particles of air and stones and earth are obstacles of the light.

[08:57]

Buddha is the obstacle of Buddha. I want to be able somehow to get you to practice without some gaining idea, or you can transform your gaining idea into an idea of enlightenment, or you can give up any idea at all and just enter each moment again without any idea. When you come into the zendo, you shouldn't bring any ideas, just again practicing as if it was the first time. And sometimes you'll be awake and sometimes you'll be sleepy, depending on the time of day and what stage your practice is at. And you'll try to be awake. And that trying to be awake is

[10:37]

closely related to awakening, like the ditch and the ravine. To be awake, but not conscious awake, not controlled awake, just cognizant. And then when you actually have no idea of anything, you may hear, as we did this morning, the birds start to sing. And something else will awaken. And you'll start to sing. Anyway, we want to have this kind of persistent practice, always ready, always giving up our ideas, just sitting, just doing what you're doing. And if you start to think and you can't stop your thinking, then bring your thinking around to what you're doing.

[12:18]

And when you're breathing, just breathing. Just breathing. Sometimes maybe an idea will play around it. Oh, I'm almost just breathing. But actually just breathing. And if your breathing becomes very, very slight, just what then is your consciousness attached to? Anyway, finally our consciousness doesn't need some activity. And when you practice, you may be in a whole session. You'll only have one period, or one hour, or one ten minutes, in which you don't have any idea of anything, except... No, except. You're just... You can't say. And then you'll retreat from that. You'll try to repeat that.

[14:10]

think, next period I'll try that again. Life is wonderful. And you'll get worse and worse for the rest of the session. But you need some retreat, I think. It doesn't matter, retreat or doing it. It's like Dogen saying, for every time the archer hits the target, he practices 100 times, and each practice is hitting the target. You are only separated from Buddha by your thinking.

[15:18]

There should be some soft sureness in your practice. Somebody was discussing something with Reb, tension, sun? And they were saying, well, what about this good teaching? And Reb said, oh, that's something like this. I don't know exactly how it went, but he said, oh, if that's a good teaching, I would call it Buddhism. That kind of attitude, anyway, is necessary, whatever it is. Oh, that's Buddhism. That's practice.

[17:01]

We may be. To say we are already enlightened doesn't mean some idea of enlightenment or some confidence that everything's okay, or even that thinking, I haven't achieved much, but my practice has been pretty good. That's some false base for your practice. Enlightenment is there when you are ready to know it, or ready to notice it. But we don't notice it. Over and over again we don't notice it. Some idea prevents us.

[19:28]

Some expectation prevents us. Some refusal to let go of our baggage prevents us. So maybe our practice is to go from place to place with our baggage. Maybe sitting down and sleeping on it, waiting for something to arrive, forgetting a suitcase here and there. going from situation to situation. Every time you see you don't need some piece of luggage, just leave it there. So when you sit down on your cushion, actually all of you have all this baggage stacked around you, you're sitting in the midst of.

[21:15]

as much as possible you want to stop carrying it around. I want to tell you a little bit about the people I talked about yesterday. Well, these people practice this way. Very persistent. As long as they had their baggage, they carted it around and they would keep shoving their baggage under their teacher's nose. Here's all my baggage. What should I do with it?

[22:39]

I'm not going anywhere much. Anyway, Sekito. I'll start with Sekito, Kisan. He wrote the Sandokai that we chant every morning. And he was born about 700. And his disciple was Yakutsan Igen. At that time, the two great teachers were Baso and Sekito. And he was with Sekito. Actually, I think he received Tokugo. His head was shaved by Nanaku, the Sixth Patriarch's disciple. And then he did other things, studied Buddhism, various kinds of Buddhism.

[24:09]

Then when he was about 28, he went to see Sekito. And Sekito sent him to study with Baso. Baso was Nanaku's disciple. You all know who Nanaku is, right? The guy who polished the tile for Baso. Remember? Anyway, he went and studied with Basa for a while. Then he went back to study with Sekito. And he became Sekito's main heir. Then he went off by himself and borrowed a cow barn in Jilat Ringo of some farmer. And he lived there for some years. until his disciples have accumulated, built him a little hut, and in that hut he studied sutras a great deal. But he also, he wouldn't allow his students to study sutras, but he studied quite a lot. He's the one I told you about yesterday, who, when the director... Not this guy. He doesn't have to ask me, I talk too much. When the director came to

[25:41]

Yakusan and said, you haven't given a lecture for a long time, please come give a lecture. And he came and then just left. Anyway, Yakusan's two main heirs, partly I'm showing you how all of these people were interconnected. Baso and Nanaku are Rinzai line and Seigen Gyoshi and Sekito and Yakusan Sotolan. But actually lineage is much more like that trellis out there. It's all like that. People going back and forth. Yak-san's two main disciples are Dogo-enchi, Dao-wu, and his younger brother, Ungan Donjo, who was Tozan Ryokai's teacher. And Ungan Donjo studied with Gyakujo. You know who Gyakujo is? A day of no, which Mumon Roshi talked about, Gyakujo said, a day of no work is a day of no eating.

[27:11]

That's what Buddhist economics, Zen Buddhist economics are based on. Very important change, actually, from Vinaya way of practice to Chinese Zen way of practice. And Yaksan, for those years after his ordination by Nanaku, Nanna, yeah, studied the Nyaya way till he joined Sekheto and Vassa. Anyway, Ungan Donjo, studied with Yakujo about 20 years, nearly 20 years, taking care of him in various ways.

[28:32]

When Hyakujo died, his elder brother, Gogo Enchi, was a disciple of Hyakusan. He persuaded his younger brother to join him. Hyakusan. I don't know how old he was, maybe... 40 or so? 35? So they studied with Daktsang. You can see, you know, here's these people studying with the greatest Zen masters in our history, and how many years they persisted in their practice. Just practice it. Anyway,

[29:58]

They went to visit, then, Nansen. Nansen is the guy who held up the cat. Nansen Fugien, right? You all know Nansen, right? Isn't that interesting? I think it's really interesting, all these guys. So, when they went to visit him, Nansen said to Dogo Enchi, what is your name? And Dogo Enchi's name means, I don't know how to say it exactly. Devoting yourself through wisdom, or devoting yourself to wisdom. So he said, what is your name? And he said his name. So Nansen responded and said, when wisdom

[31:30]

when wisdom does not reach it, what will you do?" And Dogo Enchi said, "'It is better not to talk about it.' He just said, "'It is better not to talk about And Nansen said, you're the one who's doing the talking. Horns will grow on your head. So then a few days later, Dogo Enchi and Ungan Dojo, his younger brother, were mending their robes. And Nansen walked by and said, the other day I said When wisdom will not reach it, what will you do?" And Dogo, who was about ten years older, got up and just walked away and went into the zendo. And then Nansen left, and Hungan Dojo

[33:08]

went into the zendo and came up to his brother and said, why didn't you answer the master? And his elder brother said, oh, you're a clever fellow. So, Mungan was not about to give up. I like his persistence. Anyway, so he went and ran after Nansen, came up to Nansen and said, How come Brother Monk wouldn't answer you?" And Nansen said, that is the way to enter the practice with other beings, non-human beings, all beings. He said, so then Niganda Anjou said, what is the way of all being or non-human being? And Nan Sen said, don't you know that that which wisdom won't reach, which you can't reach by, how do I say it, you shouldn't talk about it?

[34:33]

So, Hungan Dojo didn't understand. Actually, neither Dao Wu, Dogo Enshi, or Hungan Dojo both didn't understand exactly. The older brother was a little... the least he knew how to respond, the better. Actually, they both responded just right. They both tried something. Anyway, this is a very important point, you know. How do we enter a practice with all beings, mountains, trees, babies, people, plants, wind? You can ask yourself the same question. That which cannot be reached by wisdom, what will you do?

[36:21]

Later they went to ... Since Rungan Dojo didn't understand so well, his brother suggested he return to see Yaksana. So he went to see Yaksana, and Yaksana I guess it's Yaksan said, I have a headache today. So he came out and his brother said, what did he say? And he said, he wouldn't tell me. Later they went back and studied with, again joined Yaksan's group. And Yaksan asked them, that which cannot be reached by

[37:37]

wisdom, what do you do?" And Togo Enshi just walked away. And Nungan Donjo said, why did he not answer you? Still quite persistent. And Hyaksan said, he understood me, that that is the way to enter the way with all beings. Later, Of course, Ungan Dojo and Dogo Enshi became the main heirs of Yaksan and Ungan Dojo, actually his name was then, went to live in a cave called Ungan Cave. He spent the rest of his life there.

[38:57]

I thought I'd show you the fan that Mouman Rashid gave me. When he gave it to me, I said, Now I have your wind in my hand. Maybe I was asking him, I was saying, We are, Zen Center is ready to study with you if you'll teach us, is what I meant when I said that. I think that's true, that we're ready if you want, if you will. So I've said that. And then I, I don't read this. It's pretty difficult to read that. So then I went outside his cabin and I asked Noriko, what does that mean? She said, it means the clear wind is in your own hands.

[40:48]

So you can practice that.

[40:52]

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