A baby mind is mirror mind. Whatever crosses the mirror is seen just as it is because there's no partiality. There's no idea of what to interfere or intervene in what is seen. So this is called seeing things as it is. To just have the mind totally open. Concentration totally concentrated and open. Pure concentration. So this pure concentration takes in the whole zendo but not anything in particular. So if something moves over here, you see that move. It's like when you walk down the road, I noticed this when I walked down the road,

[01:03]

my head is down and I'm looking at the stones and where I'm walking and my mind is reeling, working very hard, nicely but hard, but then I don't see anything and then I'll stop and open my eyes, pull my head up and just walk and the whole forest appears, the sky and the forest, the birds. Without thinking, without any idea, it all appears and it's wonderful and overwhelming. The same way in the city, when we walk down the street east and west, in the west the ocean and in the east the mountains, but usually we're walking with our head down looking at the sidewalk and then you pick your head up and you can see that little triangle,

[02:07]

there's the ocean, oh yeah, down there's the ocean, wonderful. It's also like when you drive a car, when you drive a car without thinking about anything, to have the whole road, the whole view in front of you open so that you know exactly where everyone is on the road, what all the other cars are doing, you can assess the state of mind of each one of the drivers just by the way they move and you know exactly what to do without thinking, the mind is totally open. When I drive a car I have a hard time having a conversation, or if I do have a conversation my attention is really on the road mostly and a little bit on the conversation, but when

[03:08]

it comes to what to do next it's always what's in front of me on the road. I often drive with people who are involved in the conversation and they don't see what they're doing on the road, it's all over, and that's why I really like to drive by myself. So then he says, Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of compassion, it sounds like he's changing the subject, Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of compassion, sometimes portrayed as a man Avalokiteshvara also appears in the form of a woman, sometimes she has one thousand hands to help others, but if she concentrates on only one hand then nine hundred and ninety nine hands will be of no use. They have these thousand armed canons, or guanyins, in China and Japan.

[04:11]

When I was in China I visited this factory where they make the thousand armed canons at Mount Tiantai, a very famous mountain monastery, and then they have all those little shops and a little village around it, and in the village some various stages of these statues are made. It's a very interesting place to go. But the canon of a thousand arms, there's a koan also about this, but I won't talk about that now. From ancient times the main point of practice has been to have a clear, calm mind. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Rājī always talked about a calm mind. Whatever you do, you should have a calm mind. Even when you eat something good, your mind should be calm enough to appreciate the labor

[05:11]

of preparing the food and the effort of making the dishes, chopsticks, bowls, and everything we use. With a serene mind we can appreciate the flavor of each vegetable one by one. We don't add much seasoning so we can enjoy the virtue of each vegetable, and that is how we cook and how we eat food. So this is a kind of concentration, an aspect of concentration, how we, when we eat something, we're concentrated on what we eat and we can also appreciate each thing that we eat and also the vessels and how they come to us. We say this in our meal chanter, we used to, serene mind and tranquil mind. Serenity is like the sky at sunset, and tranquility is like water in a quiet lake.

[06:19]

Serenity and tranquility. So these are images of settledness and also of clarity and stillness. We have this wonderful, when we see a, when the sun goes down on a clear day, very serene, and we have this feeling of serenity. And when we're at a clear lake we have this feeling of tranquility. But this is also our mind, serene mind, tranquil mind. Then many things can appear, and we can appreciate whatever appears. This is really an important part of our practice, to appreciate whatever it is that appears without judgment. Without judgment is the key.

[07:23]

And so this is also Zazen, to have a serene or tranquil mind in Zazen means whatever appears is what appears without judgment of the good and bad, like and dislike, want or don't want. We can just appreciate everything. And then he talks about flavor. He says to know someone is to sense that person's flavor. Everyone has a flavor. What you feel from that person, if there's a sweet flavor, sour flavor, a bitter flavor, salty, cold, hot, mild, warm, spicy, we all have, each one of us has a disposition, what

[08:32]

I call a disposition, which is a general flavor. We say, so-and-so is really salty, or angry person, but we like him anyway, or be careful of that one because you can easily set them off, or someone has a kind of sexy flavor, be careful of that one too, easily get caught. So, each one of us has his or her own flavor, a particular personality from which many things will appear. To fully appreciate this personality or flavor is to have a good relationship. Then we can really be friendly. To be friendly does not mean to claim to someone or try to please them, but to fully appreciate them. So we have to meet everyone where they are. And how do we meet everyone where they are? We have to meet them with big mind.

[09:34]

If you're a Zen teacher, you have to be able to meet everyone. You have to be able to meet everyone and relate in some way, so that you don't get turned around, or pushed off your seat, or have to run away. So how do you do that? How can you meet everyone? First you have to be able to see everyone as they really are. We say when you shake a stick at the dog, the dog will follow the stick, and then you can just lead the dog wherever you want, and just follow that stick, you know, give me that stick, give me that stick. But when you shake the stick at the lion, the lion goes for the person. So you have to be able to go to the person, go deeply in, and not be fooled by what's

[10:44]

on the surface. It's so easy to be fooled by what's on the surface. So if you know yourself, you can find that person's nature, either right away or after a while. So to meet whoever we meet with big mind, or whatever we meet, whatever situation we meet, or whatever person we meet with big mind, to not have any defense or any preconception. Just be totally open. And often, you know, we judge a person. I know what they're like, I see them day after day, and they're like this. And if we stick to that, I know what this person is like, then we limit our understanding

[11:48]

and our ability to relate. So even though we know what someone is like, to relate to them every day as a different person or with a clean slate, as if you didn't know them. And that way you give a person a chance to change. But if we maintain our idea about who this person is, then we contribute to their being stuck there. So, it's very important to not maintain an idea about who people are, but to always be open to not knowing, even though you know very well. So you're always giving someone the opportunity to change, and when that happens, you relate

[12:57]

right away, as if nothing ever happened before. Whatever flavor it is, some flavors we don't like, but still, we have to be able to take a little bit in our bowl. So to appreciate things and people, our minds need to be calm and clear. So we practice zazen or just sitting without any gaining idea. Gaining idea, with no gaining idea is Suzuki Roshi's mantra. At this time, you are you yourself. You settle yourself on yourself. This is Katiciri Roshi's mantra. Settle yourself on yourself.

[13:57]

Let the flower of your life forest bloom. Just settle yourself on yourself. Settle small self on big self. Just sit down in the midst of Buddha nature. With this practice, we have freedom, but it may be that the freedom you mean and the freedom Zen Buddhists mean are not the same. To attain freedom, we cross our legs and keep our posture upright and let our eyes and ears be open to everything. So we take the most restricted posture in order to have the greatest freedom. If you can have total freedom within the most restricted posture, then you can have freedom wherever you are. Sometimes we used to say, well it would be really good to go to jail, if I go to jail

[14:58]

I can sit zazen and everything will be alright, but don't do that. We don't do things on purpose. To let your eyes and ears be open to everything. So just a totally open being. We say, if you sit zazen thinking, I sit zazen, that's not zazen. Or if you think, these are my legs, that's not zazen. Or this is my pain, that's not zazen. Pain is pain, legs are legs, arms are arms, feelings are feelings. Hearing hears, seeing sees, smelling smells, feeling feels, but there is no I within all that. As soon as you say I, then you create a self.

[16:04]

There is a self, but it's a self that's not a self. If you just say there's no self, that's only one side, that's dualistic. So yes, there is a self, but that self is not a self. We feel that we have a self, me, myself and I, all the time. I want, I do, I do this, blah blah blah, but that self is not a real self. But we have to think in those terms, otherwise it's hard to communicate. But the problem is that we buy right into it and believe it, and that's the problem. So he says, with this practice we have freedom. Freedom means free from self.

[17:08]

We have a self, but we're free of the self. To attain freedom we cross our legs, keep our posture upright and let our eyes and ears be open to everything. This readiness or openness is important because we are liable to go to extremes and stick to something. Extremes I think he means concentrating on one thing and getting stuck there. When we face the wall, do zazen, we don't concentrate on the speck or the bug or the configuration, or it turns into many things. Eyes are open, but there's nothing particular to see, there's just the field of vision and there's just something seen in the field of vision. So this readiness or openness is important because we're liable to go to extremes and

[18:16]

stick to something. In this way we may lose our calmness or mirror-like mind. Zazen practice is how we obtain calmness and clarity of mind, but we cannot do this by physically forcing something on ourselves or by creating some special state of mind. So people think, well what is the state of mind we should have in zazen? No special state of mind. States of mind are continually changing, moment by moment, they're faster than moment by moment. Every mini-second is a different state of mind. So there is no special state of mind which is zen state of mind or zazen state of mind because moment by moment a state of mind is changing. The state of mind is no special state of mind, totally open, just totally open.

[19:18]

There's a saying, somebody gave me one time, the cool breeze blows through the empty hall. That's our state of mind. You may think that to have a mirror-like mind is zen practice, uh-oh, it is so, but if you practice zazen in order to attain that kind of mirror-like mind that is not the practice we mean. It has instead become the art of zen. So, yes, mirror-like mind, but if you sit to have a mirror-like mind, if you sit to have enlightenment, if you sit to get anything, that's not zazen. Just sit to sit. Whatever comes into the mind is at that moment the proper state of mind. As soon as you start to go after something, you stumble past it.

[20:23]

As soon as you want something, you've fallen into the realm of desire. I want mirror mind, I want enlightenment, I want to be a big, juicy zen master. The difference between the art of zen and true zen is that already you have true zen without trying. When you try to do something, you lose it. You are concentrating on one hand out of 1,000 hands. You lose 999 hands. That is why we just sit. It does not mean to stop your mind altogether or to be concentrated completely on your breathing, although these are a help. You may become bored when you practice counting your breath because it does not mean much to you,

[21:27]

but then you have lost your understanding of real practice. We practice concentration to let our mind follow our breathing so that we are not involved in some complicated practice in which we lose ourselves attempting to accomplish something. So we talk about in zen, hard practice, breaking the bones. What is hard practice? Practice is not hard or easy. If you say hard practice, then that is dualistic. If you say easy practice, that is also dualistic. It is not hard or easy, and it is both hard and easy. It does not matter hard or easy. What is hard is to keep our mind from falling into duality. That is hard practice.

[22:29]

If you read the first chapter, first talk in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Suzuki Roshi says, we talk about hard practice, but it is not hard practice because it is hard to sit in zazen all day long with your legs aching. It is hard practice because it is difficult to keep the mind from falling into duality. That is hard practice. It is because we are always falling into dualistic thinking. So when we sit in zazen, we have this opportunity to do nothing else but keep the mind from falling into duality. That is all we are doing all day long. It falls, it goes this way, it goes that way, it likes this, it does not like that, it wants this, it does not want that. And just to stay there with what is without desiring something else

[23:35]

is the hardest practice there is. And we practice hard practice with a soft mind. Just keeping our mind soft is hard practice. Soft mind is not mushy. It simply means to blend, to go with things, to move with things, to not resist, to let things come, let it come and let it go. And it is like grass when it bends in the wind. Grass, the big wind blows the grass over, but the grass comes right back up. It is very flexible. Flexibility, big strong tree is so stiff that it falls over in the wind.

[24:38]

But the grass does not get damaged. If you are stiff in zazen, the wind will blow you over. So body should be loose. You know, when we sit, every one of our joints, every part of our body is independent. The fingers got three joints, the hand has all these moving parts, the arm and the elbows are flexible. Everything is held together by sinews, sinuous. But it is all loose and the thought of zazen brings it all together into one act. But still all of those parts are loose and they are just all cooperating with each other. They are not one piece. They are just doing one thing together. They are all cooperating and doing this one thing, but they are not one piece.

[25:45]

They are all these little pieces that are cooperating and harmonizing together. And they should always be independent. All the little parts of your body should be always independent when you are sitting. And you are not forcing them to do anything. They all love it. You know, they like cooperating with each other, harmonizing. So we sit up straight. This is the active part of zazen, is to sit up straight and induce energy with total dynamic energy. At the same time, to let all of the tenseness fall away. So there is no tenseness. There is tension which holds everything together in good form, but the tenseness is not necessary. That is energy that is not necessary. So your arms should be flapping, you know. If someone comes and pushes your elbow in zazen, just the elbow moves.

[26:48]

Just the arm moves. But if you are stiff, if you think it is all one piece, somebody pushes your elbow and the whole body goes over. So we are not statues. So when we sit in this way, we can be very comfortable. And we use the least amount of effort to do the most work. But it is necessary to understand that it is not just passivity. It is active, purposeful activity and at the same time total passivity. So the active and the passive are just like this. This is the active side and this is the passive side. Thank you very much.

[27:49]

So he says, in the art of zen, you try to be like a skilled zen master who has great strength and good practice. Oh, I want to be like him. I must try very hard. The art of zen is concerned with how to draw a straight line or how to control your mind. But zen is for everyone, even if you cannot draw a straight line. If you can draw a line, just draw a line. That is zen. For a child, that is natural. And even though the line is not straight, it is beautiful. So whether or not you like the cross-legged position or whether or not you think you can do it, you know what zazen really is and you can do it. So we have this standard up there. You know, this is the standard for the zen student. It's like this, when we read the literature, you know, we read about these wonderful zen masters,

[28:58]

but actually they all had problems just like you. That's what we say, the Hotsuganon... They were just, the ancestors were just like we, right? Exactly. So they just did the best they could. And zazen is just doing the best you can. It doesn't matter whether your outcome matches somebody else. We should not compare ourselves to anybody. Even though we're all sitting here, you know, he sits in a full lotus and she holds her back straight, you know, and I have so much trouble. We're comparing ourselves to somebody else. Don't do that. But even though I say don't do that, you can't help doing it. We do do that. We compare ourselves, but we should not make judgments based on that comparison.

[30:03]

We should appreciate, oh, so-and-so does really well. And this guy here, he does really well too. That's nice. And this is the way I do it. Thank you. Suzuki Roshi, I remember saying, I'm not such a good zen master. I do my best. I'm paraphrasing. I do my best and I just keep going. Just keep going. And if you want to get ahead of me, please go ahead. No problem. So, you know, we should know where we are. We know where everyone else is, sort of. And we just, you know, this is my path. This is what I can do. I'm doing my best and that's it. As long as you're doing your best. And what you come out with is what you come out with. What this person comes out with is what that person comes out with.

[31:06]

The person who has an easy time, you know, sitting in full lotus and they look like they just float through things may not be, may not have as much understanding as the person who's really having a hard time. So we always appreciate the person who's having a hard time, who is really making that effort. Because everyone's having that hard time in some way, even though we don't see it. So the resistance that you get, that's Buddha's resistance. Resistance is Buddha. Resistance is Buddha. So we struggle against Buddha. And, but that resistance is what makes us. Without the resistance, you don't get cooked. The difficulty we have is what forms our enlightenment.

[32:08]

So this is hard practice, yes. We all have come to some place where we have a hard practice. And for this person, hard practice is one thing. For, which may be easy for you. And for another person, hard practice is something else. You know, so we can't say that such a thing is hard practice. No such thing. Somebody can breeze through what other people call hard practice. And other people have a hard time with what somebody else thinks is hard practice. An easy time with somebody. So hard and easy are just comparative values. But we should all have a problem. And we do, so it's not a problem. So he says, the most important thing in our practice is just to follow our schedule and do things with people. You may say this is group practice, but it's not so. It is, but he says it's not so.

[33:15]

Group practice is quite different. Another kind of art. During the war, some young people, encouraged by the militaristic mood of Japan, recited to me this line from the Shushogi. Shushogi is a piece that was put together in the early 19th century by some Soto Zen which is pieces from Dogen's sayings that formed a kind of document or piece that the Soto Shu presented to lay people as guideline for practice. It's quite nice, but it doesn't mention Sazen. So during the war, some young people, encouraged by the militaristic mood of Japan, recited to me this line from the Shushogi. To understand birth and death is the main point of practice. They said, even though I don't know anything about this Sutra, I can easily die at the front.

[34:18]

So this is how the corruption, how something in Buddhism easily gets corrupted to create something, some warlike attitude to encourage, to give people excuses for going to war or reinforce their desire. So this is group practice encouraged by trumpets, guns, and war cries. It's easy to die. It makes it easy to die. So during the war, that's a whole other story, but it was very difficult to object to what the government was doing in Japan. You didn't survive if you objected to what they were doing. So a lot of the Zen priests would rationalize this kind of thing

[35:24]

in order to encourage people in their nationalistic interests. This is where religion gets sucked in by nationalism and becomes perverted. So far Buddhism in America doesn't have to get to that point. Christianity does it for us. I apologize for that, even though I believe it. So this kind of practice is not our practice either. Although we practice with people, our goal is to practice with mountains and with rivers, with trees and stones, with everything in the world, everything in the universe, and to find ourselves in this big cosmos. So we say that everything in the universe is practicing Zazen.

[36:29]

So when we practice Zazen, it's not just some practice that's separate from everything else in the world. Zazen is the practice that everything is doing, whether everything knows it or not. And also, you know, Suzuki Roshi used to, people always wanted to practice Zazen to get some good feeling. And he would say, how can you want to practice to get some good feeling when there's so much suffering in the world? People are suffering all over the world and you're trying to do, and you're doing something here, thinking that you're doing it for your own self-satisfaction. So we don't practice for our own self-satisfaction. We may feel satisfied, but that's not the purpose of Zazen. Purpose of Zazen is to simply practice with the universe,

[37:30]

do the practice that the universe is doing. It's not something special. So when we practice in this big world, we know intuitively which way to go. You know intuitively which way to go. When your surroundings give you a sign showing which way to go, even though you have no idea of following a sign, you will go in the right direction. So if your mind is empty, but attentive, concentrated, everything will tell you which way to go. You'll know which way to go because it's not like things are pointing to you, but you see the signs. This way to Fifth Avenue. We don't need written signs because we can see the signs

[38:34]

that are pointing in the way we need to go. And so your intuition is open. Intuition, as I said before, means directly touching without the intermediary of having to think. So when you see the signs, you immediately know which way to go. To practice our way is good, but you may be practicing with a mistaken idea. Still, if you know I am making a mistake, but even so I can't help continuing with my practice, then there's no need to worry. Even though you're practicing for the wrong reasons. If you know I'm practicing for the wrong reasons, but I'm still practicing, you don't have to worry. If you open your true eyes and accept that you, that is involved in a wrong idea of practice, that is real practice. So at least you know what you're doing.

[39:36]

You accept your thinking because it's already there. You can't do anything about it. There's no need to try to get rid of it. He's talking about like now in Zazen. This is not a matter of right or wrong, but of how to accept frankly with openness of mind what you're doing. This is the most important point. When you practice Zazen, you will accept the you who is thinking about something without trying to be free of the images you have. The big point in Zazen, after practicing 25 years, someone will say to me, but I still have all these images in my mind as if there's something wrong with that, right? You don't have to get rid of the images in your mind. This is just the scenery of your thinking mind. It just goes on like riding in a train. And then you're just watching out the window and you watch the scenery going by. But at the same time, you're riding the train.

[40:39]

What you're actually doing is riding the train. What you're actually doing is sitting still with an open mind. And because the mind is open, all this stuff can really rush through. If you have an empty space, something will fill it. So, when you practice Zazen, you will accept the you who is thinking about something without trying to be free of the images you have. Oh, here they come. If someone is moving over there, oh, he is moving. And if he stops moving, your eyes remain the same. You don't react to it.

[41:41]

That is how your eyes will see when you are not watching anything special. In a way, your practice includes everything. The one thing after another. And you do not lose your calmness of mind. This is true concentration. So, no matter what happens, you don't lose your concentration of mind. Your mind still stays open. It doesn't close down on something. If you have a pain in your knee, your mind tends to close down on it, react to it. That is only one thing that's happening. It's not the only thing that's happening. The body sitting Zazen. There are all the other parts of the body that are just as important as that one. And when you take the concentration, that single-minded concentration off of that and spread it around and just open your mind without attaching to that,

[42:45]

then you can sit easily, even though that's happening. Because the whole body comes to the aid of the weak point, if you allow it to happen. If you allow your body and mind to come to help balance out any point that has a problem. So, the rest of the body will help. So, this is what staying loose means. It means that you're flexible enough to compensate or to adjust so that one part is not taking the whole brunt of the problem. So, the rest of the body comes to the aid of that spot,

[43:50]

if you allow that to happen, by staying open without attaching. Problems we have is we attach to the problem. So, we take this concentration and zero it in on the problem and then we become attached to the problem. So, the extent of this practice is limitless. With this as our base, we have real freedom. When you evaluate yourself as being good or bad, right or wrong, that is comparative value and you lose your absolute value. So, in Zazen, we concentrate on absolute value instead of comparative value. We don't compare. Just stop comparing. This is just this. Comparing means this is just this but I like that better.

[44:56]

That's comparative value. I wish that this would stop or I wish I had that. That's all comparative value. This is not good compared to what I think is bad. This is not bad compared to what I think is good. It's just as soon as that arises, you're lost. Not as soon as but if you take it up, you're lost. So, when you evaluate yourself by a limitless measure, each one of you will be settled on your real self. That is enough. Even though you think you need a better measurement, if you understand this point, you will know what real practice is for human beings and for everything. So, true concentration is to keep the mind open and not let it get caught by something.

[46:00]

Not get attached to what we usually get attached to in our dualistic thinking. So, we can do more than we think we can if we leave our mind open. So, in these five days, that should be our effort to keep our concentration open without attaching to anything. Attaching to what is good or attaching to what is bad. Attaching to what we like or attaching to what we don't like. And then let the mind settle, calmness. Settle the self on the self. So, breathe deeply. As soon as you find yourself breathing up here, you know you have a problem.

[47:04]

So, when you find yourself breathing in your chest, get your breath down and allow… Inhaling is opening your abdomen. Exhaling is collapsing it. Inhaling, exhaling. One breath at a time. And without expecting anything, we can have a comfortable feeling. And I know you're all experienced and I'm not telling you something new, but I am reminding us all. That's all. Thank you. Our intention.

[48:10]

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