Aspects of Practice

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BZ-01392
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Fall 2006, Saturday Lecture

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the idea of form emptiness how do i find the emptiness the people going i'm looking for emptiness
as if that's a kind of goal but actually all forms are the forms of emptiness so you don't have to worry about finding happiness because everything is empty
there's nothing else but emptiness and he call it form
for convenience

sure
in is important
i'm to in order to have an ad
oh
true practice
there has to be a rhythm of art practice and rhythm for johnson
if we are close to the zendo when come to the zendo of practice sometimes people live farther apart at further away from the zendo and it's not so easy to kind of agenda
an hour and a regular basis
so then you have to find a way to practice doesn't bucket by yourself or with some friends are
yeah but the main thing too many things one is to have a steady practice which has a rhythm to it
and the other judge him and the other is to practice with other people
so ah
this important part of version even know it looks like we're practicing by ourself we we really can't do anything by yourself
but always practicing with a
our surroundings
we influence our surroundings and are influenced by our surroundings
so one of the important
aspects of mahayana buddhism
is
giving away
merit so to speak it's funny word merit but it means
whatever
merit
is accrued through lens practice it's always offered to ah
the universe
so instead of holding onto something
you know where we're actually a
vehicle
for ah
a vehicle for light
for a lack of a better word
so thousand opens us to light and light is transmitted through thousand
and this is is not like i am offering something is simply allowing light to penetrate door to have
manifest through our practice
and this is are offering of giving called giving away merit he can really give anything away
but you allow this ah
light good as like to manifest
and if it's freely offered for everyone
so when people practice together that offering that transmitting becomes very powerful
and everyone has benefited
and by sitting together we also learn how to the virgin
ah and to keep in touch with the saga is
to strengthen our own practice into and to out and add our strength to everyone else's practice
so the practicing alone has benefits
her times and if you can't ah
if we don't have access to saga than the practice by yourself
by such more difficult
and so a practice of
pack sitting together encourages all of us
for great encouragement especially for as semi-trucks a where we sit together for seven days

so sometimes we get tired of
you know the rhythm of as ign
and
sometimes we am
i wonder why we doing this
ah and so it can to when you feel that way to find some encouragement come to the dj and and ah
look for some encouragement
and to find encouragement from our appears as well
it's very difficult to maintain a steady thousand practice for a long time
because in our life is always a life is like this site and rarely like this
that it's like this but boom
so
ah
you have to have a really strong
am sense of purpose and in practicing
in order to maintain at that time rhythm a practice over a long period of time
so it it's also important
to study
i'm
study ah informs us
keeps us informed about the dharma
sent you know because our lives are so on
scattered sometimes and when we're out in the world we don't get dharma information
and i'm in our attention is ah not focus so much on what put it on is so to study is to focus on the dharma and bess focused on dharma there's so many wonderful aspects of buddhism
some
to study a study has to be interesting you know but it doesn't have to be interesting
if you start if you begin to study you begin to see
your interest becomes an
sparked by study
i remember one time
long time ago
ah i asked the residents were having dinner residents dinner and i said little just read random got it with kristin as library just pick out a book at random and opened it up at random and each one read from that book and it's very into
listing how all those whatever book whatever volume you're reading from is connected to all the other volumes and each one has shines light on a certain aspect of the dharma
sun is people say or what should i study when should it
i can recommend things to study you know the suzuki roshi starch that is a dog is wonderful
thanks it will take you the rest of your life to read now
the fit they are the sutras and commentaries history
philosophy
ah all those aspects which brought your mind and and i help you to practice
so ah in isn't it
misunderstanding that and then the that it's beyond the scriptures you know it is beyond the scriptures but the scriptures help to get you beyond the scriptures
we don't ignore the scriptures
and then
there's work practice
ah
work practices always been a very important part of them
when buddhism first came with in india actually the monks did not work
they were not allowed to do any work he just begged for their meals and in meditation and study
but then when
buddhism moved to china
ah
it's interesting
many of the chinese men in chinese schools in the early rounded up to the fifth century navy
ah had servants
they would study and then the servants of make tea for them
have five or six times a day
ah
the the legendary kind of luxurious way but then
there was a kind of revolt because the chinese
vaunted everyone should work
here are these young men go into the monasteries and the harvest was no they need them for harvest
and the plan so sober can vulgarian
a culture at that time
so there was a kind of revolt revolted the people and the zen monks ah
decided it
ah work was part of their practice so the monasteries in china head their holdings of feels and the the zen monks would work in fields and hygiene is famous than monk in china when he was
ninety eight are suddenly dead
we're still working in the fields and
his
students took away as tools
maybe he should know didn't learn to work so hard
and but he stopped eating
and he said a day of no work as a day of know eating very famous statement
so work as though he worked practice has always been a very integral part of zen practice
and if you go to the monastery in japan or china well known and janet the a little miniature but especially in japan the monks are always working all the time cleaning

monastery dies
real clean
everything is clean
and it has become a part of japanese culture
so work practice is very important
and in our practice we don't have a lot of time to work sometimes we have a work day
which and it is very nice and then of course during says sheen we have work
a period which is also very wonderful when you combine says in with work
in the same hard
environment
ah it's wonderful experience
ah
and yet you can see our vows in and work or the same

so
hum
in your daily life you know most of the time is spent in work of some kind or another of his work as a
generalized way
so to sit us in the morning
and in work
and then said that in the evening is a kind of wonderful way to structure your day
because it brings us in and daily life together as one thing
when it when coming to the vendo and should in and going out in the world and working
become one thing then you have to practice
when is fundamentally no difference than you have to practice

so then another aspect is listening to the teachers patient up or lecture we call it lecture lectures easily about some subject
ah taisho is more like the teachers expressing understanding
the most of you have to show
and the other side of that is for to student to come in docusign and ask questions about something in the taisho or something in their study
or something about your daily life mostly people there's a variety of of
a kinds of questions
some people just talk about the daily life now in there is a kind of focus on which is interview with the teacher which is based on current study
that's more rinzai style
where you have your con and you line up a new as to get the teachers but you express your understanding the call on teacher rings the bell tosses you are
our coins that are a duck son is based more on the model of dogan and his teacher regime in china
i'm as a ah
classical called who poke key
which is
doug games
ah
exposition of questions he asked his teacher rejig in a dog son
were recorded by is a student angel
called the hokie hokie and dogan s questions and stj answers the questions
and this is more the style of our docusign
but duggan's questions are based on his study and is trying to understand the dharma
a lot of our questions are also done that way but often we can't just with questions about our life
so
when so when someone comes to me with questions about their life
they want advice sometimes in the early one
me to figure out their situation or they just wanna talk about their life i tried to
help them see where the corn is in the question
to turn it to turn their questioning into insight into
the fundamental of their life
so as not just me answering questions i don't like to answer people's questions that way or to try and figure out your life situation for them and it's not therapy
although it is a kind of therapy is not psychotherapy
there's a difference between therapeutic therapeutics and psychotherapy that psychotherapy done by psychotherapist sometimes by me
without portfolio but i try to avoid that
ah but the therapy of then it in an interview is to help a student focus on a on their practice
always turning the student to they're returning student to their practice
how to deal with this as practice
you know if you do with your problems as practice then there's no longer the same kind of problem
if this is not just in my problem it's my practice problem is my problem a practice and net puts an indifferent dimension than just
hum
being victimized by you
problem
how do i practice with this thing that i brought
service teacher turns the question back turns it around and revolves the questioner and turns it back to the student
deal with
when i would bring in question to my teacher he would always just gimme not a problem
he a anybody laugh and if the you came to me with a question and i'd just given you another problem may laugh and i would laugh
and because it took the
the seriousness decided the broad took the poison out in the problem

ah yes than the other aspect
is
having a a practice position
in addition the zendo runs
i'm through the participation of of everyone
ah
when we come to practice here
we've in feel that that this place is already here and that we can come and practice
that's one side but the other side is that when you come to practice you are creating the practice
it's not that it existed before you came
in one sense yes but for you it exists when you it when you came in only arose when you came and that you are creating the practice as well as being created by the practice
so your active participation in making things work is what makes everything work
so
each person who is a member of this practice takes a position some position
it doesn't have to be a a very responsible position but it is a responsible position in that he responsible for what you take on so someone may just be you know working in the garden or ah have a position of
take care of of the altar or sleeping agenda or
there are many small positions but
we take a position according to our ability to give our time
and then we rotate the positions so that you are actually turning the practice from your position
and you are being turned by the practice
and each position we take we see the practice from that position so that many different ways of viewing the practice
and interacting with each other
and this is what makes everything work
so this isn't a responsibility that we have to everyone and everyone has a responsibility to each person
everyone has a responsibility to you and you have a responsibility to everyone
and this is the interactive ah matrix which makes the whole thing work
i'm so in a sense there's the horizontal view in which were out exactly the same
and it is the vertical view in which each one has a different position
and
the axis and goes to where they meet his big mind
so this is very vital and important part of
ah our practice how we interact with each other how we create the practice together and the interconnectedness of ah
everything that we do here

and the way that works illustrates the buddhist understanding of
ah
all in one and one in all
you know you have the smallest position
it contains the whole practice
and even really have the smallest position it moves the whole practice and how practice depends on it
and you take that out and then the practice to me converter to readjust itself to that part is missing

so everyone's practice is valuable
totally valuable
huh

so in our practice period ah we tried to renew our practice to include these characteristics
and then as we practice throughout the year
in our things get him
ah
we forget bangs and
we have another practice areas and to bring us back to what we're doing
so that's kind of the rhythm of my practice
and maintain a to maintain and rhythm is to maintain the practice
ah

you find the time to practice in your daily life it may not be so easy for everyone
time for a lot of people but you do what you can
and when you just do it when you do what you can with sincerity than you have a complete practice

and over long period of time are overpaid time your availability to practice changes in your com
life go through changes
tom
you know if you have a very steady practice and and your practice is
and that becomes the one thing your life that doesn't change then you see the ups and downs of your life
on that scale
and then you realize
something about our lot about your life
ah that
you can see your life in a in a certain kind of perspective that you don't ordinarily see it
you see how everything comes and goes
and how you life of vows remained steady
and this gives you
ah
ah a fundamental basis
that you can always rely on
when everything else is uncertain

did you have any questions
oh
i phone
i don't have much thirty as i like about how some
our practice in your in
how it's all one practice in november and in your life he asked
i dutch i'm still not that you can examples of practice which are independent pretty much where the practice physician
and
and and work and what practice in
in the temple area whatever
the wrong
and but then he asked he said that when you had a very low that of practice then
it's the same practicing in the world with the same the same with pakistan and
i don't have that labour the money worthwhile to feel like they're enjoying the realm and my attitudes reflect the attitude that everyone around with him in the region find doing on a human at different
i'm not and i'm not practicing
now well learned the fundamentals of practicing with anybody
i mean interval ah
how can you not practice
i'm losing what you mean by word
yeah well fig you go to where you go to the lab and you to work
and you're interacting with people
right so that's work practice
if you think this just word
then it's still different than thinking this is work practice
what makes the difference between cracks and opera well selflessness
i think i see a lot of somethings selflessness actually and people who are very worked very with a priority the job done now yeah so if you recognize off just this around you the recognized selfishness around you and
you recognize your own selflessness and then you recognize your own selfishness night there's more awareness of that
finally caught up in my story and respecting me at work and and what actually caught up in getting that job and there's more than that
that's raise the awareness and said the awareness that is practice
the word is of when i'm doing something selfishly when i'm doing something selfishly best practice
awareness
he had said and a and
was fully here that when we sit thousand is no that
now like
set that there is an connection in the light of could also be prior to the i am i can sit every monday and night
yes
how many were out debt ceiling said
there's no merit well in this interests either
interesting thing about merit ryan and they basically you know be giving away a merit is a buddhist practice
no and i get the end of our
zimmer's you know we only see the merit collected thereby we offer to right but we're not offering something specifically to somebody we just it just like really letting go of the mirror and just it's like throwing out seeds are you know
ha ha just opened and i i described it should not so much as collecting because when you collect something then you have something
so i noted not to have something you have to give it away when served collective you're giving away as one way of thinking about it the other way the way i was expressing it was not collecting it but simply letting you go through
so that
enough you it's maybe like and m a dynamo or something or you know seventy spinning and it induces and then it releases
more like that with the you know that tibetan am a prayer wheels you may have a lot of prayer wheels and you go along an eternal and capturing them you know and i'm turning in their collective and the you know that they're expressing this decision or that you know
the the fallen so it's not
it's just the way to think about
my question and
god but allah
ebony carried out
this work
yeah
hey
yeah
i do in our work by
take some of it
besides our own
combine
why not
well you know i am
the basis of our precepts his compassion
and if you simply act compassionately like i'm going to act compassionately you know then whatever it whatever circumstance even how do i do it here how do i do it now you know when i'm working trust the street while how do i do it now when so you
a beekeeper in as the basis
yeah
and doesn't mean you will get into trouble or you know you will have some big problem but if you keep that in mind it creates a form for you practice
because you can't you know you know what's gonna happen pretty much is enough if you fall set up your walk in a new bow and know and this creates an atmosphere but when you're out there in the world there's no a few you have to create the forms you have to be up to
the phone
you have to do the dance
if anyone would like it i have a photograph taken yeah temple
beth
in the employer if a whole row of prayer wheel and one of the prayer wheel was missing and so someone to and ten milk can
put it in and made it into a prayer wheel and i keep that up as this good visual in on how to do that and anyone would like that photo i'd be glad to share it with that's really a good point because you know
anything can become at any incident any
a problem can become a vehicle for practice
and everything you meet is a vehicle for practice
so how do you turn that will
you
the