Ascension, as I said yesterday, is a kind of ceremony, like our ceremony in the morning of chanting the sutra, so the sutra directly flows from our mind. We're repeating the sutra, but we should take the stance of the sutra directly flowing from our mind. And in ascension, our life, our body, should directly flow from our mind. Everything that happens to you should directly flow from your mind without discriminating,

[01:06]

without discrimination, trusting everything that comes as the Dharma, as the teaching directly from your mind. If you have to have a view, this view is a useful one. How to practice this way takes great patience, to establish yourself without discriminating,

[02:14]

to be willing to live for a long time without climbing from one platform to the next. So, your daily activity after the sesshin, you know, is the same, just flows without discrimination. Just to practice without awareness, without thinking, is this a valuable practice or will this lead to enlightenment or am I benefiting the world? Just to do it, to put all your eggs in one basket, and it seems sometimes quite meaningless.

[03:34]

For example, I bow, full bows, maybe 50 to 75 a day, seldom more than 75, but usually average around 50 or more, which means about 25,000 a year, which is maybe like a seven-day sesshin of 10 or 12 hours a day of solid bowing. So maybe a 50th of my time a year is bowing. You know, this must be pointless. How can this activity have anything to do with Buddhism?

[04:47]

Anyway, you may think I'm a mindless robot or something, but actually, I don't think about it. Is it meaningful or should I do it? Somebody rings a bell, so I bow. Sometimes, even when no one rings a bell, I bow. Suzuki Roshi's teacher started rather old and he was rather arrogant, I guess, Suzuki Roshi said, so his teacher made him bow so much that he had a callus here on his forehead from bowing. Anyway, my response to things is often to bow in the most inappropriate circumstances. I'm shopping, I start bowing without thinking.

[05:56]

And if someone comes to visit Zen Center, you know, they've been away for a year, when they come into the building, they should have the feeling of, oh, it's just the same old thing going on. There's another Saturday lecture, you know, they're still bowing, they're still chanting that same sutra. It's very dull around there, you know. They should have that feeling. There shouldn't be any sense of excitement or, this year is better than last year, you know, why they're, the bows are more interesting. So, as I was talking, I've been talking about the ten bhumis.

[07:28]

First one of joy, you know, the second one emphasizing discipline and stainless behavior and the third one shining, shining on everyone. And the fourth one is intense, you know, burning wisdom or something that cuts through your viewpoints. You know, we have, of course, a particular viewpoint and within that viewpoint, we have various suppositions and etc. But if you see things from only one viewpoint, you always are divided against yourself.

[08:52]

And you have various problems that come up because of it. But how can you see things from all viewpoints simultaneously? In the fifth bhumi, which emphasizes meditation, you begin to be able to, it's characterized by being able to successfully act in the world. Rather interesting to have meditation being the practice, the paramita of the fifth, which

[09:58]

is successfully acting in the world. The seventh is when you can act in the world and of form and non-form and your activity penetrates everywhere. And the sixth, which in between those is characterized by wisdom, is when you can come to having no one viewpoint, when you can have all viewpoints. In the seventh, you actually enter into everyone's feelings. But in the sixth, you see clearly, anyway, all of these stages after, so-called stages

[11:19]

after realizing that the teaching comes from the radiance of your own mind. And that's what you take refuge in. After that, the next stages are really involved with giving up any viewpoint, any sense of the world as an entity, or the world as reality as something you can possess in some way. Actually whether you know it or not, you view the world as an entity. To get rid of this view is very, very difficult.

[12:26]

And anything, we know, as I said, you know, know is better than emptiness or the void. If we say it's void, we can also say it's not void, or it's both void and not void, etc. But no is very useful, whatever you say, I can say no, you know, if you say it's void, I can say no, if you say it's not void, I can say no. Any view you have, we should say no to. So then, how are you going to live, you know, on what, on what can you base your life or your plans, twenty-five thousand bows a year, maybe, something like that. Anyway, for a fairly long period of time, you just take some activity.

[14:03]

Activity, and do it without thinking about it at all. The important point is, how do you change your If everything, you know, if after you've practiced Zen for a while, and you can rest

[15:19]

quite comfortably in Zazen, and nothing disturbs you much, and whatever happens is okay with you. And you find the world, you know. I don't know quite how to express what I want to say. You can return to zero at any time.

[16:34]

Any moment can be one thousand meditative absorptions, without any thoughts, you know. And you see how everything arises from that mind, you know. How, how, this is the place of your existence, you know. How do you make that the place of everyone's existence, is the fundamental point. I think that's too difficult for you to understand exactly what I mean, but certainly,

[18:09]

maybe you understand what I mean, but what to do about it, you know. First, it means not to do much of anything. Okay? Do you have any questions? Questions? Question from the audience

[19:19]

Question from the audience Question from the audience Question from the audience In your case, it's... ah... that your urge to practice, you know, is ahead of your practice.

[20:35]

That's all. Do you understand what I mean? If you realize that you're not separated from everybody else, then that spot that you were talking about would include everything, wouldn't it? You don't say no? I don't say no. He said that spot I was talking about includes everything. That's true, but...

[21:46]

If you think so, that's not so. Question from the audience Question from the audience Pardon me? Physically stiff? Why shouldn't it be stiff? I know what you mean, but why shouldn't it be stiff and not soft?

[22:57]

Where does your question come from? Well, not personally, but what is it based on? That we should all be soft? Question from the audience If you have an idea that stiff is bad and soft is good, that's not such a good way to practice. Just what you are, both stiff and soft. Dan has been practicing longer than you, and he's both stiff and soft.

[24:05]

You've been practicing less time than he has, and you're both stiff and soft, right? That's all. You don't have to sort it out. Question from the audience Sometimes we feel funny, it's true. But it's funnier when we feel funny about feeling funny. If you give up worrying about being stiff or soft, we call that being soft. Okay? That makes sense, doesn't it? That's what I mean.

[25:16]

You just practice, that's all, without worrying about stiff or soft. Nothing can be right or wrong, or stiff or soft, or consistent or inconsistent, actually. I think that's a dangerous doctrine to preach to people who are just starting to practice. Question from the audience Can one practice Buddhism without doing Dharma? Would you teach us how? Yes.

[26:34]

If you try to figure out big mind with your rational mind, you'll kill your practice. Is that what I said? Okay. Yeah. Does your practice need resuscitation? Do you know somebody who has a dead practice? I understand your question, actually, but don't worry about it. If you worry about, if I do that, there'll be no hope, you know?

[27:36]

Don't worry about that. Just don't do it. That's right. If you find yourself, you know, involved in trying to rationally figure out, you know, if you notice yourself doing it, just stop. That's all. Don't worry, oh, if I do it three more times, my practice will be dead, you know? Just stop, that's all. This mind I'm talking about is your mind. And it will come out, maybe I can say that much, it will come out if you can give up purposeful action, if you can give up selfish emotional activity.

[28:38]

Your arms feel like they have no identity. Your body feels like it has no identity. Your mind feels like it has no identity. Even this feeling can't be characterized. This universe, you know, is a living being. Or, if we treat it as a living being, we are closer to reality than if we treat it as some lifeless thing, you know?

[29:48]

If you, when you bow, if you treat the cushion as if it was maybe Buddha's tummy, you know, and the air as Buddha's arms, you'll be much closer to actually being in the world as it actually is. We can't say identity begins here or there or any particular place. But our habits of thinking are so strong. It's inconceivable, if I say even, to have all viewpoints. Logically, that doesn't make sense, you know? Actually, we can't say it's living or we can't say it's not living. It doesn't enter any of our categories.

[30:53]

You yourself are not bound by your categories. So our practice is to get rid of our categories, get rid of our viewpoints and reveal the Dharma. Thank you. In a session, perhaps, you come closer to

[31:59]

feeling familiar with everything, not separated from things, and more able to act together, you know? Even our chanting is more together during the session. We're not sharing a session. But the secret is not more and more sessions. Session and zazen will help you, but you can't depend on them. In fact, in your practice, you have to always plan for a miracle, you know? But not depend on a miracle. And you have to always plan for a failure, you know? But not depend on failure. Anything that's revealed, you know, also hides something else.

[33:13]

But when something is revealed, it means the other things exist, you know? If there are an infinite viewpoint, there is infinite things. If there's one viewpoint, there's one thing. Mostly, we only see what we see. But after you've practiced for a while, what you see makes you see what's not there, yet to be seen. So, you have to learn to practice, to live in some way,

[34:23]

which includes this truth. Truth. Truth. Only the sureness of continuing your practice, you know? Even at the cost of your life.

[35:24]

Truth. Will give you the true life, you know? You feel deep inside you.

[35:53]

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