Good evening. Tonight I want to talk about the fundamental principle of our practice. The fundamental principle of our practice is that within activity is stillness, and within stillness is activity, that all our activity arises out of stillness, and within stillness

[01:14]

is great activity. Master Dogen presented us with his teaching called Genjo Koan. Genjo Koan is usually loosely expressed as the practice of your daily life, daily life as it extends from Zazen. Genjo means something like manifesting in the present.

[02:16]

And Koan means something like the basic principle, which is stillness. But Koan also, usually Koan in Zen means a public case or a representative example. But one way to interpret Dogen's use of the word Koan is that Ko means manifestation or

[03:19]

things as they arise, and An means the basic principle, the ground of being, which is stillness. So this is the principle of Zazen, and the manifestation of that principle is called Shikantaza, which is just. Just in Zazen is called just sitting. In walking it's called just walking. In eating it's called just eating. In sleeping it's called just sleeping, with nothing added or taken away. Just to do in this moment.

[04:23]

So Zazen is not just the practice of Zen Buddhists, but it's the practice of the universe. Everything in nature is practicing Zazen. And when we practice Zazen, we're just practicing the fundamental activity of the universe. It's not something special. When we were practicing with Suzuki Roshi, he always used the term, nothing special. Nothing special. Nothing special. We sometimes look at Zazen as something special. Someone said to me, well you know when I go to, someone lived in the middle of the state,

[05:32]

a lot of people say, why are you doing this strange practice? What do I say to people when they ask me that? And I said, well why don't you just ask them why they're doing the strange practice that they're doing, which seems very strange to you, because why aren't they sitting Zazen? But actually they are, they just don't know it. We just don't understand, the difference is that as practitioners, we base our life on this principle, consciously. You know, trees look like they're standing still, but you know, when you really acknowledge

[06:36]

a tree, or understand a tree, trees are, a tree is doing Zazen with great dynamic energy, dynamic activity. To feel the activity of a tree is to feel the energy of the universe. As a kid we liked to climb trees. Why do we like to climb trees? Because they're alive. We connect with the life of the tree. And in winter, the ground doesn't yield anything. The ground is sitting Zazen in complete stillness. We sometimes say, well the ground is asleep during winter, but you can also say, the ground is not asleep, the ground is practicing profound Zazen in stillness.

[07:36]

And then in spring, something arises, everything arises out of the ground of stillness. Trees, plants, vegetables, flowers, life, springs up from stillness. So, how do we, what does it mean for us to practice in this way? When we practice Zazen, it's, we let go of activity, and just settle on the ground of existence.

[08:51]

But within that ground of existence is total dynamic activity. Now, Zazen itself looks passive, but it's not entirely passive. It's passively active and actively passive. If you only sit Zazen in a passive way, it's not complete Zazen. And if you only sit Zazen in an active way, it's not complete Zazen. So, the activity, the dynamic activity of sitting, and when you leave the cushion and engage in activity in the world,

[10:01]

to do our activity with profound stillness, the basis of the activity is profound stillness. Sometimes Zen students say, I really don't know what I'm doing. We don't get enough instruction. We should always be reminded every day of what our practice is. I remember Kadagiri Roshi always saying, just shut your mouth and practice. Keep your mouth shut. Allow the stillness to manifest within your activity.

[11:09]

When we allow the stillness to be at the center of our activity, we're not ahead of time. We're not behind time. We're not egotistical or selfish because we're settled on ourself and we don't need so much. When we're settled on the stillness of our nature, that's very satisfying. Suzuki Roshi always used to say, return to your true nature. Resume your true nature. People try to understand, what do you mean by resume your true nature? Resume your true nature.

[12:12]

Settle on stillness of your true nature, which is the fundamental activity of the universe. When everybody stops talking, we all connect. When we stop thinking diverse thoughts, we all connect. Because we all come from the same place. It's like the ocean and the waves. When there's no wind, no conditions, the ocean is just like glass, perfectly still and tranquil. And when the wind comes, the ocean gets wavy and choppy. But the further down you go in the ocean, the more and more still and profound it becomes. So, this activity is on the surface.

[13:19]

Our lives have this activity on the surface. But to be totally settled on ourself at the same time, this is the essence of our practice. Not to get blown away, not to get lost. And when we get lost, we know where to come back to. Suzuki Roshi used to always say, we are protected from within. We don't need so much protection outside. We don't need to depend on so much. A Zen student should not depend on so much. Actually, our practice is to learn how to be less dependent. At the same time, we depend on everything. But the more we can settle on our fundamental self,

[14:37]

the less we need and the less protection we need. There are many sets of opposites like this. Stillness and activity, and birth and death, are also a pair of opposites. I don't know if you've ever heard of this. I don't like to use the term life and death, because life and death, for me, are not opposites. What are opposites are birth and death. As a duality, birth is the opposite of death. But life runs throughout birth and death.

[15:44]

Life itself is not subject to birth and death. So we say in Buddha Dharma, fundamentally, there's no birth and death. There's only aspects of life, and we call them birth and death. But life is continuous. When we identify only with birth and death, we have a lot of suffering. So this continuous life is the same as the fundamental stillness. So every day, we go through the cycle of birth and death.

[17:06]

We go to bed at night, and everything subsides. Then the alarm goes off in the morning, we get up, and everything begins. This is the cycle of birth and death. Every day. This is why in monastic practice, every day is a totally new lifetime. Shikantaza, which is the active practice of Genjo Koan, is for every moment to rise up fresh. Every breath, inhaling and exhaling, is a cycle of birth and death. Inhaling is inspiration, exhaling is expiration. So when you exhale, you expire. You let go.

[18:11]

And then you're reborn on the next moment, when you inhale. And this being born without any past or future is shikantaza, just to be in this moment as it is, without adding something or taking something away. Without expecting anything or wanting anything. And then, strangely enough, we come back to life after we let go. So without trying to get something, simply experiencing our life as it's renewed moment by moment, in its pure essence,

[19:20]

without any overlay, without any opinions or ideas about it. So this practice of shikantaza is called continuous practice. Because it's not... although it happens within birth and death, it's also free of birth and death. Within the birth and death of a cycle of life, we find our release from the cycle of birth and death, which is called continuous life. So, you know, our practice is not to get something. Our teacher always talked about no gaining idea.

[20:30]

And people misunderstand a lot about what it means, no gaining idea. Sometimes a person will say, well, if I have an ice cream cone, I think that's a gaining idea. That's not what it's meant by gaining idea. Gaining idea means... non-gaining means that there's nothing that you can have which you don't already have. We have everything that we need. There's nothing to add. And what you have, that you really have, cannot be taken away. So when we practice zazen, zazen is like offering our whole body and mind

[21:32]

just to the universal activity. We let go of the idea of self. We let go of the idea of Buddha. We let go of all ideas. And simply sit in reality. Without discriminating. Everything comes and everything goes. Whatever comes is there. And we just keep returning to this emptiness, which is so full. So in our daily life, the practice of our daily life

[22:35]

is to keep coming back. The mind wanders. The attention gets drawn off in various ways. We lose track of what we're doing. But to keep coming back over and over again to the principle, to reality. So the monastic practice is pretty simple. And this simple practice allows us to focus on each activity carefully, so that we don't lose our way. When there's stillness and activity, when there's no gap between stillness and activity, that's shikantaza. The koan, or the principle, or the art of zazen

[23:44]

is called think not thinking. How do you think not thinking? Well, there are various explanations for that, but think not thinking means, to me, when you think the thought of zazen, that's not thinking. The thought of zazen means that mind, body, and breath are one activity. Total unity. And within this total unity, this is unity with the whole universe. So we don't practice zazen just alone for ourselves. That's a great misunderstanding. It looks like everybody's sitting there and they're all alone, on a black cushion facing the wall, in isolation. But it's not isolation. One person's zazen covers the whole universe.

[24:51]

We breathe. Actually, we don't breathe. We are breathed. Breathing just happens. You don't have anything to do with it. It's just the universal activity doing itself. With mountains, trees, rivers, oceans, clouds. If it was just some selfish activity, it wouldn't have lasted to this day. Sometimes people come to Tassajara and say, well, these Zen students, they don't look enlightened to me. But...

[25:55]

If you practice zazen, you'll understand Zen students better. And you realize that Zen practice is the practice of many lifetimes. It's not just something that you do, enter the gate and you're suddenly enlightened. But the practice itself is the practice of enlightenment. Each person comes to practice with their whole history. And all the students working together, practicing together, rub off the rough edges. And engage with their difficulties and their harmony. The practice harmonizes us. And we still have rough edges. We still have difficulties.

[27:03]

So practice is not the practice of saints. It's the practice of real people with real human conditions. And it brings out great compassion for each other and for ourselves and for the whole world. Because the whole world is practicing together just like people in a monastery. So, our hope is that if there is any merit in this practice that we offer it to the whole world. It's not ours.

[28:07]

It's not ours. Am I right? Thank you very much.

[28:25]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ