Well, I hope that sometime before I die, we will start chanting together most of the time. I'm waiting. But this fall, I mean, this spring and winter, we've, I think, three times, I would say, chanted together. But that's three times more than the last several years. Maybe someday, before I die, we'll start chaining together most of the time. Our voices discovering each other. Anyway, I know you've come a long way and And then to stay three months or to stay even one week is quite an effort. So, you know, I understand your commitment to this path of meditation and path of liberation.

[01:12]

So I think I should try to be clear about this as well as I can. But let me start back with the point we were yesterday, one of the points, which is this mind which sees you now, which It sees you but has no marks. We can call it a signless state of mind because it doesn't think about what is appearing. And sometimes this is called the jeweled mirror consciousness and so forth. Although the mirror is too flat an image, but anyway, we have to have some name for it that is found in our ordinary three-dimensional world.

[02:17]

Now, isn't the word in German for mirror and jewel, spiegel? Can someone tell me? In German, what's the word for jewel? And mirror is spiegel? But a jewelry shop is a spiegel. There are jewelry shops called Speed. Anyway, alright. Anyway, in Buddhism, sometimes the word mirror is used and sometimes the word jewel is used. Now most of our behavior is learned behavior.

[03:20]

We learn to be polite and to what's acceptable and unacceptable behavior. And it's different in different countries. And we also learn how to handle our instincts, basic reactions, fear, anger and desire and so forth. And we learn to moderate our psychological or unconscious or subconscious tendencies, sometimes with the help of a therapist. Anyway, this is all learned behavior. And also, how to function with this jewel mirror consciousness is also learned behavior. I mean, once you discover, once you have some feeling for this, how you bring this, discover this as the root of your actions and the sphere of your functioning is something you need to learn.

[04:49]

And partly it's unlearning other habits and relearning and so forth. But it is learned behavior and I think you can expect, practically speaking, to have to learn this. And again, what the three-month, the attention span of a three-month practice is the opportunity to learn this behavior based on a realized, the realization of the essence of mind. Now how it differs from other learned behaviors, these other learned behaviors, is that this is at some point becomes very easy. because it's based on fundamental mind.

[05:51]

And it begins to guide you. You begin to discover this behavior rather than learn this behavior. And it feels very free. And it's accompanied by some special pleasure, some unusual pleasure. Now, Sukyoshi's favorite teaching koan was the one of Matsu and Nanyue.

[06:59]

And the event, probably pretty much a historical event, occurred about 1,267 years ago. Quite a long time, but not so many generations. As you know, I point out, what, nearly 30 people in this room? 30 people would stretch back almost to that time. So it's not just like I told Mark. Mark told Chris. Chris told Atmar. Is that game called telephone? The game of lineage telephone before telephones. But they spent a whole lifetime or 10 years or more. So if I spent 10 years trying to tell Mark, he could probably tell Chris quite well. Then Chris would get 10 years.

[08:03]

It's like that. So it's not just a party game. Anyway, this occurred about 730 some time like that A.D., And most of you would know the story, but in any case, Matsu comes to Nanyue. Nanyue is a disciple of Hui Jiang, who is the disciple of the Sixth Patriarch, and one of the two main disciples of the Sixth Patriarch. So he's the great-grandson of the Sixth Patriarch. or the grandson, and Lhasa becomes the great-grandson. And so he's sitting, and he's sitting very earnestly in the meditation hall.

[09:05]

And Nanyue comes in and says, what are you doing? What are you aiming at? And Matsu says, oh, I'm aiming at becoming a Buddha. Matsu, Nanue picks up a roof tile, and around temples in China and Japan, there are always lots of roof tiles, or in a windy day like this, blowing off and breaking and things like that. So there's usually piles of them around. So he picks up a roof tile and he starts rubbing it. You know, and Matsu is somewhat, you know, he's already been disturbed once, even if Nanue is the abbot, still he's disturbed. But then this guy is sitting out. What are you doing?

[10:09]

He says, I'm polishing this tile. Yeah, I'm making a mirror. Matsu says, you can't make a mirror. You can't make a mirror from polishing a tile. Nanyu says, granted. Do you think you can make a Buddha from doing zazen? And so Matsu says, then what should I do? If I can't aim it, what should I do? And Nanyoi says, when there's a horse in a cart, do you hit the horse or do you hit the cart? So, Nanyue says, are you practicing seated meditation or are you practicing seated Buddha?

[11:22]

Are you practicing seated meditation or are you practicing seated Buddhahood? If you're practicing meditation, meditation isn't sitting or lying. And if you're practicing Buddhahood, This is, Buddhahood is no particular form. And Nanyoi says, in the midst of myriad transitory things, neither grasp nor reject. In the midst of myriad transitory things, neither grasp nor reject. So Matsu heard this, it says, like he was drinking nectar, ambrosia.

[12:36]

And mind and body both felt liberated and he said, then how do I merge with formless absorption? Then how do I merge with formless absorption? So this is the question of our practice. How do I merge with formless absorption? How do we merge with formless absorption? What's going on here in this story and what this story establishes is the path of liberation in contrast to a path of meditation and in contrast to the earlier Pali Kanan and the Abhidharma sense of a path of meditation. So I think we take rather for granted what we're doing meditation, blah, blah, blah, but there are, we are actually, the way meditation is presented in our lineage, and I'm presenting it, it's actually, there are particular choices present.

[13:49]

And this story illustrates these choices. And what we are doing and what each of you is doing, what we are doing together and each of you individually, is you are establishing a path of meditation or a path of liberation or both. And just what you're doing is that. So, anyway, I'm speaking about this. Now, I'm talking about learned behavior and so forth, et cetera. And I'm trying to give you names, words, or feeling for practice, signless states of mind, the refinement of breathing. And you see, in the story, you know, we say, oh, yeah, the story says you're not supposed to do this.

[15:01]

You're not supposed to think you're making a mirror. But it doesn't mean you're not supposed to refine your breathing and your mind. It's just that you don't do it grasping at things or rejecting things. You're not aiming at Buddhahood, you are simply refining. So actually, as I've been pointing out, when you bring your attention to your breath, you are actually rubbing a tile, making a mirror. But the mirror is already there. You're refining your breath and you're refining your mind. Breath and mind coming together. Refine mind and refine breath. Breath becomes more subtle and mind becomes more subtle.

[16:06]

You're physicalizing mind and by physicalizing mind you allow mind and body to touch each other. What can I say? The intimacy of the three mysteries of body, speech and mind. when your speech touches your body and your mind, and body, mind, and speech, and body, speech, and mind. So this koan is referring, this rubbing the tile means this mystery of body, speech, and mind are coming together. So the problem is not with the rubbing, the problem is with the aiming. So that's one point in this story. So don't throw the rubbing out with the aiming when you try to get the feeling of the teaching of this story.

[17:09]

Now again, I'm speaking about these things, but our main job in Sashin is to settle into the day. This one, this windy day. Settle into this windy day. that I said last night. That poem, it was a little obscure, I admit, but it actually was a commentary on the case of the jewel in the mountain of form. So I thought I'd do a traditional type commentary. But it's also... understandable when snow flies in the springtime it means something that's means like mirror consciousness which even in the heat of activity can keep its purity so it's the contrast of snow in the summer or in the out of season and when I said there's a seventh and I and so I said snow flies freely in the

[18:25]

springtime, I heard the mountain say so. And I said, in the tree, there's a seven-tiered pavilion. And I said, I saw it. And this is a reference to this in this koan, a guy called Mr. Pot. And he lived in a pot. And he sold pots cheaply. And I guess he could sell pots cheaply because he He lived in another world. So he invited his friend up into the pot. And when they got in the pot, it was hung in a tree. When they got in the pot, there was a pavilion and five colored gates and things like that. So this kind of image means there's another world simultaneous with this one. I guess if you're going to sell your pots cheaply, you have to live in another world.

[19:28]

Of course, if you've got a pot hanging in a tree, that's a bit weird. I mean, Crestone Mountain Sun Center is pretty much a pot hanging in a tree. We have a pavilion here on this ledge, on this mountain with statues of bodhisattvas and buddhas. And each of us. But mostly what we do is settle into the day and hear the day and see the day. Settle into the day and settle into the schedule. Settle into the schedule, settle into the rituals. Settle into the posture, your posture, we have to say. Settle into your posture.

[20:28]

Settle into your breathing. And merge with formless absorption. Settle into one mark samadhi. Now, when we settle into our breathing and settle into one-mark samadhi, this is the practice of, in this koan, of merging with formless absorption. So we don't, in our practice, do much else. If you do all these things, settle into each, and then you settle into your posture, The entry should be easy. This is one characteristic of meditation in our style, is the entry is not laborious.

[21:36]

The entry is easy. Maybe there's a certain amount of labor to get to your cushion, but once you're in your cushion, there's nothing particular to do. You just sit down. Now there's a reason why it's set up so the entry is easy. And also, the object of meditation is unlimited. It's not limited. In Mahayana and Zen style, you don't have a particular thing you do. There's no stages, there's no particular thing you focus on, and so forth. Because we're more interested, or we're entirely interested, in noticing the mind that focuses We're not too concerned with training the mind. So now some kinds of meditation train the mind. They give you a whole things you do. Zen says, no, no, don't do that.

[22:39]

The point of this story of Matsu and Nanaku is merge with formless absorption. So this means one mark samadhi means any mark will do. It doesn't matter what the object is. Any object will do, because really your meditation is mind itself, not the object of mind. Now, another characteristic is what governs your meditation. So what the entry should be easy, quite open. The object should be unlimited. And what governs your meditation? It should not be in this style, as Matsu says, neither grasp amidst myriad things, neither grasp nor reject, or as Sukershi would say, don't invite your thoughts to tea.

[23:42]

This means any object will do. Mind itself is the object, actually. And then what governs this state of meditation? It is not any gaining idea, as Sri Krishna always said, or any consideration of how this will affect you or you gain skill or you increase your health. You can do these things. And this is a natural part of meditation. But it's not... When you do that, that's called a path of meditation. It's not called a path of liberation. Now let me speak a minute about moments. Time is moments, discernible moments.

[24:46]

A discrete moment, we can also say a discrete moment is a dharma. Discern, discrete, it comes from the word discern and the word discern in English means to perceive difference. So you perceive differences and difference. Different is different. So you don't perceive very easily, this is different, this is unique, this is unique, this is unique. So a moment is this unique moment. And I don't know, I don't have a word for it, but I'd like to say maybe sphere moments. The path of meditation and the path of liberation both are about allowing you... Again, I've never spoken about this exactly, so I haven't found... There isn't language for exactly, but I haven't discovered a language either.

[26:02]

So I'm saying sphere moments, the path of meditation and the path of liberation, the point of it, particularly the path of liberation, is to open you to particular illuminating moments. Because this is what time is, and time turns on particular moments. And I think if you look at your own life, think about When do you feel most you? When have you felt most like this is worth living? Or this is, maybe it's on a particular street, in a particular city, on a particular sunny day or something, I don't know. Or maybe it's in the Zendo. There are particular moments on which our life turns. And I think when you look back in your memory, those moments are surrounded by a kind of brightness.

[27:05]

Now the Abhidharma, which is very interesting, the Abhidharma developed over centuries, exhaustively tried to understand all the way we look at things, think about things. And what Zen tries to do is eliminate the the unnecessary, the overly ornate, the repetitious, and concentrate on the essentials. And one of the essentials is this sense of a sphere moment, or I don't know what word to use. We just do not have the language. The Abhidharma has an immense language for things. We don't have the language. But I think I can give you the suggestion of these sphere moments. I mean, this little stick, for instance, my teaching staff, it's like the winter branches which blossom. But the blossoms here happen to be the psychedelic mushroom, the soma, which means another world simultaneously.

[28:13]

So this... Anyway, it's a typical teaching staff which looks like a branch of blossoms, but the blossoms are blossoming in another world. And when we have these sphere moments, we blossom into not only our world, but the world that's folded out of sight. the world which, as I said, plays hide-and-seek with itself. You need, in physics, higher mathematics to discover ten directions. They're not obvious to us. And in Zen, and in practice, we need the subtle mind and breath to begin to discern these mind itself.

[29:17]

Now, the koans have these, I'll just use the term, I know, I just made it up just now, sphere moments. They've got four spheres in here. These sphere moments, moments of kind of brightness or illumination, that you have in your own history and are in the koans. Now, the koans, as you know, many of them have a punchline in which afterwards the monk is enlightened or something like that. And yes, but I'm not speaking about that kind of feeling. I'm speaking about catching moments, the purpose of the koan, is almost like there's bubbles in the koans, which if you can let yourself into the koan, these bubbles open up in you. And each of us has our own moments. Maybe I could tell you a story. There's a woman, some of you know who she is, Charlotte Selver, who's been the source of

[30:28]

sensory awareness teaching in the United States. One of the early people to first teach with Abe Maslow and others and Alan Watts at Esalen. And she studied originally in Berlin with a woman named Elsa Gidlow. And I studied with Charlotte slightly a few weeks or anyway or so before I started studying with Tsukiroshi. And she said to me, I mean, she said to the group of people, there were several people on Broadway Street in San Francisco, in this little house, in the living room, borrowed this occasion. And Alan Watts was there, too. And she said to me, anyway, she said to the group, come to standing.

[31:33]

Now, Jeremy, you say, stand up. She said, come to standing. Immediately, I realized a different sense of the body, which has never left me. To come up to standing. Don't just stand up. There's a transition there. There's a whole different sense of the body and of this moment. And but in the language, the altered language. Now let me say that I spoke about Pound and Eliot, and Pound as bringing into his poetry the sense, the vision of a timeless present. And Eliot I described as bringing us magnetically into unrecognized feelings.

[32:44]

But both of these poets, and I think that for those of you who are German, there will be people who are not Buddhists who are also ancestors for you in your lineage. of practice, of developing a path of meditation and a path of liberation. But recognizing the the magnetism and what in in elliot's descriptions allowed me to see you could change the magnet you could change the pull you know i don't know if this makes sense but if i say and elliot has some place a phrase where he talks about somebody putting their fork to their mouth now that's different than saying eating if you say someone's eating there's a magnet there's a kind of Something happens in there with all kinds of associations. You stop those associations by just saying, bringing the fork to the mouth. That's quite different than saying the person's eating.

[33:47]

And Charlotte saying, instead of saying, stand up, saying, come to standing, was this kind of shift. Now, I discovered later that she'd been a dancer and she'd, on some street in Berlin, before the war, of course, where there were a lot of dance studios, they would notice, looking out the window, they could see various people just walking down the street, and they could say, oh, the way she walks, she studies with so-and-so. The way he walks, he studies with so-and-so. But when they saw Elsa Gidlow's students, they couldn't tell. So Charlotte really wanted to bring this language of training, which she'd been a dancer before she studied with Elsa, out of her body. And one day she was sitting in the studio and she fell kind of over in her seat and fell down with her head between her knees.

[34:52]

And she didn't know how to come back up. She didn't know how to come back up without coming back up in some language, like sit up. And Elsa Gidlow came by and understood immediately and just said, wait. And she was there for quite a long time and she at some point just came up into another world. And all her teachings born from that moment. This is what I mean by a sphere moment. And that moment was in her, that enlightenment was in her phrase, come up to standing, come to standing. And I absorbed that. Now for me the experience was not her enlightenment. but the experience was some kind of taste of her enlightenment that's now in me.

[36:00]

And we're always sharing those moments. Those moments are in, that's the point of these koan stories, is really to hide, not in, well, the monk heard this and then was enlightened, but hide in the whole thing, these little bubbles. These little moments of illumination, which there are already many in your life, some which brought you here, changed your schedule and so forth. So what governs this meditation? First of all, the entry should be easy because you don't want it labored.

[37:05]

It's just you're sitting. The object of meditation is unlimited because you're not training the mind. Yes, we have certain kinds of learned behavior. We learn how to behave from realization, but meditation itself is not about training the mind. This is another kind of meditation, okay, but that's not what Zen does. Uncorrected mind, merging with formless absorption. One-mark samadhi, where any mark will do. So what governs it? Again, it's not something aimed at. What are you aiming at? Aiming to be a Buddha. No, it's not some consideration like that. It's either energy. You allow the energy of your sitting to govern your meditation.

[38:06]

Or you allow a view to govern your meditation. For a view could be no aiming. You could sit. No aiming. No self-importance. just now is enough, or this very mind is Buddha. So we are practicing seated Buddhahood, we're not practicing seated meditation. Seated Buddhahood means you're practicing one-mark samadhi, you're practicing this jewel mirror consciousness. Realized or not, intimated or not, you hold this view of this already present realization. It can't be anywhere else. It can't be in the future. It must be here. If it's anywhere, it's here, in this moment, in this sphere moment.

[39:12]

And this is the sense of Maitreya Buddha too. Maitreya Buddha is the Buddha of the future but it means the Bodhisattva to become the Buddha is here present. And each of these sphere moments which anticipate realization or are grounded in realization merged with formless absorption. anticipates, helps us recognize, helps us ourselves become or create the possibility of Maitreya Buddha. For this Maitreya Buddha is nothing but the sum of the sphere moments of illumination that are already present in each of us. Thank you very much.

[40:22]

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