Now you've joined, many of you at least, have joined our practice period. And so there will be some things, of course, because I want to continue what we've been doing in the practice period, and so of course there will be some things that may not be so clear, but those of you who came from the practice week or seminar in Europe, Yanisov, a week or two ago, a few weeks ago, some of these things I have talked about, so you have some preparation. At the same time, we'll try to speak during the Sashin in a way that's, I hope, clear. It doesn't entirely depend on what we've been doing here.

[01:04]

This morning I said, Zazen, you're just here. That's it. And Randy spoke also in the second period as well, amplifying what I said and emphasizing not speaking, not talking during the sashi. And you know, there's nothing wrong with talking or there's nothing special about silence or noise or etc. But we want to find during Sushin, it's a good chance for a week to find some other way of being, interacting and not leaking constantly into our self-habits. So please, only speak half of what's absolutely necessary to get whatever work you have to do done.

[02:31]

And what I said this morning and what Randy said can be amplified quite a bit, endlessly perhaps, because to be just here doesn't mean to cut off yourself or cut off who you are, then you're not here. So to be just here is a kind of activity. What kind of activity is it? Now the Diamond Sutra says, the highest, most fulfilled... I happened to read it this morning. It gave me something to talk about. The highest, most fulfilled, awakened mind is everywhere equally. It's neither high nor low. The highest, most fulfilled, awakened mind is everywhere equally, neither high nor low.

[03:36]

Now, maybe I should say something about the standpoint of our Dogen, our Dongshan Dogen lineage. Mm-hmm. The standpoint of our lineage in practice is to practice from the point of view of enlightenment, to practice from the mind of wisdom or the mind of enlightenment. Now the alternative emphasis would be to practice in order to achieve enlightenment. Now, if you practice from the point of view of the mind of enlightenment, you have some problems. If you practice to achieve enlightenment, you have some problems. I'm sorry. But... So, you know, it's actually a little difficult to shift lineages or shift styles of practice because each practice has built into it the antidotes to its own problems.

[04:50]

Make sense? Yes. So you could switch between lineages and you could practice with the problems of one and the problems of other and never know the antidotes of either. Does that make sense? So I don't want you to just like stick with one lineage, but actually I'd like you to. Because then I see you more often. Maybe if I leave a mystery, some of the things we talked about practice period, you might come back next year to find out. No. But, you know, Dogen practiced with, you know, he didn't publish anything in his lifetime. None of his poetry or philosophical writings were published, as far as I know. And he practiced in the mountains like this with just a few people. But the emphasis on just a few people is the emphasis on a few people over a long period of time.

[06:00]

As I say, this is a, what's it called in Germany, the game of silent mail? Yeah. This is B-mail, not E-mail. Buddha mail. What do we call it? We call it post office in English, I think. I tell you something. I pointed this out. But the difference with this lineage or this transmission is I take 10 or 20 years to pass what I want to say to Rhonda. Rhonda's 10 years now, maybe, we're getting toward 20. And then she takes 10 or 20, etc. And, you know, it takes, this room then brings us halfway back to Buddha.

[07:08]

Because it's about 90 people between Buddha and myself and you. So if we take, this is the whole idea of taking 10 or 20 years to But yet the practice is really very simple, but the simplicity has to sink in, seep in. Tenryu, or Gute's finger, was a very important koan for me with Sukhya. What is this one finger? Everything people said to him, he answered with one finger. This is very simple practice, but it takes a long time to seep in. This is not gradual. It's not a gradual seeping. It's a kind of incremental, you know, settling into, opening your eyes wider and wider.

[08:13]

And the obstacle, you see, if you practice to achieve enlightenment, the obstacle to Buddha-nature then, or to Buddha's light, to Buddha's mind, is the desire to achieve enlightenment. So the Dungsan Dogen lineage emphasis is to remove the obstacle to enlightenment by practicing, as Sukershi's most common phrase probably was, no gaining idea. Shikantaza. So I'm speaking now about this no gaining idea practice. which we can come back then to the Diamond Sutra, the highest, most, this is to practice from the point of view of enlightened mind, the highest, most fulfilled, fulfilling mind, awakened mind, is everywhere equaled.

[09:35]

So practice, so practice in a way you find yourself everywhere equally. It's so simple. Yeah. So as I've been saying here and here again, emphasizing this practice period to bring your attention equally to whatever appears. Bring your attention equally to whatever appears. To complete whatever appears. To complete whatever is given you. This is the first paramita, perfection. Perhaps the word paramita is best translated as coming into the, reaching limitlessness. Limitlessness. or practicing a way to come into limitlessness.

[10:43]

So the first paramita, the traditional six paramitas, is giving. Giving yourself to whatever appears. This is a mind that is everywhere equally, neither high nor low. And the same section in the Dhamma Sutra goes on to say that this mind is realized and the fruit of this mind is wholesome actions. Now wholesome action is one that has no idea of self, person, lifespan, livelihood. Now, okay, so now we're expanding this sense of just here, you're just here, that's it.

[11:55]

Now most of us spend, I would say, if you notice, you spend a lot of time abiding in the distinction between self and other. Look at your own mind functioning, look at your own attention, and watch your attention rest in the dichotomy between self and other. See if there's any perception you have, any noticing or any thought you have that isn't based on the idea of self and other. Self and non-self, self and other people, self and sentient and non-sentient, insentient, etc. This is an obstacle to Buddha's light, Sukhyashida Buddha said. So just here is to not abide, as I'm presenting it, in our lineage, not abide in this distinction between self and other.

[13:19]

So every time you try to bring your attention equally to whatever appears, whatever is given to you, I mean, I come back to Atmar's ceremony, how he made us feel how much is given. Everything is given on each moment. to just bring your attention equally to whatever is given you. This is enough practice. This is today or ten years, one finger. Whatever is given to you, you complete whatever is given to you.

[14:29]

You bring your attention equally to it. This is a wholesome action. This is Buddha mind. If we imagine a Buddha sitting here, here, in your cushion, whatever comes, oh, okay. Okay. So this is the standpoint, again, of the way we practice, the way, the emphasis we have, Sukhyoshi's emphasis on no gaining idea, whatever it is, okay. This is the first standpoint, or first principle. Now, the more you can bring your attention equally to whatever appears, to not abide in the distinction between self and other.

[15:43]

This is also to dissolve dualism, to dissolve duality. Now again, We have these phrases, to be non-dualistic or non-self and so forth, and I think and I've been emphasizing this does not mean to lose a sense of self or to dissolve yourself. This is quite scary if you feel you're losing yourself. Let's not try to do that. Let's begin. Several things are happening in very simple acts. When you bring your attention, your energy, to whatever appears, you're undermining the distinction between self and others.

[16:45]

You're dissolving dualism. You're opening a door to this wholesome action or compassionate action where everything is seen equally, neither high nor low. When you bring your energy to this whatever appears and you find yourself in the distinction between self and others, it's an immediate block. So just notice your habits. When things arise, do they arise containing the idea of self and other? Everyone feels it in you, whether it does or not. And at that moment, you're not dissolving yourself, you're dissolving the distinction between self and other.

[17:48]

It's safe to dissolve the distinction between self and other. It will transform yourself, your sense of self, structure of self, the functioning of self, but it's not undermining your own experience of self as your usual way to find continuity. So let's think about this practice as dissolving the distinction between self and other. As I've been saying, a kind of blessing or a kind of lighting up. I think of the You know, as a kid I learned how to start a fire with flint. You know, you do that and you get a little spark and you feel like you're an Indian or something like that. I suppose it's useful. It's never been useful to me.

[18:49]

I've always had matches, but I do know how to do it. But it's some feeling like that when you dissolve the distinction between self and other. There's a kind of opening. Your energy can go into the world. There's a little door. Because the distinction between self and others is a closed door. And every thought you have based on the distinction between self and others is a door. You may be brilliant, you may be effective, you may... achieve things but when it's rooted in the distinction between self and other it shuts the world out in certain ways and then you have to find a door around that there's a lot of side doors but the main door is not open which lets other people in you bring people in through the side door or through the window

[19:50]

But if you want to open the main door, the main door, and let the big world in, big mind in, you find, you first of all just keep noticing, you notice, ah, look, this thought appeared, this sense, perception appeared. And it's based on a distinction between self and other. Just noticing that starts dissolving. And sometimes you'll notice it's not there, the distinction between self and other. This is this opening we could say to nirvana.

[20:57]

So we have a simple practice like this, which has, which penetrates with repetition, just bringing your attention. Without any idea of self, the idea of, oh, I have a particular, this is a really interesting idea, no idea of lifespan. This moment, no idea of lifespan, old, young, something you have to accomplish. No idea of person means at this moment, this diamond moment, not abiding in distinction between self and other. This is also no gaining idea. In my mind, it's like an hourglass or that kind of shape. Every time you cut through this abiding in the distinction between self and other, there's a kind of flow on each moment.

[22:21]

Now the paramitas... We understand them as perfecting limitlessness or approaching limitlessness. Giving is the first one. And it's also the first one because Buddhism is so much about how we live with each other. And this teaching is that if your mind is rooted in, first of all, a mind of generosity, a mind of giving, it is the basis for living with each other. And a mind open to receiving through, first of all, being rooted in giving, a feeling of generosity, a feeling of no boundaries. A feeling of no boundaries, of giving, is this not abiding in a distinction between self and others.

[23:31]

This is the biggest generosity you can have. Next paramita or movement toward limitlessness is conduct or precepts. Just how you are in this moment, how you complete this moment, this is conduct. Not trying to add up or subtract. Just this moment, completing what is given to you. This is contact. And the next is patience or forbearance or just being present for, not rushing things. Being willing to undergo, to suffer existence. To suffer means to undergo. To undergo. And the next is energy or enthusiasm or effort.

[24:35]

So these are the bodhisattva practices, but you can understand them as practices, not moral practices only, that's one level, but practices to bring your own energy and conduct to this point where you no longer abide in the distinction between self and other. So all the paramitas are teachings of how to bring yourself to this moment that is given to you where you don't abide in the distinction between self and other. Again, I'm emphasizing the craft of practice. This is a craft, but based on wisdom, based on the practice of wisdom. To bring each, to bring your attention equally to each moment is a craft based on wisdom. And based on the most highest, most fulfilled awakened mind.

[25:44]

Because when mind is everywhere equally, this is enlightened mind. And it's not some kind of abstraction. It's found just now, not abiding in the distinction between self and other. Sometimes you say, I give you too many practices. Now maybe you feel I'm giving you one practice too often in this lecture. I'm sorry. All of the practices, for me I would say that all of the practices I've given you are supports, are ways of intimating, understanding this most basic practice of being present to whatever is given to you, completing whatever is given to you.

[27:08]

And note that an energy for each moment, not some sort of dawdling or I wish I had a better moment. I've had better moments. This is okay. I mean, I'm sure you have had better moments, but where are they? Again, what Yamada Momono, she said, The most important thing is to know that everything is at this moment operating to make this possible. Everything you can think of, cosmos, universe, etc., all is functioning to make this moment possible. That's not discrimination. Just what is given you. And don't block it by abiding in the distinction between self and other. If you do, it's okay. Just accept that you abide in the distinction between self and other because accepting, noticing that you abide in the distinction between self and other is to practice acceptance and is to also dissolve, to notice, to see around this moment of abiding in this distinction.

[28:36]

And the last of the parameters, this reaching into limitlessness, is meditation, to bring the mind of meditation, the mind of Manjushri, to each moment too. A mind that accepts and absorbs in some big space, you feel, some big space. And the last is wisdom. And all that I've said is based on wisdom. So wisdom is the basis of practicing these practices. Limitlessness itself is wisdom. Realize through simply seeing and dissolving, not abiding in this distinction between self and others. It keeps reappearing.

[29:47]

This is our life. And our activity is not to wipe it out, but not to abide in it as it appears. So we sit. Nope. So I always sing with the feeling of no place to go, nothing to do. Just here. That's it. Thank you.

[30:32]

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