Today I want to talk about certain basic points that we don't touch on too often, but we do. Things in our practice that we're doing constantly, but we don't touch on so much, like bowing and some of the things that are so common that we don't get around to discussing them much. When I used to give Zazen instruction, I haven't given Zazen instruction for years, but I used to do it every week, more than once a week sometimes. So I was always talking about those things, but I haven't done it for a long time. Every once in a while we need to kind of refresh our mind.

[01:11]

And so I want to talk a little bit about bowing and how we bow. And, you know, in the Japanese Zen, especially Soto Zen, there's a way to do everything. There's a way to bow, and a way to sit down, and a way to stand up, and a way to eat. It's like training for a high class debutante. But after you know how to do these things, after you graduate, you have a certain kind of poise and a way to understand more easily. So, bowing is something that should come from your heart.

[02:19]

Basic point of bowing is something that should come from your heart and if it does, what is there to learn about it? But still, there's a lot to learn about it. And it helps us to, you know, we can learn about, learn these various, train in various ways and still come out without having touched our heart. It's true. But if we touch our heart, then the vehicle that training gives us, gives us a way of expressing something in a way that is more helpful.

[03:30]

And it's just like any kind of training. We're all diamonds in the rough, but until we have some shape, some way of expressing our diamond nature, we may never be able to really express it so well or use it so well. So, training is a vehicle, gives us some way to bring out that diamond nature and express it. So the various ways that we learn how to bow and when you put your hands together

[04:32]

putting your hands together called gassho. Gassho means putting your hands together, without bowing or anything like that, just putting your palms together. And usually, in gassho, you put your palms flat together and hold your fingers together and your thumbs together, so they're not sticking out. Some people bow like this. If you think about, there's a way of thinking about Garshel, about holding your hands together. The right hand is, each finger has some meaning. The thumb is Buddha. And this finger is Bodhisattva. Pracheka, Shravaka and Deva or heavenly being.

[05:42]

And this is realm of humans, fighting demons, pretas, hungry ghosts. What's the next one? Animals. and hell and so when we put our hands together we put all those realms together and they become all the everything that two halves of our being are put together in the gasha we just put them all together one they all meet with each other. And then when we actually bow to each other, it's called bow of no mind.

[06:48]

No mind bow, which means everything is forgotten. Buddhas, hell, human beings, everything is dropped and just the realm of the bow. No mind, no thinking. Just this moment is what it is. This is actually when we bow, when we prostrate ourself, same thing. No, we say we bow to ourself. When you bow down, you bow to Buddha, but actually we say you bow to yourself. But then that's a koan for us, right?

[07:53]

We bow to ourself is a big koan. If I'm bowing over there, how can I be bowing to myself? And actually, whenever we bow, when we're bowing, when the meal comes, you know, we bow to the server, we're still bowing to ourself. When we bow to the gamafio, we're still bowing to ourself. So whatever we bow to, we bow at the door, we bow to the post, it's that same attitude. So no problem bowing to things or people or nothing. So in the zendo, there's a lot of bowing. We practice bowing in the zendo.

[08:57]

That's about 50% of what we do in the zendo is bowing. And when I get up from zazen, And we get up and everybody's just pushing the altar around and everybody's bowing, [...] bowing That means that every time we turn around, we're giving up ourself. Every time we turn around, we're freeing ourself, giving up a sense of hanging on to anything, bow of no mind. So there are various ways of attitudes.

[10:03]

When I come around in the morning, that's a greeting. And I have my hands in Gassho. And so you put your hands in Gassho. That's enough. And it's just a greeting. And when we come in the door, bow, put our hands together, You know, there are various ways to hold your hands, hold your arms, but a very strict way, you know, monastic way is to hold your elbows out, you know. This is a strong bow, very masculine, strong bow. But actually, I think it's better for us, this is a little bit I might criticize for this, but I think it's better if our elbows are down, a more natural feeling.

[11:17]

Because we're not coming on, you know, so strong. We kind of have more, a little more, kind of less strong feeling. And it sits us better, I think. And when you bow, you move your upper body. You don't move your hands like this. Sometimes, you know, when you're sitting in Zazen, and you want the Junko to hit you, and you're very stiff, you know, so you go like this. But it's hard, you know, sometimes because your legs hurt, to lean over your whole body. So you go, you know. It's good if you can let yourself be a little bit loose, you know, and let your whole body move, even if it stretches your legs, let your upper body move.

[12:33]

And there's an attitude of how much is enough and how much is too much. This is kind of not really allowing yourself, you know, just kind of, well, okay. And this is a, oh, oh. You know, too much, too, too reverent. I see some people, too reverent. Well, let's get it over with. But actually, the real bow is when you stop. You go down, then you come back up. So you're going down, you stop. And that's where everything stops.

[13:38]

The whole world stops right there, just for a second. And then that's where everything meets, whatever it is that you're bowing to yourself. That's where you meet yourself, which is manifested through various other objects. And then you come back up. So that's heartfelt. That's where your real feeling is, in that moment when you stop. You should know where you're stopping. That should be the judge of how far to bow. Where am I going to sit? Down here? Sometimes we bow like this, way down, because we have a lot of deep feeling or something. So we really lean all the way over.

[14:40]

And our hands are almost straight out. Very deep feeling. But we don't do that so often. Usually it's, you know, kind of usual. And so the point is, you know, not to exaggerate. You lose something. You're not there. The point is to be there. Where are you, you know? And how do you meet with yourself? and also not to be superficial. You can be superficial either way. And then prostrating, you have your hands in gassho, and you lower yourself and go down, and then at a certain point, you put your knees out,

[15:47]

because you're going to go down. And then it's usual to put one knee down first, even though it's just a little teeny bit ahead of the other one. They say the right knee. But I usually put the left knee down first. Whatever, you know. And so that if you go down on both knees at the same time, it's more like, boom. So one knee kind of eases you into it and you don't hit the floor so hard. And to try and hit the floor just as gently as possible without making any sound. If you can have that kind of balance and you go down and you just touch the floor with your knee to keep yourself in balance that way. It's a way of also to have that same kind of balance in Zazen that you have, to practice that kind of balance. with your body, so you just touch the floor very easily. And then the other knee goes down.

[16:51]

And then when you go down, you touch your elbows. And you can touch one elbow first. And then when you put your hands out, you touch your forehead and lift your palms. lifting your palms, your fingers and thumbs are together like this, and you lift your whole hand as if someone's feet were in the palm of your hands, and you're lifting them up. So you don't go like this. Tatsagami Roshi used to say, he used to laugh at us, we'd go like this. He'd say, there goes Buddha. You're actually lifting Buddha up over your head. That's how we do that.

[17:54]

It's a funny concept, I think, for us. We're not used to doing that, lifting Buddha up over our head. But if you just have that feeling when you have someone's feet in your hands, when you lift your hands. That's the simple bow. The more formal bow is touching your head three times. We used to do that at first. Years ago, we used to touch our head three times every time we lifted our hand. More formal. But then we simplified it. Tatsagami Roshi simplified it for us. But if you can practice that way, also, you try to put your behind down. Keep your behind as low as possible, rather than keeping your back weight up.

[18:59]

I used to always bow with my feet. When I got down with my feet out, the tops of my feet on the floor and my behind go down easier, more, you know. But when I went to Japan, a Hoitsu said, no, that's the way women bow. You should bow with your feet up, your toes up. So women can bow that way. That's more a women's style. And men with their feet. Their toes, you know, up. That's Japanese style. So I said, you know, I thought, oh. But then I tried it, you know. And I thought, I never can do that. I can never bow that way because it always hurt my toes.

[20:04]

But doing it, having to do it, I found out that I can actually do it quite easily and it doesn't hurt my toes. So I can do it either way. I don't mind you doing it either way. You can do it either way too. Whichever way you like. Here in America, you can do it either way. But, um... But the point is to keep your behind down so that you don't have a, um... Suzuki Goshi used to call behind sticking up in the air a big ego. So anyway, when you get into the mode of bowing in that way, it feels quite good.

[21:24]

Most Buddhist practices, I kind of like to put you into a mode where nature, you know, or if you act like Buddha, you know, then you feel like Buddha. And so if we bow in a way that's like Buddha, you know, then we feel like Buddha, feel like ourself, like Buddha, which we are. And if you learn how to practice in that style, then it helps you to practice in your own style, in your less formal life.

[22:28]

It gives you a way, a basis for practicing to be Buddha in your informal life. how you take care of yourself and how you take care of others and things. Do you have any question about bowing? When you say we bow to our self, I know you don't mean personality.

[23:38]

No, I don't. But it can't be misunderstood or understood that way. Don't misunderstand. Because self is, in terms of the language, self is usually used as equivalent to personality or ego. So we use language, we use terms which are dualistic in order to express non-duality. We could invent some other language, you know, to talk about non-duality in other terms, you know. That's very philosophical. If you want to understand, you know, philosophically, you use terms that talk about non-dualistic concepts. But if you want to point directly to it, you have to use the dualistic word to express the non-duality. So we say, yourself. Then you get the koan.

[24:41]

Otherwise, it's not a koan. It's just splitting off into the non-dualistic language and dualistic language. You have to use dualistic terms to express non-duality, just like you express non-duality in your dualistic life. Otherwise we just get off on a head trip. What if you say the other side, be a self, no self? What if you say? Be bound to you, no self. Well, you can say that. You can say you're bowing to your no-self. Either way. Either way, it's okay. I'm bowing to my no-self. That's okay, you know. It depends on what you're trying to express and to whom you're trying to express it and how you expect it to be understood.

[25:49]

You can say anything you want, you know. That's why we have to be able to use any term, just use a term, and use it to express the meaning. We tend to think, well, there are certain terms that express certain meanings, but we have to be able to use any term and make use of it. So sometimes you say, myself, and sometimes you say, my no-self. Sometimes you don't say, my. Well, I guess the bowing to the self gives the koan to be informed. Well, maybe. For people who don't know, they don't know that. Right. And it sounds also like more Hindu. But it gives them a problem.

[26:51]

It's a personal problem. You have to have the problem. You can also say, I bow to my no-self, and they say, well, who are you? My no-self. It's true. But you just have to, I don't know, use the language the way you want. I can't tell you. How do you use it? My problem is, what about? Oh. Like, every time you turn around. Yeah. When in doubt? When in doubt, do it. Well, I watch people, you know. I didn't come to Zazen instruction before, so she saw us in muddy water. Everybody seems to do it differently.

[27:54]

And I get the feeling there's a real simple way that everybody's following for their own reasons, because they're coming and going. But I haven't got the key in, you know. I don't think they will either. I think that's pretty optimistic. But see, I'm always looking this way. I don't know what's going on out there. I hear things about it though. So sometimes people leave me tails. What's going on? We talked one time about bowing to the cushion when we have to change seats like at mealtimes or whatever. Other people know better than me, because I probably forgot.

[28:56]

Well, I think what you said was that... You wait. What did I say? Sorry. I think what you said was that we bow to the cushion that we're going to use for the meal, and then when we return to our own cushion, it's not necessary to bow again to that one. We've already... I think I know what you mean. It's complicated. Say it again. We get up from Satsang, we straighten our cushion, bow to the cushion and bow to the Sangha. Bow, facing in this way. Yeah, facing in. And then when we change seats for a meal, Then at the end of the meal, straighten that cushion, bow that cushion out of the room.

[30:01]

Go to our other seat, but it's not necessary to bow again to the original seat. So you put your oreoki back. Put your oreoki back and you turn around and wait for the standing bow. That's what I remember. It all depends on how we decide. Is that what we decided? That's what you said one day. Yeah, that was the last time we talked about it. I don't remember talking about it. Is that what we've been doing? Well, pretty much. Sometimes people bow, though. Sometimes they do it. Well, sure. It's natural to do that. You know, since you bow so many times, you just do it, right? But we said that you didn't have to. I mean, not didn't have to, but it wasn't... It was extra. It was a kind of extra thing to do. because we're going to turn around and bow to the person across when they bow, something like that. Well, I think one thing, what I was thinking was you can bow, but then you turn around and wait for the next, wait for the person on the other side.

[31:08]

So you bow together rather than you bow, and then that person bows and you bow again to that person, you know, it's a little extra. So I think, as I recall, what I was thinking was you just kind of wait. Well, this was a different situation, which was that you're bowing to the cushion that you just used, or are just about to use, and not to the one that you're just returning to. Right. Right, so you just put your, oh, you have your back. You turn around. I think that's good. It's, I think it's, um, What's helpful about it is that, to me, it seems like when to bow, when not to bow, if you have an idea about when So let's do that.

[32:31]

What can I say? You don't want to come back from your meal and say, oh, how are you again? It's lovely while I'm gone. I think it's a good idea, though, is when you, after you take care of your cushion, you know, toward the end, and you bow to the cushion and you turn around to wait for the person on the other side before you bow. And then you won't, you know, be doing this. When there are three satsang periods in a row and in between, do you bow to your cushion in between or just at the very beginning and then three periods and at the end of the three periods? Well, when we get up, you can't just get up. and start walking zazen without doing anything. But if you're going to leave, you couldn't leave your kushin alone.

[34:08]

I mean, that's up to you. But if you fluff it up, then you bow. If you're going to weave this into it, you've got to do something. Yeah. And then after, when we return after kundian, I think we bow to our kushin, right? No, we just get up and sit together. We bow to the center of the room all together. And then sit together. We get to the seat, and then we go on with our lives, and then we leave that way. Right. And then just start again. And just sit down. It sort of makes it like one long zazen, one long piece all together. We value Krishna at the very beginning of it, and at the very end. Yeah. Unless you're leaving. Unless you're leaving. Right. See, there is a key there. It's different at different Zen centers, so-so. Right. It is different at different places. You got the key for this one.

[35:11]

Is there time for one more? What about when you're already sitting and people come late on either side of you? When you perceive it, they bow. You bow to it. And how many people... Just one on either side. Just one on either side and the person right across and not all those others. Right, right. And the person across only when you're sitting facing in because if you're sitting facing the wall... Yeah, you don't. Don't worry about it. You'd have to be pretty... Hey, why isn't Becky or something? But what about if there's nobody, say nobody is sitting here and nobody sits down? Yeah, well if you perceive that person, you know, if you perceive that there's a space, then the next person, if you perceive that person, and it's a real perception, then you bow to that person, you know.

[36:14]

You may not see them, or it may be kind of vague, but if you have a feeling of their presence when they bow, then you can bow to them. I would do that. Okay.

[36:36]

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