This is the Zen Center, and it feels very good. And every day, Sishin will get a little bigger. There will be a few more people every day. It's the last day there. It's supposed to be the 15th. Anyway, as Vimalakirti says, I miss the shame.

[01:36]

but keep waking up to the present. So our minds become very full. We don't have to be concerned about anything except just what's in front of us. And this may be difficult to do. In Sashin, we cut ourselves off from the world. And this is our life, right here. So with this being all there is, we should make good use of our life.

[03:29]

And when I say good use, I don't mean good use for something else, but bring life to life. Just let life flow. it a little behind, it doesn't feel so good. So how to just be right here in time, that's the trick, which is no trick. But how to just be here in this time.

[04:37]

moment by moment. What is this time? And what is this place? I want to read a little from Dogen's fascicle. I'm sure Dogen's is called Uchi. Uchi means time being. time.

[05:58]

So, in Dogen's thinking, in his fascicle, his expression is time's being and being is time. In the same way we say in the Heart Sutra, Emptiness and form are inseparable. So being and time, in the same way, being and time are inseparable. So Dogon says, an ancient Buddha said, for the time being, stand on top of the highest peak. For the time being, proceed along the bottom of the deepest ocean.

[07:04]

For the time being, three heads and eight arms. For the time being, an eight or 16 foot body. For the time being, a staff or whisk. For the time being, a pillar or lantern. For the time being, the sons of Zong and Li. For the time being, the earth and sky. For the time being here means time itself is being and all being is time. A golden 16-foot body is time. Because it is time, there is the radiant illumination of time. Study it as the 12 hours of the present. Three heads and eight arms is time. Because it is time, it is not separate from the 12 hours of the present. Even though you do not measure the hours of the day as long or short, far or near, you still call it 12 hours.

[08:09]

Because the signs of times coming and going are obvious, people do not doubt it. Although they do not doubt it, they do not understand it. Or when sentient beings doubt what they do not understand, their doubt is not firmly fixed. Because of that, their past doubts do not necessarily coincide with the present doubt. Yet, doubt itself is nothing but time. The way the self arrays itself is the form of the entire world. See each thing in this entire world as a moment of time. Things do not hinder one another, just as moments do not hinder one another. The way-seeking mind arises in this moment. A way-seeking moment arises in this mind.

[09:13]

It is the same with practice and with attaining the way. Thus, the self setting itself out in a ray sees itself. This is the understanding that the self is time. Know that in this way there are myriads of forms and hundreds of grasses throughout the entire earth, and yet each grass and each form itself is the entire earth. The study of this is the beginning of practice. When you are at this place, there is just one grass, there is just one form, there is understanding of form and no understanding of form. There is understanding of grass and no understanding of grass. Since there is nothing but just this moment, the time being is all the time there is. Grass being, form being, are both time. Each moment is all being, is the entire world.

[10:15]

Reflect now whether any being or any world is left out of our present moment. Life takes place in a dream and very often it's easy for us to lose a sense of reality. within our dream. Our dream is also time being, because our dream takes place in time and is being.

[11:18]

Being, you know, doesn't go anywhere. Time seems to have the function of coming and going. say, time flies by or time moves, or tempest fidgets. quite inseparable.

[12:23]

Yet, the quality of being is, if you take the quality of being to its essence, it neither comes nor goes. The quality of being neither comes nor goes. And the quality of coming and going, is what we call time. So at the core of time, the core of coming and going is just pure existence. So here is our koan. how to be perfectly still within coming and going, or within time to just exist.

[13:32]

In our dream world, we associate our life with actions. and with comparative worth, with evaluation. But in absolute existence, everything has its own reason for existence. And every moment has its own complete existence as time.

[14:45]

When we sit zazen, We just have this opportunity to realize Absolute Existence as time, and time as Absolute Existence without comparing or evaluating. This is called waking up, moment by moment. The quality of Zazen is dreaming and waking up, dreaming and waking up, drifting and waking up. The waking up is with nothing in the mind, nothing in particular in the mind.

[16:05]

Just waking up to the moment, the present moment, with whatever it is. And maybe with a little astonishment. Yesterday, Kutsa Zibi arrived. It was the day before, actually. But yesterday we were talking with him, and talking about the word Amen, which means something like, oh, this. It's like, it doesn't have some special meaning.

[17:23]

It just means, ah, this. Or, so it is. This is, that is a kind of exclamation, it's like, swaha, at the end of the heart sutra. When we wake up, each moment that we wake up is a moment of, oh, this. So we have this kind of rhythm in our practice. To say not to dream is asking a little too much, because the mind, the nature of the mind is to create dreams. But it does seem to have this function of dreaming and thinking.

[18:31]

And it also has the function in dreaming of dividing and comparing. And waking up means waking up from the division. that the mind creates, waking up from the divisions that the mind creates, and just being present in all of this. So, Zazen is just moment after moment of dreaming and waking up. dreaming and waking up without judgment, without thinking that dreaming is bad, or without thinking that waking up is good.

[19:49]

but just waking up for the sake of reality. You know, I think it was R.H. Blythe who said something like, people think that Zen is seeking peace of mind. There's never mind of peace. Just mind is good enough. or just reality is good enough. We want something more than just reality. We want reality that's peaceful or untroubled reality. But maybe that's taking too much time. merely flies away.

[21:29]

Do not see flying away as the only function of time. If time merely flies away, you would be separated from time. The reason you do not clearly understand the time being is that you think of time only as passing. In essence, all things in the entire world are linked with one another as moments, because all moments are the time being. They are your time being. The time being is the quality of flowing. So-called today flows into tomorrow. Today flows into yesterday. Yesterday flows into today. And today flows into today, and tomorrow flows into tomorrow. Because flowing is a quality of time, moments of past and present do not overlap or line up side by side.

[22:39]

Qingyuan is time. Huangpo is time. Jiangzi is time. Qitu is time. Because self and other are already time. Practice enlightenment is time. Being splattered with mud and getting wet with water is also time. Although the views of an ordinary person and the causes and conditions of those views are what the ordinary person sees, they are not necessarily the ordinary person's truth. The truth merely manifests itself for the time being as an ordinary person. because you think your time and your being is not truth. You believe that the sixteen-foot golden body is not you. Sixteen-foot golden body is Buddha. However, your attempts to escape from being a sixteen-foot golden body are nothing but bits and pieces of the time being.

[23:49]

Those who have not yet confirmed this should look into it deeply. hours of horse and sheep, which are arrayed in the world now, are actualized by ascendings and descendings of the time being at each moment. The rat is time, the tiger is time, sentient beings are time, Buddhas are time, the animal What Dogen is trying to tell us is rather than to escape from time, to become fully one with time. And in order to become fully one with time is to be completely present in our activity.

[25:01]

And when we're completely present in our activity, moment by moment, time also has the quality of no time. If an artist who is completely involved Or for a musician whose music is completely dependent on time, and of course music is time, when completely engaged in the music, there is no time in the ordinary sense. and posture without thinking about the past and without worrying about the future.

[26:21]

There's just only this time, which covers all time. Time is not bound by its usual dimensions. So Dogen says there's only present, only this present time. And all the past and all the future is within this present moment. Because we think that time passes, that time is a thing that passes. Because it looks like we're standing someplace, we're standing still, and time is passing. Or time is coming, or time is leaving.

[27:27]

These are just views because of a certain place that we're standing. We have these views of time, and we have these views of existence. because of the way we see things from a certain point of view. And if we stand outside, we get these various points of view. But when we're completely one with time and activity, our life is complete. So the various views we have of time and being are also time being.

[28:40]

Nothing is outside of time being, whether it's true views or false views. Nevertheless, to Let go of all views. Just be time. Just let the time be. we get lost in the present.

[29:46]

We have to take into account the future, but if we get anxious, we lose the present. So it's very difficult to stay in the present, given the difficulties we have. with our breath, with our posture, with our serving, with our dishwashing, with our rest, with our walking. Whatever we're doing, just stay in the present moment without being anxious about anything, without wishing for something else. Let's just let the present moment manifest as the present.

[30:54]

And as we dream and drift and wish, we keep waking up to now. During the course of the session, at some point or another, we'll wish that we were someplace else. We'll wish that we were doing something else. Or we'll wish that we were feeling a different way than we're feeling now. This is called dreaming. And waking up is just to feel what we feel and to be what we be. And to allow ourselves to just be as we are. This present moment is a result of the past and will influence the future.

[32:12]

But both past and future are nothing but the present. There's nothing but the present unfolding itself moment by moment. Let's investigate this present moment by just letting it unfold itself moment by moment see a spirit of fundamental equality, and certainly that can have the system as ruining, where we're all essentially divested of what we're brought here.

[33:48]

We're essentially an allied performance of doing the same thing. Now that spirit of equality, when we meet here in branches and comparison things, But why squirm around and try to retain anything? I mean, what you said, the future has to be dealt with. For example, what are you doing sitting up there? If you grasp some fundamental understanding, why aren't you there? I mean, it would seem wise simply not to wiggle it around, not to change one's situation, not to think of it as humble or not humble.

[35:06]

I'm confused about motivation, about the kingdom, about the comparison of where it is. where it seems to flow gracefully and alter one's condition. Without the introduction, the identity of being, you're bettering your condition. In other words, without the notion that you're bettering your situation, that you're improving your situation. That's right. What? Everything you said. That's right. All those things that you said are correct practice. It's correct understanding. Just let things be.

[36:08]

Just let everything be as it is. Well, that's what it is. Right here, this is what we're doing. When you go out in the world, someplace else, and do something, you think all you're doing is discriminating.

[37:17]

You have to make choices. You also have to make choices right here. Even though you're sitting still, you're making a choice on every moment. But no matter where you are or what you're doing, what is your choice based on? How do you make choices? What are your choices based on? How do you decide something? Within everything we do, We shouldn't get lost. That's the point. The point is, no matter what you're doing, don't get lost. Within all of your activity, where is the stillness? Where is the unwavering pivot of your life? when he sits us in, that's what we concentrate on.

[38:25]

And when you go out and do your business of the world, that should be there. It's not like you're giving up one thing to do another. It has to be all one piece. within the busy activity of the marketplace, where are you? What are you doing? How do you wake up there? When you sit zazen, you realize there is such a thing. And then wherever you are, you realize how it manifests. Even when you're comparing one thing to another.

[39:36]

Discriminating mind is the activity of non-discriminating mind. Dogen says, the self arrays itself as the time being. What is that self that arrays itself as the time being? Big self arrays itself as all the activities of the time being. So the big self can enjoy itself and see itself. That is the time being. It's being time. And you can enjoy this manifestation. Okay?

[40:48]

Kings are worthless.

[41:06]

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