This morning I'm going to talk about what is Zazen and how we do Zazen. I'm going to base my talk on Master Dogen's Zazengi, which is his short treatise on Zazen. I do this once in a while just to bring us all up to Before I do that, I'm going to read just a few little passages from Kodo Sawaki Roshi.

[01:10]

Kodo Sawaki was one of the preeminent Zen teachers in Japan, Soto Zen teachers in And he was called Homeless Kodo. He didn't have a temple or any place, but he was recognized as maybe the leading teacher the first half of the 20th century. So, He talks about Zazen and he says, what is the use of doing Zazen? There is no use in doing Zazen. Until this penetrates your thick skull and you are really doing Zazen that is of no use, it is really of no use.

[02:16]

So this epitomizes the essence of Zazen. No use. But we can never, that really doesn't penetrate our skull. We're always looking for something. And then he says, The Buddha way is not to be distracted. It is to become your role to the bone. This attitude is called Samadhi or Shikantaza. We don't eat food to take a shit. We don't take a shit to make manure. But in recent years, most people think that you go to high school to get into college, and you go to college to get a good job.

[03:23]

Right? So, zazen is the thing in itself for itself. If you think that it's for something else, that's a big mistake. and you get off track. I was at Tassajara last week and I just came back yesterday and there was a Vipassana student who was questioning, he wanted to know what the difference is between But he said, well, you know, when I hear a Zen lecture, I never hear anybody talking about the Four Noble Truths, which is the basis of Buddhism.

[04:29]

I said, every lecture is about the Four Noble Truths. Whether you mention the Four Noble Truths or not, that's all we talk about, is suffering, the cause of suffering, and how to deal with it. And in these two little statements, the truth is right there. The cause of suffering is wanting something other than what you have and doing something for some other reason called advancement or improvement. Zen practice is not an improvement scheme. It's a being, just how we be, just how we are and who we are.

[05:37]

We're never satisfied. Suzuki Roshi used to say, you are just okay the way you are, but there's still room for improvement. It's okay. You know, a little improvement is okay. We don't want to stagnate. That's who we are. But we want to express our true nature. This is what Zazen is. This is what Zen practice is. So the hardest thing to be, in some ways, is who we are. We maybe would rather be a movie star or what our parents want us to be. Difficult. So in Zazengi, Dogen says, the practice of Zen is Zazen.

[06:42]

Za means sitting. your cushion is called a za-fu, the seat. And za is to sit and zen is inexplicable. Zen is to settle on who you are without moving. And even though to settle on who you are without moving is so, there's nothing that's not moving. So how to manifest stillness within movement and movement within stillness? Then he tells us how to sit.

[07:53]

He says, for Zazen, a quiet place is suitable. This is ideal Zazen. For Zazen, a quiet place is suitable. Lay out a thick mat. Don't let in drafts or smoke, rain or dew. Protect and maintain the place where you settle your body. There are examples from the past of sitting on a diamond seat and sitting on a flat stone covered with a thick layer of grass. Diamond seat is what we call Buddha's seat, Buddha's Zafu. Sitting on a flat stone covered with grass is Zen Master Sekito's seat in China. He was the author of the Sandokai and he sat on a rock covered with straw, a stone,

[08:57]

Sekito means stone head, kind of a pun, on his sitting place and his head. So, he's using these as examples. But it's interesting, then he says, day or night the place of sitting should not be too dark and it should be kept warm in winter and cool in summer. But Dogen also talks about Wu Zu Fa Yuan, who was sitting in an old dilapidated barn or temple and the wind was blowing through and the snow was covering the floor and the tomb and monks said, can't we fix the holes in the roof?

[10:01]

It's getting cold here. So he says, resolving the matter of birth and death is the most important. You shouldn't waste your time fixing holes in the roof. When I began living here in this building, with the crumbling walls, all the platforms were covered by jewels of snow. Scrunching up my shoulders to my neck, I exhaled into darkness. reflecting on the ancient ones abiding under a tree. So this kind of is a contrast to Dogon's, you should keep the place nice and warm in the winter and cool in the summer. So Dogon has many sides.

[11:04]

Also Japanese temples are very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. the monks do wear straw sandals in the snow. But still, I think he's right, you know, we should set up our temple to be Then he said, set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavor. It is not introspection. So when you sit Zazen, you actually let go of everything. Hard to do. mostly when we come into the Zen Do and we sit down, our head is whirling with concerns.

[12:16]

This is the biggest complaint that people have. My Zazen was so busy, I only had one moment when I was sitting Zazen. The rest of the time there were just So how does one lay down all those thoughts? How does one lay down the world? Set it aside and sit. If you try to chase the thoughts away, they just become stronger. And if you just indulge in the thoughts, you're not sitting zazen. So this is the koan of Zazen. Think not thinking. How does one think not thinking? Beyond thinking and not thinking.

[13:21]

It's called non-thinking, but that leans a little too much to the side of don't think. I'll talk about that later. set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. So when you come to this gate, when you think I am now on my way to Zazen, that's when Zazen, that's when your consciousness begins to be aware of Zazen and then when you walk in the gate you become aware of the atmosphere of the zendo, one of the things that is important is the atmosphere, because the atmosphere of the zendo makes you aware of what it is that you're doing.

[14:26]

People say, oh, why is everything so formal, and how can we have Japanese things around, blah, blah, blah. Well, the atmosphere helps you to let go helps you to engage, it influences your mind and makes you mindful actually. So then he says, Zazen is not thinking good or bad. When you sit it's not thinking good or bad, but we're always thinking good or bad, discriminating mind.

[15:32]

Discriminating mind is making these judgments two levels of discrimination. You know, we say don't be attached to things and don't discriminate. Zazen is letting go of discriminating mind, but we're always discriminating. There's never a moment where the mind is not discriminating. choosing one thing over another. Just the fact that you are sitting Zazen means that you've chosen to do that rather than do something else. So that's a discrimination. Everything we do has choice. But there are levels of discrimination. there's a level of discriminating consciousness which simply makes reasonable decisions based on what we see, what we hear, taste, touch, and feel, and what direction we're going in.

[16:52]

That's reasonable discrimination. But when we say non-discriminating, we don't mean that kind of discrimination. there's another level of discrimination which is based on self-centeredness called manas, consciousness. And that level of discrimination is called the ego or self-assertion. And that level of discrimination is constantly judging, like and dislike, good and bad, right and wrong, based on ego. This is what we mean by let go of discriminating mind. So in Zazen, because we think that meditation means something nice,

[17:57]

we discriminate like and dislike, good and bad, right and wrong. But Zazen is to let go of the ego discrimination, the self-centered discrimination, which is choosing on the basis of like and dislike. What's wrong with that? Well, the problem with that is that the mind is divided. Well, what's wrong with that? Well what's wrong with that is that the divided discriminating mind obscures our true nature, which is undivided mind. So we have the idea sometimes that zazen or meditation is peace of mind, but what does peace of mind mean? Peace of mind maybe means pleasant experience, no agitation, no bad thoughts.

[19:20]

So when we sit in meditation and it doesn't go that way, we don't like it. Oh, this is painful. So, where's my peace of mind? Well, that's because it's only a piece of mind. It's not the peace of mind that we think is peace of mind, just a little piece of mind. It's not the whole mind. The whole mind includes pleasure, pain, good things, bad things, things we like, things we don't like, and it's all the same. So we don't make a discrimination between what our usual sense of pleasure is and our usual sense of pain is. If it's pain, it's just pain. If it's pleasure, it's just pleasure. But as soon as we say, oh, it's pleasure,

[20:27]

This is it. It changes into displeasure because nothing stays there. You can't keep something. There's nothing to preserve. So in our daily life, we're always trying to preserve something that we like and get rid of something we don't like. But in Zazen, we just eat it all. It's all the same. And the only way we can do that is by letting go of the self-centered discriminating mind. Difficult. So this is called pure practice. opening statement of Zen Mind Beginner's Mind in that talk says, Zazen is difficult or Zen practice is difficult not because your legs are painful but because it's hard to keep a pure practice, pure practice of non-discriminating mind.

[21:45]

hard to keep the practice of unified whole mind, where pleasant is pleasant, painful is painful, and that's all. And in that way, within pain is pleasure, and within pleasure is pain. One has to include the other. When one side includes the other, that's non-duality. But we're constantly going back and forth, being buffeted around. As soon as we don't like something, we become dominated by it, and then we become a victim. So we victimize ourselves constantly. So he says Zazen is not thinking good, not thinking bad.

[23:00]

It is not conscious endeavor and it is not introspection. Conscious endeavor has the meaning of You don't try to get somewhere through zazen. Simply being present with what is. And it's not introspection. You're not investigating your psychological states. Simply everything goes by. Thoughts and feelings come up. and they present themselves and you say hello and let them go over and over again. You don't take up feelings, you don't take up thoughts. The thought of Zazen is Zazen. The mind wants to attach to all kinds of things.

[24:04]

So it's very difficult to stay centered and not be dragged off, not let your attention be dragged off by thoughts and feelings. But then we say, well, what about thoughts and feelings? We don't want to ignore thoughts and feelings. This is, of course, especially in our modern psychological atmosphere. We don't want to ignore thoughts and feelings. You don't ignore thoughts and feelings. You simply don't take them up. they just don't have any place in that particular realm. You feel what you feel and you think what you think, but actually feeling feels, thinking thinks. When you say I feel or I think, then there's an I there. That's self-centered.

[25:06]

So Zazen is to not produce an I. Who is sitting Zazen? That's right. The who is sitting Zazen. As soon as you say, it's me, it's not Zazen anymore. It's not my Zazen. It's simply sitting. Sitting is sitting. You can say I am sitting as long as you don't attach to that I. We use that I as a kind of convenient designation for this collection of forms, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness. Don't desire to become a Buddha. We don't do that in Japan, you know, or in China, people would sit to become a Buddha.

[26:20]

We don't have the same connection, mental connection, with the desire to become a Buddha, mostly in America. It's not so much our problem. But the desire to become a Buddha is the desire to become something other than what you are, even though it's wonderful. If you are unselfconsciously practicing, then you are already a Buddha. But if you look in the mirror and say, I'm a Buddha, you're not a Buddha. And then he says, let sitting or lying down drop away. You know, the four postures are sitting, lying down, standing and walking. Those are the four major postures. Don't be concerned about them.

[27:24]

I don't know why he has to say that, but And then he says, be moderate in eating and drinking. Be mindful of the passing of time. Be mindful of the passing of time means realize that you're not going to live this life forever. And that don't fool around. Don't waste your time, is what he means. be mindful of the passing of time and engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire. So, big problem. What's the problem? Saving your head from fire, you know, is addressing the four noble truths. The first one is life is subject to suffering. Everyone suffers in this life. That's a fact. And the second one is that the reason for that is desire or delusion.

[28:32]

But in this case, desire is like fire. And this fire of desire burns you up or eats you up. So because he sees it as, this is a Buddhist statement, not necessarily Dogon statement, Buddhist is this as well, and it's like the fire of desire is eating up your life and creating a big ego self. So you should practice to put out this fire. or control this fire so that it doesn't burn up the house. Putting out the fire is a little extreme because desire is necessary, but when we control desire,

[29:34]

Heat is what animates things, so heat is necessary, but if you don't control it, then it burns you up. So we turn desire toward way-seeking mind. Then it's no longer called desire of the burning house. So then he says, on Mount Huangmei, the fifth ancestor practiced Zazen to the exclusion of all other activities. It was also said that he sat without ever lying down. Some of those Chinese Zen masters used to do that. They would sit down, there was a chin rest, Zazen chin rest, and they would, like a big stick, That's a little extreme.

[30:42]

Some people do that still, but I like to sleep lying down. So then he says, when sitting you should wear your robe and use a round cushion, which is called the Zafu, and you can see them all around you. The cushion should not be placed all the way under the legs. you sit on the first third or first half of the cushion. And the reason for the cushion is to help you keep your back straight. If you don't have a cushion, then it's very hard to keep your back straight. You'd have to exert a lot of effort. And when you sit on a high cushion, the higher it is, the easier it is. But everyone has to adjust the cushion according to their physical propensities. Mine is very low for various reasons.

[31:48]

People look at my question and say, is that a question? So in this way the crossed and the backbone is supported with a round cushion. This is the method used by Buddha ancestors for Zazen. You can also sit in a chair. You can also, some people have been known to lie down doing Zazen, but if you lie down doing Zazen, it's easier to fall asleep. If I was to lie down sitting Zazen, I'd be gone in a minute. I used to go to these sensory awareness sessions and everybody's supposed to lie down on the floor and feel the floor under you and let go. Pretty soon I was snoring, you know, people were pitting me. Anyway, then he says sit either in the half lotus position or in the full lotus position.

[32:59]

I used to sit in the full lotus position maybe 20 years but now I sit in the And for the full lotus position, you put the right foot on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh. The toes should lie along the thighs, not extending beyond. For the half lotus position, simply put the left foot on the right thigh. But there are other ways. He doesn't mention the other ways of sitting. You can also sit with your foot on your calf. or sit with your feet in front, not really crossed. That's called the Burmese style. And then we also have the bench, which if you can't cross your legs. So we try to accommodate for everyone to sit if they really want to sit. Then he says,

[34:04]

Listen to your robes and arrange them in an orderly way. Place the right hand on the left foot and the left hand on the left hand in the right hand. So in a mudra for sitting is the left hand inside the right hand. There was a time a couple of years ago in Zen Center when people said, well, why not put the right hand inside the left hand? What's wrong with that? And so they started teaching, you can do it either way. But when people come here from Zen Center and they're doing it the other way, I always adjust their hands so they're putting the left hand inside the right hand. And we may say, well, tut-tut, you know. But we used to question, people used to question Suzuki Roshi all the time about form. And he said, well, why do we have to do it this way? Why can't we do it that way?

[35:06]

And he said, well, that's just because the way we do it. We do it this way because it's the way we do it. But our self-mind wants to question this. Maybe there's a different way or a better way or my way. So he was actually teaching something. He said, this is the way we do it. Yes, you could put it the other way. You could put the right foot on the left thigh. And people can do that. But the way we do it is the left foot on the right thigh. Well, why? I don't know. That's just the way we do it. We may think, well, That just becomes superstition or something, stale stuff.

[36:08]

But there's a teaching in this. It's just do something. Just do it the way we do it. Okay. Then no problem. But then everybody wants to do everything their own way. So Suzuki Roshi would say, in America, you are very egotistical. America is a very egotistical country. Of course, Japan is too. But not to the same extent that we are egotistical. We always want to do things our own way. I think Japanese could benefit by doing things their own way more. And Americans can benefit by doing things a little less their own way. So balance is necessary. So then he says, place the right hand on the left foot, the left hand on the right, inside the right, and lightly touching the ends of the thumbs together.

[37:27]

With the hands in this position, place them next to the body so that the joint thumb tips are at the navel. So when we sit in our mudra, people go like this with their thumbs. That's not the thumb tips. Thumb tips are like this. So it's a circle to make a complete circle. And then the thumb tips are just barely touching, very lightly touching. So it's kind of like maybe there's no gap but it feels like electricity can jump from one to the other. So mudra, this is the cosmic mudra. The form is emptiness. And the mudra tells us how our zazen is, or how zazen is.

[38:29]

If its thumbs start pressing together, getting tight, that means, oh, the body's, there's a lot of tension in the body. And so then, oh, okay, tension. It reminds you to let go of the tenseness in your body. And then if it starts, the thumbs start falling apart, sleepy. and then you wake up. So keeping the mudra not tense and not loose gives us the lightness that's important in sitting zazen. And then he says, straighten your body and sit erect. Don't lean to the left or right. Don't bend forward or backward. Your ears should be in line with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel.

[39:36]

So sitting up straight is Zazen. You push your lower back forward. Lift up your sternum. That doesn't mean putting out your chest, but simply lifting. And your head is on top of your shoulders. Your ears are in line with your shoulders. That means that you're not leaning forward or backward. If your ears are in line with your shoulders, you're not leaning forward or backward. If your nose is in line with your navel, you're not leaning from side to side. So this is how we align ourselves in zazen. And then we stretch our upper body. And then he says, rest your tongue against the roof of the mouth and breathe through your nose. Lips and teeth should be closed, the eyes open, neither too wide nor too narrow. Having adjusted body and mind in this manner, take a breath and exhale fully.

[40:38]

Taking a breath and exhale fully means, exhaling fully, is how you prime your breath so that you're breathing here in your lower abdomen. just below your navel. So to take a deep breath through your mouth and then exhale. When you inhale your lower abdomen expands and when you exhale it contracts and this primes your breath so that your breath will be down here. If you find yourself breathing in your chest then you should make the effort to move it down and the way you make the effort to move it down is to prime your breath by taking and expanding your abdomen and then exhaling pushing it out. You just take it two three breaths that way and then you resume normal breathing through your nose without trying to control your breath.

[41:44]

Zazen is not breath control, simply letting the mind follow the rhythm of the breath. Then he says, sit solidly in Samadhi and think not thinking. The non's thinking, non-thinking, or beyond thinking and not thinking. He actually says the non's thinking. Non-thinking would be not to think, but the non's thinking is the possessive. Who is the non? The non is your true nature. It's the non's thinking.

[42:48]

It's not my thinking. It's simply thoughts being thought. Sit solidly in samadhi. Samadhi is concentration, strictly speaking. Concentration on an object or concentration on a subject. But samadhi is concentration which is non-dualistic. It's attention in which there's no separation between myself as subject and the world as object. Consciousness divides something that's not divided. Originally myself and the world are not two things, but consciousness divides.

[43:55]

Consciousness in a sense of discriminating consciousness. Discrimination means to divide. So we just take it for granted that we are the subject and everything else around us is an object. because we haven't regained our unified mind in which we realize that everything is subject. So when we treat the world as object, we reinforce the split. So in zazen, We reunify the mind. We resume our true nature before the split between subject and object.

[44:56]

And this is called think, not thinking. Non-thinking, the non's thinking. Just accepting everything as it is. without the intermediary of the ego. The ego jumps in there every time and creates a self which is division. So when that's taken out, there's simply a unified mind. No split. Even though things have an objective side, They're simply part of myself, my true self, not my ego self. So the ego self is a substitute for our true self. That's why we try to diminish it.

[46:06]

We don't try to do anything. We simply allow the mind to be unified so that the ego is not taking over. If we give the ego something to do, then it won't be so thirsty or greedy or divisive or mischievous. So we put the ego in the service of big mind. That's called practice. Practice is to put the ego into the service of big mind. So we do nine bows to the altar. That's offering ego up to big mind. Ego doesn't want to bow, but we bow anyway. And then ego, okay. So then he says, Zazen is not learning to do concentration.

[47:17]

Buddhism there are many concentration practices and the concentration practices are meant to prepare you step by step for enlightenment. So it's not that concentration is not present in Zazen, it's simply not one of the concentration Zazen is not one of the concentration practices. He says Zazen is the Dharmagate of great ease and joy. It's simply stepping into the pool, throwing yourself into the ocean of Dharma, of reality. It is undefiled practice and enlightenment.

[48:20]

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