You'll have to tell me in the back if you can't hear me because the stream is louder. Can you hear me? Okay. I want to talk some at the beginning of this session about this posture. use. I think it's useful to renew our acquaintance with this posture every, at least every Sashin. In fact, maybe the only time we really get to practice this posture, to have enough concentration, is during a Sashin. I think our intimacy with this posture fades between sessions. This posture has something remarkable about it and shouldn't be slighted.

[01:31]

And exactly how you sit is very important. This posture itself is a sign of enlightenment. And many, many teachers, not just Buddhist teachers, take this posture. You've seen, I'm sure, pictures of teachers from various schools and religions, and often they're seen sitting in some posture quite similar to this in their photograph or representation. And, of course, we have this Shakyamuni Buddha who is between 1,500 and 2,000 years old, And he's been sitting there somewhere in Northern India or Afghanistan waiting for all of us. And in fact, this posture goes back several thousand years

[02:54]

Before Buddha, we have representations of this posture. So in a Sashin like this, you will have some chance to practice this posture. And in a way this posture is the opposite of asceticism. Buddha gave up asceticism, as you know, and sat in this, what he called, comfortable posture. For us maybe it's not so comfortable at first. But at first, practicing asceticism, Buddha was trying to maybe throw away his body, emphasizing some independent spirit or soul.

[04:16]

And in our practice, we do almost the opposite. We start with this body. So when you first sit, how you prepare yourself for sitting is quite important. Some of you sit down very quickly and start, but then take a very long time to get up. If anything, it should be the opposite. You should always be ready to get up But you should be careful sitting, how you begin to sit, so that you can stay in that, as much as possible, in that posture you start with. Your posture, of course, will slowly improve over one period of zazen, if you are sitting with energy. But as much as possible, it's good to start from the beginning, sitting as well as you can. So I think the practice, you know, of rocking back and forth is valuable. I say this every now and then, and you do it for a while, and then mostly you don't do it. But it's not absolutely necessary, and you may find you can just do it a little,

[05:56]

But it's partly we do it to center ourselves, that you can find some center. coming until you feel some center, some axis in your whole body, some axis. And you can check that, you know, by pushing straight down from your sides, up, off your cushion. Curving your spine in a little is really lifting through your back. Lifting here. And you should pull your chin in a little, which stops thinking. And I can't explain everything, but it has some connection with how your energy goes.

[07:19]

Rocking, as I say, is partly for helping you center, but it's partly to bring your breathing to your body. Usually, or often anyway, our breathing is actually going with our mind. It's not so appropriate for what we're doing physically, but it's going fast or slow according to our mind. So as the direction in Buddhism, Buddha giving up asceticism, is to the body, you know, we bring the breathing away from the mind, you know, back to our body. So first we get our body centered. Then we, you can rock or however, you know, then you can, bringing your body back to your

[08:33]

bringing your breathing back to your body. First you bring your body maybe to this place. Then you bring your breathing to your body. Just breathe. And your breathing fills the posture you've taken. It transfuses the posture you've taken. And maybe you want to exhale very completely once or twice. And then let your inhales follow naturally. Then next is you want to bring your mind to your breathing. Counting your breaths, maybe, or following your breaths. Counting is a very powerful practice, not just a beginner's practice.

[09:49]

And then your mind can begin to stay with your activity. Someone told me the other day, you know, that I said, Jonathan knew David. Someone said that actually, that to know in Hebrew means to penetrate into. And we just said in our chant, penetrate. How does it go? Penetrating perfect dharma. Penetrating perfect dharma. And my name is Zen Tatsu. Tatsu means to penetrate through and through. But our mind can't penetrate everything we do until it's at one with our activity, with our body and our breathing. So what you'll notice first is how you go in and out of concentration. You can start

[11:51]

finding your physical place, this location we call you. And you can find your breathing and body one, and your mind then one with your breathing and body, counting maybe your breaths. But you'll find, of course, that your attention slips away. Something commands it. So what commands it is very important to find out. You know, some cause and effect considerations. Some stage of I or me some background of anxiety and worry, of history, your history and comparison, which is all out of proportion because it's all considered relative to some ego.

[13:21]

And so everything, although those considerations may be real, when considered in relationship to some particular person, you know, there is fear and anxiety, because the proportion is out of whack. This imaginary entity, your ego, keeps distracting you, bringing you out of your concentration. There's some power there that draws you away from your centered feeling, mind and body and breath, one. And it must be very real and powerful to have its own cause and effect. So much reality for you or fear that you can't stay concentrated, that you have to keep thinking it over.

[14:58]

checking it out, as if your mind was some magic wand that would make it all right. But thinking about it over and over would straighten it out, like watching the stock market. And maybe I think that's right. Our mind is some magic wand, but it doesn't work in that field. It doesn't work in the field of ego. So in this way you can see how that stage exists and how you keep being drawn into it, how things keep

[16:50]

And maybe the nature of your practice is to be drawn into it, to be drawn away from, you know. That in the Shuso, in the Shuso ceremony, Ed used the as an introduction, the poem of Layman Penn, who said, I think, if I remember, he was asked, what is your daily activity? And he said he couldn't say anything about it. But What did the guy say next? Teacher. Oh, because I know you're like that, I'll ask. And then he said some verse, which roughly goes, if everything is at harmony within,

[18:16]

if you're in harmony with everything. And there's no giving or taking. There's no comparison anywhere. What need do we have of majestic purple and gold robes? The summit of your being is free from the dust of the world. Supernatural power and great function or wonderful function is found in carrying water and chopping wood. So there can't be any order anywhere if there isn't order right here. And that order actually should extend to your rooms too. Occasionally I look into your room by accident. There's a great deal of disorder there, I'm afraid. There's supposed to be actually a monastery. I'm supposed to unexpectedly go and look at everyone's room.

[20:07]

But I don't dare. I'll get angry when I see someone's room. We did it for a while at the beginning of Tassajara. And then I asked the koshi, please, can I stop? But order means you include everything. Disorder means you're excluding something. So when you can include everything means that you have that concentration of mind and body which penetrates everywhere. And when you're practicing and you find this stage of ego or I or me or anxiety or history keeps demanding your attention. Don't just resist it or put it aside for later or think it's something dead that you can ignore.

[21:28]

or something you can save to do better after you practice for a while, this kind of attitude toward that which draws you away, you know, means it's always waiting for you. Your action, your activity in practicing should be to give it away. Your feeling should be to give it away, give it up. The first dhana, the first paramita, dhana, to give. So when considerations of fear or anxiety or your history or your destiny. Keep coming up. Give it away. I'll give my destiny away. I'll give those fears away. I'll give them up. I don't need any of that. If you keep having that attitude over and over as this which distracts you comes,

[22:58]

Whatever it is, give it away. This is means everything's changing. This is how to be free of possessions. This is how to lay down concurrent causes and what it means. At this stage, you can understand. If you can lay down one, you can lay down all because this is the stage at which it actually occurs and where you have the power to do it. If I say laying down one concurrent cause is to lay down them all, you may not understand that until you know the stage at which you can do it. And it's this stage where you see various causes drawing you away from your blissful, calm city. And some of you think that the twelvefold conditioned origination means that you don't have any free will and you want some free will.

[24:29]

But free will is free and will mostly means you want to ignore your karma or you want to follow your ego. You can't ignore your karma. Maybe the secret is to be able to do what someone else wants, not just what you want, the idea of free will, but to be able to do what someone else wants, because you know what they want is what you also want. Even their dream is your dream. You share that. If you can share that, then someone else can help you.

[26:02]

and how fruitful it is when someone helps you realize your inner request and recognizes what you didn't even recognize. So I expect you to have some concentration in this Sashin, for you have so few opportunities to find your real concentration, your real strength, where your mind and body are one.

[27:09]

When we do something sometimes for another person, we try to... we do what we can as we understand it, you know. Some physical detail in the world. But you should be able to keep your mind with the person you're trying to do something for. or keep your mind with the activity you are doing. In this way there's some enormous strength. If you're doing some physical exertion, some physical exercise or something that's very difficult, pushing a rock, If your mind is somewhere else, you won't have any physical strength. But if your mind is there, that mind is your real strength. And some of you, you know, fear your mind in the hubric sense, which I've talked about before. That I've thought this, and because I'm so guilty, usually we don't say that. You feel that.

[28:57]

It's caused some disaster or caused something terrible to happen. Or it will cause something terrible to happen to me. Or some physical event is my mind and is going to cause me great suffering or someone suffering. That kind of fear is mostly nonsense because you can't, first of all, do anything about it. And second, mind like that is just thoughts. It's not concentrated. And a mind like that has no power. But if your mind is concentrated, That's mantric mind. That mind has enormous power to realize what it's concentrated on, to penetrate fully the activity. So you have some chance in this session

[30:25]

It's not a matter even of this is one of your few opportunities and if you don't use this one you have another session next practice period. There isn't any next. There is just right this moment. Enlightenment doesn't exist over there somewhere. It exists right now with you. If you want it, not for yourself, but want it, that wanting, that mind which can indwell and penetrate everywhere, makes our practice possible, is our true strength. But if you don't want it, you know, don't actually try. And Zen is difficult because you can't half do it. There are other Buddhist paths, maybe

[31:54]

which you can half do or gradually. But in Zen there are no steps, this step and that step. If you have that idea, you're not practicing Zen. This right now is all the steps And you can actually have that concentration if you fully want it. And if you find you are distracted or don't want it, what are you saving? What in your history are you saving as if it was the future? You know, the true future you don't know. Sometimes I feel like saying, you're a miserable bunch of wastrels. But I like you too much. So I stop myself. But I feel myself saying something. For what you can do with your practice.

[33:48]

what you can do with your concentration. It's so beneficial, so great for you and so many other people that it's ridiculous to waste your time. Ridiculous Don't you believe what the Sixth Patriarch says about our mind? You know you believe it. Why don't you realize it? I'm not wasting my time. Suzuki Roshi's not wasting his time. You shouldn't be wasting your time. Yeah.

[35:00]

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