I bow to teach the truth of the Tathagata's words. I'm here because I love Zazen, so I wanted to discuss Zazen with you. Dogen Zenju said that for 300 years in China, nobody had, or very few people had understood how wonderful Zazen is.

[01:01]

So we've just had a seven-day Sashin, and we've been sitting a lot of Zazen, and we have a practice period, and we have a chance to investigate together what this Zazen is. Can you hear me okay back there, too? Please let me know if you can't hear. So as I understand it, there are two essential aspects of Zazen, and I'm going to talk about the first one today. Dogen Zazen has many other names. It's been called the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, or Shikantaza, Just Sitting, or Silent Illumination. Also, sometimes it's called GGU Samadhi, which is what I want to start with. The Samadhi, GGU Samadhi. The characters G, Ju, literally self-receive and function, or you could say accept your job.

[02:11]

Together, GU just means GGU is self-enjoyed, or self-fulfilled. So it's the Samadhi of enjoying yourself, or fulfilling yourself. So I want to talk about enjoying Zazen. Hongshuo says it this way. Just experience and respond appropriately. From this singular impact, many thousands of roads open, and all things are preeminent. With this unification, I radiantly speak the Dharma. The self divides into ten billion distinct illuminating spirits. Distinguish these without falling into names and classifications, and accord fully, without effort. The mirror is clear and magnanimous. The valley is empty, but echoes. From the beginning, unbound by seeing or hearing, the genuine self romps and plays in Samadhi without obstruction.

[03:13]

When embodied like this, how could it not be beneficial? Romp and play in Samadhi. There used to be a saying around Zen Center. I don't know if they still say it. If it's not boring, it's not Buddhism. Has anybody heard that? People used to say that. And there's some truth to that. You know, every day, the bell rings. You wake up, the bell rings. You get up and go to Zen. The other bell rings, you go to a work meeting. Same thing every day. Same schedule, more or less. Just every day, do it. But I would also say, if it's not joyful, it's not Buddhism. So how can I say such a thing? At the Shosan ceremony, after the last Sashin, everybody sat very well. It was a very strong Sashin. And even in the kitchen, they really got into Zazen in the kitchen. It was wonderful. And then at the Shosan ceremony, many people spoke of

[04:17]

the difficulty of it, how hard it was, how painful it is. I thought Barry put it quite eloquently. There's a taste of bliss or openness. And then after that, somehow you end up back and immersed in the crap. Totally immersed. No hope. And how discouraging that could be. So what do I mean when I say joyful? I'm not talking about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We came from the American culture that encourages the pursuit of happiness. We should look for our happiness by getting a bigger car, a better house, or a better job, and so forth. And happiness is something we have to pursue. Or we have to get rid of the things that are interfering with our happiness.

[05:20]

So that's not the joyfulness I'm talking about. The First Noble Truth is that life is Dukkha. And that's sometimes translated as suffering. It can also be translated as dissatisfaction. We don't like what we have or we want something we don't have. The Third Noble Truth says that there's an end to that. So what does that mean? I don't think we can get rid of old age, sickness, and death. Jerome has lectured about how there's always some problem, and there will always be some problem. So trying to fix our problems, trying to get rid of the things we don't want, it's not the end of suffering, not the end of dissatisfaction.

[06:28]

So I would say the joy of Zazen is that in the middle, right in the middle of the crap, right in the middle of all the problems, we can just come to the Zendo, or wherever, and just sit upright and face ourselves in this upright, noble, dignified posture. Have the courage to just sit still in the middle of all the problems. In the middle of pain and all the flow of emotions, and that there's something very satisfying about that. Sometimes we squirm a little bit, because it hurts. But there's a great joy, I think, in being able to just sit and be with everything that's coming up. So the wall is a mirror, it's not a shield to keep out the problems. It's a way of looking at all of this. It's a way of accepting yourself, of enjoying yourself.

[07:42]

Another way to talk about it is objectless concentration, which is the concentration of just sitting without any special object that we're concentrating on, just being aware of whatever comes up. So it's not blank consciousness, it's not the inanimate object that Mark warned us about, it's just being there. It's not stopping thinking. Trying to stop thinking is just more thinking. Sometimes it might be good as an exercise to try and stop thinking, but that's not the essential zazen that Dogen speaks of. I like how Menzahn describes it. He quotes, first of all, Hongzhe's Acupuncture Needle of Zazen.

[09:00]

The functional importance of Buddhas, the important function of all ancestors, is knowing without touching things and illuminating without encountering objects. Then Menzahn says, when you practice and learn the reality of zazen thoroughly, the frozen blockage of illusory mind will naturally melt away. If you think that you have cut off illusory mind, instead of simply clarifying how illusory mind melts, illusory mind will come up again, as though you had cut the stem of a blade of grass or the trunk of a tree and left the root alive. This is very natural. I particularly like how he says illusory mind melts. We sit there and everything comes up. Thoughts, feelings, confusion, pain in our knees or our hip or back or whatever. We read Uchiyama Roshi talking about

[10:01]

thoughts being the secretion of the brain. I like that very much. Another way to look at it is that the thoughts and the feelings and whatever is in front of us, whatever comes up is just the scenery of ourself. So we just sit and hang out and watch the scenery. Really watch it. Objectless Concentration Objectless Concentration also means that there is no object, there is no goal, there is nothing we are trying to get out of it. We are not trying to... There are no designs on becoming a Buddha. Just sitting, watching what comes up in this upright, dignified posture. And there is some feeling of just enjoying

[11:05]

the openness and the crap. Just seeing, this is what I am doing. This is me. This is me. I like very much a way of talking about Zazen that Tenshin Roshi was talking about a while ago, which is that Zazen is to celebrate. So it seems like a pretty somber party, you know, with these black robes sitting very still, but we actually come and sit here and face the wall and just celebrate ourselves. Nothing particular to do, nothing particular to get out of it, except to just be there and actually have the satisfaction of being able to face ourselves. So we come and sit and celebrate our Buddha nature.

[12:13]

We come and sit and celebrate our mountain spirit realm. We come and celebrate that we can just sit still and be here and watch ourselves, and it's all right. Whatever is coming up. So that might seem kind of lofty, you know. I mean, it might seem, well, but what about all the problems? It may seem very impractical. How do I get to such a state to actually be able to just sit there and watch all that? So its object was concentration. We actually have to be concentrated there. So that's the Zazen. So there are various practical techniques that are used in Buddhism to help us to concentrate. I would say that the techniques aren't Zazen.

[13:24]

The techniques are not Dogen Zazen, but Dogen Zazen includes all of them. Anything that comes up that is helpful, that helps you to concentrate, to be able to be there and actually face yourself is included. And the Buddha Dharma includes vast arrays of such techniques. Probably we're all very familiar with counting breaths. Japanese Zen recommends that as a technique. I think beyond counting breaths, we have the being aware of posture and aware of breathing as we sit there facing ourselves in the wall is essential. But to actually work with the breath, counting breaths and many other techniques is a way of concentrating on an object to help us get to the point where we can let go of that and do objectless concentration. Or we could even see concentrating on the object as part of objectless concentration. Whatever comes up, if it's helpful to count breaths, it's great.

[14:36]

Dogen Zenji says that the sutras are there for us not just to elaborate the words but to practice the meaning. So all the sutras are basically meditation instructions. Every line can be a concentration object. So I'm bringing this up because I want us to feel free to enjoy all of the Buddha Dharma and to enjoy our zazen. So as an example, we chant the Heart Sutra every morning. The very first word of the Heart Sutra that we chant is Avalokiteshvara. Wonderful concentration object, meditation object. Many different meditations. Compassion. But I wanted to talk about specifically the word Avalokiteshvara, one translation of it. In Japanese we say kanzeon, to hear the sounds of the world.

[15:41]

So there's concentration on sound as an object. In the Surangama Sutra, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva says, The Buddha taught me to enter samadhi from hearing, contemplation and practice. First in hearing. Push back the stream of the discriminating consciousness and forget objects. Since the sense of hearing is in stillness, duality of movement or discriminating consciousness and stillness or sound will not arise at all. When I practice this way continually, hearer and sound, we're both exhausted. So we concentrate on an object to get beyond the sense of subject and object, to get beyond that separation, to get back to objectless concentration. So practically speaking, at Tassajara,

[16:47]

meditating or concentrating on sound is, we have wonderful aids, the creek, the birds, the breathing of everyone in the Zen Do. We have a new sound system. We have Kabarda Creek running today. There's an old rock and roll producer named Phil Spector that Tia and I both like to dance to his songs, actually. His style of producing, record producing, was called the wall of sound. So we can look at the wall or we can listen to the wall. And again, both the wall in front of us that we look at,

[17:53]

the wall that we listen to around us, whatever the object, is a mirror. It's not something that's going to protect you from old age and sickness and death and all the problems and all the crap. It's a way of just looking at yourself. Shunpo has talked about Baizhang Waihai, who said, a day of no work is a day of no food. Baizhang also said, if you realize there is no connection between your senses and the external world, you will be liberated on the spot. So we look at the wall, or we listen to the wall. The end of the Heart Sutra is another meditation instruction.

[18:58]

It's an instruction on using mantras. The end of the Heart Sutra is another meditation instruction. Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhisvaha. So the Heart Sutra really recommends that we use that mantra. Of course, the sutras are full of mantras. Many other mantras are offered to us in the sutras. When Dogen was dying, the last day, the last few days, he was in Kyoto. And what he did was circumambulated a pillar, chanting the Three Refuges. We use that as a mantra, too. We say them every night. I particularly, personally like them in Sanskrit. Buddham saranam gacchami, dharmam saranam gacchami, sangham saranam gacchami. One advantage to doing such a practice is that we can find our unconscious mantras.

[20:10]

We have mantras already. We don't know, maybe. Does anybody use the mantra, when is the bell going to ring? Wake up the Doan. Or, I can't do this. What should I do? Or, I wish I was wherever. So we have mantras. We have things we say to ourselves. I think the Heart Sutra is encouraging us to use a mantra that inspires us to enjoy our zazen. We also have thousands of song lyrics floating through our heads. Find one that inspires you to just sit there and face yourself. You can use that as a mantra. One advantage is that it's very easy to take that out of the zendo into your workplace. You can take the mantra with you and say it. Anyway, I'm not particularly recommending that we count breaths or say mantras or listen to sound.

[21:20]

I bring these up just because I want us to all enjoy our zazen. And whatever helps, use it. Shinpo was talking about Suzuki Roshi saying, You can't do zazen, but I think we can encourage zazen to do zazen. We can enjoy zazen doing zazen. We can fulfill ourselves as zazen does zazen. We can do zazen that takes the backward step to turn the light inwardly to illuminate ourselves. So I really want us all to discuss this.

[22:29]

I've been sitting a while, but we all have the experience. We all have the taste. We've all been in Sashin. We all know what zazen is. As Shinpo said, she didn't have anything to give. It's for all of us to bring forth our own experience of enjoying zazen. So I really would like to have some discussion. Does anybody have any questions or comments or anything to say? Yes? I'm thinking specifically more about the frozen blockage of the wizarding mind. What that means to you? What is a wizarding mind and how it melts? I think that's the next step after take the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate yourself. Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will be manifest. We create the wall.

[23:36]

We have an object of concentration or we have a field of everything that's coming up and we have... I feel like the blockage of the wizarding mind is being stuck in seeing things a certain way, being stuck in a certain object or being stuck in thinking that it's real or feeling like we can't get out of the crap or feeling like nothing's going to change. The crap changes, the bliss changes. So that's what comes up for me in response to that phrase. I think the separation too, the blockage, feeling like what we see, what we hear, what we think, what we feel is something out there that's separate from ourselves. I don't know. What do you think, ma'am?

[24:45]

Yeah, that sounds right. I keep trying to really define it and get a handle on it, but I think it's simply nature that that's actually not possible. It seems that any ideas go into that category. It's not that we have some that are fixed and others that aren't, but they all are. Right. We each independently create a world, and somehow to see that we do that, I think, helps release that blockage. So maybe we don't need to... rather than thinking that we could do things differently, we just need to see that that's actually what we do. Right. I think so. And maybe that makes a difference.

[25:51]

But it's not that we have to be someone other than who we are, or do something other than what we're doing. I mean, it might be, but... Hal? Don't you think that accepting or just accepting that something can be done by us, that it's for us to do, that that's some expression of... Some things are turning the light inwardly. Some things are an aspect of turning the light inwardly, because in a community of ourselves, it doesn't fit for us. I mean, it's not somebody else. Yeah, it's not somebody else. It's up to you to do your Zazen, or to let your Zazen do itself. I think so. You talked about having mantras...

[26:57]

Yes. ...and following the draft and the techniques. Yes. It seems to me that if you take those techniques and really do them, then you're not doing Zazen anymore. You're doing a different kind of meditation. It takes you away from seeing yourself, and you can reach these higher states of kind of bliss or whatever, by becoming so totally one with it and concentrating on something like a mantra. And I'm just wondering, that's not what your view seems to be. It seems like that's taking you away from the actual practice of Zazen. Well, I don't... Yeah, I think that's a good point, because I think... I think there's some feeling of that. I don't think that those are Zazen, but I think Zazen includes them. I think Zazen is vast, and includes whatever... As Zip Duggan says, hardly anybody in China knows how wonderful Zazen is. So you might have some idea of Zazen as being something that doesn't include counting your breaths.

[28:03]

But it seems to me that maybe counting your breaths is not the totality of Zazen. But it might be that we need to count our breaths to get to a point where then we can let go of counting our breaths, or just keep counting our breaths, and it doesn't matter. The point is, the point of objectless concentration is not to be stuck on some object. We have in objectless concentration, there are objects, there are thoughts, there are feelings, everything that comes up, comes up. So maybe counting breaths might come up, and that might be helpful. I don't think that it's so helpful to say we shouldn't count our breaths, or we shouldn't say mantras, because it's not... it doesn't accord with some notion of what a certain kind of Zazen is. I think Zazen is vast. To me, the most important thing is to enjoy yourself in Zazen.

[29:09]

And whatever helps that. The Buddha Dharma offers many tools to help us to find our Zazen, to find the Zazen that allows us to just sit and look in the mirror, listen to the wall, and feel the satisfaction of being able to just sit and see ourselves, and gradually become very familiar with thoughts, feelings, forms, sounds, eyes, ears, nose, tongues, body, mind. Does that respond? Well, I think we agree with each other, because if you... Can you actually concentrate on an object? Concentration is really one point of view. And you're not going to see what's happening around you. You're not going to just view it as a mirror.

[30:12]

So, I think we agree with each other. But sometimes, some people anyway, I think, need to count breaths or something like that, or listen to sound, to get to the point where they can actually just sit still for everything. So, if it helps... As Baizhang says, if you realize there is no connection between your senses and the external world, you will be liberated on the spot. Just sitting and enjoying yourself. Thank you. Jack? I'm not sure how to say it, but I've never had the experience of missing out on a non-curricular activity. It's heavy work, you know, to pick up chargers. I don't really care about that. But what I noticed is that when I was able to focus on one thing,

[31:15]

and it had to be something very important, like a pain in my shoulder, I decided to really focus on that and pay attention to it. And what I found that did was that it allowed me to see how much it really hurt. In fact, it hurt even more. Instead of going off somewhere and having a good time and not having thoughts, the pain kind of kept me right here. And when I was able to see a kind of mirror, all the stuff that had come through my mind, it really wanted to bring me away from the unpleasantness, the sensation. And somehow, somehow, there were points where the whole thing kind of just dropped away. Just feeling. So, for me, the pain is real. Just being present. Greg? Interesting.

[32:27]

Yes. Please. I think he's talking about how we project on the wall. We see what our eyes can see. We hear what our eyes can hear. We think what our brain can secrete. And we all do that. And that's not what's out there. Sometimes what's out there, and I say what's out there kind of in a relative sense,

[33:48]

because we're not separate from it, but sometimes something that we hadn't realized will come and meet us in the face. And that can be pretty shocking. But everything is... Our senses are our senses. Yes. Right. Right. Right. I'm looking at you, so I can't see if Rev's making faces or not. Please.

[34:57]

Excuse me. You know, when a person says they're the cause, and Buddha is the effect, so like we are the cause, Buddha is the effect. And it seems to me, for that to happen, the words of Dogen's energy are total devotion. So, could you explain or give me your idea of what Dogen was talking about when he said total devotion? I couldn't remember. Total engagement in a mobile sitting? Yes, because for me, the question comes up, how can I be sitting, and that sauce is not the separate part of it. It's not. It's not. But for me, in order for that to happen, the key phrase that keeps coming up, we should just practice the word total devotion.

[36:01]

That's what Buddha was talking about. What do you think that means? Yes. What do you think total devotion means? Can you explain it? But it can be anything. It can be doing anything for yourself. It can be doing anything for yourself, thinking about yourself, thinking about how nice the weather is. This is some thought, I think my question is, there's some thought that characterizes total devotion. Yes, I think, yes, that's a very good point. I think you really have to pay attention to what it is you're doing. It's not just that you're sitting there daydreaming. It's that you're attentive to thoughts and feelings as they arise. So, that's the side of illusory mind melts. We see our thoughts and feelings,

[37:03]

and we watch the thoughts. We watch on Wonder What's for lunch today or whatever, and as we see that thought arising, and it may be 20 sentences later or something, we see that we're thinking that, and it just, it melts. We let go of that thought, that feeling. And then maybe it comes up again, and at some point we see, oh yes, I'm thinking about whatever. So, total devotion means really, really looking at what is happening while you're sitting there, just sitting, enjoying yourself. So, any other comments, questions, discussion? I enjoyed very much last week, all of us enjoying ourselves, and as painful as it was. Thank you.

[38:06]

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