I vow to taste the truth the third time. Good morning. 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 to you? Please let me know if you can't hear. So as I understand it, there are two essential aspects of Zazen, and I want 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 ji, ju literally self receive and function or if you could say accept your job.

[02:13]

Together ju just means ji, ju means self enjoy or self fulfilled. So it's the samadhi of enjoying yourself or fulfilling yourself. So I want to talk about enjoying zazen. Pongso 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 10 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.

[03:16]

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 and you wake up, the bell rings, you get up and go to Zendo. Another bell rings, you go to 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? After the shosan ceremony, after the last seshin, everybody sat very well, you know, it was a very strong seshin. And even in the kitchen, they really got into the zazen in the kitchen. It was wonderful.

[04:18]

And then at the shosan ceremony, many people spoke of 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 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 or 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.

[05:25]

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 level 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.

[06:34]

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 pain and all the flow of emotions and that there's something very satisfying about that. And 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.

[07:50]

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 the, 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 zazen, the essentials zazen that Dogen speaks of. I like how Menzon describes it. He quotes, first of all, Hongcha's Acupuncture Needle of Zazen.

[09:09]

The functional importance of Buddhas, the important function of all ancestors, is knowing without touching things and illuminating without encountering objects. And then Menzon 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. So I particularly like how he says illusory mind melts. You know, 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 thoughts being the secretion of the brain.

[10:13]

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 also means that there's no object, there's no goal, there's no... nothing we're trying to get out of it, you know, we're not trying to... there's no designs on becoming a Buddha. Just sitting, watching what comes up in this upright, dignified posture. And there's some feeling of just enjoying

[11:16]

The openness and the crap. Just seeing. This is what I'm doing. 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 to sit 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.

[12:25]

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's coming up. So that might seem kind of lofty, you know. I mean, it might seem, well, but what about all the problems, you know? It may seem very impractical. Or how do I get to such a state to actually be able to just sit there and watch all that? So it's objectless concentration. We actually have to be concentrated there. So there are various practical techniques that are used in Buddhism to help us to concentrate.

[13:27]

I would say that the techniques aren't Zazen. 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 Buddhadharma 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.

[14:35]

whatever comes up, if it's helpful to count breaths, great. Dogenzenji says that the sutras are there for us not just to blabber 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 Buddhadharma 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 Avalokitesvara. Wonderful concentration object, meditation object, many different meditations, compassion, but I wanted to talk about specifically the word Avalokiteshvara, one translation of it.

[15:52]

In Japanese we say kanzeon, to hear the sounds of the world. 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 were 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.

[16:58]

So practically speaking, at Tassajara, meditating or concentrating on sound is, we have wonderful aids, the creek and the birds the breathing of everyone in the Zendo. We have a new sound system. We have Cabarga Creek running today. There's an old rock and roll producer named Phil Spector that Tia and I both liked to dance to his songs back then. 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.

[18:04]

And again, both the wall in front of us that we look at, the wall that we listen to around us, whatever the object, is a mirror. It's not something that's going to protect you 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 Huaihai 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.

[19:17]

It's an instruction on using mantras. 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. One advantage to doing such a practice is that we can find our unconscious mantras.

[20:30]

We have mantras already, we don't know, maybe. Does anybody use the mantra, when is the bell going to ring? wake up at dawn, or I can't do this, or I wish I was wherever, or... 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 wherever you want to say it. Anyway, I'm not particularly recommending that we count breaths or say mantras or

[21:39]

listen to sound. I bring these up just because I want us to all enjoy our Zazen. And whatever, whatever helps is music. 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.

[22:52]

I don't know, I've been sitting a while, but I don't, my sitting is, we all have the experience, we all have the taste, we've all been in Sashin. We all know what Zazen is. As Shunpo said, she didn't have anything to give to us. It's for all of us to bring up 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? 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.

[24:00]

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 illusory 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... 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?

[25:10]

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. 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'll do. Right. I think so.

[26:14]

And maybe that makes a difference. 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... How? some phase of turning the light inwardly. Some phase or aspect of turning the light inwardly 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. Yes.

[27:22]

Yes. Yes. Yes. 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 And it's just, as Dogen says, nobody, hardly anybody in China knows how wonderful zazen is.

[28:23]

So you might have some idea of zazen as being something that doesn't include counting your breaths. But it seems to me that maybe counting your breaths is not the totality of zazen. 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.

[29:29]

I think zazen is vast. To me the most important thing is to enjoy yourself in zazen. 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, bodies, minds, Does that respond? Well, I think we agree with each other, because if you actually concentrate on an object of concentration, really, one point of view, then you're not going to see what comes up in your mind.

[30:36]

You're not going to just view it as an image. 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. Jackie? Just sitting and enjoying yourself. Jack? I'm not sure how to say it, but I've never had the experience of missing out on a non-job. It's heavy work. I don't think they care about that.

[31:42]

something very important. But the pain in my shoulder, I decided to really focus on that and pay attention to it. And what I found back then was 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 all kinds of thoughts, the pain kind of kicked me right here. And when the thought, I was able to see a kind of mirror And somehow, there was a place where the whole thing kind of just dropped away. The second part of that is using the second period directly following that, focusing on pain, using the terms that create the stuff that come out from some kid in the right place.

[33:07]

So that's a new discovery. Right. Interesting. 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.

[34:13]

Sometimes what's out there, and I say what's out there kind of in a relative sense, 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. Question from audience. I'm looking at you so I can't see if Rev's making faces or not. Please.

[35:31]

Excuse me. It seems to me that to happen, the words of Dogen's energy, that total revolution, So if you explain or give me your idea of what Govind was talking about when he sat in front of the door, can you give me a sense of what he was talking about? Yes, because for me, the question comes up, how can I be sitting and not, that's not the subject of my view. It's not. It's not. What do I think it means? I think it... I don't know if I can explain it.

[36:32]

I think it's wonderful. I don't really know what to say about it. I think total devotion is what we do when we Just sit and enjoy ourselves. Yes, I think, yes, that's a very good point. I think it's, 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.

[37:35]

So, that's the side of illusory mind melts. We see our thoughts and feelings and we watch the thoughts, we watch, oh, I 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 our lesson, as painful as it was.

[38:39]

Thank you.

[38:50]

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