This is our first one-day sitting of 2019. And you're here. Congratulations. Sometimes we say that in the Buddha way, there's no inferior or superior. And yet, this has been the best one day city of all time. There's a piece of paper on the bulletin board outside, actually there's maybe several pieces of paper on the bulletin board, and one of them has like a schedule.

[01:01]

Does any of you see a schedule on the board? And on the schedule it says the word Zazen appears. Any of you see the word Zazen on the schedule? Well, since that word is on the schedule quite a bit, if invited, I could offer some stories about Zazen. Do you want me to tell you some stories? Okay. So these are like stories, okay? I'm not saying really what that word means. It's a story about the word zazen. Oh, by the way, there are many, many stories about zazen.

[02:02]

which I could tell, and other people could tell other ones. So, again, these stories which I might tell are just some stories I'm telling. And the other stories you might hear somebody else telling, that might be going on in your head, they're all welcomed by me. So... One story about Zazen is Zazen is a word that's used in the Zen family. And again, that word's used in different ways by different Zen family members. So the way I use the word Zazen is it's a word that refers to Buddha activity. to the activity of enlightenment, totally culminated enlightenment, unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment has an activity.

[03:21]

It is an activity of relationship among all living beings and even among non-living beings, if there are any. It is the Buddha activity of earth, grass, trees, and all living beings. It is that activity and it is an activity that they're doing together. This complete enlightenment is the way all beings are working together in peace and harmony. And many living beings until, for example, today have never heard of such an enlightenment. or heard that Zazen is Buddha activity.

[04:28]

But that's the story I'm telling today. When I was a little boy, I didn't understand Zazen this way. I think I understood zazen is like sitting cross-legged someplace, didn't have to be in a zendo, but sitting cross-legged on the earth, paying attention to posture. And being mindful of posture, sitting moment by moment, being quite present and mindful of posture. That's the way I first thought about zazen. And I still do. However, when I'm sitting cross-legged, being mindful of posture, I'm practicing that as an expression

[05:42]

of Buddha activity. If when I'm sitting I hear a bird singing, or a human sitting, singing, and I listen, my listening, I am listening, And my listening is an expression of Buddha activity. I'm aware of the teaching that when I'm sitting, my practice of sitting is the same practice and the same enlightenment as everyone else.

[06:48]

And everyone else's practice when I'm sitting is the same practice and the same enlightenment as me. That's a faith, that's a commitment on my part, And that's the story of Zazen that I'm upholding by listening to a bird or being attentive to my posture. This morning we read part of an early scripture, and I think it was called the Mindfulness Meditation. It's a modification of a scripture called loving-kindness scripture. Metta Sutta. And there's a little section there where it says, in all one's waking activities, or standing or walking, sitting or lying down, in all one's waking activities, practice the way with gratitude.

[08:03]

Zazen is practicing the way with gratitude when you're sitting, when you're standing, when you're walking, when you're reclining, when you're talking, when you're bowing, when you're serving meals in a meditation hall, when you're receiving food in the meditation hall. when you're eating food in a meditation hall, when you're eating food in a restaurant, in all your daily activities, practicing the way with gratitude, And etc. Keep going with gratitude and then just virtue, virtue, virtue. All the possible virtues in the universe. Practicing the way in all the possible virtuous ways.

[09:15]

In all your activities. That's the Buddha way. But we only do one at a time. One activity at a time. like I'm looking at faith. Now I'm looking at Mandy? Marnie. Now I'm looking at zombie. Now I'm looking at Rachel. Every person I look at The teaching is practice the way with all virtues. That's what I mean by zazen. It's called sitting meditation, but it's a sitting meditation that's not stuck in sitting meditation. It's not being stuck in anything. So why not sit? So we do. And it's so lovely to sit, isn't it?

[10:19]

And when we get up, when we stand up, it's lovely to stand up and we can practice the way standing. And practicing the way standing, when you're standing, and practicing the way walking, when you're walking, and so on, That is what I mean by zazen. That's the zazen of the Buddhas. That may have been clear, what I just have been saying. It may not have been clear, but even if it was clear, you know, In an hour or so, most of you probably would forget what I said. So I probably should say it over several million times so that you would be able to remember this strange story I told you. A story of a way of life which is to do the same thing all day long, no matter what you're doing.

[11:36]

which is what you're already doing. You're already, every moment of your life, every moment of my life, every moment of our life, we're always doing the same thing, which we call Zazen. And what is the same thing we're all doing all day long? Zazen. What's another name for it? Buddha activity. All day long we're doing Buddha activity. We cannot do it. However, we can forget it. We can even forget we ever heard about it. But we're still doing Buddha activity all day long. All day long we never stop helping everybody. We never stop supporting all beings. All beings never stop supporting us all day long.

[12:41]

We are doing all day long. Every moment is equally sameness of enlightenment and sameness of practice. Every moment is zazen. Now, we could say every moment is kin hin, but we don't usually. Matter of fact, most people don't even say every moment is zazen. But many people do aspire to practice zazen all the time. And I say, great, great to practice asana all the time, but you can't, we can't practice sitting upright, cross-legged posture all day long, but we can practice the way, no matter what posture we're in, and we can forget it. We can get distracted from what we're doing.

[13:42]

We are practicing, we are on the Buddha way. We are on the way of peace and happiness. We are on the way of respect and cherishing all life. That's the path we're on, the path of Zazen. However, we don't necessarily know it. And even if we know it and think it's great and commit to it, we can forget when somebody insults us But still at that moment we are still on the path. We're still practicing the way. This is something that some people in the history of the universe have woken up to. It's a reality which is already present. It's available for revelation. And so here we are today following a schedule of what?

[14:44]

Of of being present for our life moment by moment. And all the thoughts that come into our mind about ourselves or others are totally included and easily distract us from what we're doing. And when we get distracted from Buddha activity, we have a practice called confessing and repenting or confessing and reform. I forgot that this was Buddha activity. I'm sorry. I'm going back on the job. At noon service, we will chant, probably, a scripture about zazen. And the word zazen appears in that scripture. And also in that scripture the word Buddha activity occurs three times.

[15:52]

But every time zazen appears, it could be replaced by Buddha activity. And every time Buddha activity occurs in that text, it could be replaced by zazen. The text says earth, grass, trees, etc., all engage in Buddha activity. All dharmas are engaged in Buddha activity. In that text, it doesn't talk about people forgetting about this practice. It just talks about what it's like when you're actually open to it and enter into it. So again, I think I've said the same thing over about, I don't know how many times so far, but probably not enough, so I've got to say it over some more.

[16:55]

But I won't do it a million times this morning. But I think I'll do it at least one more time, if you want me to. Some people do? Okay, I'm going to do it. Here we go again. Have you heard about the six perfections of the bodhisattvas? Have you heard about them? the six perfections or the six transcendent practices, the six paramitas. These are six categories of virtues that bodhisattvas practice and develop. Do you want to hear the names of them? Number one, giving, generosity. Number two, ethical discipline. Number three, Patience. Number four, heroic effort, enthusiastic effort in the path. Number five, concentration. Number six, transcendent wisdom.

[17:55]

transcendent giving, transcendent ethical practices, transcendent patience. These are practices, these are virtues, which they're not only virtues, but they're virtues that are practiced so wholeheartedly that they leap beyond themselves, and there's six of them, and they stand for infinite virtues on the path of awakening. Zazen is all six. The fifth one, which is called concentration, some people have thought, like me, that zazen was number five. Well, it is number five, but it's not just number five. It's number one, two, three, four, five, six. It's all of them. And one of them is concentration. So today, it would be great if we all practice concentration.

[18:59]

And it would also be great if we all practice generosity and ethical discipline and patience and enthusiasm and wisdom. if we did all of them, or I should say, doing all of them, is what our practice, is the practice of Buddha activity called Zazen. Zazen is not just number five, but it is number five. But it's number five in a way that includes the other five. But it's number one in a way that includes the other five. And it's number two. It's each thing we're doing, including all virtues. That's the Buddha activity that we're calling Zazen. Now, I think I've said it enough.

[20:04]

I will be saying it over and over, but not anymore today. I'm not going to do it again today. I'm not. Do you have that thing down there? I'm done. It's over. I'm not going to bother you anymore, except when I do. And if I bother you, I'm sorry. But I was invited to bother you. So I did. And if you want to come up here and bother me, there's a little place you can stand here and do it. But if you don't want to bother me, it's a lovely day anyway. Oh, nice.

[21:10]

Somebody's going to come now. Look who it is. Of all people. Open arms. Bringing me gifts. Wow. Welcome. Is your name Sonia? Sometimes. Okay. Okay. So, I've kind of been contemplating this question for a while. It's been my Buddha activity. So there's many people here ... Otherwise not. Well, go ahead. No, no. You can interrupt me. No, go ahead. This time. So there are many people here sitting zazen.

[22:19]

Sitting zazen. Sitting, sitting meditation. Sitting, sitting meditation. Wow. That actually don't reside here and they're going to return to what we call the world. So you're giving us instruction. what I hear of relating in the world, how to relate to everything. Yeah. So what I'm wondering is, here we have what we call a tenkan pad. And there are some people that are here that are taking care of the temple. We have a tenkan pad, which means it's an attendance pad. Thank you. And there are people that are taking care of the temple so that some of us can come here and sit and counting coins and dollars and making food and such. And we're taking care of guests.

[23:20]

And still we take attendance. Maybe I feel like we are not thinking that they're participating in Buddha activity. that there's some higher or lower or something, and I wonder if you could help me drop or open that thought pattern. You're wondering if I could help you? Please. I'm wondering too. We'll see how it ends up. Or opens up. If somebody thinks. Yeah. And almost all humans do think quite a bit. If somebody thinks that somebody is doing something that's not Buddha activity, that thought could be used as an opportunity for Buddha activity. And if that thought was used for the purpose of Buddha activity, what thought?

[24:26]

The thought that somebody is not doing Buddha activity. If that thought was used for that purpose, there would be freedom from that opinion about that person. Without getting rid of the thought, without moving a particle of that thought, just let that thought, which is a piece of dust, that person's not... A lot of people are doing good activity, but not that person. Such thoughts occur in the minds of beings. That thought is an activity of daily life. And when that thought is there, one can practice the way with gratitude, like one can say, thank you, kind of mean thought, thank you, disparaging thought, for coming so that I could use you as an opportunity. for Buddha activity and free you.

[25:26]

Free you thought and free me thought and free everybody thought. But people are going to continue to have thoughts something like that. Or like they can think it about themselves. I'm not doing Buddha activity. I wish I was in a meditation hall because counting money is not Buddha activity. But still, and then there's also the thought I might talk to the person who's counting money and saying, would you please come to the Zendo and sit with me? But I don't have to think that they're not doing Buddha activity. I say, oh, I caught you doing Buddha activity counting money again. Now would you please come with me and sit down with me? And they might say, yeah, let's go. Or what if I'm not done counting? Yeah, what if you're not done counting? Well, you could use the opportunity, if you were the counter and you weren't done counting, you could use the opportunity of not being done at that moment as Buddha activity.

[26:29]

And then you might even, in your joy, of what? of Buddha activity, counting not being done, you might tell me, hey, I have some news for you. I'm not done. And I'm not going with you. Would you still love me if I said that? And that question, would you still love me, is an opportunity for Buddha activity. And when I remember that, and realize that, you can ask somebody if they would still love you, and it's a very joyful question. And you can tell someone that you're not done counting the money, and it's a joyful expression of Buddha activity. And they can say, well, come anyway, and you can say, fine. Or you can say, I'm not going to. You can do all this with love. You can say, I'm not done. I'm not going with you. I am going with you.

[27:30]

Would you love me? I don't love you. You can say anything, because we do say almost everything. And you can not miss a beat. No matter what you're thinking or what you're saying, it's an opportunity for Buddha activity. And in that way, it's an opportunity to release beings from evil karma and good karma. from mean thoughts, cruel thoughts, and generous, kind, loving thoughts. All of them are opportunities for leaping beyond being stuck. In other words, opportunities for realizing reality. But we do have a mind that sort of says, these people are in this room and these people are in that room. And this room is a little bit better room to be in than that room. We have thoughts like that.

[28:31]

And some people reverse them. Like some people say, it's much better to be counting money than to be sitting in a meditation hall and have no money. To take a nap. It's much better to be jumping up and down than to be taking a nap. But some people think napping's much better than jumping up and down. I sometimes think that. You do. I do. And at that moment, in that activity, the ancestors have said, practice the way with gratitude. Can I say something? Mm-hmm. So, If I try to distill something? If you do, that's an opportunity. That maybe the pointer is to an attitude or posture towards body, speech and mind. It's definitely an attitude towards body, speech and mind.

[29:34]

It's an attitude towards all of our daily activities. It's the attitude which includes all the virtues and brings all the virtues to all of our activities. Now I feel like I should make some space for another possibility. Now you feel that way. And what is that feeling? Zazen. The feeling isn't zazen. Okay, good. The feeling is an opportunity for zazen. The feeling like, I should get out of here. That feeling is not zazen. That's just an activity. And that activity, the way that activity is actually happening with the support of the whole universe and the way it supports the whole universe, that's Buddha activity. Every one of our thoughts is an opportunity to wake up to the Buddha activity that's simultaneous with it.

[30:37]

Now could you please give it to me? Thank you. Here comes your disciple. Now I had this thought that I'd just like to give that thing a little... Can you give me a practice to work with for the rest of the day as I'm not in the Zendo? in all your activities for the rest of the day, practice the way with gratitude, diligence, and care.

[31:46]

How's your health? Leaping beyond health. My health. Really? It's leaping beyond health, yeah. All right. And guess how yours is. That's true for me too? Yeah. All right. Congratulations. All right. Thanks for the practice. You're welcome. I know you'll give me a report later. I will. Thank you. I'll give you a big one. Yeah. So that's probably enough, right? Yeah. Even you can come up here and give me a hard time. Thank you for what?

[32:59]

Thank you for having us here and having this conversation. You're welcome. My mother recently, oh, sorry. My mother, is this better? I'll hold it for you. Oh, thank you. Is that good? My mother recently sent me a text message that she saw an old photo of me when I was a kid, and she said, I miss that old Ethan. Now you're so serious. And this was not a statement about my total being, just sometimes I can be more serious than I used to be. And what I said, I thought about it, I dwelled on it, went for a walk, did some Zazen, lots of Buddha activity, all of it. And I wrote back to her that in my life recently, I'm trying to take life more sincerely, less seriously, but it's an experiment. And sometimes when I miss the mark, it winds up being very serious.

[34:03]

But when it's done well, it's intentional and it's serious and it deepens life. And I appreciate that when you described the six bodhisattva values, you said that zazen on first thought would most resemble concentration. Nonetheless, there are these five others. And certainly we can imagine rationally or feel experientially how the six of them come out naturally from zazen practice. And there's something particular about Zazen practice that I guess people don't think of folks who practice Zazen as the most enthusiastic bunch in the world. But concentration, patience, and a couple others certainly stand out more than others. And there's certainly a difference between practicing Zazen where you're focusing on something, as that would make concentration stronger, versus a love and kindness meditation. where that would probably strengthen generosity. And so I'm curious, how can we practice zazen as well as strengthen something like enthusiasm that often is the last thing that we'd imagine to come from zazen?

[35:16]

One thing you said was about loving-kindness meditation that would be used to develop generosity? Sure. Yeah. But it's usually used in the text to develop concentration. But developing concentration depends on developing generosity. So you're right. All these practices support the other ones. But there's an order. Even though they all include each other, there's an order. And the enthusiasm practice precedes the concentration. So in a way, you can practice the first three without developing the fourth much. But in order to do concentration, which is really like a low-paying job, you need to really think it's like super cool.

[36:21]

And you need to work yourself into kind of a fever of zeal for doing something like so uninteresting as just giving up what you're thinking all the time. But with the kind of energy you develop by contemplating the benefits of letting go of your thinking, not getting rid of it, but just letting go of your thinking, letting go of your thinking, letting go of interesting thinking, letting go of the thought, how boring it is to let go of interesting thinking. That practice needs a lot of enthusiasm. So we need to practice enthusiasm usually before we can actually practice letting go of discursive thought and developing concentration. And in order to practice enthusiasm, we need to practice generosity, ethical discipline, and patience. Once you're concentrated, of course, your concentration would be very helpful to continue to develop energy.

[37:33]

But we have to usually really enhance our level of interest in practice before we start practicing concentration. And this energy is an energy that comes with gentleness and graciousness, so it's not a forceful, coercive energy. It's a joyful energy. How wonderful to sit still, remember stillness, remember silence, remember gentleness with all my thoughts, and let them go. How lovely that would be. And with that, in feeling that really wholeheartedly, one can actually be concentrated. And then, of course, one can be wise. And then one can realize Buddha activity has always been going on and always will be uninterrupted until all beings wake up to it.

[38:37]

And then you'll be able to help your mother appreciate this new version of you. Even though all the old ones are gone, all those sweet little boys Hey, Mom, you got a new one. And he's like your best son you could ever want. He's totally devoted to you. I'm here for you, Mom. Forget about those other ones. I'm here to help you appreciate me. I'm here to help you appreciate you. I'm your totally devoted son. And she might say, OK. I guess I should be grateful I got you even though I lost all those other sweethearts. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay.

[39:42]

Once more time. Is that enough? Is that enough? I see some nods. Some smiles. Okay. We made it. May our intention be glorious.

[40:00]

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