I always face the truth that love is not just words. Good morning. Good morning. So today I'm going to continue Dogen Zenji's Fukanza Zengi. We came to the part where he's talking about how to sit zazen and then he goes into a kind of talk about what it is.

[01:04]

And then he continues to talk about Zazen, just for one sentence. It's strange the way, I think that if it was laid out in a little different way, it would be a little more cohesive. Anyway, we talked about, he says, once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left, and settle into a steady and mobile sitting position, and think of not thinking. We talked about that yesterday. How do you think of not thinking? This is in itself is the essential art of zazen, non-thinking, which can be construed as beyond thinking and not thinking. And then he talked about, the zazen I speak of is not learning meditation.

[02:07]

It is simply the dormigated repose and bliss or nirvana, the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment, the manifestation of ultimate reality, Traps and snares can never reach it. Well, we did go through that yesterday. There's still more to say about that. And then he says, when you arise from sitting, move slowly. So that's a little bit disjointed. And then he goes on to talk about something else. But I wanted to talk about this when you arise from sitting and when you get into sitting. This is when you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale and rock your body right and left to settle into your position.

[03:14]

You know, mostly when people sit, they just get up on the cushion and sit down. And when we teach Zazen, I hope that the Zazen instructors, when they teach Zazen, teach people to move back and forth, to loosen up the joints of your body. And I think it's very important to do that. Sometimes, you know, when you're younger, like around 50, you tend to feel okay, you know, body's okay. But it's a very good idea, you know, a very good way to settle into Zazen. Put your hands on your knees like this and to lean over as far as you can, you know, really stretch out and back and forth slowly, you know, not fast, really slowly and each time a little bit less.

[04:38]

you know, kind of like a pendulum swinging until finally it sits up straight, but very slowly. And when you do this, to think about where the center is, where you're stretching from, you know, not just, but to find the center of your body, your hara, and to let that be the fulcrum. And then keeping your mind there, just let your whole body flop and relax and let all those muscles stretch out and see how far over you can go. And the other way, it's kind of yoga in a way. And I find that these days when I do this, I hold it. lean over as far as I can, stretch out as far as I can, and just hold that like a yoga posture for a minute on each side.

[05:43]

And then I do this one, which is touching my head to my knee. My hand's usually there, but to my hand, and holding that for a minute. And then the other way. And that really helps a lot in stretching out your body and loosening up your joints and your muscles. So I highly recommend it. And Dogan, of course. recommended it. And he says, when you, after Zazen, a little bit, you go the opposite way. You make a narrow move and gradually make it wider, so that at the end, you're doing what you did at the beginning. Inhale it, exhale it down.

[06:49]

Then he'd rise up slowly, get off the cushion slowly. In Rinzai Zen, it's different. Rinzai style is, as soon as the bell rings, you jump off the cushion. You're running. It's a different style. This is farmer style. It's distinct from military style. Rinzai Zen is more militant. It was more aristocratic. a more aristocratic samurai style of Zen. You get off the cushion very quickly and you're already into action with your sword. But Soto Zen is more like flying Zen. You cultivate and you develop more slowly and include more people. Renzai Zen, not now, but for a long time, was more exclusive kind of Zen.

[07:56]

And Soto Zen was more inclusive. Keizan Zenji, when he developed the Soto school after Dogen, Dogen actually didn't develop the Soto school. He had the lineage, which he brought from China, And he was not interested in schools, actually. He said, Soto school, Rinzai school. There's no such thing as a Zen school, just Buddhadharma. Even though he did make those distinctions. But basically, he was not attached to any particular style or school. And Keizan Zenji, His disciples went out into the countryside and developed the school among the farmers and the country people, common people.

[09:03]

So it has the flavor of farmer zen, like a farmer cultivating crops. I'm going to talk about that later. But so instead of rising up, jumping up and running into Zazen, into Kinyin, we get up slowly and carefully so that we don't disturb our calm mind. And careful and mindful. He also says, once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath. Inhale and exhale. I think you should rock your body back and forth before you inhale and exhale. I mean, you kind of have to breathe while you're doing this, but it's a little bit backwards. This is adjusting your posture.

[10:07]

And then once you have done that, then you take a breath. What you can do is through your mouth take a big breath and fill up your abdomen like you know a tire like a tire expanding or inner tube expanding all the way around this is what you know if you play a wind instrument this is the way you should be taught to uh to breathe is when you take a breath you fill up your abdomen, the lower part of your lungs, and it feels like a big inner tube around your waist, and then you have all this power to play, to breathe. And so if you do that, and then exhale and deflate this, let all the air out.

[11:12]

till it's all gone. You can feel your front and your back coming together. And then let some more out. Then you know where the breath is. You know this is where you should be breathing from. It's like a pump, a primer. It primes the pump. Take a few breaths like that, and then your breath will be nice and free and easy and have a very strong foundation. When you find yourself breathing up here, shallow, make this, and you want to readjust your breath, reestablish your breath. Take a deep breath and fill it up, and then resume your normal breathing through your nose. But it's a good way to establish your breath, especially if you're used to breathing in a shallow way. And I often ask the student, where is your breath?

[12:21]

I don't know. Are you breathing deeply or shallow? I don't know. You should know. You should always know on any moment whether you're breathing, whether your breath is shallow or deep. You should know this. Mindful breathing is to always keep the breath down. Keep it deep. And of course during Zazen, that's all you have to do. So awareness of where the breath is is very important. When you have a lot of pain or discomfort or fear or anxiety or apprehension, the breath tends to get shallow and pinched. Exhaling is the key.

[13:23]

your breath be easy. So when your breath is easy and relaxed and deep, you can accept what's happening. If you have trouble accepting what's happening, look at what's happening with your breath. Look at where your breath So deep breath helps to relax you, relaxes your mind and relaxes your body. I mean, relax in the sense of gives you some ease without letting go of good posture. And also, So that's what he means by take a deep breath, inhale and exhale.

[14:47]

Well, you know that you do that all the time, but he's saying this in a special way. Take a deep breath, inhale and exhale. You can take two or three, you know. Karnagiri Roshi taught me this. And he said, when you take the deep breath, lift your head up and just go this is before you mudra before you put your put your chin down when you exhale do it two three times before you put your hands in the mudra and then you think of not thinking Then he says, when you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately.

[15:56]

Don't rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both unenlightenment and enlightenment and dying while either sitting or standing have all depended entirely on the strength of Zazen. There are other ways of translating that. They've all put their trust in this power. Another way of saying that. But in looking back, there are In the history of the practice, there are various old masters who died while either sitting or standing. And that power to do this is due to their strong zazen.

[17:04]

The fourth ancestor, Doshin, died in zazen posture. Kōnin died in Zazen posture, and Eino died in Zazen posture. We still have Daikan Eino's mummy, you know, at Soke-on, at the monastery in China. The Chinese used to embalm their prominent people just like the Egyptians, only better, different. I don't know if it's better, but differently. Whereas the Egyptians would embalm and they'd put them in a casket in the vault. The Chinese would lacquer them, lacquer products. made them look like, you know, they were like a statue.

[18:22]

Mao Zedong is mummified. And Sekito body was around for a long time, going between China and Japan. Chinese came over and took him back. But the six patriarchs still preserved. There's this rumor, I remember when I was first starting to, in the 60s, there was this story that the Chinese patriarchs used to drink a little bit of lacquer every day. So that when they finally died, they'd be, you know, half preserved. Anyway, and the third patriarch, Sosan, you know the story about Sosan was that he was holding on to a branch.

[19:38]

He said, I'm going to now to, I'll see you everybody someday later. And he went and he held on to a branch and died standing up. So this was his way of doing it. Also, there are huts. In Buddha's time, in order to predict their death, a lot of Zen masters predict their death, but in Buddha's time, there were monks who were not concerned about life and death. And so they made little contests, you know, like, by the time I'm going to walk over to there, and by the time I get over there, when I get over that line, that's the end. And somehow they managed to do that.

[20:39]

Those stories are in the scriptures. What exactly is an arhat? What is an arhat? Arhat is someone who is, in Buddhist time, The Arhats were the enlightened disciples. One who is worthy of offerings is what Arhat means. But they were Buddhist disciples who attained enlightenment. And the Arhat ideal was very hot for a long time. until the Bodhisattva ideal came along, which criticized the Arhats for being too individualistic and working for their own salvation, whereas the Bodhisattvas were not so concerned about their own salvation.

[21:41]

And you know the story of Tozan, who was passing away, and he knew he was getting ready to go. And all the disciples came around and were very anxious. And so he said, I'm going to pass away tomorrow at such and such a time. So he sat in Zazen posture and passed away. And all the disciples started crying and moaning. He woke up. He said, you guys, you call yourselves Zen students? You're crying and moaning. What do you think is going on here? And he said, I'll give you another chance. and you can prepare for it this week."

[23:04]

So he stayed alive for another week. And the students had created this big feast. And then after the feast, he said, I'm going now. And he left. Don't mourn for me. There's no problem with me, the problem is with you, you know. So, that's through the power of Zazen, Dogen saying that this is why this kind of activity is possible. It's through that trust in that power. And then he talks about various ways, mysterious ways, inexplicable ways that teachers have enlightened their students.

[24:16]

So he says, in addition, the bringing about of enlightenment by the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and the effecting of realization with the aid of a hasu, a fist, a staff, or a shout, cannot be fully understood by one's discriminative thinking. Indeed, it cannot be fully known by the practicing or realizing of supernatural powers either. It must be deportment beyond hearing and seeing. Is it not a principle that is prior to knowledge and perception? And another translation says, and yet it is not mysterious or supernatural, but normal everyday reality. I like that. So to go back to the beginning, in addition, they're bringing about an enlightenment by these various means.

[25:24]

the opportunity provided by a finger, he's alluding to Gutei's One Finger Zen. When Gutei, when anyone asked Master Gutei a question, he would raise one finger, right? And then one day his student started Gutei, he said, asked him a question. The student raised a finger, and Gutei cut his finger off. So that's one enlightenment. The opportunity provided by a banner is the story of Mahakasyapa and Ananda.

[26:34]

Ananda, although he knew everything the Buddha, memorized everything the Buddha had said, was still not yet enlightened. And Mahakasyapa brought him around to enlightenment. When someone, in those days, was going to give a lecture, a talk, Dharma talk, they would raise their banner, raise a pole with a flag on it. People would know something was happening. Flagpole, it's called. We call it. So one day, Ananda asked Mahakasyapa, who was, according to Zen lore, was Buddha's successor.

[27:49]

And he said, what did Buddha give you besides the robe and the golden robe and the bowl? Mahakasyapa started to walk away. And then he turned around and he said, Ananda. And Ananda, just saying this, woke up Ananda. He said, lay down the flagpole at the gate. He said, Ananda, lay down the flagpole at the gate. And that was Ananda's awakening. And bringing about enlightenment through a mallet is a story of Manjushri and Buddha.

[28:56]

Buddha was invited by Manjushri or by the assembly to give a talk. So Buddha ascended the seat, didn't say anything, got down, and Maha Kshapa hit the Shui Ching with a mallet, you know. The Dharma of the Dharma King is thus. That's that story. And enlightenment A realization with the aid of a hasu, a hasu is the whisk. And Tozan was almost enlightened by Yakasan. There's a story of Yakasan and Tozan and Yakasan raising his whisk and he says, do you understand what this means?

[30:04]

Tozan said, I don't. The mouth that my parents gave me will never tell you what it is. And Tozan had some realization at that point. And then there's Tokusan's staff, and there's Rinzai's shout. All these are stories. And I think that during Sashin, I'll present some of these cases. So he's saying, indeed, all these cannot be fully understood One has to go beyond discriminative thinking to understand what's going on.

[31:09]

And it cannot be known by the practicing or realization of supernatural powers either. Supernatural powers... I don't know if people really tried to attain these supernatural powers, but... They're attributed to Buddha saying, if you arhats, if you monks are really diligent in your practice, you will acquire these supernatural powers. I kind of doubt that Buddha said that, but it is attributed to him. But there are different kinds of supernatural powers. Dividing yourself into many appearances at once. You know, like the magic power of appearing in different places at the same time and then coming back to being the same, one person.

[32:12]

And passing through walls and mountains. And being able to dive into the earth like as if it was water and swim around. And walking on water and levitating. And being able to touch with your hand the sun and the moon. I doubt if anybody really was cultivating these powers, but I think they're more like, you know, imaginative. We're imaginative extremes. in order to make some kind of a point, in order to touch an extreme. I think they were kind of made up. I don't know if people really believed in them or not. I doubt it. But he says you can't, even if you have these magical powers, you can't understand it through them either.

[33:21]

So... Even if you have these magical powers, what? Yeah, the airplanes. Even if you have these magical powers, you can't understand through these magical powers. So it's a kind of exaggeration. Even if you could touch the sun and the moon, you still wouldn't be able to understand through that kind of power. Maybe metaphors? Metaphors, maybe. Independence? Yeah, it could be metaphorical, used in a metaphorical way. I think historically, the Taoists did cultivate those powers and did supposedly fly around and do all that magic. Yeah, well, that's right. So when you see a lot of Kung Fu movies, that's kind of watered down into them. But still, I think it was fairly ideal more than real.

[34:28]

The difference between the Taoists and the Buddhists is that the Taoists wanted to live on Earth eternally, whereas the Buddhists wanted to leave. So this being the case, intelligence, or lack of it, doesn't matter, or is not a problem. Between the dull and the sharp-witted, there is no distinction. If you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the way. Practice realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward in practice is a matter of everydayness. So this brings it really clearly into perspective.

[35:35]

Intelligence or lack of it, it's not dependent on whether you're intelligent or not. Because we don't penetrate it through the intellect. It's penetrated through practice. And so we don't put a lot of emphasis on being smart or clever or even intelligence, although, you know, we all value intelligence, but it's not dependent on that. If you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the way. So really it all depends on concentrating your effort single-mindedly. That's the bottom line. That's of Dogon's practice. And not letting anything be an obstacle.

[36:40]

If you know how to negotiate in that way, then obstacles just become means to practice. An obstacle can become a Coleman. And we should be able to see obstacles as our koan. Genjo koan is the practice. Seeing all the obstacles of your daily life as the koan. So whatever you get angry at, whatever you get upset about, whatever seems unfair, whatever seems wrong, is the great koan. And if you let that be a barrier, then you're stopping your practice. All the problems that come up for you are means for practice.

[37:49]

That's why there are really no hindrances in practice. The only hindrance is not realizing this. So for a Zen student to get upset in the ordinary way is not practice. It is practice if you realize that it's not practice. So he says, if you concentrate your practice single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the way. Practice realization is naturally undefiled.

[38:54]

Going forward in practice is a matter of everydayness, or everything that comes up is your practice. Ordinary Mind is the way. So we have to be very careful about what we let upset us. We do get upset. And I was upset for years. when, after Suzuki Roshi died, I was upset at Zen Center for years. But for me, it was a great teaching. My upsetness was my stone in my throat, or my hot iron ball, which matured my practice.

[40:05]

And I'm very grateful for it. And even when it was happening, I was grateful for it. It's... Two things, two ways to go. One way to go is to see life as an affront to my sensibilities. And another way to go is to see everything as a lesson and a way to cultivate practice.

[41:08]

If you see everything that happens as a way to cultivate practice, then you're never lost. And even if you get lost, you know how to come back. And so no matter what happens, there's a rightness to your life. How did you practice when you were upset? How can you not practice when you're upset? What else is there to do?

[42:16]

If you allow yourself to be always upset, you can never find the calmness of your mind. When you're upset, if you really know how to practice, you'll find the calmness of your mind within your upset. like a gyroscope. You have to find that place that is not upset, that nothing can upset. That's what you're doing today. That's what we're doing today. You're finding that place that cannot be upset.

[43:27]

That's all there is to do. And you find it over and over and you lose it and you come back to it. And if you sit still without moving, you'll find that place because it's the only place to go. Where is that place that can't be upset? Yes. So your sadness itself isn't a problem, unless we make it one by acting it out in some way or letting it influence our behavior?

[44:39]

Well, in the sense of reacting and responding. If you react to circumstances, then you become part of the circumstances. you become in league with what it is that's a problem for you. If someone insults you, then you react by hitting them, and then you are creating something that you don't want to have happen. But if you know how to, if you take a step back and diffuse the situation through responding, then you are reacting from yourself rather than being caught by the situation.

[45:45]

Right? And we find ourselves caught all the time, you know, reacting. But the more we practice responding and gain some skill or adeptness in responding by letting go of our initial reaction, then how can I bring this situation into or into a place where it's not just run on emotions. Emotions are driving the situation. So you can clearly look at it in the sense of really admitting.

[47:17]

Yeah, well, when you become one with the obstacle, then there's nothing outside of you and the problem. No longer a problem. Beginner's mind, what is practice? It's in that question. What is that? It's beginner's mind. Not knowing is beginner's mind. So we give ourselves up to not knowing. It's big in his mind. So then he says, maybe it's time to stop.

[48:42]

That's what he said. He said, and now it's time to stop, Marilyn. You can do this again tomorrow. Not knowing is a very important state of mind. Not knowing, in a true sense, is the highest state of mind. It's the mind that's open to everything, and it's no special state of mind. As soon as you have a special state of mind, then you have an impediment, a partiality.

[49:54]

So, not hanging on to anything. Mind of not knowing. I don't know. Mind is... Mind is open. And... Not surprised. It's the, oh, is that so, mind? Oh, is that so? A mind which is free of presumptions. And definitely the mind of Zazen.

[51:00]

That's why Suzuki Roshi used that term, beginner's mind. Mind of no presumption and totally open and non-discriminating. So in order to practice, we have to be a little bit stupid, and being open and somewhat naive in its true sense. Naive meaning innocent, meaning not defiled by discriminating knowledge.

[52:11]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ