Let's say our names. How about going this way? Linda. Julia. Michael. Martha. What's the name of the school you come from? The Athenian School. And you're here for a couple of days, and Matt has some... Do you have things for them? Yes. So, this class is a class that's studying a meditation text written by a Zen master from the 1200s, Japanese Zen master from the 1200s, and it's called the Fukan Zazengi, or the Universal Recommendations for Zazen, or meditation. And those of you who have just come tonight, we're coursing along in the middle of this, so we also just got finished with a one-day sitting,

[01:00]

many of us in the room, and we are really wondering how it is that this class got scheduled. Since we've been... Have you got the dining room bugged? What? Have you got the dining room bugged? Oh, is that what you were wondering? So we'll just see how it goes. I think some people have decided not to come tonight because they're tired after the one-day sitting, but I'm glad to see most everybody's here. So Greg, where is Greg? There's Greg. Greg has volunteered to recite this evening. Are you ready? As ready as I'll ever be, I guess. I might have to start over if I start too high or too low. If you start too high? Or too low, you know? That can change. Okay, whatever you need to change. I just thought I would put that caveat out there so people know.

[02:03]

Okay. Okay. Fukan Zazengi, the way originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place. What is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet, if there is a hair's breadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you still are short of the vital path of emancipation. Consider the Buddha. Although he was wise at birth,

[03:06]

the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice? Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will manifest. If you want such a thing, get to work on such a thing immediately. For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness. Stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down? At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full lotus or the half lotus position.

[04:08]

In the full lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm. Thumb tips slightly touching. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth with teeth and lips together, both shut. Always keep your eyes open and breathe softly through your nose. Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully. Rock your body right and left and settle into steady and movable sitting. Think of not thinking. Not thinking. What kind of thinking is that? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of Zazen. The Zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the Dharma gate of joyful ease, the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment.

[05:09]

It is the koan realized. Traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that the true Dharma appears of itself, so that from the start, dullness and distraction are struck aside. When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred and dying while either sitting or standing have all depended entirely on the power of Zazen. In addition, triggering awakening with a finger, a banner, a needle or a mallet, and affecting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff or a shout, these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking, much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. They must represent conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views? This being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue. Make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. If you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly,

[06:12]

that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. Practice realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair. In general, in our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the Buddha seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, totally blocked in resolute stability. Although they say there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, they all just wholeheartedly engage the way in Zazen. Why leave behind a seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands if you make one misstep? You stumble past what is directly in front of you. You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. You are taking care of the essential activity of the Buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from a flint stone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass. The fortunes of life, like a dart of lightning,

[07:12]

emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not doubt the true dragon. Devote your energies to the way that points directly to the real thing. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort. Accord with the enlightenment of all the Buddhas. Succeed to the samadhi of all the ancestors. Continue to live in such a way, and you will be such a person. The treasure store will open up itself, and you may enjoy it freely. Thank you. So next week is our last class. May I have some volunteers for reciting for the last class? Come on, everybody. Sarah, Mia. Anyone else? Okay, Sarah and Mia, thank you for volunteering.

[08:15]

So last week we were discussing in detail the section about the posture, and I had thought we would spend this class on the section, think, not thinking, but we really didn't get finished with posture. And also Rin was saying, but we want to ask questions. We didn't get to discuss it that much or talk about it. So I thought we'll just see how that goes, how far we get, and maybe the next class might be think, not thinking, or we'll see if we get started with it today. But we haven't talked about the breath at all and the eyes, the breath, and also getting up from sitting, which skips the think, not thinking for when you arise from sitting. So that's another part that might be a useful thing to talk about in terms of the posture. Now, I think we're all a little giddy tonight. Okay.

[09:21]

Well, I also thought, you know, those of you, some people may want to leave early or something if you feel like you need to just because you've been at the end of your rope or something. So please excuse yourself if you feel you need to leave early. So are there any questions from last time about posture points, or have you tried any of these things we talked about, the rocking the body and the placing the hands? Have any of you experimented or changed your posture to reflect some of these? Yes. I have a question. I was reading Warm Smiles from the Mountain, Lou Anderson's book, and in one of the lectures he talks about seven points of sort of contact, I guess, and I was wondering how they relate, you know, if you could tell us what those seven points are because he didn't in the lecture.

[10:27]

He didn't? No. Seven points of contact. You mean your body width? I think maybe like if you take, you know, like say maybe your thumbs against your heart, you know, your teeth, your tongue, you know, maybe your gaze, your shoulders. Well, let's count them. Okay. So we've got… One for each sits bone. Two sits bones. Buttocks or knees. Is that one or two? I'd say one. One for the buttocks. Okay. Let's count. So one for the buttocks. Two knees. One, two. So there is that tripod of sit bones and knees, so let's call that three. And then we've got hands. How about the leg over the leg? Is that one? Yeah. Well, let's wait on that because if you don't sit that way, then it wouldn't be. It would just be the knees. So one, two, three.

[11:28]

Hands is four, right? Tongue against the roof of the mouth would be five. Teeth together, six. Lips together, seven. Does it say lips together? Lips together, teeth together. What? That's not contact. Yeah, these are points of contact. So maybe, I mean, that's a good guess, those seven points. You know, this part where it says, oh, any more questions or comments or things you've been trying? I have a question about the torso part. What happens when, I always find that I'm pulling myself forward. Where do you want your spine to be in relation to your triangle? Yeah, the spine, well, this is an instruction that,

[12:34]

actually, Dogen doesn't say it, but I've heard Rev say it, which is to bring your spine deep into your body. And it's a kind of image. What would that be exactly? You're not really forcing your spine into your body, but part of yoga practice is to be able to visualize and image your body. If you take a yoga class, sometimes they say these far-out things like, breathe into your side bodies, things like that, or make space between your intercostal muscles, and you just hear that as a suggestion, and then you can image that. What would that be like with your own consciousness? So in terms of bringing the spine deep in your body, to imagine deepening your spine, what is that as a visualization for yourself? So the spine, if your legs are crossed, it's supported, without very much muscle support.

[13:36]

If your legs are in Burmese or in a chair or Seiza, you need a little more muscle to hold the spine up. But at the lower part of the spine, there's a slight, and not overly arched, but a slight curve. It's actually the natural curve. The spine has an S curve that's natural. So in that lower part, you don't want to round it back like that, and you don't want to overarch it like that, or you constrain. So a slight curve. What about your ribs? The ribs, that's very interesting that you ask, because Matt can tell you, I was just looking up in Gray's Anatomy about the ribs. Maybe Grace can tell me how the ribs are actually attached lower down. But in any case, when you're breathing, you don't want your ribs kind of rising and falling and rising and falling. You stretch up, and you raise the sternum, actually.

[14:41]

The sternum bone or the breast bone is raised up, but the rib cage is not like you don't pull back or crunch down. You don't want to bring yourself so upright that your lower back crunches down. The lower ribs crunch back. So you have to be careful about that overarching or kind of in the interest of pulling up on your upper body, sitting upright, that you do this crunching. So the breast bone is lifted, but the ribs do not lift up. The breast bone lifts up and out. Does that speak to it? Right. The sternum. The sternum. You pull this part up. Well, it's not like this. It's almost a visualization. It's an adjustment of up from here, up. And it makes your scapulas go down. Go down and back, yeah.

[15:42]

The scapulas sort of slide down and back. The scapulas are the shoulder blades, the little wings, right? That goes the scapula. So they go down and the sternum comes up. So I think it's important not to overarch and tense your body. But there is something about where the ribs are loaded in the pelvis. Is there anyone who can? Well, they're mostly bound by the back muscles, not by anything in front. I mean, they're bound to each other. They're intercostal muscles. But even at the bottom, they're not connected to anything anteriorly except through muscles in the sternum. So basically, they're there to just sort of freely float like bellows.

[16:45]

You know, if you think about the action of bellows, they're sort of freely floating except along the back. Uh-huh. Okay. I did try placing my hands differently, like you had said. Yes. And it helped with that. I think before, I was getting a lot of back strain, especially after an all-day sitting. And it seems to have helped putting them up a little bit. Good. Has anyone else experimented with raising their hands? Yeah, I actually found that the opposite happened though because I don't normally have back pain. But I tend to have my hands low, so I decided to raise them to be more proper. And I ended up getting back pain. Who else experienced that? Yeah, I raised it. And then it was tense all here and all here. Uh-huh. Yes, Matt? Well, I'm thinking that, you know, you say it's a natural position here,

[17:47]

but natural, if you let go, gravity takes you down. So I'm thinking it is going to take some muscles here to hold your hands up if they're not resting, say, on your left leg. So, like, if you're sitting on your knees and you have no, maybe just a slight heel to put it on, then I'm thinking it's going to take a little bit of muscle to bring it up. Well, there is resting against your belly is where they're drawn in and resting on your belly rather than, yeah. Well, I think that's interesting to hear that a number of you had more strain in the arms. Wendy? Well, I was wondering because I actually was looking at one's posture today. Yes. And I was, it seemed to me that a lot of it was getting pulled up through the shoulders. Yes. And not, you know, through opening up and then hands up. So I don't know if that's true, but maybe the shoulders were coming up with the movement.

[18:47]

Yes. I think, thank you, I do think that if you imagine a whole, if you're thinking you have to hold your hands up, you know, then you begin to strain in through here and feel chance in through there. So it's, there is no holding in the shoulders. The shoulders are completely back and relaxed. But anyway, I'm not, there's also the eggs under the arms. You know, we haven't talked about that, but imagining raw eggs in your armpits, right? I've never actually tried it out. I've always wanted to. So there's this roundness in your armpits. So you don't want to crunch your arms down, right, because that would be a mess, and you don't want to hold them way out because then the eggs drop. So that's another posture point in terms of having this round circle. There's also this spaciousness under your arms.

[19:51]

So if you're holding like this and trying to do it, that's tension in and of itself too. So please keep experimenting with it and working with it. Matt, you were just about to say something. I was, Ben Gustin told me something blanched on him about this arm. I think she said bring your arms straight out, and then it's sort of bring them in. There's something about that. You can't really do that because you're not two people. I don't know. I'm just remembering that. As a way of getting the proper spacing under here. Not like this, not up here, not back here, but sort of just, you know. There's a couple hands up here, Lance. I was just going to say I really feel the weight of my arms coming together in my knee drive. So I feel like this kind of, you know, like the surface friction between my fingers. And it supports my arms in a way.

[20:54]

So kind of I think of it as like an inverted arch. You know how an archway will like compare weight. I think of it kind of upside down. Oh, that's a neat image, an inverted arch. Also, I find that like just an inch up or down can make a huge difference. In your back. Yeah, in the back. Yeah, so just playing with that. Yeah, just an inch can make a huge difference. Well, also when I thought when you think that all the holding is, because obviously, yeah, there is some muscular contraction. There has to be a tiny bit. But if you think it's all going up, that's not, then that hurts. Like when I do it, when I think I'm holding it all up, that hurts. But you realize that a lot of it, the weight of this is swinging towards your body. So your body can't really hold some of it. You know what I mean? Yes. Like all this weight is not dropping down. It's swinging inward.

[21:55]

So when you realize that your body supports maybe 75% of it, that definitely relieves it. Yes. My teaching about this has always been that it's not appropriate for everybody, this cosmic mudra, and that there are some people that it's okay for, and other people it's not okay for. And that you have to find your own way with it, whether it is appropriate for you or not. One of the things that I... Has everyone signed the attendance sheet? Yes. Okay. One of the things that I found that was interesting is I was experimenting with mudra, and I found that the tension wasn't in my shoulders or my back, it was in the actual mudra itself. In the hand and the fingers, yes. So it was more just loosening that up, and then everything else seemed to circulate much more easily. Sometimes there's a lot of tension in the wrists for people. And if you see there...

[22:59]

Sometimes you look and the mudra isn't really a round circle, it's a squared off thing. And to make a square, it takes... You know, there's a lot of tension in the hands. There's another hand here. Yes. Yeah, I was wondering about the wrists, because it seems important to me, whether they're kind of in alignment with the hand or whether it's a little bit this way or this way. And I was wondering if you find that it does go kind of straight into the hand or not. Well, you know, anatomically people are different, but it's not... It doesn't have a straight... It's a rounded... It's a round circle. The whole thing is a round circle. So however that happens... So you can see if you're holding the... Putting it together in a square, tight way. That may have a lot to do with the arms, too, for those of you... I just found that my fingers are actually kind of bending this way a little bit to get it against my stomach.

[24:03]

But I don't know if that's the position of my elbows or... Oh, I see what you're saying. So laterally they're kind of... Well, I think it could do that a little bit. I think mine does it a little. Well, experiment. Think about those eggs. Think about the eggs under the arms and see what happens there. Don't you think you could talk about posture forever? Christine? My hands are really big, and so I feel like my mudra is really big, too. And I look around and everybody else's mudra looks really small. But I don't exactly know, and I think I did the square thing, too. So now I'm like overly paranoid about the way my mudra looks. Like today I was like... Is everyone looking at my mudra?

[25:04]

They like to see it. That's what you need a rock suit for, then you can hide it. Exactly. We're all looking at your mudra. Has anyone been looking at Christian's mudra? I have. Oh, sorry. Oh, at lunch? You have your certain partners that you get to look at when you're... I'm seeing how perfect it looks. It looks really good. There's one thumb that's slightly... That's what it is. Anyway, posture never ends. That's a great slogan, isn't it? So as long as you have a body, you know, there's going to be... One works with their posture, and as we get older and...

[26:07]

You know, various things happen. Certain things sort of drag around more than they did when we were younger. And various... You know, the cushionings between the vertebrae, the little fluid, sacky things, they get, you know, the fluid leaves, and, you know, all sorts. So there is no such thing, just to remind you, as perfect posture. There's no such thing as... Everyone's body is completely different, and we have to make adjustments. People have scoliosis. They have one leg longer than the other. They have all sorts of things. So everyone's posture is perfect, just the way it is. We just work with it, just like that. In fact, there's a story of Suzuki Roshi where... He said that there was various people...

[27:09]

Somebody was sitting kind of like this, and he said their posture... They were making very sincere effort to continue their practice, and their posture was perfect. So it's more what kind of wholehearted sincerity you have in your practice that's the most important thing. And then we work with our pains and our problems and our bodies as they change, you know, year after year. Wendy? I just had a question, because I was thinking today about you making little adjustments, and what I've noticed, and I just wonder if you've ever noticed this, is that if I do make a little change, it affects everything. And so I usually feel like a wreck, you know? I get it. It's all over my body. It's kind of like, you know, if one cracks my head, and my back starts hurting, and then something else starts hurting. So it's like it has to kind of sit down or something, each adjustment.

[28:11]

So I don't know if that happens to other people, but it's one of the reasons it's hard to make a change, because you get it, you sort of get settled in something. I do. Yes, that's right. I understand that I can, you know, sort of everything's leaning towards that, whatever mistake I'm making, or what I was off. And my right shoulder comes forward a little, I think. So all the rest of my body is accommodating it. Exactly. So when it gets corrected, I'm like, ah! Yes, we're exactly, we're all connected. You know, it's all one thing, and you, you know, if you're carrying a certain side of your body is doing something, and it's not just this side that gets opened up. There's a whole emotional thing about what it was all about, that you were carrying it that way, and then that opens, and yeah. And so it's constantly changing, really. And, you know, your hip hurts one year, and then it's your ankle, and then your neck, and then it's fine for a while. Someone told me today they had sat a seven-day session, they had no pain, they had nothing.

[29:13]

They just, you know, it really, it really changes all the time. Yeah. Definitely. Never mind? Yes. It seems like it would be really useful to be able to check yourself out on a mirror. Yes. And are there any full-length mirrors around? I don't know if there are, but I do know of people who sat in the nude in front of a mirror to really look at what their posture looks like. You know, in the sutras it talks about meditation as a sport. I was telling someone today that it's like a sport, where just like if you're into tennis or something, it's like you're constantly, you're interested in kind of the latest things and the latest, you know, how your serve is, and working on your overhand, and, you know, it's like that. You work on it that way.

[30:13]

It's not like, oh, here's my posture, and that's it. It's an ongoing thing. What about your abdomen? Do you, is that sort of... Well, let's talk about the breathing because we haven't really talked about that yet. Let's see. Let's see. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest. We talked about this, the quietness of all the mouth apparatus, language connection things, right? Let's go on to always keep your eyes open and breathe softly through your nose. I just wanted to say that in Juri, the Ten Tai thing, he has the eyes closed. I mentioned that today, I think. Juri says keep your eyes closed, but then he says to block out the light.

[31:17]

And so there's some commentary that says, well, he doesn't really mean closed all the way. He just means closed just enough to block out the light, but then someone else commented on it saying, but how can you block out the light unless they're actually closed? So then, you know, back and forth. This is a very, this is a hotly contested point about the eyes, and as usual, I can't locate it. But in the So Chan Yi, yes, the So Chan Yi in 180, he says, he really feels strongly about the eyes, right? Let's see. On the top, the Chan Wan Ching Wei, if you attain samadhi, let's see, the eyes should remain slightly open in order to prevent drowsiness. If you attain samadhi, samadhi being one pointed concentration,

[32:21]

with the eyes open, it will be the most powerful. In ancient times, there were monks eminent in the practice of meditation who always sat with their eyes open. More recently, the Chan master Fa Yuan Tung criticized those who sit in meditation with their eyes closed. So they may have been criticizing Juri, who sat with his eyes closed, likening their practice to the ghost cave of the Black Mountain. Surely this has a deep meaning, known to those who have mastered meditation practice. So, Juri says the eyes closed. Let me just look for a second. Regulating body, regulating food, regulating body, breath and mind. Visualize the body relaxed. Then he should close his eyes.

[33:25]

This is the practitioner. Juri says when he closes his mouth, the upper lip and teeth should touch the lower ones, and the tongue, the palate. Then he should close his eyes to shut out the light. That's Juri. But then Dogen, the eyes should always remain open. The eyes should always remain open. And then in the second Fukan Zazen, he says breathe gently through the nose. And then in the Shobo Genzo Zazen Shin, close your lips and teeth. The eyes should be kept open, neither too widely nor too narrowly. So you get the... Each one has a little bit different... The eyes should be properly open, neither too widely. This is Bendo Ho. The bottom one. The eyes should be properly open, neither too widely nor too narrowly. Do not let your eyelids cover your pupils,

[34:28]

nor your neck deviate from the line. So do not let your eyelids cover your pupils. Do not let them cover your pupils? Well, it seems like... Right. That's where the light comes in, through the pupils. So that's, again, not totally closing them. And what I was saying today about gentle eyes, they say that the eyes should be like elephant eyes, which, in my imagination, I have a kind of a Disney Dumbo elephant in my mind. But, you know, just very gentle, not any tension around the eyes. Just half open, half closed. And breathe softly through your nose. Now, I want to just jump to the next one. After you have adjusted your posture,

[35:29]

take a breath and exhale fully. Rock your body right and left and settle into steady and movable sitting. So we've talked about the rocking the body right and left, but this exhale... Take a deep exhale and let all the air out. This is something that I forget myself, and I have a feeling that people are not doing that as a regular thing before they start sitting, where you... Once you've adjusted your posture, meaning crossed your legs, gotten your ears in line and the tongue, the teeth and all that, breathing gently through your nose, and then you take a deep... Well, he doesn't say a deep. Just take a breath and exhale fully. And my understanding is you take that through the mouth and let out all the air, the foul air. Sometimes they say... Let's see, Drury, I think, does say foul air. Let's see. Sit erect like an inanimate boulder

[36:41]

without allowing body, head and limbs to shake. This is the proper way of regulating the body. Okay. So... Drury goes into the kinds of breath, the different kinds of breath in detail, but I can't find where he says, take a deep inhale, exhale. Let's see, does the first one say it? Breathe gently through the nose. Regulate your breathing. You should relax your abdomen. I don't see this about exhaling through the mouth. Oh, in the Shobo Genzo Zazen Shin, that's on page 181, second from the bottom,

[37:42]

having this regulated body and mind, take a breath and exhale fully. So, this taking a breath and exhaling fully all the air out, and then begin your breathing through your nose. So, please try that, this. And maybe a couple times, and then begin the breathing through your nose. Okay? In yoga, if you take a yoga class, they sometimes say to exhale fully, you know, before like pranayama practice. So, it's a yoga practice. Now, this breathe gently through your nose, the breathing in Zazen is, it should not be audible, meaning your neighbors should not be able to hear it. It's, there's, jury talks about different kinds of breath, four different kinds, four kinds of breath, audible, gasping, coarse, and restful.

[38:43]

So, the audible, the gasping, and the coarse breath are all not recommended. But the restful breath, the first three are improper and the fourth is correct. So, what is audible breath? When one sits in meditation, if the breath is perceptible to the ear, it is audible. What is gasping breath? When one sits in meditation, although the breath is not audible, if it is not free and is obstructed, it is gasping. You know how sometimes if you're feeling tense and you just can't, you just can't breathe, just naturally it's caught. This is gasping. Coarse breath is, although the breath is not heard and is free, it's not fine. It's not, it's coarse. And restful breath, when it is neither audible nor obstructed nor coarse, but is continuous,

[39:44]

being barely perceptible and so fine that it is almost imperceptible with the resultant comfort and easiness, this is restful breath. So, that's what Juri is talking about. Now, Dogen doesn't go into that in depth about just the exact kind of breath. I don't think Dogen really wants you to get caught in making your breath a certain way. There's another place where he talks about the Mahayana understanding of breath, which I'll get to in a minute. So, audible breath scatters your composure. Gasping breath ties you up. Coarse breath tires you. And restful breath quiets your mind. If you have the first three, it shows your breathing is not regulated. This is all meditation technique. This is learning meditation. Now, Zazen, the way Dogen talks about it, rightly practiced Zazen is beyond

[40:46]

coarse and audible and so forth. This is all part of the oral tradition that someone would be given and someone may have a problem, like their breath is very tight and coarse and uncomfortable and it's not very good for their health to keep breathing that way. So, this is something you might bring up. The breath is not restful. But Dogen doesn't get into it in detail. I think he's assuming these kinds of things are part of what you talk about with your field of cinnabar. It's sometimes called this lower area, below the navel. Concentrating below, relaxing the body and visualizing the breath coming in and going out through all your pores freely and unobstructedly. So, this is one of these visual yogic practices where you imagine the breath.

[41:49]

It's not just coming in and out of the nose and going into the lungs and back. You imagine the breath flowing unobstructedly through all your pores in all directions. It's kind of wide, round. It's a visualization, really. And this calms and regulates the breath, this kind of practice. If you concentrate your mind on a fine breath, it will be properly regulated and all the troubles will be avoided. Then it will be easy for you to quiet your mind. So, this is how to regulate your breath at the start of meditation. So, this is very common, this particular piece of the Tiantai by Juri was very popular. People had seen this, Dogen had seen this. So, these are some kind of practices that were done.

[42:53]

Suzuki Roshi had a practice that he offered of this is another one of these visualizations, breathing in a shape, in an ellipse, breathing out through the nose, the exhale out through the nose and down to this lower abdomen, feel the cinnabar, and then having the picture of the breath coming up through the back and exhale through the nose. It's a round circle. So, when you're breathing, the inhale is coming in through the nose and out through the nose, you might say, but you imagine the exhale coming down and then around and up through the back, exhale out. So, this is something you might want to try while you're practicing. Is there a question? I have a really quick one.

[43:56]

Yes. I remember the first instruction I ever got from Guru was concentrating on your breathing and counting your breath. Yes. Sometimes I get tired of counting my breath and so I've also learned these things where you can say breathing in anger, hatred and greed or something like that and breathing out compassion, love. Do you know anything about that? Or do you do that ever? Well, you know, there's myriad practices that someone could do. There's practices where you use a word. I know some people are practicing with Thich Nhat Hanh verses in, in, out, deep, slow, calm, ease, smile, release, present moment, wonderful moment. It's a breath meditation verse concentration.

[44:56]

So, that's something I know that some people are practicing with. The counting, counting is a venerable practice that has been practiced for millennia, you know, literally 2,500 years easy, probably much longer than that. And there's some sense that people begin to feel like it's an elementary kind of practice. Well, okay, I've done counting, now I want to get on to something else. But there was a session that Suzuki Roshi asked everyone who had been, everyone in the session to please count your breath. He wanted people to return to a kind of basic practice. I'm not exactly, I don't know all the circumstances, but he asked everyone to do counting. And he was going to practice counting himself. He was, that was his, Zazen was going to be counting the breath. So, this is a concentration practice.

[45:58]

This is having an object of mind, the object being the breath and counting, unifying body, breath, and mind with unifying the mind that's following the numbers with the breath and body breath. So, and this is a wonderful practice to go back to if you're upset, agitated, can't stop running some story, you know, to do counting. And you can do exhale one, inhale one, exhale two, or just exhale one. Bring it into your body. Now, some people might say, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it, I've got enough of my own something. So, it's not a practice for everyone. It's not the universal recommended instructions, you know. But it may be something that works, that your teacher wants you to work with, or you are drawn to it or whatever. But anyway, you can breathe in,

[47:00]

and then it's transformed in your body, breathing out light and compassion and joy. So, that's something you may want to do. But you might want to discuss it with someone, because that may have a, what shall I say, a destabilizing effect, perhaps. You know, someone may find that kind of destabilizes. Although, for the most part, I understand that it's a wonderful practice, a transformative practice, you know. So, all these practices we've been talking about are with meditation objects. And the zazen that Dogen is talking about is objectless meditation, just sitting without any particular object in mind. But this isn't to sort of wipe out all the myriad other practices, which are very, very wholesome practices, wonderful practices for stabilizing the mind and body.

[48:08]

And that's, I think, Dury is talking about these kinds of... He goes into a lot of what can happen when your practice is not stabilized, when you have difficulties and problems. For example, this thing about, you know, when you try to make your mind a certain way, you start getting upset. He also talks about confused thinking and wandering, mind that's wandering and strained, and a loose mind and a sinking mind, sinking mind and a mind that's dull and confused and unrecordable. While the head drops, this shows a sinking mind. And there's antidotes to this that are traditional antidotes. Dury is from 536 to 597 in China. Don't you think it's just great we're reading this and practicing what he's telling us, and he lived in 536. It's just so great. So, for a sinking mind,

[49:13]

there's sinking mind, floating mind. Now, have you ever... Do you have that... Have you ever had that kind of sense that your mind is kind of floating off, you know, kind of wandering about and floating off? Or sinking, you know, getting really gloomy and down and depressed, you might say. That might be another way of saying depressed. So, there's antidotes to that. For example, what is a sinking mind? If during the meditation the mind is dull, confused and unrecordable, while the head drops, this shows a sinking mind. In such a case, it should be, meaning the mind, should be fixed on the tip of the nose to nail it there and to prevent it from wandering elsewhere. This is the way to regulate a sinking mind. Kaizen also talks about putting the attention on the tip of the nose. You can see a kind of a sharpness even if you were to bring your mind to the tip of your nose and also the air going in and out there,

[50:18]

that would be a kind of tightening up, you know, if your mind was sinking down and wandering loosely. But for another kind of mind that's too taut or too tight and strained, that would be counterproductive, right? That would be more straining. So, here's another one. What is a floating mind? If during the meditation it, the mind, drifts about and the body is uneasy, while thoughts follow externals, you know, this getting involved in externalities, this shows a floating mind. In such a case, it should be pushed down and fixed on the navel to prevent thoughts from rising. Thus, the mind will be stabilized and will be easily quieted. Therefore, the absence of the sinking or floating state shows a regulated mind. So, jury is very interested in regulating the mind, you know. And we don't want to go overboard on this because you'll find yourself being a real taskmaster.

[51:20]

You know, you have to be careful about this. But anyway, bringing the mind low to this abdomen, which Jackie was asking about. So, we loosen the belt and the robes. But the obi, if you're wearing an obi, you know, the thick band, which is different from a belt around your waist. It's this low down garment. It's a kind of a belt, which is right across that heart. And we talked about the haremakulas, with the stomach sweater, you know. This area is really protected and attended to. And so, to be able to breathe from not this gasping, shallow, audible, that's usually associated with chest breathing from up here. Instead, it's this abdomen, which has a firmness, and yet not tight, not like a steel trap, but not loose.

[52:21]

And the breath, bringing your attention down low, is often advocated. You know, you've heard about putting your mind in your left palm, you know, which is down low. And he says to bring the mind down to the navel, fixed on the navel, to prevent thoughts from rising. See, this is, you know, this is, I really want to caution us around this, you know, to prevent thoughts from rising. This is, don't go too far with this. This is in the case of a floating mind that's going all over the place. One way to address that with your body-mind practice is to bring the mind down, and pay attention to this lower part. But you're not trying to get rid of thoughts rising, or stop anything from happening, or get rid and make a blank mind. Do you see the difference there? I just want to be really clear about that.

[53:24]

One thing that strikes me is that a lot of these sutras and old texts don't talk too much about the body, you know, the pain of the body. I mean, you mentioned it just now, but I was, you know, I came across something in the Branching Streams, Suzuki Roshi's latest book, and he was talking about when he was in a lot of pain, he started to really put emphasis in the hara. And I was going through a lot of leg pain, and I started, like, really working with my hara, like, with a lot of just energy. And it seemed to really help. But it did alter my posture a lot, too, as I was doing that. But then, in that case, I was trying to get rid of the pain. You know, I wasn't trying to just be with it. I was trying to get rid of it. Well, one way of being with it, one way of being with is to take care of this lower abdomen, this field of cinnabar. Did I bring it? Should I bring it?

[54:30]

There's a quote. I'll bring it next week. I don't think I did bring it, where Dogen talks about what Rujing told her to do, which was to have the breath come from the field of cinnabar and go back in and out of the field of cinnabar, which is this lower abdomen. So the breath, zazen breath, is this area, is rather than upper chest. And actually, when your head is up, pulled up, and the sternum is raised, this lower abdomen is very free to move in and out. You might experiment with that, but as you're pulled up, you can... Sometimes we hold on so tight to this area here as a protective kind of a thing that we're like steel, I say steel trap, because that's what it's like. The bands of the muscles are just like holding on for dear life. And then those organs and so forth, there's a lot of emotional, for women especially,

[55:34]

but men and women both, that area of the body can often be really tight. But when you pull up through your head, that area almost swings free. That's a visual image of swinging free. It's not really swinging free, but it can't be held tight like that if you're pulling up on your back. The muscles won't hold on in the same way when you're pulling up, so you can feel the breath going in and out. You know what cinnabar is? It's a red... Sometimes it's carved in Chinese beads. You've probably seen it, very intricate carving. It's a red stone, I guess, or mineral, semi-precious maybe, cinnabar. Yes, Bill? For the sinking mind meditation, do you have to actually look at your nose? No, I think it's bringing your... Although you see sometimes pictures of eyes that are like that,

[56:37]

I think it's bringing your mind to your nose, but not your eyes. The eyes would stay cast down about 3 feet in front of you, but you'd bring your attention up here. That also seems to be suggested for drowsiness too, to bring your attention to the nose. It has a sharpening quality to it, the breath going in and out there. A stabilized mind may be either... So if you're not sinking or floating, it shows you have a regulated mind, but a stabilized mind may be either strained or loose. I was talking a little bit about this today, too overly tight and rigid or too loose. It is strained when during the meditation all thoughts are turned on regulating it to ensure its stabilization. You get that? It's like everything... Okay, am I doing it? This kind of strained, thereby bringing the vital principle or prana

[57:41]

up to the chest in which a pain is felt. And I know this happens to people where they feel like... In zazen they have pain actually in their chest from a certain kind of tenseness around trying to sit zazen well and have it be right in the right posture, and you get pain. This is strained. And then the antidote to that, or what Jerry says, in this case you should relax the mind by visualizing the prana or the breath descending. Visualize. See this use of this internal visualization of bringing the breath down, down, down, descending the breath. And he says the trouble will disappear at once. If the mind is loose, it either jumps about while the body sways and the mouth waters, or it becomes gloomy. So what do you do in that case? The meditator should compose his or her body

[58:43]

and fix his or her mind as aforesaid, using the body as its support. Now I have a question mark after this because I'm not sure exactly what that means. But I think it refers back to this floating mind where you bring the mind down, using the body as support. I don't actually understand exactly what... Now, Suzuki Roshi, in one place in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, talks about pressing down on the diaphragm. There's only one place in the whole book where he says anything other than just sit and completely settle the self on the self or let your natural... take the right posture. And that is Zazen Mind. But in this one place he mentions to press down on the diaphragm. And I think this is this stabilizing...

[59:45]

bringing the tension low. But you don't want to go too far in that. You don't want to have a kind of... overly pushy mind and body. But that is something you might be aware of. A slight. If you need to. If you feel you need to. Stabilize yourself. But I'm saying that with a very light hand. Yes? I'm sort of wondering if one of the reasons maybe that Dogen doesn't give all this detail is because it actually sounds like he's talking to himself, the guy who's writing this. So, in a way, he discovered what you do by doing. He's sitting there and he feels his pain, so he says, Oh, what am I going to do? He takes a breath,

[60:48]

Oh, you know. I mean, I just wonder if in a way what Dogen is doing is leaving something open. You haven't heard your own discovery because if you have all those instructions, you're just going to be full of these instructions and then you'll say, Oh, I have a little pain here, then I should do this. No, no, this kind of thing. I should do this. Instead of what it sounds like he's actually saying, Well, you know, this happened to me and this is what I did and that. You know, then I tried this. But he just tells you what worked. Yes, and I think this was passed on. This is what worked for me. You can try it, but not... And Dogen... Because it sounds like he's... Yeah, that's what it sounds like. And that Dogen is just saying, Well, you know, just do this. You know, because he knows. Well, I think this was out and about and used in Tantai Buddhism. And so I think in terms of oral tradition, he wrote it down, but I think this was that how were any of these things written? They were out of the actual practice of meditation.

[61:51]

People discovered certain things and wanted their Dharma buddies to know, By the way, if you're feeling kind of gloomy, try this. Okay, I'll try it. But you have to take each one of these things with a lightness, and I appreciate you bringing that up. In Soto Zen in particular, we don't say very much about these things. We leave it up to each person to discover for themselves what's going on and where they need some attention. They bring it to practice discussion or doksan that such and such is happening. In fact, I remember one Sashin, someone described this sinking mind, and it was sinking in such a way that they felt they were sinking. The word sinking was interesting because they felt they were sinking down, down, like through their Zafu and down into the Zavaton, through the floor. They were sinking, literally. And, you know, it was like Juris said. It was really great to have these,

[62:52]

because I had never heard of that quite like that, that someone actually felt they were going to go through the floor. It was that strong a sinking sensation. But we are kind of leaving it up to people as adults, you know, to discover on their own what's going on with them and what they want to bring up, which is why it's a good idea to talk with somebody. There was a hand over here. Yeah, it just seems to me, asked for years, that, well, you know about saying that monkey mind, that it seems very appropriate. Our mind is very tricky. It's devilishly clever, and so we have these bag of tricks to counteract it. You know, sometimes this nose in and out works, and then the monkey mind gets around that, so then you have to pull out another trick or mantra because it's always, it's so clever and it's so quick that we use one gimmick, really, it's a gimmick, and then our mind learns what it is,

[63:53]

and it beats it. And then we have to come up with another gimmick, and it seems the trick is to not get attached to any one gimmick or mantra because then our mind learns it, and it's useless, then it becomes useless. And it's almost like you have to have a rotating bag of tricks to deal with your mind. That's the way it seems to me. Do people understand what Tulia is saying? A mutating virus. Yeah. A mutating virus? Like the light chambers. I just want to stop here for a minute to say that what Dogen is talking about is not learning meditation. This is learning meditation, and I think it's really helpful to look at the literature that's there and the tradition, and this is very helpful, I found it helpful to be exposed to this kind of thing and to know that Dogen is saying the zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharmagate of joyful ease,

[64:55]

the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment, which is not thinking, which is why this Fukan Zazenki was so unusual and different from all these other meditation texts that had come before, which were focusing on these kind of very simple things that everybody should know. Everybody should know that your breath, audible gasping breath, is not really healthy. This is like the sport of meditation where you kind of exchange what kind of running shoes to buy because these ones are really good. But I just want to make that clear that although Dogen was steeped in this, knew this backwards and forwards, when it came time for him to come back from China and write his meditation text, he felt like what he was bringing was the Shobo Genzo

[65:58]

or the true Dharma Eye, the practice that was handed down from Shakyamuni Buddha all the way down through to his teacher, and it was this. It wasn't the learning meditation. This in some ways can get you in lots of trouble, meaning gaining idea. If I do this, then this is going to happen. He's saying your practice in and of itself is enlightened activity, is Buddha activity. But often we need attention in these very areas, how to arrange your robes and bring your attention to this lower part of your body. Was there another question that someone had their hand raised? Okay. Are you finding this disturbing, hearing all these things?

[67:01]

I was wondering about getting a copy. A copy of this? Sure. This is actually from... I have no idea how this translation is. This is a very early book called The Secrets of Chinese Meditation by Charles Look. Do you remember that? It was very early. It was in the 60s or 50s, I think, that this came out. It tells you the Ten Armies. The what? The Ten Armies. Ten Armies. You see all those incisors crawling all over you. Yes. This is also the... He has in there all the ma-kyo. Have you heard the word ma-kyo? Audible, sensory things that happen during sitting that are disturbing. Hearing things, seeing things, feeling things, hot and cold and visual stuff. So these are understood as the products of unstabilized minds

[68:03]

or doing meditation incorrectly where you get into some kind of trouble. People get into trouble sometimes. Can I spell his last name? Look, L-U-K. But we can Xerox this. We can Xerox this and pass this out. Would everyone like a copy of this? This isn't the whole thing. This has got just parts of it. What do you spell jeree? Jeree is C-H-I-H-dash-I. And C-H-I-H is pronounced jer. Tientai jeree. This is selections from the Essential Method of Sitting Meditation by Stabilization and Contemplation for Beginners. But we'll Xerox this. It starts out with a section that is a little, you might not like it, called Rebuking All Desires. Yeah, I don't like it so much either.

[69:07]

But this is something that Dogen doesn't go into, which is what are the preparations that someone does who wants to practice meditation? How do they lead their life? You're also before Zazen. It's suggested in Chan-Wan Jing-Wei also that you first make a vow, right? The first thing that he says in here is, The bodhisattva who studies prajna should first arouse the thought of great compassion, make the extensive vows, and then carefully cultivate samadhi. Vowing to save sentient beings, he or she should not seek liberation for him or herself alone. So that's the Chan-Wan Jing-Wei, the So-Chan-Yi by Tsung-Tzu. He starts out, before you sit meditation, when you make this vow, the bodhisattva vow to save all beings, and you carefully cultivate your one-pointedness in order to realize this vow.

[70:12]

Dogen doesn't talk about that, or how you live a life outside of. He just launches in. But this kind of thing was known, how you regulate your life, and you practice the precepts. So he doesn't go over that material, which was a kind of given. But anyway, this has it, Rebuking All Desires, and it has a lot about... It's for the male... Good night. Thank you for coming. It was that Rebuking All Desires that did it. The Rebuking All Desires, right. It's written for male, celibate monks in hot countries. So it starts out... It goes into... Well, it actually says male and female.

[71:13]

It's for monks and nuns. To repulse craving for form involves all pleasant appearances of the male and female with attractive eyes and brows, red lips, white teeth, and so forth. I need that part too. You want this part? It's about getting caught in sense objects, food and stuff too. So we will hand this out next week. Or maybe we can do it during this week and put it out in the office and then those of you who aren't here during the week can pick them up next week. How are we doing? Oh, it's 10 to 9. You brought up a gaming idea. There's one line that Dogen has that tricks me up where he says, if you want such a thing, get to work on such a thing immediately. Yes. That always sounds really like a gaming idea.

[72:15]

Really? Yeah, I want it. I'm going to dig in. Yes, yes, yes. Get to work here. Oh, to me it just sounds like this great, cheerleading kind of enthusiasm. Real encouragement. It's a strong statement there. In the other translation it's, if you want to attain suchness, you should practice suchness without delay. But it does have the word want, it's true. My feeling about this new translation is, especially because it's right after talking about Eiko Henschel, you know, turning the light back, it's like, start practicing turning the light back now. There's no waiting. Just now. Do it. Like that. So it sounds like there's no time for gating ideas. Just turn the light back is how I understand it. I understand the Nike PR department read this before they did that. Oh. Just do it.

[73:16]

Just do it. But there's a sort of urgency about it, isn't there? Head on fire kind of a thing, yes. Shall we keep going until nine? I just have a temperament. I had wanted to read. But I didn't bring it. This is the problem of having so many wonderful books. This is about breath. Neither the Sochani, that first one in our comparative group, or in Dogen's first Fukan Sazenki text, talks about it. But in later manuals, Dogen does give some hints about the breath. He gets into it a little bit more. And it says we are to begin the practice by taking a breath and exhaling fully.

[74:18]

During meditation, the breath should pass through the nose and should be neither rasping nor restricted, neither too long nor short, neither too weak nor forced. And it says here Dogen seems to be echoing jury. So it's obvious he knew this jury text that we're going to observe. Here it is about the foul air. Here Dogen seems to be echoing jury, who recommends that before settling into meditation, one expel all the foul air through the mouth. And that one aim at a fine type of breathing. Yes, that's what I mentioned before. There's one other place in Dogen's works where we find the information on the topic of breathing in a formal lecture given at Eheiji and preserved. This is exactly what I was hoping I brought, and I did bring it. It's a lecture that he gave at Eheiji. Shall I read it? From Dogen.

[75:20]

When a monk sits in meditation, he or she should first straighten... I'm just going to read it as it is, but you understand it's he or she. When a monk sits in meditation, he should first straighten his body and sit erect. And then control his breathing and his mind. In the case of the Hinayana, there are basically two methods for such control. The counting of the breath and the contemplation of the impure. Hinayanists use the counting of breath to control the breathing. But the pursuit of the way of the Buddhists and ancestors is very different from that of the Hinayana. A Buddhist ancestor has said, Though you produce the mind of a mangy fox, do not practice the self-regulation of the two vehicles. These two vehicles are represented by such schools as the Shibun Ritsu or the Kusha schools current today. The Mahayana also has a method for regulating the breath.

[76:23]

It is to know when the breath is long, that this is a long breath, and to know when it is short, that this is a short breath. The breath reaches the field of cinnabar and exits again from the field of cinnabar. Inhalation and exhalation may differ, but they both depend on the field of cinnabar. My former master, Tien Tung, that's Ru Jing, has said, The breath enters to the field of cinnabar, but it does not come from anywhere. Hence, it is neither long nor short. The breath exits from the field of cinnabar, but it does not go anywhere. Hence, it is neither short nor long. This is what my former master said. If someone were to ask me how the master controls the breath, I would simply say to him that it is not the method of Mahayana, but it is different from Hinayana.

[77:25]

It is not Hinayana, but it is different from Mahayana. If he were to ask again just what, after all, it is, I would say that inhalation and exhalation are neither long nor short. So that's Dogen's account of Buddhist breathing. So he associates Hinayana with this counting the breath, and it's not to diminish the efficacy or the usefulness or the helpfulness of counting the breath, but he's pointing to a practice that's not dependent on counting or dependent on really anything but awareness. Basically, he feels the Mahayana is to know that a long breath is long,

[78:26]

to know that a short breath is short. But his own teacher talks about this inhalation and exhalation. The breath comes from nowhere and it goes from nowhere in and out of the field of cinnabar, and it's neither long nor short, meaning it's beyond categories, really. It's completely just what it is. It's suchness, which is beyond conceptualization. You can't categorize it as long or short. It's just suchness. So let's end there. For those of you in the practice period, just to remind you, I'm going to Tassajara tomorrow

[79:26]

for four or five days, and I'll be back on Saturday, or maybe Friday night, Friday night or Saturday. The last class is next week or the week after that? The last class is next week. That's the sixth class.

[79:49]

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