And the sounds that we make let us know what it is that we're doing. And we become very, very sensitive to how we move around. And we become very sensitive to how we relate to what's very close to us. When we step into the zendo, The first thing we do is open the door. And the door has some sound, especially this particular door. The seasons are changing. It's getting to be a little more moisture in the air. And the door is swelling a little bit, so it doesn't close as easily as it used to. There's something funny about the way it closes. So we have to be careful, a little more careful about how we open and close the door.

[01:08]

Because when we open and close the door, we always try very hard not to make any sound. And that sets the tone for how we practice in the zendo. Opening the door and closing it sets the tone for our practice in the zendo. So we make that effort to see how little sound we can make when we open and close the door. And then when we step on the floor, we don't use our, we don't walk on our heels in the way that we usually walk when we're walking. It's natural to walk on our heels. But in the Zendo, we don't walk on our heels. We walk in a way that makes as little sound as possible. putting our weight on the whole foot rather than the heel first.

[02:11]

And then when we come to our seat and bow and turn around, there's some sound, but we walk slowly and turn slowly so that we don't disturb the air too much, we relate to the air around us, to the atmosphere around us. There is atmosphere around each one of us. And when we turn quickly or when we move without thinking too much, we disturb the air and make vibrations. which are in a very sensitive situation, those vibrations are felt. When somebody walks in from the outside in the winter, into your house in the winter, they bring the outside in with them.

[03:16]

And the first moment that that person walks in the door, you feel the whole outside coming in the door with that person. So, our movement, just to be really aware of our movement, how we're moving, and how we're disturbing the atmosphere. When I say disturb, I mean move. I don't mean it's necessarily disturbing, maybe, but a movement is called a disturbance. When you think, if you have a movement of your mind, that's called a disturbance. You may think, well that's just a thought I had. But it's actually a disturbance, because the mind is naturally at stillness. The natural state of the mind is at stillness.

[04:26]

So every thought is a disturbance. it moves to the mind, which creates other movements. That's called life. So, then when we get up onto the tan, our clothes and our feet make some sound. So when you, especially if you have robes on, if you don't have robes, you don't make quite as much sound, but robes are very noisy. So you have to be a little more careful about, and listening, listening to the sound, the sounds that we're making. So everything that you do, you're aware of, completely aware of every movement you make, because you're listening to the sound. and you don't get lost in your thoughts.

[05:29]

And you also listen to the sounds that other people are making. It makes you very much more aware of sound. And if you listen to the sounds that you're making without thinking too much, you become aware of the sounds that other people are making. Then you know what's going on around you. You become very aware of what's going on around you. Another good example in Zendo is when we eat with our eating bowls, orioke bowls. Eating is when you open the bowls and lay the bowls out and so forth, you do that without making any sound.

[06:36]

Pretty hard to not make any sound when you do it. But the effort is to not make any sound. And throughout the whole meal, are using the bowls and utensils to not make any sound. And if you do make some sound, you're aware of the sound. In Katagiri-ro, she used to talk about at Eheiji Monastery, Japanese always had pickles with their meals. Pickles are big. We used to eat pickles in the old days. At Sokoji, every meal we had pickles, because it was Japanese style. But they were very good pickles. They really know how to make pickles. Pickles are actually very good if you eat a lot of grains. But I won't go into that. And when you eat a pickle, pickles always go crunch.

[07:45]

But you try to eat the pickle without crunching, without making any sound. That's the attitude. So when you do eat, try to listen to the sound that your teeth are making. Listen to the sound inside your mouth. I think that's very good practice. If you listen to the sound that you're making when you're eating, you become very aware of the movement of your mouth. We can go through most of our life eating three or five meals a day, depending on who it is, without ever really paying attention to that action. Very easy to do that.

[08:51]

So, this is an opportunity to really watch the action of your mandible. The lower jaw and the way your teeth are working with what you're putting in your mouth. The whole process. Now, I don't think you should count the number of chews you make. I'm not talking about that. I remember when people started eating brown rice years ago. You're supposed to chew it a hundred times before you swallow each mouthful. That's actually pretty good practice, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not saying to do that. But if you watch or are aware carefully of how your mouth is working and the sound that you're making, you become very aware of yourself and eating. And watching that action and paying attention to it is very revealing about our body.

[10:09]

Reveal a lot to you about our body and about the reality of eating. The reality of food. Just watch it. How those two grinders, grinding plates, are working together. And then you know when you need another bite. Because you're not taking the next bite through greed. so much as you're taking it because the last, the previous bite has disappeared. And you know when that bite has disappeared. You're very conscious of that. So, um, when we eat with the oreoki, you hold the bowl up here. Um, sometimes people hold the bowl down here and we have our head down like this. If you look around the zendo during meal, you can do this during lunch.

[11:15]

Don't look around too much, but just kind of glance a little bit. You see, people are here like this a lot. So hold your bowl up here and you take a bite. And then you can put your spoon down and just chew it. And then take the next bite. Without this, you can... Try taking it up and putting it in your mouth without lowering your head. Now, you know, there's some variation, but room for variation. But try that. And that you find that the whole concept of eating is very different in the Vinaya. There are rules about eating in the Indian precepts, the 250 precepts.

[12:20]

There are rules about eating. And one of the rules is that when you take a bite, that you chew that bite before you eat the next one. There's some beginning, middle, and end to that bite before you actually start with the next one. I'm not saying that you have to do that, but just be aware of how, what this process is, and to give some space to, breathing space, in between, see how you can do that, experiment with that. Also, in this, the way that Japanese but not only Japanese, but all Eastern Chinese also food is arranged is that the big bowl has the main dish, which is the basic dish, which is usually rice.

[13:33]

In America, we have rice and various cereals, grains. But in the East, it's usually rice. And then there are the other bowls, and they're more tasty food or maybe vegetables and something else, soup or something. But the more nutritious ones. But there's less of those and more of the first bowl. So usually the good manners is to eat some of the rice and then you eat some of the second bowl which is a little less, more tasty. And then you go back and eat some more rice before you eat something else again. So that you balance your meal out by

[14:37]

Every time you eat one of the other dishes, in between you always go back and eat some more rice, so that the whole meal gets balanced. And the Oryoki is designed to be used in that way. And I just want to suggest that you try using it that way. And you'll find that the balance of your meal comes out better. We like to eat the tasty things, more of the tasty things and less of the ordinary. But you always have more of the ordinary and a little bit of the tasty. So that's another way.

[15:45]

But what I'm talking about here is self-awareness, awareness of the body. The best way to be aware of the body is to listen to the sounds that you make. So if you really pay attention to every sound you make, no matter what you're doing, every time you make a movement, to be aware of the sound that you're making, it really makes you very aware. Very aware. And this awareness is in zazen, same. So you're carrying the awareness that you have in zazen into all the other activities.

[16:48]

And pretty soon you find that your actions start becoming more refined. You start becoming more careful and instead of your actions being coarse and instead of being careless and bumping into things, you become much more careful and sensitive to how you approach things and how you're disturbing your atmosphere. when you're in your home you can practice this like if you think about when you make a sandwich in your kitchen it takes an enormous amount of tremendous amount of movements to make one sandwich say you're going to make an avocado sandwich with

[18:03]

Either mayonnaise or mustard, depending on your taste, and lettuce, and bread, and maybe cheese. That's a pretty good sandwich. You have to get the bread from somewhere and put it down on the table. And then you have to get a knife. And you have to take the bread out of the wrapper and you have to cut it. And then you have to go into the refrigerator and get the cheese. You have to move over and get the avocado. You have to get the mayonnaise or the mustard, both. And then you have to get the lettuce and wash the lettuce. And then you have to get a knife and you have to get a plate. And you have to, you know, it goes on and on. an enormous amount of movements just in making a sandwich.

[19:05]

And we do this over and over again, but we're usually thinking about something. We're not usually aware of the sound that each one of those movements makes. So if you can use that kind of awareness In one simple act in your daily life, it's just like practicing zazen and zendo. If you can do that from time to time in your life, during the day, you have a continuous practice. And it's just paying attention and listening to the sounds that you make, because the listening to the sounds that you make focuses you in on what you're doing. And it's a thread that ties everything together. It's a very simple practice.

[20:15]

You can't find a simpler practice. You don't even have to think very much. You just have to think directly. So when we sit in zazen, of course you're not making very many sounds in zazen, very quiet. So you can keep your ears open and listen to the sounds around you. Especially if you're having a hard time in zazen. And it's difficult, like doing sashin. Pay attention to the sounds. Let the sounds just come and go. Let them come and go, without saying what they are. You don't have to say, that's a car, or that's an airplane, or something like that.

[21:21]

Just let the sounds come and go. Come in and go. Just open your senses. Do you have any questions? Can you say something about kin-hin? In which way? Well, sometimes I notice people, kin-hin, some people go straight ahead, some people sort of waddle from side to side. I think I know what you mean. In kin-hin, you're really balancing yourself. It's like walking, moving, without moving. So you're pretty much even. And then sometimes people lean on one leg, or they'll lean like this.

[22:23]

I notice that happens sometimes. So at Grand Canyon, we have to put one foot before the other. Sometimes, you know, half step. Sometimes we tend to lean on one foot, you know. But I think, during kinhin, it looks like sometimes the people are bored. They're just waiting, you know, until the... Is that what you mean? Something like that? Just walk. Very slowly. With complete attention. You should listen. We're very keen here. That's a good time to listen to the sound. No sound. Put your foot down. No sound. Sound. American Indians know what you're talking about. Yeah, they do. I read a book about tracking, and what they know how to do is to approach animals by moving

[23:30]

there's a second he was sitting by campfire all of a sudden I just showed up right here just appeared Here we are sneaking up on ourselves. Really? You said that the mind is naturally still. It's just disturbed by the different imaginings that come. Thoughts. Thoughts that come. Emotions. When is mind still? When? Yeah. It's always still. It's an interesting point. When we sit in zazen, it looks like we're trying to still our mind.

[24:41]

But you can't still your mind if your mind is not still. The mind is always still. It's like the water, the ocean. And on top, there's disturbance, waves. But as you go down, it's very deep. very still. So basically, mind is very still. But on the surface, we have waves, which are called thoughts, feelings, perceptions, impulses. And that's natural. But at the same time that it's disturbed, it's still. So in order to see down to the bottom, we still our mind. It's like looking into a deep pool.

[25:45]

When there are ripples, you can't see down. Unless your mind is very clear anyway, but strictly speaking, when there are ripples and waves, you can't see down to the bottom. So, in order to see down to the bottom, you stop the disturbances. But, even so, even with the disturbances, the mind is still. So, in Zazen, we don't try to create disturbance. We avoid creating disturbance. But, to make the mind a blank, in order to be still, is not it either. That's creating a kind of duality. To say that we can only have our mind still when there's no thought.

[26:49]

That's like creating, that's the Himayana Nirvana. So, even with our thoughts, we're still sitting Zazen, but we're not trying to, you know, make as little disturbance as you can, but even though there are waves, the mind is still, still. Questioner 2 One of the problems I have in Zazen is that when I notice myself having thoughts, I compound the problem by scolding myself a lot more and what you're saying in terms of that, do you have anything else to say that might be helpful? schooled. And you learn to let the thoughts come and let them go, without entertaining them. But you find yourself entertaining them.

[27:52]

And when you entertain them, you say, hmm, just that's enough, just hmm. And then come back. Just, you know, maybe very entertaining, you don't want to come back, but hmm. Just come back. So, no judgment. No judgment at all. It's not good or bad. It's just something that's happening. Don't judge yourself. That just, as you say, compounds the problem. One thing that's always been a contradiction to me or difficult to me in eating is that while everything we're trying to do is to be mindful, but the pace of our eating in this endo is so fast, it's hard to be mindful and have it that much.

[28:55]

Well, one thing, the two things, okay, one thing is that we can slow down if we want to. Then you get it to slow down. Another thing is that when you really eat mindfully, you do it very quickly. Even though you may be eating slowly, you actually finish more quickly. It's like the hurrier I go, the more behinder I get. To be mindful is not necessarily to be slow. I think we have to make some differentiation there. Mindfulness is not... But it's just being attentive to what you're doing, whether it's fast or slow. The rhythm or the pace is not the problem.

[29:56]

You know, you can, you know... It's not that you just slow the world down. It's that when you're really into it, there's no fast or slow. When you're really into it, there's no fast or slow. But when things start pulling ahead, then you say, oh, they're fast. And when you can't keep quite, when it's out of sync and going that way, you say it's fast. But when you're right on top of each thing, you're right there. And it's fast, but it's not too fast. So very rarely, well, I think we can slow down a meal a little bit for people to eat more carefully.

[30:56]

But the problem with that, you see, is that There is the fastest eater and the slowest eater. And the fastest eater will gobble up everything right away. And the slowest eater, no matter how much time you give them, they'll just keep eating right away. And then everybody's sitting there waiting. Five minutes. Completely oblivious as to everybody else around them. We have to find a happy medium that suits everybody. And the slower ones have to speed up, catch up with everybody. And the fast ones can slow down a little bit. And each group finds its own pace. So, we can slow down a little bit. We just have Nora wait a little bit longer while we eat, take a little longer to eat.

[31:57]

But if it's too long, You know, people start getting restless. And we want to get on with what we're doing. And enough is enough. So, you know, everybody has a different idea of how it should be. So just go with the way it is. Actually, meals here are pretty slow. They're pretty slow. But I find that mostly the slower eating is, a lot of it's daydreaming. I'm not saying you are daydreaming, but a lot of it is daydreaming. And certain habits that people have. But we don't want to go too fast. We can slow it down a little bit.

[32:58]

We should try that. Okay, so for the rest of the day, at least, let's all pay attention to all of the sounds that we make every time we move. Just listen. And if you lose track, let's start again. Listen. And we will lose track. We always lose track. In the same way that we practice bringing our attention back to our body and breathing in zazen, practice listening to bring your attention back to the sounds that you're making, no matter what you're doing throughout the day. Sincerely, Lord Buddha.

[34:06]

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