This letting the world inside you is also the practice of sealing and not armoring yourself. Now, whenever I bring this up, I get quite a few questions right away. How do you seal yourself and not armor yourself? It's not so easy to answer simply. But I'm trying to respond to it now in at least one way. Because arming yourself, keeping the world out, it's a very weak position. So how are you able to let the world in and yet remain sealed

[01:03]

and able to act in your full power without feeling alienated or disillusioned. Now this is a skill that can come from simply finding out how to camp out for seven days on your cushion. If the atmosphere of the practice is right. And you have your own confidence and courage. And you're not in too worrisome critical state of mind. And if you are in that kind of mind, then sit in that and find your ease even in that. So you're beginning to let everything speak to you by hearing each thing's own pace.

[02:14]

The room, the altar, your cushion, my voice right now, your own interior climates, Each skandha, feeling, perceptions, cognitive mind. The sea of associations. The consciousness that arises from these things. You're beginning to find again a space in these micro-planets. The location you're in, the location you're letting in, that's coming in, and the location that's going out.

[03:30]

You're actually establishing your location too. And it's good in the next days if you can begin to sense these three locations. And find a unifying play of these locations. This is also a practice of acceptance. Now if I use the word acceptance, you may, I think some of you won't like the word. It means to many of you, I think something passive or submissive.

[04:34]

So maybe I should create a technical term, integral acceptance. And maybe integrated acceptance. Even resignation. I think resignation mostly has a negative meaning in German and I think mostly in English too. But sometimes there's a kind of wise resignation. Not even a kind of disillusionment that's also resignation, acceptance.

[05:48]

Not a resignation that bows you down, but that you sit up in the middle of this resignation. In this sashin, if you can keep sitting, it's okay to give up. To give up and leave, you'll feel lousy. But if you stay in the sashin, on your cushion, and just give up, You'll feel very good actually. You may feel a deep relief. Or an interior kind of crying. And that's a territory of acceptance and sealing yourself actually. But not armoring yourself.

[06:59]

It's a little like you can't let go of the world until you've got hold of it. You've got to be able to let the world in you so that interior, exterior becomes a kind of play, as I said. A play of the phenomenal world. the physical world of your body, the mental-emotional world of the four skandhas, an interplay of these mental or emotion-feeling skandhas with the form skandha,

[08:07]

When you have that, it's like the world is in your joints and your skin and your stomach. It's in you in a way that's accessible to you and it's acceptance in that it's acceptable to you. And you don't feel alienated or threatened or overwhelmed. You can feel quite at ease or comfortable with the world partly in you. It's a little bit like the whole ox or cow is heading toward enlightenment, or heading toward suffering.

[09:15]

But the tail is inside you. And it's wagging around inside you. And in sashimi, you let this tail kind of wag around, it itches and things like that. By letting the world inside you and remaining sealed and sitting and at ease, you actually get hold of the tail of the world. You can begin to have a little bit of control over this ox Hey, enlightenment is over this way. Quit going. You can pet the tail. At some point where you really feel at ease, then you can let go of the tail. Then you have the big,

[10:23]

world, the big vision of no subject, no object. The wide vision we call emptiness. You're in this interior-exterior play where you're quite comfortable. So I think you may be able to feel this tail of the world if you can camp out. On your meter square cushion these seven days. This kind of attitude is basic to zazen practice and seshin practice. Letting the world in, but feeling at ease.

[11:43]

And it begins with feeling at ease in the limitation and discomfort of sitting. And this whole sashin is individually for each of you. It's not for anyone else. It's not for all of us. All of it is for you individually. So what will you do? So what will you do? Please have whatever sashin you have.

[12:44]

I can't say, have a good sashin. So be here in whatever sashin you have. And be gentle with yourself. And strong with yourself. And feel your own power. Don't give in too easily. But don't force yourself either. Find these microclimates in which you can exist. And that way I think you can find your real strength. Thank you very much.

[13:39]

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