Good morning. Well, this morning there are two or three things that I want to talk about a little bit, some a little bit. I think it's appropriate to say something about the hurricane victims in the South. and to just acknowledge that we all have some feeling about that. And I don't want to go into a political spin about it, but somebody asked if, can you hear me? Someone asked if there was something that we do as a group about catastrophes. And I realize what we usually do is hook up with a bigger organization rather than trying to do something ourself to see what organization might be better prepared and that we could contribute to.

[01:23]

So unless you have some other idea about that, yeah, Alan? Well, just to say there's a statement and there are links on the Buddhist Peace Fellowship website that people from the American St. Peter's Association are channeling. We've looked around and we don't have any better sources than these organizations, but you can get that stuff through BPF. Right, so through BPF also. I've gotten a lot of emails from various organizations. that are possible to link up with. We can discuss that at another time, but I don't want to discuss it here. I just wanted to raise our awareness and give us some opportunity to do something. I know we all feel something about that. a catastrophe of monumental proportions which affects the whole country and the world.

[02:33]

There's a saying, an old Zen saying, that when Mr. Yu drinks wine in Shanghai, Mr. Li gets drunk in Beijing. So I'll just leave you with that. The other thing I want to talk about is myself. Sorry. But I think it's appropriate for me to do that in that there's some changes in my life which I think we should all be aware of. For the last 40 years or so, I've been just practicing Zazen and taking care of the students and the teaching and the practice.

[03:37]

But some time ago, actually about 10 or 15 years ago, I can't remember exactly, it was when North Point Press was still in Berkeley. publisher, Jack Shoemaker, asked me to write a book. And I said, well, aren't there enough books on Zen? I said, I think there are too many already. And he said, well, I still would like you to, I understand that, but I still would like you to do something. And so he said, just, you know, write, not, he didn't want lectures. He just wanted me to write something about my experience of our practice up to that time. But I didn't do it. Because it's hard for me to change my, very hard for me to change my pattern. But a couple of years ago I started to do that.

[04:40]

And I have little by little been doing that. And then recently, some other publisher asked me to write something. And then there are a lot of other little smaller requests like that. And suddenly I'm confronted with this kind of problem. And so I've decided to see if I can take care of all that. And in order to take care of all that, it means that I have to change my style somewhat, so that I can give some time to doing that. Last month, yeah, last month, I took off in August as a kind of semi-vacation, but I gave myself an time,

[05:42]

no commitments at the Zendo. And then next month, or this month, I'm continuing that in a certain, not as much, but very few commitments. next month. And so I'm using that time to see how I can actually do this kind of work. And so I'm not scheduled like I always have been. But of course I'll see people and I'll do zazen, but I'm not scheduling myself so tightly. So I want you to know that that's what's happening if you don't see me around as much and if you don't see as much Dōkasan time available. So I urge you to take advantage of the practice leaders for practices discussion.

[06:59]

And I do have some openings, but it won't be like it has been. And so this gives me an opportunity to work on this editing and writing and see how that falls into place. So, do you have any questions about that? Or question, do you question it? Is that okay? Yeah, it's different than that. Different than that. One, writing something is like, you know, my life of practice and my association and what I think has been happening and teaching and stuff like that. And the other one would be something else, which I haven't decided yet what it would be. Might be a commentary on a text.

[08:04]

So that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to do. So what kind of time period are you looking at? Is it pretty open-ended? Yeah. Probably forever. I don't know. I have no idea. Yeah. Will you still be giving talks? Yeah, I'll still be giving talks. I'll be here. Saturday will be the day that I will be here. I won't give all the talks, but Saturday will be one of the days that I'm here. Today, we're having our Memorial Weekend Sashin. Labor Day. Oh, yeah. Labor Day. Excuse me. Labor Day Sashin. So, I wanted to comment on one of Suzuki Roshi's talks.

[09:18]

And his talk is about intuition, where he asks us to open our intuition. So, intuition, you know, means basically directly touching or directly knowing without the intermediary of discursive thought. In other words, it is not dependent on thinking, but it's more like what you know intuitively, into it, you're into it. It's a gut feeling or something that you just know is right. So I think gut feeling is good.

[10:25]

Sometimes our gut feeling is not accurate. Sometimes our intuition is not accurate. Just like sometimes our thinking is not accurate. Often our thinking is not accurate. But because we tend to put so much attention on the thinking mind and depending so much on the thinking mind, we have tended to depend less on our intuition. For Zen practice, intuition is the most important thing, more important than thinking mind. But when I say that, I don't mean to belittle thinking mind, because thinking mind and intuition need to go hand in hand with each other.

[11:26]

Intuition gives us some, the raw material, and thinking mind refines it. So intuition is first and thinking is second. But without thinking, intuition can easily be misunderstood. So he says, the purpose of, he's talking about Sachine. He's in Sashin. And this is a very early talk, so he's talking to students who he feels are fairly new. So he says, the purpose of Sashin is to develop a stable practice. In Sashin, we do not communicate with words, but being with each other is still a big encouragement. Verbal communication tends to be superficial, but when you don't speak, deeper communication between you will be encouraged, and your mind will become very subtle.

[12:33]

Staying silent will open your intuition. Just to stay here without speaking for five days is already very meaningful. That is why we don't talk. So, there's a lot in that paragraph. The purpose of Sushin is to develop stable practice. So what is stable practice? Stability. Zazen itself is stability. When we sit, basically of course there are different ways to sit and we all have somewhat different postures. But the Zazen position is considered the most stable position, more stable than standing up or sitting down or lying down or walking. In the Zazen posture, Zazen posture has three points, two knees and a behind, and it's a triangle.

[13:35]

So this triangle is a very stable position. If you try to push someone over when they're sitting, it's very difficult. So to have this stable position, which can't be turned over easily, is the most basic thing. And this stable position is conducive to samadhi. Samadhi is, literally speaking, it means concentration, but it means actually intuition. It's associated with intuition, and it's associated with

[14:37]

stability and intuition and selflessness. So in Zazen we have stability, intuition and selflessness. So then Samadhi is the natural state of Zazen. It's not some special state. It's not some mysterious thing. It's simply our natural state, when there's no interference, when there's no dualistic partiality, and when discriminating mind is not creating a problem. So in Sishin, we do not communicate with words, but being with each other is still a big encouragement.

[15:42]

You know, being with each other, it's very difficult to do Sishin by yourself. Some people do that. They say, well, you know, I'm gonna sit by myself, do Sishin. That's nice, but it's not the same. because you're doing something for yourself. The thing about Sashin or Zendo practice is although we do something ourself, we also add ourself to the larger body in order to encourage everyone else. So otherwise it's easy to fall into a kind of self-centered or selfish practice. we do Zazen for ourself and for each other and with each other. That's very important. Otherwise, Zazen just easily becomes, it doesn't necessarily, but easily becomes a kind of personal self-centered activity.

[16:51]

So we have to be very careful not to fall into that. So without saying anything, without speaking, we also have the rules, but he talks about that too. So verbal communication tends to be superficial, but not always. But the tendency is there. So he says, you will be encouraged and your mind will become very subtle. Staying silent will open your intuition. So thinking mind tends to cover intuition. This is why we say, don't think in zazen. Stop the process of the thinking mind. But we don't stop the process of the thinking mind. That's not what it means. It means that we don't attach to the process of the thinking mind and allow our intuition to open.

[17:55]

So when there's no attachment to thinking, thoughts will pass by, but our attention is actually on harmonizing body, mind, and breath. And allowing our intuition to expand as universal and connect or allow universal mind to be present, to come forth. So when you're involved in a superficial conversation based on a passing interest, your deeper feeling or your true feeling will be covered. So to open your innate nature and to feel something from the bottom of your heart, it is necessary to remain silent. Through this kind of practice, you will have a more intuitive understanding of the teaching. So not to talk does not mean to be deaf and dumb, but to listen to your intuition.

[19:04]

So letting go of thought, process, discursive thinking, is a kind of renunciation. It's like letting go of You know, it's very interesting how we seem to need to have our mind thinking all the time. And we seem to have this need to talk to each other a lot. But speaking, although speaking is a wonderful way to communicate, it has its limitations. Because thinking and speaking It's so easy to fall into partiality and dualistic understanding of things. And it only leaves us on a certain level.

[20:07]

So when we can let go of that, our mind sinks to a deeper level. It's like, you know, thinking is like the waves on the top of the ocean. So when we're on the top of the ocean, we're buoyed around by the waves, and it's very exciting. But as you sink down to the bottom of the ocean, it's less interesting. Although, there are some fish down there that are pretty interesting. I remember Suzuki Roshi saying, What we should do is, usually we like to float in a boat, he said, but we should sink like a boat full of holes down to the bottom of the ocean. So we also have our formal practice.

[21:28]

The formal practice is simply to help us to communicate and to work together without having to say anything. So we can come into the Zen Do, and we know what to do, and we know how to interact, and we know how to relate, and we can serve each other food, and we can make it, and we can communicate in various ways, and we don't have to say anything. So this is the wonderful thing about formality of practice. Formal practice seems formal, because it has a very strict form. But when you actually allow yourself to flow with the formal practice, it's no longer formal practice. It's simply a way of doing things that allows everything to get done in a very wonderful, efficient way without having to say anything at all.

[22:35]

It's wonderful. And our communication takes place on a very deep level. and we become very sensitive to each other and to what we're doing. He says the same is true with reading. When you become interested in something you are reading, your intuition does not tend to open. That is why we don't read during Sashin. It doesn't mean to confine yourself in the dark, but by not reading, you will encourage your intuition to open. So we're not depending on information. There's a problem, you know. Basically, Zen practice has no texts. There are some, but the funny thing is that there are more books written on Zen than anything else, than any other Buddhism, I think. So, it's interesting.

[23:39]

And one problem, you know, We should know something about Buddhism. It's really important to know something about the history of Buddhism, the doctrines of Buddhism, the philosophy of Buddhism, and so forth, to have a wide understanding. But it really all boils down to opening your intuition. So someone who studies in a scholarly way should be very careful to maintain that practice, not lose practice. And then that scholarly knowledge will be very helpful and will help other people.

[24:46]

But that also depends on maintaining a very careful practice. So even if you are doing koan practice, it is not necessary to speak or to read. Especially for beginners, it may be difficult to remain silent or not read the newspapers. You may feel very bored, but you should continue your practice. It says, Sheen, everything will be taken care of by the older students who will help the newer students to practice deeply. So this is a point that I want to talk about. How the older students help the newer students. This is a very important point. Often I see people ignoring, older people ignoring the newer students. If you're an older student and someone sits down next to you, you should be very aware, this is a new student and I have a responsibility to be an example or help this new student.

[25:48]

So when you see that the new student doesn't quite know what they're doing, you can indicate without saying anything how to do something. Don't just stand there and let the person fumble around. When you come into the zendo and you're an older student, you should take a front seat. And then if the front seat is filled, take the next seat, and so forth. So the newer students will be at the back of the zendo, mostly. And they can see what's going on. If the newer students are in the front of the zendo, they can't see what's going on. And they feel more comfortable being in the back, where they're not standing out there in front of everybody fumbling around. So please take that responsibility. You know, you can show somebody how to adjust their cushions and how to arrange their zabaton.

[26:54]

And when you see somebody just looking around, do something. This is very important. Because often I see people are just ignoring their students. And when you're eating together, you can figure out how to silently indicate something to somebody when they don't know what they're doing. So we should take that responsibility. So then he says, just sit and see what happens. Try to keep the right posture according to the instructions and follow the rules. Following the rules lets you find yourself. The rules let you know what time it is, when to eat and how to walk. If there are no rules and no one is taking care of you, it is rather difficult to practice. So the rules will be a great help. It is much better than not having any rules and sitting in a corner of the room for five days without doing anything.

[27:59]

If we don't have some way of doing things, then people just sit like a lump. They won't know what to do. So the rules are not something to restrict you, but something to support your practice. But in another place, he says, you should be careful not to get stuck in the rules. So although we have rules, we should be careful not to get attached to the rules. If we get attached to the rules, then we think, oh, this is just formal practice and people are trying to manipulate me. So he says, there are various ways to practice, following the breath, counting the breath, or koan practice. And he says, at this time, I recommend following the breath. When you find it difficult to follow the breath, then counting the breath will be a help. Then you will know exactly what you are doing. If your practice gets lost, you will notice immediately. So at one time, Suzuki Roshi asked us to, everybody should just count their breath.

[29:05]

Some people thought, well, gee, that's funny. I don't like counting things in my meditation, but this is very basic kind of practice to count your breaths. When you exhale, you count. And the inhale, you inhale, and the exhale, you count, up from one to 10. When you get to 10, you start again with one, if you remember. And when you lose track, you realize that you're not focused. So there's an advantage to counting your breath, even though it's the most beginner's kind of practice. But he didn't stick to that. But we always teach people, we should teach people, to count their breaths when he gives us an instruction, so that you will always have this as a tool. Counting the breath is a tool. when you find that you're lost or your mind is wandering and you can't get back, start to count your breath.

[30:11]

And if you do that, know how to do that, then automatically you start counting your breath when your mind gets lost or when you have a lot of difficulty concentrating. So he says, When you practice following the breath, don't take too much effort to make your breathing slow down or deepen or anything like that. He's saying, don't exercise breath control. Tsao Zen is not breath control. It's simply, the only control is to keep your breath down in the hara. Keep your breath low. Keep your breathing low, deep. When you find yourself breathing in a shallow way, let your breath go down so that you're breathing deeply in the lower abdomen. When you inhale, your abdomen expands, and when you exhale, it contracts. So you simply watch your breath coming and going down here.

[31:17]

When your breath is shallow, you should notice that and keep your breath deep. So if you just follow your breath, then naturally your breathing will be appropriate for your practice even though you don't adjust it. So the breath follows your disposition. It doesn't matter if your breath is quick, let it be quick. If it's slow, let it be slow. We don't try to adjust it, but the breath harmonizes with our disposition, and then the disposition harmonizes with the breath. If the breath is deep, if the breathing is deep, then that will calm your whole mind. So he says, various instructions will be given to you to help your practice. We do not give instructions in order to force you to do some special practice.

[32:24]

It does not mean you should do this or you shouldn't do that, but you have various instructions. You may have various instructions, but the practice is up to you. We say, this is how you do this. And we help you to do it. But if you can't, if you don't want to do that, it's okay. You know, I, for years, gives us an instruction to people. And I said, this is the way you sit. This is the proper form. And I'll go around and I'll correct posture. But you know, Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And some people, I will continue to adjust their posture. But some people, I won't. Even though their posture's not very good, I won't because they don't want to sit that way.

[33:29]

There's only so much I can do. I'm quite willing to adjust people's posture and some people really thank me for that and they appreciate it, but other people don't. And people have been sitting 10, 20 years. If they want to sit slumped over and without good posture, there's nothing I can do about it. But we do give you the instruction and we do give you as much as possible. But it's up to you to want to do that. So do you have any questions? Tamara? I have a question about doing sashimi by yourself.

[34:32]

which is something I do, and I don't know that it's necessarily selfish to do it that way. I know. Yeah. Under what situations am I supposed to be selfish? I said, well, it's something you do for yourself. It's something you do just for yourself. Is that what you're saying that I do? Well, no, I say, I guess so. Why do you do it? Because... I didn't say that it necessarily is. I said it can become something that you do just for yourself. That's what I said. So I'm not judging your Sachine. But if you only practice for yourself, then it becomes, it easily becomes, I said.

[35:46]

I didn't say it does necessarily. It easily becomes self-centered practice. There is a kind of hermit's practice, but a hermit's practice is discouraged, even though it's kind of neat. There's some wonderful things about it, but it's discouraged. Basically, our Zazen practice is not just for ourself. When it becomes just for ourself, then it becomes isolated and easily self-centered. And the purpose of Zazen practice is to let go of self-centeredness. Yeah?

[36:47]

I think the thing that I find here is since we have our lay life, my lay life doesn't always coordinate with my situation, and I need the Yes. Right. Right. Right. So I don't discourage people from sitting at home. It's nice to sit at home. But you sit at home and you sit with others as well. So if you do both, it's fine. Sometimes you can't get to the Zen Do and some people sit at home and alternate with the zendo, you know, it's not easy to get here and so forth. So that's fine. But the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha is the practice. And if the Sangha is left out, Sangha is a big part of the practice.

[37:50]

So if the Sangha is left out, and it's only Buddha and Dharma, then it becomes as easily a self-centered practice. You had a question? I did. Yeah. It's actually very interesting that you talk about intuition today, because I was having a conversation with someone recently. At the end, I came to the conclusion that I didn't believe in intuition. a little different than the way the word intuition is usually used. Often used. Yeah, it seems like it's often used more to mean like a basis for reaching conclusions. You know, like, which car am I going to buy? Well, I'm not going to actually think about which car is better. You know, that's sort of a distrustful way.

[38:51]

I'm just going to intuitively pick the one that I like better. And I think it's maybe it was that second kind of intuition that I'm not so sure that I believe in because it seems like often when people, or it seems like past, whatever. Well, that's right. So that's why intuition needs to be accompanied by, needs to be in sync with thinking mind. So how exactly does that work, that syncing of the intuition with the thinking mind? Well, intuition is associated with feeling, right? You feel something. and then you discuss it. What is this feeling? What is this that I'm feeling? What is this that I'm intuiting?

[39:52]

And sometimes intuition will just lead you directly to something, but sometimes it needs guidance. So when you're saying, I intuitively feel good about this car, But I have this choice. And there's some things about this car, though. So your intuition leads you there, and you have a good feeling about that. But you're also going to investigate this, because there's something besides intuition. So the intuition comes first, and then the investigation. And this is the basis of a lot of science. You get this intuitive feeling, and then you investigate it. world and the things people do, it seems like there are a lot of really awful things that happen maybe on the basis of intuition that was not fully investigated or something.

[40:55]

Well, you know, this is like Vipassana and Samatha. Samatha is intuition and Vipassana is investigation, basically. Samadhi is Samadhi. It's deeply seated in reality. And Vipassana is to investigate. So they both go together. Ellen? We had a discussion about discernment, which is, to my mind, the intersection of intuition and understanding. It's developing an intuition from within oneself, but it's not, and this is the thing, this is not an isolated process.

[42:05]

Because you can have an intuition about something as Eric was implying, but it's completely distorted. So it's not just leaning on this gut sense, but it's constantly I often think of this word discernment as the next step in the intuitive process, and a necessary one.

[43:24]

So it's not just about, do I want a blue car or do I want a yellow car? It's like, is this feeling that I have trustworthy? Yeah. original insight that's given by the notion of gut feeling. And I think actually that's what we should unpack. Because I think intuition, you know, is all about the body. And all the other stuff we're talking about here is about is a lot in Buddhism, and that is, Tibetans really go into this quite a lot.

[44:26]

that it is a feeling associated with fear. And then you would give it, you know, cognition. Check it out. And I think there's a whole lot of things. Is this relationship gonna work? Is this car right? I don't think there's anything out there that the body isn't going to feel something for. It's just a question of how subtly we're tuned into it. Yeah, I guess intuition is felt in the body, but we don't dissociate the body from the mind. in this practice for interpreting, in my experience, what's going on in the body.

[45:58]

I've looked in other schools of Buddhism and see more vocabulary. On that note, there's a certain these days, that our conscious interpretation of what we're learning or the decisions we're making is actually a story. And that even our decisions, when we think we're making a decision through our thinking, our conscious mind, it's actually occurring in a completely different way than maybe our body. And that even, I guess physiological studies show that even a simple Seemingly willed act like moving your finger our awareness That we're moving that we know our awareness that we want to move our finger Is measured measurably occurs after our body is already starting to move?

[47:10]

And that to me seems another way of do is some kind of intuition. We're learning things in all these mysterious ways as biological organisms. And we have this idea that a lot of it is occurring through our rational thinking, decision-making mind. But in fact, that might just kind of be an overlay. Anyway. There's this phrase, the still small voice within. I often sort of lately have been contrasting that with, like there's a sort of a spectrum where you might have a feeling that's kind of the still small voice within or an intuition. And then you might have something that feels like an intuition but it has a lot of urgency, a feeling of urgency.

[48:14]

And I think, I feel for myself, I've come to mistrust things that come packed with with some urgency for myself. I mean, that may just be the way I'm put together, but I find an intuition that I have a relaxed feeling about is more something that's going to be explored into something fruitful. I think oftentimes, I mean, I hear people is motivated by, we think we can intuit what someone else is motivated by. And often that leads to an urgent sense of need to do something. And it just doesn't work, I don't think it works that way. And I've come to be sort of mistrustful in myself and others of something that comes with a big load of urgency with it.

[49:18]

It's a tragedy. But I think intuition comes from a different place. That's a comment, but I wanted to ask a question related to Tamar's question about practicing by yourself. Because it made me think, Buddha practiced with other people for a long time.

[50:35]

And at a certain point, he went, OK, I'm just going to go off by myself and sit down until I figure it out, or until something happens. And I wondered if you could say a word about that part of the practice. Well, that was something that he had to do. But after he did that for a while, he never practiced alone again. It's like going up the mountain and coming down. It's going up the mountain and coming down the mountain. Going up the mountain, there's isolation. And coming down the mountain is giving, right? So sometimes you have to do that. Because no one else had the practice, right? So he had to go find the practice.

[51:37]

But after that, you know, When I say practicing by yourself can become selfish practice or self-centered practice, I didn't say it will become. I said it can become, and I think you have to remember that. Just to build on or add to what Meryl, Greg, and Lori were saying, as you were talking, I kept thinking about the lines about what is think not thinking, it's beyond thinking. And when I think about this discussion of intuition, I think feel not feeling, it's beyond feeling. The more I sit, the more I'm humbled by how much my behavior and thinking and reactions are a result of my physiology, just much what Greg was saying, that the subtle ways in which my body reacts, the tensions and little increase in heart rate, all of that is conditioned to propel a certain kind of behavior forward.

[52:58]

So to sit in a kind of stillness of the mind, It's also a stillness in the feelings before the mind. Well, I think that's right. The stillness is the important part because the more still, the stronger the intuitive quality. But when we depend too much on thinking, we don't allow that to happen. Okay.

[53:42]

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