Morning. If anyone is hindered by a pillar, they can sit in another seat. So this morning, since this is a day of sitting zazen, I thought I would present this koan, this commonly known koan, to encourage our practice.

[01:02]

This is called Joshu's Wash Your Bowl. So the monk came to the monastery, Joshu's monastery, and he says, I have just entered this place, this monastery. Please teach me. This is a usual introduction when a monk comes to a new place. to ask the teacher for instruction. So he says, please teach me. And Joshu says, have you eaten your rice gruel? And the monk responds, yes, I have. Then you'd better wash your bowl, says Joshu. With this, the monk gained some insight.

[02:06]

So Then Mumon in his comment says, when he opens his mouth, Joshu shows his gallbladder. He displays his heart and liver. I wonder if this monk really did hear the truth. I hope he didn't make a mistake and mistake a bell for a jar. I'll read Mumon's verse later, but So the monk comes to the monastery and he asks Joshu for instruction. So Joshu says, please go wash your bowl. So this wash your bowl is a very famous statement and has many interpretations. Even the monk said, yes, I have. Well, you know, wash your bowl could mean Have you had some attainment?

[03:12]

What's the nature of your attainment? Have you had your approval? It could mean, have you attained something? And if the monk says, yes, I have, then Joshu says, well, you can let go of that, please. If you want my instruction for entering the monastery, please let go of whatever you think you've attained. As we know, whatever enlightenment you have, you should not be attached to that attainment. But this means various things, you know. Wash your bowl also means to keep your mind open all the time.

[04:15]

So keeping our mind open is very difficult because we always have something to say about things in our mind. We're always making a critical comment or even if we don't express it, it comes up for us. And then we're basing our actions and our thinking on some opinion that we have about things. So to keep our mind clear and open is not so simple. When we sit in zazen, Then we begin to see how open or closed our mind is. The point of zazen, actually, is to let go moment by moment, to keep our mind open to the present.

[05:23]

Keeping our mind open to the present is called samadhi. So we say zazen is samadhi. when our mind is open but then our mind gets full of something and then we either hold on to that thought or dream or we just let it go and keep the mind open. So Samadhi is either, there's a samadhi of stillness and there's a samadhi of action. In either case, it's arising without conditioning on each moment.

[06:41]

It's arriving at the unconditioned moment or living within the unconditioned moment without some trace of before. Simply being totally open to what's present in this moment without any Baggage. We always bring our baggage to the moment. And so we know who we are, we know what we're doing. This is without knowing anything. Without conditioning, even though conditioning is there. If there's no conditioning, it's kind of like ba ba wa wa.

[07:44]

Is there anything said or not? But that's the open condition, ba ba wa wa. But at the same time, when you're faced with something, you respond. Response is very quick and response is very accurate. Where does that response come from? That's a good question. Where does that response come from? It's like everything, the whole body, mind works together without contrivance. in response to what's there, beyond, without thinking, without creating some contrivance.

[08:58]

It's like, you know, Suzuki Roshi used to use the, the frog sitting on the rock, not really thinking about anything, but simply open, totally open. If when you sit in zazen, you keep your eyes open, just like the frog sitting on the rock, and you're not thinking about anything, even though thoughts pass through the mind. Thoughts pass through the mind, but that doesn't mean that you're thinking. when you catch the thought and build a fantasy on the thought, that's thinking. But ordinarily, without catching the thought, to just let the thoughts pass by like scenery, like riding in the train.

[10:06]

The mind is totally open, the eyes are open. The bug walks across the wall, but there's simply eyes seeing. The car goes by, and there's hearing, but it's simply ears hearing. There's some feeling in the body but it's simply feeling, feeling. This is called selflessness. It leaves no trace.

[11:15]

It's simply arising to the moments, arising to the moment, moment by moment, with nothing special in the mind. So this is called emptying the bowl, washing the bowl, letting the bowl be clean. Even though a lot of things come into the bowl, we say the bowl, the orioke bowl is we call Buddha's head. And the meal board is called Buddha's tongue. So we take careful, very careful, we're very careful about Buddha's head.

[12:16]

But what about this head? This is Buddha's orioke, right here. So in activity, just one activity, when you're cutting the carrots, just cutting carrots, although there's At the same time, there's activity going on all around you when you're cutting carrots. But the activity, there's awareness of the activity as well as cutting the carrots. But cutting the carrots is the focus. And in zazen, there's a lot of activity going on around you But the zazen, your zazen, is the focus. But so, there's just openness, just this.

[13:27]

Have you had your meal? It was just this meal. one thing at a time, one moment's activity at a time. When we eat with the orioke, we open up the orioke, this way, this way, this way, take out the bowl. Everything is, each activity is, although it's preceded by another activity, is its own moment's activity. This is like the whole universe is participating in this activity of putting out the bowls, one at a time. It's concentration, but it's also ease and

[14:40]

Enjoyment. Blythe calls, he says, Zen activity is doing ordinary things willfully and cheerfully. I love that statement. Zen practice is just doing ordinary things willfully and willingly and cheerfully. When you cut the carrots, it's fun. When I cook in the kitchen, it's just so much fun, you know? If you take care of each thing in the kitchen, you know how much time you have, and you put that into your computer, into your head, The meal has to be out at a certain time and I have this much time to do it.

[15:49]

And then you put that in the back of your mind and never bring it up again. And then you go about doing, cutting the vegetables, cooking them and so forth and everything comes out on time. You don't worry about anything. You just cook cheerfully and happily. And it all works. But if you worry about, oh, I've only got 10 minutes, everything will come out not on time. Because you're interfering with letting things happen. You're not trusting your inner clock. You're not trusting your inner, that letting go is what makes things work. Keeping an empty mind and allowing the samadhi to do the work.

[16:55]

Samadhi is each moment new. being right in each moment, with each activity, without, and just completely open, without creating an interference or a self. Someone said, zazen is like soap. You use it to wash yourself, and then you wash off the soap. We shouldn't hang on to our zen.

[18:03]

And we shouldn't, we should be careful about posturing the art of zen. To just do things naturally, easily, and willingly is enough. And then the zen appears. But we should keep washing it away when it looks too much like something. So I think it's easy to get caught up in Zen practice, which is very severe, very serious. It is serious, very serious. But at the same time, it should not be too serious. It should have its ease, ease and joyfulness.

[19:13]

And the same goes for our daily life. We get very caught up in the seriousness of our daily life. And it is. We're pushed a lot. You just keep being pushed and pushed more and more. As life becomes more convenient, as the tools of our life become more convenient, we become more and more pushed and worried. If we think about all the things we have to worry about, it mostly comes from the things that we're pushed around by, or that we think we're pushed around by. Our life's actually very simple. If we reduce our lives to not being pushed around by so many things, it becomes rather easy, and we can do things more easily and cheerfully, taking enjoyment from ordinary activity.

[20:25]

So the less exciting things that we need, the more we can just enjoy what's in front of us to do. So Zazen is simply living and experiencing and enjoying our existence, our pure existence, one moment at a time. When we can do that in zazen, then we can easily do that in our daily life. You know, we're offended by so many things.

[21:28]

But at the same time, we have a wonderful opportunity to not get caught by things that offend us. If we can stay free of that, getting caught, you know, I often use the metaphor of the stick and the dog. When you shake the stick at the dog, the dog goes to the end of the stick and then you can just lead the dog around by the stick and that's what happens to most of us. Something happens and then we bite the stick and then We just get pulled around by the stick and then we're so miserable, you know, because we're offended by what happens to us. But the lion goes for the person.

[22:35]

And that's the end of it. So don't get caught by the stick. I just see it happen all the time. We allow ourself to get caught. Something offends us, and then we allow ourself to get caught by it. It's not like the thing has caught us at all. We catch it. So we have to be very careful. So if we let go, then we'll say, but if I let go, then I lose. That's right. But if you get caught, that's really losing. You lose your place, you lose yourself. So to let go and come back to your samadhi, which is open mind.

[23:45]

Just being open mind. And we experience it in zazen all the time. And we have these wonderful thoughts. And then we get caught by them. And to actually just let it go, not chase it away, just simply come back to open mind. That's the practice of zazen. We latch on to all kinds of things in our daily life. But in Zazen, it's the very special place where we let go. Doesn't mean that thoughts will not come up. You know, fantasies will come up and they come and go. And we see that. We don't get caught by it. And therefore our bowl stays clean. No matter what goes into the bowl, the bowl is always clean.

[24:49]

But when there's this accumulation, then the bowl needs cleaning. So we accumulate a lot of stuff, and then we come to sashim, and we wash the bowl. This is called brainwashing. Sorry, the Asian trick called brainwashing. There it is. We fell for it. Sikhita calls samadhi the ever-renewed continuation of the present. So it means always being present in the present. not behind and not ahead, but simply in the present.

[25:53]

So if you think about it, it's really hard to be in the present. But if you reflect on the present, it's no longer the present. But if we're simply open, then it's the present. So there's eating samadhi, there's sitting samadhi, there's kitchen samadhi, there's walking samadhi, there's working samadhi. Just being open and present without being attached to expectations or preconditions. The non-assuming mind, actually, don't make assumptions.

[27:09]

We do make assumptions. When we see something, if our mind is really open, when we see one thing, like in that koan of, the emperor in Bodhidharma, Emperor Wu, the introduction, it says, when you see horns behind a fence, you know there's a bull. So you deduce, as soon as you see one thing, you see the whole picture. If your mind is open, that happens. Because There's no hindrance. So a person who has experience in some field can tell by looking at somebody right away whether they have that same experience.

[28:22]

A Zen teacher looking at a student knows whether or not the student is a Zen student. A house painter, a good house painter knows by seeing someone whether or not they are a house painter. So, you know, it is the story of the sixth ancestor and the poems.

[29:30]

And the Hui Nong says, it's not necessary to wipe the mirror because from the beginning, there is nothing, no mirror to wipe. And Shin Shu, says we should wipe the dust off the mirror hour by hour. So it looks like one is right and one is wrong, but actually they're both correct. There is no mirror. There's nothing from the beginning. At the same time, here we are, and here's our activity. And keeping our mind clear and bright takes some effort. But at the same time, we don't have to try and clean the mind.

[30:40]

That doesn't work. Just simply keep your mind open. Just keep it open. Just one activity on each moment's activity to be totally present. This is called the eternal moment. Otherwise, it's just a series of moments or a continuous continuum of moments. But even though that's so, just this moment, the whole world arises in this moment together with your activity.

[31:44]

So a so-called isolated moment is a totally inclusive moment. Just like this simple act of zazen is a totally inclusive activity. So a mu'min in his verse, he says, everybody interprets this verse differently. It's really funny. But the way I like to interpret it is because it is so clear, it takes so long to realize. Because it's so clear and so close, the thing that's hardest to realize is what's so close. Zen is so close and so simple that we're always looking over there, you know, where it's right here.

[33:02]

Most people looking away. Suzuki Roshi says, most practice goes in a line away from you over to something over there. But actually, this is where you should be looking. It's very clear and very simple. And right in front of our eyes, all we have to do is open them. So just don't hinder that which sees. And then he said, don't you know that flame is fire? Your rice has long been cooked. Just eat it. Don't even do it. Just eat it. Don't even do it. Just do it. Do you have any questions?

[34:12]

Well, I agree with everything you're saying. It makes perfect sense. But when I came in this morning at five, I started this screenplay in my head. I could go the rest of the day and just finish out the screenplay and that would be fine. I'd still have a fine day. And everything that you're saying makes sense. Just do it. And I know that. Just do it. And I know what it feels like. But like you said, my gaze is here and how I need to get it is here. And some of the tools we use in order to just do it. I'd like you to talk about that, like, you know, the counting and you pay attention to your breath. Some of those real basic tools. It's kind of like I've just forgotten them. But you've just remembered them. But I've forgotten what they mean. They don't mean anything. They don't mean anything. Just do them. If we try to put meaning into what we're doing, then you miss it.

[35:18]

There is no meaning. Just simply do. That's the hardest part. We always want meaning. When you wash the window, you're not washing the window to get it clean, even though you're cleaning the window. And it should be clean, but you're just washing the window. When you're sweeping the floor, you're not sweeping the floor to get it clean. The floor is already clean. But there's a tool you're using. You're using a rag and you're going up and down, up and down. And when I'm sitting, there's a tool. And does the tool feel my breath going in and out? Does the tool count, like, every time you exhale? There's those tools that people talk about. There are? Yeah. Okay. I've heard people talk about them. That brings on another koan, but I don't want to talk about it too long.

[36:19]

Who was that? So-and-so's coming into the, so-and-so goes into, or entered the meditation hall with a spade, and was going like this, looking for the bones of the master, under the tan, with a shovel. You can't find it with a shovel. Just breathe. You don't have to do anything. Breathing takes care of itself. Just let breathing breathe. Just follow the breath. You can count if you want to, just to get your attention focused. But just follow the breath. You don't have to do anything. There are no tools. It's not tools. Everything that you use is, you only use what's there.

[37:31]

You only use, you do what's there to do, with doing. Doing does doing. When we sit, you sit as sitting as you can. Push your lower back forward and just do sitting. Just release the condition, your conditioned posture and allow the unconditioned posture to be there. But there are no tools. You're not doing one thing to accomplish something, other thing. I understand that. But the things like you said, okay, when you're sitting and whatever it was you just said, that sort of reminded me of what

[38:44]

I can't quite remember, like what did you say, sit and hold on to the posture but don't hold on, you said something. No, I said sit with, you know, good posture, but let go of your conditioned posture. Your conditioned posture is the posture that is conditioned by events. In other words, the conditioned posture is posture that you assume through your suffering, through your activity. This is unconditioned, means it's not conditioned by anything. It's simply pure posture, just letting go. That's why Zen practice takes forever. You're looking for a result.

[39:46]

Just keep working at it. Just work at it all the time. Posture is not something that you assume. It's something that you're continually working at. So you work at it all the time. When you're sitting Zazen, you're working at keeping right posture. That's why it's so important to understand how to do that. The only tool is the desire to keep right posture. And you just work at it and work at it. If you let yourself just do this, that's not it. It's like making the effort to sit up straight all the time and open up, just keep opening up. You're an empty vessel. And you just keep opening up, opening up, and working at the foot, lifting up, lifting up. And all the time, that's all there is to do.

[40:53]

And breathe. But this is your activity. Breathing is the universe's activity. You don't have anything to do with it. Just like the blood running through your veins. It's universal activity. You don't have anything to do with it. But you observe. You flow, you allow your mind to flow with the breathing. It gives your mind something to do. Besides, think the thought of posture. Just think the thought of posture all the time. And then you dream. And then you bring your attention back to the thought of posture. And then you have another dream. And then you bring your attention back to the thought and posture. And then you have another dream. And you just keep doing that all the time. Keep bringing it, and then you slump. And then you sleep. And then you... All the time.

[42:00]

Moment by moment. And you let go of all the tenseness in your body. The way you let go of the tenseness in your body is to let go of your conditioning. Because we're used to holding ourself in some way to protect ourself from the forces of nature. And then you come to the zenho, you say, you can let go of all that. You don't have to carry it around with you. That's washing your bowl. Washing your bowl is letting go of all your conditioning. And just assuming the empty bowl posture. Isn't posture a tool then? It backs away? Not a tool, no. It's not a tool. A tool is something you use to do something else with. The tool is the thing. There is a tool, and it's called counting your breath.

[43:07]

That's the only tool. It's like the handle on the cup. You don't need the handle of the cup, but it's useful. So counting the breath is a kind of useful tool. That's the only tool that I can think of. But counting itself is, when the counting and the breath are one, then it's not a tool. In other words, no separation. A tool assumes two things, but they're not two things. So even the tool is the thing itself. Did you say something? I did, thank you. Although I don't think of this as traditional Zen teaching, I've seen more and more Zen teachers

[44:12]

are using metta and other kinds of Brahma, the hara practice, and I wonder where that fits into what we're talking about now. Well, it fits in in your daily life. It doesn't fit in in zazen. I've talked about it, I've talked about it a lot, but as, you know, it has to do with relationships more. But it also has to do with, you know, opening your heart and so forth. In zazen, you let go of tools like that. Would you consider that a kind of tool to cultivate certain mind states? Well, I don't like to think of it that way. I think metta is just metta. Period. Metta is metta. Loving kindness is loving kindness. Compassion is compassion.

[45:20]

It's not a tool for something else. That's the Zen approach. You don't do something for something else. Paul? I think you answered that. I was going to suggest that meditation is a tool for cultivating compassion. That's right, that's right. So, we don't do meditations. Satsang is not meditation, it's one of the meditations, but I sometimes give people those practices who, you know, have a hard time relating to other people, you know, have a hard time feeling good about themselves, you know. I say, well, do the metta meditation, you know. Strictly speaking, but I don't say do it in order to cultivate something. I say do it in order to be it. So if I was to give you a meta meditation, I would do it in order to be meta, not to cultivate meta in yourself or something or blah, blah, blah.

[46:36]

Be it. So if you, this is the problem sometimes that people will come back and say, well, I tried doing that, but you know, I couldn't really do it. The reason they couldn't do it is because they see metta out here and themselves here. And they're trying to get something called metta and stick it in themselves. You can't do that. The metta comes from within. So if you don't have it, you can't get it. You can only bring it forth. You can't stick it in. It doesn't stay there. Something has to happen to you where, boom, oh, and then you realize metta. Then you realize compassion. Usually when something hits you hard, some suffering, metta comes through your suffering. Compassion comes through your own suffering.

[47:38]

And people suffer a lot. There's this compassion pill. You open your mouth and put it in. It can work, you know. I'm not saying it can't work. But for our approach, it's be metta, be compassion, be sympathetic joy, be equanimity. So Zen is not using tools. It's being whatever it is that we have to be. But the exceptions, there are always exceptions, right? So sometimes, yeah, use this as a tool. It's okay. But strictly speaking, for the most part,

[48:40]

the approach is not to use tools, but to be the thing. And if we need to use tools, we'll use them, because that might be helpful. So there's nothing that's not, you know, if you say never, that's not right. But in order to have the right focus, we take away the props. Otherwise, it's so easy to just kind of edge into, you know, using them. Your talk reminds me of something that Category Roshi talked about once that I never really understood. I don't know if you were there when he said that. I've kind of just always remembered it. You know, something

[49:44]

about how you shouldn't do preparation practices because you never finish the preparation stage if you start it. Yeah, we don't do preparation. You know, we say, when you get into your position, then you do this, you know. That looks like preparation practice, you know. And we even say that it's kind of preparatory, but it's not preparation practice. It's practice itself. Do you think we could be not offended? A bee? I once saw a bee that wasn't offended. What? Do you think we could be... You can be not offended? I don't try to.

[50:46]

I don't try to, but I notice that. So I find myself thinking, I think I just offended that person, and then I get all wrapped up in, oh, I should apologize, or maybe it wasn't so bad, and maybe they're not offended at all. But then I also get offended. I've been working with that for years. But I notice that there's, it happens a lot. I don't know if it's characteristic of this place or the world, I just wonder if you have any just very clear instruction for both sides. Yeah. Well, there's always the question, who is it that's offended? Right. So that's taking the backward step. Who is it that's offended? And then there's if, gee, I think I may have offended that person, that's the time to go and check. Did I offend you? Don't wait. If you wait, it's like, maybe I offended that person.

[51:50]

God, I'll think about this all night. I can't sleep. You know, blah, blah, blah. Just go do it right away. Say, did I offend you? I'm sorry, I don't know if I offended you, but if I did, I'm sorry. That just takes care of it. And, I'm offended by what someone said, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. So who's offended, you know? Well, it just seems, I guess what I'm trying to say, it just seems to me that if you don't then you're kind of not in that hole.

[52:52]

That's right. You can be a person of offense and defense. Are you a person of offense and defense? You get into the offense-defense thing, you know? Or... Are you a person that, if you, the less you offend, the less you have to defend. I think that's pretty close. The less you offend, the less you have to defend. And if you do offend, then hey, what's wrong with, I mean, what's wrong with taking it? If you can give it, what's wrong with taking it? So you should be able to take whatever it is you give. So then if you feel, oh God, I'm really offended by that, then well, maybe I give something like that to somebody else and maybe that's why this is happening to me.

[54:01]

It's called karma, karmic consequences. We don't necessarily see what the consequences are or how that happened. I didn't do anything. Well, we just didn't see what we did. So, the more we can stop offending people, the less we need to defend. It seemed like your statement about go to the person and say, if I offended you, I'm sorry, or did I offend you, I'm sorry, seemed like It's just like saying, when he said, go wash your bowl, don't delay, do this. You have to wash it for the next meal. It's like, keep your bowl clean.

[55:06]

Don't let things accumulate in it. Yeah, keep it clean, you know, all the time. That is a continuous samadhi, continuous practice, same thing. But I think Laurie's statement about we don't have preparatory practices. In Buddhism, there is access, meditation, and so forth. But that's not our practice. Our practice is you just, from the beginning, you just get thrown into the ocean and start swimming. That's Zen practice. You just find yourself out there and you scramble.

[56:11]

I can swim now, you know, but there's no preparation. We have Zazen instruction. That's about it. But then we have to keep saying what Zazen is over and over again, you know, and it's like the guy in the back of the skull saying, roll, roll, roll. Even though we're not going anywhere. It's a lot of hard work just to stay where you are. The goal, actually, is on each moment.

[57:15]

You reach the goal each moment. And then you let go of that, and you reach the goal in the next moment. So the goal is in the path, and each step of the path is the goal. Beings are numberless.

[58:02]

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