The purpose of a sasheen is to help you realize your essence of mind or your big mind. Unfortunately, unfortunately big mind or essence of mind is not something you can actually notice. Perhaps the realm of Sambhogakaya Buddha or blissful experience you can notice, but the realm of Dharmakaya you can't notice. So we call it transmitted mind, because by yourself you can't find out what we mean

[01:05]

by big mind, even though big mind is always present in you. So how do we approach big mind or approach this transcending awareness? First of all we can do zazen. A sasheen, of course, strengthens our zazen. If you practice sasheen often enough, your zazen will become quite calm, and you can accept things as they are.

[02:05]

Zazen, a sasheen, helps us notice some contrast between our everyday life or everyday mind or undeveloped awareness and a more discriminating awareness. So we can practice zazen or sasheen, and we can practice mindfulness. In this way it's something you can do anyway, it's in the realm of doing. Although big mind doesn't exist in the realm of doing, we have to, practically speaking, start with something. If we don't put it in practical terms, give you some practical thing to do, like zazen or something, you'll say, this isn't real. So, you won't be able to, even if you do have some deep sense of the possibilities

[03:23]

of your life or of Buddhism, you won't be able to stay with it. You know, when you're tired you'll forget, or when you're distracted you'll forget. So, doing a sasheen helps to remind us again. Let me try to give you a kind of simple example, which maybe most of you have had some experience of. Your big mind always knows the time of day, but you don't always know the time of day.

[04:24]

So, as you must have had the experience, sometimes you'll go to bed and decide to get up at a certain time, and exactly that time you get up. No relationship at all to, it may be in a different location, you can't explain it, according to, well, the light changed, you know, I know the change of light and I sense it while I'm asleep, and so I wake up at that time. Nor can you explain it by, I always get up at that time, I have some habit, so I don't need an alarm clock. But actually, if your mind is not distracted, you can come in some contact with your big

[05:34]

mind, which knows everything. Some religions emphasize, you know, some special experience, like maybe the ability to control your body a certain way or get up at a specific time, or some very powerful state of ecstasy. But in Buddhism, we don't try to attain some special state. Actually, if you practice Buddhism long enough, probably most special states, if it's necessary for you to have them, will be available to you.

[06:35]

But some ecstatic experience, which one religion might say, oh, this is the height of religion, for Buddhist transmitted mind, you know, it's just a campfire, you know, in a mountain sky. Something that comes and goes, you know, and is in the relative world of form. When we say concentrated state of mind, we don't mean, you know, like a watchmaker can concentrate on his work. And we don't mean some dualistic idea of that is a mountain and I should climb it, I and

[07:40]

mountain and climbing it, you know, or I should improve myself to be able to do such and such. This creates some idea of a person who's doing it, a thing to be done and a result to be obtained. I mean, that's so common to us, you know, this way of thinking and doing. It's almost, for many people, it's impossible to conceive of any other way. So, for our practice, as soon as you see the formation of some idea of someone, someone who will do this, someone who should improve, we counteract that with some antidote.

[08:43]

What is this someone, you know, or noticing how this someone, what insecurity or state of mind produces the need to create this someone who is going to do such and such, or who needs ecstasy, or who is going to attain some special thing, or improve himself or herself. It doesn't mean you don't ever have the experience, well, I should improve myself. But in our practice, we don't concentrate on improving some specific thing, but rather knowing the state of mind out of which that specific thing arose, out of which this particular karma or this particular someone arose. So, four o'clock, you know, twelve o'clock may be enlightenment, but thinking about

[10:00]

twelve o'clock, or thinking, should I get up at four o'clock, or should I not get up at four o'clock, is some, from the point of view of enlightenment, some defilement. Although thinking, I want to get up at four o'clock, may actually be some misplaced desire or nirvana, or when we perceive things as we did as a child, just hearing, just seeing. So, after you, the practice of mindfulness and zazen are in the realm of doing, and out

[11:02]

of those practices, some kind of discriminating awareness based on wisdom will develop, on which you can tell, taking into account past, present and future, in this moment, exactly what to do. I should get up. I should practice zazen. At this moment, this kind of decision is needed. It's not even a decision. It's some kind of oscillation between the sureness of what you need to do and the falling away from that sureness. So, from the point of view of discriminating awareness, you don't actually make any more decisions, but rather keep renewing your decision, your knowledge that actually you

[12:03]

know everything. But, from the point of view of transcending awareness, there's no more decision at all anymore. Each moment, you know, there's no doubt about what to do. Of course, many things may come up still in your mind, not so much as when you first started to practice, when many things crowd into your consciousness. But the kind of mind we're talking about in Buddhism absorbs whatever comes in. As I had said, you can call the trances or stages of meditation, stages or degrees of

[13:05]

your ability to absorb everything that happens to you, absorb whatever comes up, like the sky absorbs everything. So, transmitted mind, what do we mean by transmitted mind, is an undisturbed state of mind, undisturbed by things which push into it or come into it, a state of mind which can consider anything that appears, can just consider it, you know, without any idea about it, you know, as if it appeared for the very first time ever. So, the

[14:21]

title Sandhokai, as Suzuki Roshi has explained, means the big mind, you know, which is united with everything. The secret maybe is in the kai. San means three things or several things or all things, do means one big mind or oneness, and kai means shaking hands, the unity of one and many in the undifferentiated mind which has been

[15:33]

passed from India through China and Japan to here. The unity is like four o'clock or twelve o'clock. Your big mind, you know, that knows everything, even knows such mundane things as, you know, the time of day, by the clock, but yet there is no effort at all at discrimination or thinking about or decision or wavering, it just knows. Confidence. Confidence in this big mind, you know, allows us to practice, you know, accepting everything,

[16:38]

you know, not knowing big mind even. You make some mistake if you think that you can come to realize, you know, dharmakaya or big mind without religious practice. Maybe you can realize sambhogakaya or some aspect of yourself that unites mind and body and your perceptions, objects of perceptions.

[17:42]

But to practice something which can't be practiced, you know, to touch something which can't be touched or interfered with, you know, the famous saying which I mentioned many times, do not hinder that which hears it. How do we hear inanimate objects preaching the Dharma? Do not hinder that which hears it. You know, how do we not hinder that which hears it? When you're sound asleep maybe, with very calm, undistracted sleep, you know, that maybe during a sasheen you'll have more experience of. After a while you've used up all those things that push into your mind all the time and your sleep may be quite clear. So, you may know exactly what time it is all night long because your state of mind is

[18:57]

not hindering that which knows. But mostly, you know, we're hindered all the time. And during the day, as soon as you're involved in activity, your practice, you know, because these activities are an expression of big mind but also because we have a tendency to get caught by them, a hindrance to the expression of your calm, clear mind, practice is a sense, some sense, some feeling for practice that allows you constantly to come back to your essence of mind, to see through, you know, the various distractions.

[20:05]

So, you need some kind of reminder or re-bodier to bring you back to your practice, you know. And so, we have religious practice. And we have been given a particular way of religious practice by Suzuki Roshi and by his teachers and their teachers. There may be other ways which are just as good but this practice is so subtle that you can't actually sample other ways. I'll try this way sometimes, you know, or that way.

[21:18]

The import of some practice, you begin when you just start or on the surface of it. You don't know its depth, you know, until you've done it over and over and over again. So, I believe by religious practice I mean things like, I guess, we have a little chant book which has meal chants and things in it. There's a chant for getting, just after you wake up in the morning. And there's a chant for just after you go to bed in the evening. Chino Sensei first told us about these chants and when he first translated the one for the

[22:22]

morning, he gave it to me first, you know. I asked him about some kind of practice through the day and so he wrote these out. And he translated the first one to be chanted before waking. I, for one or two days, wasn't good enough to do that, you know. So, I went to see Chino Sensei and he meant just after waking, you know, but before waking. But actually, before waking is maybe what we mean, you know. Before you go to bed at night, you know, or after you go to bed, there's some faint light in your mind or consciousness. You can make some chant and clear your mind and concentrate on your breathing or on the

[23:34]

faint light in your mind. Anyway, there are various ways. To try to find yourself more receptive to the activity of big mind. All right. Do you have any questions?

[25:07]

When you were mentioning about how many times doing the day-to-day thing, how you seem to lose track of your big mind. Should a person be raised in an atmosphere with much religious practice, say a child, from another atmosphere? Well, I guess what my question is, is the tendency for a human being to become distracted no matter what the atmosphere, part of human nature. Should a child be raised here in this zen-dome with the practices here, it would face similar distractions and day-to-day involvement due to human nature or... Do you know what I mean? I know what you mean. Lack of a lot of concentration seems to be in human nature. Let me...

[26:17]

I think your question raises some question for all of us, not just specifically what you said, but... First of all, I think we take it for granted that there are distractions, that our state of mind is... that our life is messy, you know. We take it for granted. That taking it for granted is a problem. It's not necessary to take it for granted. We start from that point of view, you know. Maybe in some cultures they start from the point of view that some clear awareness is possible in people and visible in many people. We don't see it in many people. We almost don't know, you know. Also, we have behind us an idea of God, you know.

[27:28]

And God, if you have the idea of a creator, you have then the idea of, well, if such and such is possible for us, why didn't God create us so it was easier, you know? Why didn't he make this transcendent state of mind available to us? You know, what's he so mean for? So, you either end up with a mean God who did it, right? Or you end up with that we're mean or did something wrong and we're being punished. But if you don't have that idea of that kind of thinking, it's... The problem doesn't arise in the same way of why do we have to practice, you know?

[28:38]

Why does it require practice? The thing is that the very nature of discriminating awareness, you know, or transcendent awareness is practice. They're not... One doesn't lead to the other. The question is, rather, why are we so easily fooled, you know? Why do we lose it so often? Not, why is it so hard to get, you know? From the point of view of Buddhism, transcendent awareness, if we use some term like that,

[30:46]

and I try to use terms sometimes rather than explain each time what I mean, you know, is four o'clock or one second after four or five o'clock or six o'clock. But to be just there exactly as it is, you know, is, from the point of view of Buddhism, the goal of human life. The purpose of being alive is to realize this goal. She thought of everything she knew, and then it was just a boring blank, you know? But she wrote, when she was five, when we first went to Japan, she wrote a letter to

[31:50]

Santa Claus, being somewhat afraid that Santa Claus wouldn't know where Japan was, I think. And it said, Dear Santa, I still have the note, it said, Dear Santa, please give me a magic wand. That was very Western-oriented gift, right? And then she added, And a machine that tells me what I don't need. Which is very Buddhist, you know? A machine, if you have a machine that tells you what you don't need, you hardly need a magic wand, right? That would be Dharmakaya itself, you know? Oh, she added PS, you know, at the bottom. The machine that tells her what she doesn't need also, and when she's rude, the note is,

[32:51]

because at that time we were criticizing her for being rude. Anyway, some influence of Buddhism occurs, of course, if you, I think, if you're just practicing Buddhism, you shouldn't force practice on your wife or husband or child. You should just practice yourself. And if your practice has any merit, it will affect other people, positively maybe. What do you do when you come to that boring blank and it just sort of sits there?

[33:54]

Hmm. Yeah, if you need some distraction or want some distraction or feel that maybe you're on the surface of the billiard ball, that's why it's boring and you can't get in to your

[34:59]

practice, you can ask, you know, your teacher for some assistance, because everyone goes through the boring blank period. It's one of the most difficult stages in practice when most people give up. When there seems no point, you know, to practice. Maybe even most of your troublesome emotions or whatever that started you practicing are quite smooth, you know. So, and there's not much contrast even between zazen and ordinary state of mind.

[36:05]

Even when you have this much, your practice can be quite boring and pointless. But why it's boring? What need arises at this point, it's very important point in your practice, because what's arising that makes it boring has to subside before your maybe big mind can appear. We remove everything, but we don't know how to open the door. So, the room is just empty and boring after a while, but it's because it's just devoid of what you took out.

[37:07]

You actually can't take anything out or tear the house down. But we take out, you know, to see if anything's there. This is the realm of maybe Chi, shaking hands, in which you don't look in the realm of form or in the realm of emptiness for what we mean by emptiness or enlightenment. At this point, maybe nothing sustains you except your vow and your assurance that somehow

[38:35]

practice helps others or perhaps your affection for your teacher or something keeps you going. Anyway, zen practice, if you want to practice thoroughly, is quite difficult, almost impossible, because it's not in any category that we are used to. So, as long as we're in making categories of interesting or boring, practice is not accessible. I'm not talking just about what Philip said, but in general, you know, we all have this problem. Giving up a comparative state of mind or discriminating mind over and over again, giving up, helps

[39:48]

a lot. In this session, I'd like you to try to let go or give up. When your thinking appears, try to see it as pointless. I don't need to follow that. When you think about your practice, don't think about it. Just sit. Okay. Nigga.

[40:26]

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