In Zen Buddhism, especially in Soto Zen, we place a lot of attention on the forms or the detail with which we do things. After years of practicing with these forms, I found that many of them are arbitrary or agreed upon ways of doing things. For example, when we sit zazen together, we bow to our cushions and turn clockwise and bow away from our cushions and sit down and turn clockwise and face the wall. And as far as I know, we do this not because there's something inherently right or sacred about this form or about clockwise, but because we've agreed to do it this way.

[01:11]

And when we agree or decide to do something in a particular way, it helps us pay attention. It helps rescue us from our train of thought. Using the forms, bowing as we enter the Zen Do, turning clockwise when we sit down, bowing to each other when we pass outside, helps us notice our preferences, our strong and subtle likes and dislikes. The forms give us a background against which we can contrast our usual tendencies and conditioned activity. When we do such meaningless activity as bowing to cushions or holding the suit to cards with two hands instead of one,

[02:28]

or stopping and taking our shoes off before entering a room, and then stopping and putting our shoes back on when we leave. It helps us extend ourselves beyond our logical, rational minds. We bow to our cushions, or to the altar, or to each other. not because we here are Buddhists, so we like to bow to each other, or because the figure on the altar is sacred, or because this temple is special. We bow because everything is special. And what all this bowing and turning clockwise does is to help pull us out of the realm of our mental constructs our incessant mental activity into the realm of what is actually right before us.

[03:46]

Our 13th century ancestor Dogen Zenji wrote many fascicles or essays on Buddhist teaching. One of his fascicles is called Arousing the Supreme Thought, and the supreme thought is the thought of enlightenment. In this fascicle, Dogen quoted Bodhidharma, who was also one of our Buddhist ancestors. He lived in the 6th century, and is attributed with having carried Zen-flavored Buddhism from India to China. In this fascicle, Dogen quoted Bodhidharma. He said, Bodhidharma said, the one mind

[04:58]

and all minds are wood and stone." And Dogen continued, what Bodhidharma called mind is the absolute mind, the mind of the whole world, and so the one mind is the mind of oneself and others. The minds of all beings in the world, the minds of Buddhas and ancestors everywhere, are wood and stone. There is no mind apart from these. These stone and wood, or things in general, are not themselves bound by the realms of being and non-being, emptiness and form. One arouses the thought of enlightenment, practices, and attains the way with the mind which is wood and stone, because mind is wood and mind is stone.

[06:19]

Does this mean that stone and wood are mind? Does it mean that this wooden platform is my mind or that it is your mind? This reminds me of a story about Tozan Ryokai. lived in the ninth century in China. He's one of the founders of the Soto lineage. If we trace our lineage back through Suzuki Roshi, eventually we'll come to Ehei Dogen. And if we continue, we'll come to Tozan Ryokan. In the morning, when we chant the names of the Buddhas and Ancestors, we chant Un-Gon Don-Cho, Da-Yo-Sho, To-Zon Ryokai, Da-Yo-Sho, Un-Go Do-Yo, Da-Yo-Sho.

[07:43]

When we chant in this way, it means that Un-Gon was To-Zon's teacher and Un-Go Do-Yo was To-Zon's disciple. When Tozan was about seven years old, he studied with a local village priest. One day, they were reading the Heart Sutra. And Tozan interrupted, saying, wait a minute. It says no eyes, no ears, no nose, no body, no mind. But what about these? I've got eyes. and ears and nose. And both his question and the way he asked his question led the local priest to feel that he was not adequate to teach Tosan. So he referred Tosan, a young child, to a teacher in a monastery.

[08:52]

And Tosan entered the monastery and formally began his Buddhist training and practice. One of the ordination rules established by Shakyamuni Buddha was that people could not receive full ordination until they were 20 years old. Tosan remained in the monastery studying and practicing until he had his formal full ordination. And pretty soon after that, when he was twenty or twenty-one, he left this teacher in this monastery, began traveling, visiting different monasteries and teachers. One of the teachers that he visited was Master Kuei Shan, or I San Re Yu.

[09:55]

When Tosan met Isan, he asked, I've heard that the national teacher maintains the doctrine that inanimate objects preach the Dharma. Could you please help me understand this? And Isan said, yes, but first tell me the context in which the National Teacher said this. So, Tozan told Isan the story of the National Teacher, which goes, a monk asked the National Teacher, what is the mind of the ancient Buddhists? And the National Teacher replied, a wall and broken tiles. And the monk asked, Are these not inanimate objects?

[11:09]

And the national teacher said, Yes, they are. And the monk asked, Can inanimate objects expound the Dharma? The national teacher said, Inanimate objects are continuously and vigorously expounding the Dharma." And the monk said, well, I don't hear it. And the national teacher said, even though you do not hear it, do not hinder that which hears it. There's some more dialogue and the monk asks, which sutra teaches that inanimate objects expound the Dharma? The national teacher said the Avatamsaka Sutra says the earth expounds the Dharma.

[12:22]

Living beings expound the Dharma. All things in the three times expound the Dharma. Dogen comments on this story. Dogen says, the mind of the ancient Buddhists should not be understood as something irrelevant to your experience. As some mind which exists from beginningless past For it is the mind which eats and tastes food in your ordinary, everyday life. It is the mind which is grass, the mind which is water. When Tosan finished telling the story to Isan,

[13:33]

Isan said, That teaching also exists here, but one seldom finds someone capable of understanding it. And Tozan said, Well, I don't understand it completely. Could you please clarify it for me? And at this point, Isan had his whisk belong here, and he picked it up, saying, ah, do you understand? And Tozan said, no, I don't understand. Please explain it. And Isan said, it can never be explained to you by means of a mouth of one born of a mother and father. And at this point, Isan referred Tozan to another teacher, to Master Ungan Doncho.

[14:45]

And when Tozan traveled to Ungan's mountain, he asked Master Ungan, when the inanimate expounds the Dharma, who can hear it? And Ungan said, the inanimate can hear it." And Tosan asked, can you hear it? And Ungan said, if I could hear it, then you would not be able to hear me preaching the Dharma. And Tosan persisted, well, why can't I hear it? And then Master Ungan raised his whisk, saying, Do you hear it? And Tosan said, No, I don't hear it.

[15:47]

And Isan said, You don't even hear it when I expound the Dharma. How do you expect to hear it when the inanimate expounds the Dharma? And then Tosan asked, Which sutra teaches that non-sentient beings preach the Dharma. And Isang said, excuse me, Ungan said, the Amitabha Sutra says, water, birds, tree groves, all without exception, recite the name of Buddha, recite the Dharma. And at this point, Tosan got it. He understood that the inanimate expounds the Dharma.

[16:47]

And he composed a poem which goes, wonderful, wonderful. Hard to comprehend that non-sentient beings preach the Dharma. It simply cannot be heard with the ears. But when one hears sounds with the eyes, it is truly understood. And that's the end of that story. Japanese monastic forms had a strong effect on Japanese tea ceremony. And likewise, tea ceremony strongly influenced the forms used in Japanese monasteries.

[17:54]

It's been said that tea ceremony embodies the Buddhist insight, that all things even such ordinary things as a bowl, a spoon, a piece of cloth, space in a room, are alive with the same aliveness we are. How can we practice with the inanimate? How can we recognize a wall and broken tiles as mind? We offer incense and bow. A bell rings and we stand up and fluff our cushions.

[19:03]

The way we enter a space The way we pick things up and place them down. The way we meet things. I find it useful to listen to the sounds that are made when I do things. The sound I hear when I shut a door, or put down a teacup, or walk across the room. All things without exception, recite the name of Buddha, recite the Dharma. In this realm, all things are real. All things are equally important. All things are alive.

[20:08]

So that when we are washing dishes, we are washing the mind of the ancient Buddhists. It could be said that tea ceremony is one long conglomeration of details, one after another, or that it is a world complete in itself. In tea ceremony, there is a very precise way of doing everything. Of standing, of sitting, the way you stand up, the way you place each foot as you walk and turn in the tea room. And all the utensils have

[21:14]

a specific way of being picked up and held. This is all in addition to the actual procedure for making tea, which varies with each season. When I studied tea ceremony, I decided that I didn't want to have to memorize each step. I didn't want to have to track the innumerable details with my thinking mind. So I tried to encourage my body to learn the ceremony. I wanted to be able to rely on something other than my thinking to know what to do next. I have a similar feeling when I do Doan jobs. when I ring the bells or lead chanting, and when I do orioke practice.

[22:18]

If you're not familiar with it, an orioke is a set of nested bowls which we use when we have formal meals in the zendo. The meal takes about 45 minutes. It has many different steps. and each step has a specific way of being done. When I eat with my orioke, I try to set aside my thinking so that my body and mind are free to engage in the present activity of just sitting and eating. And when my attention becomes distracted, when I start thinking, it's usually sound that brings me back. The sound of rough movement, or the sound of a rough, distracted mind.

[23:26]

When we eat with our orioke, we sit in zazen position, keeping our back straight, and we hold our food up rather high so that we don't need to lean over or curve our back. So we tend to bring our food up to our mouth rather than bringing our mouth down to the food. And as we eat, we hold our bowl in the palm of our hand as if it were a part of our hand or an extension of ourselves. rather than treating our bowls as if they were some external object that we manipulate for our use. And as we eat, we often pick our bowls up and place them down using two hands. When we bring both hands to an activity, it helps us bring our full attention to what we are doing.

[24:38]

If you have a tea bowl or any small bowl or cup without a handle, you can practice drinking a cup of tea with two hands. Bringing both hands to the activity helps collect and focus our attention so that drinking tea in this way can be a concentration practice. In tea ceremony, the emphasis is not on making tea perfectly, without making mistakes. I used to study tea with Mrs. Suzuki, Suzuki Roshi's wife. We would have tea class once a week in which One of us would make tea, and then the other person would watch while the other person made tea and served it to them.

[25:53]

So that in the course of a year, we may have made tea or seen it being made up to a hundred times. And then several times a year would have formal tea ceremonies where all the students came together and four or five people would make tea and serve it to the others. Everyone knew tea well and the hosts had practiced many, many times. But I've never gone to a tea ceremony expecting that everything would go completely right. There are just too many chances to have a gap or do something out of sequence or pick something up the wrong way. So although we put a lot of effort into learning the forms, the point or the emphasis of tea ceremony is not to recreate the forms perfectly.

[27:05]

The emphasis is on taking care of your state of mind in the midst of the forms, with the support of the forms. And moment after moment, whatever happens, you stay with your state of mind. Whatever situation arises, whatever happens, You address that and take care of it as you would your state of mind. In this context, when you make and serve a cup of tea, you are not serving tea as much as you are serving your state of mind. A bell rings and we stand up and fluff our cushions.

[28:21]

The activity of fluffing is a direct expression of our state of mind. We put our shoes on. We are wearing Buddha. And as we walk away, we are walking on the mind. of the ancient Buddhists. In Zen practice, the emphasis is not on sitting Zazen, in full lotus position, with a completely straight back, never moving. The emphasis, or the point is, what? Why are we really here? Although you do not hear it, do not hinder that which hears it.

[29:37]

This topic for me brings up lots of questions, but not many answers. You might have questions, but I don't know if I have answers. How does one listen? Well, what I find, especially during lectures, is that sometimes when the speaker starts talking, my mind, at the same time, starts talking too.

[31:14]

And when I sit Sasan, I try real hard to keep my back straight and to pay attention to my breathing. But it's real easy to sort of slip into not being aware. And if I can actually hear sounds in the room or sounds outside there, if the sounds around me are registering, then I have a better sense that I'm awake to what's going on. Most of us have such a habit of continually thinking or singing or telling ourselves a story about what's going on that it's pretty hard to even be aware that we're doing it. And I find trying to be aware of physical sensations you know, my posture and the temperature

[32:20]

the muscles in my body and sound really helps me come into the present and leave some of that mental stuff behind. What do you find helpful when you're driving, per se? What I try to do. I think sometimes using something like your keys, you know, putting them in the car door or in the ignition, to use that physical act as a reminder that now I'm going to drive. And personally I feel like driving a car has great potential for unwholesome consequences, and it can be a very dangerous vehicle. And when I drive, I just, I try to remind myself just to be present.

[33:22]

You know, again, I think, I try to feel my back and see if it's straight, and notice if I'm thinking or not, and just try to pay attention to all the things going on around me. I also find driving one of the easiest experiences for getting angry. and noticing how inconsiderate other people are of me. And for a long time I'd get really irritated, both if I were crossing the street or if I was driving a car, and other people didn't use turn signals. And I used to get angry every time that happened, and at one point I realized that, you know, if I got angry, if I honked at them, Nobody ever knew what was going on, and it was just me getting agitated and worked up, and that no one felt the effects of that but myself, and I might as well give myself a break and just accept that not everybody's going to use turn signals.

[34:30]

When you prepare for this talk, or when you drive, or when you do tea ceremonies, Do you have an advanced intention or an advanced agenda? Well, I think there's a fundamental intention in all of those things of trying to do it with your complete, your whole body and mind and trying to be aware to be one with the activity. I remember a long time ago talking with a woman who had studied tea, I think before she got married or had children, and she said when she walked into the tea room, the whole rest of the world dropped away, and the tea room became her whole world. And I always thought that was nice.

[35:39]

And I think in a way, The more we can bring our whole world to just what we're doing, the more we can practice with whatever we're doing. Are all sounds the same? Do they all have the same quality? Or it's harder for me to accept certain sounds, or to feel, to go with them? I would probably say that all sounds are different. I think one way to make use of the situation is to notice what the effect is on yourself.

[36:41]

You know, is to notice your experience when you hear different sounds. And to, you know, as much as you can, try not to fight the sounds that are irritating, but just to notice how you receive different sounds and different sensory experience. First, thank you. That was a wonderful talk. When you're doing tea, and something is rising in your mind, what are you paying attention to? Well, like when you're doing tea or sitting zazen, and you're here with your body, going through the movements of doing tea, and if something arises in your mind,

[37:47]

Right, and then the whisk falls over or something like that, that's what happens, right? Yeah, so but what do you do in that moment, you know, when you are really having to do this with the whisk and something rises in the mind, where do you go? So your attention is sort of divided between your physical activity and your mental activity. So the first thing is to realize that's what's happening. to realize, oh, now I'm being pulled away from my physical, my present activity. I'm in a mental realm. And when you notice that that's happened, you can try to let go of it. Right, because you've already made the mistake. That happens when I play the piano. I've already hit the wrong note, or I've already done something with the teacup, you know. It's like, how do you get in there before? Because you know... In practice, I don't think it's seen as a mistake.

[38:48]

It's seen more as the natural function of your brain or your mind is to come up with thoughts. Uchiyama Roshi, who wrote the book Refining Your Life, is a current Japanese teacher. He's retired now, but he's still alive in Japan. And he had this wonderful sort of metaphor. He said that the brain is an organ of the body, like the stomach or other organs. And as the stomach's role, or the stomach's job, I think the right word is to excrete digestive juices, the brain excretes thoughts. So, you know, as you're sitting, zazen, or living your lives, it's sort of the natural function, or at least for most of us, the habit of the brain, to secrete these thoughts. And when you sit zazen, the emphasis isn't on holding some kind of calm or peaceful or concentrated state, as much as being ready to let go whenever you realize that you're distracted from the present.

[40:06]

The ability to let go or the willingness to let go helps us develop flexibility. Whereas even if you're experiencing a wholesome state, a concentrated state, if you're trying to hold on to that, that will produce rigidity. So I think when you're practicing or playing the piano, you have that intention of being one with your fingers and the music, but just come back to your intention. I cared you say that this woman left her whole world behind in Chantipatima and then the next, after that you said that we bring her whole world with us when we practice. Could you speak about the relation of those two things?

[41:14]

I don't know what I said, but I might have said... She had the feeling that she was leaving behind the rest of the world when she entered the tea room, and that the tea room became her whole world at that time. And that whatever we're doing, if we can make that our whole world, or engage with it fully, you know, without reserving some part of our mind or reserving some part of ourselves back, you know, so that we can track what we're doing, continue the continuity of our story while we're doing something. If whatever we're doing, if that, for that moment, becomes our whole world, then that's how we can bring practice to whatever we're doing. For me what helps is rather than assuming, I read this some time ago and I use it, rather than assuming that I'm practicing to be a master, really for all practical purposes assume you already are a master and then look at what comes up in the way of you realizing or being that.

[42:41]

Based in that, for me it's much easier to see what comes up, rather than assuming I'm everything that comes up. It becomes difficult to catch it, because that's me coming up. But if I assume, I'm clear. Thank you.

[43:32]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ