Today, during Sushi, I want to encourage our mindful practice, practice of mindfulness. And I want to point out some particular ways in which we can practice very consciously mindfulness. There are four areas in which we usually focus on mindfulness. The area of the body, the area of feelings, the area of the mind, and the area of various practices. And associated with that are various reasons why you do it, why we practice mindfulness.

[01:23]

The main reason for practicing mindfulness is to be able to have insight into the impermanence of all things. To see into the nature of things as impermanent. And to find our way within that truth. So we're dealing with factors like attachment, non-attachment, desire, suffering, and so forth. And the structure of our practice, the formal side of our practice, is a vehicle for practicing in that way.

[02:34]

So, within our very formal practice, formality itself gives us a way to practice mindfulness. So, in this very limited environment, we can focus very clearly on all of our bodily activities and we can recognize our feelings and our mental states and practice the Eightfold Path and the Six Paramitas and so forth. without necessarily thinking too much about them. We don't have to focus on the Eightfold Path and the Six Paramitas, but if we practice our practice, if you just enter into the form, then all of those dharmas are there.

[03:53]

All of those practices are right there. You don't have to think about them one by one, necessarily. That's the advantage of having formal practice, is that within the formality, all of the practices are there. And so it's a kind of convenience. Formal practice is a kind of convenient way to practice, because all of the practices are included in it. So when we sit tzazen, to really be attentive to our body. On the one hand we say to drop body and mind, you know, but dropping body and mind means to be completely attentive to body and mind. If you're completely one with body and mind, body and mind will

[05:03]

drop. But it won't go anywhere. Even if it drops, it won't go someplace. It won't float away. But if you, when you sit zazen, to put all your effort into sitting, with nothing left out, don't leave your mind thinking about some place outside of this place. And to make body and mind one, complete unity. That's how we should be mindful of the body in zazen. And to bring together the numerous parts of our body into one harmonious whole.

[06:12]

So it takes a lot of concentration to do that. If you're really sitting zazen with concentration, concentrated mindfulness, every part of your body will be mindfully included. there are the major parts of our body, which are the trunk, and the legs, and the head, the arms. Those are the major parts. And then there are the minor parts, so called, which are the various parts of the arm, and various parts of the trunk, and the various parts of the leg, and the feet, the toes, and the head and the mouth and what goes on inside the mouth. What goes on inside of the mouth when you sit dozing. Very important. How you hold your teeth.

[07:19]

What position the teeth are. What position of your tongue. And the position of your head. And the alignment of all these parts. The balance. and where to put strength and where to let go. How to have just the right amount of tension and the right amount of letting go. What tension can you let go of in various parts of your body that you don't need to have in order to sit up straight? So constantly working on this. with your body is how you sit Zazen. Constantly adjusting in a very subtle way. So you're always working on that posture. Constantly finding your posture.

[08:22]

And if you make the constant effort to find your posture in Zazen, you have a very refreshed feeling. And even though you may have some difficulty, the difficulty just becomes part of Sozin. It doesn't stand out in some special way. And then there's mindfulness of breathing. to watch the breath without controlling it. Just let it come and go through your nose and to allow your breath to be deep. You don't force your breath to be deep. You have to allow it to be deep because deep breathing is our natural breath, natural breathing.

[09:30]

And when we constrict our breathing through anxiety or fear, then the breath is no longer free. So freeing up the breath and freeing up the body is how to practice zazen with mindfulness. Even though we have put effort into our posture, the main thing is to free up our body, free the restrictions on our body that are imposed through fear, laziness, anxiety,

[10:34]

and various mental states that close us down, tend to close us down. So in Zazen we have the opportunity to really open our body and consciousness in an unrestricted way. Then there are mental Well, they're feelings. You have painful feelings in your legs, or you have some euphoric feeling from time to time through zazen, or maybe some neutral feeling. To be able to recognize each one of those feelings and accept each feeling as it comes, and at the same time to not be attached to any special feeling. And mindfulness of not being attached to any special feeling is very important.

[11:45]

If we have a good feeling, we want to cling to it. And if we have a painful feeling, we want to get rid of it. We want it to be gone. So we start to get stuck in the realm of desire. I like this. I don't like this, I want this more, or I want this less. That kind of discrimination leads to attachment. So to let go of all those discriminating desires and just enjoy whatever state of feeling is there. just to be with whatever state or whatever feeling is there without judging or desiring something else.

[12:48]

And then mindfulness of mental states to recognize whatever thought comes into consciousness. Not to suppress your thoughts, but to just let a thought come and let it go, without taking it up, without expanding on it, or using it as a base for imaginative fantasy. To recognize the thought, to let it be there. and then just let it go, not to get attached to thoughts. So this is mindfulness of mental states and mindfulness of non-attachment to mental states. The important thing is mindfulness of non-attachment to mental states, non-attachment to feelings. And, you know, in our life there's some attachment to life itself and to the various facets of our life.

[14:22]

And in order to live we must have some attachment But at the same time, we must also have some non-attachment. Attachment and non-attachment at the same time. You know, you love your friend, and so you have some attachment through love. But at the same time, Your friend is impermanent, and you are impermanent, and your feelings are impermanent, and your mental states are impermanent. So, at the same time, to have some non-attachment, how do you do that? How do you become involved in the world of attachment?

[15:30]

and still live in the truth of non-attachment? Or how do you live within the realm of suffering? Without escaping from suffering, how do you live within it without being caught by it or attached to it? So this is, if... We learned something about that from Zazen. How to have feelings without being attached to them. How to enjoy a joyous feeling. And how to let it go. Don't suppress your joyous feeling. If you have a joyous feeling, this is a joyous feeling. And when the joyous feeling is no longer there, this is a painful feeling.

[16:39]

It's not bad or good, necessarily. We call it bad or good, but it's just the painful feeling. Or this is a cold feeling, or this is a hot feeling. It's not good or bad. If you can have that kind of mental balance, which accepts the way things are, without attachment, then you're practicing mindfulness. And so, to be involved with your life, with our life, and yet to have some freedom from that involvement at the same time, to see it as it is, so we don't get constantly drowned in life.

[17:50]

So I want to say just a little bit about how we should practice today. how I would like us to practice today. When you walk, to be conscious of how your feet touch the floor. When you're serving a meal, to be conscious of the feeling of your feet touching the floor. How do they do it? Is it hard? Is it soft? What does it feel like? Am I creating a disturbance when I walk? When I carry the tray, is it here or is it here? Is it here? What does it feel like to carry this tray? What is the proper... Am I doing it right?

[19:01]

when I serve someone, am I really bowing to that person? Or am I just kind of going like this? Because I'm supposed to. You don't have to be, you know, when you bow to someone when they're doing the meal. Just enough, you know. Just some... But to be with the person is important. If you and the other person are bowing a different It doesn't make much sense. You're missing each other. The point is to meet each other, even if it's just for a moment. When you open the door, the zendo door, to open it so that you make as little disturbance as possible. How do you do that? How do you open the door? How do you slide the bolt so that it doesn't go crash?

[20:05]

So that it just slides easily in this way and that way. And when you close it, it just closes. What's the point at which you can just close the door without making a sound? To be that careful creates a mindful atmosphere. And when you eat with your eating bowls, to put them down and pick them up in such a way that you don't make any sound. And when you sit down for the meal, it's just like Zazen. Sometimes people think it's a break. It's like a break, you know. You look around. or if you're finished eating, you look around, to keep the same concentration all the whole day.

[21:17]

During work period, when we work, to work in a concentrated way and not start up a conversation with somebody. Sometimes when we're instructing somebody, we get caught up in a conversation, just without thinking about it, or without being aware of it. We suddenly find ourselves in a conversation, in the same way that thoughts come up in your mind in Zazen, before you realize it, you're involved in some fantasy. So when you become aware of the fact that your conversation is getting out of the bounds of what's necessary, just in order to instruct or find out something, then just stop it. Just remind yourself. And that reminding is mindfulness. And taking up the reminder is mindfulness.

[22:21]

And if you're working in the kitchen, how you deal with the vegetables, how you arrange everything, each thing, how you arrange your working space, how you take care of the pots and pans so that you don't have a big pile-up of things while you're working in some little crowded space, you know, how to keep the whole thing moving constantly so that you never get yourself in a corner, you never have a feeling that there's a mess. And you're always working to come out on time. When we work in that way, we forget ourself. Even though we're very concentrated on our activity, at the same time, we forget ourself in our activity. So, to be able to immediately accept each thing, each situation, each moment,

[23:32]

without regret or without judgment, without, oh, this is good, this is bad, this is right, this is wrong. Just to do is how you drop yourself and merge with the activity in a non-dualistic way. And even if you're doing something that you don't like, you still have some freedom within it. You don't lose your freedom. Do you have a question?

[24:47]

There are two aspects of mindful practice. One is concentration and the other is insight. Samatha and vipassana. Samatha is like samadhi or sometimes tranquility, but it's Concentration. Concentrating on the subject or the object. Being totally concentrated. And in Zazen, when we sit Sashin, our Samadhi is very strong because of our concentration. The other side is insight, or vipassana, which means to be aware of impermanence, or aware of the various states, be aware of feelings, awareness of mental states, and awareness of the dharmas.

[26:58]

or the various practices. And the combination of these two is necessary in order to have the balance. Insight gives us some knowledge. And samadhi actually gives us the calmness to understand and to go actually beyond the knowledge. But it's necessary to have both, because if you just have samadhi, you may gain some wonderful feeling, but you won't understand it so well.

[28:03]

You don't know why you're doing it. Why am I sitting Zazen? Or why are we practicing? It may feel good to you, you may have some very highly concentrated state of mind, but you won't know why you're doing what you're doing. If you ask somebody, why are you sitting Zazen? Why do you practice? What is this about? Well, I don't know, it just feels good, or it makes me comfortable, or it makes me calm, or something. But you don't know why, what the goal is, what you're doing. So, we should, at the same time that we have absorption, we should also have understanding and know where we are. If you, when you sit in Zazen, it's pretty obvious when you let the mental states appear that one state after another appears and you see how

[29:28]

the impermanence of mental states, how nothing lasts, no mental state lasts for very long. Even if you develop it, it's still always changing. And just watching the breath, coming and going, constantly coming and going. without even any effort. Breath just comes and goes without effort. You don't even have anything to do with it. Just some universal activity. Just the activity of the universe. In the same way your thoughts are. Just the activity of the universe. And your Zazen is just the activity of the universe.

[30:31]

When you just let go of everything and watch breath come and go, watch thoughts come and go, watch feelings come and go, and just allow yourself to be that. Allow yourself to be return to your original nature without interfering, with no attachment appreciating everything that happens, moment after moment, with no attachment.

[31:34]

If you love someone, you know, it looks like your love is continuous, but actually you're re-establishing that on each moment. It looks like it's one long process. one long thing, but you actually reconstitute that on every moment, re-establish it on each moment. If you hate someone, you constantly re-establish that on each moment. Looks continuous. Things look continuous, but they're actually also discontinuous. moment by moment we establish something. And we can disestablish it. Anyway, in our life we have lots of choice.

[33:03]

In some way we have no choice at all. And in another way, everything is up to us. You can do whatever you want with your life. And at the same time, you have no choice. Kind of a funny dichotomy. So, Today, I would like us to practice mindfulness in a very concentrated way and encourage each other's practice.

[34:19]

I just want to say one more thing. The important thing is to find the balance. If you work too hard, you get overstimulated and tied up. And if you don't work hard enough, your effort doesn't come to anything. So, look for that middle place where you have good, solid effort. and yet without overdoing it. And don't get too loose or too tight.

[35:16]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ