So yesterday morning, gave me the opportunity to talk about . And this is something to explore in all the senses. So tonight I was more involved with the listening, except for me, which I hate to speak. Okay. So, but all of, can you hear me okay, anyone? Hold on a moment. Yeah, so I want to continue talking about meditation, zazen, and Dogen's general instructions for zazen, for penzazengi.

[01:12]

He says, the zazen I speak of is not learning meditation, except in the Dharmagate of the pose of bliss, practice realization of totally culminated awakening. So, what does it mean that the sasa is not learning meditation? Well, commonly we refer to sasa as meditation, but technically, in early Buddhism, meditation involves various techniques that people learned. So it's not for all of subtypes in. So just to do a little background in terms of the onomatopoeia, the transcendent practices in osteopathic patients. Effort, enthusiasm, meditation.

[02:16]

Jhana, pardon me, once translated as the reflection or practice of meditation. Sometimes it's called samadhi. But jhana is the word that was transliterated into Chinese as chan. The chan of that school, it's named after that person. Everybody said, oh yeah, those people meditate a lot. But technically, And then Chan in Chinese is translated into Japanese as Zen. But Jhana technically predates Buddhism. It's a system involving four stages of mental purification. So it's involved in stages, it's involved in mental purification. And I'm just going to say what this is for background. This is not Zaza. But this was practiced by the Buddha. And can be, and that's been practiced by some people, and can be helpful.

[03:30]

In the context, it's awesome. So the first stage is transcending desire. That produces a heightened apprehension of form, element of form. The next one is And this leads to states of meditative bliss and joy, which, you know, some people may experience in Sashim, sometimes, even sometimes in the period of Zazen. But then the next stage is to let go of enjoyment. Enjoyment is forsaken for equanimity. Then the next stage, reception of all of these forms are chips that in concentration are formless qualities, which leads to heightened awareness. Now, this is not technically body science for practice.

[04:33]

It can't be helpful for that. But this is... what's called, what Dogen is referring to as learning meditation. And there are various other types of meditation programs. There's meditation objects that one can focus on. And there are libraries full of descriptions of these meditative techniques. Dogen says this is So, the practice of samadhi, or that concentration, generally is just about settling, studying the mind.

[05:37]

This is the This is part of the practice. So our meditative practice is just to settle, just to calm, just to find our steadiness. And our sixth ancestor platform sutra and talks about samadhi and prajna. It's something we can experience. Maybe all of us here have experienced it in some way or another. Your body-mind state is concentrated. Samadhi is just concentration, but it's a way of describing it. When you're settled.

[06:40]

Very naturally. So this is what this is talking about. That. Settling and Samadhi and Vajrayana work together. And again, as you're sitting. It's very natural that whatever is on your mind, whatever issue you are working with, This grief is not for this lifetime. Some insight, some prashna, some awareness. So prashna is often translated as wisdom. I think more literally it's wisdom. That self insight arises when your body and mind are settled. That's very natural. And these insights are to be helpful.

[07:50]

And it's not that you have to kind of have a notepad by your sheet and send it right to them. Once they are, once they're inside ROSE, they are pressed when you need to recall them or when they need to recall you in ROSE. So this is part of the process inside that. But again, Dogen says the zazen I speak of is not learning meditation, learning meditation techniques. And I would say that sometimes people are doing zazen. Zazen is objectless meditation. There's no particular object of concentration. But again, my book is full of concentration objects. Sound. But we could work with eyesight, as we were talking about just a moment ago.

[09:03]

We can go on to phrases from the teaching we can work with. I say work with a colloquial language, which is there and present. We don't have to think about it to figure it out, but it's part of the insight that arises. Now, it's okay if you want to go and, from a modern perspective, I would say, it's okay if you want to go and study and learn about the fiction techniques. I think that can be helpful. But it's helpful in this wider context of sasa, of shikantasa, of objectless connotation. where you're not dependent on some particular object of concentration or focus. And then open awareness. So this objectless meditation is simply just to sleep.

[10:10]

Because by the time you sleep, pay attention. There are some schools that say they want you to pay attention harsh, strong military way. It's even a stick if you start to close your eyes. But so does that traditional factors to it. It's more of a gentle kind of settling and opening. This dynamic, it involves continued awareness and action. with head detection, notice it, even when we're sleeping, notice what that's like. Or with our minds, running around on the lines, rampant, just noticing that that's happening, not trying to do anything with it. So when I said insights arise, it doesn't mean that you have to track them, or follow them, or figure out anything.

[11:15]

It's this open awareness. Apart from any particular technique, just pay attention to what's happening in your body. Your heart, your mind, your eyes, your beliefs, your sense of what's there, physical sensation, shoulders, or your knees, or your butt, or whatever. Feeling what you're feeling. Just be present. So, this leads me to the chant we did tonight, the Five Posts of Silent Immigration. By Ongjo Chantre, who is a great Jharka uncle, so I can't remember the first name right now. And... This Silent Illumination is considered a whole lot of Avalokiteshvara's teaching.

[12:21]

He doesn't actually mention that phrase very much. Though he doesn't mention it, he talks more about just going through it, continuing to open up the way. I want to go through just a few of the lines in Five Books for Silent Illumination. And I think this does reflect this object-less meditation. And as I've studied it, the background of Dogen, which is Sado, which is Sado in Japanese, Sado tradition, back even before Dongshan, the founder of lineage, went back to Shito, and other ancestors for Dongshan. There's a kind of consistency. And the consistency includes this open, just sitting, serene meditation that we've been doing.

[13:31]

Again, if you want to just send yourself a meditation, it's okay. It's not the big one. It may help you in your Anyway, I want to go through some of this. Actually, if I was translating this now, it's not a silent elimination, but I actually prefer translation serenely. Anyway, that character. So the first line, and a few people in the hall, if you want to be active chapters and look at the text, you're welcome to, but you're not welcome to. First line, sirens and serene, forgetting words. Light, clarity appears before you. So this is our object, this conversation. Sirens and serene, forgetting words. Forgetting words implies to me going beyond subject to object. Our language is about subject to object.

[14:37]

Forward. Forgetting words, forgetting language. Just allow bright clarity to appear. So I'm not going to go through the entire poem, which is one I've written for a long time. Poetic nature, which is like the crane reeds going through a nice yard wash for a father and a daughter. But I wanted to point to some particular lines. When wonder exists in serenity, All achievement is provided in our attention. So this sense of wonder arises when we are set off on the path. That achievement is provided in our attention. So, you know, all of these systems for so-called learning meditation, for training in particular

[15:39]

techniques of meditative awareness, you know, and lead us to feel like we've achieved something in each and every stage of this program. But in this Serene Illumination, one very distinct sense of knowledge that goes with what A couple lines further, it says, this is the way in which our generation and the origin of subtle radiance. Subtle radiance is not the way of talking about this. This is what I mean. The successors have actually . It is the subtle radiance. Vision penetrating into subtle radius, leaving the call opportunity.

[16:42]

Upright and inclined, yield to each other. The upright and inclined is an important part of centers of teaching. You can't draw it all the way back. So upright, it implies the ultimate. Aspect of the artist. The only side perspective leaning over to of all beings, but also the particulars. Not just all being separate from us from ourselves too. But it implies this dynamic. Interactivity that it is. That was. I'll take this next question. So again, I'm just gonna pick out a few lines. Only silence is the supreme speech. Talked about from all here to the last screen.

[17:47]

In fact, the spirit of silence was the supreme speech. Only elimination is the universal response. Just the universal response. It's the basic response to unlike Spurl. Responding without falling into achievement, speaking without involving listeners. Sometimes one's just a listener, found without a chair, not falling into achievement. It's not about who's is something that is important. Say such a thing. Or we even do that with ourselves and say, oh, that was a good period. That was a good period. All those judgments are exactly what it's about.

[18:49]

It's not about achieving something. Just be present. Then there's these important ones. If illumination of the blood's serenity, aggressiveness of feelings, then the other side of that, a couple of lines down, is serenity of the blood's illumination. Well, can you explain some of the ways to have done it? So what's that kind of thing? How could there be ways to have done it? How could illumination? be too aggressive. Well, this is again about this upright and even though we're talking about this unconscious silent illumination, which is to me basically the same as how I'm just sitting, there's a history to this in terms of Buddhist teaching. So serene illumination echoes the

[19:49]

Chinese Chantai school's teaching of . That goes back to India. So that's again, stopping . And they point to two sides of our results. It's not about, you know, this is again what Puget's was talking about this morning, just being aware of our eyes, our sight. It's still not there. Duncan talks about steadiness, but not like trying to figure anything out, but just be present in the middle of it, in the middle of this dynamic.

[20:50]

So, there's these two sides, serenity and illumination. This is the dive post of serenity and illumination. So, illumination is, I'll start the other way around. Serenity is our settlement. Peacefulness. Very important. And that can involve some discipline, some focus. So if your mind is wandering around, it can be helpful to focus on self-attention, focus on self-education, focus on items of the department, not the law. Now to try and define that or figure everything out, just this general open awareness So that's a kind of focus.

[21:54]

And then the other side of the rationale or foreknowledge is illumination, awareness. This is the spaciousness of the unconscious. Baptist discussions of both of it, you know, through his day, that inflation and spaciousness. Openness, boundlessness. Just this open awareness. So these are two sides of what happens in the Zazen. They're settling, and they're not separate with that. That's important, they're not separate. They're settling with the economy, And there's openness, awareness. So, unconsciousness is illumination of black serenity.

[22:56]

If your mind is just full of insights, not settled, you become aggressive. Serenity reflects illumination. It becomes working. Dharma consciousness. So, there's this balancing. It's middle way, which is so much a part of all of this. And it's okay to be aware of these two sides. And it's not that you should try and get one and get rid of the other, or, you know. But just be aware when you're As I said yesterday, it's the last time people have heard of Zazen instruction, at least as of Zazen. Because we're always kind of looking at, what is the Zazen?

[23:58]

It includes both. Satellite and this space system. So, So that's kind of the main thing I wanted to say, and I want to hear your comments and questions. I'll just mention a couple more points. Rulers stays in the kingdom. The general goes beyond the frontiers. So there's the settleness, staying in the central channels of it, centrally. And this could refer to Buddhist horoscopes too, you know, metaphorically. The general goes beyond the frontiers. So there's the subtleness. Just sitting like that. And then there's going beyond the frontiers, opening up the surface of space. And the last one, the ultra-cells, just transmit it in all directions.

[25:06]

Share it with everyone. without desiring to gain credit. It's not personal, you know. It's not about you. I mean, it includes you, of course, but it's just, you know, it's just this ancient tradition that goes back to our ancestors. That's just the song of it. And I started to find the difference in saying this as it's being mine. blue sky does not, after the white clouds drift away. This is my way of talking about this. The why of the sky does not move. Thoughts come, feelings come, sensations come, and vice versa. So yes, thoughts and feelings arise, thoughts of God, which describe the sky. So anyway, this is a little bit about our practice of

[26:09]

So that's not an object of temptation. So thank you for taking away the text. And I'm just interested in hearing comments, questions, responses. Okay. Those last lines reminded me of the last lines of The Son of the Precious Beerus. I think, you know, can you say more about, because it's such a power, more and more I've been feeling it's such a powerful That image, ministers serve their lords.

[27:13]

Like you said, that sort of dance between upright and inclined. But it's... Rulers, as far as I understand it, at the time that these texts were circulating, had a responsibility to the community. So they could stay in their castles And, you know, but there was this conversation. So there was this centeredness, but responsibility. So it wasn't like they were just, like, hiding out there, you know? And that everybody had sort of these drama positions that were dancing around. I just think it's very... Rich, and it can be hard to drop sometimes because you think of ministers and rulers, you know, we don't want those in the United States. But, you know, I mean, so I don't want to comment more on the historical meanings of that or just like.

[28:17]

Thank you very much, yeah. No, it's not that you've got to study all this stuff and memorize all these teaching columns, but they're there as resources for us. And there's definitely this possibility between Tsukiyoshi going back to Dogen, going back to Hongzhi, going back to the success history, going back to... to and so these teaching poems. So we, these are all part, these are part of our liturgy. Chants that we chant sometimes so we can find them. And our chant book are on the website of the teachings of the chants and they're all there. So yeah, the song of the But anyway, that, yeah, totally is part of this.

[29:22]

octopus meditation. So yeah, and Zen is the Chinese school who teaches through nature, energy, and through poetry. So yeah, these teachers are wonderful, precious words. It's not about going and reading that much, some English classes, trying to figure out what each one of us is. Just their songs. All these books still have lyrics. So thank you for this. Other comments, questions about any of this way? I actually also had a question about the dual mirror samadhi. I was hoping you could say something about client and upright, because I would like to know more about that.

[30:49]

In the dual mirror samadhi, it says the illumination hexagram and client and upright interact. Piled up, they make three. The permutations make five, which just sounds like Greek to me. So maybe you could shed some light on that. Is this the I Ching? There is a reference to it in the book. But so in my book, Justice is Induction on the Practice of Succession, there's a whole chapter on the Samadhi, and I'm actually going to talk about that. But decline and upright is a way of talking about principle and knowledge. But this is about the two sides of reality. It relates to the two truths from the Varsha. But it's... So, poetically, they talk about this upright and the upright. The upright is the ultimate truth, the universal truth, which be expressed in the Sabra.

[31:59]

The upright is the particular truth, Anyway, and the Song of the Gentleman's Body leads to this teaching that Gokushan first presented and has been studied throughout, set up in such a history of the five degrees or the five ranks, which is this five-fold way in which they interact. So the point is not to learn some specific technique theory, but that upright, non-interact, that the ultimate and the particular do interact. So our sense of the personal truth that sometimes arises is also expressed, we've talked about this here, expressed in our everyday life, in our everyday world. Someone was telling me about this the other day.

[33:05]

That's the point about practice. Practice is to get high. There are various ways of getting high. That's what you want. But the practice is to realize the ultimate universal truth, the upright, and then integrate it with our everyday activity. This is a lifelong practice. And we never get it perfect. because it's a little wobbly, but it's about the middle way. It's about finding ways. And it turns out that the early Sojo people, which I don't know if Sean expresses this, found that there was a five-fold progression about how the upright in particular interact. There's a chapter on that in the book too, but it's about, the point is, how do we express Each of us, our own size and model. A little wider, serene connection.

[34:07]

In our everyday activity, in the world, in Chicago, out on the streets, in our job, in our work, with our neighbors. And this is a lifelong practice. It's not about just reaching. So it's not about if this is illumination. Illumination and serenity is exactly the same thing. But there's this These rays are talking about this little light. I don't know if that helps. Very much so. Thank you. You're welcome. If anybody online had questions, I think at some point Joe may have one. Maybe not. Nicholas had a question. Yeah, it ties into what we were saying about the ruler and the general, the history, where this text comes from. And, you know, Tim, he makes literally verses

[35:12]

kind of symbolically. And, you know, to me, maybe I'm wrong, which certainly I am, this is kind of a mythocritic, you know, teaching that, you know, if I take it literally, it reads like yesterday's newspaper, right? But when I take it symbolically, how does it land in my body, in my mind, in my life? how does it point to these intra-psychic rulers within, generals within, all the things that are in this, right? And so it's just helpful for me to view these texts, you know, to try to personalize them or identify with them. Yeah, so that's not a literal thing.

[36:14]

Like, we'll take bio-literally, it's just, you know, kind of ridiculous, but there are lots of great stories and very mean things about it, if you look at it from a symbolic, philosophical view. Like this. So, ultimately, these are... you know, the mass mod, yeah, throughout centuries. So there's all this wisdom, detail, keys to, you know, awakening that have been cultivated over centuries, right? Now we've got to get over centuries. So it's just rich and, yeah, so I just wanted to throw that. Yes, I agree, Kent. So everything you just said applies also to the vast common literature.

[37:15]

But there's a side of that where it's metaphorical, psychological, if you will, and deep, but also literal. So I'm trying to think of an example that comes up that they'll be talking about through... I'm trying to say, read not to walk. Well, of course, we have to study that if we want to know our own walk. Of course, that's about seeing how... There's a lot I can say about that. That's about how we express... the landscape of the natural world, because we're part of nature, too. But also, to be known as a walker is a way in which that's literally true over a long period of time, not to go, not to shift, not to get higher or lower, depending on

[38:17]

or whatever. So I think, I'm not sure if that's a good example, but a lot of these stories, also in the verses, do, can be sort of archaic, or literal, and also, most importantly, as you said, metaphorically, there's an attempt to go back to, I don't know, shot, and whatnot, question, but there's this threat, particularly starting well-read, it's well-known, he was teaching in a lot of ways to the literati, to the upper class. He also helps the Peasants down the mountain. He said food down the mountain. Food was temple to feed peasants. Anyway, there's a line in here that may be common, may be

[39:22]

Mr. Ho offered shade to the emperor. Mr. Shotley wanted to expose this long story, this supposedly historical story about that, that this fellow Ho wanted to make an offer to the emperor. He brought this big rock, this jewel. Whoever brought it to the emperor, whatever. This isn't a joke. He had his leg just be cut. It's a punishment. But then later, Minister Zhang, the famous wise minister of Chinese law, opened and saw that it took too long to leave. Anyway, that's the kind of... I think historical reference that uses a lot. He likes that story.

[40:25]

So, yeah, there's already a metaphor. And it's about our own practice, part of my practice. But it also refers to particular events. Yeah, I was just thinking about that, which that they didn't understand. You don't have to be very local to grants. It's not a subaltern or a statutory answer. It's something literally. Exactly. Right. More examples of that. It's just time for one more question. Yes. So the... What if illumination neglects serenity and aggressiveness appears? Yeah. I feel like personally attacked by how accurate that is. Testimony. Lots of illumination, very little serenity, and then lots of aggressiveness. Yes.

[41:28]

Yes, yes. Thank you. We need both. And one of the things that happens... in Zazen, when you're giving yourself Zazen instruction, is to see when you're getting overexcited, because it incites your eyes, and settle that, with the in terms of the eyes, when it's over in your case. Or if you're feeling sick, it's straight ahead. You know, finding Zazen is this process of looking in balance, inner balance and physical balance, And it's a process that goes on. So, yeah, when you feel that, settle. So, yeah, that's a great example. I want to check off this because I recently watched this video from Tassajara in what, the 60th Tsukimochi opening to Ryokido is.

[42:40]

And in this video, the person sitting next to him, I think you could see such a difference in their you know, Rev was such a young person and having sat next to Rev. Just a few, yeah. Yeah, just, you know, younger than any of us, I think, but... Oh, yeah, younger than anybody else. And it was so... And having sat next to Rev, I see how young he is now. But it was so interesting to see Suzuki Roshi open his bowls so naturally and serenely and confidently. And... to see other people in the Zendo really struggling with that kind of aggression around it or spacing out. But you could see that enthusiasm for practice has an aggressive quality sometimes. So I'm going to sit this Sashin and not move, you know. So it's a really great point, I think. Thank you very much.

[43:40]

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