Jeff and Roy. Thank you. Is it going? Okay, it's going. Yesterday was the 43rd anniversary of me becoming ordained as a Zen priest. And a few days, about a month before that, was the 70th year since I came out of my mother into the heat of Mississippi. And I wanted to express my gratitude for all the people who made donations to buy an iPad for me. I think somebody thought that actually I wanted an iPad and knew that I would never buy one because I'd have to go to the store, which I have a hard time getting to stores.

[01:24]

Earlier today I asked you to please observe the breathing and the posture and how the breathing and posture interact. I thought it would be good if we all worked on that today, together. The name of this temple is No Abode. It could also be called No Dwelling, or Unsupported.

[02:39]

This name comes from the teachings on perfect wisdom. These teachings say that if you wish to realize perfect awakening in order to benefit all beings, then it would be good for you to practice the perfection of wisdom. The beings who wish to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings are like the historical Buddha. The historical Buddha Shakyamuni wanted to realize true awakening in order to help all beings be free of suffering. He called himself a Bodhisattva as he worked towards realizing enlightenment.

[03:51]

So we now call those who wish to work towards the same enlightenment in order to benefit suffering beings and liberate them, we call those beings Bodhisattvas. They aspire to enlightenment of the Buddha and they aspire to the perfection of wisdom, which is the mother of Buddha's enlightenment. And then, in order to practice the perfection of the wisdom, we are encouraged to produce, to generate a mind that has no abode. A mind that doesn't dwell in anything, that doesn't dwell in colors, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, or any kind of mental activity.

[05:02]

The Bodhisattva mind which enters into the perfection of wisdom is a mind which doesn't abide anywhere, doesn't abide in anything. That's the name of this temple, that non-abiding. The Zen tradition is a tradition that wishes to take care of and promote this perfection of wisdom. It's a tradition which wishes to promote and nourish a mind that has no abode. Because this is the mind of the perfection of wisdom. And so the Zen tradition wants to promote the practice of a mind which doesn't dwell or cling to anything.

[06:15]

And this mind is the mind of wisdom which is the mother of the enlightenment, the mother of the Buddhas. So this practice of non-dwelling is a meditation practice which can be done in the midst of all activities. And all activities can be performed in the midst of this meditation. So the meditation can be done in the midst of activities and activities can be done in the midst of the meditation. There's no difference really between our activities, our daily worldly activities.

[07:18]

There's no difference between them and Zen practice or the practice of enlightenment. And so one of the ways we can realize this is to find this mind of no abode. So we realize that they're the same, there's no difference. And we realize you can practice the Buddha's way in the midst of human activities and human activities can be living in the midst of Buddha's practice. So the question is, does it work? Check it out. Does it work to actually be aware of your breathing? We are breathing one way or another. We do have a body one way or another all day long.

[08:21]

So in all of our activities, in the midst of all of our activities there's breathing. And in the midst of breathing are all our activities. So there already is this mutual inclusion. In the midst of all of our activities there's a body. In the midst of all of our bodies there's our activity. So can we actually observe this breathing body which is there all the time and in which everything lives, can we actually observe that all day long? Could such a meditation practice be one that includes all of our activities? And could all of our activities include that meditation? That's why I asked you to look at that, to see.

[09:26]

Could you observe this as you went through the morning? And I imagine that you could somewhat. And I imagine that you forgot somewhat. And then you remembered. And then you lost track of that observation. If we're cultivating the mind of no abode, all activities can occur within that. And if we're involved in activities, the mind of no abode can also live there too. So this meditation, this basic meditation on being aware of our power, our posture, and then being aware of how is breathing, that basic set can set the stage for all of our activities

[10:37]

and also can set the stage for wondering and contemplating what a non-abiding mind would be. So, we can directly meditate on a mind of no abode, a mind that doesn't cling to anything. But it may be helpful to set the stage or set the frame of reference for these practices by just trying to develop a consistent, a steady awareness of posture. And it's helpful to notice that the posture is breathing. Or you can also say to develop a steady awareness of breathing.

[11:39]

And the breathing is occurring with a body. I'm not talking about breathing that's not connected to a body. I'm talking about the breathing of a body. The body breathing. I'm saying, how about taking care of that body breathing? You've got it? We've got it, how about taking care of it? Why not? And you might say, actually I can't think of any reason not to, except that I don't. But that's not a reason not to, that's just a lack of training. In order to be able to take care of some things, we have to train ourselves to take care of them. And that's not a shortcoming in us, that's just normal. All the Buddhas had to train themselves in taking care of their bodies and breathing.

[12:40]

And they got good at it. They got consistent, they became consistent by training. It's possible that we could become consistent too. But even before we're consistent, even to do it some today is still wonderful. If you can be somewhat aware of this breath, which is working with your body, and this body, which is working with the breath. And there are many ways for the body to work with the breath, and the breath to work with the body. But I'm not actually talking about, I'm not actually recommending ways for your body to work with the breath. I'm not, today. And I'm not talking about ways for your breath to work with your body. I'm talking about being aware of the way your body is working with your breath.

[13:41]

Because it is. And the way the breath is working with your body, because it is. I'm talking about being mindful of what you're actually living now, rather than telling you what you should be living. And I'm wishing that you will do that, and then you will discover what your body and breath are doing together. And you will discover not just once, but you'll discover moment after moment. And as you discover moment after moment, you may discover patterns. And I'm not telling you what patterns you should discover. I'm just saying, as you do, I say that will promote discovering the mind that does not dwell anywhere. The mind of perfect wisdom. I have a memory that just a moment ago, I reached down and picked up a teacup.

[14:52]

And as I was reaching for it, I was watching my posture, but I wasn't noticing my breathing as I reached for it. But as I lifted the cup up, I started to notice my breathing. And as I started to become aware of my breathing with my posture, I recovered from noticing the posture without also noticing how it's working with the breathing. How about while you were just saying that, were you noticing your posture? She asked. And when I said she asked, I noticed, and I'm noticing again, my breathing with my posture. And when I was, in the case you were asking, I did notice. I was watching my breathing while I was talking to you. And I am now too, I'm exhaling. And now I'm exhaling again.

[15:59]

And I am exhaling again. And now I'm exhaling again. I'm doing an experiment of speaking on my exhale. And now I'm speaking on my exhale again, and I'm just going to mention to you that there were a number of inhales where I didn't speak. But this is an exhale. So, if I practice this, you will be able to, if I practice this, you will be able to know how I'm breathing when I'm talking.

[17:05]

And there will be a rhythm in my speech. And on the exhale, I pray that you can tolerate this rhythm. And I'm laughing on the exhale too. I don't laugh on exhale. I discovered. I get air so I can laugh again. Is there a question? Can you help me understand how to do that without making it into a multitasking kind of thing? I heard her say,

[18:22]

can you say something about how I can do this practice without multitasking? Two ways come up to mind for starters. That's a little multi. One way of doing this without multitasking is not to multitask. Just watch your posture and breathing, and don't do anything else. The other way is to do this practice and multitask. But multitask without losing the basic practice.

[19:25]

But practice wise, or practically speaking, it will be difficult to keep my feet planted in awareness of posture and breathing, and multitask, until I'm actually well planted. But once I'm well planted, I can start to multitask, and I can be aware of whether I lose my basic, my kind of like rock-bottom frame of body and breathing, whether I lose it when I start multitasking. And if so, under some circumstances, like today, you can let go of the multitasking. You have my permission. And go back to the basic frame,

[20:38]

the basic conceptual frame of posture and breathing. Oh, also, posture and breathing here and now. And when I'm well settled in posture and breathing now, here, I can start to think about, for example, other places and other times, and other tasks. And as I start to do it, I can also see if I've lost now my ground, my basic mindfulness. And if I have, I might say, well, let go of that, those other tasks, and come back to this simple place that's very clear. This is what I mean by now, this is what I mean by here, or this is what is now for me.

[21:45]

Now. And this is what's here for me. Here. And this is the body that's here, that's breathing. And based on this, when I'm settled and concentrated here, it's possible then to multitask from this place. And you can multitask about things which are really good to multitask about, like the infinite realms of the teachings. But to get involved in these teachings may be most beneficial when the involvement is based on being settled in the basic situation of being calm and present here and now with the body breathing. From that place now you can explore, well, what would it be like not to abide,

[22:48]

not to dwell in this body? When I first start meditating on the posture that's breathing and the breathing posture, there may be dwelling. I don't have to look at that right away. First, get my feet on the ground, now look to see, is there any dwelling? And then again, I'm here breathing, this posture is breathing, and then again, what is not dwelling? And potentially, I'm completely here, or there's complete presence here and now with the breathing posture, and this very deep practice

[23:52]

of perfect wisdom, of not dwelling, is actually being practiced at the same time. Sorry. In the Heart Sutra we say that the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva of great compassion, was practicing deeply the perfection of wisdom. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was wholeheartedly present with her body breathing. In this way she was deeply practicing, not abiding in her body breathing. She was breathing in and out with the body.

[24:58]

She was breathing in and out with other mental activity, wholeheartedly, deeply, not abiding. Is it like a dance from a place of breathing stillness? It is like a dance, and this is a dance which I'm encouraging us to observe. The dance is going on. It's a question of observing it, and noticing that that is a basic dance. There are other dances which are not always going on. Like thinking of the future is not always going on. But we actually are always thinking of the present.

[26:02]

We do maintain the thought of the present. Our basic situation is the idea of now. We actually maintain that. And so therefore we can think of the future and not get lost in it, because we know where to go back to. And we can think of the past. In the present we can think of the past, and it's not so dangerous because we can come back to the present, because it's here. And we can think of other bodies, and so on. That's part of the dance too. That's part of the dance too. And to appreciate that dance, it's good to be aware of the basic one. Excuse me, can I mention something? On an exhale? I can drink on inhales.

[27:09]

She said she doesn't get it. You're not going to get this. You don't get the mind of no abode. You don't get non-dwelling. But you can practice it. You can practice it, but you don't get... This particular practice you don't get to get. You're doing the practice of not getting anything. So you're not going to get it. That makes sense to me. And things can make sense without getting them. Or getting them. If you get them, no, no, no. If you don't get them, that's closer to not abiding. But you can understand without grasping it. Without dwelling in it. How can you do the... This is the part that I think I don't get, that I don't have to get. When you're doing a practice consciously of being in your body and breathing,

[28:13]

that's dwelling in that practice. I don't mean to get semantic in this. That's enough. I got it. And I said that before. If you do this practice of basically being mindful and observing a body in the present, that's breathing, if you do that practice, that doesn't mean when you first start you're not going to be dwelling in that practice. You probably will be. Because you're not yet at the point of deeply practicing mindfulness of your posture and breathing. As it becomes deeper and deeper, more and more wholehearted, you will reach not dwelling. In the meantime, you may notice some dwelling. And notice how that works, how the dwelling works. And you might dwell in noticing that too. We're setting the stage for realizing the mind that enters perfect wisdom,

[29:19]

the wholeheartedness, the deep practice. We start with a superficial version of it. Matter of fact, we start with a version that we forget to do quite a bit of the time. But I want to ask you, when you do this practice, are you enjoying it? Because I think this should be immediately enjoyable, that you're mindful. Even though you might be mindful of some difficulty, at least you may be happy that you're aware of your breathing body. And then you can say, oh, but I notice there's some clinging, some dwelling. Okay, we'll have to go through that quite a bit. But at the deeper levels, we will finally not be dwelling in this body and breathing, this breathing body. That's where we're heading. That's the point of this practice, is to make this mind,

[30:22]

which is devoted to the welfare of all beings, without dwelling in welfare or devotion or all beings. But we start with some dwelling in this wonderful practice, these wonderful aspirations. So we start the Bodhisattva at the beginning of her practice. She dwells in her vows, her great vows. She vows to realize great compassion, which means she vows to realize non-abiding. But for a long time she is dwelling, and she's kind to that. And patient with that. And she's clear of where she's going. She's heading towards this great Buddha mind that doesn't dwell in anything, and at the same time is doing this practice of non-dwelling in order to benefit all beings.

[31:23]

It facilitates the work of compassion to not be dwelling in the compassion or the beings for whom the compassion is being practiced. Yes? Can I ask you a question when I'm exhaling? When I listen to you, I perceive that your experience has a lot of space. Like when you're describing this practice, it comes from a very open space. This is my perception from here. But when I try to do it, the small mind tends to control the breathing or tends to control the experience. So you imagine that when I hear you say that the small mind is trying to control the experience,

[32:26]

you imagine that I have a spacious attitude towards that. How about you having the same spacious attitude towards the small mind that's trying to control? It comes and goes. But there could be a generosity towards this small mind that's trying to control the process, right? Yes. So you notice that, and so once you notice that, that's an opportunity for generosity. Which you imagine that I would be wanting to practice with such a thing, right? Yes. So that's what I would recommend to practice when you notice that somebody is trying to get control of the practice of watching the breathing. So I didn't mention that in order to be successful at this practice of observing the breathing body,

[33:26]

we have to also be generous towards any kind of grasping towards this very practice. So we're trying to be generous as we approach this practice so that as we start to do it, if we notice any grasping, we can be generous towards the grasping. And then, again, do this practice more and more with less and less grasping, even while the grasping is going on. So the grasping activity can occur within this, and this can occur within the grasping. And then, in that way, we become free of the grasping. So I've been encouraging this practice now for a while, and as I confess to you, I notice sometimes I forget to do the practice that I'm encouraging.

[34:33]

And I'm also reporting to you that I'm blessed by not hating myself for being forgetful. I'm more like kind to the little guy who keeps forgetting. Sometimes I treat myself like I'm my grandfather, or like I'm my grandson, or my granddaughter, who forgets to do the practice that she's recommending. And that makes me want to go try again, rather than, if you're going to be mean to me, I give up. Just a second, I'll be right with you. Yes? When you mentioned that to practice wholeheartedly, and practice deep and wholeheartedly,

[35:39]

I don't think we can abide. There is nothing to abide if we are not deep enough. That if you practice wholeheartedly, you can't abide? Is that what you said? Yes. I agree, I agree. So, this place is called No Abode. It could also be renamed Wholehearted. If we practice wholeheartedly, if we practice deeply, if we practice the perfection of wisdom deeply, which means we practice form deeply, sound deeply, color deeply, taste deeply, we practice everything deeply, when it's really deep, there's no abiding. Yes. I think I heard you say something like, if you're paying attention to your breath and your posture,

[36:44]

and then you said a few words and it ends up in joy. And I was noticing when I was doing as much as I did of that, when we were sitting this morning, that I didn't feel particularly joyful, and I didn't even feel like I was on my way to feeling joyful. So, and then you... And then you talked about doing that. I may not be feeling joyful, and yet I might feel joyful that I'm aware that I'm not feeling joyful, and I could be feeling pain, and be joyful that I'm remembering to observe my posture and breathing. Because although I'm in pain, I'm in the most basic situation to handle that pain. So I feel joyful that I'm in the best,

[37:49]

I'm in my basic position to deal with my pain. Sometimes the pain drops away, but it may go on. But the breathing body is there with the pain, and me being aware of the breathing body helps me take care of the pain. But it doesn't mean I don't have pain. And I'm joyful that I'm in the best position to help with the pain. Just like if someone else is suffering, I'm joyful to be in the best position, best posture to help them. And the best posture to help them turns out to be the one that's happening. And that was just for the moment. Now the next one that's happening, that's the one that's being given to me to help now. So I'm grateful to have a body that's breathing, and this body, if I attend to it,

[38:52]

now I'm in the place to serve suffering beings. It doesn't mean there's no suffering. It means I'm joyfully receiving this opportunity to help. I'm not skipping over my body that's breathing. And we do that sometimes. We see someone suffering, and we leap to help them before we take care of the helper, the breathing body, which is going to be the base to help them. We think, I don't have time to check into this breathing body, I've got to go help them first. But as I said the other night, the Buddha is saying, no, don't try to help other people before you are present. First, be present. Even though you have this instant thing of wanting to jump over there and help them, be present with that. Don't let the wish to help

[39:52]

distract you from being present with the wish to help. And there's a breathing body that's there with the wish to help. And if you take care of that, you can facilitate this wonderful wish. But if you skip over your breathing body in which this wish arises, you'll be less able to help in the way you want to help. But again, it's quite common that we impulsively leave our breathing body to help. We have to train ourselves to take care of that and from there, from there, do all these helping things. And do all those helping things from there. But we have to train ourselves. Otherwise, we feel like, oh, I'm being selfish to take care of my posture before I help the person. We have to train ourselves to say, this will help the person. The person wants us to be grounded.

[40:53]

They don't want us to be flying through the air to take a speck of dust out of their eye. They want us to be grounded and present when we do that. Unless they say otherwise. And then we listen to that. And we listen to them saying, no, I don't want you to be grounded from a grounded place. And then we can say, okay, for you, I won't be grounded. From a grounded place, I won't be grounded for you. Whatever you want. I just want to mention, if I may, before too long, Fred Astaire. Fred Astaire. About Ginger Rogers. Just Fred Astaire. Just let me, just Fred Astaire, okay? Fred Astaire dances with Ginger Rogers. And Fred Astaire has his feet on the ground while he supports Ginger Rogers

[41:55]

to multitask. She's doing all these fabulous things in the air. And he's supporting her to do all these fabulous things. But he has his feet on the ground so that she can fly. She doesn't put her feet on the ground very often so that he can fly. But to some extent she does. But mostly it's he's planted and then she can do these amazing things that she does. So we can multitask if we have our feet on the ground. And the multitasking can be really beautiful. But there is this thing of having the body there which supports these other things. Sometimes both simultaneous. No, the multitasking and the groundedness are simultaneous. And sometimes they're simultaneous grounding.

[42:57]

Sometimes Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire are both just standing there grounded. And there's no multitasking. They're just there together present. And they're not doing anything other than being present. And that's great too. But that's not what we usually want to see. We want to see these things, these amazing things that are possible because somebody's grounded. We want to see people apparently fly through the air. But that's only possible because... It is possible to fly through the air without somebody being grounded. But then Ginger gets hurt. Because Fred's feet are on the ground she can fly and land safely. Because from the groundedness he's not distracted by this and she's not either. She's connected to her ground through him. And he's connected to his multitasking through her. So together they can do this amazing feat. But both of them are doing their job. So the other one can do their job.

[43:58]

So she's flying so that he can support her to fly. He's on his ground so she can... It's mutual. But the first thing to do is learn how to stand on the ground. Then learn how to fly. Yes? So I appreciate this study of breathing in and out. And it seems there are many rhythms in our body and in our life that we can use as a similar touchstone, as a similar foundation. And one that I seem to find really good to try to remember is sleeping and waking. And the relationship of that to my presence and studying. How am I sleeping? And how awake am I? So I just wanted to ask if that's another sort of rhythm

[45:00]

that we could use these sort of studies with. Yes. And then the question would be... You can experiment with this. When you study the relationship between sleeping and waking, when you study that, you can look to see does it help you study it to be aware of your breathing body first? Does the awareness of the breathing body facilitate your study of the sleeping? Because many people actually, I think, do study the relationship between sleeping and waking, which is, I think, a good study. But they aren't necessarily also simultaneously grounded in awareness of posture and breathing. So you check that out. Let me know what you find out. I do actually spend some time observing the relationship between sleep and waking. It's one of my hobbies.

[46:01]

And I vow to study how that practice goes if I'm aware of my posture and breathing, and if I'm not. Check it out. Thank you for coming to practice the perfection of wisdom. Thank you for coming to practice deeply the perfection of wisdom. And if there's no further questions, we could have a little lunch meditation. And there's an opportunity during lunch to watch the breathing body, to watch the body that's breathing while you eat,

[47:07]

and see if you can coordinate your eating, include your eating activity in mindfulness of posture and breathing. I'm going to try it. How about you? May our intention deeply extend to every being and place with the true method of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable.

[48:11]

I vow to become it.

[48:15]

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