I don't know how loudly I can speak, so you may have to close the windows, but let's leave them for now and see. I had two wisdom teeth out recently, and they busted a hole into my sinus cavity when they took out one tooth. Excuse me for explaining. I find it more interesting than you do. But they've made this extra passageway. And also I'm trying to keep it dry so it will heal. And so I'm learning something about breathing, actually, because I'm always circulating my breathing through my sinuses more than I would usually. But having an extra passageway, it's rather a little disconcerting. and I can't speak quite so loudly. For those of you who are just here for the lecture, this is the first day of the Sashin and we have a new, not yet completed Zendo, which

[01:32]

Do we start sitting immediately after? Where's Dan? Do we start sitting immediately after? Ten-minute kihin. If you want. Oh, kihin in the zendo. I guess people can't go see the zendo. I was going to suggest you go see the zendo, but there will be kihin going on. It's not quite finished, so people will remember this sashin as the sashin in the half-finished zendo. It's rather wonderful, actually, the new Zenza. We should have an opening ceremony for it when it's finished. It gives the building a softer, more complete feeling. Usually in sesshins I start out by emphasizing zazen, our physical posture. Can you hear? No? Okay, I'll try to talk louder. Maybe you better close that.

[02:57]

I'll stop talking before it gets too warm in here. Usually in a Sashi I begin by speaking about Zazen posture, how we physically sit. And this session, maybe I'll speak about that some, but in this session I want to emphasize conduct, our physical, emotional conduct. Zazen is actually a rather good door for meditative absorption or some deeper awareness and the path to the door is your conduct. Zazen is a good door because it will give us a

[04:26]

experience of the limitations of our conduct. If you're not eating enough or eating too much you will tell by your zazen. It may not be so easy to tell just when you're eating but you can tell in zazen if your stomach is disturbed. And if you're too sleepy in zazen It means you're not sleeping enough. And if you have various conflicting emotions, you can't sit zazen. Zazen isn't going to force you into awareness. And Zazen just allows you to see what's wrong with your life situation. So Zazen, first of all, requires you to reorganize your life. And through your conduct you can eliminate, reduce conflicting emotions. So Zazen won't let you enter.

[06:10]

your deep meditation unless your life is in some kind of order. Recently I've been trying to speak about particular words. For those of you who haven't heard me speak about it, I think it would be rather confusing what I'm trying to say, but how particular words represent deities, I can say, but I don't think most of you will understand what I mean. So, how particular words convey something very deep or complete

[07:39]

about our activity. I spoke last time about what, you know, what's what. Dan did a small drawing of a bodhisattva sitting reading a book called What's What by Buddha, and a rather amusing drawing. But the word what has the sense of who and when, a kind of being in it. What is it? Suzuki Roshi used to speak about that. It also has wow in it. That what is it? It is what? That what, that initial looking at something has our most maybe open kind of experience. And today I'm speaking about just. Tsukiyoshi often said, just do it, you know, or just as it is, or just now.

[08:58]

on this moment, just do it. And just, in this sense, what he means is the dharmakaya, maybe the dharmakaya body of Buddha. Just, you know, means laws. In Latin, I think it means laws. Can you hear me still in the back? Okay. And it may mean, I don't know if there's a connection, but in Greek it may mean a one-seeded wheat. So, just the fruit of one thing. Just one thing at a time, maybe. So, what I'm speaking about, I started talking about some time ago and I hope to emphasize in this session. is the Blue Cliff Records story number four. And right now, the story about Ryutan and Tok-san. Now, I told you the story before about Ryutan and Tok-san, but for those of you who haven't heard it, I'll tell you again. Tok-san was someone who

[10:32]

was bringing what he thought were the laws of Buddhism on his back, you know, the Diamond Sutra, and he was some famous young expert, virtuoso on the Diamond Sutra. So he was carrying the Diamond Sutra to the South to straighten out those Zen masters in the South of China who said, no through scriptures. So he was carrying the Diamond Sutra and he came to southern China and stopped at a tea shop or a rice shop, maybe sold rice cakes or something. And a woman there There are several stories about women, quite developed women Zen teachers maybe, and in the stories they usually have a rice shop or a tea shop. They didn't need a Zen dome. It was just some direct opportunity to encounter people. So this woman looked at Tokusan and recognized somebody maybe quite alert.

[12:04]

He said, he'd been obviously walking a long way, and he said, I want something to refresh mind and body, or mind and spirit, or something like that. Actually, I think there's a play on the word light in the Chinese, but I don't know Chinese. So she said, what is that you're carrying? It's rather heavy, I suspect. And he said, it's the Diamond Sutra and commentaries. And she said, oh, don't you know in the Diamond Sutra it says, past mind is unattainable, present mind is unattainable, future mind is unattainable. With what mind will my rice cake refresh you. What mind will my rice cake refresh?" Anyway, Tok-san didn't know what to say. So, he was there for encounter, though. So he said, let me... Is there some good Zen teacher around here?

[13:38]

And she said, yes, there is Ryutang who lives near. You should go see him. So, he went to see Ryutang. Ryutang means something like dragon. Ryu is dragon. And tang is I can speak louder. Now watch it fall down with a crash. No, no, it's all right. Ryu means dragon and tan means pit or lake or something like that.

[14:55]

Toksang came to Ryutan's temple. He came in. And he was maybe a rather aggressive person, ready for anything. And he came in, you know. And before he got there he's already prepared not to meet anybody. So he says, said, I don't see a dragon or a lake." And Ryutan was just in hearing. He must have been near. And Ryutan said, just now you are in the midst of the dragon's lake or the dragon pit. Or he said, He meant, you are meeting Ryutan now in person. So I've been speaking about this at Tassajara, and what I want you to understand is, what did Ryutan mean? You are meeting Ryutan in person. Why wasn't Tokusan meeting Ryutan in person?

[16:43]

Tok-san didn't know what was going on, actually. So he stayed with Ryutan. But he was quite alert person and became one of the most famous Zen masters in China. So I'm speaking about this kind of relationship. What is the nature of this relationship? What is the nature of enlightenment? We're talking about more than some experience, satori or kensho. Enlightenment is something that transcends any kind of particular experience. We're talking about some kind of complete communication. And why the meditation school is in both China and Japan and Tibet also a transmission school. Why are meditation and transmission linked? One practice

[18:07]

You must do it yourself, you know, but what can an encounter with a teacher, with any person, a real encounter with anything, how does that turn you around so you see from then on what's happening, what's what? So, Ryutan was presenting himself in this way to toksana, recognizing some alert person. Yesterday, I went and saw a dance recital of Lakshmi, who is Balasara Swati's daughter, and I don't know exactly about their lineage, but for several generations, their family, their

[19:14]

lineage has been both blood lineage and teaching lineage, and their family has been the most prominent dancers in India, I think. And when I have watched Balasara Svati dance, it's been one of the most extraordinary experiences I've ever had. not dissimilar to seeing Suzuki Roshi for me. I think the mudra, the many mudras that are part of Indian dance are so much a base too for Hindu-Buddhist religion that this is one reason for the power of Balasarasvati dancing for we who practice zazen perhaps. But what moved me the most yesterday

[20:40]

was before Lakshmi began dancing, she looked across the room at her mother. And in that look, you know, was Ryutan. They actually met, you know. They knew each other so completely. No separation at all in that look. And it was a look that went in all three times, past, present and future. By that look they knew exactly what she was going to do. That kind of look is the essence of transmission. I don't mean you should go around staring at each other, you know, hoping for some electric shock, some confluence of what reps call the eye stream. It can't be sought. And usually what's interesting is it requires some common

[22:11]

knowledge some common experience of course our experience is quite common but usually two people or some group of people need some common experience where they know they know everything in common before that can be opened up So the Sangha is a place, you know, our experience of taking care of Zen Center, taking care of the Zen Dome, taking care of this altar and this Buddha Hall is this kind of experience. Dela, can you hear me? I said once, I think in the recent wind bell, which is from a Sashin lecture, I said, Buddhism was one of those pills, time stencils, which give actually a whole, whole everything is a time stencil, and it's going off in you. But this is past, you know, from one person to another.

[24:01]

And sometimes it takes some opportunity before we are open. This is not just some particular experience I'm talking about. but something in which any experience is so much already past. I don't know if you've noticed, but a number of Buddhist and Sufi groups, and maybe more than that, recently, quite recently, have been interested in theatre or doing performance, which they identify with the Dharma.

[25:32]

And what I would like to try to convey to you is how any act is actually natural, you know, spontaneous practice and performance all at once. But you may, you know, wonder, how can something that's spontaneous also be performance? I don't know exactly how to convey this to you, but precepts, you know, our practice of precepts are our first experience of the dharmakaya form. The conduct, you know, the rules for conduct say,

[26:39]

To not know conduct is like having a broken foot, or a blind person does not perceive forms, and an unethical person does not see the dharma. This is very physical. This isn't just some kind of literary example, clear example. It means physically. You know, if you are physically tripping around, you can't meet Buddha. To meet Buddha, to meet Zazen, to recognize Ryutan, means your conduct has led you to that place. So when we do the ceremony, everyone in the ceremony, the doshi, the leader of the ceremony, and all the people in the ceremony, actually in a situation like this with a figure for Buddha, have an opportunity to demonstrate, what should I say, space as a being or positive space. Usually when you walk around, you think there's nothing there.

[28:05]

you know, and it's just you clubbing about, you know, bang, bang, bang, you know, you're walking around. You don't step as if it was something you were, I can't say stepping through, like pudding, It's not positive-negative, you know, but positive-positive maybe. Some way of stepping, some way of, you know, in a ceremony you are very aware of the people around you and very careful of their space. So a ceremony with our chanting and walking allows us to

[29:10]

perform something for each other, to communicate something. We can do it anyway, actually. And in Zen, though there are kinds of theater connected with Zen, and in fact, which Buddhists or priests have participated in, but in general, the theater like no theater in Japan, which is very closely related to Zen, is separate. Because performance in Zen, is at one with whatever you're doing. So your conduct as your path is available to you always, not just in the midst of a ceremony. But we do some ceremony together to try to give each other some awareness, some chance to notice something. Now, it's not performance in the usual sense of that word in that you have a repertoire or vocabulary of ways of expressing something. And on a particular moment you, you know, ransack your repertoire and pick one and say it, you know, or do it.

[30:39]

So it's not performance in that it's doing something you already know how to do. It's doing something. So each moment is absolutely new and you don't know what you're going to do. But because your consciousness extends to what you're about to do, it's a communication. It can't be anything else. Even though it's spontaneous, completely new to you, it's a communication, a kind of performance in which actually there is some play with other people. So let me say something about precepts. Precepts, you know, do not kill, do not take what is not given, etc. Do not commit adultery. These precepts are extremely interesting and they have many, many ways to be understood.

[32:06]

and it's rather difficult to understand their usefulness immediately. But do not kill. I spoke about how Suzuki Roshi described do not kill from its positive side two or three weeks ago, but I'd like to say again Do not kill, you know, it means many things. But most basically, perhaps, we can say it means you can't kill anything. When you recognize that there is no way to undo anything, something which has happened, something which is interfering with you, something which is disturbing you, something which is in your way, can't be removed. You can't kill it. You can't take it apart. You can't avoid it. You can't go the other direction. Actually, it will always be in front of you. No matter. You can't smash it. That's true. You should think about that. So when you recognize that you can't kill anything, there's no choice but to meet things, to turn toward them directly.

[33:35]

as speaking about the meaning of worship or worth-ship, which means to turn toward just what happens, and the turning toward just what happens is meaning, is value, is transmission, maybe. is giving. There's nothing to possess but we are always giving. Always giving and receiving. Not just everything changing. Everything changing is too philosophical like truth is too philosophical. We're not talking about truth we're talking about trust We're not talking about change in some scientific abstract. We're talking about giving and receiving. Something that you are actively participating in, not just pushed around by the laws of gravity or some laws of the universe. You yourself are the laws of the universe. The apple doesn't create. I mean the apple isn't following the law of gravity. The apple is creating the law of gravity.

[35:03]

So the positive meaning of Do Not Kill is to extend your life to everything. So now I want to speak about how Suzuki Roshi described the Do Not Commit Adultery. Rather interesting way he described it from this positive point of view. On the one hand it means, in a simpler way, Do not commit adultery means that it is the better part of wisdom to discriminate between actions which entangle you and actions which don't entangle you. So this is conduct, of course. It's rather stupid of you to get involved in situations which cause you pain or other people pain. There's no escaping from that kind of entanglement. There's no zazen possible in that kind of entanglement. So we discriminate. This action is possible. This action is too entangled. This is one meaning of do not commit adultery. But in Buddhism we also say do not discriminate. So what shall you do?

[36:43]

You know, we mustn't overlook the power of the scoundrel. Some immoral, shall I say, scoundrel, maybe, has a certain power because he doesn't care what he did. Maybe you can interpret, do not kill that way. Oh, in Buddhism you can't kill anything. Okay. You can interpret anything this way. But assuming you're not scoundrels, this power of not, this power of being able to forget what you've done is necessary. to forget that you committed adultery, to be able to meet each thing with no past. Buddhism doesn't mean to just be some pious, do-gooding person. We must have the power of the scoundrel, too, which means you've done something, maybe not so good,

[38:24]

But you can forget it and start a next moment. If your intention is pure, you can do this. Scoundrel's intention is not pure, so actually he has much difficulty. So Suzuki Roshi interpreted do not commit adultery in this way, to be able to forget what you just did, to be free from what you just did, whatever it is, not discriminating, oh I just did, oh my God, you know. Even if you're into that reflex you forget it and go on to the next thing. So this means You're not taking responsibility for what you've done but you're taking responsibility for what is about to happen. Usually we think of taking responsibility as meaning we'll take responsibility for what we've done. Of course that's true, you know, you must do that to begin to take care of your karma.

[39:44]

as long as you are acting in such a way that you accumulate the effects of your action, you have karma. When you can act in such a way that you forget everything, there's no karma. Something new is possible. You know, I have to talk with you often And I say something, you know, because I've forgotten what I said. Mostly I've completely forgotten it. So I have to say something new. but at the same time if you understand the look of Lakshmi and Balasaraswati from just one phrase you can understand everything I say or will ever say. So one of the wonderful things about Indian dance as it struck me yesterday was how

[41:17]

That tradition, that practice brings out so much from the person. Awakens one to just what is. The tathāgata dharmakāya. What is included in what. and just. So Suzuki Roshi can say something about adultery in the wink of an eye. And if you know Suzuki Roshi, that can be a lifetime of revelation. To know exactly what he meant, I can speak about it for the next few weeks or years.

[42:25]

you don't need but one lecture from your teacher. And you need many and many, if one is enough. How to penetrate, how to extend your life to ryutan, how to extend your life to one phrase. Maybe you have to wait for the opportunity, and the opportunity is such a satisfaction, we just work together. And you work with each person you meet, giving and receiving. So we're not talking about taking responsibility just for what you've done, but that being free of just what you've done, but your consciousness extending to what you're about to do, which you don't know what it is. But you take responsibility for it. Usually we want to wait and take responsibility after the fact. It's too late. Or credit. But before it happens, we don't want to take credit.

[43:56]

how to extend into the three times past, present and future. In this way your activity is past, present and future and is performance and spontaneous and natural and practice. Because you're awake, thoroughly, in everything you do. Not just in zazen, but in your conduct. Without that kind of conduct, you wouldn't meet, you wouldn't know Buddha if you met him. You don't recognize your past lives all around you. So in our new zendo, you know, there's a way to enter, a way to step over the threshold board with your right foot.

[45:36]

if you're on the right and with your left foot if you're on the left. Probably in that door we'll have Tan going all the way through. So probably we will... Tan are the raised platforms, so probably we'll enter from the left side. We'll have to see how it feels when we have the Tan built. And there's a way to move in that space, to recognize that space and each of us in it, until your body knows, you know. So most of you recognize your body in zazen when it starts to hurt. Until then you are trying to meditate in your mind or your feelings or consciousness or something. So you sit down and you

[46:47]

Try to compose your mind, mostly, your body to some extent. But mostly you're trying to adjust your feelings. But you should know just your hand with some composure and delicacy just on the tan as you get up and your bottom. Reps has done a wonderful book for us called Sit In. And he says you should sit on your two sit bones. And this is right. Your sit bones should be too Buddhist. Very alive. and your consciousness should extend up through there through your back your shoulders and the top of your head and your consciousness should be everywhere touching, lifting like you were a thousand hands

[48:18]

In this way your consciousness and feelings and mind will take care of themselves and you will be completely aware throughout your body long before your knees start to hurt tomorrow or this afternoon. So throughout this Sashi, serving food, walking in the hall, And when you walk in Shashu, you know, we put this thumb here and this here, our hand like this. And if you do this, you know, when you're walking, you can't have, this will make the tied up places in your back hurt. It's a way to identify where you're tied up. If you walk this way enough, pretty soon your back will start to hurt. But it'll hurt in those places where you're tied up. Because this, if you can do this equally, this is a clear hold, we might say. And all the unclear holds in your body will become aware. Awake. And to give some life to it, not just a place, you know, we turn our hand up slightly.

[49:52]

Rather, your arms are rather at your side, and your hand is together, and once it's together then you turn up slightly. Some people actually do it this way. But just enough, as our mudra takes some effort, so our consciousness can begin to penetrate. So when you walk in Shashu, you just turn it enough, so it's some effort, or some life is in it. Then you'll notice when your hands forget themselves it will go like this. Eventually you don't forget yourself. Your elbow isn't something way down there. So your elbow should do zazen in this session.

[50:54]

Don't drag your body along to zazen. Don't also let your body lead you racing ahead. Some presence, some space maybe is our guide in early part of practice. And that space you may discover through our ceremony. through recognizing each other.

[51:34]

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