Good morning. Well, it's a nice day. And some of us are spending the whole day sitting, beginning at 5 in the morning and we'll sit pretty well until 9 at night. And when I was asked to give this talk and began to think about it, I realized that what would be easy to talk about would be the Six Paramitas, because we've been having a class in the Six Paramitas for the last three weeks. And for some of us, that's just been our background. I want to talk today about the Paramitas and particularly how we use them in our sitting practice.

[01:03]

And also, last Thursday, just before the class was about to begin, I had a very nice little interchange with a Dharma friend here. which kind of leads up to the Paramitas, comes on Wednesday evenings. On Wednesday evenings we have a whole little kind of mini Sashin opportunity because you can come at 5.40 and then there's a sitting after that at 6.30 and then there's another sitting with Usil Ananda's group And then, I don't know when, maybe around 8 o'clock, there's a little talk that Usilananda gives. And Usilananda is a Burmese monk whose sitting group uses this practice place on Wednesday evenings. And he has been a monk since he was 16 and practices the Theravadan way.

[02:18]

And it's a very nice opportunity of being with, meeting another form of practice to sit in on his talks sometimes. Anyway, this friend likes to sit in on his talks and she reported that he gave a talk on mindfulness practice, vipassana, and looked around and said, now I have a question for you. This vipassana, is it religion or not? And nobody wanted to put themselves on the spot. And my friend raised her hand and she said, yes, it's religion. And he said, no. It's not religion. It's just mindfulness practice. It's just watching things, watching dharmas arise and watching them go.

[03:19]

That leads into, actually, our Paramita. Our study of the Paramitas. Because that is the spirit of the Paramitas. That we cultivate these six qualities and we let them go. It's nothing extra. So... mindfulness practice. One of the books that we have been using for the class is Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary and translation of part of the Diamond Sutra, the diamond that cuts through illusion. And the Diamond Sutra is a part of the larger Prajnaparamita Sutra, the big one, that our Heart Sutra comes from.

[04:35]

So it's all in the tradition. And it's in the large Prajnaparamita Sutra that there's a lot of discussion of bodhisattvas and the bodhisattva way. The bodhisattva way is most specifically the way of these six paramitas. So I wanted to read a little bit from this, a piece of this Diamond Sutra by way of introduction to the Paramitas. Thich Nhat Hanh gives a little quote from the sutra And then there are a few paragraphs of this commentary, and that's the way the book is laid out. And this section is called non-attachment. And this is from the sutra.

[05:36]

What do you think, Subuti, if someone were to fill the three thousand chilakasams with the seven precious treasures as an act of generosity, would that person bring much happiness by this virtuous act? And the Venerable Subuti replied, Yes, World Honored One, it is because the very natures of virtue and happiness are not virtue and happiness that the Tathagata is able to speak about virtue and happiness. Now this is the theme that is repeated again and again and again. Because the very natures of virtue and happiness are not virtue and happiness, that the Tathagata is able to speak about virtue and happiness. Because this is, it isn't, and therefore it is.

[06:41]

This dialectic again and again and again comes up. And this is the foundation, this is the foundation of the Bodhisattva way and the foundation of our study of the Paramitas. Because each Paramita has a particular quality, generosity, discipline, shila, discipline, kshanti, patience, concentration, jhana, and wisdom, prajna. Patience. Virya. Energy, enthusiasm, effort. Each of these qualities has a practice side to it, a kind of measuring, an effort side to it, that we try to do it.

[07:47]

And also each one of these qualities has a transcendent, a perfected aspect to it. And so on the Bodhisattva path we follow, we use these qualities, we study these qualities to help us step free of our particular points of view. can be said that a Buddha is a Buddha because he, she has no point of view. So that's really what we're trying to practice in these quite specific ways. So Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary goes on to say, Aware that there are no separate objects of mind called virtue or happiness, Subuti is no longer imprisoned by words and therefore he can use them without any harm. But if we do not see the nature of interbeing implied in every word, they can be a kind of a death or imprisonment.

[08:56]

We have to use words in a way that they do not enslave us. And this is why the Buddha is giving us the diamond that cuts through illusion. And then there is another quote from the sutra. The Buddha said, on the other hand, if there is someone who accepts these teachings and puts them into practice, even if only a gatha of four lines, and explains them to someone else, the happiness brought about by this virtuous act far exceeds the happiness brought about by giving the seven precious treasures. So when the Buddha Dharma is communicated, the virtue and the importance far exceeds any kind of material or limited transaction. The happiness brought about by this virtuous act is boundless.

[10:00]

It is the utmost unconditioned emancipation, not merely an accumulation of conditioned happiness. Then back to the sutra. Why? Because Sabuddhi, all Buddhas, and the Dharma of the highest, most fulfilled, awakened mind of all Buddhas arise from these teachings. Thich Nhat Hanh says, this remarkable proclamation embraces the notion that Prajna understanding is the mother of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Now in Prajna Paramita, the little figure that often we have on altars is in fact a woman. the mother of all Buddhas. And then one more line from the sutra. Sabuti, what is called Buddhadharma is everything that is not Buddhadharma. So, that's what you can kind of remember. And then taking off from this line, that is, Sabuti, what is called Buddhadharma is everything that is not Buddhadharma, Thich Nhat Hanh says,

[11:09]

Those who bring Buddhist practice to the West should do so in the spirit. Since Buddhism is not yet known to most Westerners, the essence of Buddhism won't have much of a chance to blossom in the West if the teachings emphasize form too much. If you think that the teachings of Buddhas are completely separate from the other teachings in your society, that is a big mistake. When I travel in the West to share the teachings of Buddhism, I often remind people that there are spiritual values in Western culture and tradition. that share the essence of Buddhism. When you look deeply into your culture and tradition, you will discover many beautiful spiritual values. They are not called Buddhadharma, but they are really Buddhadharma in their content. Now, we return to this mindfulness. In his last meal, for example, Jesus held up a piece of bread and shared it with his students, saying, Friends, eat this bread which is my flesh. I offer it to you."

[12:12]

When he poured the wine, he said, here is my blood, I offer it to you, drink it. Many years ago, when I met Cardinal Danilou in Paris, I told him, I think Lord Jesus was teaching his students the practice of mindfulness. In our life, we eat and drink many times a day, but while doing so, our mind is usually wandering elsewhere. Eating in mindfulness is to be in touch with life. Jesus spoke the way he did so that his students would really eat the bread. The last supper was a mindfulness meal. So, it may be religion. It may not be religion. So I want to talk some about each of the paramitas and how in our sitting today we have an opportunity to practice.

[13:27]

The first one is dana or generosity. And it is said that zazen is an offering of time and attention. So we come here to make this offering. And we may also come because we have learned that our practice brings us good qualities and helps us in our personal life and so on. And we've also discovered that when we extend ourselves in the spirit of offering that we often seem to get back much more than we've even put out.

[14:36]

Now what is it What is it when we sit zazen and we are not sitting in the spirit of generosity, when we're sitting with some kind of stinginess or some kind of greed? Sometimes I can just sit and feel as if I'm a large funnel and that everything just wants to come into a remarkable sense of, I want, I want, I want. So what happens when we don't sit generously? We get into trouble because we are sitting with our expectations which may be explicit or we may not be in touch with

[15:47]

But when we sit with expectations, sooner or later we are let down and punished, as we've learned. So, to sit, Zazen is an offering of time and attention. That's the way to sit without getting into trouble. Then just to emphasize that, we have the bowing practice. Several times during the day we have the opportunity of just offering ourselves, offering this all up. And by the time we've sat several periods of zazen, that's usually a very nice thing to do, quite willing to offer it, take it. So this generosity, this paramita of generosity feels very good.

[16:58]

And feels very safe. That one of the aspects of giving, when in class we talk about what is giving, talk about giving material things, giving the Dharma, giving, sharing our practice. There's a particular form of giving, giving fearlessness, that fearlessness is a wonderful result of wide generosity. Because of course, when you've given it, When you give everything away, there's nothing to fear. It makes a lot of sense. Without any hindrance, no fears exist. So, generosity, while often seeming the most dangerous way, as we know, really, in the end, is the safest way.

[18:05]

Hard as that is. So generosity fits right into Sheila or patience. And all of these parameters, of course, are like the six sides of a jewel or some six-sided objects. They're not separate. They're different aspects, and practice one, and somehow all the others are also involved. I'd always thought of Sheila as discipline, but apparently the Sanskrit literally means, it literally means selfless kindness. And a Theravadan teacher, Sulak, who was recently here, calls Sheila naturalness. That if we just practice receiving, giving, receiving, giving, just breathing in, breathing out, giving it away all the time, we are in fact in the natural, we're just there in the natural order of mind.

[19:19]

As we chant in the, when we have meals at a one-day sitting, we say, innumerable labors brought us this food, we should know how it comes to us. receiving this offering, we should consider whether our virtue and practice deserve it. Desiring the natural order of mind, let us be free from greed, hate and delusion. We eat to support life and to practice the way of the Buddha." That's a very nice statement of the natural order of mind. And the natural order of mind is not easy. It requires discipline. So it is sometimes said that if you want to see the true nature of a snake, you put it in a bamboo pole. So in order to see our natural order of mind, we have to be quite disciplined.

[20:25]

The specific qualities of Shila, of natural order of mind, discipline, are embodied in our precepts, in the 16 precepts. So we have the 10 grave precepts, which are the kind of like the commandments or the guidelines of behavior, and then they're framed by the three refuges, take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and the three pure precepts, doing all that is good, avoiding evil, living the Buddha way, so that the rules are framed in the larger, in the larger interbeing context. They're not meant to be small rules.

[21:36]

They're meant to be used for our interbeing. So if we're going to practice generosity and Sheila, or Donna and Sheila, if we're going to practice them skillfully, We need patience, we need kshanti, which is the third paramita, which is usually translated as patience, sometimes composure. The Latin root patio has to do with suffering with. So the perfected aspect of patience, the transcendent aspect of patience, is the understanding that all dharmas are selfless, they come and go, and that all dharmas are equal.

[22:53]

We chant that in the Heart Sutra too. the unborn nature of all dharmas. Very, very difficult to accept all dharmas as equal. All of our samsara training is in sorting out the dharmas into the desirable ones and the undesirable ones and the spiritual ones. and the samsaric ones, all that sorting. So to sit, to be with the awareness that all dharmas are equal, very difficult.

[23:54]

It's what Trumka calls the wide-angle view. that it's the whole spread, with no one point of view. So that things happen, and there seem to be difficulties, joys, dissonances, and it's just, it's alright, it's just all there, and all of that is equal. and all of that is thoroughly worthy of acknowledgement. So we're always falling off into a point of view and remembering patience and

[24:57]

bringing ourselves back. And with Sheila, this discipline, patience allows us not to boss ourselves. Patience allows us to exercise skillful means with our discipline. As Suzuki Roshi talks in Beginner's Mind, that chapter about control, that if you want to control something, give it a wider field. Just let the cow wander. Keep your intention and let the cow wander. And with this patient intention, the right alignment will make itself clear. And in our daily life, it's also said that patience is not waiting for anything.

[26:08]

Not waiting for the period to end, not waiting for the day to end, not waiting for anything, and not hurrying for anything. Just all dharmas are equal. And then the next paramita is viriya. The Sanskrit root there is related to vira. So it has to do with energy, effort. Sometimes it's translated as enthusiasm. So in this very large and serious work, we need to have a lot of energy and enthusiasm. and stick to itness. You know, it's wonderful to see people beginning a practice.

[27:11]

Sometimes people come and they make a very surprising connection and they have such a kind of honeymoon experience and just want to come and sit all the time. And it's really, it's really wonderful to see them. And it, they, they're, they're virious, infuses. And if they practice the other paramitas along with it, takes them a long way. So, it's very important to have enthusiasm in our practice. As well as the more sober kind of fortitude. So that if you're sitting and you are in trouble,

[28:12]

and your legs are hurting, and the mind is not still, and nothing is the way you would like it to be, you are still able to take one breath after another breath. And that's kind of ground, bottom, virya. And that's very good. That too takes us a long way. And then also part of effort is how is it directed? It's a big topic. What is right effort? Again, we can always go back to Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, wonderful chapter on right effort. Right effort is just nothing extra. of just being present, moment by moment, and taking the energy of the present moment itself to keep one going, with no extra expectations, no extra lamentations, just appreciating the steady quality that always exists in the present moment.

[29:43]

There's so much that can be said about that that we won't say more. Oh, one more thing. The Tibetans have a word that they talk about practice with. They talk about an undesirable sinking quality that one can have in one's zazen. That is, you can sit and not be particularly uncomfortable, and also be quite tuned out, just sinking. It took me a while before I identified it, but when I identified it, I recognized it very well. And virya, effort, enthusiasm, is a very nice counterbalance to that.

[30:55]

So when that, the sinking has taken place and somehow something is recalling you to the present moment, then you can summon up etherea to help. And then there is the fifth paramita, jhana. Sometimes jhāna, or concentration, or... Sometimes jhāna gets kind of confused with samādhi, absorption. But, as Akin Roshi points out, they're a little different. Jhāna is the form in which samādhi occurs. So jhāna is very close to our Zen practice. Zen comes from Chan, which is the Chinese idiograph for jhāna.

[32:00]

So zazen is the jhāna. Zazen is the form of our practice. And when we spend a day like today sitting, we are exploring that form of our practice. So I'd just like us to sit together for a little bit. Because when we are sitting Zazen, we want to really be sure that we are sitting Zazen with the whole body-mind. Sometimes we can sit from here up. And sometimes from here up. And sometimes, well, maybe from here down. That's pretty sunken. The real gift of our Zazen practice is that it is so much a body-mind practice.

[33:15]

It's so much a yogic practice. So our primary teacher is our body, because our body is always in the present. Our mind goes wherever our mind goes, and the body is our loyal ally, teacher, in the present. So it is really important when we sit Zazen, when we use this form that we have been given to sit with our whole body-mind. To sit with our body on the ground, from ground to ceiling, from earth to sky. So we sit and lengthen the spine. The spine is this connection between ground and sky. And when the spine is lengthened, then the chest is naturally opened.

[34:20]

And we're not sitting round-shouldered in a victimized position. We're sitting with the chest open. We're sitting generously. And we're sitting in such a way that the energy can come up from the ground, way up and way down. So sitting with spine lengthened takes stock of body. And is there any tension from the top of the head to the face, the shoulders? front, arms, legs. Just be in body sensation. Notice the little patterns of body sensation.

[35:31]

It's like an inner music, inner body music. Music sensations, always going on, all over. And notice if there's any constellation of energies or sensations. And if there's some kind of constellation, whether it's energy constellation, tension constellation, whatever it is, can you be with it? Notice it. Be with it. Breathe it through. Pull it down the belly.

[36:37]

Pull it down with breath into belly. Breathe in belly. Let belly breath breathe into the ground. get very trapped in thinking mind up in head. So turn off thinking mind and let that thinking energy come down in the body, come down. Use the whole body breath, heart, mind, belly.

[37:50]

Breath after breath. And that is our wonderful form. That's our wonderful jhana, paramita form. And then the last paramita, prajna, wisdom, understanding paramita, is fully explained in the Heart Sutra. We chant. And we have this opportunity all day And those of us who are sitting in our zazen today, particularly, we have the opportunity of practicing prajnaparamita. Persistent coming back to the ground of our body breathing, this persistent coming back

[39:14]

to no point of view. So we had a break and I was walking up and down outside on the sidewalk and just noticing as I walked, I'd think of something. And one little idea, you know, and the whole corner, the corner would bring up the whole piece. The whole kind of vague body of history, confusion, ancient twisted karma. The whole shape. And I'll go into that for a while and then remember. And I keep noticing the big dried maple leaves that had fallen on the grass. They were very lovely. They were just so light on the grass. So I remembered, come back, start again.

[40:19]

We always have these opportunities. Everything that is not the Buddha Dharma is the Buddha Dharma. It brings us back. And then came into the Zen Dojo and started sitting after breakfast and having some trouble with a close friend. That was a sticky topic, let that one go. And then again get very irritated with the latest issue of the New Yorker. I began to write a letter to the editors. Everything that is not Buddhadharma is Buddhadharma. And I got that and then what is going on? What's going on? Body, mind, breathing, anger. So turn off go into anger, and then all this energy, all this energy comes, this good, angry energy, no object, no object particularly, just angry energy, and can settle down again, virya rises, settle down again.

[41:32]

So, Prajnaparamita. We are sitting, we are living and we are experiencing everything. Eyes, ears, nose, body, mind, consciousness. We're awake for all of our skandhas and we are just making a constant effort to take the I, me, mine out. So we're just in the field of the immediate experience moment, beginner's moment. We have time. Oh, yeah.

[42:58]

Would anyone else like, that's a juicy one. Does anyone else want to respond to that? Well, we usually get what we expect. It's one project. That's probably the worst one. Well, one that gets me is that I think that, oh, I have really fallen into a good Zazen state. It feels good. Now I've learned how. That one really got me when I went to Tassajara. I secretly thought everybody else was scared of Tassajara, but I'm not, because I really know how to sip Zazen. So as soon as I got to Tassajara, all my blissful experiences were over. And they hardly came back for three months. So, you know, that's one form of punishment.

[44:00]

Another is that we really imagine that if we are virtuous and keep doing what we're supposed to do and do it month after month and year after year, that we will be better people. And often, sort of three years of practice is a bit of time. It sometimes takes about that long to realize that your expectation may not be fulfilled. And, you know, there's always a certain amount of going and coming from the practice. I'm not doing it well enough. Other people can practice this kind of inverse expectation. Yeah, yeah.

[45:28]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. It has something to do, it's a big question, and it has something to do with prayer, and it has something to do with, you know, the wonderful lines in the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, that inquiry and response come up together, colon. Merging is auspicious. Do not violate it. This may be connected to a talk Grace gave a while ago about what we're doing here, but if our expectations aren't, if it's not good to bring them in, if they're not going to be met, It's good to be ground down to the natural order of mind, which perversely we have some taste for.

[46:30]

Why perversely? Because it makes no sense. Why should we want to come and be ground, perpetually ground down? But we're not perpetually ground down. No? Well, you're smiling and I'm smiling. Yeah. We're up here. Right. It feels good to be ground down. They do. They do. They're sort of like toys. Toys for the lesser folk. And they're alright as long as we can deal with the disappointment when they're not around anymore. But hopefully they'll lure us in far enough so that we get some taste going for being ground down. Maybe this is a different tack, perhaps, but we talk a lot about nothing extra and nothing more like just being Donna, whatever.

[47:43]

And that's a bit of a call-in. Don't you think? That really is a practice, how to just be Donna, or how to let go of anything other. Yeah. Now if Agnes feels like telling the story, that she told in the class about her office experience, if she feels like it. Alright, this is in response to Rondi's question. Just tell the story and people can make the connection, or not. I work in a middle school and there's a secretary who's a very, very important person there.

[48:53]

But I had to deal with her, so. But it was, and again she gave it to me. But the second time it didn't hurt as much. It didn't hurt. Okay, next time.

[51:22]

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