I don't know anything about any of these debates, but it's showing itself that I'm unlikely to like any of these experiments. Thank you. That's a neighbor hammering. In sesshin, or long sitting, we talk about meaning of sesshin.

[01:13]

is to unify the mind, unify, we say unify the mind or embrace mind. Strictly speaking, sesshin is five days or seven days. And one day long sitting is not usually, sometimes called sesshing, but we usually call it one day sitting. But whether one day sitting or seven day sesshing, five day sesshing, still the principle is the same to unify the mind. But basically the mind is always unified, already unified.

[02:15]

But... So what we do is realize the unity, basic unity of our mind. basic unity of our body and mind with the whole universe. That's what we mean by embracing mind or unifying mind, to unify the mind. Mind is already unified, but we just need to realize it or to remind our mind and to reestablish our balance. So most important thing, maybe not most important thing, but when I say the most important thing, I mean the most important thing, according to this moment,

[03:29]

according to this explanation. The most important thing is to find our balance on each moment. Balance, what I mean by balance is to take into account and be aware of all of the forces that are active in our body and mind on any given moment. For instance, when we sit tzazen, Gravity is one great force acting on our body.

[04:39]

And another great force is our spirit, spirit which keeps our body upright. So these are the two contradictory forces or polarities, if you want to say so, of our life. The pull toward the earth and the pull away from the earth. Earth pulls us, pulls everything toward it. And so we say we're grounded on the earth. the counter force to this gravity is pushing us and everything that's alive away from the earth, pushing us up.

[05:45]

And so there's always the, we're always concerned with the balance of forces between gravity and growth or spirit. So these are the two main forces, two main forces that we're always dealing with. And there's no time when we're not dealing with those two forces. And all of our problems come out of the complexity of gravity and spirit. So when we sit zazen, the whole time, from the time we first sit until the end of our long sitting, we're dealing single-mindedly with the problem of spirit and gravity.

[07:03]

That's all. That's all that we need to be concerned about. And all of the stuff that falls in between spirit and gravity are the factors of our practice. So in order to stay upright, we use various means. Just to stay upright, we use various means. To stay upright and not fall to the left, not fall to the right, not fall forward, and not to fall backward, and to be comfortable. It's that simple. How do you sit all day? Just sit down all day without falling forward, without falling backward, without falling to the left, without falling to the right, and remain comfortable without moving.

[08:20]

So we struggle with this problem. Zazen is, Sashin is to struggle with this problem until finally you stop struggling. Finally you stop struggling. And you find complete unity with gravity. your spirit finds complete unity with gravity, the force of gravity. So in a sense, you know, our zazen and our practice is how to take care of things that happen in this world, how to remain upright in this world and in the process to develop our character So we're always dealing with the balance of forces.

[09:45]

Something wants to pull us, force wants to pull us to the left, or some force wants to pull us to the right, or some force wants to pull us forward or backward. And the question is, what should we do? How should we respond? So, Sanzen, or Sashin, especially, is a way of manifesting our spirit. Manifesting spirit. We don't have to manifest gravity.

[10:52]

That's already taken care of. But how we manifest spirit, when you get through a sashin, without thinking about it or having tried or worried about that particular thing. What you come out with is spirit manifested, just in your encounter with gravity. just having encountered gravity in this particular way and without making up anything in your mind.

[11:58]

You just take the cover off. Through your effort, the cover of your mind is lifted. And cover of body and mind is lifted. And you can flow anywhere. You flow all over. So what we need to know is how can we, what do we need to know in order to be able to deal in this way with the problem of sitting and dealing with gravity and spirit?

[13:09]

What do we need to know in order to be able to do that? Lately, recently, I've been talking about how we keep time, how we keep time with our chanting, how we follow the rhythm and at the same time create the rhythm or push the rhythm or lead. How we follow and lead at the same time. And this following and leading at the same time is a koan for us. It's our koan which we should pay very close attention to. Following and at the same time leading.

[14:13]

When you can follow and lead absolutely without a gap, then there's no following and there's no leading. That's called complete unity. of body and mind with the universe. So usually, though, we're either on the side of following or we're on the side of leading. And sometimes it's necessary to do one or the other. But without losing the unity. We can sometimes emphasize leading and we can sometimes emphasize following, but there must always be the balance in unity. And this example of chanting can be taken into every situation.

[15:30]

If you, when you're leading the chant with Mokugyo, the most necessary thing is to listen. And the other most necessary thing is to lead. to present yourself. In other words, to listen is to be receptive and to lead is to project. So it's necessary to receive and it's necessary to project. So our life is like one moment after the next of receiving and projecting. And when we... To keep all of our senses open as receivers, you know, is how we understand what's going on, how we know our situation.

[16:52]

And projecting is how we respond. to that perception. And when receiving and response is one unit without a gap, then we say there's no subject and no object, even though there's always a subject and an object. The unity of the subject and object eliminates subject and object. So in zazen, if you say, I am sitting zazen, that means that I am a subject practicing zazen, which is an object. But we have to...

[17:55]

unify the passive and active side of our activity so that I am not sitting zazé, but there is just this. There is just this. from moment to moment, just this. And to establish just this on each moment is how we practice zazen. So the balance is always changing. The factors on each moment are always changing. So we must be attentive to each moment's changes and accept the changes on each moment and adjust to the changes on each moment without hesitation.

[19:10]

If there's hesitation to this adjustment, then you create the dichotomy or the imbalance. And you create a subject and an object again. So we always need to be closing the gap between the subject and the object. If you say, when you're sitting zazen, you have some difficulty. you name the difficulty. Say, oh, this hurts my legs. Then if I say, this hurts my legs, you create a gap between the subject, which is you, and the pain in your legs, which is the subject object.

[20:19]

You become a subject for the pain. So to unify with the problem, to take the gap out of the problem, is how we unify our mind. Without making the difficulty into an object, we become the difficulty. So that when you become the difficulty, the difficulty is no longer a problem. It's a problem, but it's not a problem that keeps creating a bigger gap. You can deal with your problem. You can accept your problem. But you have to be able to accept this problem without hesitation. If you hesitate, then you've opened it up.

[21:29]

You can bring it back together again, but it's difficult. So from the beginning, you must have a firm resolve. Zen students, you know, all Zen students have a very difficult time. And in the beginning, you have to have a very strong resolve in order to practice. because you're putting yourself into a position within practice where you're making yourself vulnerable and open to the problems that are created by the separation of the subject and the object. You make yourself very vulnerable to that.

[22:33]

And so through the whole sesshin, you're dealing with that problem constantly. And until you cross that barrier that brings the subject and the object together, you have a lot of difficulty, a lot of suffering. So a sin student is always involved in that kind of suffering. But at some point you begin to cross that barrier and you can reconcile those apparent dichotomies. You can unify the mind. Unifying the mind even though you don't realize that you are. or you're, you know, even though you sit through sesshin with lots of difficulty, you say, oh, it was a terrible sesshin. My mind was racing and my legs hurt and so forth.

[23:38]

Still, you're still doing it. You can't say this zazen is not good because of those problems. Actually, the fact that you're practicing with those problems, even though you may not have that realization, it's necessary art practice. may be the best part of practice. When you look back on your practice over a long period of time, you really appreciate the difficulties that you had.

[24:46]

You should be able to appreciate the difficulties that you had. It's like a baby learning to walk. And for beginners, practicing zazen and sashi is like learning to walk all over again. It's like learning how to be a baby again. But it's so, zazen, you know, our practice is really for adults, adults. It's not for children. Children have their own, they have their babyhood, you know. They're dealing with their childhood. And they really don't have much business dealing with this practice, because this practice is for second childhood. reestablishing our unity that the baby already has.

[26:04]

So the most important thing, again, the other most important thing is to be able to... how we unify our mind is to be able to accept the difficulties that are presented to us, how to open up to the difficulties. Instead of closing down to the difficulties, how to open up to the difficulties. So satsang has two sides. One side is the passive side and the other side is the active side. As in all things, we have two sides. And the passive side is like, corresponds to listening or just being, just letting things come, just letting things be.

[27:20]

And the active side is projecting or responding to how things are. And the balance of these two is what we should always be working with in zazen. How to... The passive side allows for all the difficulties. The passive side is to open completely to everything. without trying to block anything and without trying to inhibit the difficulties and problems. And the active side is the spirit which holds our form. It's the formal side. with which we keep our position and maintain our posture and maintain our attitude and constantly keep a check on our activity.

[28:42]

The passive side is the side which goes along with gravity, and the active side is the side which makes the tension between, away from gravity, that gives us the form that allows the spirit to hold us up. It's, you know, like a balloon or something. It's full of air, and if you squeeze it, Nothing gets up here. But if you open it up, then all that force fills up the form and keeps the balloon void. So, at first, when we sit zazen, we should have a very, very strong posture. What we should be learning in zazen, when you learn zazen, is how to have the strongest posture that you can manage to keep your back really straight.

[29:54]

You should practice how to keep your back as straight as you can and how to keep the form of your posture as upright as possible. This is... I say when we learn how to sit, it would begin. But when you learn how to do that, then at some point, you can do it without so much effort. But you should learn that from the very beginning. It's the most important thing in sitting practice, is how we keep our posture, how we keep the form, and how we keep it straight. and without losing concentration. And when you can keep your posture and the form constant and open yourself up completely at the same time in a passive way,

[31:04]

then you have the perfect balance between the active, your own response, active response, and alertness and awakeness with that complete ability to accept. And it's the balance of these two which either accounts for us either being comfortable or uncomfortable. Even though we may have a lot of pain in our legs or some discomfort, you can't say that you're not comfortable. So even with the difficulties we have,

[32:07]

that shouldn't stop us. Difficulties shouldn't stop us. And then you, when you have this kind of experience, you can enjoy zazen. You can enjoy your life. Even though you're having various difficulties in your life, you can still do things. You can still smile. You can help people. You're not the victim of your difficulties. And by not being the victim of difficulties, we have freedom. So in our zazen, in this zazen, And how to have the most freedom, complete freedom, within this most confined position, posture, is what we should be looking for.

[33:22]

This is the most confined posture that we have. The strictest form, strictest body form, I think, that we can do. Well, there are yogis who do various dog anecdoses. And Buddha, too, said, yogi postures are not the same. This posture, even though it gives us some difficulty, is really the most stable posture and the easiest posture to sit for long periods of time. That's why we use it. We're not trying to do something extreme, like put our legs behind our ears. Just in order to sit still for a long period of time, this is the easiest way. And you know that if you've sat for a long period of time with people who are sitting in a chair, they're moving around all the time while you're able to sit quite still comfortably.

[34:40]

It's much easier to sit in zazen for a long period of time than to sit still in a chair or in some other posture. You're always moving around. So once you learn to sit still, So it's quite the easiest way. But you have to go through the difficulty of learning how to do it. Everybody goes through the difficulty of learning how to sit. And it's absolutely necessary. It's like going through a narrow door in order to get to the other side. Actually, it's going through the wall. How do you go through a wall? So the unity, you know, is always there.

[35:58]

The unity between the active and the passive and between gravity and your spirit and the unity between all the diverse things is at the bottom. They're all tied together. But we see them as a dualism. We see them as a takara. And the way to see through that is through zazen. The way to tie everything to its root is through zazen. and to close that gap. So in zazen, when we sit today, we should make that effort to close the gap.

[37:02]

Not I am sitting zazen, but there is just zazen. So putting our attention on posture is the most important thing. Most important thing we should be dealing with is all the minutiae of our posture. How is my mudra? Or how is this mudra? Not how is my mudra, but how is this mudra? Is it being held right, correctly? Is the posture of the back correct? My neck, correct? Are my ears in line with the shoulders? Nose in line with the navel? Is the chest open?

[38:05]

Are the shoulders relaxed? In dealing with gravity, gravity will always win. If you battle gravity, gravity will always win. So you don't want to fight gravity. You want to become partners with it. So give gravity what belongs to gravity. Let your shoulders fall. You don't need your shoulders to hold you up. You don't need all the tenseness in your back to hold you up. What do you need to hold you up? Where is that fine line which is just balance.

[39:13]

You don't need a lot of muscles. You need your muscles, but you don't need to beef yourself up. What holds you up is your spirit, not your muscles. So if you let go of the tenseness and just let the structure do the work. Just let the structure do the work. Let the spirit fill the structure. It will if you just stand out of the way. So, little by little, let everything fall off that's not necessary. And if you let fall off everything that's not necessary, you'll end up with just what's necessary. And then you have a partnership with gravity. And there's no problem.

[40:25]

And you can just enjoy being here. Just enjoy being here. When the pain in your legs comes, just become a partner with it. Let it join your practice. It's your companion. And you and pain in the legs are practicing zazen together. No need to fight it.

[41:27]

Don't fight. Pain will always win. Just be open and attentive. Don't try to chase it away. Don't make too much of it. Just let it be there. And put your attention on your breath. Just let your mind follow your breath. That's what we do today.

[42:45]

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