This morning, this morning, I want to talk about what's closest to us in our practice, which is how we practice in our daily life, in all situations, in every situation. One of the characteristics of our activity is called continuous practice, which means that if we actually have a practice and understand something about our practice, We know that it's, not only does it go on all day and all night, but actually it goes on forever.

[01:16]

So there's no end to practice, and everything that we do as a Zen student is a form of practice. But it doesn't always seem so. So we have what we usually, we think of a spiritual practice and mundane activity. And when we think of Zazen, we think of Zazen as a kind of spiritual practice. And then the rest of our life is mundane activity. But actually in Zen, we really don't use the word spiritual. we'd use it as a kind of expedient, but it has connotations which are not correct.

[02:21]

And mundane is also not correct. Whatever terms you use, they're not correct, but we use them anyway, so we should understand that. So our life is a combination, sort of, of the spiritual and the mundane. Within our mundane activity, when we engage totally in our mundane activity, as practice, then it brings forth great spiritual activity. So that's why we pay attention to details, and we pay attention to the most ordinary aspects of our life as very important, and at the same time, nothing special.

[03:24]

Suzuki Roshi used to use this phrase, nothing special, all the time. And people misunderstand sometimes what he meant by nothing special. If you go around thinking that your practice is very spiritual, and because you do Zazen, you're a very spiritual person, and your spirituality is maybe better than other people's spirituality, then you have a big problem. That's called the stink of Zen, smelly Zen, smelly practice. So Suzuki Yoroshi's term, nothing special. Don't think of your practice as something special. Don't think of it as being some special spiritual practice. which will take you to some special haven or heaven.

[04:28]

Some place where you can find some escape from the world. Although often Buddhism is seen as a kind of escape from the world. Monastic practice is often seen as a kind of retreat from the world, mundane world, which it is, in a way. But within a monastic practice, the monastic practice takes place in its own mundane world. So within the monastic practice, you have all the mundane activities that you have outside the gate. There's a difference in that because you have certain, you're following precepts and some basic intention, you can see or you can experience or practice the non-duality of sacred and mundane.

[05:49]

So, you know, I was thinking about our orioke meal for breakfast. And I was thinking about when we sit in zazen, we sit in zazen during the meal. And when there's nothing happening. We're just sitting there in Zazen, and then the server comes, and we bow to the server, and hold out our bowl, and the server starts to serve oatmeal, and then fruit, and then so forth, and that's the mundane activity. There's nothing more mundane than food, except that food is the most spiritual thing that we have. Food is actually pure energy, pure spirit, but we kind of see it as mundane because it's earthy. Mando is the earth.

[06:56]

So earth is our practice place and we don't try to escape from the earth. Our practice is to be able to actually experience the sacred in the profane, to bring the spiritual quality or recognize the spiritual quality, or blend, or engage with, or bring forth the spiritual quality in the mundane activity. So for us eating, in this wonderful way, it's just eating, you know. When we're sitting there, we're just sitting. When the server comes, we're just bowing. And the server is just bowing.

[08:03]

And we meet at that place. And the wonderful activity, wonderful spirit comes forth in that meeting. And then there's the serving. There's the receiving and the offering. And in that activity of receiving and offering is great spiritual activity, great mundane spiritual activity. And then we chant, and chanting, which is being thankful for the meal and recognizing how it comes to us and offering it to the benefit of the world, of the universe. creates a wholeness in our mind. And then we eat, and it's just eating. But it's just eating, it's so wonderful.

[09:07]

Because it's just eating, nothing else. Even though your mind starts thinking about something, but still, it's just eating. So this is what we call this activity, Shikantaza. Shikantaza is just doing, just doing, but it has many levels of meaning. But in this just doing, it's also just letting go. So when we eat this way, just one spoonful at a time. You eat the spoonful, and then you take the next one. When you take this one, you let go of the last one, previous one. And then you just, in this moment, with this spoon, with this food, goes into this mouth, chew, swallow, one activity at a time.

[10:15]

But within this one activity, there are many movements. But it's really one movement, one total activity at a time. And the last activity is totally gone. So this is a samadhi. Samadhi is the moment-by-moment renewal of the present moment. moment-by-moment renewal of the present moment. So each moment is a fresh new moment, and there's nothing carried over. But then we think, well, what about the continuity of my life? There is a continuity in our life, but the continuity in our life is one moment at a time. It's a continuity of moments, even though we see it as continuous, one activity unfolding into another.

[11:29]

It's actually a moment and a moment and a moment. We don't know how many moments actually there are in a minute, infinite moments in a minute. This moment is the moment that includes a complete activity, like a movie. The movie seems to be flowing smoothly, but it's one frame at a time. One frame, then the next frame, then the next frame. And when they make cartoons, they have to draw this moment, then they draw this moment in increments. And our life is like that. And when we can experience the increments of our life, that's called being present. Or Shikantaza, it's without expecting anything.

[12:36]

Even though you know that something, you feel that something will happen next. we feel assured that something will happen next, even though it may not. I was reading in the Washington Post an article, wonderful article, I can't remember the author, about how we create a fantasy called our life, a story, called Our Life, and it's in order to not think about the reality of our life, we create a story, and then we live out in this story. And he was relating it to the fact of what's so-called terror. So because we don't want to think about death, we create a story about life.

[13:46]

And we only think about life because we don't want to think about death. So we create this story which doesn't include death. And he said, what the terrorist does is punctures your picture. puts a hole in your picture and deflates your picture so that you have to think about it. So he was, also said, he quoted Osama bin Laden. He said, in America, you love life, but we love death. That's very scary, right? Whether he means that or not. But here's this duality between life and death. Do you love life or do you love death? Well, both of them are only half true.

[14:51]

For us, as a Buddhist, there's only the present moment. And on each moment, there's a moment of birth and a moment of dying. But each moment is a wonderful moment to be experienced. And in a broader sense, our whole life is one moment to be experienced. It has its arising and it has its ceasing. And it goes on endlessly. Someone also said, he quoted someone else in the article, and he said something like, I have to paraphrase this, what frightens you is what dominates you.

[16:03]

What you're afraid of is what controls your life. So you have to be very careful to how you find your freedom. So how do we practice our daily life? How do we integrate Zazen practice, which is the practice of emptiness, and with the mundane, world that we live in. Are they two things? If they're two things, then... If we think of them as two things, then we fall into the world of duality.

[17:21]

And then we can be frightened of birth and death. But if you don't think of them as two things, if you know how to integrate Zazen and daily life, even though there are fearful things, there's really nothing to be afraid of. Because in reality, there's no real birth or death. There's simply what we call life, which includes birth and death. So how do we practice in our daily life?

[18:30]

How do we practice zazen? How do we practice shikantaza in our daily life? If we know how to practice shikantaza, then we can enjoy everything that we do. Even though there is death and destruction and fear and so forth, we can find a calm place within ourself. Zazen is to find the calmness of mind within ourself, within whatever arises. That's why zazen is non-dual activity. Pleasure, pain, joy, whatever, everything is equal in zazen. There's no one thing to desire. Everything is equal.

[19:34]

Pleasure is equal to pain, pain is equal to pleasure. Whatever arises is embraced, but not hung onto. Everything comes and goes, and we experience it. But there's no special thing, no special state of mind, nothing special to hang on to or to cling to. Sometimes we say it's like riding the waves. Sometimes the waves are big, but we just ride the waves to where it goes. Sometimes it goes very deep, and we just ride it down. the same in our daily life, without being inundated by anything. So to keep that equilibrium, to keep that calm state of mind, and not fall into the duality of birth and death.

[20:45]

If things are going well, that's fine. If things are not going well, That's okay, too. When Sixth Ancestor Huy Nhung was at his temple, the story is that someone came to take his head. So he put his head out and he said, go ahead, cut it off. If that's what you want, you can have it. But he didn't cut it off, of course. So I think we have to be willing to let go of things in order to find our freedom. So fear is our own entrapment.

[21:53]

and it's hard to let go of. So how do we let go of that? This is why ideal practice, if I were to talk about what is ideal practice, daily practice, I'm not saying this is what you should do, but I'm saying for an ideal daily practice, to sit zazen early in the morning, and then do your activity, and then sit zazen in the evening, and finish your life, and live one day at a time, totally. I would say as a, Because that gives your life a rhythm based on zazen. And when you have a rhythm of your life based on zazen, it becomes more integral with your life.

[23:03]

Zazen and your daily life become more integral with each other. So until it's not two things. It's just one thing. one activity that has a side where you're sitting and letting go of everything, and then the side where you pick up everything. So how do we live our life in the material world without being materialistic? about being caught by being materialistic? Well, if you deny everything, that's not correct. If you get attached to everything, that's not correct. So how do you use, how do you treat or relate to the world in a manner that is very respectful with everything?

[24:06]

You respect people, you respect your automobile, you respect food, you respect whatever you meet, you show respect. And you actually meet with what you meet with. And in your activity, you totally give yourself to your activity. When you practice Zazen, in order to really practice Zazen, you should totally give yourself to Zazen. That means put all your energy into Zazen because Zazen is, when you do Zazen, it's the total dynamic activity of your life in stillness. And when you engage in activity, It's totally giving yourself to the activity and that stillness is at the center of your activity.

[25:12]

So you approach your activity with the same attitude as you approach Zazen. In Zazen, You know, you're totally defenseless. You open yourself, you make yourself an offering, actually, to the universe. Totally vulnerable and open. Someone could come along and cut off your head. Well, but when we go into the world, we have our defenses. So how do you go into the world and stay open? Not full of defenses. It's very hard. Very hard. But, you know, it's not a matter of how you do something, it's a matter of attitude.

[26:29]

Of course, we have to defend ourselves against certain things, but it's a matter of attitude to allow ourselves to be open and influence the world, not simply be influenced by it, but to actually influence the world. When you have the right attitude, People around you recognize that without you having to do anything, and it influences the world. When you're settled, when your breath is, when you're conscious of breathing, when you're conscious of how feelings, emotions, and thoughts arise, how you regulate yourself, How you take care of yourself.

[27:31]

How you bring the values of non-duality into the world is very important. Also, there's a great challenge in the world when we have other so-called spiritual practices or religious practices which challenge Buddhism, which will challenge Buddhism more and more, actually, because Buddhism is kind of small right now. But as Buddhism becomes more prominent, it will be challenged.

[28:37]

by other spiritual practices. I remember in the 60s or 70s or 80s, oh my God. There were all these young Jewish people coming to Zazen. And the synagogues were, the rabbis were up in arms about it. And I remember people, rabbis coming and talking to me about, you know, gleaning their children off. And what it did, what it did was, it shook up the Jewish congregations and it created a kind of renewal in the Jewish congregations.

[29:41]

And they became more conscious of meditation and spirituality because they really degenerated into a kind of materialistic way of life. So without doing anything, the practice has far-reaching power. And I think that Judaism and Buddhism have kind of an alliance now, but they didn't before. Christianity and Judaism, I don't know how that, that's gonna be a bigger problem. But it will be, someday it will become a problem. I don't know about the Muslims. I don't want to think about that. But I don't know what kind of problem that might be. Because it hasn't come up as a problem, as a question.

[30:47]

So, we have to know what it is that we're doing. We have to be able to say something about what our practice is and, you know, If, in another religion, people are going to heaven, what are we doing? It's an interesting question. Well, if you're not going to heaven, what are you doing? What is your religious practice about? It's a good question. It's not about dividing our mundane life from our spiritual life. It's about being totally part of everything. Everything is part of everything else. There's no way to get lost.

[31:54]

There's no particular heaven to go to or no particular place to be. Right where you are is the place to be. We have to find our place. We have to find our spiritual, so-called, for lack of a better word, spirituality, right in the midst of whatever we're doing. As we say, the lotus grows out of the mud. Without the mud, there's no lotus. So we're continually transforming, continually developing our character, continually developing our practice endlessly.

[33:00]

So each one of us is in a different place And each one of us has certain flaws and certain abilities and certain wonderful characteristics and certain problems and so forth. And for each one, it's different. And we have to be able to help each other and encourage each other in our practice. So if we treat everyone as Buddha, if we can see everyone as Buddha, which everyone is, if we can actually make an effort to, even though we may not believe it, sometimes we say, even though you're not enlightened, act as if you were. to be able to see the Buddha nature in each person and treat everyone as Buddha.

[34:10]

When we can treat everyone as Buddha, then everyone will be a mirror and reflect back to us. And we can see ourself reflected in whoever we meet. Not exactly what I was going to talk about, but. Close enough. Do you have any questions? Yeah. You said our practice and way goes on forever. Yeah. Would you say more about that? Well, there's no such thing as forever. Endlessly. Well, you know, I don't know what endlessly is until I come to the end of it.

[35:16]

You know, it means like, it means like we think that there is a person here, but there's simply endless transformations So when we say our practice goes on endlessly, it's a way of saying that there's no beginning, no special beginning and no special end to what we're doing, to the transformations of life of which you are a part. But it's simply a way of, a kind of exaggerated way of saying, don't think about the end. That's all. It's very Indian. In India, they use astronomical numbers to describe everything.

[36:21]

They just mean a lot. Using your, to go back to your metaphor about waves, you know, riding waves, what if you feel like you're getting sucked under? Yeah. Well, you know, sometimes we fight and sometimes we go along. So you have to be able to discern which is best. Shall I fight this or shall I just go along with it? And you have to be able to make a decision. And I was reading something, Anyway, we say ride the wave and drive the wave.

[37:34]

If you're only riding the wave, that's passive. And if you're only driving the wave, that's active. So there's the balance between the active and the passive. So, we're always finding that place where the active and the passive come together in perfect harmony. So when you're really doing something well, it doesn't feel like you're doing anything at all because your activity is balanced with your passivity. When you're chanting the sutra and everybody's chanting in the right pitch, it seems effortless. but it's because the balance between the active and the passive is perfect. And that's also a big part, that's what Zazen is about, and that's what our daily life is about, how to give and receive, how to turn and be turned at the same time.

[38:50]

how to assert yourself and also how to let yourself be turned. And so that things become effortless. That's what we should always be working toward, working with. Everything that comes to us, it demands either an assertion or a passivity. And how do you give and take? How do you do that? Thank you. I agree with you. Listening to you talk about first life and death, and then there's activity and there's passivity. Well, we've got this rabbit in our neighborhood. It showed up a couple months ago. It's a white rabbit. It's probably someone's pet, and they let it go, and it's got this... color racing stripe down his back.

[39:53]

But it's been hanging out for a couple of months and all the neighbors were not exactly sure what to do. We caught him once and took him in and had the vet check him out. We didn't want more money so we took care of that too. But he immediately got out and went back. Well the only thing about it is he runs back and forth across this really busy street and Someone saw him run across the other day, so now all the neighbors are talking about we need to catch him because he's going to get squished. And I'm starting to think that we need to leave him alone. But then there's that whole thing of that, you know, one of us is going to walk out one of these days, and a little free-range buddy is going to be on the road. I'm kind of stuck with this whole group of what to do, because it's like what you said, we're afraid in the end. But he jumped over a pretty big fence to get out. So... Well, you know, you do what you can.

[40:56]

Just do what you can. Do whatever you can. And this is the best I can do. Anyway, I'll leave you with that. Do the best you can. Paul? Hi. I wanted to say that I really appreciated you bringing up about other traditions today. If I could acknowledge that today is Yom Kippur and Jewish tradition, which is some refer to as a day of atonement. However, when looking at the word from another perspective, perhaps a Buddhist perspective, if you'll allow, the word breaks down to look like and mean at oneness.

[42:04]

Some of us were slow to chant that, but that helped me in my jubu practice. We also had the Bodhisattva Ceremony of Repentance. Yeah, that's right. At one minute, to become whole again. Yeah. Thank you. I was interrupted. Okay. Well, yeah, of course it's memory. It's just like this is a clean moment, right? In other words, when a moment arrives, it's a clean moment, you know?

[43:07]

Don't mess it up. Every moment has that opportunity. So, Yeah, memory is also a kind of made up thing in a lot of ways. Yeah. Melanie? I'd just like to say something about the Muslim faith. I know a little about it, just a little bit. Islam in itself, the purity of it is there. Is what? Is there, the purity of Islam. Beautiful concepts.

[44:09]

Islam needs to submit. Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to say that. Oh, I agree, yeah. Even in Christianity, Catholic means one. There are a few Christian churches Yeah, well, that's good. Yeah, I agree with you. Thank you. I think that, you know, when religious practices affirm their, what they agree on, then the differences can be taken care of more easily. Thank you. inside.

[45:03]

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