You know, I feel some special joy in Sashin and particularly practicing with you. And we have this, we don't do too many Sashins in one lifetime, and so we don't have this, I mean, what I find anyway, a treasure of Sashin mind. to bring into our life, explicate or open up our life. But sometimes I think maybe we should just go outside and have a snowball fight or something. We've got such a mess by service time. And, you know, this is what we're supposed to do.

[01:01]

Stay here. See if I can destroy your faith in everyday mind or everyday sin. Because it's such a, as I said, you know, attractive idea. I can remember when I finished college and then I read, I tried to read everything, you know. I read a lot of philosophy and stuff, and then I started practicing Zen, and I had all these big ideas and things. So Kyoshi, and he was clear practicing him, was that the emphasis was so completely just in the immediate situation, just as it is, with a sense of a kind of justice in just as it is. It was a great relief, actually, too.

[02:04]

And just to have faith in the immediate present, I mean, this is, when you, if you stop and think about it, this is one incredible teaching, that everything you need is right in your immediate present, whatever it is. That you don't need scriptures, you don't need heaven or hell, don't need revealed teachings, deities, the arrow always points toward into the immediate situation and towards you. And this koan is certainly one of the best koans to look at. And sometimes people comment on the koan and say, he's stupid, he's got a simple understanding, and this is too simple, just raising your finger. But then other parts of the koan make it, make you see into this, really how we have an active faith and craft in the immediate present.

[03:14]

Now this koan in the Blue Cliff Records starts out, I think it's in the Mumonkan, I think it is, it's in the Blue Cliff Records and also in the Sheiroku. In the Blue Cliff Records, it starts out, when a single, in the introduction, when a single speck of dust arises, the whole world is contained therein. It's a kind of radical ecology. I mean, this is supposed to be taken seriously. It's not just poetry. So how do we understand it? I mean, when Blake says, he says, to see the world in a grain of sand and something in a flower. Heaven in a flower. He's, I think, making a kind of philosophical, mystical statement.

[04:24]

But at this con is... In this phrase, let's look at it. It goes on, when a single speck of dust arises, the whole world is contained therein. There's a, in the blue, in the Shoya Roku it says, on a single, even more far up, it says on a single hair tip, is manifest the land of the Jewel King, where the Jewel King is sitting on an atomic particle, turning the wheel of the Dharma. You have to admit that's quite an image, you know. You can't say anything to something like that except, wow! the jewel king is sitting in his land on the tip of a hair on an atomic particle turning the great wheel of the Dharma.

[05:33]

So what is, what the heck are these, heaven are these guys doing talking to us this way? Hey, this is Zendo and I've got to wash the dishes, but you know, So anyway, when a single speck of dust arises, the entire earth, great earth is contained therein. When a single flower blooms, the whole earth arises. Then it says, But before, but what about before a speck of dust arises?

[06:34]

And before a flower opens, what do you set your eyes on? So this is trying to point out a craft of seeing. It's as if the present was a was some kind of lake or ocean in which you could fish. But how do you fish in the present or in the immediate situation? Dogen says, quoting a the Zen poem that's used, goes something like, the lotus leaves are round, as round as a mirror. The chestnut plant is as sharp as a gimlet, as an ice pick or an awl.

[07:45]

And then he says, Although the way-seeking mind or Buddha-seeking mind resembles a mirror, it is just bits and pieces. Although the way-seeking, straightforward mind resembles a gimmut, it is just bits and pieces. So this is what I meant when I said I'm going to destroy your faith in the simplicity of everyday Zen. But this is what the koan is bringing to us, so I think we should look at it. And I suppose I should also tell you the very funny and amusing

[08:54]

and horrible story, it's in the Kalanchoe, everybody remembers usually. He had a young disciple, presumably a teenager, who once when Jiuji was away, he always held up his fingers. So once when he was away, this young novice, people came to visit and said, where's Jiu-ji? He would put up his finger. And they'd ask him questions about the temple, and he'd put up his finger. So when Jiu-ji came back, he went up to Jiu-ji. Most of you know this story, presumably. He went up to Jiu-ji and said, while you were away, I answered everything just the way you did, with his finger. And Jiu-ji took a knife and went, he cut his finger off, supposedly. Well, You can imagine that the finger was on its way to heaven, and the boy ran out, and Jujie said, Hey!

[10:00]

And the boy turned around, and Jujie said, And of course, in this kind of story, the boy's enlightened, and he doesn't bear any karmic grudge against Jujie for losing his finger. And we have to assume that either this boy was a real tough case, and this was the only recourse, or more likely he said something like, I should cut off that finger. But anyway, it's become quite an interesting story that everyone remembers. That's why around Zen people, people keep their hands on fists. Holding a jewel. But it also, this koan, you know, emphasizes this everyday situation that we practice in.

[11:06]

And it also emphasizes in the story, in the stories in the koan, a radical non-gaining idea, just doing it. And it has an example of somebody fishing. for a great fish and you bait the hook every day and nothing happens. And every day you bait the hook and nothing happens. And maybe you catch a fish that is so huge the waves overwhelm the land, but it feeds lots of people. But if you don't catch a fish and the poles keep breaking, then you plant bamboo. And you wait till the bamboo grows and you make a new fishing pole. So the emphasis here is clearly fishing in the present with a straight hook. And fishermen, they say, don't, you know, they throw the fish back, you know, just like to be out there.

[12:13]

So, you know, if you're practicing in the present and you don't achieve enlightenment, just enjoy the view like a fisherman. Have a good time sitting in the present with your fishing pole. But there is a quality to practice too. It's a bit like fishing. I've described it this way. It's like certain phrases from a koan. Certain phrases maybe from something that occurred to you in Sashin or something I've said in lecture, something like that. sticks with you. But it'll stick with you most if it doesn't seem to have any relevance or you don't understand the relevance. And sometimes it kind of floats in your presence or your space, your aura.

[13:15]

And then at some time this big fish swims through your situation. And you'd hardly see it because you're having a conversation with somebody or doing something. And this big fish is swum right across the table, invisibly, but then you feel a tug on the line. And suddenly that phrase that has been staying with you suddenly becomes clear. It's a kind of fishing in the present. Now the sense of, it's a typical, again, of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Zen Buddhism, that the, really no even metaphorical distinction is made between the physical world and the mental world and so forth.

[14:18]

So when they speak about the lotus as a a mirror. The lotus leaf is as round as a mirror. It means the mind, the mirror mind. You don't even, I mean, it's so direct a connection, you can't even say the lotus is a metaphor or a symbol for the mind. Lotus is the mind. I'm looking at you, it's the mind. So it means a He's emphasizing that you come to a mind that can rest in the present. Arrive in the present. Whatever this present is. Because if you have a who or what about it, it's an entity.

[15:22]

Now, always people, almost everyone asks and says, she feels and says, she... how to bring this mind of Sashin to your everyday circumstances, your other everyday circumstances, back in wherever you live, or forward, shall we say, in wherever you live. And of course, one, as I've said, thing is to kind of have a, non-graspable memory. You know, as I've taught in the past, it's called dharanic memory, a kind of intimation or recoverable feeling of a situation that can, like a seed, reappear in your everyday circumstances somewhere else. But one of the qualities of sesshin, and why the schedule is important,

[16:28]

is you have no choice about your situation. You're working in the firewood, or in the kitchen, or you're in the zendo, and after the three or four days and you stop fighting, you know, you're just, it's too much trouble to fight. It'll be over in a few days. So you just sort of sit there and stink and your legs hurt and things. But is it a prison or a palace? If you want to get out, it's a prison. If you want to get into the future, if you want to distract yourself, it's a prison. But if you're quite happy... Dogen calls the... He says, we think and then there's not thinking, but not thinking is really posited on thinking.

[17:28]

So we need something which he calls non-thinking, which I started out this session talking about. He says non-thinking is the Dharma gate of ease and joy. So when you come to the point where this present situation just nourishes you, or it's a palace, like... where fish in their ocean are in their palace, birds in the sky are in their palace. You and your immediate situation are in your palace. Enjoying that nothing, not a single atom hinders you. So if you can have that feeling that your immediate situation is not a prison, but a palace, perhaps, I think you can carry, you'll find that the feeling of sasin mind will not only bloom or come back, but develop.

[18:49]

For this mind doesn't go away. And it has many, many dimensions. On one understanding, a thousand understandings can appear. And it's just hidden in other situations. So Sashina is partly to discover it and partly also to find out how not to hide it from yourself. So you come to a mind which, I don't know, it just sees everything because it's quite relaxed and it's not focusing anything. That's this mirror mind, just like a mirror. Put a mirror up and it just sees everything in the room. It doesn't focus on this or that. It's a very relaxed feeling.

[19:54]

And it's a kind of actual relaxation that you come to If you want to empty yourself into the present moment, empty yourself into the immediate situation, you have to be quite relaxed and at ease and have a kind of faith. And that ease and faith starts in zazen. Can you just sit in zazen with a kind of faith in your being, faith in your posture? and a kind of ease that seeps into your body like mist or something. So throughout your body you feel a clarity and also a kind of ease. Now the more you become familiar with that ease and also it's recoverable through dharanic body memory,

[20:57]

This is also a treasure in the present. It gives you this ability to just have this relaxation of mirror mind. Now this is also related to the practice of the dharmakaya body. And it's sometimes, it's a kind of, you know, you can't quite get at it mentally. Actually, most of these things are rooted in turn on a physical basis. So, you know, you want your, you want to come to the point where everything functions separately. So your mind is doing things and your body is doing things and they're not They feel quite independent, as I said here. Stomach does its own zazen. Moms do their own zazen.

[22:02]

Each sense field does its own zazen. Each skandha does its own zazen. This is why I called in an interview that... I say that the Heart Sutra is a description of and a prescription for the mind of transmission or lineage mind. Because if you really open up each of these seed statements in the Heart Sutra, you develop the mind that taught the Buddhas. does its own sasa. Each vijnana does its own sasa. But all this means that you first have to practice with the vijnanas and skandhas and so forth, and develop this big spacious mind.

[23:14]

which doesn't rest on anything, which flows freely and doesn't dwell on anything. And what Dogen's emphasizing in this lotus round, as round as a mirror on the a chestnut spike, which is as sharp as a gimlet. He's emphasizing this dharmakaya or spacious or mirror mind that we bring to the present. Which reminds me, I do want to talk about precepts. Probably tomorrow. I have to. I'm going to do it tomorrow. And precepts. It's a good word in English because it means, sep is to hold, like perception, what you grasp. Pre-sep, what you hold before. So what you have that you bring into each situation.

[24:20]

And that's quite important. These precepts are the precepts of basic humanity. They're fairly Buddhism, the way they're understood. So, Dogen's here talking about what mind we bring into the immediate situation. And that's what, of course, all this teaching is to Jiji's thinker. What does he, what does he, what straight fish hook is he bringing into the immediate situation? It's also, I love, Sukhyoshi loved this coin, and there's, One example that's talked about in the Kamanova, blind, sometimes it's a blind turtle and sometimes it's a one-eyed turtle. It wants to get to the surface and it can't even figure out which way is up or down. And it's lost sort of in the ocean.

[25:24]

And at some moment, as when it surfaces, just at the chance it surfaces, there happens to be a piece of driftwood with a hole in it. So he happens to put his head through the hole and he sees, and he can hold himself. He sees everything. Or at least he gets a breath of fresh air. Anyway, it's a funny image. But it's meant to mean, how seldom do we take, does this consciousness which appears in us as human beings, appear in us in this form and then we hear the Dharma. It's as rare as a blind turtle finding a piece of driftwood in the ocean with a hole in it. Though here we have blind turtles swimming in the present, looking for this piece of driftwood. And Yuji holds up his finger, and turtles cluster around it.

[26:32]

That's the sense of this kind of work. Maybe we should have this snowball fight. It's such a great smell outside. It's this kind of wet, pine, snowy smell. Wet, pine, snow. It sounds like a bathroom deodorant. Can't use poetry anymore because the advertisers. When you use this, that's when you hear the turtles. So also then, this mind that you realize, it's also the mind of one pointedness.

[27:43]

the mind that can settle on something and stay on it without drifting away. And when we practice zazen and the most basic inner posture of zazen instruction is don't invite your thoughts to tea. And Sukhya Rishi used to talk about that a great deal. And you go on at quite length about your thoughts and then you invite them to tea and you set out to go to a tea party and you... really get into the image. But in any case, of course partly what you're doing is not being distracted when you don't invite your thoughts to tea. And you know, but really what you're doing is you're discovering a mind that doesn't have to invite your thoughts to tea. a mind that's bigger than the thoughts.

[28:47]

And also by over and over again practicing this uncorrected mind of zazen and not inviting your thoughts to tea, it doesn't matter what the thoughts are, you're strengthening this mind that's bigger than thoughts. You're discovering how to stay in this mind, this field of mind that doesn't have to have thoughts, And you're strengthening it every time you don't invite your thoughts to tea. And that kind of mental strength, the kind of mental strength, but it's not related to thoughts, is also the basis for developing both one-pointedness and this spacious mirror mind. Now, Dogen describes way-seeking mind or Buddha-seeking mind as straightforward and unstained. And again, this sounds, well, it's nice to have a straightforward mind and unstained, I don't know.

[29:59]

But he again is pointing out a craft of being. Now, he used the word unstained, which is quite interesting, because usually the word in Buddhism that's used is an undefiled mind. But he means something almost the opposite. An undefiled mind is a mind which no longer is contaminated by your karma or your desires or various kinds of confusions and so forth. In other words, the defilements arise from the past. But Dogen, by talking about an unstained mind, means a mind not stained by the present. A mind which doesn't see entities in the present. In other words, the example he gives is as when you meet a person, you don't think what they look like. You don't think what kind of person they are.

[31:03]

Or when you see the flower, you see a flower or a moon, the moon, you don't wish there were more color or something. So this, so what he, again, what we're trying to give you is a kind of craft of your, let's say at least your initial perception, your initial mind before perception or your initial stance in each situation. Maybe not your understanding, because it's not outside the situation, maybe you could say your inner standing in each situation. That's the practice of making the present a palace of dragons and fishes.

[32:06]

And seeing past your views, because your views are already entities. Of course, we have to have views, we have to have ways of doing things. But if you want to fish in the present, if you want to see, if you want the present water, you want to see deep into it, not even understanding, but not grasping, just being in the midst of. I'm not even concerned with the surface of the water, the surface of the present, or the objects. So you don't, what Dogen's trying to say in this example of the lotus and the gimlet is, the chestnut, is that you don't even bring mirror mind and one-pointedness into the situation. He certainly implies you have the skills of this, or you have this kind of mental strength.

[33:15]

But not only do you not wish that the moon or the flower had more color, you don't even bring mirror mind or one-pointedness, these kind of adept practices, into the present. You just... there's bits and pieces. You're in the present before you assemble the present into perceptual or conceptual entities. So again, this is what I meant. I'm destroying your faith and the simplicity of everyday mind. But if this present moment and your present moment right now in this room, not later when you're back wherever you live, but then too, if you're going to fish in the present with a straight hook, you want to be deeply relaxed. And that relaxation, so we're not just talking about what the water's like, etc., but we're talking about the fisherman, and the fisherman is really, he doesn't care if he ever catches anything.

[34:30]

So this not even having the the skills of mirror mind or one-pointedness is a deep relaxation which allows before the world is assembled into your views you can begin to see around your views and it's in that state of mind that this deep shift occurs, is likely to occur, which we call enlightenment. So, before a single speck of dust arises and the whole world is contained therein, A single flower blooms and the world appears. But what about before a single speck of dust arises or a flower opens?

[35:39]

What do you set your eyes on? So here, I hope you can all see this lotus staff blooming.

[35:57]

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