Good morning. First, I want to thank Richie for fixing the front door so we can practice opening and closing it quietly. It does work quite nicely. I want to talk a little bit more about the seven factors of enlightenment, which I was talking about yesterday, and I talked about before I left for Tassajara. And I talked about it a little bit at Tassajara, so it's been on my mind. I want to expand on it a little bit.

[01:03]

Mindfulness, investigation of the dharmas, effort or energy, joy, Tranquility or even-mindedness. Tranquility goes by many names, but that's a good one. Pretty good. Sometimes called rapture, but that's a little too much. Peacefulness. At ease. and concentration, which is also a samadhi in its higher form, and equanimity.

[02:18]

The main thing, actually, about our life of practice is to always find our balance. Really important to have a balanced life and to whatever we do to look for our balance. I remember Suzuki Roshi, one of his most insightful statements was that everything is constantly falling out of balance and regaining its balance. Constantly falling over and regaining its balance in a new situation, moment by moment. So, moment by moment we're losing it and finding it. Losing it and finding it.

[03:30]

Losing it and finding it. Sometimes we lose it, but we don't find it. And then we say, oh, I'm losing it, or I lost it. But our awareness should be in how we find it, how we find ourself on each moment. If we think of ourself as a solid hunk as some not permanent, but substantial being, then it's harder for us to find ourself on each moment. If we have some idea about ourself, that limits our ability to find ourself. When we're completely open to new possibilities, then we can find ourselves pretty easily.

[04:39]

But when our mind is closed, it's hard. And another famous statement of Sukhiroji was, in a beginner's mind, there are many possibilities. But in the mind of someone who knows it all, very few. Your possibilities are limited. So if we're open to reality, open to anything on each moment, then we can use everything and include whatever is around us as part of ourself. And we don't have such a difficult time finding ourself. Mostly when our mind is open, can we do that? And this is especially true in Zazen.

[05:48]

The big test is in Zazen, how open our mind is. As soon as we have some idea about what we're doing, who we are, we start closing down the possibilities. So even in zazen, even though it looks like we're sitting up pretty straight, and still, very still. There's still, and that stillness is a tremendous dynamic movement. And our posture changes all the time. Posture is constantly changing. Our body is constantly changing and being renewed, even though we're just sitting still.

[06:56]

And we're constantly losing our balance. You can adjust your posture and sit very still, maybe like a rock. But when you end zazen after 40 minutes, your body is not the same as it was when you began. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any painfulness. So you have to regain your balance moment by moment in Zazen because you're losing it all the time. And as you start losing your balance, you begin saying, ouch, because you can't move. So you have to let go of everything and find yourself again and again and again.

[08:20]

That's why posture is so important in Zazen. Good, strong posture. Good framework. You have to have a good framework in order to sit easily, sit well. That's why, at least in the first year or first five years, of Zazen, but I'll say the first year. You really work on your posture. You work really hard to create a framework where you can sit well and establish yourself in Zazen, establish your body and mind in Zazen. really work hard to do it. You have to work pretty hard to do it. Some people can do it easily. Some people, their bodies are pretty supple, and they can sit pretty easily in the beginning.

[09:46]

But for everyone, it's difficult. And when you have established a good framework, balance, posture, then you can adjust yourself with the subtleties of change much more easily. But if you don't do that initial work, it's much harder. It's like any kind of activity. Like if you build a house, You want to make sure that everything's square from the foundation. Build a good foundation. Because if you don't, then as you start building up and out, you may be a little bit off at the starting point.

[10:52]

But by the time you get to where you're going, you're way off. Unless everything is really well squared. So it's the same with your body. You want to build a good foundation for your posture. That's the main thing. Then, you can easily take care of what's up here, on top. You have a lot of control and flexibility. So, in the past, I used to really put more effort into trying to get everybody to sit up well. I don't do it as much anymore because somehow it's more difficult. I don't know why. It seems more difficult to get people to sit well. So some will sit well and others won't.

[12:01]

And I'm not sure that I can, that we can get everyone to sit really well. You do the best you can. But it's very important, really important to have a proper foundation And so, the proper foundation for our body and also the proper foundation for our mind. Body, three things in zazen. Body, mind, and our breath. Our breath comes and goes, and regardless of whether we want it to or not,

[13:04]

That's what's so wonderful about breathing. We don't have to do anything. It just happens. It just comes and goes. And you can just follow it with your mind. Let your mind follow your breath. Pretty hard. Hard to do. Because our mind is... If there's an empty space, then that thought will fill it. If there's an empty space in our mind, a thought will fill it. It's like a table. If you have an empty table in your room in the morning, by evening, it'll be all piled up with things. Pretty hard to keep that table clear. So, with our mind, we can apply the seven factors of enlightenment in zazen.

[14:13]

This is where you can really see it very easily. Of course, we should apply them in our daily life, but I want to talk about how we apply them in zazen. because zazen is what we're doing, and it's very easy to focus it on one subject. So first is mindfulness. Mindfulness means the helper of the mind. In all states of mind that are wholesome or focused, we have mindfulness. And mindfulness is the quality or faculty of our mind which keeps bringing us back to what we're doing.

[15:17]

And it's a very hard worker, really hard worker. Mindfulness notices wherever our mind is going, notices what our mind is about, or what our body-mind is about, and taps us on the shoulder. Not that way. This way. No, no, not over there. Over here. Come back. Over here. This is where the path is. It's always bringing us back and reminding us, because our mind is always going off somewhere. The nature of the mind, unless it's focused, is to just wander. I remember when I was in grade school, my mind was always wandering. And I had a very hard time bringing it back.

[16:26]

I didn't have much mindfulness. So I was the kind of kid that was always drawing pictures or doing something when the teacher was talking. I had a very hard time. I was always thinking about something else. And I still have that quality. It's the quality, of course, which stimulates imagination. So it's not all bad. Wandering mind is has a very good side in that it's kind of creative and gets involved with many things. But unless it has some direction, it just goes from one thing to the next and never lands anywhere. It doesn't have any form in order to do something really strong and powerful. So our mind can wander and create wonderful images and think of wonderful thoughts, but unless it has some structure to contain it or some way to go, it just gets lost out there.

[17:40]

And this is one of the difficulties that I had when I was... all through my life, actually, before I started to practice. Although I always had things I wanted to do, and did them, I was easily distracted. And I suffered from that kind of distraction, even though I loved my imagination. I remember I used to lay in bed in the morning when I woke up. It was a wonderful time. laying in bed and thinking all these thoughts and hating to get out of bed. I hated to get out of bed in the morning all my life. Look how I wound up. But, you know, even though I had all that wonderful imagination, it wasn't working for me.

[18:49]

I was wasting my time. You may not think so, but I think so. I remember I'd get to work late every day. Someone reminded me that in Paso Hara, this woman said, the first time I came to Zen Center, I heard Mel give a lecture, and he said that he was late to work every day, and his boss told him, if he can be five minutes late, he can be on time just as easily. I don't remember saying that, but she told me I did. But I was late every day for work, because I'd love to lay in bed and just think, you know, let my imagination run wild. And even when I was practicing various... inspired by religious practices, I had a wonderful religious imagination.

[19:51]

It would take me to wonderful places, but I didn't have any control or any way to guide me, any way to make that work, except as just a kind of fantasy. And when I came to practice, met Suzuki Roshi, or before I met Suzuki Roshi, I just sat down And it was wonderful to be so grounded and directed. And all that imagination and power just got directed in one way and gave me a lot of strength to penetrate into myself. It's like you gather everything up and it makes like a drop of water, you know, continually dropping on a rock will eventually make a hole in the rock.

[21:10]

So mindfulness keeps us on this going on our path, keeps us tuned, tuned in. It's like, maybe like the dial on the radio. This station, not some other station, just stay on this station. And when it goes to some other station, you bring it back. So constantly reminding and staying in one slot. One of our biggest problems these days is that we have too many choices. In the old days, people had choices, but not so many. because they didn't have so many, they could easily focus on what they were doing.

[22:23]

But there was not such a good side to that because people felt too limited, you know, and so... Nowadays, we really... people exploit our desire. by thinking up so many wonderful things for us to be interested in. You just can't pass them up. You know, how can you pass up all those wonderful things? I mean, you can make a career out of almost anything. It seems like. So we say, well, I'll just try this little thing over here, because it's so interesting. And as soon as you try something two or three times, You either have to stop doing it or else get completely involved in it. And so each thing you take up becomes a world of infinite possibilities.

[23:26]

So we find people who are very confused because they've taken up so many things as worlds with infinite possibilities. And we have maybe five or six worlds going on, each one of which has infinite possibilities as it expands out and we become burned out or overloaded or speeded up and we have to keep taking us uppers to allow us to keep up with it. And then we take downers in order to be calm enough to focus. So we got ourselves going like this. And we say that desire is the problem.

[24:30]

And it is. You can see that desire is right there. But we're all kind of innocent. Desire is not bad. Desire is a wonderful quality of human life. but it's like our innocence. Desire is somewhat like our innocence and we easily get raped or seduced. So seduction is the name of the game in our world. Even though we don't see it as seduction, we just see it as, you should buy all these Christmas presents. And then we have to continue to rev up our production in order to buy all these illusions.

[25:37]

So we're really caught in this illusory world of stuff that we have to have and things that we have to do in order to fulfill ourselves or in order to fill ourselves up. So it's very hard to stay on a path, really hard, at every turn. Something says, now come this way. Wouldn't you like to buy this? Wouldn't you like to go over here? Wouldn't you like to do all these nice things? I mean, they're not so hard. Look at what you're doing, sitting there with painful legs. What? When the world is so full of wonderful things. It's really hard to stay on the path. It just takes all you got. Unless you're really convinced. When you're really convinced, it's not so hard.

[26:42]

But even then, it's hard. Even then, it's hard. So mindfulness reminds us. Not that way. Move that along. This way. Let go of those thoughts. Just stay on the path. Mindfulness also has other aspects to it. Sometimes you think of mindfulness as when you eat something, you know, you make sure that you're aware of what you're doing. That's mindfulness and concentration together. Mindfulness and concentration together is when you're eating, just eat. Be aware of the spoon. Be aware of the food. Be aware of how you handle something.

[27:44]

Be aware of how you pick up the bowl of your body when you lean over. Are you stretching your arm out? How are you using your body anyway? Are you using your whole body? Where is the center of your body when you lean over to pick up your bowl? Where are you coming from? And you reach over, pick up your bow. Do you pick it up with your whole body, or are you just using your fingers? Or just using your wrists? When you bow, you go like this? Or do you use your whole body? This mindfulness is also this. Your mind and body are one piece. There's not a mind separate, separated from your body. So mind is your whole body.

[28:47]

And then when you approach objects, they're not just objects because they complete you. Whatever you pick up completes you. Say, well, this is a stick. That's an object. Well, it is a stick. We call it a stick. It's an object. But it's not a stick. Because when I pick it up, it completes me. And I complete it. Something happens when we do something, whatever we do. So when you're working, you know, are you just handling objects? You know, in zendo work, even if the windows are clean, you wash them.

[30:00]

You think, well, but the window's not dirty. The floor is not dirty. And why should I wash the floor if the floor is not dirty? We don't wash the floor because it's dirty. If it's dirty, then we clean it. But we just wash the floor. I know that's a funny idea. Our gaining mind says, well, we shouldn't wash the floor unless it's dirty. But just washing the floor is just washing the floor. Actually, if washing the floor, sweeping the floor is sweeping your mind. From the point of view of practice, sweeping the floor is sweeping your mind. Cooking is not just cooking. washing the windows.

[31:06]

It's not just washing the windows. It's just washing windows, but it's cleaning your mind. When you stir the pot, you're stirring your mind. Nothing is outside of your mind. This is an important practice. even though the world is divided up into objects. It's like there's this cheese, big cheese, and then we slice it up into pieces. And each one of these pieces of cheese becomes an object. But these pieces of cheese are all the same cheese. even though they may look different, you can slice them up into different shapes.

[32:11]

You can have flowers, flower shape, or leaf shapes, or wedge shapes, or squares, triangles, but it's still all the same sheets. So mindfulness also reminds us of what we're doing. What am I doing? That's mindfulness. What am I doing? What's going on here? So it's a big koan, actually. What am I doing? Big, big, major koan. You can come up with various answers to it.

[33:15]

Keep that koan in mind. Effort, sometimes called energy, but energy is maybe like the raw material. And effort is how you use that raw material. How do you channel that raw material called energy? In our practice, you can look at our effort in two ways. One way is passive effort, and the other side is active effort. Passive effort is Like whatever you are asked to do, you do. Willingly do it. So, in Sashin, we have a schedule.

[34:27]

And just following the schedule. Not missing anything. Being right there. And doing whatever you have to do. That's a passive effort. Because you don't have to do anything You don't have to assert yourself. So it's maybe non-assertive effort just to follow. And the other side is active effort, which means if you have some position, then you have to make an effort to fulfill your position. If you're the Tenzo, you have to make a a big effort, active effort to make it work. But even in just ordinary zazen, you have to make an active effort to be there.

[35:37]

Sashin, you know, is difficult. So if you have the least little bit of out, It's easy to take it, if you have a loophole, it's easy to make it into a bigger hole and find a way out. At some point in Sashin, we come up against a wall, difficult wall, and our tendency, natural tendency of human beings is to go this way. Well, this way. You come up against the wall and it's too hard. Where will I go from here? And down there is a big canyon. So you kind of go up against the wall and look for some way out.

[36:42]

And if there is a way, you take it. That's human tendency. But if there's no way out, what will you do? If there's no way out, you have to go through the wall. You have to stay there until something happens. And that's the position that we put ourselves in in zazen, that we get to this point where you have to stay there until something happens. It's a difficult spot. So zazen, You know, and this becomes a koan itself. Real koan. Koan for your body and mind. You're stuck there, and how are you going to get out? How are you going to... What's the answer? So,

[37:46]

Our active side is to, if you allow yourself to slide a little bit, then you start losing ground and you start doubting yourself. And you start doubting the practice. You start doubting everything. You can become, if you had wings, you'd start flying. So the best way to do Sashin, even though you have all this problem, is be right there all the time. Even though it looks like you'd rather not, just be there. When it's time for Zazen, just get right into your seat, right away, so that you're always on top of it and not underneath it. If you start

[38:49]

sliding, or backing off, then the thing starts rolling over you. And you find yourself, you know, rolled over. So, the only way is to be right there. Always. Every moment, just be right there no matter what it's like. Then, it's much quicker. your ability to deal with it becomes very strong, your ability to come up to it, because what really counts is your ability to stay there with it, where it's at. And how do you do that? That's the thing that each person has to find out for themselves.

[39:58]

You can talk about it, but you can't say exactly. Everybody has to find that for themselves. How do you find yourself at ease in the center of the storm? So effort, also another way of looking at these two sides of effort is that it's always a balance between real hard effort and ease. As I said before, learning how to have good posture and to keep yourself really straight

[41:07]

And to manifest that effort all during Zazen and Sashin is really important. But if there's too much effort, then your body tends to get very stiff. Too much effort leads to a kind of stiffness and brittleness. And you get tired out too easily. And you strain yourself. It's not good to strain yourself. So this effort needs to be tempered with ease or calmness, relaxation. You have to be able to find relaxation within your effort. If you've ever noticed a good athlete, you know, Do you ever notice, I was watching the baseball players warming up on the field.

[42:09]

And the way they throw the ball to each other, you know. And the way they catch the ball, they... They throw the ball. They don't even look, you know. Just put the glove out. And it's a hit every time, you know. Just... Perfect. And that's the way your zazen should be. Good form, but with so much ease. No stiffness. Good form doesn't mean stiff. And if you've ever noticed a real good runner when they're running, maybe running fast, but they're loose. Very loose. Otherwise, they just seize up. You can't run 20 miles with stiff muscles.

[43:14]

Can be really loose the whole time. Same with buzzing. Good form. Real good form. Perfect form. Feel lots of ease. So the balance again, always this balance. That's what we have to look for. Every part of your body independent. I talk about this a lot, but we have all these bones in our body and all these joints. Each one is independent. It's just held together by some sinew. But when you sit in Zazen, your elbows should be loose. I come and adjust your posture, and you're just like stones. Not everybody, but a lot of people.

[44:22]

I try to push your head up, and it's like, hmm, your whole body goes over. Your head should be reversed, you know? Like this. Then you just put it together. Balance it. That's right. I'm not kidding. Just balance it all. It's not a matter of holding yourself tight and rigid. Just balance. Let it form. And the whole time you're sitting Zazen, you're finding that balance. That's what I mean by you're constantly losing your balance. So what? Just find it again. Like a drunk. Whoops! Whoops! Real loose and just finding your balance. With no support. Not leaning on anything. All you have is your gyroscope.

[45:25]

Here. This tells you the direction. Right here. And like I said, first talk, you know, the nose is, Dogen says the nose is vertical, the eyes are horizontal. That's your gyroscope. It's all you got. It's all, that's your whole equipment in this world, is your gyroscope. Knowing how to find your balance and adjust yourself in every situation. Just hang loose. Go with the flow. Seriously, that's true. Anyway, that's how you have nice, wonderful zazen.

[46:27]

It doesn't have to be always suffering. It should be wonderful. It's a lot of things, you know, but it's also comfort. Even if you have a pain, it's still comfortable. Pain is not the only thing that's there. Pain is one thing. One small thing. But, you know, we have to let our whole body share that pain. It doesn't mean that our whole body should be in pain, but, you know, we tend to focus on this painful spot we have, you know? It's like, God, wow! But, you know, if you're in balance, then that's wonderful, you know?

[47:32]

You can just keep letting it go, you know? Hanging on to it is attachment. That goes with equanimity. Equanimity says, well, there's something happening there. I think it's painful, but I don't dislike it. I don't like it. I don't like it or dislike it. It's just something that's happening now. good or bad. It's not right or wrong. It's just what's happening. And maybe it's difficult to accept. But I just keep getting more focused. Watch your breath. And pretty soon, there's only your breath.

[48:38]

It's only breathing. and some wonderful kind of concentration where there's no inside or outside. So, strong effort, but balanced with ease. You don't get that right away, actually. You have to work for it, I'm afraid. In order to have that kind of ease within your strong zazen, you have to work for it, just like anything. If you want to be a good baseball player, you have to go out there and play a lot.

[49:43]

And then after a while, you have that ease. People are always saying, what's effortless effort? We read about that in Zen books. What's effortless effort? Effortless effort is when you played a long time, your effort is rewarded with ease. When you've paid your dues and gone through The effort, and your effort becomes, is imbued with ease. But you have to earn it. We can't expect that right away.

[50:44]

But I can see a lot of us are really earning it. And so that's why we always appreciate people's, beginners' hard effort. We always look at the struggle that beginners go through. And to see that pure effort is very inspiring. Sometimes we lose that effort after a while, that kind of beginner's mind. We'll continue later.

[51:58]

Thank you.

[51:59]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ