basic practices, practice. So this morning, I want to talk about shikantaza. Older members are somewhat familiar with shikantaza, the term shikantaza. Maybe the newer members are not. But at any rate, we have to keep reminding ourselves of what our practice actually is. and how we describe it. So Shikantaza is the basic practice of Soto Zen. In Zen practice, There's koan study, shikantaza, breathing practice, and some people divide these practices into different styles of practice.

[01:02]

One teacher will have students who do koan practice, some who do breathing practice, some who do shikantaza. Shikantaza is actually considered the highest kind of practice because it includes koan practice, it includes breathing practice, but actually all the practices include each other if they're complete. So we don't make a distinction between shikantaza, koan practice, and breathing practice. In shikantaza, everything is included. As a matter of fact, shikantaza is a kind of samadhi. We don't say shikantaza samadhi.

[02:03]

We simply say shikantaza. Shikantaza is described in various ways, but it's elusive as a description, because it's not a thing. It's our total presence. Shikantaza is our total presence, moment to moment. And this is why it's the essence of zazen. And it's simply to be one with our essence of mind. As the sixth ancestor, Huineng, says, we should never stray from our essence of mind.

[03:04]

in order to practice, our practice is not straying from our essence of mind. So Dogen calls this shikantaza. It's also called jijuyu zamae, which means self-fulfillment or self-joyous samadhi. And it is also the reverse side is tajuyu samadhi, or the enjoyment of others' samadhi, which means that our practice is self-fulfilling and it's offered to others to fulfill their practice, their understanding, their practice. So, our practice is the practice of prajna, or wisdom, and it's offered as compassion to others.

[04:15]

So, wisdom and compassion are both included in shikantaza, or jiju yuza mai. If it's simply collecting wisdom, that's not enough. That's dry practice. It has to be offered as compassion. So when we are truly immersed in shikantaza, compassion is the expression of that wisdom. Shikantaza means just this, just now, just here, without thinking about the past or thinking about the future. with simply being totally present, in the present, at this time.

[05:23]

It's where time and space meet, the moment where time and space meet. And we can experience that most clearly through breathing. I talk about this all the time. Inhaling is inspiration or coming to life, which is differentiation. Exhaling is letting go, called expiration, which is becoming one with. So in expiration, we let go and become one with the universe without differentiation. And when we inhale, we discriminate and come to life and bring all the forms to life.

[06:42]

So inhaling is differentiated samadhi. Exhaling is the samadhi of oneness. So these are two sides of our life, which is birth and death. Inhaling, we come to life, which is called birth. And exhaling, we come to life, which is called death, or letting go, and becoming one with. So dying is becoming one with. Birth is called differentiation. So these are the two sides of one coin, the two sides of our life. birth and death are opposites of life, the two sides of life.

[07:55]

So, in this continuous transformation of birth, we experience a samadhi of activity. And when we let go, we experience the samadhi of oneness, non-differentiation. And this is called zazen. To understand this, to be immersed in this is called zazen, which is called shikantaza, just being present in this moment. When we do that, when we practice zazen, we go in and out of inspiration and exploration. We let go when we sit totally present with our whole body and mind. But then at some point we forget the breath and stop thinking.

[09:03]

And then we come back and take up the breath, take up thinking, take up activity. So this pulse of in and out, being born and letting go, is actually a life, continuous life. So as I was thinking about this talk a few minutes ago, Mary sent me a fax. And in the fax, she sent me this little story about Shakyamuni and a monk called Bhavbahiya. And it's called, In the Scene, Just the Scene.

[10:11]

the inspired utterances of the Buddha. Ra Bahya said, thus have I heard, that one time, the bee, I guess the Buddha, was staying there, Savati, in Jetha Grove, in Anathapindika's monastery in India. At that time, Bahya of the bark cloth, You know, they made cloth out of various materials and one of them was bark. And at that time it was probably very cheap. Today, if you had a cloth made of bark... Yeah, they were bark cloth. Yeah. But if we... bark cloth would be very expensive these days. So Abhaya of the bark cloth was living by the seashore at Suparaka.

[11:20]

He was respected, revered, honored, and venerated, and given homage, and was one who obtained the requisites of robes, alms food, lodging, and medicine. This is called an arhat, one who is worthy of offerings. But he questioned whether he was really on the path. His friend said, no, that he needed the teaching of the Buddha. So this is an arhat, actually a mendicant, who was not yet a Buddhist. There is Bahya in a far country, a town called Savati. There the Buddha now lives, who is the Arhat, the fully enlightened one. That Lord Bahya is indeed an Arhat, and he teaches Dhamma for the realization of Arhatship. Then Bāhyā of the Bhārata class went to Savatthi, where the Buddha was staying in the Jeta Grove at Aññāta Pindika's monastery. At that time, Bāhyā approached the bhikkhus and asked, where's the Buddha now living, the fully enlightened one?

[12:25]

I wish to see the fully enlightened one. The Buddha, Bāhyā, has gone for alms food among the houses. So every morning, of course, the Buddha would leave the monastery and go to Begi. Then Bahya hurriedly left the Jada Grove. Entering Savati, he saw the Buddha walking for alms food in Savati. He was pleasing, lovely to see, with calm senses and a tranquil mind, attained to perfect poise and calm, controlled, a perfected one, watchful, with restrained senses. Shikantaza. On seeing the Buddha, Vahe approached, fell down with his head at the Buddha's feet and said, ìTeach me Dhamma, teach me Dhamma, so that it will be for my good and happiness for a long time.î Upon being spoken to thus, Buddha said, ìIt is an unsuitable time, Vahe.

[13:28]

time for everything. A second time, Bhaya said to the Lord, it is difficult to know for certain, reverend sir, how long the Buddha will live, or how long I shall live. Teach me Dhamma. Teach me Dhamma so that it will be for my good and happiness for a long time. Buddha again said, it is an unsuitable time, Bhaya. We're going for alms. A third time, Bhaya repeated his kirti. So this is very typical. One has to ask three times before one gets an answer to show their sincerity. Herein, Bahya, you should train yourself thus. In the seen will be merely what is seen. In the heard will be merely what is heard. In the senses will be merely what is sensed. In the cognized will be merely what is cognized. In this way, you should train yourself.

[14:34]

Bahya. When bahya, in the seen, is merely what is seen, in the cognized, is merely what is cognized, then bahya, you will not be, you will be, excuse me, then bahya, you will not be with that. When bahya, you are not with that, then bahya, you will not be in that. When bahya, you are not in that, then bahya, you will be neither here nor beyond nor in between the two. Just this is the end of suffering. He's actually describing Shikantaza. When he says, you will not be in that and you are not in that. It's like saying, when there's no ego, when there's a realization of no ego, there's simply seeing is seeing, hearing is hearing, feeling is feeling, and so forth.

[15:46]

Just that. This is, strictly speaking, release from self, self-centeredness. In other words, it's not self-centered. It's free from self, freedom from self. Thinking about Suzuki Roshi's teaching, what is the main part of Suzuki Roshi's teaching is no self, selflessness. This is Buddha's teaching basically selflessness or egolessness. Even though there is an ego, even though we feel that there is an ego, to be free from the ego that we feel,

[16:53]

If I say, or if we say, there is no self, that's not quite right. And if we say there is a self, that's not quite right. So it's neither one or the other, nor in between. If there is seeing, simply seeing means not creating a story about what is seen. So the most difficult thing is to see something as it really is. Because we have, our self-centeredness creates a story, and we see through the glasses of our story. So it's hard to see things truly as it is, because we see things through the glasses of our story.

[18:04]

So to have the freedom, we do have a story, but to have the freedom from our story is important. We create a story and we live our lives out through the story, and it's important to and live our lives after the story, but not be caught by the story. To realize, oh, this is just a story. This is a play. We're all actors on this stage, but at the same time, we should not be fooled by the story, or taken in by the story. I'm thinking of when we have plenty, then we

[19:15]

green bursts. And then we downsize. Nature downsizes. Nature is always expanding and downsizing, expanding and downsizing. When animals have a lot of range and food and so forth, then the herd expands. And when there's a drought, when there's various conditions that no longer support the herd, the herd reduces itself. Nature is like that. So we have the dream of expansion, and then when the dream of expansion is over, we have to be able to contract in order to survive and not be caught by either one. But simply, oh, now it's time to reduce. Now it's time to conserve. Now it's time to eat one meal a day without suffering over it.

[20:41]

Suzuki Roshi describes shikantaza in this way. He says, shikantaza, or zazen, is just to be ourselves. Well, that's an interesting statement. How do you just be yourself? When we do not expect anything, we can be ourselves. How do we actually be on this moment without expecting something in the next moment? I call this unassuming mind. Unassuming mind means that your mind is totally open like a mirror, and whatever crosses in your path is seen. but there's no expectation of grasping, no expectation of what's next.

[22:11]

This is called calmness of mind. He says, this is our way to live fully on each moment of time, and this practice continues forever. So time is continuous and discontinuous, as I've said before. When we exhale, this is continuous time. It's only just now. And when we inhale, it's discontinuous time. This is where we create an expectation. So how do we exist in continuous time and discontinuous time at the same time, which is just now, without expecting anything?

[23:15]

How can we be content with what we have? So I think about this a lot because we have a lot of expectations we build up and kind of dream of expectations, and then we buy into our expectations. And then when we can't fulfill our expectations, we have suffering. But nevertheless, we have to have expectations. So how can we free ourselves within our expectations? You know, if we do a peace march, we're very idealistic, and we want something to happen. But to simply do the activity is enough.

[24:20]

If we get caught by our expectations, we have a lot of suffering, because things don't turn out the way we want them to. shouldn't do the activity. We'll be very discouraged if things don't turn out the way we want them to, because of our activity. But nevertheless, we're stupid enough, which means brilliant, to just do the activity for the sake of the activity. Just do the activity for the sake of the activity. And strangely enough, Even though something doesn't happen right away, after you die something will happen. Too bad you weren't here to experience it. So, just to do, just doing, that's shikantaza in our activity, just doing without

[25:30]

This is called generosity, true generosity, just doing without expecting a reward, or without getting caught by the idea of expecting a reward. There is always a result, which is called a reward, but the result may not be to your benefit. It may be to someone else's benefit. that doesn't matter because we don't have that expectation. So it makes us very happy when someone has the benefit of our activity and we don't. But the benefit for us is that someone else has it. So we say, Each moment, but in your actual practice, a moment is too long, because in that moment, your mind is already involved in following the breath.

[26:45]

So we say, even in a snap of fingers, there are millions of instants of time. This way, we can emphasize the feeling of existing in each instant of time. Then your mind is very quiet. This is called keeping your mind fresh and open. That's what I mean by unassuming. Simply being present at each moment for the sake of each moment. This is called doing our practice for the sake of practice and for the sake of what we're doing. we benefit and others benefit from that. So he says, for a period of time each day, try to sit in Shikantaza without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment, you feel your last instant.

[27:51]

In each inhalation and each exhalation, there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant, fully. Suzuki Roshi once explained, or expressed, just to live moment to moment. Live completely, you live your life completely one moment at a time. That's Shikantaza. That's what he means by just being yourself. Just live your life one moment at a time, completely. Another expression of shikantanza is called komyozo samai, the samadhi of brilliant light, so that we become a vehicle for light, which is our natural purpose for being in the world, is to be a vehicle for light.

[29:21]

And when we don't have anything cloudy, And then we see the light in each other's eyes. And another aspect of Shikantaza is called Ichigyo Zamae, Samadhi. Samadhi of just one act. Just one thing done completely. without any other intention. So this is called pure existence, basically. Shikantaza is just pure existence, because it's not based on discriminating mind. So, if you'd like to discuss it,

[30:33]

I have a question. Right, so this is total harmonious activity, is another way to express it.

[31:49]

When you simply let go of everything, and just let here and here, everything falls into place, and you know what your part is without thinking about it, And you just get carried along with the harmony. I also think of it in the sense of, you know, the planetary system. We're definitely connected with the planetary system, which influences all of our activities. And to be one with ourselves is to be harmoniously engaged with the whole system. That's Shikantaza, actually. And this mudra that we hold is called the Cosmic Mudra, which represents our harmony with the entire cosmos.

[33:04]

Somebody in the back there had their hand up first. Yeah. Can't see you. Oh, Pat. Oh, hi. I'd like to think of a lot of things to say, but I won't. Is that my answer? What's your question? Well, okay, my question is more roundabout than usual. I expect a lot from a lot of the books. Is that an issue between the characters, or do you expect the character itself, when

[34:09]

We're not always practicing Shikantaza. Yes. When there's no self in it, There can be, yes. Like, I expect you to show up with us into my morning. But I'm not attached to that. If you don't show up, doesn't bother me. I'm okay with it. Well, the answer has to come from you.

[35:17]

So I think it's fine to question. I'm happy that you're questioning, because that means you're engaged. And Shikantaza is also a barrier. It's an impedance. Because when you come up against it, it reflects your sense of self-centeredness. So questioning is good. I always admired your questioning, as a matter of fact, because it's always very forthright. And I always trust you because of that. Don't take it too far.

[36:27]

I don't think so. I don't think so. Oh, wait a minute. Somebody had their hand up here. Carl? Yeah. But zazen is simply being present with the universe, letting go of self-centeredness and breathing. And then shikantaza is what it's called. No, you can't waste your time sitting zazen.

[37:35]

I mean, not sitting zazen, you can waste your time thinking you're sitting zazen. No, shikantaza is when you're totally engaged, body-mind totally present in this activity without expectation. and without discrimination. So, the effort is there, and when thoughts are flowing through, as thoughts flow, you're simply letting them flow. You're simply letting the universe do its work. Yes, if you live that 30 seconds thoroughly, that's the best part of your 56 years of life.

[38:37]

Well, it's practice. No matter what your hindrances are, And you're really making an effort to practice no matter what your hindrances are. That's practice. And it's getting to Shikantaza. It may not be exactly Shikantaza, but it's practice, which is not to be sniffed at. But you do have, you know, it's not... I can't say that's not or that is. I won't say that is or that's not.

[39:40]

It's what it is. And if it's what it is, then it's Shikantaza. But at the same time, inhalation and exhalation are happening off time, whether or not you are aware of it. The main thing, you know, is presence. Talking about breathing, breath, I think it's important that our breath be here, otherwise it's very hard to harmonize body and mind.

[40:51]

And body and mind are harmonized, and the breath is from here. I don't want to say it's the solar plexus, because people think the solar plexus is up here. But for me, the solar plexus is here. And that's the sunspot. And the rest are satellites. All the parts of your body are satellites around this place. When you have concentration here, awareness, that's where breathing takes place, and to be settled in the breath means that you're not always, you know, counting the breath. Somebody said, I count every single breath during a Zazen period, and I know exactly where each breath was. That's not it. Even when we're Sometimes we let go and sometimes we come back.

[42:01]

It's kind of flowing, right? That's the important thing. It's settled here. Settled feeling. And so when there's that settled feeling of calmness of mind, then there's nothing to worry about. There's no anxiety. It's all gone. So that's Jigantapada, strictly speaking, which doesn't mean that there isn't a flow of thoughts going through your mind which don't bother you. If they bother you, then you're getting caught by the thoughts. So when you simply let them pass through, it's like ants walking across the counter. Well, as long as they're not, you know, Sometimes ants get in on your sugar and all that, but other times they just are going somewhere. And we have, during the winter, we used to have ants crawling across this line of ants all day long, all the time, and we didn't do anything about them because they were just going somewhere.

[43:12]

It's like your thoughts. Just let them go there. Don't put, don't put ant powder on them. Unless they're getting into everything. But just let that little trail keep going, and don't get bothered by it. These are interesting questions, I have to say. set our course about what we're going to do based on our desires or who knows. Yes. Yes. So if we don't do that, if we are reaching to some other way of having our activity going, how will our voice be felt? Yes, well, we set our course, that's what I say.

[44:16]

We have a dream, and then we actualize the dream. The dream means our idea, right? We have the idea, which is our dream, and then we act it out. And then we act out in the future. Now we have a trail that we want to actualize in the future. But here's where we are. Right here is where we are. And to always be exactly where we are within the dream, but free from that dream, which doesn't mean that we don't worry about it or aren't concerned about this, but there's something besides the dream that is reality. And if we're only in the reality of the dream, which is inhaling, then we lose the reality of the continuous time of now, because we get caught by the dream and we're off our spot.

[45:28]

So as long as we have the basis of not straying from essence of mind, then the dream unfolds, but without us. without our self-centeredness. As long as it doesn't depend on our self-centeredness, we have freedom from suffering over it. So when we plan our course, is it an egotistical course or is it free from that? Yes, or suddenly. That's right.

[46:35]

Yeah, and so our life work is what is transforming us, right? We have our work, but our work also has us, right? So whatever we hold on to has us as well. That's called attachment. And then, pretty soon, that's dragging us around. That's the problem. So who's in control? Who's the boss? The Zoroastrian says, if you know how to do this, you will always be the boss of yourself. But no you. Well, that's tricky. You'll be the boss of yourself, which is no-self. That's your koan. How can you be no-self? How can this self be no-self? Because that doesn't mean there's nothing there.

[47:38]

No-self doesn't mean there's nothing there. Otherwise, why would we even talk about it? So, how would we have freedom from ourself within ourself? That's it. So, here in bhāṣya, bhāhyā, you should train yourself thus. In the seen will be merely what is seen. In the heard will be merely what is heard. In the senses will be merely what is sensed. In the cognized will be merely what is cognized. In this way you should train yourself, bhāhyā, when bhāhyā in the seen is merely what is seen, and the cognized is merely what is cognized, then, Bahya, you will not be with that. When, Bahya, you are not with that, then, Bahya, you will not be in that. When, Bahya, you are not in that, then, Bahya, you will be neither here nor beyond nor in between.

[48:40]

Just this is the end of suffering. Yes. Yeah, the third time. Third time he was charmed.

[49:02]

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