Six Qualatative Factors as Applied to Zazen

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BZ-02648
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Rohatsu Day 1

 

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so this is the first day of machine so welcome to session
we're gonna be doing this for several days
hands
ah
she there's the question what do you think about the virgin
when you're sitting so a composedly and doesn't
are you are
like to say that and whenever you sit you give you such as in section
every single time
and while you're sitting
give yourselves as an instruction moment by moment
that's all there is to do
ah it's not so easy
because everything is continuously changing
a pastures always changing a breath
the rhythm of our breath is always changing
i'm the world around us is changing
so every moment we have to adjust
our posture and i'm reading and our attention the clear
and just my microphone
houses
better
yeah that feels better to have kids i can't see it now
so
ah
when we give us a virgin destruction all the time in focuses our attention
about were doing because there's really nothing else to do so
often when we have nothing else to do
ah we start thinking about things that are not really relevant to doesn't
so ah
i call micromanaging
micromanaging her posture
ah our mental i concomitants and a our breath we don't really manage eyebrows and we don't really manage our mental competence we simply let to breastfeed your breath
as it is
and as the rhythm of our body ah settled
and
so breath and mind our mental contaminants we can let him go
and that we really do manage our pasture
so posture is the most important thing
is a fundamental
we don't always remember that are don't over don't always believe it
but it's true so postures first then taking care of a or following her breath is next and i'm not getting attached by
those thoughts that arise in mind
planning such com and letting go letting breath com letting breath go
but stay with our pasture
ah but there are many many
ah components faculties are
get ah
make a
virgin work
so i'm gonna talk about those components
they called it is a list of six
qualities
qualitative factors that i say that i think of as to be a mindful of in virgin
aside from pasture
i've talked about this before
and i will name them and then i'll talk about them
the six qualities to be aware of
so are the first one is tranquility
ah to be settled settled mind tranquility
and serenity you know her
two common factors one is tranquility is like a a pool where there are no ripples
so even on the surface of a pool even if they're you know like
waves in full voice
the waves are on the top but to bottom
as you go down is very tranquil this is our attitude and doesn't to allow it's okay to have the waves and mind
you can't help that you can't help the storm to go on in your mind and
repetitious tape that goes on in your mind and the music that you less heard going on in your mind and the president problems going on in him
but to allow that so that to be there on the surface but to fact let's keep going down deeper and deeper into a tranquil the peacefulness of your mind
to let have to let everything settle so settled mind is the basis basis that is settled mind not to stop the wars but simply to find the settled miss the deep settlements of your mind so the
can actually
to have clarity this is how are you have
ah
to produce far have we allow clarity to arise
mm we clarity it arrived you will know what to do
so there's no end to the depths of our mind
and this is where our intuition comes from
and is to her praia comes forth
settled mind is where pregnant comes by
and then when pragya comes forth
we know how we will know how to deal
with
the fragmentary conditions of our mind
in a holistic way
so people say
what do we do in his terrible you know uncertain times
well
our answer if we go down to the bottom as far as we can go of a tranquil mind to allow our intuitive understanding to come forth
in order to take care of with
compassionate mind
i'm
the problems that occur on the surface
so let's tranquility
serenity
it's like as a beautiful sunset
while the sun goes down
and ah
everything quiets down
the you that the world goes to sleep except it doesn't
there's still the turmoil still going on nevertheless it is a time when you still quiet everything we go to sleep most people
go to sleep
it's an animal's go to sleep most of them some of them down
well it's quiet time
so tranquility and can get more
i'm a good metaphor
so if if it if
people talk about peace of mind a lot
so you can say peace of mind peaceful passive passive passivity
ah often know this is it's a problem passivity is a problem because people think that meditation is passivity
that's true but that's all you won't have the other half is dynamic activity
dynamic activity is the other half of a meditation
so to the equanimity a passivity an activity is a balanced virgin
the communists is important
get it takes us down to the base
but the and this is the
the heart
maybe you could say but at the bones is activity to the a passivity needs bones elected of activity in order to and
have uprightness
the to have a we say backbone
backbone is really important in zen practice
so i know those that's the beginning in the end of actually
tranquility and backbone or uprightness
that's why posture so important posture holes tranquility and equanimity
so that's why i always emphasizing
ha
the backbone
postures god bless you
so
i'll read you the sixth
qualitative factors
tranquility number two is called agility
agility means lightness you know
if when you're sitting zazen
you
i'm stuck a you attached to the pendant your legs
your body gets heavier and heavier
and if you are really attached then it's like the whole universe is pressing down on your body
and some part of your body
and then
ah
it becomes unbearable
so we have to understand how to let how to not let yourself become attached to a
they'll be called discomfort pain
that's the trick of doesn't really have you have you
and escape for him
from the pressure of the universe bearing down on your body
so you know we have the inside pressure of our body and the outside pressure
i should be balanced so that we feel light imbalanced light and lighthearted at the agile
and
ah
the else
buoyant actually buoyancy important
so our cause you know we go through many different phases and we can't say how anyone
ah
a period virgin will affect her body
but we have to know how to be agile how to find the agility and lightness in russia
so it was in order to find the lightness and agility in doesn't we have to let go
and we don't know what that means until we do it
china will instead of
is seriously have some little
ah ah
uncomfortable feeling we tend to
hold onto it
because if well i don't wanna hold onto it but we attached to it
i don't like this and it's an intrusion
so it's an intrusion into our comfort zone
flow it stopped reading of it as an intrusion and simply let it pass through
without avoiding it
we feel light and trying n and buoyant
this is a
it's like how wished day on the line
it's like a type tight rope walker how does say underlined right in the middle
he is so easy to fall off to one side or the other
that's why we say when you sit doesn't just sit very still
and within that stillness
all kinds of things will happen
difficult waves
so how you actually go with the waves ride the wave as not yet
overwhelmed by the waves
is that we should love him
as soon as we don't like it
we have big wave
it
so we have the desire to want to be comfortable that's what our life is about we're always trying to be comfortable in one way or another
so it keep changing our equipment to make us comfortable
but it doesn't really work
and doesn't put you in a position where the you can't change you you can change your cushions
so how do we
except each moments
our life on each moment our activity or what we're doing on each moment without complaining
soon you don't we don't know what a complaint is necessarily because it can be subconscious
you know
sometimes like will be setting sudden
and it's okay
and you say of this is okay and then as you say this is located it changes he's ever noticed that would you say okay changes
and then you say did it change because they said it was okay
order just change
this very subtle really subtle so
ah i learned one day that
if i simply instead of trying to avoid by thinking it was things you know you can avoid a lot of by just letting your mind wander to other things
how do i just enter that feeling
whatever it is
you can call it anything you want it
usually we call it pain
and then if we don't like it i call it suffering
so how to avoid
naming it and then calling and suffering
but simply expanding myself i didn't know how to explain that
am i
i'll just get bigger
so that whatever that really is has led a room
finish a room is is this is a room has borders
then the wall start aching
that's the way it works fantasy is soon as a room get smaller and in a room can really get smaller quickly even those with object inside of it if it stays the same
so the object inside of it starts feeling more and more problem because the the walls are closing in so we let the walls expand instead of close in then we're comfortable
fuck this is called m
appliance see
i'm appliances
is like soft mind or softness flexibility
open mindedness

ah

privacy is
lol attachment
in the flexibility
ah with suzuki roshi i used to talk about soft mind we always active so soft my doesn't mean you know squishy
it is like graph you know in a graph the wind blows an image on its beautiful you you ever he a mendocino or it just go out here to point isabel and beautiful tall grass and and when the wind blows your skirt type
it's beautiful it's it's like the grass is is have such enjoyment allowing the wind to blow it around without resisting that resistance at all
and the grass does not break
but to trees break
in the wind tall strong trees break in the wind

so
rigidity is the opposite
have plenty
conceit and rigidity
so i don't want to talk about what can cheat and rigidity are exactly but you'd already know
inflexibility
obstruction stubbornness we have liquor other things
we have let go all those leave if we let go while other things it's easy to have plenty
you know as with tranquility how do we get tranquility how do we achieve tranquility well the opposite of tranquility is anxiety and agitation
worry and flurry
the twenty to worry about you know but at so much of our worry is unnecessary
because worry becomes a loves a fashion
hub
obstacle
ob session a fresh
the sheet feeder what is the sheet of of
obstacle so will the obstacle
know it's it's hard to liquid tobacco where stuff you know when become the day we can this is a disease obsession intro day
where we bring all my stuff here and home and then we sit down with it and little by little in burns away hopefully and we can be more more tranquil more and more and more mark flexible
agile
and plant
so
home

they are compliant
pliant see
compliant made to have privacy and to go along with we stay say
go with the flow man don't remember that
go into with hippie thing
but actually it's it's a practice to
i'm
ah
not obstruct but just go with and things are going as soon as we put up an obstacle we suffer
ah the universe will always win over us
so actually what we're doing is
i'm going with the universal activity
that's that's what that there's nothing in between there's no worldly activity involved with those just as in the universe
sitting together
so how do we
i love the universal activity to come forth
when we do can do that and flow with the universal activity without obstructing
we have nirvana that's what nirvana means
vasa got the cool state
to learn this is what we mean by big mind allow big mind we do not see thousand
buddha thousand gazans it thousand
what the buddha buddha is the universe
so we allow us have to find our place in the universe without obstruction without interference
in directly let herself be motivated by the universe the universe will i get it we came here with here as herself in the universe
so
what causes most of problems is a or self-centeredness
i detected the universe place on earth
he really is you know people shake their fists at god you know
why not a big trick
so ah with should go over that rather than rather than simply living the universal activity have his way
and co operate we do have an ego we have a self you know even though we don't have a self
we do we have a fell and so we merge yourself with ourselves we merge a small self with our big so
ah called the universe
and that's nirvana
and what blocks nevada is when herself as fighting with it instead of cooperating with it
this is our chance
so sometimes people complain you know
that
then meditation as an escape in a sense it is an escape yeah but if an escaped by going into the
the mouth of young
the mouth of the lion
and we let alone eat us up
if you wanna call that escape
and then we are
let alone is up and then we can run like a lion
that's just me know
hello
the fourth one is called workable enough
workable nest means them
ah
balance
perfect balance
if you're is like a potter
ah
sounds
working with clay if you've ever worked with clay you know you need the clay and little water little powdery and get the right consistency and i show it consistently not too wet not too dry
and his dog also in cooking
this is the art of cooking is
a workable nice consistency in of ingredients
ah
when you cook
polenta
where's that guy
he always cooked polenta really well
not not always so even though it's not always as a so we're allowed were allowed to make mistakes and our mistakes is wouldn't dare us to people
but that but if you just keep making mistakes and told you to think that people will like you
has not yet
felt consistency balance and work a bonus
our bodies like that
her mind just like that and our breath is like that how we balance those three
factors together that involves and has really important
ah flexibility you know and work a bonus when you're holding your body
it's not be rigid to there's nothing to hold onto it doesn't there's really nothing to hold onto
but when we have a problem with we start to hold onto our body because there's nothing else to hold onto we can't have landed a pillar
raul castro that hello like funny every day
then we hold onto your body and we make our body more rigid thinking that you know because if we just let go the universal balance us rebalance are several the universe but we can't be trusted we don't feel
we all have faith if we have faith in the universe
we can let go let the universe manipulate us
in the right way riding the waves instead of getting inundated by them
so
i always just as a big problem and this is what makes us comfortable in order to feel comfortable we have to let go of any tenseness in her body at all
absolutely no intention of that doesn't mean no tension tension intention this are two different things tension holds everything together
everything is held together by tension
but tensions is the extra it's it's attention you don't need to hold you up are told you together so
it's squeeze a few if it's a unbalanced so fits all these factors working together
well things aren't so different in all these factors and natural different they're not but they are the and because they're all working together sometimes they overlap and each one actually contains all the others
so
ah
the trick is
i am
to to find the right balance
and know where you're where you know if this is a healthy person
this the
small of your back is the only place that there needs to be any effort
and lifting up here that straightened flew back
when i mean i give some results and russian and pushing their chin and the held in the smaller back and display very simple to follow to if you try to manipulate it learn how biff this manipulation
if you just two years and you can do it yourself that's what i mean by giving yourself as an instruction when you sit down because you'll actually are however you do this
and then you push your lower back for both you lift up if you lift up here does about it doesn't and then just sitting up straight and you just do that the whole time than you shift going like this new version or that micromanaging
oh
oh
where lived here virginia that's all he was good and then the whole to are very lightly
there likely the sounds nice
of all
any fans very lightly touching
and you see the end
you expand
i can't drink
you just feel your body opening up just you everything opening up this is absent opening yourself with good faith that you that if the universe wants to take you
here i am
i trust you i just the universe that if it wants me to die alle die
the ashley
i'm ah jumping off
but then here i am still here and happy even though the world you know crumbling around me but it's always doing that that's that's that's the job of the universe is to have war injuries
hello and to have a problems and people you know killing each other know that's a destination and the world we live in and of course we have to help control it but we can't stop it from doing that
the way it that's it
it's always been this way
the big fish eat a little fish
smaller fish into smaller
that's the way buddha described universe
the big fish eat the smaller wrench into small efficient flowers
so how do we do how to re somebody so how cool was sitting here doing this when the world's falling apart around us
you're not going to start to work from doing all that but you make a space you know it's great to make a space a piece that's the that's good job you know we have to do that even though it will offer then again
to make a space and but it will all learn again there were ignition culture there was a movie and the woman in the dunes i know if you remember that
the bottom of the sand that that you know the more you try to get out the more the same for them
but you have to keep to have to try you can't just give up at the same time you have to have some space and
you know where you fit into the universe had invaded in the universe with these how'd you find peace in your own peacefulness in the universe
so this is called
am
ah
the unraveling pivot
so because you have you know how to go down to the very bottom
and help people
it without trying
and when a peaceful person goes into a place
it has an effect on where
in that place
where do you realize it or not
anyway
so when we have a a whole group of people sitting laughing
i'm in a right way that creates something in the world that at allows piece to enter the world
to be creative it for a half hour every day everybody just sat down it's other
so that's our hope of saving the left my hope of saving the world
we can fix things but things you know
it doesn't work because you fix something over here you put out a fire over here none fires come up over here and they are in legal fix that fire and then this flash coming up over here so you just walk it's whack em all
look
but
ah because people are always on the surface everything's happening on the surface
and it's hard to let go because
we live up where we live too
when life is too busy on the surface
ah were cut off from the fundamental and so all the stuff on the surface is made them because not grounded
flow to save the world we all have to be grounded
i don't know that other happened
but at least we can
take care of our
small part of the world
create something in our small part of the world
that's why we teach southern first somebody has said the couple of weeks ago or be you know
this is nice but what about all this stuff going on in the world you know how you people helping people who are
i think we offer start then
what better think and we offer
we can fix people we can now hospital should create your own mental hospitals are great and all those leaves are wonderful you know that people are helping each other this is our thing is making
to offer something
really fundamental to people

so
the fifth one is called agility
i'm sorry just a third one this one's called proficiency proficiency is like when you do something over and over again you get good at it
so when you sit thoughts and over and over again you get good at it and when you work on a anger for instance
an hour
when you were careful about to notice the source of anger and how to deal with it when it comes up
when there's a critical time you have a background of proficiency in dealing with it float you know what you're getting caught are not getting caught when you're reacting are responding
people ask me a question no say well how do i deal with my anger
well i can't tell you because you don't have any background for dealing with it
can't just you know
give an answer and somebody to all okay but when it conducts his they have no background in dealing with it
they want a free ride basically you know instead of having to work for they want an answer about what like do about it
didn't work that way there you have to have a practice if you want to have good doesn't you have to practice at all time

you know if you don't practice at all time you sit down and you have lot of pain you know to do with it passes you practice it consistently
as soon as you sit down you interest to buddy
so that's called proficiency
to know how to by going over and over you know how to deal with it i'll do it so proficiency is like fitness and composure
you you keep your body fit so that it will respond to what you're doing
and the opposite his hesitancy uncertainty lack of self confidence
people often say well i'd like to come to session but maybe alice lichter fishing director for and come friday
so this there's no ah
our confidence to after you build up your confidence by doing it over and over the consistently
so faith and confidence
through constant practice
consistent practice and devotion leads to proficiency

philosophical foundations
so uprightness
means
his foundation
selfless actions and spontaneity
spontaneity trinity is very important
you know sometimes people think of vincent as robots
they were described that way by
kirchner article
but actually are action for are spontaneous
it looks like
well in are sitting in round
and sitting up straight like you in a straight jacket but actually all action for spontaneous
if we
ah let go of discursive thinking
and really fit thousand depending on the universe to uphold us
hum
it's ah spontaneous
so the opposite the which are often called noble bearing you know
that pass though has been called a noble buster which and
checking really that often depicted in the noble posture as the noble man
the true noble man
so
the opposite is of insincerity in hypocrisy and pride and selfishness and arrogance and hidden motives
so postures go background because that will live
are you know ah when i help
ah my mountain shit ceremony to become the abbot
you give a talk to few little talks and one of the taxes is called backbone was the backbone and processes the person supposed to say what the backbone of their practices

and also posture
can influence or state of mind
we usually think that our mind is
the leader of thinking mind is leader but actually not always so
our posture can influence our mind as well as i mind influencing our pasture if we set up really straight that really makes a big difference in our attitude of mind big difference
i often see people you know there a sad and flared and and calvin but if sit up straight and make that effort it can change your attitude of mind
and give you a lot of strength
tranquility and uprightness together
are winning con winning combination
flow to sit up straight in
tranquility is a winning combo is quite true
the posture can influence our state of mind

so i'm going to stop there
i think it's a scene attack should not be too long

so i want to encourage everybody
to sit up straight as possible if you sit up if you put too much effort in you become tense if you don't put enough ever did you become lax so fine just the right amount of effort to do the most work
and refine your posture refine your posture so that you find just the right place where he to put your effort and and find your balance your nose is in line with your navel
your herbs in line with used with your shoulders
and if you'd think about that
and you lift up your sternum then you're sitting up straight and it's all balance is a little bit of effort just to right amount of effort no tenseness
pickleball attention and the tent is is the attention in my murderer
is the testiness in my arms my legs and my knees
in my back how do i left that open up
hello isn't it had open a hello i'll just open up forget fighting there's no fighting there's no conflict just opened to
to open up
that's it
defenseless no defenses
open up and you can do more than you think you can

i'm sitting in other ways like chairs and so forth that's great
but how do i apply this understanding to that posture
for every one of us you know has a different
abilities and dot abilities but how do you apply the fundamental stuff to to your particular situation
that's fun that's important
so they are always concentrated on
ah
sergeant one way or another
and there's no need to give up

except that it's great to give up our ego
that giving up is really good